I have been wondering about this question since the David Moyes era. Well that time I thought it was the lack of depth in the squad that Ferguson left.
Then, Loius Van Gaal arrived. I was very excited with his arrival especially after seeing the performace of Dutch team in the world cup. Their 5-1 trashing of Spain really got me excited. But then excitment soon turned into frustration. There were some games which made me get excited again like the one against QPR where Blind, Herrera were just sublime and beautiful and we had Di Maria also. And then we struggled against poor teams at home. His philosophy worked sometimes, but mostly it seems like players are trained to play dull, boring football (very unlike the Great United of Ferguson era). His second season was even more frustrating, although in the end he managed to get us FA trophy.
Moving on to the present, the reason why I mentioned all this is beacause it seems Deja vu all over again. At the start of the season, we are excited with the new proven manager, world class signings, and some good early performances and then 3 back to back defeats. I don’t mind defeats if the team actually shows some determination and fight but these 3 defeats are some worrying signs that need to be addressed with absolute brutality by the manger.
- Team spirit: The best thing about United during the Ferguson era was team spirit. They would never give up. Fight till the end and gave us some memorable moments and victories. It seems to be long gone and I haven’t seen that kind of team spirit in years. Ferguson was genius in the way he was able to maintain the team spirit for such a long period. He also had players like Keane, Vidic, even Rooney during those days. Solution now: Bastian. He’s an absolute warroir who can lift the team spirit just by his presence in the dressing room.
- Rooney: During the last days of Ferguson I remember him sidlining Rooney from the main games (Real Madrid home). He was even booed by some fans during PL trophy presentation. If Ferguson was still the manager, I’m sure Rooney wouldn’t have been here around. Not because he lacks determination or passion. But because he’s not even a shadow of what he used to be. How can we get the best out of Rooney? By selling him to a Chinese club or MLS. I feel so bad about him though. He was my favorite player during my childhood days and he had more phenomenal start to his carrer than Messi and Ronaldo
- Passing/Tempo: During Man city game, we weren’t able to make even 5 successfull consecutive passes. This situation has worsend from Van gaal’s philosophy. Alteast we had possession during his games. The play by the whole team is too slow and pedestrian. The movement of the players are poor and they look tired and dreadful. Solution: Michael Carrick. Whenever he has played during past 3 years, we have won more games. Simple, though we may have to soon look for his replacement (Herrera probably).
- Tactics: I don’t there is much wrong with the tactics of the manager. Its the implementation by the players thats way too poor. However, I would see my team to play with more width. Probably give Memphis more chance.
Hopefully Mourinho also sees the problem and be albsolutly brutal about it. Enough of this crap. Drop the players that needed to be dropped. Players should be selected based on their performances. And finally, the team I would pick for the next game.
DDG
Valencia Smalling Bailly Shaw
Blind Pogba Bastian
Mikhitariyan Zlatan Memphis
I think both LVG and Jose have made the same mistake – alienating players and trying to stick round pegs into square holes. Bastian should be in the dressing room at least. Who cares if he was watching tennis last season. That was last season. Mourinho should give all the players an equal chance. He also shouldn’t have given in to the temptation to buy players in positions that were already filled. Did Man Utd need Pogba? Not really. All I see are individually good players who are failing to work as a collective.
Jose’s comments midweek about the Europa League kind of summed up his approach. Negative attitudes will lead to a negative response. Similar to LVG, he seems focused on playing a certain way as opposed to killing off games. Rooney appears to have some kind of ‘must be in starting line up’ clause in his contract. Regardless of his form, any decent manager would drop him, let the talk die down and then phase him back into the team.
Good points. Though we may not have needed Pogba, we ultimately got a world class player. Its up to manager and him now to deliver the performances. But still he will need support. Ronaldo at times was left frustrated with Mou at Real Madrid but ultimately they had the highest scoring season (recently broken by MSN). I still believe Mou is smarter than LVG in seeing and fixing the problem. However his last season at Chelsea coupled with such performances from the team create doubts.