Seven years... And counting

It has been seven years since Manchester United last lifted the English Premier league trophy, since then Manchester City has won it three times, Chelsea has won it twice and Leicester and Liverpool have lifted it once a piece. Since then the red devils have been playing second fiddle to the rest of the pack as the top four grew into the ‘Big six’. 

Between the four clubs that have won the title in those seven years, there are two important aspects that aided their title winning season are; Proper investments and performing against the norms. All four teams bar Leicester made significant investments into the club player and coaches inclusive. In the last five seasons Manchester city, Chelsea , Manchester United, Liverpool and 

Leicester rank 1st, 2nd ,3rd ,7th and 10th respectively on players transfers with Man city leading with 

£818.5M, Chelsea with £656.9M, Man utd  with £611.1M, Liverpool with £470.9M and finally 

Leicester with £381.4M. These are huge transfer outlays and of all the five clubs, only Manchester United has not lifted the EPL title since their last triumph in 2013, their highest position since then is 2nd under the Portuguese Tactician Jose Mourinho in 2018. 

Since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, Manchester United have had the second highest number of changes to Head coaches amongst the ‘Top four clubs’ having hired four managers in the space of seven years with Chelsea at five above them. One major characteristics of the title winning seasons of these managers is the total support and confidence in the appointed manager  by the board and owners, Jurgen Klopp in 2015 promised to deliver the EPL after five years and he deliver, almost achieving it a  year early and it was possible because of the support that he was given by the club owners, Josep Guardiola was fully backed by the clubs Arab owners when he decided to go on a massive spending spree on just full-backs and it yielded titles, Jose Mourinho has always been backed at Chelsea till waters turned sour but Manchester United kept making Knee-jerk decisions, all made by The Glazers and executive chairman, Ed Woodward. David Moyes, Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor was sacked eight months into his 5 year contract with the club, Louis Van Gaal was sacked on the back of winning the English FA cup in 2016, Jose Mourinho was sacked after winning the clubs first ever Europa League trophy, the EFL cup and the Community Shield, and following recent trends, club legend now manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer looks to be the next unfortunate manager that has a vision to restore Manchester United’s glory days that may fall victim if there is no change. After cutting down ‘deadwood’ players in his first full season as the manager, he was able to sign three players in the summer and two during the winter window, he is still not yet there and the club executives are not helping matters, after Daniel James was confirmed a Man Utd player on the 12th of June, 2019 for £15M and it took another seventeen days before Aaron Wan-bissaka was signed for £45M on the 29th of June, 2019 and another further thirty-six days before Man Utd bought current Captain, Harry Maguire for £80M on the 4th of August, 2019. Under Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United signed players in the close season citing Javier Hernandez and Wilfred Zaha’s transfers as examples, it helps to boost team cohesion amongst other things. 

Now, Manchester united signed on Donny Van der Beek on the 2nd of September, 2020, rumours linking the club with English sensation Jadon Sancho started before the window was open but no form of contact with Borussia Dortmund seems to have been made with the supporters growing weary as the days go by as they watch their favourite club stall. Chelsea spent over £200M in this window signing six players  to highlight the most notable investments in the league and with two weeks remaining before the transfer window slams shut Ole Gunnar Solskjaer desperately needs to be supported transfer-wise with the club needing much fire power in order to really challenge for trophies this season as much as they also need to bolster defensively, Wan-Bissaka may have massively improved the defence last season but there are still question marks over the central defence, Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof have not performed up to standard considering their enormous price tags, from Maguire’s ‘no-look defending’ against Sevilla in the Europa League SemiFinal to Lindelof’s recent error that lead to a penalty on their first match of the new season against 

Crystal Palace, the clubs other options are; Chris Smalling: looks destined to move to AS Roma, Phil 

Jones: He is not even in contention whenever his fit after his horror 45minutes show against Sheffield United last Season, Marcus Rojo: The bug that never goes away, the club has been attempting to get rid of him for the past 3 season, Eric Bailly: Shone under Mourinho until injuries became frequent, a top centre-back if fit, Axel Tuanzebe: Academy product, promising but surprisingly has fitness issues.  Defensively the club is still in a mess. 

Now it is time to talk performance, all Manchester United managers after Sir Alex Ferguson seems to have one thing in common, poor adaptability, each manager has tried their best to bring ‘sexy’ football to  the club but to no avail, against Crystal Palace, a team that sits back, defends and then counters United struggled, the blame could be hung on the lack of pre-season but truly Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s tactical knowledge where really questioned. Currently, Marcus Rashford’s form and fitness has not been all that convincing, most times in the match he looked tired and out of ideas, Daniel  James had a good run with Wales during the international break and would have been a better option on the left than Rashford due to his pace as Crystal palace right back, Ward would definitely have struggled, Mason Greenwood should have been a starter,  Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should have shown faith despite his recent escapades while with the national team, Anthony Martial, Bruno Fernandes and Luke Shaw where the only shining lights but they eventually got frustrated. I believe that no team in the league can match Manchester City in terms of the beautiful Tiki-Taka style of play, as much as it is their style of play, they have alternatives for when it does not seem to work, they improvise, think out of the box and they won back to back titles. During Sir Alex Ferguson’s dynasty, Manchester United where known for this gung-ho style of play, one moment it could be the beautiful synergy between Ronaldo and Rooney or Tevez or someone else or Carrick or Scholes or Beckham playing balls over the top for their every willing forwards to pursue and the result was evident. The many be not be more performances like that against Crystal Palace but the facts remains, for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to truly win trophies, he has to improve tactically while also letting his players continue to express their creativity as shown during the Project Restart period, the board should also heed to the managers request then any firing can then be justified. Another place to improve is in the crossing department, last season Manchester City’s average crosses per season has gradually increased and they finished 2nd in the league table, they were ranked 1st for attempted crosses, while United were 17th with 635 crosses, league winners, Liverpool came 2nd with 896 crosses. Manchester United needs to start taking into cognisance these minor details and improve the entire team in general and it would not be long before the Theatre of Dreams would get a new trophy.