Based on the dramatic conclusion to the premier league season, we decided to reach out to United fans the world over to get their thoughts on a rather heart breaking season finale and have them look ahead to the upcoming season highlighting what needs to change and likely transfer targets.
We eventually settled for the thoughts of @GrandVerve, a life long United fan, enjoy.
I
can’t believe I’m about to say this. I don’t actually mind the noisy
neighbours winning the league!!! I
am not happy about it, but I can tolerate it for the greater good.
Please before you crucify me, hear me out. I have my reasons, you may
deem them illogical, but hear me out.
It
is no secret that Manchester United has been punching above its weight
for the last two seasons. Whilst football pundits sometime talk a lot
of tosh, most genuine Man United fans know that the team in the last
two years have been the poorest within the last decade – even the
2005-06 team won the League Cup. If we don’t win the league this
season, it will be our poorest return in say 20years! I know we got to
the final of the champions league last season, losing expectedly to
Barcelona, but that really wasn’t due to the brilliance of the teams’
play but more of the winning mentality of SAF and his steely
determination not to give up. Similarly this season, his determination
and the poor fight put up by the usual suspects is what has left United
with a mathematical but improbable chance of still winning the league.
Only City put up a fight and were shoe-in to win until the brief
exchange of capitulation by both teams resulted into City being in pole
position to clinch the title, their first and hopefully last in 44years.
What went wrong with United?
The 2006 to 2010 Man United teams have been the most technically gifted
United teams in the last decade. Right from 2006, one could tell that
there was greatness within those teams and that they were going to
achieve something significant. In order to understand what made those
teams tick and great in comparison to the present team, one needs to
consider the set-up at Old Trafford and what differences exists between
both teams or eras. Between 2006 and 2009, United had a lot of
technically gifted players in its first team - players such as Ronaldo,
Solskjaer, Tevez, Berbatov, Hargreaves, Vidic, a young Scholes and
Edwin VDS etc. As the saying goes,
iron
sharpens iron,
these players pushed each other to be better and to the maximum of
their potential/ability at the time. But even more importantly, I would
hazard a guess and suggest that the presence of Carlos Queiroz within
the coaching set-up contributed immensely to the tactical and technical
ability of the United team during this period. Or put another way, SAF
had a formidable coach as assistant manager. Queiroz was SAF's
assistant in 2002-03 season and from 1 July 2004 to 11 July 2008. In
contrast, the 2010 – 2012 team and coaching set-up, SAF failed to
replace the key members of the 06-10 teams or where he replaced them,
he failed to replace them with players with similar technical skill.
That in itself isn’t all that was less than ideal but SAF also failed
to replace Carlos. Whilst Mike Phelan is a good coach, he is no better
than Carlos Queiroz. The older SAF got, the more authority (rightfully)
he delegated to his subordinates. It was his delegation to Carlos that
led to the spat with then captain Roy Keane with Keane expressing his
disapproval of Carlos’ apparent power and control over team matters and
tactics which in turn led to the sacking of Roy Keane as a Manchester
United player and captain. I believe SAF will have given Mike the same
authority he gave to Carlos. But Mike Phelan isn’t as good as Carlos
Queiroz, this much is apparent. This coaching oversight or gap, in my
opinion, is the major failing within the footballing staff at
Manchester United.
The
team has deteriorated technically overtime. The way they were taken
apart by Athletic Bilbao, their struggle against Otel Gulati, Basel and
Benfica this season was testament to that. United's failing in Europe
where football is played technically and tactically was painful to
watch. They've struggled in tactical matches against technical teams in
the last couple of seasons. SAF needs to either get more involved in
the coaching of the first team or appoint a better technically gifted
coach to assist him. This may unfortunately de-motivate Mike, but it is
for the greater good of Manchester United and these sorts of decisions
must be made. It is akin to letting Paul Ince, Jaap Stam go and
replacing them with equally gifted young starts with significant upside
for growth given experience subsequently acquired. Carlos Queiroz is
currently the manager of Iran’s national football team. I’m sure he’ll
be more than happy to receive a call from Sir Alex Ferguson.
Decisions decisions...
Some
really tough decisions need to be made this summer. If United somehow
win the league, I fear that these decisions may not be made. This is
why I said in my opening paragraph that I don’t mind someone else other
than United winning the league this season. Of course I wish it wasn’t
the noisy neighbours that’ll win it, but that perhaps it may be a
blessing in disguise as it will be the biggest of wake-up call needed
by SAF and will be good for the long-term. Sheikh Mansour can’t keep
spending £1bn every 2 to 3 years, FFP won’t let him.
I
believe the following players must leave OT this summer:
JS
Park, Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov, Kiko Macheda, Richie DaLaet,
Anderson Oliveira, Ezekiel Fryers (loan), William Keane (loan), Michael
Keane (loan), Fabio (loan), Davide Petrucci (loan), Tomas Kuszczak, Rio
Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.
Whilst Scholes did really well for the team in the second half of this
season, same cannot be said of Giggs. Besides their great contribution
over the years, the real question should be
‘will
they have the legs to deliver similar next season’?
Giggs will be 39 this year and Scholes 38. They will need to compete
effectively and deliver against players such as David Silva, Yaya
Toure, Adam Johnson, Podolski, Gareth Bale, Luca Modric, Juan Mata and
a host of others (equally gifted) yet to be bought by our rivals next
season. Are these two the players United will depend on to regain the
premiership? Their continued presence in the team will only serve as a
stumbling block to the younger gifted players coming through. SAF must
make the objective decision of letting Giggs and Scholes go this summer
and not the emotional decision of keeping them for one more season. At
various times this, season SAF made emotional substitutions especially
in relation to Giggs, as there were a few matches Giggs should not have
started nor played in and certainly not when Scholesy's old legs were
still on the pitch. Their experiences are irreplaceable, yet their legs
can no longer deliver. They've been faithful servants, yet they must go
when the ovation and appreciation for their talent is loudest so as to
preserve their legendary statuses.
SAF
should consider getting these players (age) as replacement: Aly
Cissokho (24), Shinji Kagawa (23), Eden Hazard (21), Neven Subotic
(23), Javi Martinez (23) and Fernando Llorente (27). In addition SAF
must do all he can to ensure United hold on to Paul Pogba (19)(unfortunately as at press time he seems to be heading for Juve) – the
kid is definitely the future and the next box-to-box midfielder to rule
world football and perhaps rival Yaya Toure for skill and athleticism.
Following
on from above, the table below details my preferred 25 man squad for
Manchester United next season:|
GK
|
RB
|
LB
|
CB
|
|
1.
David De Gea
|
4.
Rafael
|
7.
Patrice Evra
|
9.
Jonny Evans
|
|
2.
Anders Lindegaard
|
5.
Chris Smalling
|
8.
Aly Cissokho
|
10.
Nemanja Vidic
|
|
3.
Ben Amos
|
6.
Phil Jones
|
|
11.
Neven Subotic
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
RMF
|
CMF
|
DMF
|
LMF
|
|
12.
Antonio Valencia
|
14.
Tom Cleverley
|
18.
Michael Carrick
|
21.
Ashley Young
|
|
13.
Nani
|
15.
Paul Pogba
|
19.
Darren Fletcher
|
|
|
|
16.
Shinji Kagawa
|
20.
Javi Martinez
|
|
|
|
17.
Eden Hazard
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FWD
|
|
|
|
|
22.
Wayne Rooney
|
|
|
|
|
23.
Danny Welbeck
|
|
|
|
|
24.
Javier Hernandez
|
|
|
|
|
25.
Fernando Llorente
|
|
|
Follow @GrandVerve on twitter.
Please note that the write up displayed in our blog does not necessarily demonstrate the thoughts or stance of the staff or management of Tactics IQ Limited. This is purely the thoughts of the author and should be purely seen as such.
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