The problem with United

I love Manchester United Football Club. It is the greatest team in the world, Barcelona, Madrid and all those others can go shove it. However, 2011 has been a topsy-turvy year for the Red Devils. Winning the record 19^th Premier League title and knocking the Scousers off their f**king perch was bloody awesome. So was reaching the UEFA Champions League final at Wembley. What was not so awesome was the capitulation to those Catalan midgets. What got me riled up was THAT 1-6 loss to City. And what got me pulling out my hair was elimination from the second easiest group in the UEFA Champions League (Barcelona and Milan had the easiest group, seriously who were Vitoria Plzen and BATE Borisov?). The last straw was elimination from the Carling Cup by a team that had a longer goal drought collectively than Andy Carroll and Fernando Torres. Which begs the question, what exactly is the problem with United?

The answers to this question are as varied as the number of people you ask. Some say Sir Alex Ferguson has lost his touch. Others say we are suffering from the Arsenal disease i.e. too much youth. Some point out to the lack of midfield creativity, others blame the owners. Based on recent form, it must be the 10 injuries. I hold it is a combination of all the above and much more.

Youth: In 1996, Alan Hansen (former Liverpool captain now TV pundit) was made to gobble up a huge slice of humble pie when he exclaimed after United’s loss to Villa on the opening day of the season, “You can’t win anything with kids!” That team won the Double that year, 3 years later they won the Treble. Those “kids” are among the three greatest teams to have come out of an academy (the others being the Ajax side of 1995 and the current Barcelona crop). Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, the Neville brothers, Nicky Butt and David Beckham all became world class players. The current side is a throwback to that era. David De Gea, Phil Jones, Danny Welbeck, Tom Cleverley, Chris Smalling, Federico Macheda and the da Silva twins are all under-21 internationals for their respective countries. Add to that list Nani, Anderson, Javier Hernandez, Jonny Evans, Darron Gibson: all players under 25 and full internationals. Ashley Young, Wayne Rooney and Antonio Valencia are about 25-27. This is indeed a young side; in fact the team that hammered Arsenal 8-2 was averagely younger than that Arsenal side which included Sczezny, Coquelin, Miquel, Jenkinson, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott.

But with youth comes naïveté and inexperience, and that is what United are suffering from. Jones is a fine defender, no doubt, but his marauding runs upfront cost the team, his positional awareness is way off, especially in a league with ruthless strikers like Aguero and van Persie lurking about in your penalty area. De Gea is a fine young keeper, but he has a lot to learn. The mistakes against Manchester City in the Community Shield, West Bromwich and Blackburn in the Premier League, Benfica and Basel in the Champions League cannot be wished away that easily. The da Silva twins are too rash and impetuous in their play; they belong to the Paul Scholes school of” great player, can’t tackle, but will attempt to do so and pray I don’t get carded”. Roy Keane was right, these young players need to buck up their ideas and get to know what it means to play for United. Youth cannot be used as an excuse every time the team comes up short, come on Arsenal have taught us this!

The midfield: The United midfield is in crisis. Many point out to the lack of an old school creative midfielder since the retirement of Scholes, and have fronted Wesley Sneijder and Luka Modric as replacements. However, I contend that it is not creativity that is the problem, rather, United lack a combative DEFENSIVE midfielder. Rooney and Young have played as the creative midfielder for England in their Euro 2012 qualifiers due to Gerrard’s absence. In fact, Young’s best position is not on the left, but just behind the strikers, his stellar performances for both England and Aston Villa attest to this fact. A roll call of United’s central midfield: Fletcher, Carrick, Gibson, Anderson, Cleverley. Of these, only Fletcher is a natural defensive (‘destroyer’) midfielder. Unfortunately, Fletcher is out indefinitely due to disease. Jones can evolve to be the midfield general that Keane once was, but that is a work in progress, and judging by the league table, time is a luxury United cannot afford. That is why it WAS a big mistake to let Owen Hargreaves leave on a Bosman to join (of all the teams in the universe) City. Nowhere was it more evident than the last game, the loss to Blackburn. Playing Carrick as a centre back and Rafael as a defensive midfielder is asking for trouble, even if you are playing against Blackburn. Yakubu’s second goal is all the evidence you need to show that was reckless. The best piece of transfer business Ferguson would do this January would be to get Lassana Diarra to Old Trafford. Diarra is combative and more importantly, can tackle (unlike Carrick and Anderson). Plus he isn’t getting game time in Madrid due to the Khedira-Alonso pairing in midfield. Or he could accelerate Paul Pogba’s ascension to the first team-the lad reminds me of one Patrick Vieira.

The owners: The Glazers have hocked the club deep in debt. The proceeds from Ronaldo’s sale to Madrid as well as all available revenue go to servicing the principal and interest repayments on the loan to purchase United. This means no proper transfers in the near future. This summer was a fluke.

The injuries: This is unfortunate really. Losing an inspirational skipper to a season long injury is devastating. Add to that list all available central defenders and most of the midfield. If this isn’t a crisis, I don’t know what is.

The manager: Sir Alex Ferguson has done it all. 25 years at the helm of Manchester United, with 12 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cups, 4 League Cups, 2 UEFA Champions Leagues; nobody can deny that he is one of the managers of all time. But in 2011, his tactical nous has been suspect, including but not limited to the defeat by Barcelona, where a midfield pairing of Carrick and Giggs was proved efficient but too slow and the casual attitude to crucial games (most notably against Benfica and Basel). Of course his handling of the players cannot be faulted, in light of the Mancini-Tevez saga, and especially the decision to axe Rooney was a good one. Ferguson needs to rediscover the touch that was there before that embarrassing loss to City before it is too late.

Having said all that, the problems at United could be its greatest assets: a wily and experienced manager, players with a never-say-die attitude and the future in front of them, wise heads in the dressing room, a global marketing machine, huge revenues and the most passionate fans in the world. Glory glory Man United as the Reds go marching on on on!!!