Recently I've been asked by a couple of friends to share my opinion on the past three years of a club I love and adore. As I was on a plane to Gold Coast, I decided to write about a new era of the greatest club in my eyes, Manchester United. As a diehard United fan I found the past three years to be very disappointing and I bet any United fan and even ex players could not stand watching this legendary club fall into the hands of mediocrity. It all began with David Moyes, who made some critical errors in my opinion by bringing in his own staff as they definitely did not understand the major task ahead. One key example, removing Rene Muelensteen who was fantastic with the players and knew the ins and outs of it all. Not to mention, losing both Sir Alex and David Gill in the same season was catastrophic because not only were we going to have a new manager, but also a new CEO in charge of transfers. I'm sure everyone remembers the overpriced signing of Marouane Fellaini on deadline day. That transfer window was chaotic as we were linked with all sorts of players like Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara and so forth. Typically, United are a club that keeps everything quiet until they officially announce it but you could see that the club were not handling things well. Needless to say, it was a terrible season, with us finishing 7th. We practically got hammered by all the so-called big clubs that season. As for Moyes, unfortunately the fear factor was gone and he just did not have that charisma to manage such a gigantic club. And I quote "we need to aspire to be like City". Sorry to break it to you Moyesy, but we're the greatest club in the world, we have our own identity, and we do not aspire to be another club, especially the one just down the road. And finally the news we all wanted to hear, Moyes finally sacked and you could sense the relieve of the fans. The only good thing he did was bringing in Juan Mata, a gem of a player. After all, he was Fergie's chosen one and it failed.
Next was Mr. Philosophy aka Louis van Gaal, whom most of us did not know much of, as his successes came in the 90's with Barcelona and Ajax. The most recent, FC Bayern Munchen and also the Netherlands national team. As the news broke, most of us were eagerly waiting to watch the Oranje in the World Cup to see how he handled his tactics and so on. They, in fact beat the previous World Champions Spain 5-1 in their opening game. It obviously gave us a lot of excitement as we thought we would see such free flowing football with United. Early days showed a 3-5-2 formation with 3 centre backs as well as wingbacks. He tried to do the same with United as he realized there were a few number 10's in the team with the likes of Kagawa, Mata, and Wazza. It was definitely a busy summer that season with a number of transfers in and out. Victor Valdes, Luke Shaw, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo, Angel Di Maria, Ander Herrera and Radamel Falcao were among the ins. He was initially very adamant that his back three formation would work as he changed it up to a 4-4-2 diamond when we played at home and a 3-5-2 for away games. Soon enough as we watched the lack of effort from him at his technical area and also the overly defensive tactics, once again we were left with someone who is out of his depth and with no plan B. The tendency to play players out of position completely alienated certain players like Di Maria who started the season brilliantly playing in his favorite position.
Most of us wanted him out that season, but with not many top quality managers around, the club and the fans decided to give him another opportunity. Yet again, he splashed the cash and no doubt was given the funds to spend, this time, bringing the likes of Matteo Darmian, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Morgan Schneiderlin, Memphis Depay, Sergio Romero (after falling out with Valdes), and Anthony Martial. Personally I felt he made mistakes by selling key players like Robin Van Persie, Rafael, Shinji Kagawa and Javier Hernandez. Another season with high expectations started off with a dull 1-0 win over Spurs. All of us were once again, left with disappointment at how we approached games, the 'don't shoot on sight, but rather pass' became the norm as we struggled to find the back of the net. Hammering teams 3-0, 4-0 became a rare occasion as we began to see plenty of 0-0's which is not the way United play football. In fact, how many times have we come back from being down, the drive and last minute goals were hard to come by as the team lacked consistency and the never say die attitude that the class of 92' always had. I remember a particular interview on FullTimeDevils where this guy made a very good point about Memphis/Ronaldo progress, when Ronaldo falls over after trying to dribble Fergie would tell him to get back up and go again, but when Memphis tries, it's written on the book and you're out the next game. That's not very motivating for a young player who wants to try different things and build his confidence. Disappointing as this season was, we were boosted by our youth system, with Marcus Rashford, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Guillermo Varela, Jesse Lingard, Donald Love and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson all joining first team football. Make no mistake about it, if we didn't have injuries, he would not have played them and we wouldn't have been able to see the young talent on show. Despite all this, we somehow pulled off a good run in the FA Cup and even managed to win it. Those were definitely the positives of the season as this new rebuilt team had their first taste of silverware. And I quote "the expectations of the fans are too high", when a manager says this you clearly knows he doesn't understand the club and is setting the bar lower than expected. I thank him for guiding the team to a record 12th FA Cup but that's as far as I'll go. I don't think any of the fans will miss him(I know I won't) but we wish him the best of course.
For the past few years, I have to say, David De Gea's progress has been massive. When he first came to Manchester United, he looked very small and was not very effective at dominating the box, gaining his name as more of a shot stopper. Our goalkeeping coach at the time, Eric Steele said that he was lazy to learn English and had plenty to learn to become the best. Steele even learnt Spanish to help with his progress. By that time, we all could see the difference in his physique and his confidence. Then came Chris Woods, goalkeeping coach from the Moyes era, he was a key in helping De Gea dominate the penalty box. And of course, Frans Hoek, a specialist in positioning, assisted him in more of 1v1 situations, as we all witnessed a great goalkeeper's journey to the top. I certainly believe all these three coaches have helped enhance his skills in some way and were beneficial in his progress. For the past three seasons, he has been our best player and has saved us on many occasions. To me, he is the best goalkeeper in the world right now.
As for the upcoming season, I am ecstatic that we have got Jose Mourinho as our new manager to lead this great club. He is definitely one of the best managers to ever grace the game. We all know he is a fantastic manager, it was just that we did not like the fact that he managed Chelsea. Plus it's not a big secret that he's always wanted the United job. His charisma and personality definitely sets the tone as we wait for his first press conference as Manchester United manager. For instance, the "I'm not one of the bottle, I think I'm the special one" immediately put him at the centre of attention. Even in his first interview, he goes on to say he prefers to forget the last three years and focus on more on the history of the club, which is exactly what the fans think as well. I'm sure most United fans who actually watch games know that we need a centre back, a centre forward and a creative spark in midfield to improve our performances. He seems to have already identified that by signing Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan(not confirmed). With all these marquee signings, I am thrilled for the new season to begin, although I won't be expecting too much as the new players will have to gel with the old and get used to the Premier League. I'm also excited by the prospect of the new managers in the league, to see how they set up their teams tactically and so forth. I do believe that Jose Mourinho is the right man to bring the 'Super, Monster Club' back to greatness.
Still relatively new to blogs, thank you all for taking the time to read. #MUFC
