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Manchester United fans could be forgiven for believing that the glory days of old were back again at the start of the season because such was the confidence derived from their team’s early season form.
Fast forward to the New Year, Manchester United are second on the table 12 points behind Manchester City – who are yet to play in 2018, same as Chelsea who are only 2 behind them in third.
A lot of factors can be attributed to the team’s worrying decline as the season progressed but we are going to look at 5 reasons why their season has not gone according to plan.
#5 Pogba’s ill-timed injury and ban
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The 2017/2018 season was supposed to be the season where the Frenchman finally started to justify his massive transfer fee and at the start of the season, he was doing just that.
Pogba was dominating matches, showing off his vast array of skills, making great runs into the box, scoring and assisting goals and was the main cog in the early season machine but a hamstring injury in his side’s first Champion’s league game of the season halted his progress.
Manchester United started falling off the pace during his 2-month absence and won only 4 of the 7 Premier league games he missed, losing 2 and drawing 1.
His return resulted in 4 straight wins in the league including brilliant away victories against Watford and Arsenal but a red card in the latter ruled him out of the much anticipated Manchester derby; a game United went on to lose and which effectively put an end to their title ambitions.
The 24-year old is undoubtedly the most influential player in the current Manchester United set up, and this was on show again in the first game of 2018 - as he gave a man of the match performance to lead his team to a 2-0 victory against Everton at Goodison Park.
#4 Ever-growing injury list
At the time of writing this article, Manchester United are without Eric Bailly, Marouane Fellaini, Michael Carrick, Antonio Valencia, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku who are all ruled out with injuries – with Chris Smalling only fit enough for a place on the bench for their first game of the New Year.
Jose Mourinho has barely had a full squad at any point of the season. Although he has had a relatively strong squad, for the most part, the team has been hugely affected by injuries faced by his players. The injuries to Eric Bailly and more recently Antonio Valencia has hugely impacted the team’s usually solid defensive displays as the Red Devils have managed to keep just 1 clean sheet in their last 5 matches of 2017.
The manager himself will be the last to point this out (even though he has put the blame on virtually everything else), but Manchester United have been hugely unlucky with injury layoffs this season and will definitely put up better displays with their full squad in place.
Undoubtedly an injury list of this magnitude will dampen any team’s ambitions and that has been the case for Manchester United as they have picked up only 12 out of a possible 21 points in December which just wasn’t good enough in this very peculiar season.
#3 Manchester City and their unbeaten status
As odd as this might seem, there is no denying that Manchester City have been doing ‘ridiculous’ things this season. Unbeaten all season long so far, with an 18-game winning streak only just halted by Crystal Palace, the form of Pep Guardiola’s side has taken most of the league by surprise, Manchester United included.
The ‘noisy neighbours’ have left their more illustrious city rivals as well as the rest of the league in their wake as they have gone about winning matches with aplomb. Their attacking and expansive style of football -which is quite beautiful to watch and at the same time hugely effective, coupled with the quality in their squad has made the Spanish manager’s expensively-assembled team arguably the side to beat in Europe this season.
In any other season, Manchester United’s current point haul of 47 points would have seen them firmly placed in the title race but the form of their crosstown rivals appears to have the record Premier League champions chasing a lost cause half way through the season. If not for a miracle of some sort or a massive implosion of the highest kind, the sky blue and white of Manchester City will be the colors on the Premier League trophy come May.
#2 Mourinho’s big-game tactics haven’t been good enough
Jose Mourinho is still one of the best managers around and one of the best at bringing the best out of his players – as is the case with Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young and Phil Jones. The Portuguese manager’s tactics on some occasions this season, however – especially in the big games, has left a lot to be desired.
The goalless draw against Liverpool is a very good example of this. Prior to that game the Red Devils were flying in the league but the United boss opted for a defensive setup at Anfield hoping to nick a goal on the counter this obviously it did not materialize and it kick-started a period of decline for his team as they failed to pick themselves up immediately, succumbing to a shock 2-1 defeat against Huddersfield in their next Premier League game.
Since their stalemate at Liverpool, Manchester United just hasn’t reached the same heights as their first games of the season. The manager nonetheless continued with this style in other big games with varying degrees of success – with losses to Chelsea and Manchester City highlighting the flaws in the manager’s tactics.
Even in the big games where the Old Trafford club has been victorious this season, there were elements of good fortune as those flaws were brought to the fore again, none more so than in their 3-1 victory against Arsenal at the Emirates; a game where goalkeeper David De Gea made a league record 14 saves as his team backed off after taking a 2 goal lead.
#1 Players not consistent enough
Quite a number of players in the Manchester United squad have simply not performed at their best consistently enough.
When discussing this point, Henrikh Mkhitaryan comes to mind. The Armenian was a part of everything good about his side’s attack at the start of the season but his form dropped at an alarming rate as the season went on and was subsequently exiled from the squad for a quite a while.
Another player that comes to mind is Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian forward, who started the season in brilliant form scoring 7 goals in his first 7 Premier League games. But a run of 3 goals in the next 14 matches underlines his level of inconsistency this season.
The likes of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford have failed to keep up their early season performances, which has in no small part contributed to their side’s recent slump.
New signing Victor Lindelof has not lived up to the hype since joining the club. His performances at the start of the season were not what the fans expected of him and he has received a lot of criticisms from fans and pundits alike. Although his performances have steadily improved, there is a long way to go before he gains the full trust of both his manager and fans.
The players, however, showed what they can do on New Year’s Day with a brilliant display against Everton, winning 2 nil – with Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard scoring two beautiful goals.
