#4 Manchester United’s midfield and attack are major areas of concern
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Pogba is only brilliant in flashes and struggles. Herrera is solid and has industry but isn’t able to provide that creative spark. Schneiderlin was awful and was substituted at half-time. Mourinho doesn’t know where to play Mata. United lack proper out and out wingers, with only strikers and number 10’s masquerading as wingers providing barely any width.
United’s midfield looks nothing like their midfields of old. United’s legendary midfields boasted the likes of Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham and Ryan Giggs – All of who were absolutely top quality players in midfield, at their positions. Their current crop don’t even come close in comparison.
They lack decisiveness, they aren’t able to provide the killer pass, they lack bite, and they barely score goals. There is no proper defensive midfielder like an N’Golo Kante to do the running and ball winning. They lack a proper passer of the ball and a goal scorer from midfield. Pogba was bought to create and score goals from midfield but continues to struggle.
Carrick still has the quality but not the legs and is surely playing one of his last seasons for United and is past his best. Mkhitaryan remains a mystery while Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial are not wingers and inherently drift inward and hardly provide any telling crosses or service to the strikers. United’s formation is also too rigid and predictable to defend against. It’s not just them. United’s striker position is another conundrum. Ibrahimovic is too static and barely has the legs to run into channels and on top of that, he seems to have lost his lethal touch, missing loads of chances. Rooney scored today but had a less than stellar game otherwise.
This game was another example of the same old story – They were directionless, lacked any belief or intent whatsoever, and were simply impotent against Fenerbahce. They just can’t score with this team and they are not at all as clinical as under Sir Alex Ferguson. It’s a huge issue for Mourinho to sort out.
His transfers have been poor – He could have bought a holding midfielder, proper wingers, and a striker entering his prime but instead splashed the cash on big names like Pogba, Ibrahimovic and Mkhitaryan who haven’t performed well enough.
Of course, there is still time for a turnaround but it has to come quick with December approaching soon, or this could be another season to write-off for the Red Devils.
