Manchester United: Season Review and Grades – Ferguson retires, RVP shines

The Good: United played with the efficiency of champions. They didn’t exactly play exuberant or beautiful football that often but they just kept on winning. They adapted their play to their opponents and to circumstances so well, an absolute virtue of Ferguson’s management. In the early season they were more open and enterprising looking for goals which they got plenty of, but conceded plenty of. By new year they had grabbed hold of the title race which meant that they could shift gears and focus on defensive solidity and consistency. The amazing thing was that only a few players had any extended runs of form. Aside from the core of De Gea, Rafael, Ferdinand, Evra, Carrick and Van Persie not many others stepped up regularly. Ferguson somehow found a way to marshal his team in various iterations and win games.

The Bad: Too many players regressed on previous form. Despite winning the league last year, new manager David Moyes has a lot of players to make decisions on. Nani and Valencia took five steps back, Young has injured or ineffective, Anderson has gone backwards, Cleverley hasn’t kicked on, Smalling was injured and vulnerable and at times Rooney looked all at sea. This will be a big concern for Moyes. As explained above, Ferguson found a way to win, can Moyes do the same? These are talented players but perhaps for several the time is up.

Key Moment: Samir Nasri hiding from Robin van Persie’s free kick at the Etihad. At 2-2 in the last minute of the derby, van Persie hit an edge of the box free kick straight at where Samir Nasri should have been in the City wall. Only, he wasn’t. Instead he flailed a boot out at it which meant it took a horrible deflection out of the reach of the sprawling Joe Hart. 3-2 United, title race firmly swinging in their favour.

Star Man: Robin van Persie It could be any of the core six listed above but van Persie stands out because he deals in goals. Not only scoring them, but making them. He was the top scorer in the Premier League and one of the top assist makers. Without him they still may have won the league, but it wouldn’t have been so easy. He had a habit of turning up in the right place at the right time, a precious trait to have.

What needs to be done in the summer? Surprisingly, quite a lot. Moyes needs to make big decisions on those who struggled to improve or went backwards. His biggest decision of those is with Wayne Rooney. One way or another, they need to deal with that as soon as possible or it will hang over his head all summer. In terms of recruitment, a lot of it will be dictated by who they sell. They need more attacking options certainly, but the priority has to be signing a world class central midfielder. They don’t have a Schweinsteiger, Gundogan, Xavi type and they badly need one. They are supposedly looking at Cesc Fabregas who would be a wonderful signing.

Season Grade: A- The number one mission was to win back the Premier League, and they did so with ease. Young players such as De Gea and Rafael have established themselves as stars and Robin van Persie adapted immediately. They made decent progress in the cups to a degree but will have been disappointed not to make more of an impression in the Champions League, even regardless of the controversial red card. There are some concerns to deal with moving forward but they accomplished their main mission to see Ferguson, and Scholes again, off in style.