The Three Mistakes made by Manchester United

Louis van Gaal (C) has a tough job to bring Manchester United back to the top.

United, Man UnitedWe’re the boys in red & we’re on our way to Wembley!Wembley, Wembley!We’re the famous Man United & we’re on our way to Wembley!

These are a few verses from the official Manchester United song. Ironical aren’t they? Yes, they are as they are now out of the Capital One Cup. One of the latest missiles to be dropped in the ongoing chaos at Old Trafford. The hard to digest the words ‘chaos’ and ‘Old Trafford’ as these have not been familiar to themselves for decades now. Something has gone terribly wrong at Manchester United and both the managers post Sir Alex Ferguson have been using terms such as ‘rebuilding process’ and ‘transition period’.

Yes, definitely Manchester United are in a transition period or they need what you call, a rebuilding. Replacing Sir Alex after 27 years is not an easy task is it? Yet if this transition and rebuilding had to be this tough/complicated, the question remains. So what went wrong? How a side that has dominated English football for the past two decades, a side that has always defined a successful season only by winning the title has changed into a team which considers top four finish as their realistic achievement.

As we all may know football is a game of opinions and here is mine. To me, the failed rebuilding process has been the catalyst for the failures in the forthcoming seasons and the main culprit is Sir Alex. It is hard to believe that Sir Alex, a name so synonymous with the Red Devils is partly responsible for the chaotic transition we witness today, but by all means it is true.

Is he the reason why United is as it is? We have a question with two different meanings but the answers to those questions is the same. Yes, he is. So where did the rebuilding go wrong?

Mistake No. 1 – Failing to rebuild the midfield in time

Rewind to the Sir Alex’s era. Back in the 2011-12 season when United were short of quality in the centre of the park Sir Alex opted for a temporary solution by asking Paul Scholes to come out of retirement (still seems justified). But the following season he asked a 35-year-old Scholes to be the linchpin of the midfield. He trusted in players such as Tom Cleverley, Anderson and allowed a rising star in the form of Paul Pogba to leave on a free transfer and we now we all know how that turned out to be.

If the rebuilding had started back then in the 2012-13 season who knows, United might have avoided a drought of quality midfielders in the years to follow. Although the Scholes inspired midfield gave United the title, it only resulted in blinding the Red Devils by success and increasing long term problems.

Thus, when Sir Alex retired and David Moyes accepted the impossible challenge of replacing the 71-year-old United legend, he had a humungous task of signing seven to eight players in a single transfer window in which he and Ed Woodward utterly failed and ended up signing a 6-foot, curly hair Marouane Fellaini, who was merely a guy at a wrong place at a wrong time.

David Moyes signed both Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata

As the year progressed under Moyes, he started realizing the word impossible in the challenge he had taken and further made a panic buy in the form of Juan Mata in January just to make the fans happy and to take the fans off his back. He was certainly not what United needed at the time as they already had Shinji Kagawa and Wayne Rooney, who played in the same position as the former Chelsea man. But, he still is a round peg in a square hole.

In the coming months, Moyes was sacked quite ruthlessly by the United management which I think was coming sooner or later. Moyes, given his experience, was meant to fail in the task given to him. Very few managers can be allowed to sign/release 7-8 first team players when they have a title winning squad from the previous season.

Fast Forward to 2014-15; Louis van Gaal was appointed to succeed the Scot. A household name with a CV every manager dreams of. He was a perfect replacement and a perfect match for handling the impossible task of living up to the comparisons with Sir Alex.

Mistake No.2 – Signing players who aren’t the need of the hour

By the time Van Gaal signed on to the United bandwagon, the senior members of the squad realized that they were surplus to requirements. Suddenly, in a single transfer window, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were all allowed to leave. These three players were the pillars of the United defence for the past decade. The intensity of the problem in the midfield was suddenly shadowed by the defensive problems.

Now United were primarily in need of at least two quality centre backs, who would help youngsters Phil Jones and Chris Smalling develop and provide cover to Jonny Evans. Yet Van Gaal and Woodward decided to capture United’s long term target Ander Herrera who was supposed to fill the void left by Scholes which could have been recognized by Sir Alex in the 2012-13 season.

Marcos Rojo and Angel Di Maria were brought in the last week.

In addition to that Luke Shaw was signed from Southampton who was supposed to be the understudy to Patrice Evra (he was supposed to stay on for another year), but both Evra and Alexander Buttner decided to leave (not rocket science) and suddenly a 19-year-old Shaw became a vital first team player with no one to cover him and to add up to the agony he gets injured even before the start of the new season.

Now all the attention of defensive frailties shifts to the left back position as they have no recognized player to play in that position. In the following days, United lose their first home game against Swansea City and that follows with another panic buy in the form of Marcos Rojo, whose name was probably unheard three months ago. He’s a player United don’t want but he’s what they get (at a highly over-rated price).

The signing of Rojo still leaves United ignorant of the real concern which is the centre back position at a time when all the clubs have captured talented centre backs such as Eliaquim Mangala, Dejan Lovren, Mehdi Benatia, Kurt Zouma and Thomas Vermaelen; leaving very few options to choose from. The ones who are available won’t be interested in joining due to the absence of European football.

In the following weekend Michael Keane and Tyler Blackett partner Jones as the three centre backs where United are lucky to draw away at Sunderland. The poor defence continues which in turn translates into the need to sign strong centre backs. Yet again they make the same mistake of ignoring the problematic area and break the British transfer record for signing Angel Di Maria.

He is a marquee signing and is certainly a player who would lift others in the squad. He is the sort of player United need, but not at this hour. At the time of writing, United are in a place where they have been knocked out of a Cup competition which could have been a realistic target and are in need of at least one world class centre back when there is no one available or interested to join which translates into a chaos.

Mistake No. 3 – Failing to sign the right players and not injecting youth talent

Gary Neville famously said in a show that,”In the past 12 months the amount of money United have spent to get Mata, Felliani, Herrera and Shaw, with the right timing and money they could have got Gareth Bale, Cesc Fabregas and Toni Kroos.” He certainly is right.

Woodward has totally failed in the transfer dealings since replacing David Gill. There were times when David Gill and Sir Alex used to make masterstrokes in the market and pluck talents whose names were not even heard of and develop them into world class players. Manchester United have always been the nurturers who sign hungry youngsters and develop them into world beaters.

Sir ALex Ferguson brought the best out of a young Cristiano Ronaldo

George Best, Eric Cantona, the Class of 92′, Cristiano Ronaldo all were signed as when they were nobody and were transformed into legends. Where is the philosophy? Has it run its course with Sir Alex’s retirement? All what United seem to want at the moment is short term solutions which don’t seem logical considering there is no Champions League football.

Why has there been no injection of young, talented and hungry players into the team? Is it the failure of the scouting department which has been largely successful over the years or is it that United are no longer a club who looks to the future? The questions remain to be answered.

Though as another verse of their official song says,”Just like the Busby days and days gone by. We’ll keep the red flag flying high.” United fans will always keep their hopes flying high as their red flags and hope for a quick and painless transition to return to the pinnacle of their reputation, and once again be right up there to compete against the best.

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