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Football News: Will Manchester United be stuck in the downward spiral?

Will Manchester United be stuck in the downward spiral?
Image from: freelargeimages.com

Like any other business, a football manager is judged by how much he is able to extract from the group of individuals available to him. Mourinho is not everyone's cup of tea, but his Triple with Inter and Champions League win with Porto are massive achievements. Jurgen Klopp has turned the likes of Mane, Salah, Firmino, Van Dijk, Robertson and TAA into world class players, playing consistently well. Even players like Wijnaldum, Henderson and Fabinho are performing better than they have or would under most coaches.

The same can be said of Pep Guardiola with Sterling, Fernandinho, Kevin De Bruyne etc. and this is also the reason Mauricio Pochettino is regarded highly in some quarters. I doubt Kane, Son, and co. would have flourished as well as they have under most other managers in the Premier League. When these players are bought by other teams, all of a sudden their level drops, highlighting the value the manager adds.

This brings me to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - He has Manchester United running through his veins and is desperate to see us return to the glory days. But has he got the best out of this squad? Since the Paris Saint Germain game, our form in competitive games reads as
19 games, 5 wins 4 draws and 10 losses, that's half a season with 19 points.

Even with our injuries and transfer chaos, is it difficult to justify borderline relegation form for half a season. If these were Ole's first 19 results, he would have not got the Manager's job. He is in the job only because he had it before the results went south.

The squad when the season began wasn't great - a lot of youth added with players like Herrera, Fellaini and Lukaku leaving - players who could do a job. If we had to finish in the top 4, we needed our current squad to perform better than their abilities, consistently and improve as the season went on. That is something we have failed to see over the last 19 games and that trend is showing no signs of changing. The vision of football, Ole had will soon vanish in the search for results and we risk being left without either.

I am now beginning to understand what Ed002 meant when he said Lampard has people around him advising him, Ole doesn't. I can't think of a single signing who has lived up to their potential over the last 5 years. To be fair, I can't think of a player we improved significantly after having bought them for the last 10 years and I think therein lies a big problem for our club.

Every one of our last 4 managers has failed to improve players. Every position on the pitch has been systematically deteriorating and now a combination of poor recruitment and coaching has left the squad in a pathetic state. Robin van Persie, Rooney and Hernandez were our strikers in 2013/14. Then we had Falcao, Ibrahimovic, Lukaku and now Martial.

Unless we have a manager and coaching staff who can get the best out of a group of players and a recruitment strategy which is more than, 3 In, 3 Out 3, and renew contracts at the last minute, we will be stuck in the downward spiral. Sacking this manager with no better alternative or throwing money on more new players will get us nowhere till then.

Written by Ryans left foot! September 23 2019 20:04:44

 

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