Right I’m essentially spewing out conscious thought here but the basic gist is that with the squad how it is I think that with the squad where it is it might be best for us long term to have a season without any European football.
Some of the issues I think are plaguing the squad which are the young age, the lack of stability, and the behind the scenes mess at the club.
General Age / Instability:
- So as an example the starting eleven had an average age of 24.5yrs, including Matic at 31 who will be leaving soon. The back five had an average age of 22.8yrs. This by definition brings about inconsistency whilst building experience.
- Of that back five, four of them are playing in their first season for United. If you consider Williams our starting LB then same goes four 3 of our first choice back 4. I don’t think this can be understated. As with anything, defensive stability comes from the team being a unit - this isn’t. This is a collection of four defenders learning how to play together whilst trying to get one of the world’s biggest clubs back to the heights they need to be at.
- Similar to the defensive issues, we’ve had an absolute massacre in terms of pulling a consistent starting 11. Martial has had roughly 2 months out, same for Shaw, looks like McT will be similar, Pogba out for three months then potentially another two here, and now with Rashford out for months have crippled the stability within the squad. Add to this injuries to ‘squad’ players like Axel, TFM, Bailly has meant that rotation has been less of an option, putting a bigger onus on the already depleted, overworked squad.
Pressure:
- I don’t believe I’ve ever known a squad to be under as much as this is. Every signing we have, whether it’s a 21yr old non-prolific winger from the Championship or an England international defender has to have an immediate, positive first team impact. This is what established teams like Liverpool don’t have, they can sign Minamino and blood him in, give him time to settle and make an impact that way.
- Youngsters coming in are in the exact same bracket. Thankfully Greenwood and Williams have stepped up for this but so many could and would have let the pressure crush them.
- This has been a club-wide issue, due to the poor position of the squad. Players pressured to play when unfit, medical staff pressured to release players to play and the manager to play players who other he would want to rest.
For me, this all lays in the hands of Woodward due to the state of recruitment. Now I saw the pundits after yesterday’s match where they were mentioning who United signings weren’t bad players, but simply look at where they are now:
Ibra - MLS the AC Milan
Schweinstiger - retired
Schneiderlin - Everton where he’s played 11 times this season
Young - Inter with a much slower league
Sanchez - See Young
Lukaku - See Young
Smalling - See Young, with Roma
Darmian - Parma
Valencia released
Herrera - PSG where he’s played 6 times in the league
Blind - Ajax
Fellaini - China
All of this screams short-termism and has left us with a cripplingly weak squad. With the performance on our team behind the scenes in this transfer window I have no faith that anyone will come in and, likewise that more than three players will come in during the summer (I can already see Woodward briefing that the Euros ruined out plans) so with this in mind, would 8th be the best result for us long term?
No Europa League, simply able to concentrate on the league and use domestic cups for rotation, then use that to wrap our best in cotton wool and push for a CL return, with a view to investing more in summer ‘21?
Some of the issues I think are plaguing the squad which are the young age, the lack of stability, and the behind the scenes mess at the club.
General Age / Instability:
- So as an example the starting eleven had an average age of 24.5yrs, including Matic at 31 who will be leaving soon. The back five had an average age of 22.8yrs. This by definition brings about inconsistency whilst building experience.
- Of that back five, four of them are playing in their first season for United. If you consider Williams our starting LB then same goes four 3 of our first choice back 4. I don’t think this can be understated. As with anything, defensive stability comes from the team being a unit - this isn’t. This is a collection of four defenders learning how to play together whilst trying to get one of the world’s biggest clubs back to the heights they need to be at.
- Similar to the defensive issues, we’ve had an absolute massacre in terms of pulling a consistent starting 11. Martial has had roughly 2 months out, same for Shaw, looks like McT will be similar, Pogba out for three months then potentially another two here, and now with Rashford out for months have crippled the stability within the squad. Add to this injuries to ‘squad’ players like Axel, TFM, Bailly has meant that rotation has been less of an option, putting a bigger onus on the already depleted, overworked squad.
Pressure:
- I don’t believe I’ve ever known a squad to be under as much as this is. Every signing we have, whether it’s a 21yr old non-prolific winger from the Championship or an England international defender has to have an immediate, positive first team impact. This is what established teams like Liverpool don’t have, they can sign Minamino and blood him in, give him time to settle and make an impact that way.
- Youngsters coming in are in the exact same bracket. Thankfully Greenwood and Williams have stepped up for this but so many could and would have let the pressure crush them.
- This has been a club-wide issue, due to the poor position of the squad. Players pressured to play when unfit, medical staff pressured to release players to play and the manager to play players who other he would want to rest.
For me, this all lays in the hands of Woodward due to the state of recruitment. Now I saw the pundits after yesterday’s match where they were mentioning who United signings weren’t bad players, but simply look at where they are now:
Ibra - MLS the AC Milan
Schweinstiger - retired
Schneiderlin - Everton where he’s played 11 times this season
Young - Inter with a much slower league
Sanchez - See Young
Lukaku - See Young
Smalling - See Young, with Roma
Darmian - Parma
Valencia released
Herrera - PSG where he’s played 6 times in the league
Blind - Ajax
Fellaini - China
All of this screams short-termism and has left us with a cripplingly weak squad. With the performance on our team behind the scenes in this transfer window I have no faith that anyone will come in and, likewise that more than three players will come in during the summer (I can already see Woodward briefing that the Euros ruined out plans) so with this in mind, would 8th be the best result for us long term?
No Europa League, simply able to concentrate on the league and use domestic cups for rotation, then use that to wrap our best in cotton wool and push for a CL return, with a view to investing more in summer ‘21?
Last edited:
