This is not an Ole in, Ole out, Woodward in, Woodward out debate. My aim is to highlight what I think United lack and what needs to improve. Lets have a civilised debate.
a- Arrigo Sacchi used to say that each squad has a cycle. No matter how good a squad can be, there comes a time when there need to be a clean sweep. SAF was a firm believer on that having radically changed the squad 4 times in his career (the squad he inherited from Atkinson, the double squad, the treble squad and the 3 CL winner squad) prior to its expiry date. We've seen it both with Mou's Chelsea and Poch's Spurs how a decent side can suddenly turn shit when complacency kicks in. That means that the club needs to be able to sustain a huge staff turnover with lets say 6 players in and 6 out. Juventus does that quite regularly and there's huge benefits for doing it. It keeps players on their toes, it removes deadwood before their prices plummet to the ridiculous, it keeps salaries down (the club isn't forced to give huge contracts to players that aren't really wanted at the club) and it keeps the risk of players leaving as free agents to the minimum. My suggested solution - a CEO who understand football (VDS?) and whose further assisted by a top DOF such as Campos whose quite involved into football and agents and can therefore sustain multiple deals at a time. Woodward can take care of the financial side
b- United has an army of scouts (some state its around 50 men strong). The result to that is kind of disappointing. United's transfer strategy in the past 7 years has been a mare. We brought in the wrong type of players, often overpaying them. Last summer some might say that the situation had improved. There again, you don't need 50 scouts to unearth the likes of Maguire, AWB and Bruno Fernandes am I right? We need a serious reform on our scouting department . My suggested solution: an experienced head of recruitment taking over and be able to make its own changes.
c- The level of injuries at United is staggering high. It's been an issue long before Sir Alex retired and had been consistent through the Moyes's, LVG's, Mou's and Ole's administration. TBF the fact that United finds it hard to get rid of injury prone players and has now a ridiculously thin squad doesn't help. The manager is being forced to play players to the ground and to rely on players whose got a record of injury. We need to reform our fitness coaching team.
d- Our coaching is poor. Players look lost, the same mistakes are done again and again (ex our inability to deal with set pieces) and new players often start well and then their performance tend to nosedive (James, ADM, AWB, Maguire, Bailly etc). That's not purely down to coaching either. Fitness, complacency and bad transfer strategy also play a part. However I do wonder if it was a good idea to stick to certain inexperienced personnel despite the fact that United's performances nosedived under them, despite working under two separate administrations (ie Mou and then Ole). Having experienced coaching staff is even more important now that United have an inexperienced manager on board then ever before.
e- Our youth academy has been one of the few positives things in the past few years. The likes of Greenwood, McT, Rashford and Williams had done extremely well at first team level. However a look at the U18 and U23 standings and things doesn't really look good. The U18 are currently 7th place in the North division, a staggering 20 points away from City. Meanwhile the U23 are second behind West Ham at Division 2 level. Maybe a reform at youth level is also needed.
a- Arrigo Sacchi used to say that each squad has a cycle. No matter how good a squad can be, there comes a time when there need to be a clean sweep. SAF was a firm believer on that having radically changed the squad 4 times in his career (the squad he inherited from Atkinson, the double squad, the treble squad and the 3 CL winner squad) prior to its expiry date. We've seen it both with Mou's Chelsea and Poch's Spurs how a decent side can suddenly turn shit when complacency kicks in. That means that the club needs to be able to sustain a huge staff turnover with lets say 6 players in and 6 out. Juventus does that quite regularly and there's huge benefits for doing it. It keeps players on their toes, it removes deadwood before their prices plummet to the ridiculous, it keeps salaries down (the club isn't forced to give huge contracts to players that aren't really wanted at the club) and it keeps the risk of players leaving as free agents to the minimum. My suggested solution - a CEO who understand football (VDS?) and whose further assisted by a top DOF such as Campos whose quite involved into football and agents and can therefore sustain multiple deals at a time. Woodward can take care of the financial side
b- United has an army of scouts (some state its around 50 men strong). The result to that is kind of disappointing. United's transfer strategy in the past 7 years has been a mare. We brought in the wrong type of players, often overpaying them. Last summer some might say that the situation had improved. There again, you don't need 50 scouts to unearth the likes of Maguire, AWB and Bruno Fernandes am I right? We need a serious reform on our scouting department . My suggested solution: an experienced head of recruitment taking over and be able to make its own changes.
c- The level of injuries at United is staggering high. It's been an issue long before Sir Alex retired and had been consistent through the Moyes's, LVG's, Mou's and Ole's administration. TBF the fact that United finds it hard to get rid of injury prone players and has now a ridiculously thin squad doesn't help. The manager is being forced to play players to the ground and to rely on players whose got a record of injury. We need to reform our fitness coaching team.
d- Our coaching is poor. Players look lost, the same mistakes are done again and again (ex our inability to deal with set pieces) and new players often start well and then their performance tend to nosedive (James, ADM, AWB, Maguire, Bailly etc). That's not purely down to coaching either. Fitness, complacency and bad transfer strategy also play a part. However I do wonder if it was a good idea to stick to certain inexperienced personnel despite the fact that United's performances nosedived under them, despite working under two separate administrations (ie Mou and then Ole). Having experienced coaching staff is even more important now that United have an inexperienced manager on board then ever before.
e- Our youth academy has been one of the few positives things in the past few years. The likes of Greenwood, McT, Rashford and Williams had done extremely well at first team level. However a look at the U18 and U23 standings and things doesn't really look good. The U18 are currently 7th place in the North division, a staggering 20 points away from City. Meanwhile the U23 are second behind West Ham at Division 2 level. Maybe a reform at youth level is also needed.
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