I think we can all agree that right now, Man United are in a huge mess. Going into the international break gives us as fans, and potentially the board, some time to reflect. A lot of us went into the start of this season with big expectations given the summer transfer window. The bar had definitely been raised. But now, I think it might be time to readjust what to realistically expect from this season.
Results
Losing at home to your two biggest rivals is never good and is never acceptable. But with those losses being so close to each other and the way that we lost just makes it that much worse. And sadly, we have seen quite a few poor results this season.
Regardless, of where you stand on the competition. Losing to West Ham in the EFL Cup was still missing out on the opportunity to challenge for a trophy. In the Champions League results have been better but not perfect. Losing to Young Boys and then drawing to Atalanta makes progressing from the group that little bit harder.
Unfortunately, the League is where we’ve had some of the worst results. As we know the losses to Liverpool and Man City are unforgivable. Add to that losses to Leicester and Aston Villa as well as draws against Southampton and Everton. And we begin to get a pretty dismal picture. It’s only because the rest of the League is so inconsistent as well that we are sat in 6th place. I honestly think if something doesn’t change we’ll struggle to make top four at this rate. And even saying that we should look to make top four is an admission of how bad things have gone.
Performances
As well as some dreadful results this season, we have seen some dire performances. Games where players all over the pitch just don’t seem to know what they’re doing. Players out of position, not knowing when or who to press or who to mark even, countless basic defensive mistakes. All of which has given us some pretty dreadful viewing as United fans.
Now, ordinarily, poor performances go hand in hand with poor results. But quite a few times we have seen poor performances that have been bailed out with this ‘individual brilliance’ phrase that keeps being bandied around. The 2-2 draw to Atalanta springs to mind, also the win at home against Villarreal. Both of these games were ones where we played pretty poorly and people can argue that we didn’t deserve the result that we got.
But, at the end of the day, we’ve seen these poor performances catch up with us. And if something doesn’t change soon, we could be in even more trouble than we already are.
What needs to change?
So how can we actually go about changing this and improving our situation? Obviously when I say we, us as fans can’t exactly do that much, and unfortunately these decisions come down to what’s proven to be a highly incompetent board. Whenever there is a bad run of form and poor performances the manager obviously comes under pressure. And right now is no different. The manager of Manchester United will always be under pressure. But since the loss to Liverpool Solskjær has come under serious scrutiny. And there has been a lot of talk of a change in the dugout.
I think the sacking of Solskjær, sadly, seems inevitable. The only question now is when are they going to pull the trigger. I think the major difficulty is that there isn’t an obvious available succession choice. When David Moyes went, it was pretty obvious that Louis was going to come in. And the same with Jose taking over from van Gaal. But right now, there doesn’t seem to be that one obvious best choice that makes sense. There was a lot of talk of Conte, but obviously he is now at Spurs. Names like Erik ten Hag and Ralf Rangnick have been put into the conversation. Now there is a lot of talk around bringing in Brendan Rodgers.
The situation with the manager right now is a bit like United’s performances on the pitch, a big mess. I think ultimately, Solksjær’s time as manager is coming to an end. But what we can’t do is just keep flip-flopping from one style to another. There has to be some evidence of a plan there, otherwise what’s the point.
I don’t know who would be best to come in and try and fix this situation. But whoever it is, I’ll get behind them. Because that’s what supporting a team is all about. Supporting them through these bad times, so that when things are better we can appreciate them for what they are.