It is the nature of the media, particularly in Britain, to blow things out of proportion in order to sell papers. It is the culture in the industry and it is particularly prevalent in relation to football.
When a team is winning, they are over-hyped and when a team is playing badly and losing, they are scorned beyond belief. The English football team is a prime example. Hyperbole is never more evident than it is in football and the media.
Inevitably, after United went crashing out of the Champions League this week to the mighty Basle, the postmortem has been quick and brutal. The ‘End of an Era’ tirades have been predictably flying around as people also question Fergie’s decision making and staying power. The quality of United’s players have also been called into question. I am usually first to dismiss these over the top slurs but lets be honest here for a moment, how far off the mark are they really?
Let us first clarify something: this is not a bad team. Is it a vintage Manchester United team? I’m not so sure. The dogs in the street know that our central midfield doesn’t have enough quality and they have known it for some time. It is time to take a good hard look at our players in that area and be honest about them. Is Anderson good enough, really? He is not particularly creative, not robust enough to be a dominant defensive midfielder and goes missing at times. He also only has one good foot and I am yet to be convinced.
Next, Michael Carrick. Well informed and intelligent United writers like ManUtd24 are very much pro Carrick and there are cases to be made for him. But in my book, he looks tidy when we are on top and he has time and space on the ball but again doesn’t look the part in the biggest games and for all his guile, he lacks the ability to control the tempo of a game. In short, he is not going to inspire us to turn around our season.
Darren Fletcher enjoyed an excellent season a couple of years back and he is rangy, among other things, but at the top level is he good enough? Certainly not on current form. Tom Cleverley has talent and looked bright in the early stages of the season but all our hopes should not be placed on his young shoulders. Ryan Giggs is 38 and Phil Jones is probably a better centre back. Darron Gibson? Simply not good enough.
The likes of Pogba should be given a chance but there is a clear need to buy a quality player too. Look at the Spurs central midfield for example. Being candid, the central midfield pairing of Modric and Parker looks infinitely better than any combination we can put forward at the moment.
This again comes back to the finances at United. Daniel Taylor of the Guardian wrote a fantastic article this week looking at the troubles at United and in it, he highlights the issues surrounding the Glazer ownership and financial implications. United’s net spend in the last 5 years is a paltry £56.9m, which is less than Villa, Stoke and Sunderland. We should have bought a Sneijder, Ozil or Modric by now but we haven’t and you have to think it is financial to some degree.
I don’t want to indulge in the media culture of over reacting to a loss. I’ll say it again, this is not a bad side. In fact, it is probably a couple of players away from being one of the top sides in Europe. Our league points tally is not bad at all, although it has been quite an erratic campaign to date, and we have some genuine quality in our ranks. However, it is important to highlight where we failing too.
This media onslaught has come to ahead following of a couple of key results – the infamous ’6-1′ in the derby, the league cup loss to Palace and now being dumped out of the Champions League in a group that, lets face it, looked like a buy when announced. With Vidic now confirmed to be out for the season, these are indeed testing times. The answer is obviously not to panic buy in January but to look at bringing in some real quality in the near future in a couple of key positions.
It is not ideal to be acquiring talent rather than nurturing from within the club but it is the nature of the beast unfortunately and if we don’t begin to make moves in the area, the likes of City will leave us behind and that is the harsh reality.
Some players need to be allowed to move on too. In that bracket I would include the likes of Macheda, Diouf, Gibson and possibly a couple of more. Berba, although securing the golden boot last year, is clearly on Fergie’s bad side and should be put to pasture if he is not going to be used. Get him off the wage bill and look to the future.
Wayne Rooney, although currently out of sorts, will be fine and wil continue to be the heartbeat of the side in the future. He has always been a streak player and will come good again soon.
This season is far from over and we still have a real crack at the league, FA Cup and (cringe) the Europa League. Things are not all that bad but there is most certainly some work to be done if this team is to become a great one.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
you have raised a lot of interesting points there Tom.
You would be right in saying our midfield is awful, compare our best 4 across the middle to Barca or Real madrid, the top teams in Europe,and we are nothing in comparison. Only Nani stands out as a player who consistently frightens oppositions.
Jones looks good but he is only 19, we should not be relying on a player of his age. And to see we have spent less than Sunderland or Aston Villa over the last few years puts it all into perspective. We do have a very strong youth team nearly ready for 1st team football but they need back up too!
Great article Tom. I think the most interesting part is about the financial situation. Strangely I think our title win last season was in some ways a bad thing. People overlooked the problems with the club and the anti-Glazer sentiment seemed to die down somewhat.
Although we get the usual script that there is money to spend it is obviously under tight conditions i.e reducing the wage bill and offloading squad players. I believe Sneidjer was a done deal on transfer deadline day but personal terms could not be agreed. Having said that, I don’t actually think we need too many new players. A creative force in midfield and another option on the left wing possibly. Personally, I’d love to see Bale and Modric in our team. I also would like to see Pogba, Fryers and Morrison more involved. I’m also hearing great things about Robbie Brady. Barca give youth players a chance and I think we should also. If nothing else it will push their values up and create more income for us but hopefully some of them will be good enough for Utd.
Cheers for comments lads.
Billy – pretty much agree with everything you said. Definitely think we need to bring on the likes of Pogba and Morrison, whilst also looking to be bringing in some quality, particularly in the middle. The financial aspect is a worry and I think you’re right that the league win and possibly the favourable route to the Champions League final masked the lack of quality..