Ole tells fans: ‘Let’s stick together’
WHEN news broke of Ashley Young’s potential move to Inter Milan, there weren’t too many United fans shedding a tear.
The transfer news first emerged after the Reds’ embarrassing defeat to City in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final at Old Trafford, a game for which the club captain had been left out of the squad altogether despite not suffering from injury, and the 34-year-old wasn’t missed.
For all the vitriol about the winger turned full-back on social media, and there’s a lot, he has been a good servant for the club over seven years and still has a role to play - albeit not necessarily on the pitch.
As Bernardo Silva’s pinpoint effort rifled past David de Gea, the United players’ heads dropped.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side already knew it was going to be a tough task to beat City, despite the result at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League last month, and there appeared to be a look of resignation on their faces when they went behind - and that was before the second and the third went in all before the break.
Marcus Rashford was given the armband on Tuesday night for the first time.
It was a momentous moment for him and his family, but is it a job the 21-year-old is up to now with the team in the transitional state that it finds itself in?
Young’s impending move to Italy means another senior of the dressing room will have departed.
If it hadn’t been for Solskjaer’s injury crisis in the middle of the park, it’s highly likely Nemanja Matic, another experienced head, would have left this month.
The Serbian is keen for a move away from Old Trafford, but with Paul Pogba and Scott McTominay both out with injuries, the chances of him getting the move he’s after this month have dwindled.
Solskjaer’s vision for the club going forward is a youthful, attacking team built on academy graduates and supplemented by talent brought in to bolster his ranks. But, experience is just as key and United have been suffering from a lack of leadership for a while.
Take midfield. Andreas Pereira and Fred are not what you would describe as a long-term future midfield partnership and both have been rightly criticised, but neither have had the benefit of a senior midfielder alongside them to guide them. Or in fact any senior player in the squad.
Solskjaer takes pride in how young his starting XIs have been this season. The average age of his team against Brighton in the league was just shy of 24 years.
All well and good if you’re winning, but less experienced younger players are going to find it more difficult to navigate through the rough patches and get the club back on the track they strive to be on.
Eyes rolled when Young was given the captaincy following the departure of Antonio Valencia, but the pool of alternatives was small. Harry Maguire has shown his leadership credentials, but he was coming into a new club with new players, to hand it him straight away would have been premature and the other alternatives in the squad are De Gea and possibly Pogba.
United wouldn’t be wrong to let Young go to Inter. He’s already been replaced at left-back by Luke Shaw and now Brandon Williams and at right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka is ahead of him in the pecking order.
He’s surplus to requirements and is out of contract at the end of the season without the option of an additional year.
But the risk of letting him go is that it is a rare leader in a very young dressing room that will have departed.
Solskjaer already desperately needs to strengthen in the January transfer window but the United manager might want to widen his criteria when looking at potential targets.
The now infamous ‘you can’t win anything with kids’ came back to haunt Alan Hansen when Sir Alex Ferguson proved the former Liverpool player wrong. But that youthful team was supplemented by leaders and experience – something this current side is drastically lacking.
Solskjaer’s transfer strategy isn’t necessarily wrong, but without a key figure in the dressing room and a stronger figurehead on the touchline the club are going to struggle to navigate through any tough patches that lie ahead.
The risk of letting Young go is he is a rare leader in a very young dressing room
Charlotte Duncker