Crucial United keep an eye on the prize!
REDS HAVE TO PROVE THEY CAN DEAL WITH THE BIG GAMES
WHEN United last went four years without a trophy it hadn’t been a story of near misses. The spell between 1985/86 and 1989/90 yielded one quarter-final and a second-place finish in the First Division, nine points behind Liverpool.
There was no sense a trophy was coming, but also no mental blocks at falling near the finishing line.
In 1990 the FA Cup was won under Sir Alex Ferguson and we all know what happened over the following 23 years. The first time United reached a semi-final under Fergie they went and won the competition and they would win their next semi-finals as well.
That mindset of serial winners quickly took hold.
If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United don’t win the Europa League this season then that four-year run without silverware will be repeated and while it hasn’t all come under the Norwegian, his team have had chances to make sure the trophy drought had already ended. There have been four semi-final defeats in just 14 months for his Reds, in successive seasons in the League Cup and last season’s FA Cup and Europa League.
To put that into context, Solskjaer has lost his first three domestic semi-finals at United, while Ferguson only lost three domestic last-four ties in 26 years, winning 15 of them.
When you keep getting over the line in big games it becomes a habit.
Conversely, when you fail to get over the line in the biggest games it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Over the last two seasons, a fairly inexperienced Reds side have glimpsed silverware, only to see it disappear from view.
To their four semi-final defeats, they added a quarter-final exit on Sunday, losing at Leicester City to forego what looked like a very appealing semi-final draw against Southampton. United’s loss of form the moment they hit top spot in the Premier League this season is another question mark against their mentality, as is the way they surrendered a strong position in the Champions League group stages by losing their final two fixtures.
All in all, the evidence is stacking up that this might be a team with a mental block when the stakes are raised to their highest. The only way to disprove that theory is by winning something.
For all the furore over Solskjaer’s comments about trophies fluffing up the ego last week, he would love nothing more than to win one at United. But perhaps the biggest reason to win a pot isn’t to prove a point, or to draw a line in the sand to mark progress, but to allow his team to take the next step, to shake off the demons that must be circling them
United’s loss of form the moment they hit top spot in the league this season is question mark against their mentality
when knockout football moves from the low-key early rounds to the occasions that really matter.
Taken in their individual context there is perhaps no shame in losing semi-finals to City (twice), Chelsea and Sevilla, but the latter two certainly felt winnable.
United had got the better of Frank Lampard’s side on three occasions last season before a limp defeat at Wembley, while Sevilla might be Europa League experts but the Reds should have been able to match them. Dealing with pressure is part of the territory at United and this side need a big win in that regard to turn the tide of evidence that is beginning to stack up against them.
While Solskjaer has made a point of signing winners from elsewhere, as a team they don’t have that winning feeling when it comes to trophies or that much experience in the biggest games. The Europa
League is the chance to put that right.
The draw has been relatively kind. They should have enough to get past Granada over two legs and then face the winners of Roma v Ajax. A tough tie, but one that should be winnable across two games. It could yet be Arsenal in the final.
If regular setbacks under pressure can plant an unwanted seed in the minds of a player, then conversely the feeling of winning can become a habit. Win that first trophy as a team, those first medals as a squad, and it can make you want to replicate that again and again.
That’s what United must strive for in the Europa League.
Solskjaer is right that progress will ultimately be judged on the Premier League, but if his side throw away another good chance of silverware, getting them to that next step is going to get harder.
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