Only one man can sort United’s identity crisis ...and it’s not Jose
WHAT do Manchester United stand for these days? Anybody?
“Identity” might be a trendy hipster word to use about a football club, but what’s being served up at Old Trafford these days isn’t what the punters signed up for.
When we watch Manchester City we know what will be laid before us.
It’s possession- based, with quick, intelligent players making a difference in front of the opposition goal.
Their buying policy has been made with that end result in mind.
We know what Liverpool stand for. They press, they play on the counter – witness yesterday’s win at Bournemouth. They are quick, incisive and deadly. The recruitment has also been made to fit that brief.
Look at a string of top clubs. Players are brought in to sort a specific problem.
For instance, it is difficult to imagine a traditional stopper playing for Pep Guardiola.
Whoever occupies those centre-back positions at the Etihad has to be comfortable with the ball at their feet.
And what happens when the likes of Guardiola – or, especially, Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool – have had a problem within their first XI? The recruitment department have come up trumps.
Alisson may or may not be worth the king’s ransom that the American paymasters shelled out. But he’s a damn sight better than the previous Kop keeper who stood between the sticks.
When the Reds had a long-standing issue at the centre of their own defence, they moved big. Virgil van Dijk is a Rolls-royce defender.
Sadio Mane and Mo Salah have arrived since Klopp was appointed. He has a vision. And he spends money to fulfil it. The result is what we now see. Then we have what is happening at the Theatre of Broken Dreams.
What is the plan? What vision? What system?
A collection of players appear to have been thrown together under boss Jose Mourinho – like kids flinging party jelly to a wall hoping some of it sticks.
Look at three of the club’s major signings during the past 18 months.
Paul Pogba is not played in the position that earned him such rave reviews at Juventus.
If you are not going to use a player where he feels most comfortable and has shone in the past, what’s the point of spending more than £89million on him?
Alexis Sanchez now appears to have been bought so Manchester City didn’t get hold of him. He’s disappeared. Again, any idea where he is best used? After all, he’s only costing £500,000 every seven days.
And what of Romelu Lukaku? Again, bought for a fortune with a bagful of goals on his CV. No one appears any the wiser as to how to elicit that return since he made the switch from Everton.
Those are just three expensive examples. On the eve of yesterday’s match at Fulham, the manager was moaning about Fred, bought a couple of months ago for more than £50m.
Manchester United’s recruitment since even before Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement has been absolutely woeful.
Mourinho (inset, above) moans that he hasn’t a central defender in the place, despite having personally supervised the purchase of two. He’s culpable, too.
It’s so haphazard, so confused. Where’s this all heading, guys?
There is no blue-sky thinking among the Red Devils. Head honcho Ed Woodward ( inset, below) needs to answer these questions.
If Manchester United want one reason why they are slipping behind Bournemouth in the table, they need look no further than their lack of identity.
And until the club rediscovers what it is about and what it needs to get there, this current rot will j just continue.