da apostebet： After a season and a half of Louis van Gaal reign in the red half of Manchester, United fans are starting to get a little bit restless.
da 888casino： The team finds itself in the same position they finished last season in, but now has the Europa League to deal with. Instead of a run at the Champions League, as United fans had been used to over the past two decades, they are starting to become accustomed to settling for less.
Indeed, that’s sort of what United have done since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson. Bringing in David Moyes could be seen in that light. The Scot has become something of a punchline since taking over at United, and his next job will hardly be a club at the level of Manchester United.
His signing of Marouane Fellaini for £27.5m looks like steep money for a man who epitomised Manchester United’s current lack of ideas – lumping it to Fellaini might be some sort of plan B, but for a long time last season, and at times this season, it’s been very much plan A.
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Last week against Bournemouth, United fans saw another ‘settle for less’ performances. A club that has inexplicably spent nearly a quarter of a billion pounds since the arrival of Louis van Gaal saw a back four where Daley Blind was the senior centre back.
Guillermo Varela, Paddy McNair and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson may all be fabulous players in the years to come, but as a back four they illustrate the problem at Manchester United at the moment – there’s a distinct lack of class throughout the squad.
The signings of the past year emphasise that. The likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Morgan Schneiderlin or even Memphis Depay and Anthony Martial were never going to make United significantly better, just incrementally better.
Had United bought Schweinsteiger prior to Euro 2012, for example, then maybe we’d be talking about a world class player, but instead we’re talking about a player whose legs don’t match his brain. Depay and Martial will both be quality players in a few years’ time, but they’ve both proven very little so far. Apart from Juan Mata, none of United’s signings have been first-teamers to turn United into a squad that can win the title.
But the purveyors of United’s settle for less approach have the chance to set that straight and change that.
The rumours that Pep Guardiola is set to quit Bayern Munich are gaining speed and power, and with Louis van Gaal’s team stuttering their way through a sleepy season, the chance to replace him with one of the world’s truly special coaches should surely be jumped at.
United’s new approach under Van Gaal should be the perfect groundwork to pave the way for Guardiola’s arrival. United are being drilled in the ways of patient passing, a possession-based approach which sees depriving the opposition of the ball as being the best form of both attack and of defence.
It’s just that in Van Gaal’s version of it, you have to pass it around carefully until there’s an obvious opening. Naturally creative players like Juan Mata – perhaps the only signing of the past few seasons that you can’t argue was a waste of money – have to be curtailed, because in order to be creative, you need to take a risk. That’s just not something that Van Gaal is prepared to let his players do – he has been bitten too many times on the counter attack.
Pep would bring a verve and a purpose to Manchester United’s flagging possession game. His attitude towards the game and the way he sets his teams up to play in that image are exactly what United need in order to move from Van Gaal’s vision into one that the fans will accept and enjoy watching. If Pep is available, United should do everything they can to sign him.
But what do we really expect from the suits who beg United’s fans to settle for less?
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