There are few clubs in English football that stir the emotions quite like Manchester United.
Those last-minute winners in Fergie time, Roy Keane thundering into a challenge, or berating a match official with his veins popping, those battles with Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, memorable nights in Europe and the ultimate success in Barcelona.
There was always a sense of occasion when Manchester United came to town, a ring around the date in the calendar.
And yet, watch them now and the overriding sense is apathy, of indifference.
The brutal truth is United have lost their sense of being. No longer are they the standard bearer, no longer do they command respect and admiration from neutrals. From top to bottom, they are a shell of what they used to be.
The disconnect between majority owners, the Glazers, and the fanbase is well known and continues to rumble on with no end in sight. There was hope the partial buyout by Sir Jim Ratcliffe – a self-confessed United fan – would improve the dynamic but, if anything, it has gone the other way.
The redundancies, the penny-pinching towards staff that dodged the cuts, the awful treatment of loyal fans, the lack of love afforded to Old Trafford, the list goes on.
Added to that are a series of catastrophic managerial decisions; needlessly prolonging Erik ten Hag’s stay before sacking him and bringing in Ruben Amorim, before ditching the affable yet hapless Portuguese. It is now looking increasingly like Michael Carrick’s tenure will be short-lived as well.
Carrick worked wonders after replacing Amorim in January, guiding the club to a place in the Champions League. But his success meant United had no choice but to give him the role on a full-time basis. And that, as we have seen countless times, rarely works.
Carrick appears a good man. He’s just a bad fit.
And so here we are, heading into the international break with United in 12th place and Carrick presiding over the club’s worst start to a Premier League season in 13 years.
United are static, on and off the field
Much of the focus has been on the players’ lack of intensity, an issue that really came to the fore in the weekend draw at lowly Fulham.
This season in the Premier League, Carrick’s team are: last in sprints made, last in distance covered at high intensity, last in the amount of time spent at high intensity and last in the amount of time sprinting.
At Craven Cottage, standard-bearer, captain and best player Bruno Fernandes sprinted for 35.2 yards across the 90+ minutes. 35.2 yards… let that sink in.
Can you imagine Keane sprinting for 35.2 yards at his pomp? And can you imagine what Keane would have done to Fernandes in the dressing room after finding out his team-mate had sprinted for 35.2 yards?
Sir Alex Ferguson would not have tolerated this lack of effort or intensity.
Carrick is a very different character, and that’s absolutely fine. In some ways, it is refreshing to have an element of calm on the touchline and in post-match interviews. Surely everyone is sick and tired of the new wave of ‘Jack-in-the-box’ coaches like Mikel Arteta, Andoni Iraola and Matthias Jaissle?
But it’s hard to imagine Carrick stirring the inner feelings of players, pushing them to the limit in the way Ferguson did. An unfair comparison? Quite possibly. More modern equivalents are Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. They inspire, Carrick’s dead-pan approach flatlines the emotions.
Carrick will go but the problems at United will remain
So, where does this leave United?
They have players who don’t sprint, don’t press, don’t seemingly care.
They have a manager who fails to inspire, whose tactics are questionable, and is clearly on borrowed time.
And they have owners the fans despise.
The owners aren’t going anywhere, bar perhaps Ratcliffe to his overseas mansion. He will continue to talk about business practices and a lack of confidence in the UK while presiding over the failure of one of its great sporting institutions.
That leaves Carrick as the inevitable fall guy. He will slip into the history books alongside Ten Hag and Amorim and few will bat an eyelid.
Fernandes will continue to wander around, focusing more on his personal numbers than the greater good, huge sums will be spent on good, not great, players and United will finish well behind Arsenal and Manchester City. It would be a surprise if they finished above the likes of Brentford and Brighton.
Manchester United is now a cold football club. The fans provide the heart and soul but there is little else to cling to.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: 101greatgoals.com
