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A long way back for Manchester United

David Nugent in Editorial, English Premier League 23 Sep 2019

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Manchester United have made an inconsistent start to their Premier League campaign. The Red Devils suffered a 2-0 defeat at West Ham on Sunday afternoon and in all honesty, it was not a major shock. It was not a major shock because United are no longer the football force they were for two decades under Sir Alex Ferguson. Their team does not match up to the reputation of the club.

United have a mediocre team

The head coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will take a lot of criticism for United’s current plight of inconsistent. However, sooner or later the attention needs to turn to the players and their quality.

Despite the arrival of many big-money signings over the past few summers, the Red Devils still have a mediocre team. Too many of the players in the United squad are simply not good enough for a club hoping to challenge for the title.

In fact, many of the players are not good enough for a team hoping to challenge for the top-four. Without naming names, some are too old, not good enough or simply do not looked that bothered if the team loses. Heaven knows what Sir Alex Ferguson really thinks of the current setup.

Solskjaer attempting to do things differently

Since Ferguson’s departure in 2013, United have stumbled from one boss to another, the likes of David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho have all failed to deliver glory. United have tried to buy success with little success.

Current boss Solskjaer is attempting to return the club to their former glory by building a new young fresh team. The likes of Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James have made encouraging starts to their United careers.

However, for the team and those youngsters to shine, the older heads in the team need to perform. Unfortunately for the Red Devils, the senior players are just not up to it. Maybe Solskjaer has the right idea, but maybe he just does not have the players to make it successful. He seemed like the right boss to move this team forward into the future during his interim period as boss.

However, it seems now the boss smell has warned off, the players are back to producing abject performances. Solskjaer was very much a sentimental appointment by United and it seems that the reality is not as romantic as the fantasy.

Will struggle to make the top-four this season

On reputation, Manchester United should be in the top-four of the Premier League. Unfortunately for the Red Devils, on the pitch they do not seem to be one of the best four teams in the league. It will take a big improvement or a complete collapse by a number of other teams for the Red Devils to get into the top-four this season. If they do, then it will be a big achievement for Solskjaer, regardless of the summer spend.

United are odds of 15/8 to make the Champions League spots this season. If those odds are translated into reality, the reality would be the Red Devils missing out on a top-four spot this season, which once again is not a massive surprise.

Manchester United can sack as many bosses as they like. However, the reality is that it was never going to be easy to recover from the exit of their best ever boss. From the position they find themselves in now, there is a long way back to the pinnacle of English football.

Should Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s future at Manchester United be in question?  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Nugent


David is a freelance football writer with nearly a decade of experience writing about the beautiful game. The experienced writer has written for over a dozen websites and also an international soccer magazine offline.
Arguably his best work has come as an editorial writer for Soccernews, sharing his good, bad and ugly opinions on the world’s favourite sport. During David’s writing career he has written editorials, betting previews, match previews, banter, news and opinion pieces.

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