Y & Z United Perspectives
by Kevin, Justyn & Wayne Tabone
A
fter a promising start to the season, there’s been plenty of days with having bad moods after Utd matches lately. One Tabone member says that Ronaldo imbalanced the team, another says that Solskjaer has got his selection and tactics wrong and another that United has become only a commercial brand and no longer a football club. What is common for both the Y & Z generation is that something drastic has to change or the pressure will continue mounting year after year.
There are many pundits, experts and fans from all over the world giving their verdict about why Man Utd are failing to meet the expectations given the quality of players they have and all the great signings from the last transfer window. In your opinion, if you had to pick one element which you deem is the main reason for this mess, who or what would it be?
12 VOL 49 - ISSUE 2 - DECEMBER 2021
Wayne: Although I don’t think that Ole is the only problem, I also think that he is the biggest factor contributing to Manchester United’s failures. The manager is too predictable and uses the same tactics game after game. With the players that he has at his disposal, he should be winning titles or at least challenging for them. Signings made were great ones but there are a few, like Jadon Sancho and Donny Van De Beek, who have not been utilized. This season, these two players played a combined 524 minutes out of a possible 1440 minutes, meaning they played on average a little over 30 minutes every game. Justyn: Sometimes it is easy to point fingers at certain people for the mess that Manchester United are in. Many point their fingers at the manager who might seem as an easy target. It is true that some of his decisions are questionable; however, we have been going through this cycle since Sir Alex left. In my opinion, the main problem is the administration of Manchester United. They treat the club as if it is a commercial business, which in fairness they have every right to maximise their profits. However, the way they do it leaves the club not able to compete. The club should have already sacked the manager for the results attained so far but they keep on being reluctant to do so and keep the club in a mediocre position. Kevin: Putting it bluntly and in one word – tactics. I am no footballing genius but one could easily see that there are deficiencies and imbalance in the way the team is operating on the field. How can we have, not one, but two defensive midfielders and still concede
so many open chances!? How can we have so many attacking-minded players and not create patterns of play which expose our opponents? How can we not get behind opponents’ defences? How can we have so many coaches (one for each department, one for set-pieces to name a few) and still not see anything that makes us stand out? I guess these questions will remain unanswered unless something, and this something has to be drastic, changes. Given he is our star player, scored so many important goals so far and been the player of the month every month since he rejoined, has
