Champions League - Where did it all go wrong? by Stefan Attard
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anchester United looked to be heading upwards when they qualified for the Champions League following a strong end to the 2019/20 season. Fast-forward three months and after a bad start in the domestic league, United enjoyed a fantastic start to their Champions League group stage. The Champions League had provided a welcome distraction from domestic difficulties for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side, but, having beaten Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig, their shortcomings were exposed in an abject defeat on the banks of the Bosphorus on Wednesday evening. The embarrassing defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir put their qualification hopes in jeopardy. Many United fans expected that the team would build on that late surge which secured a top-four finish on the final day; however, the Reds made their worst start to a Premier League campaign since the David Moyes era, and the worst start at Old Trafford in almost half a century. After all the promise, how did we end up here? A missed opportunity over the summer? Did complacency seep into Old Trafford following their surge to qualify for the Champions League? Three months on, remarks by Gary Neville immediately after United joined Chelsea in securing a top-four finish on the final day of last season make for sobering reading. “What Manchester United and Chelsea need now is to not think this is OK,” Neville said. “The big mistake these two clubs could make would be to think they are going to catch Manchester City and Liverpool. They won’t if they don’t improve by another 10-15 per cent.” “Solskjaer needs to spend money, but not recklessly. There needs to be a right winger, there needs to be a challenge at centre-forward, at left-back, definitely at goalkeeper and they need a centre-back, a top centre-back who can bring that level of domination to a defence like Virgil van Dijk does at Liverpool.” Sound advice, good advice. Problem was, only Chelsea listened. Whereas United, prior to a frantic Deadline Day, only signed a midfielder (the one position
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Neville did not list as requiring strengthening), Chelsea did everything that Neville said United needed to do - signing a new centre-forward (Timo Werner), a left-back (Ben Chilwell), a right winger (Kai Havertz), a goalkeeper (Edouard Mendy) and a ‘top’ centre-back (Thiago Silva). As Neville then had to ruefully note in early September when Tottenham won 6-1 at Old Trafford, those critical months of inaction over the summer were when “they grabbed defeat from victory”. The failure to land Sancho in the transfer market once again seems to have highlighted United’s incompetence when it comes to signing players. With hindsight, it is ironic that since then, Chelsea sacked their club legend following a string of disappointing results. Perhaps simply buying a lot of superstars and putting them in a team is not the answer to success. At the time of writing, United are second with City seemingly destined to claim the domestic title. The delayed return to the Premier League United returned to Premier League action just 34 days after losing to Sevilla in the Europa League with a laboured, heavy-legged defeat at home to a Crystal Palace side which had enjoyed a longer break and returned to action the week before. United’s poor display that afternoon was hardly out of keeping with those of Wolves, Chelsea and Man City in early September, all of whom also struggled on their return following a late Premier League restart. But the problem for United is the impression they are still playing catch-up. Perhaps their delayed start paid dividends further down the line. But the defeat to Palace has set a tone which United are still cursing now: their momentum punctured and their confidence plunged. The failed pursuit of Jadon Sancho Opportunities arrive in a time of crisis, and Manchester United were one of a select group of football clubs with shoulders broad enough not only to weather the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but to actually come out the other side stronger. As leagues across Europe were being suspended and - in some cases - cancelled,
revenue streams dried up and suddenly, the value of some of the best talent in European football plummeted. It prompted Solskjaer to declare Manchester United could “exploit” the transfer market back in April, and the prospect of luring long-term target Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund at a reduced rate made for fascinating reading. But United’s unwillingness to meet Dortmund’s valuation saw indecision haunt yet another transfer window. Their top target stayed put, Solskjaer was forced to backtrack on his initial comments, and a flurry of Deadline Day signings did little to appease calls for reinforcements. With the arrival of Amad Diallo, I do not see United pursuing Sancho in the next transfer window. The lack of pace in defence As far as former United ca p ta i n N e ville was concerned, the pursuit of Sancho was way down on the list of priorities Solskjaer had to address in the summer. Despite keeping nine clean sheets during an unbeaten final 14-game run in the Premier League, establishing a defensive unit fit to shoulder a title challenge remained the ultimate objective. And the first 90-minute performance and many others to follow from Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof only emboldened Neville’s claim. “We can talk about Sancho all we like but until Manchester United get a centre-back who can run and defend one-on-ones, they are never going to win the league,” he said after the 3-1 opening-day defeat to Crystal Palace. “They are never going to win the Premier League with that centre-back pairing.” When Solskjaer listened to calls to inject some pace into his backline after it was given the run-around at Brighton, Maguire and new centre-back partner Eric Bailly shipped six goals against Tottenham in a shambolic, jointheaviest home defeat in Premier League history. United looked to have turned the corner with back-to-back clean sheets against Chelsea and RB Leipzig after Neymar and Kylian Mbappe were nullified in a morale-boosting victory at
