The season is over. The Dutchman
has gone; the man from Portugal is in. There’s another trophy in the cabinet
and (most) of the contract problems are being resolved quickly and positively.
But now that the inevitable as happened, there are just as many questions for
Manchester United fans now, as there were two or three weeks ago. There just
seems to be a feeling of optimism around the club, one that has been absent for
the past few years.
For me, Mourinho is going to be
judged on his transfer dealings and his style of play. Trophies will come; they
invariably do wherever he has managed. I just can’t stand to sit through
another season of the team playing as quickly as continents drift, or hopefully
knocking in 80+ crosses.
Give most Man Utd fans a list of
positions that need addressing and it will probably be the following that pop
up, albeit in a different order of priority. Centre back, right winger, centre
forward and a central midfielder. That’s the order in which I’d focus the clubs
attention this transfer window.
So, in the spirit of transfer
window bullshit and “sport journalists” making up rumours for page views, I’ve
put together a few suggestions for how I’d attack the window.
Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo have
both tried and failed to nail down a spot in the centre of defence, so much so
that Daley Blind, a defensive midfielder converted into a centre back, not
without some success, if we are being fair, by Louis Van Gaal, replaced them.
But they both need moving on and a new, specialist centre back brought into
partner Chris Smalling. Yes, we have already bought Eric Bailly, but I still
think we will need a top centre back to come and tighten up the defence
immediately.
First up is Athletic Bilbao’s
Aymeric Laporte. Despite a season ending injury, that has ruled him out of the
European Championships, he is still a man in high demand due to his recovery
(apparently) going much quicker than was first believed. Laporte is a true
defender, the kind that the back four Van Gaal started to build, but never
managed to finish. Darmian, Smalling and Shaw were the pieces are three
quarters of United’s next great back four. If United are able to bring Laporte
in and are willing to be patient, then we could see the start of a great
defensive unit.
Also, he is a Jorge Mendes man.
Which will certainly help United’s chances if Mourinho wants him in.
Raphael Varane could,
theoretically be a Manchester United player, but Phil Jones was signed and
Varane moves to Real Madrid, where he has been criminally placed behind Sergio
Ramos and Pepe in the last few years. Varane had a great World Cup in Brazil,
where he really announced himself on the world stage, coming across as a young
Rio Ferdinand with his reading of the game and being very comfortable on the
ball.
Of the two, I’d lean towards Varane,
yes it is a bit of a gamble with regards to his injury, although it isn’t as
serious as Laportes, but he just seems to be someone who bring that balance to
this back four (five with David De Gea) for the next five years, by being
comfortable on the ball and commanding both on the ground and in the air.
Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard have
done well to fill a void that was blatantly obvious from the start of the
season. Both offered different aspects of what is needed from a wide man, but
neither one is the complete package. Lingard offers the speed and defensive
responsibility, while Mata offers the creativity and superior finishing.
The first option I’ll put forward
is Marco Reus, the man we enquired about back in the summer of 2015, but
decided against starting negotiations for 60m, looking back at the season he
had and the difference he could have made. Basically, making it into the
Champions League, that figure, which may have gone down just as easily as it
could have gone up, looks like an absolute steal, even with his injury
troubles.
Reus, who is capable of playing
wide right, wide left, behind the main striker and even up top, is a player
whose core skills and strengths were those that were so sorely missed in
countless games for United last year. Especially when most attacks came down
the left, through Anthony Martial, Reus would have offered a similar level of
threat and increased out attacking options, stretching the defence both with
his movement with the ball and without it. Also, his ability from dead balls
would have probably seen fewer opportunities wasted, as they were with Memphis
and Wayne Rooney.
Riyad Mahrez has just had the
best season of his entire career with Leicester City and while he has stated he
is happy to stay at the club, no one would bat an eyelid if he left for a more
traditional “big team”. If he came to United, he’d offer the right side
something it has been sorely lacking, someone unafraid to take on their man and
drive the team forward. He is also one of the few wingers in the league at the
moment that is just as effective on the right side as he is the left side. He
would also add a natural balance to Martial, who comes inside from the left,
where Mahrez would come in onto his stronger left foot from the right.
While it’s a close one, I’m going
to go for Reus. Yes, there is the always the injury fear, but is seems to me
that too often he has played before he fully recovered from an injury and as a
result has then spent more time recovering from a recurrence of that injury.
But he has the experience of playing at the highest level and has also been a
consistent performer for Dortmund for the last four years and is that consistency
which tips the scales in his favour.
Louis Van Gaal cut too quickly in
the centre forward position during the summer, didn’t bring anyone in and then
finally claimed that Fellaini could play there. No he can’t and he never did.
Luckily Marcus Rashford took the opportunity that fell his way and isn’t
letting go. He finished the season as the first choice no.9, but with Mourinho
in charge, it’s unlikely he will start every game, or be expected to shoulder
so much of the goal scoring burden (most likely along with Martial).
This is the only position I won’t
put forward two options as in the last few days, there have been so many
stories linking Zlatan Ibrahimovic to United, none of which have been denied,
that it just seems nailed on to be a done. All they have to do is wait for June
to end, Zlatan and his agent to pocket a loyalty bonus from PSG and then he’ll
(more than likely) sign with United.
Zlatan works for numerous reasons,
firstly, he is undoubtedly a world-class player who will inspire those around
him to rise a level or two and really push themselves. Secondly, his style of
play has never been based around speed; it has always been about reading the
game and being good in relatively small spaces. Finally, he’s 34, which means
the maximum amount of seasons we are going to get out of him is two, which
works out well for Rashford and Martial, who will be roughly 20 and 22 by that
point and will have played nearly three seasons of Premier League football
each, so they’ll be fully used to demands of the league and ready to take all
of the pressure that will be lumped onto them.
Central Midfield was for about
five years a position Manchester United needed to invest in, but never did. It
was seven years between signing Ander Herrera in 2014 and Owen Hargreaves and
Anderson in 2007. For any club not to invest in one area of the team for so
long was criminal. There is however, one giant elephant in the room, one that
would have negated a lot of the frustration about United’s midfield. Paul Pogba
and how United lost one of the best box-to-box midfielders of a generation.
Let’s start with Paul Pogba,
because the stories and reports are everywhere and most of Europe’s elite would
take him in a heartbeat. In the years he has been at Juventus, he has learnt
under some of the modern games best midfielders and been able to grow into one
of the best in the game at the moment and at such a young age, any club would
pretty solve most of their midfield problems for the next seven to ten years.
Anyone who has watched either
Sevilla or Poland recently will recognise just how much of a beast Grzegorz
Krychowiak is, he is the legs and power in their midfield and isn’t afraid to
break forward and unleash a bullet of a shot from distance. At twenty-six, he’s
only going to get better and is unlikely, given his size, pace and power, to
affected by the increased physicality in the Premier League.
Leon Goretzka is another box to
box midfielder and someone who could, if he develops over the next two or three
years, could be come one of the best in Europe. His physicality would prove he
would have no trouble adapting to the Premier League, although the difference
in that side of the game isn’t that big and he is technically very good, so
would have no trouble dealing with the, at times manic nature of midfield
battles in the Premier League, where time is at a premium and every second on
the ball is fought for.
While the popular vote would
undoubtedly be for Pogba, I am inclined to pick Krychowiak, not just because he
has attributes that would suit the Premier League, but I also see him forming a
solid, strong and very mobile understanding with Morgan Schneiderlin and Ander
Herrera, a combination that could be a part of the first team for the next five
or six years.
Now, I’ll drop a quick list of
how I hope we’d line up, with these signings brought in.
GK – David De Gea
DR – Matteo Darmian
DL – Luke Shaw
DC – Chris Smalling
DC – Raphael Varane
DM – Morgan Schneiderlin
CM – Ander Herrera
CM – Grzegorz Krychowiak
RW – Marco Reus
LW – Anthony Martial
ST – Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Yeah, I know there’s no Wayne
Rooney or Marcus Rashford in this team. Rooney, I’m sorry, but I don’t see how
he fits in anywhere now, nor if he plays is he the best player in that position
the club have. Rashford would rotate in and out with the other front three
named here.
I’m not going to go into who
should be sold or released, instead we’ll move onto the most important thing
for Mourinho or any manager. The style of play. Moyes, if we are being totally
honest, never produced the turgid, treacle pouring out of a tin style of
football that Van Gaal did. It was the more results that did for Moyes, whereas
with Van Gaal, the football was terrible and downright frustrating to watch.
One of the key aspects Mourinho
has to improve upon is the speed in which the ball is moved from the back to
the front, at times it was as if the players were scared to go route one. I’m
no advocate of constantly knocking it long and hoping for the best, but if you
bypass your midfield and the oppositions quickly and get the ball to Martial or
Rashford, then you dramatically increase your chances of scoring. Martial one
on one with most full backs is going to be successful more often than not.
After that, we need to bring back
a balance to how we attack, side to side, patient probing may work some of the
time, but you have to let both your wingers (a problem that needs solving) be
free to attack their full back again and again.
Most teams now are well drilled
in how they defend against us. Compact and keep the ball in front of them, this
was because we never ran at our men, with the exception of Martial obviously,
but attacking one side with one winger and no real overlap will only offer so
much success.
Basically, every United fan and I
just want to see our team have a go at teams for the whole game, not just the
first fifteen minutes then give up and run out of ideas. Old Trafford used to
be a ground where teams would turn up and already have lost in their minds, now
they turn up with a genuine belief they’re going to win. This idea is one that
needs to be remedied and the status quo reinstated quickly.
