A whole lot of nothing: Manchester United's 2018/2019 season.

I’ve written before about a cavalry coming over the hills to save Manchester United. Sadly, whatever kind of cavalry there was, was snuffed out in a similar way to a horseback charge in a recent Game of Thrones episode.

And like those torches, this season, which quickly turned into a endless dark abyss, was turned around for a brief moments of hope, before once again, poor planning and poor-to-embarrassing performances led to the season being snuffed out.

Now, let’s move on from the Game of Thrones comparisons and get on with what I’m here to do. Look at what went wrong and then put forward a solution or plan for the coming season. While, you may disagree with a lot of what I’m saying, it’s still probably more thought out than the clubs current plan of stumbling around in the darkness worrying more about how much money you’ve got in your wallet, than the giant stomping its way towards you.

The year that was:

The season was very much like a gluten-free sandwich. An interesting and exciting middle, stuck in between two large pieces of something so bland and uninspiring that you just want it over with. Bar the brief period between mid-December and mid-March, when United offered up entertaining performances and an unbeaten run, with the result in Paris proving to be the undeniable highlight of the season. But apart from that, all we were treated to was slow, pedestrian football, that proved to be toothless and easy to counter. This, combined with lazy performances, player tantrums and shambolic displays will be how this season is remembered.

What this season showed, especially during the tougher times, was that a lot of these players struggle to adapt and look to others to get them out of the hole that they have dug for themselves by rolling over and letting the opposition dominate the game. Simply put, they seem to lack any level of mental strength.

Tactically, the team has played very narrowly in the oppositions half. This is a common issue with inverted wingers and fullbacks not getting forward enough in support. Our play was funnelled through the middle, creating bottle necks where the opposition could easily manage our attacks. Then, when the team did use the wings, it was nearly always down the left side, which would create a significant imbalance in the team. This was no doubt due to Pogba favouring that side, but also because Martial, Rashford and Lingard would invariably drift to that side, leaving the right side ineffective offensively and exposed defensively. Mourinho did try and rectify this, with his interest in Ivan Perisic during the summer of 2018, but was knocked back by the club hierachy. Perisic would have offered a hard working wideman, comfortable on the right which would have brought much needed balance to the team.

Next Season:

Next season, needs to be approached with a set of achievable targets and realise the level where we currently are. We are not going to challenge for the Premier League, we have slipped so far, that now, top 4 is what we are aiming for and quite frankly, what we should be aiming for. This will likely affect the level of players will come to us.

The team needs to get back to a consistent performance level, with the League being the priority. Our squad isn’t head and shoulders above the majority of the other teams in the Europa League like it was when we won it back in 2017, so getting back into the Champions League via the Europa League, isn’t as sure a thing as it was back then.

But the biggest target/goal that the management team need to hit, is to improve the mental strength of the team and stop them downing tools or not even turning up to games. This, above all else, would significantly improve the chances of the team outworking the opposition and maybe just, possibly, get back to winning games.

Tactics:

Last season, I’m pretty sure that we saw United employ most of the commonly used formations. It was the early diamond formation (4-1-2-1-2) formation that got Solskjaer the most success. However, going forward, I don’t think that this is the formation that best suits the team. Because, as previously mentioned, it funnels the team into the middle of the pitch and puts a large amount of emphasis on the fullbacks providing all of the width, which often ends with the front four or five players, at least this season, being easily marked.

Relying on width from your defenders, could work, but it would be better suited by deploying a back three (3-5-2) and relieving some of the defensive responsibility from the full/wing backs and pushing them forward more consistently, so that the opposition defence is stretched more often throughout the game, causing the oppositions midfield to drop deeper to compensate.

But this would rely on two clinical centre forwards being deployed, something that United don’t have in the first team at the moment.

The formation I suspect we will see next year is a 4-3-3, due to both it’s offensive and defensive flexibility and it’s ability to stretch teams, when wingers keep their width and are supported by energetic full backs. But also, it offers enough bodies in midfield to both control the game and get forward in support of the lone centre forward.

Recruitment:

Now, the area that year after year spawns endless twitter posts and articles. The transfer activity of Manchester United.

We’ll start with the departures, as of writing Herrera and Valencia have confirmed they are leaving. It looks as though Juan Mata and Matteo Darmian will leave when there contracts expire in the summer.

As for who should be sold, there could be any number of parameters applied to this squad . But quite simply, we’ve got to the stage where it comes down to whether or not a player is capable of performing at the level required.

By category:

Goalkeepers: No departures.

Defenders: Smalling, Jones, Young and Rojo.

Midfielders: Matic and Lingard.

Attackers: Sanchez, Lukaku and one of Martial or Rashford on loan.

So yeah, a lot of the first team could be gotten rid of and I don’t think that there are many who could complain. There are some that could have ended up on this list, but didn’t get enough game time. Also, all players out on loan have been kept.

While not all of these players could be replaced externally as the cost would be prohibitive, especially as a number of players who could have generated a fee if sold, had their contract not been allowed to run down and leave for nothing, there are still enough players from the u23’s who could move up and  take the place of those that aren’t.

Positions:

Centre Back:

Lindelof has established himself as the one centre back who is capable of playing in this team, able to defend and also play, or carry the ball forward. So, one of the first additions must be someone to partner him. With Tuanzebe coming back off a successful season, an experienced addition is needed so that long term Tuanzebe can transition into being a first team player. So long as he continues to develop.

While there are a number of options out there, the player who I would go for is Toby Alderweireld. He was linked with United last year, but went nowhere due to disagreements between Mourinho and Woodward allegedly. At 30 years of age, he would hopefully be able to come and establish a dependable relationship with Lindelof, whilst also bringing some much needed experience in the short term.

Right Back:

Right back has long been an issue for the club, with makeshift solutions deployed from as long ago as Louis Van Gaal’s second season. While Diogo Dalot was bought for the future, he has struggled to feature and is much better going forward than he is defending, opening up once again the need for someone who can come in with some experience and ability, who will take the burden off Dalot so that he can develop over the next season or two.

So once again, I’d go Belgian, this time Thomas Meunier of PSG as a first choice, a versatile right back as capable going forward as he is defending. He’d also bring in title winning experience, something that has largely been lost from this current squad.

Midfielder:

The midfield and the recruitment needed there could get very complicated, depending on whether Paul Pogba stays. I for one, want him to stay and to have a team of players that are closer to his level built around him. Not for him, but around him. So, if we stays I’ll outline one option and if he stays, I’ll outline a second option, but both of these options will feel the effect of not being in the Champions League next year.

Both of these options rely on Fred playing as the most defensively minded of the three midfielders.

Pogba stays. We shouldn’t be buying midielders who compliment him, we should be buying great players who are dangerous and effective in their own right. Which is why I’d go for Ivan Rakitic, with the signing of De Jong and the emergence of Arthur, he may actually be available. He’s a complete midfielder who is comfortable on the ball, can help to dictate tempo and covers a lot of ground. He was on a lot of United wishlist’s when he was at Sevilla, but wisely chose Barcelona and went on to win a host of league titles and cups. If he would step down, and it is a step down, to United is another thing.

If Pogba goes you need to bring in two imposing midfielders who can get up and down the pitch, control the game and score. Easier said than done. So, if he goes, the one plus would that you’d probably get a fair bit of money for Pogba, which should be reinvested into the squad and Pogba’s direct replacement. So, hopefully, we’d have Rakitic as one of the two further forward midfielders, in a role similar to the one he currently occupies at Barcelona and then alongside him, I’d hope on bringing in Thiago Alcantara from Bayern, he’s the one midfielder I’d happily chuck silly amounts of money at in an utterly desperate plea to get him here. He is world class and in his prime, which makes it unlikely, probably the most unlikely of all the options I’ll put forward.

But Thiago would bring something we have needed for years, a midfielder who can dictate the pace of a game and can play the killer pass and open up a deep and well organized defence and again, would bring a winning attitude and experience of playing in high pressure games and being mentally capable of coping with them.

Wingers:

Wingers. Proper Wingers, who can go either side and can cross the ball and score are a dying art. The majority of teams play with inverted wingers, usually quick forwards who weren’t good enough to cut it through the middle. So, all that, plus being happy not to play in the Champions League for a year (hopefully), means we aren’t looking for much at all.

We’ve been linked with Jadon Sancho, but that currently looks like an expensive pipedream with us having no Champions League football to offer.. Alternatively, there is the Bayern Munich pair of Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman, but with them going through a rebuild as well, it could be hard to pry them away.

So, if I’m going to go for someone for the right wing it would be Kingsley Coman, the big snag is that he’s at Bayern and could be difficult to pry away as he undoubtedly has the potential to become a real world beater. Capable of playing on both wings and beating players at will.

In the likely event of not being to able to get Coman, I’d go for another player who plays his trade in the Bundesliga, Julian Brandt of Bayer Leverkusen.

On the left wing, I’d go for a natural left footer, once again from the Bundesliga, in Bayer Leverkusen’s Leon Bailey. Quick and able to cross, like the hopeful arrival of Coman (or Brandt) on the other side, he’d be able to stretch the defence both in terms of width and pace, freeing up more space centrally for the midfield to work.

The ideal for the left wing would be Ousmane Dembele of Barcelona, but unless they suddenly need to raise a ton of cash to fund the De Jong transfer as well as potentially ones for Greizmann and De Ligt, that transfer would be nigh on impossible.

Centre Forward:

Another player who was linked with United previously, a few years ago during the summer of 2017, when we were reportedly “interested” in three different forwards and ended up signing Romelu Lukaku. But this summer, I’d bring in Andrea Belotti, still of Torino, who are on course to finish around the same place in Serie A as we have in the Premier League. He’s suffered some minor injuries which have limited his game time. But in the last two seasons, playing in a team that isn’t as stacked with talent, Belotti scored 30 in 72, whereas Lukaku scored 28 in 69 (I’ve only counted league and domestic cup competitions to make it as equal as possible).

Belotti may not be in highest level of centre forwards like Lewandowski, Suarez, Aguero or Kane, but he is a forward who is comfortable in the box and can score all kinds of goals. Something we quite honestly, don’t have.

What this would hopefully set up is a team comfortable on the ball and also uses the full width of the pitch to stretch the opposition, allowing for spaces in key areas. Whether the club adequately backs Solskjaer is a completely different matter. They have been known to balk at investing in players that they don’t feel are worth it, even though they have repeatedly shown a significant lack of football.

The time for a cavalry charge has long passed. What we need now is a whole new army.

Another (expensive) cavalry charge

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.

The Cavalry is just over the Horizon: Manchester United

Please note: I have no inside information.

Let’s be honest, so far it hasn’t been the best of seasons for Manchester United. There was always going to be a lot of attention on the club in the first season since Alex Ferguson left. Which players would leave? Which ones would come in? Would tactics change? The answer to three of those have been disappointing, ranging from a shrug of the shoulders that no one left to flat out disbelief at who came in.

The summer transfer window was, to put it lightly, a god awful mess. The only first team squad player that came in was Marouane Fellaini and that was on deadline, after a number of failed attempts and “something” that happened with Athletico Bilbao and Ander Herrera.

With it looking like Juan Mata will join the club and add to the attacking options at the club, specifically centrally, questions will be raised about who could be on their way out, but also who will joining next. As at the very least, this kind of signing shows that Moyes is capable of bringing in world class players, even if the stars did align somewhat beneficially.

Future signings will be more of a challenge, but have to be made if this team is going to dragged, kicking and screaming back into top four contention and the hope of winning the Champions League.

So let’s speculate, or dream about who we could (hopefully) see pulling on the red shirt. Just before we start, I’m not saying all should be signed, just that a few of these could certainly help.

Arturo Vidal:

Long rumoured to a be a target of Moyes, but even without knowing that, this is kind of player that the midfield has needed for the best few years. A strong powerful box to box midfielder, equally capable of breaking up attacks as he is at scoring, as proved by his recent hat trick at Copenhagen in the Champions League.

Self proclaiming himself as the best player in the world in his position, it is hard to argue with his statement, there aren’t many who offer so much and dominate games with such regularity as Vidal. The biggest problem with United’s midfield is the lack of forward runs and goals, they are capable of stifling attacks, but when it comes to surging attacks and driving forward, that is very often left to the forwards or the wingers. Killing attacks, should the ball break free on the edge of the box.

Marco Reus:

Rated by Bloomberg as the fourth best footballer in the world, he would bring United a player comfortable playing anywhere across the attacking midfield line. Has two feet, close control, technique, confidence and is a pretty handy dead ball specialist.

United have long struggled with the quality and effectiveness of their wingers (Januzaj being the exception this year), but still rely mainly on advancing and attacking mainly from the wings. Each one often has one particular strength and will stick to it, Valencia being a prime example (head down, get to touchline, smash the ball across the box).

Reus would change this, capable of swapping wings and even playing capably in the congested middle. He would help to vary the attacks, often someone like Kagawa or Rooney have the ball about 25 yards and are practically begging for a run, an intelligent run that will open up the defence. This is another strength Reus has, the speed and intelligence to get into those situations and the ability to finish those chances.

This season he has scored a similar number of goals to the entirety of United’s midfield.

Luke Shaw:

Please, please forget about Leighton Baines, he is clearly happy at Everton and is 29. So you have to ask, just how many seasons are you going to get out of him at his current level.

Shaw offers a younger option, he isn’t as capable from a dead ball situation, but offers a more direct replacement for Evra, someone who can do the job of a winger and overlap or offer that outside run if the build up play becomes quite narrow.

Shaw, for a young full back is more competent than a lot of his contemporaries and the reserve left backs that United currently have. Financially, the money Everton want for Baines, and what Southampton may accept for Shaw wouldn’t too far apart. Especially if The Saints change their manager in the summer and players decide to move on.

But as mentioned before, the biggest advantage would be the fluid transition it would offer should Evra decide to move on. The main obstacle could be Shaw wanting to hold for a move to Chelsea, the team he is a fan of.

Luka Modric:

Maybe a bit of a stretch considering how prominent he is at Madrid, but as an all round midfielder, he is someone that could fit into the 4-2-3-1 formation that Moyes looks like he is adopting, playing as one of the central two.

There isn’t much to really to say about the man who was one of the best midfielders in the Premier League in each of the seasons he played for Tottenham. The easiest way to describe him would be if you took the qualities of Carrick and Fletcher, put them into one person and doubled it.

His age would be somewhat of a factor, but right now immediate quality is more important and critical.

Toni Kroos

The first thing I need to point out is that this would be the new Kroos, who plays in a slighter deeper role as more of an orchestrator, albeit attacking and mobile. In the recent friendly against England, Kroos dominated the game, playing the game at his pace and dictating the flow of his teams play.

Kroos would need a fairly, although not too much, disciplined central midfield partner, or at least a player clever enough to realise when is the right time for one of them to make that forward run.

Are all these going happy? Definitely not.

Could some of these come through? I hope so.

As long as David Moyes and the club have a clear plan, then it will be hard to argue if he goes out and gets the people that he thinks will improve the club.

 

A Worthwhile Gamble: Owen Hargreaves

May 22nd 2011 was for me one of those days that fans of football clubs worldwide dread, the moment one of your favourite players leave the club you love. They may have done many things while at the club, a goal scoring machine, the driving force in the machine, or a defender ready to throw himself in the way of a screaming shot on a rainy miserable November night.

When the news broke that Manchester United wouldn’t offer Owen Hargreaves a new contract I was sat preparing to watch the final game of the season against Blackpool, where we would finally be presented as Champions. For the first hour I sat there dumbfounded, it didn’t make sense. Why Sir Alex I thought, Hargreaves can still a job for us, I knew it, but no one would listen to me as I ranted to whoever would listen to me.

Justifications came thick and fast, he’s better than some of our other players, he’s what we’ve been missing. A week later, Barcelona showed us that our we needed a world class defensive midfielder to protect our back line.

A work colleague, a Liverpool fan said to me before the final, “The player you need to beat them hasn’t played for you properly for the last two years”, a perfectly valid comment that people have pointed out about both the 2009 and 2011 finals, both of which have seen us lose the game in the middle of the pitch, although Darren Fletchers presence was also missed in these two games.

When Hargreaves signed with us back in 2007 I was overjoyed, he was the midfield enforcer we needed and much more, his versatility was vital throughout the season, no more so than in the two semi-finals against Barca, in which we shut them out over both legs, and the thrilling final in Moscow. Playing at right back, right wing(as part of an adaptable midfield quartet) and in his natural central midfield role throughout the extra time periods.

Often when Manchester United fans think back on the 2007/2008 season, they think of one man, Cristiano Ronaldo, and being fair it is hard to look past the phenomenal season he had, and it is fair to say that without Ronaldo, the campaign may have gone differently. But looking back through the games, were many other star performers, the back four and goalkeeper (usually consisting of Edwin Van Der Sar, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Wes Brown) were imperious, especially at the start of the season when the attacking players weren’t hitting the heights they would later in the season.

Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez instantly developed an almost telepathic understanding, finding each other in and around the box without evening looking up. Finally the midfield, which was without doubt the strongest it had been in years, offered a multitude of options and combinations for Sir Alex Ferguson.

The additions of Anderson and Owen Hargreaves could have been seen as a way of finding a new version of the Paul Scholes and Roy Keane combination that served the club so well towards the end of the last decade and the start of this one. Hargreaves and Anderson even showed early signs of developing a great partnership, the home game against Middlesbrough was one their stand out performances.

It would be far fetched to say that Owen Hargreaves was the most important member of that part of the team, although he did repeatedly manage to draw out great performances from those he was partnered with in the middle, Paul Scholes being the obvious exception to this claim, his consistent form and quality on the ball over the duration of his career has been a joy to watch. In recent seasons, Anderson and to some extent Michael Carrick, a man who was pivotal in his first two or three or seasons, and no doubt contributed to all three league titles significantly, have seen their form dip and come under criticism.

It would seem to be a valid theory that Hargreaves absence has been felt by these two players, maybe it was Hargreaves reading of the game and defensive mindset that helped his team mates, winning the ball back in situations that would generate space for them, allowing them to play their own game, in Carrick’s case, dictating the pace of the game, for Anderson it would be driving forward with the ball and having the freedom to express himself in the final third.

It wouldn’t be a fair discussion about Owen Hargreaves without bringing up the obvious subject of injuries. It has been a long time since were saw Hargreaves play a full game, but when he consider some of the previous events. At the start of the season, renowned knee surgeon Dr Richard Steadman claimed, angering Ferguson in the process, that Hargreaves was ready to return. Ferguson rebuffed these comments. Steadman could have been talking from the perspective of a surgeon, in as much as that as far as he could see, the tendinitis had been addressed and the problem solved, as much as it can be. Where as Ferguson was most definitely talking in terms of Hargreaves playing Premier League football.

Then we have the unfortunate game against Wolves in November. Clearly Ferguson wouldn’t have played him if he didn’t think he was capable of playing, the hamstring injury could be attributed any number of possibilities. The shoulder injury in the last two months of the season just seemed to come out of nowhere, and effectively ended his United career, despite reports that he had been training well, and was doing everything to get back into the team.

But the biggest indicator has come from the player himself, in not choosing to retire, despite what many journalists and fans have suggested. This surely is this biggest fact to take note of, as no one will know his body better than himself, so surely he feels that he is capable of getting back into a top flight club.

In the crazy world of football the chance of seeing Owen Hargreaves pulling on Manchester United shirt again is impossible. Who would of thought we would ever see Michael Owen in Manchester United shirt? Stranger things have happened in this game. But it would be a long road, and the odds are against him, but if for one year he played at either a promotion chasing Championship team, or a mid table Premier League side, Leicester City and West Bromwich Albion have both been rumoured, and were to find his old form and prove that he was physically able to compete in the top leagues week in, week out. Then who is to say that on a free transfer Sir Alex Ferguson wouldn’t make that call again.

I’m sure that my optimistic, or deluded point of view on Owen Hargreaves would be ridiculed by some fans, and turned away with comments of “He had his time” by fellow Manchester United fans. But faced with the possibility of a resurgent Owen Hargreaves a year from now, I would find it hard to believe that many of them would turn down that option if our midfield was still lacking that disciplined energy.

So to the managers out there considering the move for Owen Hargreaves as a risk, consider not the pitfalls, but contemplate the positives, then rethink that decision.