What piece is missing in the Manchester United puzzle?

By on August 5, 2015

David de Gea; Patrice Evra; Phil Jones; Jonny Evans; Chris Smalling; Anderson (Ryan Giggs 68); Nani (Park Ji-Sung 68); Ashley Young; Tom Cleverley; Wayne Rooney; Danny Welbeck (Javier Hernandez 35). This was Manchester United’s lineup that shipped eight goals past Arsenal in 2011. Even playing an injury depleted Arsenal side, on paper United’s eleven wasn’t much better than Arsenal’s at face value. But the starting eleven didn’t include perhaps United’s most valuable squad member: Sir Alex Ferguson.

Ferguson shepherded some formidable teams over the years. His two treble-winning teams of 1999 and 2008 immediately spring to mind as legendary, mouth-watering sides. But the ability to harbor great players was not the sole reason that Ferguson won thirteen Premier League titles, five FA Cups, and two Champions League titles in more than a quarter-century at Old Trafford.

What made Ferguson a great coach was his innate ability to make a good team great; to make a just decent United team beat Arsenal 8-2 and finish second in the Premier League. Under Ferguson, United always spent money but had less need to heavily stock their lineup with established stars such as Chelsea or later, Manchester City, and The Red Devils’ two Champions League-winning squads were built largely on homegrown players.

Take Ashley Young, for example. “Young had a fantastic season but he is not a Neymar and we have to compete with that kind of class,” explained current United manager Louis van Gaal at a press conference with English media in San Jose.

Yet with motivation and tactics Ferguson managed to compete with the best in the world with only a few world-class players in his squad. The rest were Young-grade players, but Ferguson made it work.

Fergie’s teams were known for their comeback wins and in their title winning 2012/2013 campaign, the team came back from behind to take points twenty-six times. Speaking at the Sporting Analytics-London conference in April, Ferguson’s fitness coach at United, Tony Strudwick, said that the Scot built games for the final ten minutes. Often, everything from a glance at his watch, instructions to his players, to the more obvious art of substitutions was carefully laid out to intimidate United’s opponents.

United have obviously missed the genius of Ferguson since his retirement two years ago. David Moyes inherited a Premier League winning team under Ferguson and couldn’t even lead it into Europe with the support of multiple high-profile signings. Louis van Gaal took over the following summer and in his first few months in charge, spent more in the transfer market than Ferguson had in his last four years at United. Clearly, there are drawbacks to taking charge of a wayward, misfiring squad but nonetheless, Van Gaal’s fresh, rejuvenated team couldn’t mount a title challenge, at least not in his first season.

A year into his tenure at the club, Van Gaal still isn’t satisfied with the squad he has assembled. During United’s preseason tour of the United States, Van Gaal bemoaned the lack of creativity in his lineup, or in other words, a Neymar, Eden Hazard or Lionel Messi “impact player.” United’s squad is good, undoubtedly of the calibre to challenge for the Premier League title this coming season, but not great.

All of which makes the seemingly impending sale of Angel di Maria, exactly the type of Neymar-esque flair player Van Gaal seems to be missing, puzzling, and suggests United are powerless to stop him from moving to Paris Saint-Germain. Possibly, Van Gaal has a potential fix in the shape of a “surprise” signing the manager claimed is, “in the process” of joining United. Whether the manager simply baiting the media or telling some convoluted thread of truth, a marquee signing could be the difference maker into turning United into a great team. Then again, that’s the player that Di Maria was planned to be upon arrival at United last summer.

It’s basically pointless to compare managing styles and managers, especially to Sir Alex Ferguson, but perhaps the missing puzzle piece in United’s current team is a dominant manager; what Ferguson was in his time. A title-winning manager is perhaps more valuable than a title-winning team. Van Gaal came in to implement his philosophy and build a title-winning team, but can he motivate a team without a Neymar to the top?  Certainly, if United fail to launch a title challenge and are knocked out of the cups early this coming season, Van Gaal may see the axe. There is no doubt that United’s current starting eleven is, on paper, better than their 2011/2012 team; but now it’s all in the execution.

Photo credit: Andre Zahn, via Wikipedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.