Man United have lost their way not just as a team but as a club - 7M sport

Man United have lost their way not just as a team but as a club



Posted Tuesday, October 25, 2016 by irishexaminer.com

Jose Mourinho faces a challenge far bigger than simply beating rivals Manchester City in the EFL Cup tomorrow as he surveys the wreckage of a 4-0 defeat at Chelsea; and that is to find a strong and definable identity for a team and a club that has long forgotten what its mission statement was and how it was going to get there.

Man United have lost their way not just as a team but as a club

Manchester United's performance on Sunday, coming on the back of a promising attacking display against Fenerbahce and a polemically different defensive display at Liverpool before that, was a huge disappointment for a global fan base drawn to the club because of its rich history, grand aura and reputation not just for winning trophies but for doing it with a style that combines skill and glamour with passion and high-octane excitement.

How many of those boxes can this current team tick?

How easy would it be for a neutral fan to watch the matches at Anfield last week and Stamford Bridge on Sunday in black and white and be able to say with any certainty they were watching a Manchester United team?

It's a theme that has been picked up recently by many people who love the club and it probably isn't fair to say Mourinho, who has been there only a few months, is the one to blame – even if there is evidence he is no longer as ‘special' as he used to be.

The reality is he is simply the man charged with solving the conundrum.

For years, certainly since Alex Ferguson retired, United have lost their way not just as a team but as a club. Their recruitment has been haphazard and opportunistic, their managerial appointments equally baffling. How could a club with a clear and defined mission statement, and a long-established philosophy, appoint David Moyes one day, Louis van Gaal then next and then Mourinho afterwards? Three different styles of manager, three different ways of playing, three very different cultures. No wonder the players are confused. Paul Scholes recently caused a stir by claiming the current United side lacked a team identity, and he isn't the first to point it out. Cristiano Ronaldo, speaking pre-season, touched on the same theme and long before that, former Old Trafford assistant manager Mike Phelan famously criticised the decision to sell Danny Welbeck to Arsenal, saying it broke a link with what the club was all about.

The erosion, then, started a long time ago and Mourinho's first priority must be to build a new identity for his side and stick to it.

Already, following Sunday's defeat, there have been calls for United to ‘go for goals' in their forthcoming fixtures and prove they can win and win in style. But that's not really the point – what United need right now is to set the foundations of what they are and what they want to be and to ensure everyone at every level at the club, on the pitch and off it, understands that philosophy.

Maybe that identity will be to attack, attack, attack as the Stretford End demands (although it doesn't sound too much like the Mourinho way), maybe it will simply be to fight to the bitter end in every match as United teams of the past have always done. But what is certain, someone needs to set the agenda.

Amidst all the post-match clamour on Sunday United legend Gary Neville perhaps provided the most poignant and incisive commentary. "There will be a massive over-reaction to the game, Jose Mourinho will come under huge pressure and it will be ramped up ahead of the derby on Wednesday," he said. "But when you are a Manchester United fan for 30 years, for 50 years, you are going to have difficult times like these and you have to accept when they come along and be mature about it. They have got a fantastic manager who has been proven in every league in Europe nearly, and they have to allow him to do his job methodically over the next two to three years, get it right. There has been some poor management, some poor recruitment decisions and there have been players signed who are not Manchester United players. I am not talking about talent, I am talking about profile.

"Pogba and Ibrahimovic are more Manchester United players in my mind in terms of personality and the physical aspect, so I do think ultimately Mourinho is on the right track. They have got to continue to do that and they have got to move away some of the previous ones." Reading between the lines, Neville is hinting there is a very big job ahead for Mourinho; it's not just a matter of turning up, turning on the charisma and winning the title – he is going to have to change Manchester United from the bottom up.

That is what Antonio Conte is slowly doing at Chelsea. The Italian has changed the formation at Stamford Bridge, slowly edged out under-performing players such as Cesc Fabregas and Branislav Ivanovic and used his own character to provide Chelsea with a different identity, a new way of doing things. For him, a miserable defeat at Arsenal was an opportunity rather than a setback; it gave him a chance to make changes more quickly and without opposition.

"Sometimes you need to lose a game to wake up," said Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic. " I think the Arsenal game was a wake-up call for us. We knew that we had to do better, to work more and that's what we have done."

Mourinho, with the bn EFL Cup tie against City at Old Trafford tomorrow, has an opportunity to follow in Conte's footsteps. But United fans may have to accept than even victory over the noisy neighbours will not be enough to solve their club's long-term issues; building a new identity is going to take time and it may well be painful.



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