Manchester United: The season so far

Juan Mata after United’s 2-2 draw with Fulham

Sometimes you have a noisy neighbour. You cannot do anything about that. They will always be noisy. You just have to get on with your life, put your television on and turn it up a bit louder.”

This was what Sir Alex Ferguson had to say about the their city rivals in 2009.

At that point of time, he was kind of right. But 5 years later, City have gone a few steps ahead of their rivals.

2011-12 was a landmark season for the blue side of city. They had won a cup after 44 years. That season it was quality. Pure quality. Players like David Silva, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero started to show their worth. Manchester City have spent 350 million US dollars the past 3 years on players alone whereas United on the other hand have had only 3 ‘big name’ signings namely Shinji Kagawa, Robin van Persie and Juan Mata.

The past year has seen a Manchester United with rather ‘low’ quality, less flair and exuberance and most of all the will to win. When Sir Alex Ferguson was there, United always had a chance in the match. But it doesn’t seem like that under David Moyes.

David Moyes was Alex Fergurson’s chosen successor. No one doubts his creditabilities. The reason Everton are doing so well now is due to the hard work of people like David Moyes at Merseyside.

This season United have had hardly a few things to cheer. Say the rise of wonder kid Adnan Januzaj or maybe the contract signing extending Wayne Rooney‘s stay at the club. But that’s hardly what United wanted or expected. I’m a United fan and I expected wins. Titles. Trophies. We have lost more matches this season than what United had lost the past 2 years. Is it Moyes’s fault?

Well I would say a big NO. When a United team wins against a team say Arsenal (which we did), everyone says van Persie played well or Rooney played well. But when United loose to a team which they should’ve won, the critics and apparently every person who watches football comes to the conclusion: Moyes is the reason for United’s demise. Well that’s not true.

This season, not one player from a team so big as Manchester United has scored more than 18 goals. Players like Patrice Evra, Nemanjà Vidi?, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs have aged and have hardly played well. On the other side Chris Smalling, Johnny Evans, Rafael De Silva, Antonio Valencia, Michael Carrick and Javier Hernandez have hardly played to expectations.

Now let us have a look at the blue side of Manchester. 31 goals have been scored by forwards plus add 12 by a supposedly ‘central midfielder’ Yaya Toure. That makes it 43. While United’s strikers on the other hand have scored 25 goals. No more. They have not got much help otherwise.

Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo have created a partnership that no team wants to face. But fortunately both of them were at their peaks when the other was injured. For us it is unfortunate that we’ve not seen the best of the blue side of Manchester yet. Jesus Navas, David Silva, Fernandinho and Yaya Toure have given them great support. A person who is not talked often is Edin Dzeko. Dzeko often plays as a substitute, but he certainly makes of his opportunity whenever he’s given one.

13 games are left, and City are comfortably 14 points ahead of the their rivals from the same city. What is the difference? Other than the players and coach.. It’s the attitude. Although it is said that Juan Mata’s signing has lifted the team, well we haven’t seen much difference.. Another thing that has hampered United’s season is diving.

Diving has been taken as such a serious issue but still players like Patrice Evra dive like swimmers on the pitch. Adnan Januzaj has followed suit. Ashley Young’s infamous dive hasn’t helped the cause. Unless diving is seriously taken by David Moyes, it’ll certainly be continued.

So what should United do?Change their squad like city? Or groom players like Arsenal?I guess it should be a mixture of both.

Players like Ferdinand, Evra, Smalling, Fabio, Valencia, Hernandez, Fletcher and more should be sold. They aren’t the class United need. We did have the same team last season. But we had Sir Alex. That towering figure always inspired people. It doesn’t seem so.

Unless United have a remarkable recovery, it is going to be really tough for this team from Manchester.