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Story of the Season
This will forever be remembered as Sir Alex Ferguson’s last season at Manchester United, and it was a successful one as they reclaimed the Premier League title from neighbours Manchester City. They started the season as one of three favourites for the league but in the end they won it easily, never really under any pressure in 2013. The off season acquisition of Robin van Persie was pivotal as he contributed the goals that helped them ease clear at the top of the table. They made serene progress though the group phase of the Champions League and gave plenty of game time to academy graduates. It wasn’t all good though. Defeat in controversial circumstances to Real Madrid in the Champions League masked certain frailties that were exposed by Chelsea in the FA Cup Quarter Final. They started the season conceding first almost every game before charging back for victories with question marks about a dodgy goalkeeper and wobbling defence. By season’s end David de Gea had established himself as their keeper for the next decade and his emergence was matched by Rafael who showed signs of growing in to an elite right back. They were well protected by a resurgent Michael Carrick who had the best season of his career. They suffered poor play from the wingers, none of whom ever found a run of form and tended to get the job done rather than blow teams away. The cloud over the future of an often inconsistent Wayne Rooney and the changing of the guard from Ferguson to Moyes shouldn’t distract from another successful campaign for United.
Major Signings
Robin van Persie (Arsenal, £24m) United succumbed to Man City in the 2011/12 title race on goal difference, and Ferguson went in to last summer determined to find players who could get him more goals. He turned to Robin van Persie who had just come off a top scoring season at Arsenal and he was an instant success. Having overcome early worries that he wouldn’t mesh with Rooney he delivered goals and assists with a ruthless consistency to provide a constant and unwavering sense of authority and quality.
Grade: A++ Although various stats show that technically speaking United would have probably won the league anyway, it was his goals and consistency that helped them win it so easily. Theoretically, the ease with which they cantered to the title should have helped in the cups. He wasn’t amazing in Europe but he won the league which is what he was bought for.
Shinji Kagawa (Borussia Dortmund, £17m) Before the rest of the Dortmund side would reach the Champions League final it was Kagawa who was the jewel desired around Europe. United thought they had themselves a steal. It hasn’t quite worked out like that so far. He’s been injured and struggled to adapt to both the physicality of the Premier League and the lack of other technicians in the United side. Having played with Lewandowski and Gotze, he pretty much only had van Persie to work with at United. He’s the type of player who needs others around him to play at his best.Grade: C He’s a classy player but there doesn’t seem to be a good fit for him at United so far. This might change if David Moyes allows him more time in behind van Persie rather than out wide to make up for out of form wingers.
Overall: Grade B Yes, van Persie did really well. But Kagawa hasn’t been utilised properly and the failure to add a proper possession dominating central midfielder cost them against Real Madrid every bit as much as Nani’s red card.
The Good: United played with the efficiency of champions. They didn’t exactly play exuberant or beautiful football that often but they just kept on winning. They adapted their play to their opponents and to circumstances so well, an absolute virtue of Ferguson’s management. In the early season they were more open and enterprising looking for goals which they got plenty of, but conceded plenty of. By new year they had grabbed hold of the title race which meant that they could shift gears and focus on defensive solidity and consistency. The amazing thing was that only a few players had any extended runs of form. Aside from the core of De Gea, Rafael, Ferdinand, Evra, Carrick and Van Persie not many others stepped up regularly. Ferguson somehow found a way to marshal his team in various iterations and win games.
The Bad: Too many players regressed on previous form. Despite winning the league last year, new manager David Moyes has a lot of players to make decisions on. Nani and Valencia took five steps back, Young has injured or ineffective, Anderson has gone backwards, Cleverley hasn’t kicked on, Smalling was injured and vulnerable and at times Rooney looked all at sea. This will be a big concern for Moyes. As explained above, Ferguson found a way to win, can Moyes do the same? These are talented players but perhaps for several the time is up.
Key Moment: Samir Nasri hiding from Robin van Persie’s free kick at the Etihad. At 2-2 in the last minute of the derby, van Persie hit an edge of the box free kick straight at where Samir Nasri should have been in the City wall. Only, he wasn’t. Instead he flailed a boot out at it which meant it took a horrible deflection out of the reach of the sprawling Joe Hart. 3-2 United, title race firmly swinging in their favour.
Star Man: Robin van Persie It could be any of the core six listed above but van Persie stands out because he deals in goals. Not only scoring them, but making them. He was the top scorer in the Premier League and one of the top assist makers. Without him they still may have won the league, but it wouldn’t have been so easy. He had a habit of turning up in the right place at the right time, a precious trait to have.
What needs to be done in the summer? Surprisingly, quite a lot. Moyes needs to make big decisions on those who struggled to improve or went backwards. His biggest decision of those is with Wayne Rooney. One way or another, they need to deal with that as soon as possible or it will hang over his head all summer. In terms of recruitment, a lot of it will be dictated by who they sell. They need more attacking options certainly, but the priority has to be signing a world class central midfielder. They don’t have a Schweinsteiger, Gundogan, Xavi type and they badly need one. They are supposedly looking at Cesc Fabregas who would be a wonderful signing.
Season Grade: A- The number one mission was to win back the Premier League, and they did so with ease. Young players such as De Gea and Rafael have established themselves as stars and Robin van Persie adapted immediately. They made decent progress in the cups to a degree but will have been disappointed not to make more of an impression in the Champions League, even regardless of the controversial red card. There are some concerns to deal with moving forward but they accomplished their main mission to see Ferguson, and Scholes again, off in style.
