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Through the years, Manchester United have always prided themselves on building strong foundations in the back line to enable them to achieve sustained success. There have been many formidable defensive partnerships at Old Trafford throughout United’s history including the Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister, and Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand. These are some of the defensive foundations on which Sir Alex Ferguson built his teams and helped him soar to a remarkable 38 trophies in 27 years.
In what turned out to be his last season as manager (2012/13) of Manchester United, Ferguson’s team had the equal fifth best defence in terms of goals conceded. They conceded only 15 goals in the final 19 fixtures of the Premier League season, five of which actually came in the final game alone against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns. The defence kept 10 clean sheets in the second half of the season and three in the first half.
Under Ferguson’s successor, David Moyes, United have struggled in a sense to demonstrate regular imposing defensive performances. The current Premier League champions have conceded 13 goals in 10 league games this season. The defence is ranked 15th in the Premiership in terms of average goals conceded and clean sheets percentage. On average, they make a defensive error every 166 minutes and have only won 50% of 50-50 defensive duels both aerially and on the ground.
United have five recognised first team centre-backs at the club which include Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Jonny Evans, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones. Though Jones and Smalling have been known to be drafted into right-back on many occasions when Rafael has been absent from the side. Moyes has partnered Vidic and Ferdinand together for five of the side’s 10 Premier League games of this campaign so far. Although this may be seen as a dwindling defensive partnership, as Ferdinand has been guilty of numerous errors lately, with Vidic also having made a couple of mistakes leading to goals. Many believe that it’s time for Evans to be called upon again and achieve a more regular spot in the back line but the new United manager has given the Northern Ireland international only a single league appearance so far this season.
Despite the slight defensive demise, some exceptions can be made as United have already played Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City so far this season and their average goals conceded currently sits at 1.3 per game. In spite of a couple of blunders United’s stand out defensive player has been their captain Nemanja Vidic. The Serbian has been mainly domineering in the air managing fifty successful headed clearances.
In order for David Moyes to succeed at his new club he needs to build foundations at the heart of the defence, similar to that which Sir Alex Ferguson did. Moyes has big decisions to make in the near future with both Vidic and Ferdinand out of contract at the end of the current season. The manager could look to extend the defensive pairs contracts and prolong their so far impressive careers or he could opt to start a new insurgency in the United defence by promoting Smalling, Jones and Evans to more frequent first team centre-back roles. Or maybe changes just need to be made in a more drastic manner, by bringing in new faces to the club.
Reports claimed that former manager Ferguson had a deal in place to bring Benfica defender Ezequiel Garay in but Moyes instead decided to stick with what he already had at the club. Whether he will do the same in the next transfer window is unclear but one thing that is certain is that the new man in the Old Trafford dugout will need to resolve United’s recent defensive downfall in order for Manchester United to continue as an efficacious force in English football.
It’s not just in the centre of the defence where United may look to make wholesale changes in the near future, the left-back position has also recently become a minor talking point.
Patrice Evra
Since arriving from AS Monaco during the January transfer window of the 2005/06 season, Patrice Evra has cemented himself as first choice left-back at Old Trafford. He got off to a shaky start to his career, but the Frenchman soon found his feet in the red shirt of Manchester. Evra has made 249 appearances for United, scoring six goals in that time and has won 15 major trophies. He has always been a star performer for United and has given his all for the club, but recently he hinted that this could be his final season on the Old Trafford flanks. This season the French defender has made 12 appearances making three assists, he has helped keep only two clean sheets and made 62 defensive clearances. Surprisingly the full-back has created the most chances for United (11) including 10 from open play.
Pursuits of Everton defender Leighton Baines were made very public during the summer but United failed in their attempts to land the England full-back. As well as this, reports claimed that United were unsuccessful in a last ditch loan bid for Real Madrid left-back Fabio Coentrao. These transfer pursuits indicate Moyes’ ambition to strengthen in the left-back position and may have made Evra question his role at the club.
United do have options other than just Evra. Young Brazilian defender Fabio Da Silva was on loan at Queens Park Rangers all of last season and has now returned to Old Trafford. Although he has yet to make a real impact in the first team, a complete contrast to his twin brother Rafael, Fabio recently played and scored in United’s 4-0 home win over Norwich City in the Capital One Cup. His celebration after the goal and a message which he then posted on his Instagram account has led fans to believe that the young Brazilian may also be on his way out of the club.
The message he posted read, “Thank you for the fans! This club change my life and life of my family.” Another bid for Baines could plausibly be on the cards for United in January before the summer when he will then be heading to the World Cup in Brazil with the England squad.
With the apparent problems at the heart of the defence for Manchester United, David Moyes will be hoping to resolve matters sooner rather than later as they look to climb their way up the Premier League table and make an impact in the Champions League.
