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The 2018-19 season of the Premier League is coming to a close, and as usual the fight for the Champions League places is heating up. One such team fighting for the top four spot is Manchester United.
After comprehensively winning the first seven games under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, they seem to be stuck in a puddle. It all began with a 2-1 defeat by Wolves in the FA Cup quarterfinals followed by the same result against them two weeks later in the Premier League.
After overpowering PSG in the Champions League last 16, they faced a sterner test against the in-form Barcelona. When went behind 1-0 in the first leg, many expected them to bounce back the same way they did against PSG. However, they were outclassed by Lionel Messi and Co in the return leg at Camp Nou.
The creaks that Solskjaer had seemed to mend have started resurfacing again, and talks of a summer overhaul have been doing the rounds. But to be honest, no one had actually given this United side a chance to reach even the finals of the Champions League, let alone win it. Rather, what everyone thought they would go all out for and achieve under Solskjaer, was a top four finish.
Even though they had slipped up against Wolves a few weeks back, United were the better team on paper against the Everton side going into the match on Sunday. But what followed not just revealed the cracks underneath the team but let out the nasty undergrowth that has been spreading for many years.
It's been all too familiar for the United fans to see the same thing happen time after time. First it was the short term bliss that Louis van Gaal provided against the listless play of David Moyes. Then came Jose Mourinho with his shining armour adorned with titles from all across Europe.
They all had their moments. All where the executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward must have thought, "Surely, surely this time I didn't mess up". The same phenomenon is being experienced under Solskjaer, who breathed fresh life into the squad with his baby-faced smile and mention of the glory days.
Against Everton, they were exposed brutally, with the humiliating 4-0 defeat being their worst against a team outside the top six since 2014. The high that Solskjaer achieved by winning seven out of seven in his first outings has been matched by the low of the five straight defeats across all competitions.
So the question has to be asked: is it actually the manager that deserves all the credit when the team performs exceptionally well, or all the blame when the team performs exceedingly poor? Surely, if the team is bad, they'll have a bad outcome on a consistent basis. But here, what we see is revival for a short period when a new manager comes in and as time goes, the excitement of newness fades away, leading to the same old awful performances.
It seems that it's not just the manager who is to be blamed, but also the mentality of the players. What sort of self-motivation do they possess that even the slightest of monotony renders them useless and unprofessional?
This group of players needs to rethink their mentality and put in efforts to stay focused. Only then will all the chants of glory days that adorned United be achievable achievable some day.
The revolving doors of managers alone isn't going to help this United side. The change has to come within the players too.
