Reader Poll: Does the current Manchester United beat a team of United rejects?
Who would win this hypothetical battle?
Last Friday New York Times reporter Rory Smith published an article in The Athletic wondering who would win a match between Manchester United’s current squad vs a squad made up of players who have recently left Manchester United?
Take a quick gander through the article and it’s clear Rory wanted to write this piece for two reasons. The first was to give him a chance to write this paragraph:
Of course, this is not a real-life case study. There is no science here. It is a thought experiment, nothing more: what happens when you take a team that has been cobbled together from a load of ill-matched raw materials, one that has little or no tactical coherence, one that is nothing more than a patchwork of names on a sheet, and make them play against the following list of people who have recently left Manchester United?
This is a good though experiment and all credit for this idea goes to Rory. We here don’t have any problems with articles like this. What we do have a problem with are the players Rory selected to represent each team.
We’ll start with Rory’s selection for the current United XI.
If everyone was fit there aren’t many other alternatives you could go with here. However, Mason Mount has shown nothing in his 14 career Manchester United starts to suggest he needs to be included in the team’s best XI. What he has shown in most of his starts is that he doesn’t offer enough on the ball for what United need from their attackers.
Who replaces him is tricky. If it were up to Ruben Amorim he’d slot Amad there and play Diogo Dalot at right wing back. I’m not sold on United’s best XI featuring five defenders and while Ruben Amorim is smarter than me, this is my thought exercise so I get to do what I want.
You could stick Joshua Zirkzee there but then Rasmus Hojlund is still starting and, well, that isn’t exactly all that threatening these days either. The other option seems to be Kobbie Mainoo but he hasn’t been all that convincing higher up the pitch himself. You can go either way here and I won’t argue1 - I’ll go with Kobbie.
I’m not 100 percent sure Patrick Dorgu is the best option for left wing back right now2. He is a better option there than Dalot or Mazraoui. Based on all three of Luke Shaw’s appearances under Amorim coming at left center back and not as a wing back, it seems like Amorim considers him a center back. He’d certainly get a spot on the bench over one of those other fullbacks but suddenly it looks like Dorgu is getting the spot almost by default.
Now for the opponents. Rory Smith selected the following XI of United rejects.
What in the hell?
Along with the opening paragraph of the article the team selection reveals reason number two for why this article was written. It’s merely another opportunity to poke fun at United because Antony is scoring goals in La Liga. Entirely surface level stuff. No digging deeper about how the quality of La Liga is different from England. How Antony is still only using his left foot but that one trick is working Spain. That’s not a foreign concept, even in Antony’s “decent” season at United in 2022-23 he looked much better against the Spanish sides in the Europa League than he did in domestic fixtures.
Would United beat a team of United rejects is a fun though experiment but not the team Rory selected. The current United team wins this match easily3. I struggle to see how the reject XI puts together any sort of attack. Angel Gomes is an interesting selection but we have no idea how he would handle playing central midfield in England. Playing Antony on the left negates his one trick before Ruben Amorim’s side even have to do anything.
Smith’s team is horribly put together team where selection was weighted heavily towards individual form in the month of February. He’s missing some of the best players, which I guess makes sense because he needed to get Antony into the team. The reality is, not only wouldn’t Antony even get into the reject United XI, he’d be lucky to get a spot on the bench!4
If you re-think the rejects team just a little bit this becomes a much more intriguing question.
You can’t just select the 11 players on the best form. That’s going to lead to a team that doesn’t really make sense together. For this game I’m picking players who may not be on the best form, but should complement each other. Maybe that blows up in my face. Or maybe players complementing each other gets better performances out of them? That’s what makes it a fun though experiment.
Quick note: You get the player as he currently is, not a previous version of himself. As Smith points out, Raphael Varane is ineligible to be selected due to being retired. We are hypothetically allowed to make every fit for this match, but we’re not allowed to bring players out of retirement. Them’s the rules.
Kwest Thoughts United Reject XI
Marcus Rashford, Alvaro Carreras, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, and Scott McTominay pick themselves. That provides a decent core to now build around. In goal you have a choice between David de Gea and Dean Henderson. I think United fans have always overrated Hendo and in recent years have underrated de Gea so this is a closer call than you would think.
Smith is right about one thing - the pool of center backs to choose from is WEAK5 so we’re going to have to get creative there. Here’s what we got.
The options at center back are essentially Tuanzebe, Teden Mengi - who’s been dropped by a Luton side that are at the bottom of the Championship - Eric Bailly, Willy Kambwala, and if you really want to scrape the barrel, Chris Smalling.
According to Transfermarkt Nemanja Matic has played two career games at center back (once in a back four, and once as part a three), so that’s enough for me to give him the nod. Matic lacks pace but he’s made a career of using angles well and taking up good positions to mitigate that short coming. He also offers some ball playing ability that the back line painfully lacks. We’re gonna need that.
As mentioned Dean Henderson vs David de Gea is a closer call than you’d think. I’m going with Henderson because he’s louder and more commanding which our weak center back pairing is going to need.
Ultimately for as weak as that defense looks, I’m not really worried because who in United’s current attack is threatening?? I’m supposed to be worried about Hojlund or Zirkzee making a meal out of these guys? Or Alejandro Garnacho - who loves running at defenders but is hardly effective at it6 - running at the best 1v1 fullback in the league?!? Amad is the only player I have to be worried about but he can be dealt with as he still has a tendency to go missing from games.
I was never the biggest fan of the McFred midfield but we’re reuniting them for this match. Then comes the biggest wildcard - Paul Pogba.
As of Tuesday, Pogba is eligible to play football again. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s barely played any football over the past three years. We’re going to try to mitigate that by making his job as simple as possible. He’ll line up as the deepest midfielder with two runners/workhorses ahead of him and play as a deep lying playmaker.
We’re not asking him to run and down the pitch. We’re not worried about goals or assists. His job is simply take the ball off the center backs and spray passes around the pitch. These are things that shouldn’t be effected by the layoff. As the only guy who can move the ball up the pitch he’s got to be in the team. If he can’t hack it anymore, this team ain’t winning.
I’m sure everyone will be very quick to point out Pogba’s big vulnerability in this spot is he could be a big liability if he’s pressed or put under pressure. That’s a risk I will happily take because he’s facing a United team that not only can’t press high up the pitch but doesn’t even try. Just ask James Maddison and Martin Odegaard how difficult it was to find copious amounts of space in the middle of the park against United. Pogba will be fine.
Defensively Pogba will sit behind the two runners of McTominay and Fred who will do all the dirty work. We’re tasking Fred to man-mark Bruno the way he took Kevin de Bruyne in the January 2023 Manchester Derby.
Pogba’s job out of possession will just be to stay home. The narrative around Pogba is that he can’t do that but that’s not quite true. When Pogba is given freedom he takes it, when he’s needed to be positionally responsible he has been. He doesn’t track runners, that part is true, but who in this current United team even makes runs? Who am I scared of?
Up top is where it gets interesting. We’re going for the original vision of Rashford-Martial-Sancho which we never really saw and hoping it can re-invigorate all of them. It’s super risky because since Martial has been a complete shell of himself since his injury in January 2023. I can easily be talked into playing Sancho as a false-9 and flank him with Rashford and Elanga to attack the space in behind the center backs.
Sancho’s in the midst of the worst season of his career but he gets the nod because he continues to be a ball progression monster. Pogba will be tasked with getting the ball from A to B, but someone needs to move the ball from B to inside the box. That’s what Sancho excels at and he’ll drop a little deeper into midfield to help with that. That’ll leave space for McTominay to charge forward with runs in behind from midfield.
We’re also taking Martial because he likes to drop off the center backs into midfield. That’s the name of the game here. We want to try and force the current United CB’s to have to step up from the defensive line and follow these guys into midfield the way Brighton exploited this back line. Then you have the runs of Rashford and McTominay to attack the vacated space.
Rashford will stay high on the left side which will either pin Amad back, which would really take away the current XI’s ability to attack, or he’ll be attacking that space Amad vacates and forcing Matthijs de Ligt to defend him in space. That’s a matchup that heavily favors Rashford.
Defensively these guys are by no means good pressers, but they are very good at keeping the defensive shape. No harm letting the center backs pass the ball around the back while sitting on the receivers at the next level to limit their passing options out of the back.
Another reason we’re going with these attackers is to hopefully get some versatility in the even that the current XI do what they’ve had a habit of doing recently and drop deep off the ball. Both Martial and Sancho are both capable of turning on the ball, driving forward, and playing in tight spaces, in the event they can’t drag the defenders out of position. In the box we’ll be hoping for the old Martial-Rashford connection in the box.
Another thing that tends to happen when United play a low block is when the back five drops deep, the midfielders immediately drop right in line with them forming almost a back seven. The midfielders do this regardless of how many numbers the opposition has in the box or where the opposition midfielders are, which often leaves the top of the box wide open.
This is also precisely the area where Scott McTominay thrives with his late runs to polish off a cutback providing another threat.
I’m not sure what the depth of the bench is but there’s a few players who can provide you with something different which already makes it stronger than the current bench.
This game will be decided by the midfield battle. If Pogba is able to get a foothold in midfield and pull the strings the rejects will be very dangerous. If Fred does his job hounding Bruno and making it difficult for him to find space, then as long as the rejects don’t commit any dumb fouls in the final third or give away needless corners it’s going to be awfully tough for the current XI to create any threatening chances. However if Bruno is allowed time and space to control things in midfield, the current XI could ask some serious questions of the rejects very weak center back pairing.
Overall, I give the reject XI the advantage in this one and if they don’t get it done it probably ends in a draw. What do you think?
You can also argue for Christian Eriksen (as I have) but we’ve only seen that in limited opportunities and it hasn’t worked nearly as well in practice as it should work in theory
Sure he tormented Real Sociedad but this game is against an English opponent, not a club in La Liga’s middle class
And they don’t beat anyone easily
Which Smith has, comically, left two spots open
I guess this is what happens when every decent CB the club has signed in the past decade is either retired or still with the club
9th percentile in Europe in take-on rate
Whenever I see Garnacho I see him dribbling like he’s running on cement. I challenge you to get that thought out of your head when you see him dribbling. Please get back to me.
The conditions for the "rejects" team is pretty loose, but seems to be players that left the club after the 2019-20 season onwards. This excludes some good players such as Lukaku, (Michael) Keane, Blind, Herrera or Welbeck, but fair enough. It also seems to not include incoming loanees, mainly Sabitzer who really was a poor decision not to pursue / sign after his half season with us. To respect the "spirit" of the rules, we should also exclude Sanchez (on loan during the 19-20 season, so already "rejected"), who could be an interesting bench option. Greenwood isn't an option for obvious reasons.
I thought it amusing that the four players that are currently playing for Boca Juniors weren't mentioned at all (even if Herrera is excluded as per above): Rojo (borderline exclusion due to his loan to Estudiantes) and Cavani all play regularly for them as they lead the Argentine league after 10 matches, while Romero was a key player last season - but has since been replaced in goal.
Anyway, I'd probably drop Rojo into defense instead of Matic, alongside Kambwala who is a more experienced center-back (and starting recently at Villareal who have reached 5th in Spain) than Tuanzebe. Rojo might only last half the match, so I'd be counting on Matic to help from the bench in the 2nd half - either replacing Rojo, other "older players" like Fred / Pogba or elsewhere if there's an injury / specific need. I wouldn't begrudge someone choosing Matic to start over Rojo however, it's a coin toss.
Although he has qualities and is arguably the current "highest level" player... I don't feel Sancho fits this team. He's significantly less direct than the four other midfielders/forwards, and if we want to go all in on a direct playing style... I'd pack the midfield. Bring Garner in to start the match and let Pogba roam more to find space. Fred-McTominay-Garner should be able to support / play around him wherever he finds the mis-match, especially if Fred has instructions to clamp down on Bruno and McT-Garner support the defense to cover the wing-backs (mainly Dorgu) and Amad+Garnacho as you mentioned.
With Pogba roaming, I think he'd find space higher up the pitch, possibly close to the wing. Martial and Rashford liked to combine on the left side of the attack... De Ligt and Maguire are going to struggle to keep the high line with Pogba looking to play them in behind. Especially if the right wing-back is in an attacking position. I'd also count on Carreras and Wan-Bissaka to support breaks - Wan-Bissaka in particular was always good doing this for us. I'd also want to find a place for Cavani on the bench, he doesn't have the pace anymore, but he brings intensity and goalscoring instinct on deflections / parried shots as well as activity on set pieces that could be valuable given current Man Utd's deficiencies in these areas...
Otherwise fine with your selection: Henderson - Wan-Bissaka, Kambwala, Rojo, Carreras - Fred, Garner, McTominay - Pogba, Martial, Rashford - subs: De Gea, Tuanzebe, Gomes, Sancho, Pereira, Cavani, Elanga, Antony
I still think current United wins this 6 times out of 10, with 2 of the other 4 being a draw. Thankfully. The "rejects" have too many players who are not known quantities for the intensity of PL football (anymore). Interesting thought experiment however!