Where did Manchester United's implosion come from
The Red Devils' disastrous 2021-22 campaign is not the fault of just Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick, or any of the players but years of poor squad building that doomed them all to failure
(Authors note: We’re running a little long today and the entire isn’t going to fit in one email. Usually I try to avoid this but not this time, so please click to open this in your browser for the full post.)
You don’t need me to tell you that Manchester United’s 2021-22 season was an unmitigated disaster. A season that started with sky high expectations ended with United having their worst Premier League campaign ever.
The only thing people want to do more than “never talk about this bloody campaign” again is figure out who to blame for this disaster of a season. At the start of the season it was easy. Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer clearly wasn’t good enough. This was a good squad and any half decent coach would be competing for trophies with them.
Out went Solskjaer and in came what everyone (back in December) agreed was a much better coach in Ralf Rangnick. Only United’s results never quite turned around. United had the exact same winning percentage under Rangnick (41.67%) as they did under Solskjaer.
Rather than admit they might have been wrong, those screaming loudest that the problem was Solskjaer changed their tune to the problem is clearly the players.
The argument makes no logical sense. If the players were so bad then Ole must have been really good to get 66 and 74 point seasons with almost this exact same group of players. If Ole was the one holding them back, then certainly they should have thrived under Rangnick.
Of course the fancams and mainstream media don’t do logic. Logic doesn’t sell the way hot takes and the blame game do. When United were humiliated 4-0 at Anfield by a much better Liverpool side the outrage wasn’t about Rangnick showing up with no tactical plan, but rather doubling down on the players and Solskjaer take. These players have no pride, they’re not trying, and “this is the team that Solskjaer built.”
That of course was not entirely true either. A closer look at the starting XI from that match at Anfield shows that this was very much not the team that Solskjaer was trying to build. It actually shows just what the problem is at Manchester United. This was a team comprised of players signed by too many different managers with too many different styles in mind. Just look at who is responsible for bringing each of the players in that XI to United’s first team.
The bench for this match was more of the same, including half the players that David Moyes managed to sign in his 10 months in charge.
As always, the truth lies in the middle of the two extremes. Some of the players are bad. Most of them range somewhere between good and really good (but not amazing), but they’re all different players with extremely different skill sets that don’t fit together or complement each other.
Ralf Rangnick was never going to be successful with this squad. No coach was. He was inheriting a squad that was far too flawed.
That’s not solely Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s fault. Assembling this mishmash of players didn’t happen overnight. It’s the result of years of poor squad building, poor recruitment, poor decision making at the top, poor prioritizing, and if we’re being completely honest the culture of the club and the fans - specifically in regards to how they view academy players - all played a role in how this team was assembled.
How did we get here? Let’s look back at the last few years and look at hat styles United were playing, what they needed, who they actually brought in, and whether they fit or not. That’ll provide us with a lot of answers.
2015-16 Season (Louis van Gaal)
Players added to first team: Memphis Depay (£25m1), Matteo Darmian (£12.7m), Bastian Schwiensteiger (£6.5m), Morgan Schneiderlin (£25m), Sergio Romero (free), Anthony Martial (£36m+ - ended up being £44m), Marcus Rashford (Academy)
Players out: Robin van Persie, Angel Di Maria (£44.3m), Jonny Evans (£8m), Javier Hernandez (Bayer Leverkusen), Nani (£4.25m), Rafael Da Silva, Tom Cleverley
Year two of Van Gaal sees the Dutchman still trying to freshen up the squad from the one that Sir Alex Ferguson left. The attack needs to get younger, the midfield needs fortifying.
Van Gaal attempts to address this but his midfield additions fall flat on their face. Memphis Depay gets off to a rough start at Old Trafford. There’s flashes of talent but despite some success at the 2014 World Cup (where he was coached by Van Gaal) he doesn’t seem to suit Van Gaal’s style at all making the transfer very odd. He’s a possession based coach who hates dribblers and that’s exactly what Memphis is.
Martial is a bright spot, scoring 11 goals in a team that scored just 43 non-penalty goals. Injuries force Marcus Rashford to get a debut in February and he too impresses enough to stick around and give United fans someone they enjoy watching.
The football is incredibly stale and boring. United are severely hampered by a midfield that is functional but completely devoid of any creativity and progressive passing. This needs to be their big priority for the upcoming season2.
2016-17 Season (Jose Mourinho)
Players added to first team: Eric Bailly (£30m), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (“Free3), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£26.2m), Paul Pogba (£89m), Axel Tuanzebe? (Academy)
Players out: Tyler Blackett, Will Keane, Morgan Schneiderlin (Jan - £24m), Memphis Depay (Jan - £13.8m), Bastian Schweinsteiger (March)
This is the season where the convergence of a lot of different things happens.
Paul Pogba is brought in to provide that passing and creativity from midfield. He’s a perfect fit to be the third man next to Michael Carrick and Ander Herrera. There’s only one problem, United also added Zlatan Ibrahimovic for reasons creating an even bigger Wayne Rooney problem than they already had4. At least at the start of the season, Rooney had to be in the team and since he can’t line up at striker the only option available is the number 10 role. That means you can’t play a three man midfield forcing Pogba back into a double pivot (for the time being).
There’s a lot of revisionist history about this season so let’s remember something. This team was GOOD. There was never really a question about whether or not this team would win the Europa League. They spent the entire season as overwhelming favorites for the competition and when Mourinho put all his eggs in that basket in February, no one complained because it made complete sense. They made work of it at times, but there was never really a sense that they were going to go out of the competition.
This was where the clash in culture came in. This is a club that prides itself on playing youngsters and promoting from the academy. With Martial, Rashford, and Memphis, United now had three young attackers with potential to become stars. Sure Memphis stunk in his first season but the talent was still there. He wasn’t a good fit with Van Gaal. Giving up on him after one year would be foolish.
Then they hired a manager notorious for not playing younger players. Mourinho came in and made a whole big deal out of ‘no no I’m definitely going to play young players here,’ and he did… to an extent. He knew that if he didn’t play this academy graduate Marcus Rashford - who already had made his full England debut - fans were not going to be happy. The same for the guy who lead the team in goals a year before.
For Mourinho there was only room for two out of the three young guys and even then Rashford and Martial were exiled to the left wing where they couldn’t even use their biggest talent - running in behind. They were forced to play as creative wingers which they simply aren’t. Sure they were young and in theory could develop that area of their games but at the same time, that’s simply not who they are. You can’t take an 18 year old centerback and expect him to develop into a winger if you just give him playing time there, even at 18 players still have a profile for what they are.
They were also frustrating as hell to watch. Zlatan never fit on this team but was the one that demanded the team play around him. This is a team that had players like Rashford, Martial, and Lingard who are just dying to run the channels and counter attack (which very much suits a Mourinho team) as well as passers in Pogba, Rooney, and Mata, who could play them those balls. But Zlatan doesn’t play that way. He likes the ball being played to his feet, he likes to drop deeper and slow things down. It’s a mismatch of styles and it never clicked.
The team’s best players were built to run at defenders but their star player doesn’t do that. Mourinho wanted a team that physically imposed themselves on their opponents and bullied them with their striker, but he didn’t exactly have all the players for that. United were always a mix between the two styles, never got going, and finished sixth.
2017-18 Season (Jose Mourinho)
Players added to first team: Victor Lindelof (£30.7m), Romelu Lukaku (£90m), Nemanja Matic (£40m), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (“Free5”), Alexis Sanchez (Jan - lol expensive6)
Players out: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (June, resigned, then March), Wayne Rooney, Adnan Januzaj, Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Jan)
These signings actually make sense when you look at the players United already had and what would get the best out of them. United started the season with this team and they COOKED.
Mkhitaryan and Mata provide creativity against low blocks. Lukaku has the ability to bully lesser teams and/or play on the counter attack, He also had the ability to create space - and a partnership - with Rashford and Martial, helping all three of them thrive in this setup. United could run on teams and they did - routinely scoring goals in bunches late in games. 4-0 FC was back.
Then Pogba got hurt, the midfield once again lacked a creative passer, and the balance was just off. Without Pogba Mkhitaryan’s form fell off. Mourinho turned up the Mourinho-ness of the team, and even when Pogba came back the team struggled to break down low blocks.
Mourinho’s solution to this (and one that was heavillly influenced by the board as well) was, Alexis Sanchez. Whereas Martial and Rashford played more as ‘second forwards coming off the left’ and less as wingers, Sanchez was more a false winger who operated more like an advanced midfielder. That meant Sanchez would often drop right into Pogba’s space and the two would find themselves right on top of each other, while his inclusion also relegated Martial and Rashford to the bench.
Obviously Pogba’s form fell off from this while United as a whole were terrible in the second half of the season. Again this was a team that thrived on counter attacking and running at defenders, Alexis Sanchez doesn’t fit in with that style, but United brought him in anyway, then tried to re-shape the team around him even though no one else fit that style. Not surprisingly it didn’t work.
Nemanja Matic was brought in as the defensive midfield replacement for Carrick. It was a good deal but even at the time there were question marks about his longevity and you knew £40m was a lot to spend on a player who would need to be replaced in three years.
With Pogba struggling after the arrival of Alexis, Jose Mourinho started his war on Pogba and started the Scott McTominay era - a player who’s poor in possession and also doesn’t fit the slower more methodical approach United were trying to play with Sanchez. A lot gets made about the Mourinho-McTominay relationship and how he named him the “Manager’s Player of the Year” that season but here’s the funny thing, Mourinho knew all the above. McTominay only started seven Premier League matches, one of which was the dead rubber squad rotation match leading up the FA Cup final.
It should also be noted, Jose Mourinho very much has a type. He likes have big physically imposing players. Pogba, Matic, Fellaini, and McTominay all fit this profile. Daley Blind, one of the most versatile and technical players who would be a dream for most managers, does not fit the profile at all. Jose Mourinho is one of the few managers who wouldn’t want a Daley Blind. Blind became a peripheral player this season and was sold in the summer.
2018-19 Season (Jose Mourinho/Ole Gunnar Solskjaer)
Players added to first team: Diogo Dalot (£19m), Fred (£52m), Lee Grant (£1.5m), Andreas Pereira (Academy/loan return)
Players out: Michael Carrick (retired), Daley Blind (£16m), Marouane Fellaini
The Alexis Sanchez deal - along with spending nearly £400m7 over the last two seasons far outpacing any growth in revenue, at up the entire budget for the summer transfer window8. This is a good time to recap what exactly this team is currently made up of:
Defenders: Valencia, Young, Shaw, Dalot, Smalling, Jones, Bailly, Lindelof, Marcos Rojo
A couple wingers turned fullbacks with Valencia being on his absolute last legs. Jones and Lindelof are sorta comfortable with the ball at their feet, but both need someone better next to them. Overall this isn’t a defense that’s going to keep possession and play out the back.
Midfielders: Pogba, Matic, Ander Herrera, Fellaini, Pereira, Fred, McTominay,
This is an eclectic group to say the least, let’s break it down further.
Pogba - an attack minded 8 who does his best work on the left of a three when he has two more defensive players who can cover for him
Matic - the lone pure defensive midfielder who’s legs are giving out after playing 3,118 minutes in the league the year before (250 more than United’s next highest outfield player!)
Ander Herrera - a high defensive action box to box midfielder who can be a shuttler in possession and absolute nuisance to play against out of possession
Fellaini - just like a bully really? His best asset is his heading ability but he’s not a good enough passer to be the most advanced midfielder and not good enough defensively or with his feet to be a deeper midfielder
Pereira - We’re not really sure what he is yet but after a good preseason fans are excited to see him back in the picture. Mourinho plays him in a double pivot and quickly drops him
Fred - brought in to replace Carrick or unlock Pogba? Turns out he’s just another high defensive action box-to-box midfielder, essentially depth for Herrera, but he wouldn’t show that for another year
McTominay - another that we’re not really sure what he is. He’s a young kid that we all assume will get better and I think we all believe he’s a holding midfielder? Turns out, not even Mourinho knows. McTominay started just three games in all comps under Mourinho in 2018-19, two of them were as a centerback and in his lone start in midfield he was yanked after 45 minutes9.
Attackers: Lukaku, Rashford, Martial, Mata, Sanchez, Lingard
Two of these guys are wide ‘second forwards’ who love to run at defenders. The central striker is not a target man and does his best when played with a partner. Sanchez is still that false winger who creates from deep. Mata is very similar to that but as the only one who can play on the right, he’s in there often. Playing him next with Sanchez will just isolate Lukaku though.
Most importantly, despite Lukaku’s size he’s not a target man. In fact, none of these guys are good at winning aerial balls or second balls. Other than Pogba, that midfield isn’t going to keep possession be effective in buildup play. Plus your defense isn’t going to play out the back, they’re just gonna hoof it long to those forwards that don’t win long balls.
How is any of that supposed to work?
That’s basically what Mourinho spent the first half of the season trying to figure out. Naturally he couldn’t because this team didn’t complement each other at all. He gets sacked and in comes Solskjaer.
Solskjaer finds immediate success by picking a style (counter attack, Lingard and Herrera hassle defenders, creating spaces for Pogba and Rashford) and picking the only 6-7 players who can play that style.
It works until they start to break down and get hurt. The final stretch of the season sees Solskjaer having to use his full team based on who’s available - we see a lot more Mata instead of Lingard, a lot more McTominay instead of Herrera - players that don’t fit these roles and don’t complement their teammates and United naturally crawl to the finish line.
2019-20 Season (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer)
Players added to first team: Daniel James (£15m), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£45m), Harry Maguire (£80m), Bruno Fernandes (Jan - £47m), Mason Greenwood (Academy), Brandon Williams (Academy), Axel Tuanzebe? (loan return)
Players out: Ander Herrera, Antonio Valencia, Romelu Lukaku (£74m), Matteo Darmian (£3.6m), Ashley Young (Jan - £1.28m), Alexis Sanchez (Loan), Chris Smalling (Loan), Marcos Rojo (Jan - Loan)
This is probably the season where the pieces fit together the most. With this collection of players there was only one way you could possibly play. Run.
Solskjaer did a decent job jettisoning the attacking players that didn’t fit that style and each of his signings made sense for a team that was going to want to look to run at defenders. Anthony Martial wasn’t your typical number 9, more of a false 9 who did a great job creating space for his other forwards to run into.
Not surprisingly, United ran into the same problem they had in 2017-18, what happens when the other team just doesn’t give you space to run in behind? United couldn’t break down low blocks. Paul Pogba’s injury left the team devoid of any creativity or ball progression from midfield. The team was built around a number 10 but the combination of Andreas Pereira and Jesse Lingard were simply not good enough to get United’s good players the ball in positions where they could be good. They needed a creative hub that everything ran through.
Enter Bruno Fernandes, a player who’s best game is being a creative hub that everything runs through. A perfect fit for this system, it wasn’t surprising he was an immediate success, and once Pogba came back United had the midfield base and creativity up front to roll right through those low blocks.
2020-21 Season (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer)
Players added to first team: Donny van de Beek (£35m), Alex Telles (£13.6m), Edinson Cavani (“Free”), Dean Henderson (Academy/loan return)
Players out: Chris Smalling (€15m), Alexis Sanchez (paid(!) £10m for him to leave), Marcos Rojo (Jan)
United add zero first choice players to the starting XI in a completely shambolic COVID influenced summer transfer window. All in all three players get added to the first team picture, Donny van de Beek, Edinson Cavani, Alex Telles.
Van de Beek is added for depth to Bruno Fernandes but he’s nothing like Bruno Fernandes. His style doesn’t fit at all with the other United players and it’s quickly realized you can’t rely on him to be a #10. He’s played deeper in midfield at times for Ajax but he quickly shows that he doesn’t do what United need their midfielders to do either.
Project Restart displayed United’s need for a left footed backup to Luke Shaw. In came Alex Telles, a left footed left back who plays like a right footed one. He doesn’t do any of the things Shaw does and there’s a huge drop-off in quality when he comes into the side.
Cavani is a completely different striker. He’s more similar to someone like Zlatan than a Martial or Lukaku and Rashford’s game predictably struggles when he plays with Cavani. None of these pieces really fit together or with the players United already had. It’s a complete mess.
And yet United are good. Easily one of their top two teams of the last eight years. A team that slowly takes their punches while assessing their opponents weaknesses, the exploits them in the second half.
Tactically it’s all smoke and mirrors. Solskjaer uses every trick in the book to try and mask United’s deficiencies. Paul Pogba gets moved to left wing, which sorta works with Rashford and Greenwood up top, but REALLY works when Cavani is up there. That requires the Fred and McTominay pivot to do a lot of heavy lifting and by the end of the season the entire league had figured out how to make them - as well as any Pogba-McTominay/Pogba-Fred pivot - completely ineffectual.
2021-22 Season (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer/Ralf Rangnick)
Players added to first team: Jadon Sancho (£77m), Raphael Varane (£36m), Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.5m), Anthony Elanga (Academy), Tom Heaton (Free)
Players out: Daniel James (£25m)
Despite the book on how to stop United’s midfield being out, they don’t address it in the summer. They keep adding players that don’t quite fit the ones they have.
It never really works and it was never going to. Neither Ole Gunnar Solskjaer nor Ralf Rangnick can come up with any idea of how to make this all tick, with both constantly doubling down on their bad ideas that aren’t working.
With Ronaldo, United aren’t going to be counter attacking anymore. He doesn’t create space for his forward partners so Rashford is always going to struggle10. As “wingers,” both Rashford and Greenwood’s primary objective is to cut inside and shoot, not pump the box full of service for the striker, which isn’t going to work for Ronaldo.
Ronaldo has a tendency to drift around the pitch, often into hte left half space where Pogba operates, bringing more defenders and pressure to the Frenchman and making him ineffective.
When Rangnick comes his pressing style isn’t going to fly. He centralizes the attack around Ronaldo which helps things to some degree, but he stubbornly refuses to change things from a system that hinges on a single pivot when the guy he uses there actively hides from the ball and doesn’t make the passes required to make the system work.
Jadon Sancho is a player who’s at his best when he has a fullback overlapping with him. Injuries to Luke Shaw mean he plays a lot with Alex Telles, a fullback who doesn’t overlap. Injuries and poor form see United line up quite often without Harry Maguire.
Without no Maguire, Shaw, or midfielder that can move the ball forward, United lack any ball progression from the back. Bruno Fernandes often has to drop deep to take up this role - essentially making him more of a central midfielder and less a number 10. His personal performances naturally suffer as do United as a team because, they’re now lacking their big creator further up the pitch!
Almost none of these players are playing in their preferred roles and even if they are, they aren’t playing with anyone who complements their skillset. It makes it look like none of them are giving any effort which could be true, or could simply be the result of having players do jobs they are not capable of doing.
Erik ten Hag has a long and difficult job ahead of him. He’s not inheriting a good squad, rather a squad of big names that don’t fit together.
Years of bad decisions got United to this place. They pursued too many opportunistic signing of big names rather than lesser knowns who fit the style they were looking for. They sold this with the PR spin of “good players can adapt their games” which really is just setting up the new player to fail because
1. most often older players who are set in their ways can’t just change their games
2. when they do change their games, that usually means their individual numbers go down, which simply creates the narrative that they’re not getting the best out of him.
This is all coupled in with the idea of “oh we have a promising kid from the academy who’s still young enough to be developed.” Most often, they’re not. Just because they’re young doesn’t mean those players don’t have profiles and stylistic fits. Certain things can be improved upon, but you’re still going to have a skillset that fits certain styles and doesn’t fit others.
That’s where the club needs to do a better job evaluating their academy players. If one doesn’t fit the style of play your manager wants, you can’t count him as a number or a pivotal member of the squad. Move on from him. You have to break free of this attitude that he’ll just develop into it and ‘oh but the history of the club/academy’ because he probably won’t. You can’t have water carriers at this level.
That’s what United need to face moving forward. Managers will come and go so it’s not just about look at how the manager wants to play. When looking at potential signings, look at the players you currently have and ask, “will this signing bring out the best in these guys?” “Will these guys bring out the best in him?”
If the answer is no then either don’t sign him, or if you still want him then sign other players who will complement him and move on from the ones that won’t, even if they’re from the beloved academy.
Herein lies the problem for Erik Ten Hag. United’s new manager will want to play a certain style, and he’s going to look to sign players that can play that style. But even if he signs five new players he’s still going to need to rely on a great number of players who are already here. If those players can’t play the style that Ten Hag wants he too will be doomed if he doesn’t adapt.
Ten Hag may have to sacrifice his own brand of football for a year until he can clear out the players who don’t fit and bring in enough that do. That process itself can set Ten Hag back a year or two. This will continue to happen to every future manager so long as United don’t break the pattern of stockpiling “talent” rather than players who are the right fit and not moving on from academy players who are solid or good but simply not a fit for the style that United are looking to play.
Fees via Wikipedia
Yes a theme is going to develop here
Zlatan’s transfer was anything but free. He ended up costing United over £22m before you even factor in what Mino Raiola got for the deal. There’s more detail in this piece.
This is one of the big reasons to hire Mourinho, he’s very good at moving on from veterans. Rooney was already done and finished, but was still just a few more goals away from becoming United’s all time leading scorer. Mourinho’s job was to basically get him that record while still phasing him out of the team. In that regard, he was very successful.
Lol yea. He finished two appearances short of his contract automatically renewing so they legit had to sign him to a completely new contract with new bonuses for both the player and his agent. He played five games…
When all was said and done had both players seen out their contracts Alexis Sanchez would have costed United £1m less than the total of Romelu Lukaku’s deal
When you remember the bonuses that were paid out to Zlatan, Alexis, and their agents - and that’s before wages
United actually had to sneak in the Fred and Dalot deals long before they were announced for bookkeeping purposes
McTominay really didn’t play much under Mourinho. Narratives are funny man
Just like he did when playing with Zlatan
Incredibly irritating how often you use the words "it wasn't surprising" or "not surprisingly" or similar. It just makes you look like an insufferable know-it-all who's unaware of the power of hindsight.
If you'd actually predicted that occurrence in advance, then you could hyperlink to where you said it. Then, and only then, would it be okay to point out how "unsurprising" it all was.