No trophies but it feels like Manchester United are finally moving forward

Manchester United are heading in the right direction.

Disappointment is as prevalent in football as delirium.

Whether it’s dejection at ending a season that promised so much in the last eight months without silverware or vitriolic gratification being poured on you by rival fans or friends supporting other clubs, jabbing like a piece of rusty barbed wire, there will be a lot of pain being felt by Manchester United fans right now.

It’s important to remember though that feelings are temporary. It is substance and structure that endures.

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In this new era of social media-obsession, fans feel a lot more about their football team than they ever have. Or they are able to reach a wider audience with whatever they’re feeling. They feel the hateful and painful side of the game more than the elation and happiness of success. This seems especially true of United fans, many of whom are happiest when launching into the dreadful and deficient aspects of this current squad and manager than any actual delight that lifting a trophy at the end of the season would have brought.

Let’s not shy away from the dreadful and deficient.

United lack strength in depth and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer needs an injection of quality off the bench when game plans aren’t going to plan, players suffer off days or injuries, or a tightly packed defence requires a locksmith. He received a lot of stick for not making a substitution until the 87th minute of the Europa League semi-final, despite being 2-1 down to Sevilla, but this signifies a lack of trust in the bench’s inhabitants as much as any lack of managerial aptitude.

Daniel James’ burst onto the scene at the start of the year has slowed to a snail’s pace, mid-season signing Odion Ighalo’s impact has been blunted, while game-changers like Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard and Andreas Pereira are either burning out or likely on their way out of Old Trafford. Pereira, for example, has played only 62 minutes in 10 games since football returned following lockdown.

Defensive issues linger, although individual errors that categorised the Sevilla defeat and that have pockmarked performances post-COVID-19 are too readily used to spear holes in what has ultimately been a much strengthened and more solid defence. David De Gea’s worrying decline is alarming and cannot be allowed to continue into next season, but United conceded just 36 goals in the 2019/20 Premier League season – only Liverpool (33) and Manchester City (35) bettered this stat. And a unit marshalled by Harry Maguire shipped 18 fewer goals than the previous campaign. Maguire, for all the criticism his £80million price tag attracts, has added solidity and security to a defence that too often creaked and crumbled in recent seasons. He was one of only three players (team-mate De Gea and Everton’s Jordan Pickford) to play every single minute of the league season and his average WhoScored.com rating of 7.12 placed him 35th among all players.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka has also shored up a position that has been so problematic for United since Gary Neville retired that Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young – players who made their names as threatening wingers – have been the square pegs lazily inserted into very round holes under previous regimes.

Luke Shaw’s detractors are numerous but he had been one of United’s best performers post-lockdown before injury ended his season, while Brandon Williams’ emergence at left-back has been one of the most refreshing aspects of the 2019/20 campaign.

United looked tired and bereft of zip in the latter stages against Julen Lopetegui’s side – who have been so stingy defensively since the return of football that Bruno Fernandes’ ninth-minute penalty on Sunday was just the seventh goal they’d conceded in 14 games, and the first since a 2-1 victory over Athletic Bilbao a little more than five weeks ago.

The Andalucians haven’t lost since February and are one of just three teams (Bayern Munich and AC Milan the others) in Europe’s top five leagues (excluding Ligue 1) to not taste defeat since football’s resumption.

Regrettably, Solskjaer’s reliance on his most trusted XI, who have played superbly for the most part since June, ultimately led to them burning out.
All the above point to a need for additions. Players who can spearhead the charge forward – like Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho or another stellar option alongside Maguire at centre-back. But players who could fill a role or void on the bench, or complement the good work being done by Solskjaer and his players would be just as welcome, and vital.

But it is the positives on which we should dwell.

A young squad is being shaped by Solskjaer, who is finally re-establishing the club’s identity and carving out his own groove as a capable manager when, for much of the campaign, most fans were wondering when the guillotine would come down on his Old Trafford tenure.

Of all the talk about which players are required and where, we should marvel at the performances and progress current United stars are making. Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial became the first duo to net over 20 goals each in a campaign since Dimitar Berbatov and Javier Hernandez in 2010/11. The Frenchman found consistency in his fifth year and while he remains a work in progress he is finally showing more than just glimpses of world-class ability. Although Rashford was more miss than hit in the latter stages of the season he is maturing rapidly, on and off the field. He also carried this squad prior to Christmas and it is widely forgotten or ignored his erratic form masks what was a possible career-threatening back injury suffered in January.

We should marvel too at the mastery of Fernandes and magnificence of Mason Greenwood. The Portuguese was the catalyst for an upsurge in form at the start of the year, while 18-year-old Greenwood has fitted seamlessly into the first-team fold, playing 45 games and scoring 17 goals in his debut campaign. Veteran forwards in their final season would be happy with those numbers. Critics have lambasted Solskjaer for jettisoning Romelu Lukaku yet it is interesting to note he netted two fewer goals than Greenwood in the same amount of games during his final campaign in Manchestee. Both have been a shot in the arm and more shots are required.

Finishing third in the league and reaching three semi-finals with an exciting, developing squad, being pieced together slowly by one of their own, is making genuine fans feel like United are actually getting back to being the United of old.

This is not meant to come across as an article championing mediocrity – far from it. Semi-final appearances and securing Champions League football is the very minimum required at this club. But for the first time in a long time it genuinely feels like happier days are on the horizon. Maguire told BT Sportpost-match: “Losing is not acceptable. Getting to semi-finals isn’t acceptable. will happen soon. We want to win it as soon as possible.”

He genuinely believed what he was saying. Solskjaer genuinely believes in what he is building and has always said he will be successful. It is rubbing off on his players.

If United had limped out against Sevilla, anger and disappointment would be justified. But this young team dominated a very robust and resilient opponent, whose win owed as much to another inspired goalkeeping and defensive performance as it did to United’s own poor defensive errors and profligate finishing.

One fan on Twitter wrote on Monday: “I feel better about United today than at any point since SAF left. We look more like Manchester United than at any point under Moyes, LvG or Mourinho”.

And this is the salient point.

We as football fans can quite easily become caught up in the moment, swept away by a brief wave of optimism that is gone just as quickly as it came.

One glaring stat following defeat is that United have now gone three seasons without lifting a trophy – not since a barren spell in the early Sir Alex years from 1986 to 1989 has this occurred. But would you honestly rather be excited going forward with this squad, believing sustained success can be rediscovered? Or settle for false dawns and the occasional trophy, only to ultimately take backwards steps or stay static.

David Moyes may crow about not being provided sufficient time, but his reign was an utter disaster.

Louis van Gaal led United to their first FA Cup triumph in 12 years, but money thrown at players with ‘Galactico’ status and reputations yet who were broken or displaced in Manchester was akin to fighting a raging inferno with a water pistol. Not to mention his archaic, pedestrian football sent fans to sleep rather than into frenzy.

As for Jose Mourinho, who won the League Cup and a maiden Europa League trophy in his first season? He was a fading idol who would only drag the club further away from its core values – attacking football and championing youth – while also buying players with rotten attitudes. Meanwhile, his own poisonous aura depicted him as the apple maggot, only it was United not a piece of fruit he was destroying from the inside.

So, it is Sevilla who go forward into Sunday’s Europa League final. But United are also going forward. It may be difficult to fathom, considering they have been ousted from the semi-finals of three competitions they’ve won in the last three seasons. But progress is no longer being marked – or masked – by short-term success. It is genuinely growing before our very eyes from the seeds sown by Solskjaer.

Where do you think United will finish next season?