What went wrong at Manchester United after Sir Alex retired?
Breaking the Cycle
This upcoming season is a make or break one for Solskjaer and his project. So far, 2020/21 is off to an underwhelming start. First, we lost to Crystal Palace in our opening match, and we barely scraped by a surprisingly impressive Brighton team. All that was followed with a humiliating 6-1 defeat at Old Trafford at the hands of Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur side.
With all of our rivals around us investing heavily into strengthening their squads, United need to follow suit if they want to, at the very least, stay competitive. This window has been disappointing to say the least.
The clear cycle at Manchester United post Sir Alex Ferguson has been taking one step forward and two steps back. Each manager that was appointed had different playing styles, so the players brought in under one boss didn’t necessarily align with the next manager’s tactics.
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The trend can be seen spanning over the 4 managers’ durations at the club. At 6 months, Moyes was not given enough time to accomplish anything to be honest. Louis van Gaal delivered some results, but nothing spectacular. José Mourinho took over and essentially cleared house of both previous managers’ signings.
Mourinho had United looking like they were really heading in the right direction, until a very poor beginning to the 2018/19 season which led to his separation with the club. Ole had Manchester United looking at their best since 2012/13 during his first season in charge.
It once again looks like they may be heading in the right direction, but it could also just follow the same cycle that United have been in. As previously stated, United are not off to a hot start to this campaign. It can be attributed to two things: first, a lack of a proper pre-season and poor fitness; second, an inability to sign our targets.
The owners need to back the manager this time around. Or Manchester United will just continue going around this cycle.