Things have not been going Manchester United’s way for a while now. The club are out of both domestic cup competitions, FA Cup and League Cup, already. They also are in a tough race to finish in the top four of the Premier League with the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Wolves. And their only hope of silverware seems to be somehow winning the Champions League.
While never say never in football, that is always difficult and thus, it feels like Manchester United could be headed towards their fifth straight trophyless campaign.
One man who has won the Champions League plenty of times through the course of his career is Raphael Varane. But at Manchester United, he has not been able to make a huge impact since joining the club in the summer from Real Madrid.
And Tim Sherwood even believes that Ralf Rangnick should consider dropping him from the starting XI. As reported by the Mirror, the former Tottenham Hotspur manager said on Sky Sports:
"“If we talk about Raphael Varane, he’s got off the hook because he’s been terrible. He’s been terrible since coming to the club.“You’ve got Maguire who wants to defend the halfway line and Varane who wants to defend up there, so they’re not level with each other.“When Lindelof played the other night [in the 2-0 win over Brighton], United looked better, they looked better with those two.“It’s about finding the best partnership but then the manager has to be strong and leave out a player who’s won the Champions League and the World Cup.”"
Rangnick told to drop the Manchester United superstar
It would be a stretch to say that Varane has been terrible during his time at Manchester United. He has appeared to be a calm presence in the middle of a defence that has mostly struggled.
But at the same time, there is no hiding from the fact that he has not had the impact that Manchester United fans would have been hoping for, when the club signed him from Real Madrid in the summer.
Expectations were that he would come in and transform the Manchester United defence into one of the best in the Premier League. It is safe to say that that has not happened, as the French World Cup winner has struggled with form and fitness over the past several months.