Blog

10/03/2024 04:56
Shaw Got Ten Years

A product of Southampton's youth policy, age 16, left back Luke Shaw made his first team debut on January 28th, 2012, against Millwall, 1-1, in the F.A. Cup 3rd Round, substituting for left winger, Jason Puncheon, in the 77th minute, before signing as a professional, after 'The Saints' beat Coventry City, 4-0, on April 28th, to finish second on 88 points below Reading's 89, but above West Ham United's 86, and gain promotion from English soccer’s 2nd tier Championship to 1st tier Premier League for the 2012-13 campaign. Manchester United's Dutch manager, Louis van Gaal, had him transferred for the 2014-15 season for £30m.
In an injury ravaged start to his career, Luke also had the talents of Argentine defender, Marcos Rojo, bought by van Gaal from Portugal’s Sporting CP, Lisbon, for £16m, former Aston Villa left wing, England’s Ashley Young, bought for £17m for 2011-12, and converted by then manager, Alex Ferguson, to left back, and left footed Dutch center back, Daley Blind, after a hamstring injury to Shaw kept him out of the team for the first month of the season, also bought by Gaal for 2014-15 from Eredivisie Ajax for £13.8m, to compete for a place in the team.
Rojo, a center half, also played at left back, as he did in the 2016 F.A. Cup Final for Gaal, though Rojo himself was replaced on 66 minutes by Italian full back, Matteo Darmian, transferred from Italy's AC Milan for 2015-16, after being on loan at Torino, Turin, Italy, for £12.7m, specifically as cover for Shaw, while Young came on as substitute for England center forward, Marcus Rashford, on 72 minutes, with French left wing Anthony Martial, switching to center forward, as Young took the left wing position. United drew, 1-1, but won, 2-1, a.e.t., through a volley on the right edge of the 18 yard box, right footed, top left corner of the net, from England's Jessie Lingard, on for Spain's left footed inverted right wing, Juan Mata, on 110 minutes.
Before the appointment of Portuguese manager, José Mourinho, as Gaal's successor for 2016-17, as the club wanted the league title as well as the F.A. Cup, Young, along with right wing, Ecuador's Antonio Valencia, similarly at right back in the 2016 F.A. Cup Final, Ashley having been converted to left full back by Ferguson, to win the last of his 13 league titles in 2012-13, before he retired to be replaced for 2013-14 by Everton's David Moyes.
Gaal had replaced Moyes, after David lost to Sunderland, 1-2 away, and 2-1 at home, with the aggregate score, 3-3, a.e.t., in the second leg, 1-2, on penalties at Old Trafford of the 2013-14 League Cup semi-final. A catalyst for dismissal. However, the non-availability of Shaw for the 2016 F.A. Cup Final was indicative of the problems that injury and competition for the left back role represented for him. In the 2014-15 season, ruled out by a hamstring complaint for the first part, Luke made 15 starts and 1 appearance from the substitutes' bench, as the specialist left back, while Rojo and Young had more opportunities to compete for that spot in 2015-16, after Shaw suffered a double leg fracture, subsequent to a 15th minute sliding tackle by Dutch club PSV Eindhoven's Mexican center back, Héctor Moreno, in a defeat, 1-2, on September 15th, 2015, at Philips Stadion, during a Group B Champions League qualifier for the knock-out Round of 16 stage. However, finishing 3rd the club were relegated to competing in European soccer's 2nd tier competition, where in the Europa League’s Round of 16 they lost to Liverpool, 1-3, on aggregate, 0-2, at Anfield, and 1-1 at home.
Shaw made only 5 starts in 2015-16, and 9 starts and 2 appearances in 2016-17, followed by 8 and 3 in 2017-18, which indicated not only the extent of his injury concerns with regard to recovery and fitness, but also the ability of the competition, for example, Darmian, who made 15 starts and 3 appearances for Mourinho in 2016-17, with Rojo at left back for the League Cup Final defeat of Southampton, 3-2, was at left back in the Europa Cup Final defeat of Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam, 2-0, at Friends Arena, Stockholm, Sweden, while Young was at left back for the defeat to Chelsea, 0-1, in the 2018 F.A. Cup Final.
Luke's England career was similarly disrupted, with only 8 appearances, subsequent to his 4 in 2014, after his debut as half-time substitute for Chelsea's Ashley Cole, while still at Southampton, in a friendly at London's Wembley Stadium against Denmark, 1-0, on March 5th, and second choice to Everton's Leighton Baines in the 2014 World Cup Finals, selected only for the Group D, Game 3, World Cup qualifier, at Estádio Mineirão, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on June 24th, against Central America's Costa Rica, 0-0, eventual group winners, with former World Cup winners England and Italy eliminated, while another, Uruguay, progressed.
In the 2016 European Championship, with the Finals due to be held in France, without injured Shaw, who'd been fit for the Group E European Championship qualifiers against a European microstate within Italy's borders, San Marino, beaten 6-0, at Stadio Olimpico, Sarravalle, on September 5th, 2015, and against Switzerland, defeated 2-0, at Wembley, on September 8th, 2015, before England lost to Iceland, 1-2, at Grande Stade de Nice, Italy, in the Round of 16, with Tottenham Hotspur's Danny Rose at left back, while at the 2018 World Cup Finals in Russia, Ashley Young was at left full back for the semi final, 1-2, against Croatia, at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow.
Shaw was available for the inaugural 2018-19 UEFA Nations League, Portugal, Group A 4 defeat to Spain, 1-2, at Wembley on September 8th, 2018, while England, losing to the Netherlands in the semi final, 1-1, and 1-3, a.e.t., at Estádio D. Afonso Henriques, Guimarães, Portugal, June 6th, 2019, with Leicester City's Ben Chilwell at left back, on June 9th, again in the city of Guimarães, beat Switzerland, 0-0, a.e.t., 6-5 on penalties, in the game to decide 3rd and 4th place overall, but this time with Rose at left back.
For 2020's European Championship Finals, held multi-nationally in 11 countries, Shaw was selected for Group D, Game 3, to face the Czech Republic, won 1-0, on June 22nd at Wembley, and against Germany, won 2-0, on June 29th, in the Round of 16, at Wembley, before the defeat of Ukraine, in the quarter final, on July 3rd, 2021, 4-0, at the Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy, and then Denmark were beaten, 2-1, in the semi final, on July 7th, at Wembley, but the side lost at London’s national Stadium on July 11th, 2-3, to Italy on penalties, a.e.t., 1-1, with Shaw getting England's goal from open play on 2 minutes, striking low, left of 'keeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, from a cross by Atlético Madrid's right back, Kieran Trippier, at the right corner of the 18 yard box to Luke at the far post.
Losing the final of the European Championships was a close affair, and Manchester United wouldn't win another trophy until 2022-23, when manager from the Netherlands' Ajax, Amsterdam, Erik ten Hag,  steered the side to victory in the 2023 League Cup Final, 2-0, against Newcastle United, having replaced Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, former ‘red devils’ striker, and Mourinho's successor, after the 2018 F.A. Cup Final defeat to a penalty on 22 minutes by Eden Hazard, when the Belgian striker was recklessly challenged in the penalty area by England center back, Phil Jones, 0-1.
Shaw had made the left full back position his though, with 29 starts in 2018-19, and Daley Blind returned to Ajax for €16m, although Solskjaer assessed Brandon Williams, 19 years, 11 starts and 6 appearances in 2019-20, while Luke was making 20 starts and 4 appearances. For 2020-21 Ole had Brazil left back, Alex Telles, 8 starts and 1 appearance, transferred from Portugal's FC Porto for £15.4m to sustain the pressure on Shaw, 30 starts and 2 appearances, to perform. The competition was productive, as Ole's team made four semi-finals in two seasons; the League Cup, F.A. Cup and Europa Cup in 2019-2020, and the League Cup semi final in 2020-21.
The club also reached the 2021 Europa Cup Final at Gdańsk Stadion, Poland, beating Roma in the first leg of the quarter final at home, 6-2, but losing, 2-3 in Rome, winning 8-5 on aggregate, only to lose to Spain’s Villarreal in the Final, 10-11 on penalties, a.e.t., 1-1, with South America's Uruguayan center forward, Edinson Cavani, arriving on a free transfer, age 34 from French club, Paris Saint-Germain, striking twice in the semi final first leg against Roma, with United behind, 1-2, right footed volleying a pass infield from Portugal’s playmaker, Bruno Fernandes, to his right on 49 minutes into the top right corner, and a tap in on 64 minutes after Spanish ‘keeper, Pau López, was unable to hold onto Croydon born right back Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross shot from wide on the right.
Edinson, in the second away leg, put through by Fred, right footed, bursting through from inside his own half into Roma’s, receiving the pass infield, ran on to rifle a shot, on 39 minutes, into the net, a yard or so from the edge of the 18 yard box, 1-0,  then later, Fernandes, left outside the 18 yard box, chipping the ball towards Cavani, running in at goal from the right corner of the 18 yard box, center, a yard or so outside the penalty area, on 68 minutes, a header down, and inside the right post, 2-2.
On 55 minutes Cavani equalized in the Final against Villarreal, with a close-in strike from 5 yards, 1-1. Left back, Alfonso Pedraza, midway inside the 18 yard box, could only block, with the outside of his right boot, Rashford’s low effort, center field, from 20 yards, as far as Scots’ midfielder, Scott McTominay, who set himself to run at the ball to strike at goal. Although center back, Pau Torres, dove in with a sliding tackle to clear, Cavani, coming in from the left ahead of him, swept the ball with the inside of his right boot, past Argentine ‘keeper, Gerónimo Rulli, into the net.
The team lost comprehensively to Manchester City in the 2019-20 two leg League Cup semi final, 1-3, at home, with Williams at left back, but with Shaw, 1-0 away, 2-3 on aggregate, while in the F.A. Cup semi final the side again lost comprehensively to Chelsea, with Williams at left back, 1-3, and in the Europa cup semi final a loss, 0-2, to Spain’s Sevilla, at the RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne, Germany, with Williams again at left back. Luke was at left back against Manchester City in the 2020-21 League Cup semi final defeat, 0-2, and in the 10-11 Europa Cup Final loss to Villarreal, which led to Solskjaer's replacing in 2021-22, with former RB Leipzig manager, German Ralf Rangnick, an interim appointment on December 3rd, 2021, until season's end.
For Ole 2021-22 began optimistically, with Portugal’s legendary right wing, Cristiano Ronaldo, agreeing to leave Italy's Juventus for £12.85m. He'd won back-to-back titles there in 2018-19 and 2019-20, after leaving Real Madrid for £88m, where he'd won the European Champions League in 2014, against Spain’s Atlético Madrid, 1-1, and 4-1, a.e.t., on May 24th at the Estádio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal; 2016, against Atlético Madrid, 1-1, a.e.t., 5-3 on penalties, on May 28th at the San Siro, Milan; 2017, against Italy's Juventus, 4-1, on June 3rd at the Olympiastadion, Berlin, Germany, and 2018, against Liverpool, 3-1, on May 26th at the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kyiv, Ukraine, as well as the World Club Cup in 2014, against Argentina's San Lorenzo, 2-0, on December 20th at the Stade de Marrakech, Marrakesh, Morocco; 2016, against Japan's Kashima Antlers, 2-2, a.e.t., 4-2, on December 18th at the International Stadium, Yokohama, and 2017, against Brazil's Grémio, 1-0, on December 16th at the Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi, after leaving Old Trafford for £80m, where he'd won the 2008 Champions League Final at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, against Chelsea, 1-1, and ahead on 26 minutes from his own headed goal, through a cross on the right from the full back there, Wes Brown, 6-5, a.e.t., on penalties, with legendary Welsh left wing, Ryan Giggs, converting # 6.
Despite the legend’s desire to unfold further, scoring 6 of his 18 goals that term for Solskjaer, the club, 7th in the league on November 20th, was taken out of Ole’s control and given over to first team coach Michael Carrick who, caretaker manager until Ralf, saw his charges draw, 1-1 on November 21st against Chelsea at home.
Right footed inverted left wing, Jadon Sancho, brought from German Bundesliga club, Borussia Dortmund, for 2021-22 for £73m, and returning on loan there from January 11th, 2024, for a fee of £4m, ‘underperforming’, according to ten Hag, dispossessed Brazilian born Italian international defensive midfielder, Jorginho, who tried to control on his chest, just outside the center circle, inside the Chelsea half, a volleyed left footed lob from Fernandes, left of United’s 18 yard box. Sancho ran the ball into The Blues’ penalty area, rounding Senegalese ‘keeper, Édouard Mendy, and drove the ball right footed into the net on 50 minutes, 1-0.
On November 28th Carrick effectively relinquished his caretaker role, after a win away to Spain’s Villarreal in Group F of the Champions League, after securing for the club a place in the Round of 16, with Ronaldo, on 78 minutes, lobbing the ball over ‘keeper Rulli, after his too-short kick out to French defensive midfielder, Étienne Capoue, challenged by United’s Brazilian left midfielder, Fred, bounced favorably for Cristiano to side footed, lob, with the inside of his right boot, 1-0.
Fernandes, right of center, completing a sweeping cross field move from the left touchline, flicked a pass infield from Rashford, on as a 66th minute substitute for Martial, and in his preferred role of right footed inverted left winger, out to Sancho, at the right of the 18 yard box, almost level with the corner of the 6 yard box, and the England striker, right footed, struck high, on 90 minutes, into the top right corner of the net, 2-0.
With United on 10 points in Group F, at worst the club would complete their fixture list to finish second to Villarreal on goal difference. Completing their fixtures, home and away, against United, Italy’s Atalanta, and Switzerland’s Young Boys of Berne, Villarreal finished on 10 points, with a goal difference of +3. With a game against Young Boys at Old Trafford remaining, under Rangnick’s guidance, the team drew, 1-1, after a cross from Shaw out on the left wing near the goal line, was struck, left footed, falling backwards, low inside the left post, 1-0, by then 20 years England center forward, Mason Greenwood, later sent off on loan to get offers at Spain’s La Liga club, Getafe, after January, 2022, social media video recordings alleging rape, but 18 in 2019-20, when he reached double figures in goals, 10, for the first and only time in his then United career. With the same goal difference as Villarreal, +3, United finished top of Group F on 11 points.
Shaw made 19 starts and 1 appearance in 2021-22 before ten Hag's arrival. Curiously the Dutchman managed to leave the team without recognizable left back cover for Luke, 30 starts and 1 appearance in 2022-23, by the close of 2023-24, which significantly impinged on the club's progress, as they had to negotiate the later rounds of the F.A. Cup without Shaw. Telles, allowed to go on loan for 2022-23 to Spain's Sevilla, where he won the Europa Cup, 4-1 on penalties, a.e.t., with the match against Italy's Roma ending, at the Puskás Arena, Budapest, Hungary, after normal time, 1-1, was transferred for $7.8m to Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr for 2023-24, where he was in the team that won the Arab Club Champions Cup Final at King Fahd Stadium, Taif, Saudi Arabia, on August 12th, 2023, against Al Hilal, also of Saudi Arabia, 2-1, alongside Ronaldo, given a free transfer by ten Hag, who got both goals.
Ten Hag's solution to his left full back issue was to bring from Everton Spain's Sergio Reguilón on loan, 5 starts and 4 appearances, but he was allowed to return to Everton on January 4th, shortly before Shaw's injury on 45 + 2 minutes, during the February 18th, 2-1, win at Luton Town, which in the absence of left footed Argentine center back, and sometime left back, Lisandro Martínez, foot and knee injury, brought from ten Hag's former club, Ajax, for 2022-23 for £47m, and Tyrell Malacia, knee, left back transferred from Holland's Feyenoord, also for 2022-23, for £13m, both out for most of the season, meant the side hadn't a left full back for the remaining F.A. Cup games.
A loan spell for Brandon Williams at then Premier League club, Norwich City, 2021-22, 23 starts and 3 appearances, didn't augur well. Though a rugged, long-legged tackler, with the capacity to cross strongly from the left, Williams didn't figure in ten Hag's 2022-23 league campaign, and loaned to England's 2nd tier Championship club, Ipswich Town, for 2023-24, he wasn't recalled after Shaw's setback. Spanish left back, Álvaro Carreras, 27 starts and 12 appearances, on loan to England's Championship club Preston North End in 2022-23, was again loaned, first on September 1st, 2023, to Granada in Spain's La Liga, then on January 17th, 2024, before Shaw's injury in February, who then had only 12 starts to his name, Carreras again went on loan to Portugal's Primeira Liga club Benfica, with the condition of his signing for €6m being that he should play half (8) of the Lisbon club's remaining games in their league season, which for ten Hag seemed to preclude Carreras being recalled, while emphasizing how it was Shaw hadn't any rivals.
At 3rd in Group 2, with Trippier at left back, England didn't qualify for the biennial 2020-21 UEFA Nations League Finals, Italy, but England's Luke, selected for the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Group I against Hungary, 4-0, on September 2nd, 2021, at the Puskás Arena, Budapest, and against Poland, 1-1, on September 8th, at Stadion Narodowy, Warsaw, before the return against Hungary, on October 12th, 1-1, at Wembley, was at left back for the 2022-23 UEFA Nations League, Holland, Group A3, Game 5, against Italy, on September 23rd, 2022, at Stadio San Siro, Milan, 0-1, and against Germany, Game 6, on September 26th, in which he scored England's first at Wembley on 77 minutes in a draw, 3-3, although England, bottom of Group A3, were relegated to Group B.
Shaw, selected for the 2022 World Cup Finals against Iran, on November 21st, in the Group B Game 1, experienced victory, 6-2, at the Khalifa International Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar, while drawing in Game 2 against the United States, 0-0, on November 25th at Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor, before winning in Game 3 against Wales, 3-0, on November 29th, at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan, and beating Senegal in Game 4, 3-0, on December 4th, at Al Bayt, but losing the quarter final against France, 1-2, on December 10th, at Al Bayt.
Luke went on to play for England in the qualifiers for the 2024 European Championship, Germany, against Italy, Group C, winning 2-1, on March 23rd, 2023, at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Naples, and in the defeat of Malta, 4-0, on June 16th, at the Ta'Qali National Stadium, Valetta, as well as against North Macedonia, beaten 7-0, on June 19th, at Old Trafford, Manchester, and England's last opponent ahead of Shaw's February 2024 injury.
Ten years at 'the theater of Dreams', and some dreaming with ten Hag, deserves a testimonial, according to received soccer wisdom. Shaw was the latest in a considerable line of left back heroes for the faithful amongst the terraced ranks at the Stretford End to applaud. Eire's Johnny Carey, captain of the 1948 F.A. Cup Final winning side that beat Blackpool, 4-2. Roger Byrne, captain, and another left winger, 7 goals in 1951-52’s league title team, switched to left full back. Eire's Tony Dunne, left back in the 1968 European Cup Final defeat of Portugal's Benfica, 4-1, a.e.t., 1-1, at Wembley. Scot, Arthur Albiston, winner of the F.A. Cup Finals of 1977, against Liverpool, 2-1, 1983, against Brighton and Hove Albion, 4-0, after a replay, 2-2, and 1985, against Everton, 1-0. England left back, Lee Martin, lashing home the winner on 59 minutes in the 1990 F.A. Cup Final Replay, 1-0, after the first game ended, 3-3. Northern Ireland’s Denis Irwin's marathon stint as a right footed left back, after his transfer from Oldham Athletic for season 1990-91 for £650,000, during 7 of the team's championship winning seasons, as well as the 1999 European Cup Final in Spain at Barcelona's Camp Nou Stadium, 2-1, against German Bundesliga club, FC Bayern Munich. Fans have had some cheer from the left back position.
Although Shaw reportedly idolized Chelsea's Ashley Cole, prior to van Gaal’s injection of Luke's panache in 2014-15, his immediate predecessors in the left back role at United were equally as deserving. France's Mikaël Silvestre, five league titles before 2007-08, and his second European Champions League title in 2007-08, although France’s left back, Patrice Evra, edged him out of the starting line up, and Alex Ferguson’s converted left wing, Ashley Young, at left full back, assuring him and his players of their 13th league title in 2012-13.

Shaw Got Ten Years

A product of Southampton's youth policy, age 16, left back Luke Shaw made his first team debut on January 28th, 2012, against Millwall, 1-1, in the F.A. Cup 3rd Round, substituting for left winger, Jason Puncheon, in the 77th minute, before signing as a professional, after 'The Saints' beat Coventry City, 4-0, on April 28th, to finish second on 88 points below Reading's 89, but above West Ham United's 86, and gain promotion from English soccer’s 2nd tier Championship to 1st tier Premier League for the 2012-13 campaign. Manchester United's Dutch manager, Louis van Gaal, had him transferred for the 2014-15 season for £30m.

 In an injury ravaged start to his career, Luke also had the talents of Argentine defender, Marcos Rojo, bought by van Gaal from Portugal’s Sporting CP, Lisbon, for £16m, former Aston Villa left wing, England’s Ashley Young, bought for £17m for 2011-12, and converted by then manager, Alex Ferguson, to left back, and left footed Dutch center back, Daley Blind, after a hamstring injury to Shaw kept him out of the team for the first month of the season, also bought by Gaal for 2014-15 from Eredivisie Ajax for £13.8m, to compete for a place in the team.

 Rojo, a center half, also played at left back, as he did in the 2016 F.A. Cup Final for Gaal, though Rojo himself was replaced on 66 minutes by Italian full back, Matteo Darmian, transferred from Italy's AC Milan for 2015-16, after being on loan at Torino, Turin, Italy, for £12.7m, specifically as cover for Shaw, while Young came on as substitute for England center forward, Marcus Rashford, on 72 minutes, with French left wing Anthony Martial, switching to center forward, as Young took the left wing position. United drew, 1-1, but won, 2-1, a.e.t., through a volley on the right edge of the 18 yard box, right footed, top left corner of the net, from England's Jessie Lingard, on for Spain's left footed inverted right wing, Juan Mata, on 110 minutes.

 Before the appointment of Portuguese manager, José Mourinho, as Gaal's successor for 2016-17, as the club wanted the league title as well as the F.A. Cup, Young, along with right wing, Ecuador's Antonio Valencia, similarly at right back in the 2016 F.A. Cup Final, Ashley having been converted to left full back by Ferguson, to win the last of his 13 league titles in 2012-13, before he retired to be replaced for 2013-14 by Everton's David Moyes.

 Gaal had replaced Moyes, after David lost to Sunderland, 1-2 away, and 2-1 at home, with the aggregate score, 3-3, a.e.t., in the second leg, 1-2, on penalties at Old Trafford, of the 2013-14 League Cup semi-final. A catalyst for dismissal. However, the non-availability of Shaw for the 2016 F.A. Cup Final was indicative of the problems that injury and competition for the left back role represented for him. In the 2014-15 season, ruled out by a hamstring complaint for the first part, Luke made 15 starts and 1 appearance from the substitutes' bench, as the specialist left back, while Rojo and Young had more opportunities to compete for that spot in 2015-16, after Shaw suffered a double leg fracture, subsequent to a 15th minute sliding tackle by Dutch club PSV Eindhoven's Mexican center back, Héctor Moreno, in a defeat, 1-2, on September 15th, 2015, at Philips Stadion, during a Group B Champions League qualifier for the knock-out Round of 16 stage. However, finishing 3rd the club were relegated to competing in European soccer's 2nd tier competition, where in the Europa League’s Round of 16 they lost to Liverpool, 1-3, on aggregate, 0-2, at Anfield, and 1-1 at home. 

 Shaw made only 5 starts in 2015-16, and 9 starts and 2 appearances in 2016-17, followed by 8 and 3 in 2017-18, which indicated not only the extent of his injury concerns with regard to recovery and fitness, but also the ability of the competition, for example, Darmian, who made 15 starts and 3 appearances for Mourinho in 2016-17, with Rojo at left back for the League Cup Final defeat of Southampton, 3-2, was at left back in the Europa Cup Final defeat of Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam, 2-0, at Friends Arena, Stockholm, Sweden, while Young was at left back for the defeat to Chelsea, 0-1, in the 2018 F.A. Cup Final.

 Luke's England career was similarly disrupted, with only 8 appearances, subsequent to his 4 in 2014, after his debut as half-time substitute for Chelsea's Ashley Cole, while still at Southampton, in a friendly at London's Wembley Stadium against Denmark, 1-0, on March 5th, and second choice to Everton's Leighton Baines in the 2014 World Cup Finals, selected only for the Group D, Game 3, World Cup qualifier, at Estádio Mineirão, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on June 24th, against Central America's Costa Rica, 0-0, eventual group winners, with former World Cup winners England, 1966, and Italy, 1934, '38, '82 and 2006 eliminated, while another Uruguay, 1930 and '50, progressed.

 In the 2016 European Championship, with the Finals due to be held in France, without injured Shaw, who'd been fit for the Group E European Championship qualifiers against a European microstate within Italy's borders, San Marino, beaten 6-0, at Stadio Olimpico, Sarravalle, on September 5th, 2015, and against Switzerland, defeated 2-0, at Wembley, on September 8th, 2015, before England lost to Iceland, 1-2, at Grande Stade de Nice, Italy, in the Round of 16, with Tottenham Hotspur's Danny Rose at left back, while at the 2018 World Cup Finals in Russia, Ashley Young was at left full back for the semi final, 1-2, against Croatia, at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow.

 Shaw was available for the inaugural 2018-19 UEFA Nations League, Portugal, Group A 4 defeat to Spain, 1-2, at Wembley on September 8th, 2018, while England, losing to the Netherlands in the semi final, 1-1, and 1-3, a.e.t., at Estádio D. Afonso Henriques, Guimarães, Portugal, June 6th, 2019, with Leicester City's Ben Chilwell at left back, on June 9th, again in the city of Guimarães, beat Switzerland, 0-0, a.e.t., 6-5 on penalties, in the game to decide 3rd and 4th place overall, but this time with Rose at left back. 

 For 2020's European Championship Finals, held multi-nationally in 11 countries, Shaw was selected for Group D, Game 3, to face the Czech Republic, won 1-0, on June 22nd at Wembley, and against Germany, won 2-0, on June 29th, in the Round of 16, at Wembley, before the defeat of Ukraine, in the quarter final, on July 3rd, 2021, 4-0, at the Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy, and then Denmark were beaten, 2-1, in the semi final, on July 7th, at Wembley, but the side lost at London’s national Stadium on July 11th, 2-3, to Italy on penalties, a.e.t., 1-1, with Shaw getting England's goal from open play on 2 minutes, striking low, left of 'keeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, from a cross by Atlético Madrid's right back, Kieran Trippier, at the right corner of the 18 yard box to Luke at the far post.

 Losing the final of the European Championships was a close affair, and Manchester United wouldn't win another trophy until 2022-23, when manager from the Netherlands' Ajax, Amsterdam, Erik ten Hag,  steered the side to victory in the 2023 League Cup Final, 2-0, against Newcastle United, having replaced Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, former ‘red devils’ striker, and Mourinho's successor, after the 2018 F.A. Cup Final defeat to a penalty on 22 minutes by Eden Hazard, when the Belgian striker was recklessly challenged in the penalty area by England center back, Phil Jones, 0-1.

 Shaw had made the left full back position his though, with 29 starts in 2018-19, and Daley Blind returned to Ajax for €16m, although Solskjaer assessed Brandon Williams, 19 years, 11 starts and 6 appearances in 2019-20, while Luke was making 20 starts and 4 appearances. For 2020-21 Ole had Brazil left back, Alex Telles, 8 starts and 1 appearance, transferred from Portugal's FC Porto for £15.4m to sustain the pressure on Shaw, 30 starts and 2 appearances, to perform. The competition was productive, as Ole's team made four semi-finals in two seasons; the League Cup, F.A. Cup and Europa Cup in 2019-2020, and the League Cup semi final in 2020-21.

 The club also reached the 2021 Europa Cup Final at Gdańsk Stadion, Poland, beating Roma in the first leg of the quarter final at home, 6-2, but losing, 2-3 in Rome, winning 8-5 on aggregate, only to lose to Spain’s Villarreal in the Final, 10-11 on penalties, a.e.t., 1-1, with South America's Uruguayan center forward, Edinson Cavani, arriving on a free transfer, age 34 from French club, Paris Saint-Germain, striking twice in the semi final first leg against Roma, with United behind, 1-2, right footed volleying a pass infield from Portugal’s playmaker, Bruno Fernandes, to his right on 49 minutes into the top right corner, 2-2, and a tap in on 64 minutes after Spanish ‘keeper, Pau López, was unable to hold onto Croydon born right back Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross shot from wide on the right, 2-3.

 Edinson, in the second away leg, put through by Fred, right footed, bursting through from inside his own half into Roma’s, receiving the pass infield, ran on to rifle a shot, on 39 minutes, into the net, a yard or so from the edge of the 18 yard box, 1-0,  then later, Fernandes, left outside the 18 yard box, chipping the ball towards Cavani, running in at goal from the right corner of the 18 yard box, center, a yard or so outside the penalty area, on 68 minutes, a header down, and inside the right post, 2-2.

 On 55 minutes Cavani equalized in the Final against Villarreal, with a close-in strike from 5 yards, 1-1. Left back, Alfonso Pedraza, midway inside the 18 yard box, could only block, with the outside of his right boot, Rashford’s low effort, center field, from 20 yards, as far as Scots’ midfielder, Scott McTominay, who set himself to run at the ball to strike at goal. Although center back, Pau Torres, dove in with a sliding tackle to clear, Cavani, coming in from the left ahead of him, swept the ball with the inside of his right boot, past Argentine ‘keeper, Gerónimo Rulli, into the net. 

 The team lost comprehensively to Manchester City in the 2019-20 two leg League Cup semi final, 1-3, at home, with Williams at left back, but with Shaw, 1-0 away, 2-3 on aggregate, while in the F.A. Cup semi final the side again lost comprehensively to Chelsea, with Williams at left back, 1-3, and in the Europa cup semi final a loss, 0-2, to Spain’s Sevilla, at the RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne, Germany, with Williams again at left back. Luke was at left back against Manchester City in the 2020-21 League Cup semi final defeat, 0-2, and in the 10-11 Europa Cup Final loss to Villarreal, which led to Solskjaer's replacing in 2021-22, with former RB Leipzig manager, German Ralf Rangnick, an interim appointment on December 3rd, 2021, until season's end.

 For Ole 2021-22 began optimistically, with Portugal’s legendary right wing, Cristiano Ronaldo, agreeing to leave Italy's Juventus for £12.85m. He'd won back-to-back Serie A titles there in 2018-19 and 2019-20, after leaving Real Madrid for £88m, where he'd won the European Champions League in 2014, against Spain’s Atlético Madrid, 1-1, and 4-1, a.e.t., on May 24th at the Estádio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal; 2016, against Atlético Madrid, 1-1, a.e.t., 5-3 on penalties, on May 28th at the San Siro, Milan; 2017, against Italy's Juventus, 4-1, on June 3rd at the Olympiastadion, Berlin, Germany, and 2018, against Liverpool, 3-1, on May 26th at the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kyiv, Ukraine, as well as the World Club Cup in 2014, against Argentina's San Lorenzo, 2-0, on December 20th at the Stade de Marrakech, Marrakesh, Morocco; 2016, against Japan's Kashima Antlers, 2-2, a.e.t., 4-2, on December 18th at the International Stadium, Yokohama, and 2017, against Brazil's Grémio, 1-0, on December 16th at the Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi, after leaving Old Trafford for £80m, where he'd won the 2008 Champions League Final at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, against Chelsea, 1-1, and ahead on 26 minutes from his own headed goal, through a cross on the right from the full back there, Wes Brown, 6-5, a.e.t., on penalties, with legendary Welsh left wing, Ryan Giggs, converting # 6. 

 Despite the legend’s desire to unfold further, scoring 6 of his 18 goals that term for Solskjaer, the club, 7th in the league on November 20th, was taken out of Ole’s control and given over to first team coach Michael Carrick who, caretaker manager until Ralf, saw his charges draw, 1-1 on November 21st against Chelsea at home.

 Right footed inverted left wing, Jadon Sancho, brought from German Bundesliga club, Borussia Dortmund, for 2021-22 for £73m, and returning on loan there from January 11th, 2024, for a fee of £4m, ‘underperforming’, according to ten Hag, dispossessed Brazilian born Italian international defensive midfielder, Jorginho, who tried to control on his chest, just outside the center circle, inside the Chelsea half, a volleyed left footed lob from Fernandes, left of United’s 18 yard box. Sancho ran the ball into The Blues’ penalty area, rounding Senegalese ‘keeper, Édouard Mendy, and drove the ball right footed into the net on 50 minutes, 1-0. 

 On November 28th Carrick effectively relinquished his caretaker role, after a win away to Spain’s Villarreal in Group F of the Champions League, after securing for the club a place in the Round of 16, with Ronaldo, on 78 minutes, lobbing the ball over ‘keeper Rulli, after his too-short kick out to French defensive midfielder, Étienne Capoue, challenged by United’s Brazilian left midfielder, Fred, bounced favorably for Cristiano to side footed, lob, with the inside of his right boot, 1-0.

 Fernandes, right of center, completing a sweeping cross field move from the left touchline, flicked a pass infield from Rashford, on as a 66th minute substitute for Martial, and in his preferred role of right footed inverted left winger, out to Sancho, at the right of the 18 yard box, almost level with the corner of the 6 yard box, and the England striker, right footed, struck high, on 90 minutes, into the top right corner of the net, 2-0.

 With United on 10 points in Group F, at worst the club would complete their fixture list to finish second to Villarreal on goal difference. Completing their fixtures, home and away, against United, Italy’s Atalanta, and Switzerland’s Young Boys of Berne, Villarreal finished on 10 points, with a goal difference of +3. With a game against Young Boys at Old Trafford remaining, under Rangnick’s guidance, the team drew, 1-1, after a cross from Shaw out on the left wing near the goal line, was struck, left footed, falling backwards, low inside the left post, 1-0, by then 20 years England center forward, Mason Greenwood, later sent off on loan to get offers at Spain’s La Liga club, Getafe, after January, 2022, social media video recordings alleging rape, but 18 in 2019-20, when he reached double figures in goals, 10, for the first and only time in his then United career. With the same goal difference as Villarreal, +3, United finished top of Group F on 11 points. 

 Shaw made 19 starts and 1 appearance in 2021-22 before ten Hag's arrival. Curiously the Dutchman managed to leave the team without recognizable left back cover for Luke, 30 starts and 1 appearance in 2022-23, by the close of 2023-24, which significantly impinged on the club's progress, as they had to negotiate the later rounds of the F.A. Cup without Shaw. Telles, allowed to go on loan for 2022-23 to Spain's Sevilla, where he won the Europa Cup, 4-1 on penalties, a.e.t., with the match against Italy's Roma ending, at the Puskás Arena, Budapest, Hungary, after normal time, 1-1, was transferred for $7.8m to Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr for 2023-24, where he was in the team that won the Arab Club Champions Cup Final at King Fahd Stadium, Taif, Saudi Arabia, on August 12th, 2023, against Al Hilal, also of Saudi Arabia, 2-1, alongside Ronaldo, given a free transfer by ten Hag, who got both goals.

 Ten Hag's solution to his left full back issue was to bring from Everton Spain's Sergio Reguilón on loan, 5 starts and 4 appearances, but he was allowed to return to Everton on January 4th, shortly before Shaw's injury on 45 + 2 minutes, during the February 18th, 2-1, win at Luton Town, which in the absence of left footed Argentine center back, and sometime left back, Lisandro Martínez, foot and knee injury, brought from ten Hag's former club, Ajax, for 2022-23 for £47m, and Tyrell Malacia, knee, left back transferred from Holland's Feyenoord, also for 2022-23, for £13m, both out for most of the season, meant the side hadn't a left full back for the remaining F.A. Cup games.

 A loan spell for Brandon Williams at then Premier League club, Norwich City, 2021-22, 23 starts and 3 appearances, didn't augur well. Though a rugged, long-legged tackler, with the capacity to cross strongly from the left, Williams didn't figure in ten Hag's 2022-23 league campaign, and loaned to England's 2nd tier Championship club, Ipswich Town, for 2023-24, he wasn't recalled after Shaw's setback. Spanish left back, Álvaro Carreras, 27 starts and 12 appearances, on loan to England's Championship club Preston North End in 2022-23, was again loaned, first on September 1st, 2023, to Granada in Spain's La Liga, then on January 17th, 2024, before Shaw's injury in February, who then had only 12 starts to his name, Carreras again went on loan to Portugal's Primeira Liga club Benfica, with the condition of his signing for €6m being that he should play half (8) of the Lisbon club's remaining games in their league season, which for ten Hag seemed to preclude Carreras being recalled, while emphasizing how it was Shaw hadn't any rivals.

 At 3rd in Group 2, with Trippier at left back, England didn't qualify for the biennial 2020-21 UEFA Nations League Finals, Italy, but England's Luke, selected for the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Group I against Hungary, 4-0, on September 2nd, 2021, at the Puskás Arena, Budapest, and against Poland, 1-1, on September 8th, at Stadion Narodowy, Warsaw, before the return against Hungary, on October 12th, 1-1, at Wembley, was at left back for the 2022-23 UEFA Nations League, Holland, Group A3, Game 5, against Italy, on September 23rd, 2022, at Stadio San Siro, Milan, 0-1, and against Germany, Game 6, on September 26th, in which he scored England's first at Wembley on 77 minutes in a draw, 3-3, although England, bottom of Group A3, were relegated to Group B.

 Shaw, selected for the 2022 World Cup Finals against Iran, on November 21st, in the Group B Game 1, experienced victory, 6-2, at the Khalifa International Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar, while drawing in Game 2 against the United States, 0-0, on November 25th at Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor, before winning in Game 3 against Wales, 3-0, on November 29th, at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan, and beating Senegal in Game 4, 3-0, on December 4th, at Al Bayt, but losing the quarter final against France, 1-2, on December 10th, at Al Bayt. 

 Luke went on to play for England in the qualifiers for the 2024 European Championship, Germany, against Italy, Group C, winning 2-1, on March 23rd, 2023, at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Naples, and in the defeat of Malta, 4-0, on June 16th, at the Ta'Qali National Stadium, Valetta, as well as against North Macedonia, beaten 7-0, on June 19th, at Old Trafford, Manchester, and England's last opponent ahead of Shaw's February 2024 injury.

 Ten years at 'the theater of Dreams', and some dreaming with ten Hag, deserves a testimonial, according to received soccer wisdom. Shaw was the latest in a considerable line of left back heroes for the faithful amongst the terraced ranks at the Stretford End to applaud. Eire's Johnny Carey, captain of the 1948 F.A. Cup Final winning side that beat Blackpool, 4-2. Roger Byrne, captain, and another left winger, 7 goals in 1951-52’s league title team, switched to left full back. Eire's Tony Dunne, left back in the 1968 European Cup Final defeat of Portugal's Benfica, 4-1, a.e.t., 1-1, at Wembley. Scot, Arthur Albiston, winner of the F.A. Cup Finals of 1977, against Liverpool, 2-1, 1983, against Brighton and Hove Albion, 4-0, after a replay, 2-2, and 1985, against Everton, 1-0. England left back, Lee Martin, lashing home the winner on 59 minutes in the 1990 F.A. Cup Final Replay, 1-0, after the first game ended, 3-3. Northern Ireland’s Denis Irwin's marathon stint as a right footed left back, after his transfer from Oldham Athletic for season 1990-91 for £650,000, during 7 of the team's championship winning seasons, as well as the 1999 European Cup Final in Spain at Barcelona's Camp Nou Stadium, 2-1, against German Bundesliga club, FC Bayern Munich. Fans have had some cheer from the left back position.

 Although Shaw reportedly idolized Chelsea's Ashley Cole, prior to van Gaal’s injection of Luke's panache in 2014-15, his immediate predecessors in the left back role at United were equally as deserving. France's Mikaël Silvestre, five league titles before 2007-08, and his second European Champions League title in 2007-08, although France’s left back, Patrice Evra, edged him out of the starting line up, and Alex Ferguson’s converted left wing, Ashley Young, at left full back, assuring him and his players of their 13th league title in 2012-13.

04/03/2024 05:39
The Rise and Pause of Scott McTominay

Scots' midfielder, Scott McTominay, increased his stature during Louis van Gaal's tenure; Dutch manager of Manchester United appointed for the 2014-15 season's campaigning after the qualified success of his stewardship of the Netherlands' national side at the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, organized by the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA). Holland finished in third place, subsequent to their losing at the semi-final stage to Argentina, 4-2, on penalties, a.e.t., 0-0, at Arena Corinthians, São Paolo, July 9th, but beat Brazil, who'd lost to eventual winners, Germany, 7-1, in their Belo Horizonte, Estádio Mineirão semi-final on July 8th.
Although Germany had beaten Argentina, 1-0, in the Final, a.e.t., on July 13th, Rio de Janeiro, Estádio do Maracanã, Holland had beaten Brazil, 3-0, on July 12th in Brasilia’s Estádio Nacional third and fourth place play off, which was enough for the 'red devils' to appoint van Gaal as successor to former Everton boss, David Moyes, who’d always appeared a curious replacement for Alex Ferguson, 13 league titles, as Moyes' only claim to fame was to keep 'The Toffees' from relegation. When David's team lost the 2013-14 League Cup semi-final at home to Sunderland, 1-2, on penalties, van Gaal's appointment seemed fated.
Moyes took the reins on July 1st, 2013, and McTominay signed his first professional contract with the club in that same month. Making his debut under José Mourinho, appointed manager after van Gaal's United won the 2015-16 F.A. Cup Final, 2-1, against Crystal Palace, a.e.t., 1-1, ostensibly to improve the club's league position and potential for qualifying for the  Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) competitions, Scott spent his time under Moyes struggling due to his small size. However, gaining 14 inches during van Gaal's reign, McTominay made 22 starts, scoring 3 goals, for the U-21s in 2016-17, which brought him to the notice of Mourinho, who after putting him on the subs' bench, gave him his first appearance in a blue shirt on May 7th at Arsenal's North London Emirates Stadium, Islington, coming on for Spain’s left footed inside forward, Juan Mata, on 84 minutes, but losing, 0-2, after ex-red center forward Danny Welbeck's second for 'The Gunners' on 57 minutes to end a 25 game unbeaten run.
Scott got his first start on the last day of the 2016-17 league campaign, with the squad already EFL Cup winners against Sunderland, 3-2, and after the English Premier League season was over would go on to beat Ajax of Amsterdam, 2-0, on May 24th in the Europa League Final at Friends Arena, Stockholm, Sweden. With a view to minimizing the possibility of injuries, Mourinho gave opportunities to several more young players in the victory, 2-0, against Crystal Palace on May 21st at Old Trafford; midfielder Josh Harrop, who scored after 15 minutes, twisting and turning on the left of the 20 yard box, cutting inside onto his right foot to unleash an unstopped screamer; Swiss born 'keeper and Portuguese international, Joel Pereira, left back Demetri Mitchell, and Angel Gomes, then the club's youngest Premier League player, 16 and 263 days, on for captain and center forward, Wayne Rooney, on 88 minutes.
McTominay made 7 starts in 2017-18, and 6 appearances as substitute, during the club's league campaign, in which they finished runners up on 68 points, a long way 2nd behind Manchester City on 106, and Scott was on the substitutes' bench for the F.A. Cup Final defeat to Chelsea, 0-1, when a perfectly good goal from Chilean center forward Alexis Sánchez was disallowed after the ball, pushed out by the 'keeper, was stabbed home with grateful aplomb at close range.
A 21st century South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) innovation, Apertura and Clausera, divided the year into two league championship competitions, either between or within calendar years, and Alexis was in Chile’s Primera División Colo-Colo side that won back-to-back Clausura and Apertura from 2006-07, on loan from Italy’s Serie A club Udinese, transferred there on April 21st, 2006, for £1.7m from Chile’s Cobreola, and thereafter the 2008 Argentine Primera División Clausera with River Plate.
Returning to Udinese, Alexis was transferred to Spain’s Barcelona from 2011-12 for €26m; 2012-13 La Liga champions, before going to Premier League Arsenal from 2014-15 for £31.7m; F.A. Cup winners in 2015 and 2017. Brought  to United, on January 22nd, 2018, in a swap deal for Armenian captain and right wing, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, scorer of the second goal against Ajax with an overhead kick on 48 minutes in the 2017 Europa Cup Final, after France's Paul Pogba had opened the scoring with a long range deflected strike on 18 minutes, on 2 league goals for the term from 12 starts, Alexis would be given a free transfer by Solskjaer to Italy's Inter Milan, following a period on loan in 2019-20, after scoring once in 9 starts and 11 appearances for United in 2018-19.
Mourinho’s departure and Alexis’ were linked inextricably. Leaving on December 18th, 2018, with just 7 wins in 17 games, to be replaced by former striker, manager of Norway's Molde, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, that 2018 F.A. Cup Final goal, ruled out for offside, with the linesman's flag being raised after the ball was in the net, could have made all the difference to Alexis’ confidence as a striker and the club’s future with Mourinho.
Alexis played alongside sometime left winger, bought by Alex Ferguson for 2011-12 from Aston Villa for £17m, Ashley Young, at left back, with Belgian center forward and top scorer with 16, Romelu Lukaku, bought by Mourinho for £75m from Everton for 2017-18, on the substitutes' bench, because of doubts about his fitness, and all three would play for Inter in the 2019 Europa Cup Final defeat to Spain's Sevilla, 2-3, at the Olympic Stadium, Baku, Azerbaijan, on May 29th, while United were left to rue what might have been, when 0-1 down in the 2018 F.A. Cup Final on 22 minutes to an Eden Hazard penalty, after a rash challenge on Chelsea's Belgian center forward by England center back, Phil Jones, who almost made amends on 63 minutes, heading a free kick, taken by England center forward, Marcus Rashford, wide on the right, after he himself was brought down, which goal-bound effort was pushed away from his right corner by the post, left handed by Belgian 'keeper Thibaut Courtois, onto the onrushing Sanchez's grateful knees.
While Romelu Lukaku's transfer to Inter for €80m was permanent immediately on August 8th, 2019, Sánchez’s wasn’t. 4 league goals that term, and substituting in the August 21st, 2020, Europa Cup Final, at the RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne, Germany, for central midfielder, Roberto Gagliardini, on 78 minutes, after going behind to Spanish side Sevilla, 2-3, due to a Lukaku own goal on 74 minutes, with Ashley Young on the left of midfield, after being transferred in January 2020 for €1.5m, Alexis’ transfer wouldn't become permanent until given a free by Solskjaer on August 6th, 2020, after which Inter would win Italy's 2020-21 Serie A, with former United left full back, Italian Matteo Darmian, joining them in October 2020 from Serie A club Parma, where he’d been transferred by Solskjaer for €1.5m on September 2nd, 2019, while Sánchez would score 7 times in 12 starts and 18 appearances.
The Solskjaer upheaval doubtless assisted McTominay, 9 starts and 7 appearances for 2 goals in 2018-19, and Fred, 13 starts and 4 appearances for 1 goal. Of the established midfield players only Pogba, winner of the World Cup in Russia with France in 2018, 4-2 against Croatia, at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, and top scorer in 2018-19 with 13 goals, seemed unchallengeable. While Moroccan Marouane Fellaini, brought with him from Everton by Moyes for his height and vision in support of the attack for £27.5m, and Serbia's defensive midfielder, Nemanja Matić, bought by Mourinho from Chelsea for £40m for 2017-18, were over 30 years, at 29 Spain's playmaker Ander Herrera, 'man of the match' in the 2017 Europa Cup Final defeat of Ajax, bought by van Gaal for his first 2014-15 season for €36m, was approaching 30, which suggested right footed McTominay, then 22 years, who could double as a center forward if necessary, had a future alongside left footed Brazilian, Fred, age 25, bought by Mourinho from the Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk on July 1st, 2018 for £47m.
'McFred', as the pair in midfield were called by fans, flourished, while Fellaini, appearing only twice as a substitute for Solskjaer, before being transferred to China's Shandong Luneng Taishan in January 2019, captained the team to the Chinese Super League in 2021, and the Chinese F.A. Cup in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Herrera, given a free to Paris Saint-German, won the French double of league and cup twice in 2019-20 and 2020-21. Matić, though his tenaciousness on the pitch survived Solskjaer's purge, his age couldn't. Freed by Solskjaer's Dutch successor for 2022-23, Ajax of Amsterdam's boss Erik ten Hag, Nemanja joined Roma for 2022-23 at 34, where opposite another casualty of ten Hag's purge, loaned to Spain's Sevilla for that season, Brazilian left back, Alex Telles, bought by Ole for £14.5m from Portugal's Porto, runner-up in the 2023 Europa Cup Final against Sevilla, 1-1, a.e.t., on May 31st at the Puskás Arena, Budapest, Hungary, 1-4 on penalties, he also made way for McFred.
Solskjaer's failure in four semi-finals and the 2021 Europa Cup Final on May 26th at Gdańsk Stadion, Poland, against Spain's Villarreal, 1-1, a.e.t., and 10-11 on penalties, with only Spanish 'keeper, David de Gea, missing his spot kick opportunity, was the cause of his dismissal, although clipping the wings to make inverted inside forwards to compensate for Fernandes' centrocampista role with a lone striker ahead of him, was a contributory factor. The McFred partnership lasted until ten Hag's taking over from former German boss at RB Leipzig, Ralf Rangnick, interim manager, appointed in December 2021, with Brazil’s hard-bitten attack-minded creative midfield destroyer, Casemiro, being brought from Real Madrid for £60m, while the emergence of calmly composed controller, new precocious midfield talent, left footed teenager, Kobbie Mainoo, was enough to convince ten Hag to transfer Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos, otherwise known as ‘Fred’, on August 13th, 2023, for €9.74m to Turkish Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe, Istanbul, for their 2023-24 season, which effectively dismantled McFred's engine room.
With Mourinho having guided the side to a runners up spot in European Champions League Group H, behind Juventus, Solskjaer’s selection beat Paris Saint-Germain, 3-1 away in the 2018-19 season's Round of 16, with Lukaku opening the scoring on 2 minutes, seizing on German right half back Thilo Kehrer's back pass to round PSG's ‘keeper and strike left footed from a tight angle, then left footed again on 30 minutes, making it 2-1, after Italian ‘keeper Gianluigi Buffon was unable to hold onto a distance effort from Rashford, while Marcus converted a 94th minute penalty, 3-1, after French left half back Presnel Kimpembe was adjudged to have handled a shot at goal by Portuguese right back, Diogo Dalot, on as a 35th minute substitute for Ivory Coast's injured Eric Bailly, to ensure United’s progress on the ‘away goals counting double’ rule, after losing, 0-2, at home. However, the team lost to Barcelona, 0-4 on aggregate in the quarter final; 0-1 at Old Trafford, and in Spain 0-3 at Camp Nou.
In Solskjaer's first full 2019-20 season, McTominay started 20 games, 7 as substitute, scoring 4 goals, while Fred had 23 starts, 6 as substitute, with the team, finishing 3rd in the league, making the semi-finals of the F.A. Cup, the League Cup, and the Europa Cup, the major innovation was the introduction in January 2020 for £47m of Bruno Fernandes from Portugal's CP Sporting, Lisbon, who'd complete a diamond behind a lone striker in front of him, while a left footed inverted winger on the right, and a right footed inverted winger on the left, essentially functioning as inside forwards, constituted the cutting edges.
With McTominay being earmarked for the role that England star, Paul Scholes, had formerly in midfield, as the player freed by the holding midfielder to go forward in support of the attack and score, Fernandes' 8 goals in 14 starts, with Marcus Rashford, 17 goals, and left footed inverted right winger, Anthony Martial, 17 goals, ahead of him, indicated a change in the way McTominay's midfield role could develop.
Failure to progress beyond the semi-final stages, against Manchester City in the League Cup, losing the first home leg, 1-3, with the side 0-3 at half time, before Rashford produced some hope in the second half with a clinical finish on 70 minutes, right of the penalty area, right footed, left corner, low, following a run from the halfway line by Mason Greenwood, and a defense-splitting pass from the 21 years center forward, but winning the second away leg, 1-0, with Matić, right of the penalty area, squeezing his shot inside the post, low into the right corner, left footed, on 35 minutes, after a City defender failed to head clear a Fred free kick, but Matić later sent off on 76 minutes, indicated that problems with the twin McFred engine in midfield, aligned as it was with Fernandes’ playmaker, behind a lone striker, and clipped wings, indicated the need for a tune up; if the ball was to be driven home by the forwards.
In the F.A. Cup semi-final the team lost, 1-3, to Chelsea, with Fernandes’ consolation penalty on 8 minutes, after winger, Callum Hudson-Odoi, appeared to kick at Martial, while they were defeated, 1-2, by Spain's Sevilla in the Europa Cup semi-final, despite taking the lead through a Fernandes' penalty on 9 minutes. The absence of McTominay from the semi-final starting line-ups in favor of Fernandes' diamond signified Solskjaer's preference for the then apparently unchallengeable left foot of Pogba alongside Fred for the latter stages of the cup competitions.
In his first full season, 2020-21, Bruno Fernandes top scored with 18 league goals, as the club finished 2nd in the Premier League on 73 points, albeit 10 behind Manchester City on 83, while failing to progress beyond the League Cup semi-final stage again, losing 0-2 to City, although McTominay, 25 and 7 appearances for 4 goals, did start with Fred, 27 starts and 3 appearances for 1 goal, as well as alongside Pogba, although it was Fred who made way for Scott in the team that lost, 10-11 on penalties to Spain's Villarreal, after 34 years Uruguayan center forward, Edinson Cavani, brought by Solskjaer on a free from Paris Saint-Germain, struck home an equalizer on 55 minutes, which wasn't enough to save either Solskjaer, or Pogba in the aftermath of the appointment of ten Hag.
What looked like desperation brought Cristiano Ronaldo for 2021-22 from Italian side Juventus for £12.85m. Called CR7 for his preferred shirt number, opening the scoring with a header on 26 minutes from a cross on the right by right full back, Wes Brown, Ronaldo had won the European Champions Cup with United against Chelsea, a.e.t., 1-1, and on penalties 6-5, on May 21st at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia, but failure to beat Barcelona at the Stadio Olympica, Rome, on May 27th in the 2008-09 Final, 0-2, led the Portuguese right winger, bought from CP Sporting Lisbon for £12.24m by Scot Alex Ferguson for 2003-04, to seek a transfer to Spanish giants Real Madrid for £80m, where he won the European Champions Cup in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018, as well as the World Club Cup in 2014, 2016, and 2017, before being transferred to Juvé for £88m, where he won Serie A titles in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Ronaldo struck 18 times that 2021-22 season, 12 of those, including hat tricks against Spurs at Old Trafford, 3-2, on March 12th, 2022, and Norwich City at home, 3-2, on April 16th, coming after Rangnick became interim manager in December 2021, while McTominay’s 28 starts and 2 appearances for 1 goal, compared to Fred’s 24 starts and 4 appearances for 4 goals, was a sign of the adroitness with which McFred negotiated the Solskjaer-Rangnick interregnum.
Solskjaer, and after him coach Michael Carrick, had steered the side to win Group F in the Champions League, leaving Rangnick to negotiate the Round of 16, but a late 80th minute equalizing goal, taken with aplomb and apparent maturity by teenage Swedish striker, Anthony Elanga, 1-1, away at Spain's Atlético Madrid, persuaded Rangnick to persevere with him, and with England center forward Rashford on the bench, lost 0-1 in the second home leg, 1-2 on aggregate. Rangnick's chance was gone and ten Hag was appointed for 2022-23.
The club won the League cup, 2-0, against Newcastle United, with a headed goal from Casemiro on 33 minutes, following a free kick by left back, Luke Shaw, and a 39th minute strike from Rashford, deflected over German 'keeper, Loris Karius, but lost the F.A. Cup Final, 1-2, to Manchester City, after being a goal down from German captain İlkay Gündoğan's volley on 13 seconds, and despite an equalizing 33rd minute penalty from Fernandes, after right back Aaron Wan-Bissaka's progress on the right of the city 20 yard box was adjudged to have been illegally impeded by England winger Jack Grealish's handling of the ball. McTominay, 1 goal in 10 starts and 14 appearances in 2022-23, coming on in the League Cup Final as 69th minute substitute for Fred, 12 starts and 23 appearances for 4 goals, and for Swedish center back, Victor Lindelöf, on 83 minutes in the F.A. Cup Final, again indicated trouble with the engine.
Ten Hag had brought Danish ball player age 30, Christian Eriksen, 25 starts and 3 appearances, from Brentford on a free, and until the emergence of Mainoo in 2023-24 the pairing with Casemiro seemed most likely, with Pogba age 32 released to return to Juvé on June 30th, 2022, while Matić signed on a free for Roma.
Ronaldo, age 37, was also released to Saudi club Al Nassr in November 2022. On August 12th, 2023, he won the Arab Club Champions Cup. Organized by the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) and contested by teams from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Cristiano scored both goals, 2-1, in the win over Saudi's Al Hilal at the King Fahd Stadium, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
The arrival of Moroccan international, defensive midfielder, Sofyan Amrabat, born in Huizen, Amsterdam metropolitan area, Holland, and on loan for £8.5m from Italy's Serie A club Fiorentina, together with England's attacking midfielder, Mason Mount, from Chelsea for £55m, put further pressure on McTominay, survivor of seven managerial purges, if the interim roles of legendary United and Welsh left winger, scorer of the 6th penalty that gave United victory over Chelsea in the 2008 European Champions Cup Final, Ryan Giggs, coach after Moyes' dismissal, before 2013-14 season's end, April 22nd - May 11th, 2014, and United and England midfield stalwart, Michael Carrick, November 21st - December 2nd, 2022, who coached the team to qualify for the European Champions League Round of 16, beating Villarreal away, 2-0, after Solskjaer, are to be considered managerial.
Ten Hag’s solution to his engine trouble was to bring Danish striker, Rasmus Højlund, from Italian Serie A club Atalanta for £64m to profit from Fernandes’ promptings, while Rashford would move to the left as an inverted right footed inside forward, with left footed Argentine winger, Alejandro Garnacho, on the right flank, although Casemiro’s 32 years suggested that, if McTominay, 27 years, needed to improve, and couldn’t, teenager Kobbie Mainoo would need a partner who wasn’t waiting to be retired, and although Mason Mount, 25 years, England’s attacking midfielder, bought from Chelsea for £55m for 2023-24, fits the description, 4 starts and 4 appearances, before retiring to the physiotherapist’s treatment room, indicate either that the emperor doesn’t want to wear any clothes, or at least one of the twin engine turbo needs replacing, rather than maintenance and a routine repair.
Luke Shaw, due a testimonial at the end of season 2023-24, as were Martial and Rashford for playing at 'the theater of Dreams' for a decade at the close of 2024-25, is a true measure of success. While 2023-24 is only McTominay's 8th year hoping to wear away a red strip, Lindelöf has another three seasons to serve, before a game played in his honour, against such luminaries as FIFA’s Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football's (CONCACAF's) New York Cosmos, for whom Germany’s ‘Kaiser’, sweeper Franz Beckenbauer, and Brazil’s magical Pelé played together, appearing for Paul Scholes’ on August 5th, 2011,  recognizing loyalty as a portion of the take.

The Rise and Pause of Scott McTominay

Scots' midfielder, Scott McTominay, increased his stature during Louis van Gaal's tenure; Dutch manager of Manchester United appointed for the 2014-15 season's campaigning after the qualified success of his stewardship of the Netherlands' national side at the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, organized by the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA). Holland finished in third place, subsequent to their losing at the semi-final stage to Argentina, 4-2, on penalties, a.e.t., 0-0, at Arena Corinthians, São Paolo, July 9th, but beat Brazil, who'd lost to eventual winners, Germany, 7-1, in their Belo Horizonte, Estádio Mineirão semi-final on July 8th. 

 Although Germany had beaten Argentina, 1-0, in the Final, a.e.t., on July 13th, Rio de Janeiro, Estádio do Maracanã, Holland had beaten Brazil, 3-0, on July 12th in Brasilia’s Estádio Nacional third and fourth place play off, which was enough for the 'red devils' to appoint van Gaal as successor to former Everton boss, David Moyes, who’d always appeared a curious replacement for Alex Ferguson, 13 league titles, as Moyes' only claim to fame was to keep 'The Toffees' from relegation. When David's team lost the 2013-14 League Cup semi-final at home to Sunderland, 1-2, on penalties, van Gaal's appointment seemed fated.

 Moyes took the reins on July 1st, 2013, and McTominay signed his first professional contract with the club in that same month. Making his debut under José Mourinho, appointed manager after van Gaal's United won the 2015-16 F.A. Cup Final, 2-1, against Crystal Palace, a.e.t., 1-1, ostensibly to improve the club's league position and potential for qualifying for the  Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) competitions, Scott spent his time under Moyes struggling due to his small size. However, gaining 14 inches during van Gaal's reign, McTominay made 22 starts, scoring 3 goals, for the U-21s in 2016-17, which brought him to the notice of Mourinho, who after putting him on the subs' bench, gave him his first appearance in a blue shirt on May 7th at Arsenal's North London Emirates Stadium, Islington, coming on for Spain’s left footed inside forward, Juan Mata, on 84 minutes, but losing, 0-2, after ex-red center forward Danny Welbeck's second for 'The Gunners' on 57 minutes to end a 25 game unbeaten run.

 Scott got his first start on the last day of the 2016-17 league campaign, with the squad already EFL Cup winners against Southampton, 3-2, and after the English Premier League season was over would go on to beat Ajax of Amsterdam, 2-0, on May 24th in the Europa League Final at Friends Arena, Stockholm, Sweden. With a view to minimizing the possibility of injuries, Mourinho gave opportunities to several more young players in the victory, 2-0, against Crystal Palace on May 21st at Old Trafford; midfielder Josh Harrop, who scored after 15 minutes, twisting and turning on the left of the 18 yard box, cutting inside onto his right foot to unleash an unstopped screamer; Swiss born 'keeper and Portuguese international, Joel Pereira, left back Demetri Mitchell, and Angel Gomes, then the club's youngest Premier League player, 16 and 263 days, on for captain and center forward, Wayne Rooney, on 88 minutes. 

 McTominay made 7 starts in 2017-18, and 6 appearances as substitute, during the club's league campaign, in which they finished runners up on 68 points, a long way 2nd behind Manchester City on 106, and Scott was on the substitutes' bench for the F.A. Cup Final defeat to Chelsea, 0-1, when a perfectly good goal from Chilean center forward Alexis Sánchez was disallowed after the ball, pushed out by the 'keeper, was stabbed home with grateful aplomb at close range. 

 A 21st century South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) innovation, Apertura and Clausera, divided the year into two league championship competitions, either between or within calendar years, and Alexis was in Chile’s Primera División Colo-Colo side that won back-to-back Clausura and Apertura from 2006-07, on loan from Italy’s Serie A club Udinese, transferred there on April 21st, 2006, for £1.7m from Chile’s Cobreola, and thereafter the 2008 Argentine Primera División Clausera with River Plate. 

 Returning to Udinese, Alexis was transferred to Spain’s Barcelona from 2011-12 for €26m; 2012-13 La Liga champions, before going to Premier League Arsenal from 2014-15 for £31.7m; F.A. Cup winners in 2015 and 2017. Brought  to United, on January 22nd, 2018, in a swap deal for Armenian captain and right wing, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, scorer of the second goal against Ajax with an overhead kick on 48 minutes in the 2017 Europa Cup Final, after France's Paul Pogba had opened the scoring with a long range deflected strike on 18 minutes, on 2 league goals for the term from 12 starts, Alexis would be given a free transfer by Solskjaer to Italy's Inter Milan, following a period on loan in 2019-20, after scoring once in 9 starts and 11 appearances for United in 2018-19. 

 Mourinho’s departure and Alexis’ were linked inextricably. Leaving on December 18th, 2018, with just 7 wins in 17 games, to be replaced by former striker, manager of Norway's Molde, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, that 2018 F.A. Cup Final goal, ruled out for offside, with the linesman's flag being raised after the ball was in the net, could have made all the difference to Alexis’ confidence as a striker and the club’s future with Mourinho.

 Alexis played alongside sometime left winger, bought by Alex Ferguson for 2011-12 from Aston Villa for £17m, Ashley Young, at left back, with Belgian center forward and top scorer with 16, Romelu Lukaku, bought by Mourinho for £75m from Everton for 2017-18, on the substitutes' bench, because of doubts about his fitness, and all three would play for Inter in the 2020 Europa Cup Final defeat to Spain's Sevilla, 2-3, at the Olympic Stadium, Baku, Azerbaijan, on May 29th, while United were left to rue what might have been, when 0-1 down in the 2018 F.A. Cup Final on 22 minutes to an Eden Hazard penalty, after a rash challenge on Chelsea's Belgian center forward by England center back, Phil Jones, who almost made amends on 63 minutes, heading a free kick, taken by England center forward, Marcus Rashford, wide on the right, after he himself was brought down, which goal-bound effort was pushed away from his right corner by the post, left handed by Belgian 'keeper Thibaut Courtois, onto the onrushing Sanchez's grateful knees.

 While Romelu Lukaku's transfer to Inter for €80m was permanent immediately on August 8th, 2019, Sánchez’s wasn’t. 4 league goals that term, and substituting in the August 21st, 2020, Europa Cup Final, at the RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne, Germany, for central midfielder, Roberto Gagliardini, on 78 minutes, after going behind to Spanish side Sevilla, 2-3, due to a Lukaku own goal on 74 minutes, with Ashley Young on the left of midfield, after being transferred in January 2020 for €1.5m, Alexis’ transfer wouldn't become permanent until given a free by Solskjaer on August 6th, 2020, after which Inter would win Italy's 2020-21 Serie A, with former United left full back, Italian Matteo Darmian, joining them in October 2020 from Serie A club Parma, where he’d been transferred by Solskjaer for €1.5m on September 2nd, 2019, while Sánchez in 2019-20 would score for Internazionale 7 times in 12 starts and 18 appearances.

 The Solskjaer upheaval doubtless assisted McTominay, 9 starts and 7 appearances for 2 goals in 2018-19, and Fred, 13 starts and 4 appearances for 1 goal. Of the established midfield players only Pogba, winner of the World Cup in Russia with France in 2018, 4-2 against Croatia, at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, and top scorer in 2018-19 with 13 goals, seemed unchallengeable. While Moroccan Marouane Fellaini, brought with him from Everton by Moyes for his height and vision in support of the attack for £27.5m, and Serbia's defensive midfielder, Nemanja Matić, bought by Mourinho from Chelsea for £40m for 2017-18, were over 30 years, at 29 Spain's playmaker Ander Herrera, 'man of the match' in the 2017 Europa Cup Final defeat of Ajax, bought by van Gaal for his first 2014-15 season for €36m, was approaching 30, which suggested right footed McTominay, then 22 years, who could double as a center forward if necessary, had a future alongside left footed Brazilian, Fred, age 25, bought by Mourinho from the Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk on July 1st, 2018 for £47m.

 'McFred', as the pair in midfield were called by fans, flourished, while Fellaini, appearing only twice as a substitute for Solskjaer, before being transferred to China's Shandong Luneng Taishan in January 2019, captained the team to the Chinese Super League in 2021, and the Chinese F.A. Cup in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Herrera, given a free to Paris Saint-German, won the French double of league and cup twice in 2019-20 and 2020-21. Matić, though his tenaciousness on the pitch survived Solskjaer's purge, his age couldn't. Freed by Solskjaer's Dutch successor for 2022-23, Ajax of Amsterdam's boss Erik ten Hag, Nemanja joined Roma for 2022-23 at 34, where opposite another casualty of ten Hag's purge, loaned to Spain's Sevilla for that season, Brazilian left back, Alex Telles, bought by Ole for £14.5m from Portugal's Porto, runner-up in the 2023 Europa Cup Final against Sevilla, 1-1, a.e.t., on May 31st at the Puskás Arena, Budapest, Hungary, 1-4 on penalties, he also made way for McFred.

 Solskjaer's failure in four semi-finals and the 2021 Europa Cup Final on May 26th at Gdańsk Stadion, Poland, against Spain's Villarreal, 1-1, a.e.t., and 10-11 on penalties, with only Spanish 'keeper, David de Gea, missing his spot kick opportunity, was the cause of his dismissal, although clipping the wings to make inverted inside forwards to compensate for Fernandes' centrocampista role with a lone striker ahead of him, was a contributory factor. The McFred partnership lasted until ten Hag's taking over from former German boss at RB Leipzig, Ralf Rangnick, interim manager, appointed in December 2021, with Brazil’s hard-bitten attack-minded creative midfield destroyer, Casemiro, being brought from Real Madrid for £60m, while the emergence of calmly composed controller, new precocious midfield talent, left footed teenager, Kobbie Mainoo, was enough to convince ten Hag to transfer Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos, otherwise known as ‘Fred’, on August 13th, 2023, for €9.74m to Turkish Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe, Istanbul, for their 2023-24 season, which effectively dismantled McFred's engine room.

 With Mourinho having guided the side to a runners up spot in European Champions League Group H, behind Juventus, Solskjaer’s selection beat Paris Saint-Germain, 3-1 away in the 2018-19 season's Round of 16, with Lukaku opening the scoring on 2 minutes, seizing on German right half back Thilo Kehrer's back pass to round PSG's ‘keeper and strike left footed from a tight angle, then left footed again on 30 minutes, making it 2-1, after Italian ‘keeper Gianluigi Buffon was unable to hold onto a distance effort from Rashford, while Marcus converted a 94th minute penalty, 3-1, after French left half back Presnel Kimpembe was adjudged to have handled a shot at goal by Portuguese right back, Diogo Dalot, on as a 35th minute substitute for Ivory Coast's injured Eric Bailly, to ensure United’s progress on the ‘away goals counting double’ rule, after losing, 0-2, at home. However, the team lost to Barcelona, 0-4 on aggregate in the quarter final; 0-1 at Old Trafford, and in Spain 0-3 at Camp Nou.

 In Solskjaer's first full 2019-20 season, McTominay started 20 games, 7 as substitute, scoring 4 goals, while Fred had 23 starts, 6 as substitute, with the team, finishing 3rd in the league, making the semi-finals of the F.A. Cup, the League Cup, and the Europa Cup, the major innovation was the introduction in January 2020 for £47m of Bruno Fernandes from Portugal's CP Sporting, Lisbon, who'd complete a diamond behind a lone striker in front of him, while a left footed inverted winger on the right, and a right footed inverted winger on the left, essentially functioning as inside forwards, constituted the cutting edges.

 With McTominay being earmarked for the role that England star, Paul Scholes, had formerly in midfield, as the player freed by the holding midfielder to go forward in support of the attack and score, Fernandes' 8 goals in 14 starts, with Marcus Rashford, 17 goals, and left footed inverted right winger, Anthony Martial, 17 goals, ahead of him, indicated a change in the way McTominay's midfield role could develop.

 Failure to progress beyond the semi-final stages, against Manchester City in the League Cup, losing the first home leg, 1-3, with the side 0-3 at half time, before Rashford produced some hope in the second half with a clinical finish on 70 minutes, right of the penalty area, right footed, left corner, low, following a run from the halfway line by Mason Greenwood, and a defense-splitting pass from the 21 years center forward, but winning the second away leg, 1-0, with Matić, right of the penalty area, squeezing his shot inside the post, low into the right corner, left footed, on 35 minutes, after a City defender failed to head clear a Fred free kick, but Matić later sent off on 76 minutes, indicated that problems with the twin McFred engine in midfield, aligned as it was with Fernandes’ playmaker, behind a lone striker, and clipped wings, indicated the need for a tune up; if the ball was to be driven home by the forwards. 

 In the F.A. Cup semi-final the team lost, 1-3, to Chelsea, with Fernandes’ consolation penalty on 8 minutes, after winger, Callum Hudson-Odoi, appeared to kick at Martial, while they were defeated, 1-2, by Spain's Sevilla in the Europa Cup semi-final, despite taking the lead through a Fernandes' penalty on 9 minutes. The absence of McTominay from the semi-final starting line-ups in favor of Fernandes' diamond signified Solskjaer's preference for the then apparently unchallengeable left foot of Pogba alongside Fred for the latter stages of the cup competitions. 

 In his first full season, 2020-21, Bruno Fernandes top scored with 18 league goals, as the club finished 2nd in the Premier League on 73 points, albeit 10 behind Manchester City on 83, while failing to progress beyond the League Cup semi-final stage again, losing 0-2 to City, although McTominay, 25 and 7 appearances for 4 goals, did start with Fred, 27 starts and 3 appearances for 1 goal, as well as alongside Pogba, although it was Fred who made way for Scott in the team that lost, 10-11 on penalties to Spain's Villarreal, after 34 years Uruguayan center forward, Edinson Cavani, brought by Solskjaer on a free from Paris Saint-Germain, struck home an equalizer on 55 minutes, which wasn't enough to save either Solskjaer, or Pogba in the aftermath of the appointment of ten Hag.

 What looked like desperation brought Cristiano Ronaldo for 2021-22 from Italian side Juventus for £12.85m. Called CR7 for his preferred shirt number, opening the scoring with a header on 26 minutes from a cross on the right by right full back, Wes Brown, Ronaldo had won the European Champions Cup with United against Chelsea, a.e.t., 1-1, and on penalties 6-5, on May 21st at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia, but failure to beat Barcelona at the Stadio Olympica, Rome, on May 27th in the 2008-09 Final, 0-2, led the Portuguese right winger, bought from CP Sporting Lisbon for £12.24m by Scot Alex Ferguson for 2003-04, to seek a transfer to Spanish giants Real Madrid for £80m, where he won the European Champions Cup in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018, as well as the World Club Cup in 2014, 2016, and 2017, before being transferred to Juvé for £88m, where he won Serie A titles in 2018-19 and 2019-20. 

 Ronaldo struck 18 times that 2021-22 season, 12 of those, including hat tricks against Spurs at Old Trafford, 3-2, on March 12th, 2022, and Norwich City at home, 3-2, on April 16th, coming after Rangnick became interim manager in December 2021, while McTominay’s 28 starts and 2 appearances for 1 goal, compared to Fred’s 24 starts and 4 appearances for 4 goals, was a sign of the adroitness with which McFred negotiated the Solskjaer-Rangnick interregnum.

 Solskjaer, and after him coach Michael Carrick, had steered the side to win Group F in the Champions League, leaving Rangnick to negotiate the Round of 16, but a late 80th minute equalizing goal, taken with aplomb and apparent maturity by teenage Swedish striker, Anthony Elanga, 1-1, away at Spain's Atlético Madrid, persuaded Rangnick to persevere with him, and with England center forward Rashford on the bench, lost 0-1 in the second home leg, 1-2 on aggregate. Rangnick's chance was gone and ten Hag was appointed for 2022-23.

 The club won the League cup, 2-0, against Newcastle United, with a headed goal from Casemiro on 33 minutes, following a free kick by left back, Luke Shaw, and a 39th minute strike from Rashford, deflected over German 'keeper, Loris Karius, but lost the F.A. Cup Final, 1-2, to Manchester City, after being a goal down from German captain İlkay Gündoğan's volley on 13 seconds, and despite an equalizing 33rd minute penalty from Fernandes, after right back Aaron Wan-Bissaka's progress on the right of the city 18 yard box was adjudged to have been illegally impeded by England winger Jack Grealish's handling of the ball. McTominay, 1 goal in 10 starts and 14 appearances in 2022-23, coming on in the League Cup Final as 69th minute substitute for Fred, 12 starts and 23 appearances for 4 goals, and for Swedish center back, Victor Lindelöf, on 83 minutes in the F.A. Cup Final, again indicated trouble with the engine. 

 Ten Hag had brought Danish ball player age 30, Christian Eriksen, 25 starts and 3 appearances, from Brentford on a free, and until the emergence of Mainoo in 2023-24 the pairing with Casemiro seemed most likely, with Pogba age 32 released to return to Juvé on June 30th, 2022, while Matić signed on a free for Roma. 

 With Real Madrid, Australia Group champions of the International Champions Cup (ICC) tournament in 2015, drawing with Italy's Roma, 0-0, losing 7-6 on penalties, July18th, before Manchester City  beat Roma, July 21st, after drawing, 2-2, 5-4 on penalties, also at the Melboune Cricket Ground (MCG), July 24th, but in front of a 99,382 crowd, CR7 got Real's second on 25 minutes, 2-0, in a 4-1 defeat of City, toeing the ball, right footed, over Costa Rican 'keeper Keylor Navas' head, after collecting, at center field, inside the City 18 yard box, German midfielder Toni Kroos' pinpoint accurate, right footed, long-range pass from inside the half circle, at the City side of the half way line. Organized by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), CR7's status as a soccer champion became more global than Real.

 The arrival of Moroccan international, defensive midfielder, Sofyan Amrabat, born in Huizen, Amsterdam metropolitan area, Holland, and on loan for £8.5m from Italy's Serie A club Fiorentina, together with England's attacking midfielder, Mason Mount, from Chelsea for £55m, put further pressure on McTominay, survivor of seven managerial purges, if the interim roles of legendary United and Welsh left winger, scorer of the 6th penalty that gave United victory over Chelsea in the 2008 European Champions Cup Final, Ryan Giggs, coach after Moyes' dismissal, before 2013-14 season's end, April 22nd - May 11th, 2014, and United and England midfield stalwart, Michael Carrick, November 21st - December 2nd, 2022, who coached the team to qualify for the European Champions League Round of 16, beating Villarreal away, 2-0, after Solskjaer, were to be considered managerial. 

 Ten Hag’s solution to his engine trouble was to bring Danish striker, Rasmus Højlund, from Italian Serie A club Atalanta for £64m to profit from Fernandes’ promptings, while Rashford would move to the left as an inverted right footed inside forward, with left footed Argentine winger, Alejandro Garnacho, on the right flank, although Casemiro’s 32 years suggested that, if McTominay, 27 years, needed to improve, and couldn’t, teenager Kobbie Mainoo would need a partner who wasn’t waiting to be retired, and although Mason Mount, 25 years, England’s attacking midfielder, bought from Chelsea for £55m for 2023-24, fits the description, 4 starts and 4 appearances, before retiring to the physiotherapist’s treatment room, indicate either that the emperor doesn’t want to wear any clothes, or at least one of the twin engine turbo needs replacing, rather than maintenance and a routine repair. 

 Luke Shaw, due a testimonial at the end of season 2023-24, as were Martial and Rashford for playing at 'the theater of Dreams' for a decade at the close of 2024-25, is a true measure of success. While 2023-24 is only McTominay's 8th year hoping to wear away a red strip, Lindelöf has another three seasons to serve, before a game played in his honour, against such luminaries as FIFA’s Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football's (CONCACAF's) New York Cosmos, for whom Germany’s ‘Kaiser’, sweeper Franz Beckenbauer, and Brazil’s magical Pelé played together, appearing for Paul Scholes’ on August 5th, 2011,  recognizing loyalty as a portion of the take.

01/03/2024 05:06
Telles about ten Hag
 
Alex Telles, a left full back with Brazil's national team, was deemed surplus to requirements by Erik ten Hag, Dutch manager of Eredevisie Ajax Amsterdam, subsequent to his succeeding, for the 2022-23 season, German Ralf Rangnick, who from December 2022 had been interim manager at Manchester United. On loan with Spanish club Sevilla, there Telles won the Europa Cup, 4-1 on penalties, a.e.t., with the match against Italy's Roma ending, after normal time, 1-1, on May 31st, 2023, at Puskás Arena, Budapest, Hungary, giving the lie somewhat to Alex’s supernumerary status at Old Trafford to the terraced fans on the Stretford End.
 Rangnick had replaced former Reds' striker, Norway's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who'd steered the side to the Europa Cup Final of 2021, but losing to Spain's Villarreal, 10-11 on penalties, following a 1-1 draw, a.e.t., left a trophyless Solskjaer without enough kudos in soccer's credibility bank to continue. Ten Hag brought from Dutch club Feyenoord, Tyrell Malacia, a Dutch left full back, and Argentine Lisandro Martínez, a center back, who could also play at left back, from Ajax, but the decision to allow Telles to be loaned to Sevilla would return to haunt. England left back, Luke Shaw, had always been first choice since his signing, by United's then Dutch manager, Louis van Gaal, from Southampton for £30m for the 2014-15 season, but Shaw's injury proneness had left a gap through which Telles had been able to shine.
 Alex was signed from Portugal's FC Porto for £15.4m on October 5th, 2020, and made his debut against French club, Paris Saint-Germain, away 2-1, in the first game of the European Champions League group (H) stage, although it was Shaw, 30 starts and 2 appearances that term, as opposed to Telles' 8 and 1 substitute appearance, who'd fill the left back birth against Villarreal in the Europa Cup Final at Gdańsk Stadion, Poland, on May 26th, 2021, after the side had battled through being relegated from the Champions League, finishing third in group H behind Paris Saint-Germain and German Bundesliga club, RB Leipzig, but thereby qualifying for the Round of 32 in the Europa League, Europe's second tier club trophy, after the cup of champions.
 Although the left back rolein 2021-22 was filled almost equally by Telles, 18 starts and 3 appearances, and Shaw, 19 starts and 1 substitute appearance, from August 4th, 2022, ten Hag loaned Telles, taker of United’s second penalty against Villarreal in the 2021 Europa Cup Final, after coming on for Scots’ central midfielder, Scott McTominay, on 120+3 minutes, to Sevilla for 2022-23, 15 starts and 12 appearances, before transferring him for $7,800,000 to Saudi Arabia's Al Nassr for their 2023-24 season, where he was in the team that won the Arab Club Champions Cup Final at King Fahd Stadium, Taif, Saudi Arabia, on August 12th, 2023, against Al Hilal, also of Saudi Arabia, 2-1.
 Former Manchester United right wing legend, Cristiano Ronaldo scored both Nassr goals, in the 74th minute, right footed close in from a low driven cross on the right from right full back, Sultan Al-Ghannam, 1-1,  and a 98th minute header from a shot by Ivory Coast central midfielder, Seko Fofana, that hit the crossbar. CR7 had been given a free transfer there by ten Hag on November 23rd, 2022, despite a successful return from Juventus, Italy, scoring 18 league goals in 27 starts and 3 appearances for Solskjaer and £12.85m.
 Ten Hag's belief that Malacia and Martínez would be enough left back cover for Shaw seemed sensible in the light of Brandon Williams emergence in United's youth ranks as a rugged long-legged tackler with the capacity to cross strongly from the left, but a loan spell at then Premier League club, Norwich City, 2021-22, 23 starts and 3 appearances, didn't augur well. Williams didn't figure in ten Hag's 2022-23 league campaign and was loaned to England's second tier Championship club, Ipswich Town, for 2023-24.
 Ten Hag's decision to bring on loan Spanish left back, Sergio Reguilón, from London's Tottenham Hotspur, 4 starts and 5 appearances, until January 4th, 2024, looked like double jeopardy when United's own Spanish left back, Álvaro Carreras, 27 starts and 12 appearances on loan to England's Championship club Preston North End in 2022-23, was again loaned, first on September 1st, 2023, to Granada in Spain's La Liga, then on January 17th, 2024, to Portugal's Primeira Liga club Benfica, with the condition of his signing for €6m being that he should play half (8) of the Lisbon club's remaining games in their league season.
 When Luke Shaw was again injured, after making just 12 starts in 2023-24 thus far out of a possible 24, to be replaced by Victor Lindelöf on 45+2 minutes, during the February 18th 2-1 win at Luton Town, with a goal left footed past onrushing Belgian ‘keeper, Thomas Kaminski, from Danish center forward, Rasmus Højlund, after his intercepting of Jamaica's left half back Amari'i Bell's back pass, and a second chesting in left footed Argentine inverted right winger Alejandro Garnacho’s shot on 7 minutes, the setback at ‘The Hatters’, Kenilworth Road, was ahead of United's campaign run in, and the F.A. Cup 5th Round tie at Nottingham Forest. With Malacia and Martínez already injured, there was no one to cover for Shaw.
 Renowned, in the early part of the third decade of the 21st century, for playing with inverted wingers, that is, left footed wingers on the right, and right footed wingers on the left, giving the look of inside forwards, rather than wideners of the pitch for the forwards to receive crossed balls to head home from the flanks, and where opposing full backs could be tested to reveal strengths and, as importantly, expose weaknesses, United's extending of the same principle to the left back position, where Portuguese right back, Diogo Dalot, or Sweden's captain Lindelöf, for example, a right footed central defender, being required to fill in, appeared courting disaster.
 As the team lost, 1-2, to Fulham at home, despite an 89th minute equalizer from center back, Harry Maguire, left footed, a yard or so out from the goalmouth, after a right footed cross-shot from wide on the left by playmaker Bruno Fernandes was palmed away two-handed only so far as Maguire by Fulham's German 'keeper, Bernd Leno, supporters were left wondering how Forest could be stopped on their own City Ground, Nottingham.
 From Huizen, metropolitan area of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, although a Moroccan international, Sofyan Amrabat, was a naturally right footed central midfielder for Italy's Fiorentina of Serie A against Premier League West Ham United in Europe's tertiary tier competition, the Europa Conference League Final of June 7th, 2023, at Fortuna Arena, Prague, in the Czech Republic, which the London team won, 2-1. On loan for a fee of £8.5m at ‘the theater of Dreams' since September 1st, the same day that left back Carreras was loaned to Granada, Amrabat was determinedly two-footed enough for ten Hag to stand in at left back as surety for the 89th minute headed goal by Brazilian midfielder Casemiro, 1-0, from a free kick on the left by Fernandes, which set up a 6th Round encounter with Liverpool.

Telles about ten Hag

Alex Telles, a left full back with Brazil's national team, was deemed surplus to requirements by Erik ten Hag, Dutch manager of Eredevisie Ajax Amsterdam, subsequent to his succeeding, for the 2022-23 season, German Ralf Rangnick, who from December 2022 had been interim manager at Manchester United. On loan with Spanish club Sevilla, there Telles won the Europa Cup, 4-1 on penalties, a.e.t., with the match against Italy's Roma ending, after normal time, 1-1, on May 31st, 2023, at Puskás Arena, Budapest, Hungary, giving the lie somewhat to Alex’s supernumerary status at Old Trafford to the terraced fans on the Stretford End.
 Rangnick had replaced former Reds' striker, Norway's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who'd steered the side to the Europa Cup Final of 2021, but losing to Spain's Villarreal, 10-11 on penalties, following a 1-1 draw, a.e.t., left a trophyless Solskjaer without enough kudos in soccer's credibility bank to continue. Ten Hag brought from Dutch club Feyenoord, Tyrell Malacia, a Dutch left full back, and Argentine Lisandro Martínez, a center back, who could also play at left back, from Ajax, but the decision to allow Telles to be loaned to Sevilla would return to haunt. England left back, Luke Shaw, had always been first choice since his signing, by United's then Dutch manager, Louis van Gaal, from Southampton for £30m for the 2014-15 season, but Shaw's injury proneness had left a gap through which Telles had been able to shine.

 

Alex was signed from Portugal's FC Porto for £15.4m on October 5th, 2020, and made his debut against French club, Paris Saint-Germain, away 2-1, in the first game of the European Champions League group (H) stage, although it was Shaw, 30 starts and 2 appearances that term, as opposed to Telles' 8 and 1 substitute appearance, who'd fill the left back birth against Villarreal in the Europa Cup Final at Gdańsk Stadion, Poland, on May 26th, 2021, after the side had battled through being relegated from the Champions League, finishing third in group H behind Paris Saint-Germain and German Bundesliga club, RB Leipzig, but thereby qualifying for the Round of 32 in the Europa League, Europe's second tier club trophy, after the cup of champions.

 Although the left back rolein 2021-22 was filled almost equally by Telles, 18 starts and 3 appearances, and Shaw, 19 starts and 1 substitute appearance, from August 4th, 2022, ten Hag loaned Telles, taker of United’s second penalty against Villarreal in the 2021 Europa Cup Final, after coming on for Scots’ central midfielder, Scott McTominay, on 120+3 minutes, to Sevilla for 2022-23, 15 starts and 12 appearances, before transferring him for $7,800,000 to Saudi Arabia's Al Nassr for their 2023-24 season, where he was in the team that won the Arab Club Champions Cup Final at King Fahd Stadium, Taif, Saudi Arabia, on August 12th, 2023, against Al Hilal, also of Saudi Arabia, 2-1.

Former Manchester United right wing legend, Cristiano Ronaldo scored both Nassr goals, in the 74th minute, right footed close in from a low driven cross on the right from right full back, Sultan Al-Ghannam, 1-1,  and a 98th minute header from a shot by Ivory Coast central midfielder, Seko Fofana, that hit the crossbar. CR7 had been given a free transfer there by ten Hag on November 23rd, 2022, despite a successful return from Juventus, Italy, scoring 18 league goals in 27 starts and 3 appearances for Solskjaer and £12.85m.

Ten Hag's belief that Malacia and Martínez would be enough left back cover for Shaw seemed sensible in the light of Brandon Williams emergence in United's youth ranks as a rugged long-legged tackler with the capacity to cross strongly from the left, but a loan spell at then Premier League club, Norwich City, 2021-22, 23 starts and 3 appearances, didn't augur well. Williams didn't figure in ten Hag's 2022-23 league campaign and was loaned to England's second tier Championship club, Ipswich Town, for 2023-24.

 Ten Hag's decision to bring on loan Spanish left back, Sergio Reguilón, from London's Tottenham Hotspur, 4 starts and 5 appearances, until January 4th, 2024, looked like double jeopardy when United's own Spanish left back, Álvaro Carreras, 27 starts and 12 appearances on loan to England's Championship club Preston North End in 2022-23, was again loaned, first on September 1st, 2023, to Granada in Spain's La Liga, then on January 17th, 2024, to Portugal's Primeira Liga club Benfica, with the condition of his signing for €6m being that he should play half (8) of the Lisbon club's remaining games in their league season.

 When Luke Shaw was again injured, after making just 12 starts in 2023-24 thus far out of a possible 24, to be replaced by Victor Lindelöf on 45+2 minutes, during the February 18th 2-1 win at Luton Town, with a goal left footed past onrushing Belgian ‘keeper, Thomas Kaminski, from Danish center forward, Rasmus Højlund, after his intercepting of Jamaica's left half back Amari'i Bell's back pass, and a second chesting in left footed Argentine inverted right winger Alejandro Garnacho’s shot on 7 minutes, the setback at ‘The Hatters’, Kenilworth Road, was ahead of United's campaign run in, and the F.A. Cup 5th Round tie at Nottingham Forest. With Malacia and Martínez already injured, there was no one to cover for Shaw.

 Renowned, in the early part of the third decade of the 21st century, for playing with inverted wingers, that is, left footed wingers on the right, and right footed wingers on the left, giving the look of inside forwards, rather than wideners of the pitch for the forwards to receive crossed balls to head home from the flanks, and where opposing full backs could be tested to reveal strengths and, as importantly, expose weaknesses, United's extending of the same principle to the left back position, where Portuguese right back, Diogo Dalot, or Sweden's captain Lindelöf, for example, a right footed central defender, being required to fill in, appeared courting disaster.

 As the team lost, 1-2, to Fulham at home, despite an 89th minute equalizer from center back, Harry Maguire, left footed, a yard or so out from the goalmouth, after a right footed cross-shot from wide on the left by playmaker Bruno Fernandes was palmed away two-handed only so far as Maguire by Fulham's German 'keeper, Bernd Leno, supporters were left wondering how Forest could be stopped on their own City Ground, Nottingham.

 From Huizen, metropolitan area of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, although a Moroccan international, Sofyan Amrabat, was a naturally right footed central midfielder for Italy's Fiorentina of Serie A against Premier League West Ham United in Europe's tertiary tier competition, the Europa Conference League Final of June 7th, 2023, at Fortuna Arena, Prague, in the Czech Republic, which the London team won, 2-1. On loan for a fee of £8.5m at ‘the theater of Dreams' since September 1st, the same day that left back Carreras was loaned to Granada, Amrabat was determinedly two-footed enough for ten Hag to stand in at left back as surety for the 89th minute headed goal by Brazilian midfielder Casemiro, 1-0, from a free kick on the left by Fernandes, which set up a 6th Round encounter with Liverpool.

18/01/2024 06:13

Franz

 

A classic World Cup encounter was that of Manchester United’s deep lying England center forward, Bobby Charlton, and sweeper in defense, Franz Beckenbauer, who though he’d often reprise his earlier role as a central midfielder, found his niche in soccer history in the role of libero, as it’s called in Italy, for Bundesliga club, Bayern Munich, and the German national team.

 The role of the 'free' back is to ‘sweep up’, that is, take the ball away from the opponent, usually as a last ditch defense, but turned into a counter-attacking position by Beckenbauer, allying his almost prescient ability to know where to intervene, with the ball distributing vision of a playmaker behind the forwards, and who in support would often score remarkable, often seemingly impossible goals, after dispossessing his antagonist, moving up field, exchanging quick one-touch passes in midfield, and one-twos again with the attackers, getting into a place from which to strike.

 In English soccer, known as sistema, ‘the system', in Italy, the role of the ‘sweeper’ arose from the half-back line, for example, the United team that won the league titles of 1908 and 1911, and the 1909 F.A. Cup Final, 1-0, against Bristol City, with a strike from inside left, Sandy Turnbull, from the rebound, after inside right, Harold Halse, hit the bar, had a half-back line of Dick Duckworth, Charlie Roberts and Scot, Alex Bell, across the middle in front of ‘keeper, Harry Moger, as well as wing backs, which became full backs in the modern game.

 The half-back line lasted a long time in soccer, for example, the 1948 United side that won the F.A. Cup, 4-2, against Blackpool, had John Anderson at right half, Allenby Chilton at center half, and Henry Cockburn at left half, while the side that won the F.A. Cup in 1963, 3-1 against Leicester City, had Scot, Paddy Crerand on the right, Bill Foulkes in the center, and Maurice Setters on the left. Whereas the less wealthy Italian clubs adopted the libero to counter a man-to-man marking system pitting players positionally against each other, which favored the strongest individuals, soccer in England moved towards a pair of central defenders and an additional ‘hard man’ in midfield, there to break up attacks before they started, a role filled to perfection for United and England by Nobby Stiles, playing against Germany in the 1966 World Cup Final at London’s national Wembley stadium with center forward for West Ham United of Stratford, East London, Geoff Hurst, scoring a ‘hat-trick', 3, as England won, 4-2, and Beckenbauer finding Charlton too difficult to control.

 The same was true in the 1970 World Cup quarter final at Estadio de Guanajuato, La Martinica, León de los Aldama, Mexico, with England leading, after a cross on the right from Everton full back, Keith Newton, turned in at the near post by midfielder, Alan Mullery of Tottenham Hotspur, on 32 minutes, 1-0, and a goal on 49 minutes, after the break, from another cross by Newton, ran into the net at the far post by Spurs forward, Martin Peters, 2-0, and cruising. However, England’s Chelsea ‘keeper, Peter Bonetti, allowed a long range Beckenbauer shot to slip through, 2-1, on 69 minutes. Manager Alf Ramsey took Charlton and Peters off, reportedly saving the pair for the semi-final, but having the unintended effect of freeing Bayern’s Beckenbauer from defense, and captain and center forward, Hamburger SV's Uwe Seeler, equalized with a back header from a long 76th minute ball forward into the area from Italian club A.C. Milan’s left back, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, 2-2, before left winger, Hannes Löhr of FC Cologne in the 108th minute, a.e.t., near post, left, headed a cross from substitute Jürgen Grabowski of Eintracht Frankfurt back across to where goal poaching Bayern center forward, Gerhard Müller, was lurking at the far post to lash it right footed into the net, 2-3.

 Franz, nicknamed ‘the Kaiser’, that is, ‘the Emperor’ by the German media, had antecedents with Bobby, who was a survivor of the Munich air disaster of February 6th, 1958, when the airliner, British European Airways Flight 609, taking the team back to Manchester, crashed on the snowbound runway at its third attempt to take off from Riem-Munich airport, Munich. The flight was scheduled to refuel in Munich, because a non-stop flight from Belgrade to Manchester was beyond the range of the ‘Elizabethan’-class Airspeed Ambassador. The injured, some unconscious, were taken to Munich's Rechts der Isar Hospital, where 3 more died, total 23 with 21 survivors. Reserve full back, Geoff Bent, England captain, and left back, Roger Byrne, right wing-half, midfielder Eddie Colman, left half, Duncan Edwards, who died 15 days later, center half, Mark Jones, left winger, David Pegg, center forward, Tommy Taylor, and Irish inside forward, Liam Whelan, all lost their lives, while right winger, Johnny Berry and Northern Irish inside forward, Jackie Blanchflower, were too badly injured ever to play again.

 Roger, Eddie, Mark, Duncan, and Tommy had been members of the team that had drawn, 3-3, with Red Star Belgrade, with a goal from Dennis Viollet after 2 minutes, and Bobby getting two more in the 30th and 31st minutes, 3-0, at half-time in the away leg of the European Champions’ Cup quarter final, Yugoslavia (Serbia), to secure a semi final against Spain's Real Madrid, who were on their way to five successive triumphs in the competition since winning it in 1955-56. United wouldn’t recover sufficiently to win until 1968, 4-1, a.e.t., against Portugal's Benfica at Wembley.

 Beckenbauer, born in the post-WWII ruins of Munich, Giesing district, would be aware of the tragedy befalling Charlton, before joining Bayern’s youth team in 1959. Following defeat to England in the 1966 World Cup Final, he was in the Bayern side that defeated Scots’ club Rangers in the 1967 European Cup Winners’ Cup Final, 1-0, Städtisches Stadion, Nuremberg, and in the German team that lost ‘the game of the century’ to Italy, 3-4, in the 1970 World Cup semi final at Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, before captaining Germany to World Cup triumph at Olympiastadion, Munich, 2-1, against Holland in 1974. The European Cup was won three times in succession when he was captain of Bayern. In 1974, 1-1, and 4-0, after a replay against Spain's Atlético Madrid at Heysel Stadium, Brussels, Belgium. Retained in 1975, 2-0 against England's Leeds United, Parc des Princes, Paris, France, and defended once more in 1976, 1-0 against France’s Saint-Étienne, at Scotland’s Hampden Park, Glasgow.

 Italy’s catenaccio, ‘door-bolt’ system , offers broad protection for younger players, in terms of their physical, mental, and technical development, and probably helped French generalissimo, Paul Pogba, for example, 2011 F.A. Youth Cup Final winner, 6-3 on aggregate against Sheffield United, before agreeing to join Juventus of Turin, where he won four successive Serie A titles; 2012-13, and Supercoppa Italiana, 2013-14, 2014-15, and Coppa Italia, and Supercoppa Italiana, and 2015-16, and Coppa Italia.

 Belgium’s left footed playmaker, Adnan Januzaj, 15 starts and 12 appearances for 4 goals in 2013-14, receiving more protection there, flourished in Europe, after leaving the ‘sink or swim' English game of uncompromising center backs, and central midfield hard men. Though perceived as defensive, the libero has his advantages, which Dutch manager, Louis van Gaal, experimenting with three center backs, after being appointed to succeed David Moyes for 2014-15, sought to introduce. Despite criticism, being replaced by Portuguese manager for 2016-17, José Mourinho, after winning the F.A. Cup Final in 2016, Gaal’s three at the back had some influential impact on the coaching side.

 Traditionally United had two in midfield. A holding ball winner allied to a creative playmaker; feeding twin strikers, and complimenting left and right wingers. As the idea of a ball-playing centrocampista had disappeared with the half back line, there was no sense of a gap in the center of the pitch. The symmetry of two full backs, two center backs, a left and right wing half in midfield, left and right wingers, and twin strikers, created a spectacle the terraced ranks paid to watch.

 However, the desirability of taking hold of the center was demonstrated admirably by Danish ‘keeper, Peter Schmeichel, famous for going up to the halfway line, as an additional midfielder, if United needed a goal, and even into the opponent’s penalty area, scoring a goal, with a header, as he did in the 89th minute, 2-2, against Russia’s Rotor Volgogrod, in the UEFA Cup Round 1 at ‘the theater of Dreams’, on September 26th, 1995.

 That’s where Peter was when England’s center forward, Teddy Sheringham, equalizing right inside forward Mario Basler’s 6th minute free-kick, left, bent right footed around the United wall, low, and inside the right post, 1-0, scored the 91st minute equalizer, 1-1, steering Wales’ left winger Ryan Giggs’ shot into the net against Bayern in the 1999 European Cup Final, won, 2-1, with a strike from Norwegian center forward, Solskjaer, with only the ball to beat, after Sheringham nodded on England right winger David Beckham's corner in the 93rd minute, at FC Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium, Spain.

 Spain’s Ander Herrera, bought by Gaal for 2014-15 for €36m from Athletic Bilbao, was utilized by Mourinho as a central playmaker, behind a lone striker, and inside forwards, nominally labeled left wingers, ahead of a midfield two, essentially right and left wing halves, with Paul Pogba, returning for €105m from Juvé, center left. Ousting Spain’s left footed Juan Mata, who thereafter had the role of outside left, inside left, or inverted outside and inside right, Pogba, at the Friends Arena venue, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden, got the first, 1-0, in the 2017 Europa Cup Final defeat of Dutch club, Ajax, Amsterdam, with a low left foot shot on 18 minutes, looping over Cameroon ‘keeper, André Onana, deflected off Columbian center back, Davinson Sánchez. Pogba was deployed alongside England’s Michael Carrick, center right, and later Nemanja Matić, £40m from Chelsea from 2017-18. While Armenian captain and right footed winger, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, bought for 2016-17 from German club Borussia Dortmund for £27m, scoring the second, with his right foot, 2-0, an overhead kick on 48 minutes, deployed as an inverted left wing.

 Herrera later played behind the midfield two, as a hard tackling half back, or the stamina of box-to-box Belgian, Marouane Fellaini, brought by Moyes with him from Everton for £27.5m, after his appointment to replace retiring Alex Ferguson for 2013-14, and Fellaini was there in the ‘diamond’ for the 2017 Europa Cup Final. Behind the three up front, Marouane, known for his heading ability in support of the forward line, demonstrated the influence of the ‘free’ central player of European soccer strategy and tactics.

 With 4-3-3 the centrocampista is ultimately defensive, as those nominally in front of the diamond aren’t necessarily forwards, that is, 4-1-2-3, 4-2-1-3, and 4-3-1-2, etc., are centrocampista versions of 4-4-2, and although 4-2-4 means wingers, in the absence of a recognizable sweeper, while the inclusion of a libero still remains an option, the devolution of the diamond is 4-1-4-1, that is, a midfielder in front of the back four, and behind the rest of the midfield, with a lone striker up front, which though protective of the indisputably valuable playmaker, the forecast is not enough goals to look like reign.

 When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, effectively replacing Mourinho from December 19th, 2019, bought playmaker, Bruno Fernandes, from Portugal’s Sporting CP of Lisbon on January 30th, 2020, for €80m, the fans anticipations were higher than four semi-final defeats, and defeat in the Europa Cup Final of 2021, 10-11, a.e.t., against Spain’s Villarreal on penalties, with the full-time score, 1-1, after a 55th minute equalizing strike from Uruguayan center forward, Edinson Cavani, after a 20 yard shot from Rashford, blocked, fell favorably to his right boot inside Villarreal ‘keeper Onana's penalty area. The Final was notable for emphasizing a trend. Both wide players were center forwards, essentially functioning in the role of inverted inside forwards, that is, Mason Greenwood on the right, as an inverted left footed right winger, and Marcus Rashford on the left as an inverted right footed left winger.

 Cavani had taken Zlatan Ibrahimović’s mantle of Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time top scorer, before following the Swede to Old Trafford for season 2020-21, like ‘Ibra’, as a free agent. Doubts about Zlatan’s fitness before Cavani’s arrival led to his departure on March 23rd, 2018, for US’ Major League Soccer club, LA Galaxy, and United never had the two forwards striking together. Zlatan had sustained a ligament injury on April 20th and was substituted by France center forward, right winger, and sometime inverted left winger, Anthony Martial, in the 90th minute of the second home leg of the 2017 Europa Cup quarter final defeat of Belgium’s Anderlecht, 1-0, on 10 minutes through a low, right footed strike, center and left of Spanish ‘keeper, Rubén Iván Martínez, from Mkhitaryan, in the midfield diamond role, found with a pass by Rashford, inside left, cancelled out, 1-1, by Algeria’s attacking midfielder, Sofiane Hanni, right footed on 32 minutes, low from a rebound, when right central midfielder Youri Tielmans’ left foot shot, deflected, hit the bar, but 2-1, a.e.t., after an aerial knock down from Fellaini. Rashford, in the inverted left winger role, with his right instep dragged the ball around and behind his left leg, allowing it to roll into a position where he struck left footed, in the 107th minute.

 Solskjaer reached the semi final of League Cup, F.A. Cup, and Europa Cup in 2020, before reaching the League Cup semi final in 2021, as well as losing the 2021 Europa Cup Final, replaced for 2022-23 by Dutch manager of Eredivisie Ajax, Amsterdam, Erik ten Hag, after former Leipzig manager, German Ralf Rangnick, on November 29th was appointed as interim boss until the end of 2021-22. Ten Hag moved quickly to bring, for £82m from Ajax, Brazilian inverted right winger, left footed Antony, to play on the right. Complimenting right footed, inverted left winger, Rashford, United won the 2023 League Cup Final, 2-0, against Newcastle United, with go-getting right midfield, Brazilian Casemiro, bought for the start of the term by ten Hag from Real Madrid for £60m, getting the first, with a header from left back Luke Shaw’s free kick on 33 minutes, and Rashford the second, after being put through by on loan Burnley center forward, Netherlands’ Wout Weghorst, his shot deflected in off defender, Sven Botman, on 39 minutes.

 Beaten at Wembley, 1-2, by Manchester City, eventual winners of the 2022-23 treble of league, F.A. Cup, and European Cup, 1-0 against Italy’s Internazionale of Milan at Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey, with inverted left winger, bought by Solskjaer for 2021-22 from Germany’s Borussia Dortmund for £73m, right footed, Jadon Sancho, Rashford was at center forward. Ten Hag’s deploying of Portuguese right footed right back, Diogo Dalot, bought by Mourinho from FC Porto for £19m for 2018-19, as an inverted left back, for left footed socceroos, on the left side of the line up, was mene tekel upharsin, while buying left footed Danish striker, Rasmus Højlund, for 2023-24 from Italy’s Atalanta for £64m, to be the latest cutting edge of Bruno Fernandes’ diamond, 2 goals in 13 starts and 3 appearances, before United’s 4th Round F.A. Cup tie at Newport, on January 28th, 2024, that is, the club’s last realistic chance of silverware for that campaign's trophy cabinet, bluntly showed that an eagle with its wings on backwards might deceive for a time, but it won’t fly well enough to prey with the others.

14/01/2024 14:27

QB Fernandes

 

That the Glazer family, who took over Manchester United football club, centered at their Old Trafford stadium, built 1910, adjacent to the Bridgewater Canal, off Warwick Road, north, Greater Manchester, county of Lancashire, bordering the city of Salford, and roughly delineated by former toll gates, Brooks’ Bar to the east, and Trafford Bar to the west, as part of the 19th century Turnpike system of mercantile traffic, residential exclusivity, and road maintenance, are from the United States of America, was a fact that normally impinged but slightly on the consciousness of the average supporter.

 Malcolm Glazer, born in Rochester city, Monroe county, New York state, whose stake in the club was 2.9%, after purchasing his first tranche of shares on March 2nd, 2003, for £9m, had 100% by June 2005, costing £790m, and although he died on May 8th, 2014, in the incorporated town of Palm Beach, on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach county, Florida state, founding First Allied Corporation in 1984, as a holding company, with Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Conrail freight, and former US’ President George H. W. Bush’s oil and gas, Zapata Corporation, for example, as well as the American Football team, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa city, Florida, his legacy to his family was inestimable.

 On June 7th, 2005, sons Avram and Joel, Executive Co-Chairmen from July 1st, 2005, and Bryan, were first appointed to the board as non-executive directors, and sons Kevin, Edward, and daughter, Darcie, in 2006, although on December 24th, 2024, Jim Ratcliffe, through his Ineos chemical conglomerate, were given control over soccer, after buying 25% of the club. Despite apparent seeming success with Alex Ferguson, appointed in November 1986, and continuing until retirement at the close of the 2012-13 season, the impact of the Glazers on United was discernible.

 Before 2005-06, under Ferguson’s stewardship, the F.A. Cup, 1990, 3-3 and 1-0 in the replay against Crystal Palace; the European Cup Winners’ Cup, 1991, 2-1 against Spain’s FC Barcelona at Feijenoord Stadion, Rotterdam, Holland, and the European Super Cup, 1-0 against Red Star Belgrade at Old Trafford; the 1992 League Cup, 1-0 against Nottingham Forest; the 1992-93 Premier League championship; the F.A. Cup, 4-0 against Chelsea and league ‘double’ of 1993-94 and 1995-96, 1-0 against Liverpool; the Premier League title of 1996-97; the ‘treble’ of league, F.A. Cup, 2-0 against Newcastle United and European Cup, 2-1 against German Bundesliga club, Bayern Munich, at Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium in 1998-1999, as well as the Intercontinental Cup, 1-0 against Brazil's Palmeiras at the National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan; the 1999-2000, 2000-2001, and 2002-03 league titles, and the 2003-04 F.A. Cup, 3-0 against Millwall, at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, while Wembley was renovated, were won before the Glazers’ takeover.

 The League Cup of 2006, 4-0 against Wigan Athletic, Millennium Stadium; the league title of 2006-07; the double of league and European Cup, 1-1, at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, Russian Federation, against Chelsea, a.e.t., and 6-5 on penalties, in 2007-08, as well as the World Club Cup, 1-0 against Ecuador’s LDU Quito at the International Stadium, Yokohama, Japan; the double of League Cup, 0-0 against Tottenham Hotspur, a.e.t., and 4-1 on penalties, and league in 2008-09; the League Cup of 2010, 2-1 against Aston Villa, and the titles of 2010-11 and 2012-13, were won with the Glazers.  

 Ferguson’s retirement saw something of a drought in terms of success. Fans had seen the appointment of the business suited manager before, with Frank O’ Farrell, 1971-December 9th 1972, when the joke at ‘the Theater of Dreams’ was that he only came out of his office on match days. Although it was no surprise to the terraced ranks to find David Moyes of Everton appointed to succeed Ferguson, despite the emergence of protégé Adnan Januzaj of Belgium, as a possible future left footed playmaker, with 15 starts and 12 appearances for 4 goals, it was no wonder to see him leave at the end of the 2013-14 campaign, having done what he’d done for ‘the Toffees’; kept the club from being relegated.

 That Malcolm Glazer’s death had a deleterious effect on the club’s chances is moot, although he didn’t live to see former Netherlands’ manager, track suited Dutchman Louis van Gaal, who'd looked more like a trainer than Moyes, after buying Spain’s playmaker, Ander Herrera, for €36m from Athletic Bilbao, win the 2014 International Champions Cup pre-season tournament in the United States on August 4th, 3-1 against Liverpool, at Sun Life Stadium, Miami Gardens city, Miami-Dade county, Florida. However, Gaal’s experiments with three central defenders and wing backs, as well as inverted right footed left wingers, and vice versa, left fans feeling they’d gotten off lightly, when he was sacked, after winning the 2016 F.A. Cup, 2-1 against Crystal Palace.

 A pattern was beginning to emerge. The Glazers owned division South's Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, when that National Football Conference (NFC) winning  team won Super Bowl XXXVII against the American Football Conference (AFC) winners, division West’s Oakland Raiders, 48-21, on January 26th, 2003, at the San Diego Chargers' Qualcomm Stadium, California, with quarterback, Brad Johnson, who in the American public imagination, corresponding to the role of playmaker in soccer, made an 8 yard touchdown pass to wide receiver, Keenan McCardell, increasing the Buccaneers' lead to 27-3.

 The idea of the playmaker, as equivalent to the role of the quarterback, at the pivotal, central hub of the team, was to predominate at United, whose traditional two man midfield, with a holding ball winner and distributor, allied to a playmaker, behind twin strikers, and dependent on wingers to left and right, was to be modified by the diamond, consisting of a playmaker ahead of the two man midfield, and behind a single striker, assisted by two forwards, after the fashion of the quarterback (QB) in American football, handing the oval ball to a rushing back, who’d run with the ball, or throwing to left and right wide receivers in the anticipation of a touchdown (TD) in the opponents’ end zone, 6 points, followed by a place kick between the posts, 1 point, to emphasize the success, 7 points.

 Successful sans pareil, Portuguese José Mourinho, dubbed ‘The Special One’ by the English press, abrasively won the 2017 League Cup, 3-2 against Southampton, and Europa Cup, 2-0 against Ajax, Amsterdam, at Friends Arena, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden, bringing the hard tackling and long range passing and shooting abilities of France’s Paul Pogba back from Italy’s Juventus for €105m, where he’d signed as a free agent, after winning the F.A. Youth Cup with United in 2011, 6-3 against Sheffield United on aggregate, and four consecutive Serie A titles later; 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16.

 However, after converting Herrera into a defensive midfielder, with Belgian Marouane Fellaini, who’d been brought with him from Everton by Moyes for £27.5m, and Pogba ahead of him, rather than Herrera in his former diamond role as playmaker, behind the attack, Mourinho was dismissed in December 2019, after first losing charismatic Swedish goal scoring center forward through injury, Zlatan Ibrahimović, brought from Paris Saint-Germain age 34, as a free agent, and then losing the 2018 F.A. Cup Final, 0-1 to Chelsea's Belgian center forward Eden Hazard's penalty on 22 minutes, despite the herculean efforts of Zlatan’s replacement, bought from Everton for £75m, Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku, 16 goals that 2017-18 season, and 12 more in 2018-19.

 José was replaced by former United striker, Norway’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who the board predictably thought they’d manage, but those who remembered the appointment of former player, Wilf McGuinness, as the legendary Matt Busby’s successor; F.A. Cup winner in 1948, 4-2 against Blackpool, and 1963, 3-1 against Leicester City; league titles in 1951-52, 1955-56, 1956-57, 1964-65, 1966-67, and the European Cup in 1968, 1-1, and 4-1, a.e.t., at London’s national stadium, Wembley, weren’t surprised when Solskjaer didn’t do well in the league, and had difficulties in getting past the semi-final stage of cup competitions.

 McGuinness was sacked, and replaced for the 1971-72 season, when United led the league before New Year, by O'Farrell, after Wilf lost the League Cup semi-final of 1970, 3-4 on aggregate to Manchester City, as well as the twice replayed F.A. Cup semi-final of that year, 0-1 to Leeds United, after two 0-0 draws, with legendary goal scorer, Denis Law, on the substitutes’ bench, and again the 1971 League Cup semi-final, 2-3 on aggregate to Aston Villa.

 History was repeated and Solskjaer suffered a fate similar to McGuinness, and indeed Moyes, who though losing 1-2 in the 2013-14 season’s away leg of the League Cup semi-final at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, despite a headed goal on 51 minutes from Serbia's center back, Nemanja Vidić, at the far post for a corner from the left, 1-1, won the home leg, 1-0, after a corner on the left from Januzaj, back heeled by England center forward, Danny Welbeck, finding Northern Irish center back, Jonny Evans, who headed in on 37 minutes.

 To many fans Sunderland were inexplicably given another 30 minutes. Normally, the game would have been over, as away goals count double, in the event of an aggregate draw, 2-2, that is, as United scored away, 3-2. However, a temporary rule change required a result, and after United’s Spanish ‘keeper, David de Gea, had fumbled right back Phil Bardsley’s low shot along the ground and into the net on 119 minutes, 1-1, Januzaj, playing a one-two with England center back, Chris Smalling, ran on to cross the ball, left and deep inside the area, for center forward, Mexico’s Javier Hernández, to oblige with a strike, left footed at the far post on 120+1 minutes, 2-1, a.e.t., 3-3 on aggregate. Only right midfield, Scot Darren Fletcher, from a quintet that also included Welbeck, Januzaj, England center half, Phil Jones, and Brazil’s right back, Rafael, scored as United lost on penalties, 1-2, a.e.t., in front of an incredulous Stretford End.

 Despite Solskjaer’s buying the playmaker United's American backers had been missing, Portugal’s Bruno Fernandes from Lisbon’s Sporting CP for €80m on January 20th, 2020, who scored 18 goals in 2020-21, as the team reached the 2021 Europa Cup Final, they lost at Stadion Gdańsk, Poland, 10-11, a.e.t., on penalties, to Spain’s Villarreal, when the game had ended in a draw in normal time, 1-1.

 Together with semi-final defeats for Solskjaer in the 2020 League Cup, 2-3 to Manchester City on aggregate, F.A. Cup, 1-3 to Chelsea, and Europa Cup, 1-2 to Spain’s Sevilla, at German club FC Köln’s neutral RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne, that was failing, like McGuinness and Moyes. Glazers’ owned Tampa Bay Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV, against AFC division West’s Kansas City Chiefs, 31-9, at ‘Ray Jay’, Raymond James (Financial) Stadium, ‘The New Sombrero’, Tampa city, Hillsborough county, Florida, on February 7th, 2021. QB Tom Brady threw, in the first quarter, an 8 yard TD pass, 7-3, inside flank to Rob Gronkowski, tight end (TE), and defensive blocker, that is, when Kansas’ QB, Patrick Mahomes, had the down,1 followed by another TD throw of 17 yards to ‘Gronk’, as eligible Buccaneers' offensive receiver, in the second, 14-3, and a throw of 19 yards to wide receiver, Antonio Brown, for a 1 yard gain, TD, in the end zone, with six seconds of the first half remaining, 21-6. However, cue B. Fernandes, United’s defeat again in the League Cup semi final of 2021, 0-2 to Manchester City at Old Trafford, was failure.

 Former Leipzig manager, German Ralf Rangnick, was invited to fill the role of interim manager until season’s end in December 2022, and Dutch manager of Ajax, Erik ten Hag was appointed for 2022-23, which finished relatively successfully, as Fernandes fulfilled his role as diamond playmaker in ‘the American Dream’, behind on loan Dutch center forward, Wout Weghorst, England’s Marcus Rashford on the left, and inverted left footed winger, Brazil’s Antony on the right, with Brazil’s Casemiro, right midfield, and Brazil’s Fred left midfield, behind him, as QB Fernandes’ United won the League Cup, 2-0, against Newcastle. Only time, and 'diamond Jim' would tell, if 4-3-3 was going to prove a better strategy, than 4-2-4.

 

1 A QB in possession has four downs to advance the ball ten yards or more to get it into their opponent's end zone for a TD.

10/01/2024 15:16

The Inverted Winger at Manchester United

 

The labeling of forwards as inverts began at Manchester United with the arrival of Memphis Depay, a right footed left winger, who technical writers, associated with the coaching side of soccer, defined as an inverted left winger. The choice of terminology was perhaps surprising to psychologists, for example, sexologist Havelock Ellis (1859-1939), whose understanding of ‘invert’ was ‘sexual instinct turned by constitutionalized abnormality toward persons of the same sex.’1 The other interpretation is that of ‘reverse psychology’, that is, a right full back, expecting a left footed winger as his antagonist, would be caught flat footed by Depay’s right foot, for example.

 Memphis arrived at ‘the Theater of Dreams’, subsequent to Argentine right winger, Ángel Di María, bought for the 2014-15 campaign from La Liga Spain’s Real Madrid for £59.7m by Dutch manager, Louis van Gaal, disappointing, with 20 starts, and 7 substitute appearances, for a return of 3 goals, being sold on to France’s Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain for £44m before the commencement of the 2015-16 term. Along with Depay, £25m from Dutch Eredivisie club PSV Eindhoven, came Anthony Martial from Ligue 1 AS Monaco for £36m, a French left footed center forward, who also played on either wing, that is, as an inverted right winger, if he was selected to demonstrate his attacking abilities there.

 Like Ángel, the right winger Gaal rejected, Depay was also found wanting, with 16 starts, 13 appearances from the substitutes’ bench, and 2 goals in 2015-16, but by Gaal’s successor, Portuguese José Mourinho, replacing the Dutchman, rather surprisingly to many, after the club’s defeat, 2-1, of Crystal Palace in the May 21st, 2016, F.A. Cup Final. Depay didn’t figure and Mourinho brought Armenia’s captain, right wing, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, for £30m from German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, which investment was quickly repaid, as Henrikh scored the second goal on 48 minutes, with an overhead kick inside the penalty area against the Netherlands' Ajax of Amsterdam, 2-0, to win the May 24th, 2017, Europa Cup Final at Friends Arena, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden.

 The emergence of England’s Jessie Lingard on the left wing, although he came on as a substitute for inverted right wing, Spain’s Juan Mata, in the 2016 F.A. Cup Final, scoring the winning goal in the 110th minute, with a right footed volley from inside the 18 yard box, meant that Depay, who made only 4 appearances as a substitute in 2016-17, wasn’t missed when his transfer to Ligue 1 Lyon for £22m went through on January 20th, 2017. However, midway through the 2017-18 season Henrikh went to North London club Arsenal in a swap deal for Chilean forward, Alexis Sánchez, who’d score 2 goals in 12 starts and have what looked like a perfectly good goal disallowed in the May 19th, 2018, F.A. Cup Final defeat against West London’s Chelsea, 0-1 to Belgian center forward Eden Hazard’s 22nd minute penalty, after he was brought down by United center back, England's Phil Jones, lunging recklessly after a ball too far away at Hazard’s feet for County Durham referee, Mark Clattenburg, to have any option but to award Chelsea the spot kick.

 Although Mourinho brought Brazilian Fred for the left side of midfield from Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukrainska Premier Liha for £47m before the 2018-19 campaign, he couldn’t be defined as a winger, and the damage was done. Alexis scored only 1 goal in 9 starts and 11 appearances and Mourinho, dismissed on December 18th, 2018, with just 7 wins in 17 games, was replaced by manager of Norway’s Eliteserien club, Molde, former United striker, Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who’d scored the winning goal on 93 minutes almost on the goal line, after England center forward Teddy Sheringham’s 91st minute equalizer against German side, Bayern Munich, 2-1, in the May 12th, 1999, European Cup Final at Camp Nou, stadium of Spanish La Liga club, Barcelona.

 With players mainly inherited, with the notable exception of Portugal's midfield maestro, Bruno Fernandes, bought from Primeira Liga Lisbon's Sporting CP for €80m on January 30th, 2020, Solskjaer was able to reach the Europa Cup Final at Stadion Gdańsk, Poland, on May 26th, 2021, but lost to Spain’s Villarreal, 11-10, a.e.t., on penalties, with Spain's ‘keeper, David De Gea, the only player to miss, after Uruguayan center forward, Edinson Cavani, brought as a free agent for 2020-21 from Paris Saint-Germain, equalized on 55 minutes, a low strike from five yards, 1-1, in normal time.

 Trophyless, despite bringing legendary right wing, Cristiano Ronaldo, from Italian Serie A club Juventus for €13m, European Champions’ Cup winner with United on May 21st, 2008, 6-5 on penalties, a.e.t., and a Ronaldo header on 26 minutes, 1-0, at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, before England midfielder, Frank Lampard’s equalizer, 1-1, on 45 minutes, poking the ball left footed between advancing Dutch ‘keeper Edwin van der Sar and England center back, Rio Ferdinand. Cristiano, who’d notch 18 goals in 2021-22, had been joined by inverted England left winger, Jadon Sancho, from Borussia Dortmund for €85m, and France’s center back, Raphaël Varane, from Real Madrid for £34m, but 7th in the Premier League, after losing away at Watford, 1-4, Solskjaer was nevertheless replaced on November 21st, 2021, by interim manager until season’s end, formerly at RB Leipzig, German Ralf Rangnick, before Dutch manager of Ajax, Erik Ten Hag, was appointed for 2022-23.

 Cristiano, known as CR7 for his initials and his preferred shirt number, departed, 4 starts and 6 appearances for 1 goal, to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr of the capital Riyadh, on January 1st 2023, where his illustrious name would receive more luster, scoring twice on August 12th at the King Fahd Stadium, Taif, in the 74th, 1-1, and again in the 94th minute of extra time to win the 2023 Arab Club Champions’ Cup against city of Riyadh rivals Al-Hilal, 2-1. CR7’s leaving was bittersweet, as United’s first success since 2017 came with the February 26th, 2023, League Cup Final defeat of Newcastle United, 2-0, with Marcus Rashford and inverted Brazilian right wing, left footed Antony, bought from Ajax for €95m, on the wings. Brazilian midfielder, Casemiro, bought for £60m by Ten Hag for the 2022-23 season from Real Madrid, headed in a goal from Luke Shaw's free kick on the left on 33 minutes, 1-0. Put through by on loan Dutch striker from Burnley, Wout Weghorst, 6 minutes later, Rashford’s shot, deflected off Magpies’ Dutch central defender, Sven Botman, looped over Newcastle’s German ‘keeper, Lorius Karius, goal, 2-0.

 The decision to select Marcus Rashford, as a left winger, came as a surprise to many devoted followers, 11 starts and 5 goals in his 2015-16 debut season, and center forward in the 2016 F.A. Cup Final, but the purchase of Brazilian left footed right winger, Antony, provided a clue to manger Erik Ten Hag’s thinking. Previous managers had selected Anthony Martial as a center forward, or a winger, depending on injuries, tactics, and strategy, although Ten Hag looked to play Martial as a complementing inverted left winger to Antony on the right, that is, as what fans of soccer in the 1950s would recognize as inside forwards. Van Gaal’s tactical use of three center backs, along with full backs, who’d been wingers, had been similarly deployed as ‘retro’ 1950s ‘wing backs' by a Gaal predecessor, legendary two times European Champions’ Cup winning Scot, then retired, as Sir Alex Ferguson, knighted by England’s queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to soccer, and who’d been initially replaced by Everton’s David Moyes for 2013-14, before Gaal’s appointment. Ecuador’s Antonio Valencia, a former right winger, bought from Wigan Athletic for £16m for 2009-10, before being converted to right full back by Ferguson, and England’s Ashley Young, as a left winger, bought for £17m for 2011-12 from Aston Villa, restyled as a left full back, were converted again by van Gaal to wing backs, with responsibility for wing play in support of Depay, for example, an inverted right winger, effectively in the role of an inside forward.

 With five across the back, that is, a half back line, similar to that which won United the league title in 1909 and 1911, featuring Dick Duckworth, Charlie Roberts, and Scot, Alex Bell, and the April 24th F.A. Cup Final in 1909 at South London’s Crystal Palace, 1-0 against Bristol City, after a shot on 22 minutes from inside right, Harold Halse, hit the bar, and inside left, Sandy Turnbull, struck the rebound past ‘keeper, Harry Clay, room remains for two midfield players, and three forwards, or more daringly, a playmaker, functioning as a deep lying center forward, in the mold of Bobby Charlton, or Paul Scholes, behind the strikers and the wingers, and in front of a midfield two. However, if the wing backs function as wingers, left and right wingers become redundant in the forward line, although traditional with United, used to having a holding midfielder, of the type of Eire’s Roy Keane, alongside the attacking midfielder, for example, Fernandes, as that point of the diamond, where the two wings and the central striker are the other constellating points of the diamond’s structure.

 With this strategy, either twin strikers were deployed, which means that each striking forward can be the point of the diamond, or there’d be a holding player in the midfield alongside the diamond strategist, with a single striker up front. If the manager deployed full backs as wing backs, for example, England’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka on the right, signed by Solskjaer for £45m from Crystal Palace, before the 2019-20 campaign, and Luke Shaw on the left, bought for £30m from Southampton by Gaal for the 2014-15 term, it’d be logical to suppose inside forwards in the style of the 1950s United, for example, Eire’s inside right, Liam Whelan, and England’s Bobby Charlton at inside left, during United’s 1955-56 and 1956-57 championship winning seasons, therefore inverted is an appropriate description for wingers in the role of inside forwards playing with the wrong foot, as it were, on the opposite side of the pitch to where they might naturally be expected to deploy.

 Spain’s Juan Mata, for example, as a left footed player, often deployed on the right, after being brought by former manager, David Moyes, from Chelsea, on January 24th, 2014, for £37.1m, that is, as a left footed inside right, and similarly with Antony, had the effect of funneling the play into the center, as the space on the right touchline of the field lay abandoned. As there aren’t any rules barring left footed center forwards, so with inside forwards, which foot used is entirely a matter of preference. Rashford, a center forward by common consent, selected on the left or right, as a left footed inside forward, for example, rather than a twinned striker, alongside Dane Rasmus Højlund, bought from Italy's Atalanta for £64m, as an out-and-out striker for the 2023-24 term, illustrates that there aren’t any wingers per se in the inverted strategy.

 The advent of Alejandro Garnacho, as a left winger on the left foot, suggests that tactics and strategy at Manchester United undergo revision. Although Gaal’s experiment with three center backs wasn’t entirely dismissed by Mourinho, as Gaal himself was, after the 2016 F.A. Cup Final win, the idea of starting full backs as wing backs to perform the role of wingers remained fashionable. Unfortunately, the ploy of having three central midfielders, with a diamond behind the main striker, seriously curtails United’s usually all-out attacking style, as more fluidity’s required of the front three; resulting in an inversely proportionate return through placing too much onus on a single central striker to score, that is, goal famine. Although the ideal for United is a two man midfield, with a hard man, midfield destroyer, who can pass, and a diamond; twin strikers, and left and right wingers, or at least left and right inside forwards, who’re left footed left inside forwards, and vice versa, are needed to improve the goal drought. Otherwise the forward line will be inverted to the extent that there’ll be no wide play, which means no balls from extreme angles, crossed over to evade defenders, for forwards to head in, or boot onto, after a wing and a prayer.

 The argument that inverted forward thinking is more cerebral ignores the fact that an outside left with a right foot can’t hug the touchline, evading tackles from the opposing right full back to deliver accurate balls, like that of Wales' Ryan Giggs to Roy Keane, there at the far post on 35 minutes against Brazil’s Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Palmeiras, 1-0, to secure the Intercontinental Cup trophy on November 30th, 1999, at the National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan, against the champions of South America, winners of the Copa Da Libertadores, 4-3, on penalties, after losing the June 2nd first leg away at Deportivo Cali, Valle del Cauca, Columbia, 0-1, but winning the June 16th return leg at their Palestra Italia Stadium, São Paulo, 2-1, that is, after a draw, 2-2 on aggregate.

 Reports that Manchester United actually narrowed the pitch at Old Trafford suggests timidity. Abandoning the wings to play an inverted game is indicative of fear. Moreover, against a team with wingers United’s inability to counterattack down the wings puts too much strain on the defenders, while making for a defensive team, containing as many midfielders as possible, for example, Mata, a left foot brought to replace Giggs, signed upon contract expiry for Turkey’s Süper Lig club Galatasary of Istanbul for the 2022-23 season, having found himself labeled left sided midfield too often to view his role as even that of an inverted winger, that is, as an inside left forward, after debuting against Cardiff City on January 21st, 2014, scoring 6 goals in 14 starts, including 2 goals in his only substitute appearance at Old Trafford against Norwich City, 4-0, before 2013-14 season’s end.

 The emergence of Argentine, Alejandro Garnacho, as a classic left winger in 2022-23, 5 starts and 14 appearances for 3 goals, suggests fans won’t want him to play on the right as an invert, that is, a left footed inside right, which though fashionable is destructive of the genius of the goal-scoring outside left. Moreover, without a striking partnership in attack, it’s unlikely that United will challenge for honors, irrespective of the deployment of wingers, as two strikers are necessary for success. Withdrawing the wings in favor of a pitch inversion is indicative of a psychological complex, that is, introversion, which is a term used to describe an approach that is antithetical to that of the extroverted personality, as exemplified by United teams in their thirst for trophies since manager Matt Busby’s first great side beat Blackpool, 4-2, in the April 24th, 1948, F.A. Cup Final, coming back after being 0-1 on 12 minutes through right back Eddie Shimwell’s penalty, when center forward, Stan Mortensen, was tackled from behind, and again at 1-2, after a Mortensen cross-shot in the 35th minute improved upon a United goal on 28 minutes from a Delaney pass and a strike from Jack Rowley, 1-1, who went on to head home his second equalizer of the afternoon on 70 minutes from a quickly taken free-kick, 2-2, before a Pearson shot flew into the net via an upright on 80 minutes, 3-2, and two minutes later Anderson wrapped it up, 4-2.

 The attack boasted Scot, Jimmy Delaney, at outside right, Charlie Mitten at outside left, Johnny Morris at inside right, and Stan Pearson at inside left, and Jack Rowley at center forward, with a half back line of John Anderson at right half, Allenby Chilton at center half, and Henry Cockburn at left half. The full backs were John Aston on the left, and United’s captain, Eire's Johnny Carey, on the right, which was five at the back, and five up front, that is, 1-5-5, including ‘keeper Jack Crompton. The game’s evolution was of the playmaker amongst the inside forwards, dropping back alongside the more distributive half back, resulting in 2018-19 in what United fans were prone to call ‘McFred’, for example, as Fred, and Scot, Scott McTominay, were brought together in a two man midfield by Solskjaer, with Fernandes ahead of them as a part of the diamond with three forwards ahead. The concept of wing backs derived from the need to support the midfield two, which meant either attacking full backs, or defensive wingers, although 1-4-2-4 remained the prevailing paradigm at Manchester United, before the advent of the diamond, controlled by a playmaker ahead of the central midfield pair, for example, Fernandes in front of Fred and McTominay, and behind Rashford.

 Describing inside forwards, who’re left and right wingers, as inverts, that is, being of one gender and having the traits of another, contains malice, that is, a team with inverts won't get much penetration, as they’ll be confused over whether they’re an inside forward, winger, or midfielder, which can only be detrimental for new stars, like Garnacho, who clearly isn’t an inverted right winger with a left foot, although that mightn’t be evident to the coaches.

 

1 Ellis, Havelock Studies in the Psychology of Sex Volume II: Sexual Inversion, 3rd Edition, 1927.

03/01/2024 15:07

The Diamond

 

The fallacy surrounding Manchester United in recent seasons has been that of the diamond, which is a tactical concept, and a strategical structure, deriving at Manchester United from the way in which Bobby Charlton was deployed in the 1960s, as a deep lying center forward, alongside hard-tackling midfield creator-destroyers, such as Maurice Setters, Paddy Crerand, David Sadler, or Nobby Stiles. Bringing into play with long range pinpoint passes, left and right wings, for example, Johnny Giles, John Connelly, John Aston, and George Best, a former left-wing himself, Charlton, known for success with his long range shooting and passing game in the second half of the 1950s, crossing from the left wing onto the heads and boots of center forwards, Tommy Taylor and Dennis Viollet, during the 1956-57 Championship triumph, combined this with a short passing game of quick interchanges through the middle in the 1960s, carving out opportunities for forwards, who were twinned, that is, either Quixall, Herd, Law, Best, or Kidd, in their period of success. Beginning with the F.A. Cup Final win against Leicester City, 3-1, in 1963, and followed by Championship triumphs in 1964-65, and 1966-67, before a culminating victory in the European Champions’ Cup of 1968 against Benfica, 4-1, at London’s national Wembley stadium, Charlton was United’s original diamond.

 The modern theory of the central midfield attacker, as an auxiliary forward, supporting a lone striker in front of him, isn’t what Manchester United did with their diamonds. Alongside England captain Bryan Robson (1982-91) in English manager Ron Atkinson’s early 1980s United team, which brought F.A. Cup success in 1983 and 1985, after Atkinson replaced Londoner, Dave Sexton, for the 1980-81 season, first sometime England captain (on 10 occasions) Ray Wilkins, and then Northern Irish converted striker, Norman Whiteside, in a two man midfield, were diamonds, like Robson. While Wilkins took the holding midfield role, and later Whiteside, after Wilkins was transferred to Italy’s A.C. Milan for £1.5m for the 1984-85 season, Robson was free to move forward in support of the forwards and vice versa, if Robson remained as the holding player in midfield, Wilkins or Whiteside, and later Paul Ince, when manager Alex Ferguson, coming from Aberdeen, where the Scots' Club had won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1983, 2-1, against Spain's Real Madrid, before being appointed to replace Atkinson on November 6th, 1986, bringing Ince from West Ham United for the 1989-90 campaign for £1m, he could move up in support of the attack. The player going up the field was the lower point of the diamond in tactical terms, while the left and right wings were the corners of the diamond, with the striker, if they struck on goal, constituting the sharper end.

 However, there were twin strikers, which was the point that remained underemphasized in the era after Scot Alex Ferguson’s managerial reign, with his 13 Championships, largely dependent on that understanding of the diamond. With England’s Paul Scholes there, alongside Paul Ince, Roy Keane, Nicky Butt, Michael Carrick, or Darren Fletcher, after his debut in 1994-95, with 6 starts, and 11 further appearances from the substitutes’ bench, scoring 5 goals, Scholes went on to amass 11 league titles, 3 F.A. Cup winners  medals, 2 in the League Cup, 2 in the European Champions’ Cup, an Intercontinental Cup winners’ medal, and another in the World Club Cup, with several sets of twinned strikers ahead of him in the diamond.

 Scotland’s Brian McClair (1987-98; 88 goals), bought for £850,000 from Celtic for the 1987-88 start, and Wales’ Mark Hughes (1980-86; 37, 1988-95; 83), bought from Barcelona for £1.8m for the 1988-89 start, after being imprudently sold by Atkinson there for the 1986-87 term, and Mark Hughes and Frenchman Eric Cantona (1992-97; 64), bought from Leeds United for £1m on November 26th, 1992, where he'd helped the Yorkshire club win the last First Division title of 1991-92, before it was restyled as the Premier League, were responsible for United’s early success under Ferguson’s stewardship, with the F.A. Cup in 1990, 3-3, a.e.t., and 1-0 in the replay, followed by the European Cup Winners’ Cup, 2-1 against Barcelona, and the Super Cup in 1991, 1-0 against Red Star Belgrade; the League Cup in 1992, 1-0 against Nottingham Forest, and the League Championship in 1993, followed by the F.A. Cup,  4-0 against Chelsea, and league double in 1994, which Scholes didn’t participate in, as a first team player. The class of 1991-92 were there, though, that is, right back, Gary Neville, midfielder Nicky Butt, left wing, Ryan Giggs, and right wing, David Beckham, who’d been in the teams that won the F.A. Youth Cup Final in 1992, 3-1 away against Crystal Palace, and 3-2 (6-3) at Old Trafford, while Scholes, playing alongside the same players in the F.A. Youth Cup Final defeat a year later, against Leeds United, 0-2 and 1-2 (1-4), would go on to first team success rivalled only by Giggs, who’d been a member of the team for a short while only before the 1991 Super Cup Final.

 Though Scholes hung up his boots at the end of the 2012-2013 term, Giggs opted to play in the 2013-14 season for manager David Moyes, coming from Everton to replace the retiring Ferguson, and became interim player manager, before Louis van Gaal’s appointment of him as his assistant manager, subsequent to Moyes’ dismissal, after a series of poor results, culminating in a 0-2 away defeat at Everton. Giggs’ United beat Norwich City, 4-0, on 26th April, 2014, but on May 3rd lost, 0-1, to Sunderland at home, before beating Hull City at home on May 6th, 3-1, and drawing at St Mary’s, Southampton’s ground, 1-1, on May 11th, with Giggs making his last appearance as a player, aged 40, putting himself on as a substitute in the 70th minute against Hull, for a record-breaking 672nd appearance, scoring 114 goals.

 Gary Neville, and brother Phil, who’d played at right back in the F.A. Cup Final defeat to Leeds, with Gary at center half, Butt, Beckham, Giggs, McClair and Hughes were all there for Scholes, when he made his debut in the 1994-95 season, although Hughes, ending the campaign on, below par for him, 8 league goals, was transferred to Chelsea for £1m, before the commencement of the 1995-96 season. United, with McClair, then deployed in a deeper, midfield role, Cantona, and diamond hard Scholes won the F.A. Cup, 1-0 against Liverpool, and league Championship double once more, and the Championship again in 1996-97, when Cantona then retired, aged 30.

 Trinidad and Tobago’s Dwight Yorke (1998-2002; 48) and England’s Andy Cole (1995-2001; 93), Norway’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (1996-2007; 91) and England’s Teddy Sheringham (1997-2001; 31), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the Netherlands’ Ruud van Nistelrooy (2001-06; 95), were ahead of Scholes’ diamond, as United completed the treble of league Championship, F.A. Cup winners, 3-0 against Newcastle United, and European Champions’ Cup winners, 2-1, against Germany’s Bayern Munich, in 1999, as well as Intercontinental Cup winners, 1-0 against Brazil’s Palmeiras. League titles followed in rapid succession; 1999–2000, 2000–01, and 2002–03, and the F.A. Cup in 2004, 3-0 against Millwall, at the Millenium Stadium, city of Cardiff, Wales, while Wembley, London, was being rebuilt.

 

 

 The partnerships of Ruud van Nistelrooy and France’s Louis Saha (2004-08; 28), Louis Saha and England captain (2014-17) Wayne Rooney (2004-17; 183), Wayne Rooney and England’s Alan Smith (2004-07; 7), and Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney, brought League Cup success in 2006, 4-0 against Wigan Athletic, and further successive titles; 2006–07, and the treble of 2007–08 league title, European Champions’ Cup, 1-1, a.e.t., and 6-5 on penalties against Chelsea, with Ronaldo failing to find the net, Chelsea captain, England’s center half, John Terry, slipping in the rain, and hitting the post, and France’s center forward, Nicholas Anelka, having his spot kick saved by United’s Dutch ‘keeper, Edwin van der Sar, so making Wales left-winger Ryan Giggs’ successful penalty the winner, and World Club Cup, 1-0, with a 73rd minute goal from Wayne Rooney against LDU Quito of Ecuador, after Serbian center half, Nemanja Vidić, was sent off for elbowing in the face Argentine striker, Claudio  Bieler, when both were on the floor after a tackle by  Vidić in the 49th minute, who'd convinced himself that Bieler was preventing him from getting to his feet.

 The pairings of Wayne Rooney and Argentina’s Carlos Tevez (2007-09; 19), Carlos Tevez and Bulgaria’s Dimitar Berbatov (2008-12; 48), Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, Dimitar Berbatov and Mexico’s Javier Hernández (2010-15; 37), Wayne Rooney and England’s Danny Welbeck (2008-14; 20), and Wayne Rooney and Dutchman Robin van Persie (2012-15; 48), brought the League Cup, 0-0, a.e.t., and 4-0 on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur, and league Championship double to Old Trafford in 2008-2009, followed by a successful defense of the League Cup in 2010, 2-1 against Aston Villa, and what might have been the last of Ferguson’s titles in 2010–11, when Scholes decided to retire, as a player, to join the United first-team coaching staff, after disappointedly being left out of the sides that lost to Spain’s Barcelona in the Champions’ Cup Finals of 2009 and 2011.

 However, with Darren Fletcher injured in 2011-12, when United lost the title to City rivals on a goal difference alone of 8, with both clubs on 89 points, on January 8th, 2012, Paul resumed his diamond role in the F.A. Cup 3rd Round defeat of Manchester City, 3-2, away. In 2012–13 the last of Ferguson’s titles was won, and is how Paul Scholes won with United’s diamonds.

 With the exception of Louis van Gaal (2014-16), appointed subsequent to his role as the Dutch national team manager at the 2014 World Cup, where Holland finished third, beating hosts Brazil, 3-0, Portugal’s José Mourinho (December 18th 2016-2018), and the Netherlands’ Erik Ten Hag, appointed as former United center forward Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s successor on April 21st, 2022, after a spell for Carrick as caretaker manager, during which the team successfully negotiated passage into the last 16 of the European Champions' Cup, beating Spain's Villareal away, 2-0, followed by a draw, 1-1, away at Chelsea, on November 28th, and a 3-2 home win over Arsenal on December 2nd, before the appointment of German, Ralf Rangnick, from Russia's Lokomotiv Moscow, until season's end, with Carrick then leaving, successive Manchester United managers failed to approach the same level of success as Ferguson, primarily because of their failure to understand the importance of the diamond to the team.

 Van Gaal thought he could play three center halves, that is, Wales’ Jonny Evans, England’s Phil Jones, and Chris Smalling, with Argentine center half, or left back, Marcos Rojo, bought from Portugal’s Sporting CP for £16m, left back Luke Shaw, bought from S’ton for £30m, and defensive midfielder, the Netherlands’ Daley Blind, bought from Ajax for £14m, later added to the possible triumvirate, Gaal’s strategy was allied to former wingers, in the role of wing halves, as both full backs, Ecuador’s Antonio Valencia and England’s Ashley Young, had been right and left wingers, before they were switched by Ferguson to defense. A tactic harking back to the 1900s, when United had a famous half back line of Duckworth, Roberts and Bell, who won the Championship in 1908 and 1911, and the F.A. Cup Final in 1909, against Bristol City, 1-0.

 After pre-season success in the International Champions Cup, held in the United States of America, where United beat Liverpool in the Final, 3-1, to become 2014 ICC Champions, Jones, Smalling, and Evans were the three central defenders, with Valencia and Young as wing backs, Fletcher, Herrera, and Mata in midfield, and strikers, Rooney and Hernandez. Gaal experimented with variations, for example, Shaw as the left side of the three center backs, or as an out and out full back, paired on the right with Italy’s Matteo Darmian, bought for £12.7m from Torino for the 2015-16 season, as competition for Northern Irish Paddy McNair, 12 starts and 4 appearances as substitute in 2014-15.

 Darmian could also play center back, as did McNair, and Shaw was tried as a wing back in the style of Young, while the addition of Columbian forward Radamel Falcao for £6m on a season long loan from Monaco improved possibilities in attack, where Herrera was the diamond in center midfield, initially behind the aging van Persie, Falcao, or Rooney, and afterwards Rashford, although it was clear that Rooney had looked to be groomed for that diamond setting. Options intriguing Gaal throughout 2014-15 included the introduction of right winger, Ángel Di María, bought from Real Madrid for £59.7m, and when Di María failed to impress, French left winger, Anthony Martial, from Monaco for £36m, and Dutch right winger, Memphis Depay, from PSV Eindhoven for £25m were brought in before the 2015-16 campaign. Somewhat vindicated, Gaal’s permutating team selections eventually won, 2-1, a.e.t., in the 2016 F.A. Cup Final, against Crystal Palace.

 

 

 However, as the line ups were announced, it was clear the Dutchman had accepted the United way, and a team took the field at Wembley stadium employing the usual two man midfield, wingers, and twin strikers. Although Wayne Rooney, United’s all-time top goal scorer, was billed to appear in the Paul Scholes’ diamond role in midfield, behind Marcus Rashford, as the lone striker. Valenica started the match, and Ashley Young came on in the 72nd minute as a left winger, as Italy’s Matteo Darmian had already replaced Rojo at left back in the 66th minute, where they flanked Daley Blind, and Chris Smalling, who was sent off in the 105th minute of extra time for holding onto the left leg of Palace left wing, Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Yannick Bolasie, to prevent his progressing up the field, in the center of defense.

 Carrick and Belgian’s Marouane Fellaini were in midfield, with Spain’s Juan Mata and France’s Anthony Martial on the left and right wings, while Wayne Rooney and Marcus Rashford were the twin strikers. England winger Jessie Lingard came on in the 90th minute for Mata, who’d volleyed in left-footed a cross from Wayne Rooney into the penalty area, headed down by Marouane Fellaini, to equalize substitute Jason Puncheon’s 78th minute goal in the 81st minute, volleying in left side of the area at a narrow angle. However, it was Lingard who, in the 110th minute, right of center, inside the 18 yard box, right footed, volleyed into the top left corner of the Palace net, 2-1.

 The win wasn’t enough to keep Gaal in the manager’s seat, and despite assistant manager, Giggs, being mooted for the job, he left and later became manager of Wales (2018-2022), winning the 2020 British Home Championship, beating England at Wembley, 2-1, en route. José Mourinho, arriving via Chelsea, with fellow Portuguese assistant, Lui Faria, where he’d managed ‘the Blues’ to the 2014-15 English Championship, as well as the League Cup that season, coached the players to win the club’s first Europa Cup Final, against Ajax, 2-0, and England’s League Cup again, bringing as a free agent Swedish striker, Zlatan Ibrahimović, age 34, from French club Paris Saint-Germain, to pair Marcus Rashford up front.

 Zlatan scored twice against S’ton, and United ran out winners, 3-2. Paul Pogba, winner of the 2011 F.A. Youth Cup with United, 6-3, home (4-1), but first leg away (2-2), on aggregate against Sheffield United, before leaving for Italy’s Juventus, had been brought back by Mourinho for £89m to partner Spain’s Ander Herrera in midfield; bought by Gaal from Spanish side Athletic Bilbao at the start of his reign as United manager for £28.85m. However, Carrick and Fellaini weren’t overlooked, for example, Fellaini played in the diamond behind Zlatan in the defeat of Ajax, although Rooney’s farewell to the twin striker’s position occurred in the 90th minute, when he came on as a substitute for Mata, and it wasn’t until the 77th minute that Rashford came on for Lingard, in the diamond role behind the striker, to partner Ibrahimović in the EFL Cup win over S’ton, with ‘Ibra’ heading the winner in the 87th minute, suggesting the traditional pairing of twin strikers at United was being challenged.

 Despite the arrival of Belgian center forward powerhouse, Romelu Lukaku, the decision of assistant Faria to leave, replaced by Carrick for the 2018-19 season, after his career ended with a standing ovation, while being substituted in the 84th minute for Pogba, during the last match of 2017-18, on May 13th against Watford, in which Carrick had been involved in making the only goal of the game in the 34th minute for Rashford, 1-0, and United’s failure to capture the 2018 F.A. Cup, losing the Final, 0-1, to a 22nd minute Eden Hazard penalty for Chelsea, after center back Phil Jones had clumsily brought him down, contributed to Mourinho’s dismissal, with Carrick being appointed acting caretaker manager, and largely resulted from United’s playing a 4-3-3 system, with Pogba in the center of a midfield that also contained Serbia’s Nemanja Matić, bought for the 2017-18 season from Chelsea for £40m, and Herrera. Chilean forward Alexis Sánchez, ‘El Niño Maravilla’ (The Wonder Child), brought from Arsenal, in an ultimately disastrous January swap deal for the previous season’s Europa Cup winning team’s Armenian right winger, Henrik Mkhitaryan, Alexis would score only 3 times before joining Italy’s Inter Milan for their 2019-20 campaign. Together with Lingard and Rashford, substituted by Lukaku in the 73rd, who was struggling to regain fitness after an injury, Alexis couldn’t prey with United’s clipped wings, while the squad was similarly lacking in inventiveness from a midfield diamond.

 United had to wait until the League Cup Final of 2023 for their next trophy, with Dutchman Erik Ten Hag, former center back with Eredivisie club Twente Enschede, before being appointed to coach Eerste Divisie’s Go Ahead Eagles to promotion to the Eredivisie in 2012-13. Ten Hag then coached Bayern Munich II to the Regionalliga Bayern in 2013-14, after being runners up in 2012-13, and again in 2014-15, before joining Eredivisie’s Utrecht, where in his first season the side lost 1-2 to Feyenoord in the 2016 KNVB Cup Final. Joining Ajax, Amsterdam, on December 28th, 2017, the team had already been knocked out of the 2017-18 season’s KNVB. Erik won three out of the next four league titles, after winning the Eredivisie double in 2018-19, with a 4-0 win over Willem II in the KNVB Final; again in 2020-21, with a 2-1 win over Vitesse Arnhem in the KNVB, and the Eredivisie again in 2021-22, but losing the KNVB Final, 1-2, to PSV Eindhoven.

 Legendary Portuguese right winger, Cristiano Ronaldo, winner of the European Champions’ Cup with United in 2008, and 18 goals that season, after being sold to Real Madrid by Ferguson on June 26th, 2009, for £80m, where he won a further four European Champions’ Cups, in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018, was brought back by manager, Solskjaer, for the 2021-22 campaign for €15m from Italy’s Juventus, where CR7 had won Serie A titles in 2018-19 and 2019-20. However, Solskjaer, whose side were runners up in the league to City rivals, and Europa Cup finalists the previous season, 2020-21, losing 11-10 on penalties, a.e.t., after an equalizing strike from Uruguayan center forward, joining from Paris Saint-Germain, after succeeding Ibrahimović as all-time leading goal scorer there, Edinson Cavani, 1-1, in the 55th minute, was sacked on November 21st, 2021, after a defeat, 1-4, away at Watford; leaving United 7th in the table.

 Ten Hag was appointed on April 21st, 2022, after German interim manager Ralf Rangnick’s side, on February 23rd, 2022, drawing 1-1 away to Spain’s Atlético Madrid in the last 16 of the European Champions’ Cup, lost on March 15th, 2022, 0-1, at Old Trafford. Rashford was ousted from the return leg starting line-up against Atlético by Sweden’s 19 year old Anthony Elanga. Coming on as a substitute in the 75th minute for Rashford, Elanga had scored the 80th minute equalizer in the 1-1 draw at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium. Put through by Portugal’s Bruno Fernandes, in the midfield diamond role, before striking right footed from the right side of the 18 yard box, low past Slovenian ‘keeper, Jan Oblak, into the bottom left corner of the goal, the inexperienced Elanga, 2 goals in the league, and 3 in total, before being transferred to Nottingham Forest for their 2023-24 season, started a game that United, eventually finishing 6th that league term needed to win at home, and didn’t.

 In the Europa Cup Final, Solskjaer had started with forwards Marcus Rashford, Edinson Cavani, and England’s Mason Greenwood who, after making his debut for Mourinho on March 6th, 2019, as an 87th minute substitute in a 3-1 away victory over Paris Saint-Germain, Round of 16, second leg, 2-0 behind from the first leg at Old Trafford, had been third top scorer in 2019-20 with 10 goals, behind Martial and Rashford with 17 apiece, although Rashford and Greenwood were nominally left and right wings. With Fernandes as the diamond midfield creator, in front of central midfielders, Scot Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba, Ralf honored Bruno’s talent, but denied United their traditionally successful paired twin striker combination with wingers. When Rangnick’s team drew with Atlético in the last 16 of the Champions’ Cup, Ronaldo and England’s Jadon Sancho were nominally the wingers, although the absence of the second striker was palpable, and the same was true of the second leg at home, which they lost, 0-1, with Fernandes in the diamond behind Elanga for the most part, rather than the more experienced Rashford, 11 league goals that season.

 Ten Hag moved quickly in the transfer market, buying in from Ajax for £49m Argentine center back, Lisandro Martinez, and Dutch left back from Feyenoord for £13m, Tyrell Malacia, to strengthen the defense; Dane Christian Eriksen, as a free agent after a spell with Brentford, and the Brazilian Casemiro from Real Madrid for £60m, strengthened his midfield options, while Brazilian winger from Ajax, left footed, but preferring to deploy on the right wing, Anthony, bought for £82m, gave the team another attacking ploy. However, the role of Fernandes as the midfield diamond remained problematic, with the option of fielding a single winger, and two strikers, or three strikers, masquerading as left and right wingers, invariably prevailing to the detriment of the club’s desire for success.

 Although scoring 18 times in the 2020-21 league campaign, Bruno’s inability to fit into a midfield of two limited United’s striking capability, and the 2023 League Cup Final defeat of Newcastle United, 2-0, with on loan from Burnley, Wout Weghorst, at center forward, who didn’t score, to add to his league tally of 0 in 10 starts and 7 substitute appearances, further exacerbated the issue. As left footed Anthony appeared on the right wing, with center forward Rashford on the left, without a recognized goal scorer in the center. Although Casemiro, with a 33rd minute header from England left back Luke Shaw’s free kick, and Rashford, with a 39th minute strike, after being put through on goal by Weghorst, secured the trophy, it left the diamond looking rather offset.

 Moreso, after City rivals, en route to a historic treble, beating Inter Milan, 1-0, in the European Champions’ Cup Final on June 23rd at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey, after already securing the league title, with Arsenal losing at Nottingham Forest, 0-1, on May 20th, with a game to play, and four points behind, then beat United, 2-1, in the June 3rd F.A. Cup Final. United’s four man midfield, including Eriksen, labeled AM (auxiliary midfielder), deployed Casemiro and Brazilian Fred in the center. Fernandes, nominally on the right wing, did score an equalizing penalty in the 33rd minute. Manchester City left wing, Jack Grealish was controversially adjudged by VAR technology, that is, video assistant referee, to have handled the ball, as England’s United right back, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, attempted to head on. However, with only center forward Rashford and left winger, Sancho, recognizable as forwards, the diamond was perceivably out of its setting.

 United had 9 defeats before January in the 2023-24 term, lying supine in 7th, and didn’t qualify for the Europa Cup, finishing fourth in their Champions’ League group, although third was required, behind Bayern Munich, Denmark’s Copenhagen, and Turkey’s Galatasaray. With one win against Copenhagen, 1-0, at home, and a lone draw, 3-3, against Galatasaray away, in six games, and already out of the League Cup, losing 0-3 at ‘the Theater of Dreams’ to Newcastle in the 4th Round, only time would tell if Ten Hag would be saved by another good cup run; or wingers and a pair of strikers.

 

 

 With or without a midfield diamond or two, improvement could be seen waiting in the wings. Argentina’s Alejandro Garnacho joined United’s youth system from Atlético Madrid in October 2020 for £450, 000, scoring a career-announcing twice from the left wing in United’s 2022 F.A. Youth Cup Final win over Nottingham Forest, 3-1, alongside center midfield, Kobbie Mainoo, 6 first team starts in the 2023-24 season before New Year’s Eve. Garnacho started 5 times, with 14 appearances as substitute, in 2022-23, before a career-establishing 3rd minute left footed overhead kick on Sunday, November 26th, at Goodison Park, Walton, Liverpool, opening the scoring in an away victory, 3-0, over Everton.

08/12/2022 19:18

PC Ronaldo isn't a Criminal

 

The concept of political correctness, or ‘pc’ as it’s often abbreviated for social purposes, arose out of the perceptions of ethnic minorities and feminists within the United States of America that they weren’t respected, which resulted in what was called ‘positive reinforcement’, that is, preference was to be given to disabled people and transgender (TG) people, for example, in job applications, which many people found difficult to believe; leaving aside the issue of whether it was acceptable. Of course, the real issue was blacks and women, but ‘pc’ ensured that a host of minorities were preferred to the more normatively able- bodied members of the body politic.

 When Manchester United’s white number seven, red shirt wearing, right sided midfield maestro, Cristiano Ronaldo, winner of the European Championship with Portugal in 2016, was accused of disrespecting the club and the fans in comments made on the social media platform, Twitter, the soccer news reporting press were entering into dangerously racist territory. The idea of being disrespected originated primarily within the Afro-American community in the United States, as a means of identifying themselves as a cohesive social force akin to that of the Italian mafiosa for whom respect was a sine qua non in their nefarious business dealings masquerading as legitimate concerns. The notion of being disrespected was equivalent to a declaration of tribal warfare on the part of the gangster accusing another of cursing their existence by demonstrating a lack of respect for their cultural security.

 In News UK’s April 2022 launched Talk TV channel interview with Piers Morgan, super fit 37 year old right-winger, 18 league goals in the previous 2021-22 season, and more recently emergency center forward, ‘CR7’ Cristiano said, in response to a question about fears of being forced out, "Yes, not only the coach, but another two or three guys around the club. I felt betrayed."1 By suggesting that Cristiano had disrespected Manchester United it was the equivalent of a declaration of war, through a curse delivered, like the racehorse’s head, ‘Khartoum’, discovered in film producer Jack Woltz’s bed, as a warning, because Woltz ignores Don Corleone’s request to cast his Godson, Johnny Fontane,2 a scene in a chapter from Mario Puzo’s novel, The Godfather (1969),3 made into a three part movie series (1972, ’74, and ’90) about Italian gangsters in New York city.

 Although describing someone as lacking in respect, or being disrespectful, is acceptable public opinion, describing them as having disrespected seems authoritative in the sense that the guilt of the criminal has been proven and sentencing may begin, which is an attack, as the setting had s moved from that of staged public opinion to slander, defamation of character, character assassination, and the derailing of employment prospects amounting to political assassination in the sense that having a voice at Manchester United is a political position, for a future managerial candidate, for example.

 Amongst the mafia their employees are known as ‘soldiers’, which means that disrespecting them is a declaration to their army, ‘Arm me.’. As a consequence of black Afro-American pride Europeans are declaring war on others regularly without understanding that it isn’t just an adoption of a word from the urban dictionary for general community use, and vicariously ethnic gratification outside of the scope of most people’s knowledge and experience, but a call - ‘Army!’

 That the Manchester United fans are known as ‘the Red Army’ is relevant here, as communist Russia’s ‘Red Army’ is a real military force engaged then in invading the Ukraine with its TOS heavy flamethrower system, breathing fire, which wasn’t in emulation of Manchester United’s club logo, ‘The Red Devils’, with its flaming pitchforks, but actually incinerating European resistance to communist enslavement.

 The Old Testament of the Christian Bible has good advice for those who want them to know that they feel disrespected, ‘if your eye offends you, pluck it out.’ (Matt: 18. 9) Although the Old Testament is Judaism, that is, it’s the history and law of the Jews, which is their Torah and Talmud, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ is about actual physical attack and the sanctioned response to it of Jewish law, whereas it’s recognized that it’s often the person who’s hating that’s offensive, rather than the hated object of their ire, which is why the Christian New Testament of Jesus ‘Christ’, ‘the chosen’, is believed to supersede Judaism, ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ (Mk: 12. 31) Or, as The Staple Singers sang, in the lyrics to ‘Respect Yourself’ (1971), ‘Respect yourself.’4 If you don’t people will wonder why you take out your ire on others.

 Alleged feelings of being disrespected by Cristiano, ‘never heard of’ German Ralf Rangnick, former manager of Bundesliga outfit VfB Stuttgart in 2000 when they won the Intertoto Cup, and appointed caretaker at United, after the departure of Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who restored CR7 to the club from Itialian Serie A giants, Juventus of Turin for £20 m, and subsequent to the former United and Norwegian striker’s failure to beat Spain’s Villarreal in the Final of the 2020-21 Europa Cup, are meant to be felt as a call to tribal warfare in unassailably devastating attack on a disrespecting racist to disable a very able enthusiastic performer with a huge appetite for success and a tremendous asset to the team.

 That black players, most notably Belgium center forward, Romelu Lukaku, and Paul Pogba, France’s talented 2018 World Cup winning central midfielder, had spiritual problems playing at Manchester United, is symptomatic of the ‘disrespect’ phenomenon, which arising during the managerial tenure of Portugal’s José Mourinho, who brought to the club its only trophies in half a decade, the EFL Cup and the Europa League Cup in 2017, placed the onus on the non-black players to be more respectful, so placing the emphasis further away from winning as the sole objective of the game, whereas opposing teams faced with the ‘disrespected’ haven’t any other goal other than to put several past them, which makes it more difficult than it ought to be for former Ajax Amsterdam’s Dutch manager Erik ten Hag, appointed 2022-23, players, club, and fans alike.

 

1 Burt, Jason ‘Exclusive: Manchester United consider tearing up Cristiano Ronaldo's contract’, The Telegraph, November 14th, 7.06 pm, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/11/14/cristiano-ronaldo-manchester-united-considering-tearing-forwards/ .

2 Cooper, Alison ‘Was the Horse Head in “The Godfather” Based on a Real Event?’ howstuffwỏrks, April 2nd, 2015, https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/horse-head-in-godfather-real-event.htm .

3 Puzo, Mario The Godfather, Chapter 2, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York: NY, 1969, p. 68.

4 Ingram, Luther, and Mack Rice ‘Respect Yourself’, Aretha Franklin, Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, Stax, 1972.

08/12/2022 19:15

“Age Cannot Wither Her, Nor Custom Stale Her Infinite Variety”, from Antony and Cleopatra (1607),1 by Elizabethan dramatist, William Shakespeare

 

Unbiased observers argue that the managerial regime of Manchester United’s former Norwegian striker, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, was unsuccessful due to the absence of wingers. Terrifying opposition defences with their unpredictability, players out wide cause panic. Defenders unable to deal with the calculated confusion created, United’s wings’ devastating skills were utilized by forwards queuing up to put the ball into the net. Although Welsh right wing, Daniel James, came on against Villarreal in the Europa Cup Final of 2021 at Lechia Gdańsk’s stadium, Poland, it was only in the 116th minute, when the team were struggling to score, after South America’s then 33 year old Uruguayan center forward, Edinson, “‘ead in, son”, Cavani, struck in the 56th minute to level the contest, 1-1, before penalties decided it for the Spaniards, 11-10, after extra time. Given attacking wing play was what made United famous and successful, the absence of either left or right wings in the team, despite Solskjaer’s moving in early October, 2020, to secure Uruguay’s talented Facundo Pellistri for £8 m from Montevideo’s Peñarol, to be yet another disused right wing, this time on loan to Spain’s Deportivo Alavés, relegated from Primera to Segunda División (Second Division) after Pellistri began there (2020-21), was a scandal contributive to bringing about the board’s decision to let Solskjaer depart.

 Although Solskjaer, a hero for that late winning goal, 2-1, against German side, Bayern Munich, in the 1999 Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League Final at FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium, Spain, had taken United to the Europa Cup Final, it wasn’t enough. Caretaker manager, England midfielder, Michael Carrick, coach after his exalted playing career at Old Trafford’s ‘Theater of Dreams’ stadium, gave way to Germany’s recent Leipzig boss, Ralf Rangnick, a former Association for Active Games - Verein für Bewegungsspiele (VfB) - defensive midfield player with Stuttgart II (1976-9), that is, VfB Stuttgart reserves, and England’s non-league Southwick (1979-80, while studying English and Physical Education at Sussex and Stuttgart Universities), and first team coach of VfB Stuttgart (1999-2001), Bundesliga, winning the 2000 Intertoto Cup, a then annual summer competition amongst European clubs, taken over by UEFA’s professional soccer organization from 1995, adding to the managerial credentials causing United’s board of directors to appoint Rangnick as interim manager.

 Headed by its American Co-chairmen, Joel and Avram Glazer of the owning US’ family, since the club was bought in 1991, after its shares were floated on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), for £800 m by businessman Malcolm Glazer’s holding company, First Allied Corporation, owner and renter of shopping malls in the States, whose borrowing of £500 m to buy United was, perhaps cruelly, a financial debt to be paid by the club. Founded in 1961, and called the UI Cup in the German-speaking world, originally conceived as the International Football Cup (IFC), the UEFA Intertoto (UI) Cup had been a competition for clubs that didn’t qualify for the UEFA Cup which, founded in 1971, as a replacement for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (1955-71) for teams from European cities promoting trade, and whose qualifying wasn’t dependant on any other factor, preceded its rebooting in 2009 as the UEFA Europa Cup. As clubs that would have competed for the IC gained entrance to the Europa Cup qualifying stages, it was discontinued in 2008, although the idea of a soccer tournament held in cities to promote trade would appeal to business.

 The International Champions Cup (ICC), for example, initially played for by invitation to clubs outside the United States of America, and won in 2014 by Manchester United at the Sun Life stadium, Miami Gardens, East coast state of Florida, on August 4th, in the Final against Liverpool, 3-1, with goals on 55 minutes, thanks initially to a left-footed cross-shot from England center forward, Wayne Rooney, inside the 6 yard box past ‘keeper, Belgium’s Simon Mignolet, on 58 minutes, cancelling out an early penalty on 14 minutes from England’s midfield creator-destroyer, Steven Gerrard, after United center back, Phil Jones, brought down England left winger, Raheem Sterling, 1-1, and then a left-footed drive from Spain’s left sided midfielder, Juan Mata, in a central positioned around the 20 yard box, 2-1, before a right-footed strike in a similar position from England right wing, Jessie Lingard, on 88 minutes, 3-1: a money spinner, rather than a genuine competition.

 Like the Intertoto Cup, where toto is German and means ‘betting pool’, each of the participants contributes to a pot of money to be won, through turnstile receipts at the stadium gate, for example, thereby encouraging betting, that is, wagers over who’ll win, which is itself a business activity. Rather than a first tier club trophy, as the UEFA European Cup Winners Cup (ECWC) was, for the European nations domestic Cup winners to participate in from 1960, it largely replaced the non-UEFA recognized Mitropa (1927-40), or Central European Cup , competed for until 1992, when the reformed Russian Federation’s withdrawal from Eastern European territories, held since the official closure of hostilities on May 8th, 1945, by teams from among the successor nations to the failed Austro-Hungarian Empire, after World War I (1914-18), despite being renamed the Zentropa Cup (1951/55-92), after WWII (1939-45), with Hungary’s ‘Iron Eagle’, Vasas FC, of the capital city Budapest’s district XIII, Angyalföld, ‘Earth Angel’, most successful during the political ‘Cold War’ (1947-91) détente with communist Russia, over its perceived illegal occupations of satellite slave nation states, co-opted as Republics of the Soviet Union of Socialist Republics (USSR), winning six Zentropa Cup titles (1956, 1957, 1962, 1965, 1970, and 1983), but UEFA’s ECWC too was rashly scrapped as a tournament in 1999, in favor of having domestic Cup winners qualifying as entrants to the UEFA Cup, a second tier trophy to the UEFA Champions League (UCL), while the Zentropa, the ECWC and the UI were consigned to redundant status as ‘pots’ of an obsolescent third tier.

 The original ECWC was the brainchild of the Mitropa Organizing Committee, although recognized as a UEFA competition from 1963, the Mitropa never was. Like the UI and the ICC, it didn’t meet the professional sports body’s qualifying and controlling standards. However, United’s tacit approval of the ICC, itself abolished in 2020, after the p implementation of workable industry fixture lists was handicapped by global pandemic, and the club’s willingness to participate in the American financial ad venture suggests UEFA’s preoccupation with legitimate qualifying competition rounds mightn’t be sound business practice to the Glazers, while Rangnick’s willingness to compete on a business footing for the UI and its crowds of summer holidaymakers helped secure his with the board. Moreover, that UEFA abolished the Inter-City Fairs and Intertoto Cups, while ignoring vested business interest in the developmental potential of the former Mitropa/Zentropa, Latin (1949-57),  and Balkan Cups (1961-94) in Eurasia, as a part of the West’s ‘Cold War’ policy towards the USSR and its former ‘client states’, suggests a huge investment potential bilked by UEFA, which could have been refinanced and profitably reflated as a tier competition for business, rather than as a trophy for standards measured.

 However, Dutch manager of Ajax Amsterdam, Erik ten Hag, a center back, who won the 1990-91 Eerste Divisie (Second Division) with De Graafschap, and the 2000-01 KNVB (Royal Dutch F.A.) Cup with Eredivisie (First Division) Twente, as a player, was deemed a better managerial prospect than Rangnick. Bringing as he did to Ajax, as their manager, the Eredivisie championship and KNVB Cup double in 2018-19, ten Hag was appointed to guide Manchester United’s 2022-23 season’s campaigning. The arrival of England right wing, Jadon Sancho, bought by Solskjaer for £75 m from German Bundesliga team, Borussia Dortmund, for the start of the 2021-22 season, had augured well for the future, and Solskjaer also engineered the return of Portuguese right wing, Cristiano Ronaldo, from Italian soccer giant Juventus of Turin for £20 m, after Ronaldo had left twelve years previously to join other expensive ‘Galácticos’ at Spain’s Real Madrid, where he won another four UEFA Champions League Cups in 2014, ’16, ’17, and ‘18.

 Even though then 36 years of age, Cristiano brightened the loyal red support at the prospect of seeing once again the skills of the genius who, scoring 18 league goals in 27 (3) appearances that 2021-22 season, often as an ad hoc center forward, when no one else could be relied on for goals, had been instrumental in  winning the 2008 European Champions League Final at Russia’s Moscow Luzhniki stadium, against England’s Chelsea of London, 6-5, on penalties, after Ronaldo‘s own headed goal put United ahead, 1-0, before England midfielder, Frank Lampard, equalized to send the match into extra time, 1-1, and the penalty decider ultimately decided by Welsh winger, Ryan Giggs, on as a substitute in the 87th minute for goal scoring England midfielder, Paul Scholes, who struck the ball into the net, past Czech ‘keeper Petr Čech, after Chelsea’s England center half, John Terry, with a chance to win it for the Blues, 5-4, thanks to a rare failure to score from the 10 yards spot from Ronaldo, had slipped on his arse in the rain, and saw his shot hit United’s Dutch ‘keeper Edwin van der Sar’s post.

 It had been 2-2, with Argentine center forward, Carlos Tevez, formerly of Boca Juniors (2002-05) and Corinthians of Brazil (2005-07), first sblood, 1-0, being replied to by captain of Germany’s central midfielder, Michael Ballack, 1-1. He’d lead his national team to defeat in the 2008 European Championship Final against Spain, 0-1, at the Ernst-Happel stadium, Vienna, Austria, named for Rapid Wien’s center back (1943-56, 1956-59), who in 1970 managed Feyenoord of the Dutch Eredivisie to European Champions Cup success, a feat he achieved again in 1983 with Hamburg SV of Germany’s Bundesliga. Brazilian defender, Juliano Belletti, before the expectant Luzhniki  crowd, on as a substitute in the 124th minute for Chelsea’s French defensive midfielder, Claude Makélélé, replied to Carrick’s successful penalty, 2-2, before Ronaldo’s miss allowed Lampard to make it 2-3 in favor of Chelsea. England’s right sided midfielder, Owen Hargreaves, bought from Bayern Munich at the beginning of the season for £17 m, got United’s 3rd, 3-3, before Chelsea left back, England’s Ashley Cole, made it 4-3 to the London team.

 Although Brazilian winger, Nani, that is, Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha, on in the 101st minute for Rooney, got United’s 4th, 4-4, Terry then had that disaster when he could have won it for the Blues, 5-4. Brazilian midfielder, Anderson, that is, Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira, on as a 125th minute substitute for right back, England’s Wes Brown, who’d sent in the cross for Ronaldo’s headed opener on 26 minutes, got United’s 5th and ahead for the first time in the now ‘sudden death’ penalty phase, 5-4, and after Salomon Kalou’s strike, on as substitute for French left winger, Florent Malouda, in the 92nd minute, 5-5, Giggs’ successful spot kick in reply to that of the Ivory Coast forward, 6-5, meant that French center forward, Nicholas Anelka, on as a 99th minute substitute for England’s Joe Cole on the right of Chelsea’s midfield, had to score to level the contest, but his penalty kick was saved by ‘keeper Edwin to give United their third Champions League title, 6-5.

 It was the addition of Brazil’s left footed Antony, that is, Antony Matheus dos Santos, that signaled a future with a replacement for enduring Welsh left winger, Ryan Giggs, 24 seasons and two UEFA Champions League victories (1999, and 2008), between 1990-91 and 2013-14, when Giggs was even player manager, after Scot’s legend, Alex Ferguson, who’d taken the club to the last 13 of its league titles since his appointment from Aberdeen on December 6th, 1986. Antony, arriving for £82 m from Ajax, where Erik ten Hag had been his manager, at the commencement of the 2022-23 term, gave United as many attacking options as before Ferguson’s retirement, although ten Hag also moved for the creative midfield vision of Denmark’s 30 year old Christian Eriksen, coming on a free transfer from ‘The Bees’, English Premier league outfit, Brentford Town, as the new United manager also strengthened his defence, with center back, Argentine Lisandro Martinez, coming from Ajax for £48 m, left back, Tyrell Malacia, again coming from Ajax for £15 m, and Brazilian defensive midfielder, called Casemiro, which is a nickname differing from his family’s, translating variously as ‘Emír’, and/or ‘Destroyer’, that is, Carlos Henrique Casimiro, coming from Real Madrid for £70 m.

 Ronaldo’s refusal to come onto the field as substitute against London’s Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League game of Wednesday, October 19th, 2022, seemed fateful to the crowded onlookers. The team won, 2-0, through goals from Brazil’s midfielder, Fred, that is, Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos, and Portugal’s Bruno Fernandes, a deep-lying center forward in the style of former United and England captain, Robert Charlton, winner of the European Cup in 1968 against Portugal’s Benfica, 4-1, with two from Charlton himself, the second a rare header from ‘Bobby’, who had won the 1966 World Cup with England, also at Wembley stadium, London, 4-2, against Germany. But Cristiano’s days and nights in the red shirt now seemed numbered. Despite Sancho’s relative paucity of goals for the team, just 3 league goals in 20 (9) appearances in 2021-22, in comparison with the Portuguese’s prolific marksmanship, age was on his side at 22 years.

 

1 Shakespeare, William, Antony and Cleopatra, Act 2, Scene 2, ‘Flourish. All but Enobarbus, Agrippa, and Maecenas exit.’ l. 275-7, 1607.

22/01/2022 19:52

Giggs or Islam

 

The retirement of Wales’ left winger, Ryan Giggs, meant a gap on the Manchester United left wing that needed to be filled. Giggs made 672 appearances for 114 league goals between the 1990-91 season, in which he debuted, as a seventeen year old former England school boy international, and then Wales Under 18 international, substituting for left full back, Denis Irwin, on March 2nd, 1991, in a defeat, 0-2, to Everton at Old Trafford’s ‘theater of dreams’, before  scoring in his only other and full appearance that campaign, a derby defeat of Manchester City, 1-0, on May 4th, 1991, and his farewell in the 2013-14 season, during which he made 6 (6) appearances, and finally in the role of player manager, putting himself on the field as a 40 year old 70th minute substitute for Welsh debutante, forward Tom Lawrence, in a 3-1 home defeat of Hull City on May 6th, 2014.

 

 

 Former Everton manager, David Moyes, had been chosen by the board as replacement for retired managerial legend, Alex Ferguson, who in 2012-13 had brought the last of his 13 league titles to the club, following his own appointment as manager at Manchester United on November 6th, 1986. Moyes was sacked on April 22nd, 2014, largely because of a defeat to Sunderland at Old Trafford in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final, 1-2, on penalties, with all those chosen to take the spot kick failing, that is, England center forward, Danny Welbeck, Belgian midfielder, Adnan Januzaj, England center back, Phil Jones, and Brazilian left back, Rafael da Silva; all apart from central Scots’ midfielder, Darren Fletcher, that is, and after the teams had drawn after extra time, 3-3, on aggregate, with each club winning their home leg, 2-1.

 

 

 Giggs retired with a sackful of medals after his debut for Ferguson. Those thirteen league titles; in 1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2010-11, and 2012-13; four FA Cups; in 1993-94, 1995-96, 1998-99, and 2003-04; three League Cups; in 1991-92, 2005-06, and 2008-09; two European Champions’ Cups; in 1998-99, and 2007-08; the European Super Cup in 1991; the Intercontinental Cup in 1999, and the FIFA World Club Cup in 2008. Included in the trophy haul were three league and cup ‘doubles’; in 1994, 1996, and 1999. Also the ‘treble’ of FA Cup, league championship, and European Champions’ Cup in 1999; the league championship and European Champions’ Cup ‘double’ in 2008, and the league championship and League Cup ‘double’ of 2008-09. 

 

 

  However, although the value of Giggs’ contribution from his debut as a seventeen year old is indubitable, especially alongside England right wing, David Beckham, who made 265 league appearances for the club, scoring 62 goals, between the 1994-95 and 2002-03 seasons, debuting on 23rd September, 1992, as substitute for Russian Federation winger, Andrei Kanchelskis, against Brighton & Hove Albion in the League Cup, 2nd round 1st leg, seventeen year old England schoolboy Beckham, signing a professional contract after a draw, 1-1, away at the Goldstone Ground, due to a 36th minute opening goal from England left winger, Danny Wallace, equalized through a header from Matthew Edwards, the absence of an adequate replacement out wide on the left became palpable.

 

 

 Apart from the evident value of wingers to success for Ferguson, who always had four or five to choose from during his tenure, the apparent failure of successive managerial regimes to find a left wing has an added cultural dimension; Islam. The emergence of players whose cultural obligations are other than western Christianity is both welcome and symptomatic of an underlying malaise unrecognized by soccer chiefs. Perhaps the most prominent are Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Manchester United’s own central midfield giant, Paul Pogba, winner with France of the 2018 World Cup Final in Moscow at the Russian Federation’s Luzhniki Stadium, against Croatia, 4-2, after being a victorious opening goalscorer on 18 minutes at the Friends Arena, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden, with Manchester United during their Europa Cup Final defeat of Ajax of Amsterdam, 2-0, the previous 2016-17 season.

 

 

 The contribution of Moslem players is undoubted. Egypt’s center forward and captain, Salah at Liverpool, has a clean sweep of all of the major English and European trophies; the league championship in 2019-20; the European Champions’ Cup in 2018-19; the European Super Cup in 2019, and the FIFA World Club Cup in 2019. Liverpool hadn’t won the league title since 1989-90 before Salah, who got to add those medals to his collection after netting 73 times in 108 league games. However, the Moslem religion is devoted to right hand correction; everything is right justified: a word processing term because Arabic, like Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of the Bible, is written from right to left. Although that can’t explain the absence of a left winger at Manchester United, it does indicate a source of resistance to left and right western thinking, which is based on reading and writing from left to right; for example, successive Manchester United managers preferred to deploy inside forwards, and left footers, like Spain’s Juan Mata, brought by Moyes for £37.1m from Chelsea on January 24th, 2014, were required to serve as right inside forwards, while right footers served as inside lefts; a bizarre inversion denying the value of the left footer on the left wing, who’d been Ashley Young at the time of Giggs’ retirement, but like Ecuador’s winger Antonio Valencia on the right, Young was withdrawn into the full back position, so leaving the left wing yawningly vacant once more.

 

 

 The appearance of the term ‘winger’ to denote any player, whether left footed or right, who practiced his art out wide, is similarly symptomatic of a desire to neutralize the especial qualities relating to the artistry of the left sided player. Common explanations heard from players include ‘two-footed’, ‘either foot’, ‘both feet’, and ‘either wing’, while the supporters want to know who it is that the manager can select to play wide out on the left? Wales’ right winger, Daniel James, arrived at Old Trafford for £15m from Swansea on June 6th, 2019, and was sold to Leeds United for £25m on August 31st, 2021, after 39 (11) games and 6 goals, and his replacement, Jadon Sancho, arriving from German Bundesliga club Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund for £73m on July 23rd, replacing James as a substitute in a 5-1 win over Leeds on August 14th, 2021, was described as a right winger who’d played on the left for Dortmund. Presumably because the Bundesliga outfit had succumbed to Moslem pressure themselves and so a left winger wasn’t selectable.

 

 

 The emergence of the single winger team with the player who, right footed, can ply his skills on either side of the pitch, is a symptom of a wider cultural issue. To what extent are left wingers being stifled out of the game by religious zealots espousing the expertise of the soccer tactician? United’s choice after Moyes was Dutch national team boss, Louis van Gaal, who signed for the right wing Argentina’s Ángel Di Maria from Real Madrid on August 26th, 2014, for £59.7m. Di Maria was transferred to French Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain for the start of the 2015-16 season with 20 (7) league appearances for 3 goals, after being sent off in an FA Cup  6th round defeat to Arsenal at home, 1-2, which only tended to emphasize the unbalanced ineffectiveness of a bird at prey with but a single wing. Teams playing against the ‘red devils’ quickly realized that the way to nullify United was to turn to the right and sweep the wing off the field. With no alternative avenue of attack on the left, and despite Di Maria’s obvious strength and power, any tenacious full back, wing back or half back, could adopt the renowned ‘bite yer legs’ style of Leeds’ phenomenally tough England center back, Norman Hunter (1962-76), and clatter him out of the game, a fate which Di Maria’s German replacement from  Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V., Bastian Schweinsteiger, also experienced after his arrival on July 13th for the 2015-16 season for £13.5m. Bastian made 13 (5) appearances for 1 goal before leaving for the United States’ Major League Soccer (MLS) side, Chicago Fire, on March 21st, 2017, while at Bayern he’d won eight Bundesliga championships; in 2002-03, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2007-08, 2009-10, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, and the European Champions’ Cup in 2012-13.

 

 

Memphis Depay, making 16 (13) league appearances for 2 goals, similarly lasted a year, after being signed for the 2015-16 campaign for £25m from Philips Sport Vereniging (Philips Sports Union), Dutch Eredivisie club, 'Lightbulbs' PSV Eindhoven. Although United won the FA Cup that season, 2-1, against Crystal Palace at London’s Wembley Stadium, left footed winger Mata was deployed on the right, and got the equalizing goal, 1-1, volleying in with his left on 81minutes, after a cross from the right wing by England center forward, Wayne Rooney, chested down to Mata in the Palace box by Belgian midfielder, Marouane Fellaini, subsequent to Palace’s opener on 78 minutes. A cross on the right from Palace full back, Joel Ward, had been met with a controlled left footed volley on the left of the United penalty area from Jason Puncheon, 0-1, who’d come on for France’s attacking midfielder, Yohan Cabaye, on 72 minutes. France’s right footed winger, Anthony Martial, similarly deployed inexplicably on the left, suggested the malaise of left footed inside right and right footed inside left was destined to cripple United’s wings permanently. Although right wing, Jessie Lingard, came on for Mata in the 90th minute to volley the winning goal in the 110th minute of added extra time from the edge of the Palace 18 yard box, van Gaal was sacked and replaced by Portuguese legend, José Mourinho, who’d already won the European Champions’ Cup in 2003-04 with Portugal’s Porto and again in 2009-10 with Italy’s Inter Milan.

 

 

Mourinho moved quickly in the transfer market to secure the services of Armenia’s captain, right winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan, from Borussia Dortmund for £30m, an investment which paid dividends throughout the 2016-17 season as United won the League Cup, 3-2, against Southampton, and the Europa Cup against Ajax, 2-0, with Henrikh hooking the ball in over his head for the second of the night on 48 minutes, after Pogba’s deflected drive, looping over the ‘keeper’s head, had opened the scoring on 18 minutes. United finished 6th in the league, and although the team made it to the 2017-2018 season’s FA Cup Final, an Eden Hazard penalty, 0-1, after the Chelsea forward was clumsily brought down on 22 minutes by England center back Phil Jones’ sliding tackle, ultimately resulted in Mourinho’s departure on December 18th, 2018, with only 7 wins in 17 games at the start of the 2018-19 season.

 

 

 Former United and  Clausenengen Fotballklubb (CFK) forward (1990-95), then managing his Kristiansund birthplace Møre og Romsdal  county’s Molde Fotballklubb (MFK), which he played for between 1995 and 1996 in Norway’s premier Eliteserien league, scoring 31 goals in 42 games, Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who Ferguson signed for £1.5m halfway through the Eliteserien April-October 1996 season on July 29th, scored the last gasp winner of the 1999 European Champions’ Cup Final in the 93rd minute against Germany’s Bundesliga side, Bayern Munich, 2-1, after England center forward, Teddy Sheringham, had struck in the 91st minute to equalize Bayern’s right forward Mario Basler’s 6th minute strike from a free kick, and was appointed manager at Old Trafford on December 19th, 2018. 

 

 

 Solskjaer inherited the services of Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos, Brazilian left footed midfielder, Fred, bought by Mourinho for £47m from the Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk on June 15th, 2018, and secured the transfer of right winger, Daniel James, from Swansea. The club suffered defeat at the semi-final stages of three competitions; the League Cup, the FA Cup, and the Europa Cup. However, it’s unlikely that the team would have got so far without Solskjaer’s inspired late addition of high scoring creative Portuguese midfielder, Bruno Fernandes, who had 8 league goals from 14 appearances, after being transferred from Portugal’s Sporting CP on 30th January, 2020, for £67.6m.

 

 

 Despite making it to the 2020-21 Europa Cup Final at the Gdańsk Stadion, Poland, Solskjaer’s United lost on penalties, 10-11, to Spain’s Villareal, with ‘keeper de Gea missing the last spot kick, after added extra time when the match had finished, 1-1, thanks to an opportunist 55th minute equalizing strike from 33 year old Uruguay center forward, Edinson Cavani, brought on a free transfer from Paris Saint Germain, on October 5th, 2020, after a January 15th back injury incurred in a 3rd round FA Cup replay win over Wolves, 1-0, and which put England center forward, Marcus Rashford, out of the game for three months, revealed weaknesses in the reserve strikers. Although United finshed runners up in the league title race in 2020-21, Fred’s eclipsing Mata as the favored left foot only underscored the fact that United hadn’t found a left wing of the caliber of Welsh wizard, Ryan Giggs.

 

 

The return of Portuguese right winger, Cristiano Ronaldo, from Italy’s Juventus on August 31st, 2021, for £12.85m, where he’d won two consecutive Serie A titles, after being transferred from Real Madrid for the 2018-19 season, where he’d won four European Champions’ Cups; in 2013-14, 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18; three World Club Cups; in 2014, 2016, and 2017, and who’d bought him from Manchester United before the 2009-10 season for £80m, was welcomed, but still it indicated a preoccupation with the right side of midfield, rather than the balanced wing play of alternating left and right upon which United had always traditionally thrived, and Solskjaer was sacked on November 21st, 2021.

 

 

 Although Ralf Rangnick, manager of the German Bundesliga club RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V., when the Saxony club, known as RB (Red Bull) Leipzig, because founded in 2009 by Austrian energy drinks manufacturer, Red Bull GmbH, lost the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB)-Pokal (Cup) Final at the Olympiastadion, Berlin, 0-3, to FC Bayern in 2018-19, he’d previously won the equivalent of the German FA Cup against Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. (MSV) Duisburg, at the Olympiastadion, 5-0, as manager of Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V. (FC  Schalke 04) in 2010-11, which success with S04 seemed qualified enough to the United board, and Rangnick succeeded eight day caretaker, former England and United midfielder, coach Michael Carrick, as Old Trafford’s interim manager on November 29th, 2021.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 >>