The Red Devils are a rabble

How prophetic was this article for the difficult season ahead for the club from the Theatre of Dreams. Dream is all they can do because like Odysseus and his crew head home to the promised land they are truly a ‘rabble’ . Although Odysseus lost all his crew attempting to return to Ithaca after the Trojan War he at least proved to be a man of great qualities. Who fits that profile in the current Man Utd team ... a rudderless ship of fools caught in the headlights of a league they are increasingly struggling to straddle ... only the debris of another loss ; this time to a very poor Newcastle and a parody of the once beautiful game they adorned.

Well articulated Sebastian. The glory days well behind them qs they struggle to find an irreplaceable Sir Alex. Although I follow Liverpool we miss that banter of quality comparisons. However I am sure that sooner or later this proud club will again rise from the ashes. In the meantime LIVERPOOL need to contain the other Manchester foe to win the EPL Title 2019/20 ✊ YNWA !

Football is Life - I agree with much of your balanced and well informed points. Let’s hope OGS can continue to nurture a return to the beautiful game at MU before it’s ‘glazed’ over by the market place mentality of its owners who seem to wish to turn the club into a New York Nicks style of tourist novelty ...all about the selfie experience in the stands and the paraphernalia with no substance on the field.

Good article but I think there are a couple of points that need to be remembered. Firstly, you either understand the United culture or not. With this in mind, let's take a look at the personnel that stand out. Firstly, Moyes. Bad time to take over. How do you successfully succeed Fergie! Everton is a respected club but coupled with replacing Fergie,a step too far. Van Gaal simply wanted a pre-retirement resume addition. Zero chance of understanding the culture. Mourinho...what else is there to say except all ego, nil immersion in the culture. When you couple that lot with the Glazer philosophy... it's all about the profit therefore sell every decent young lad produced by one of if not the best youth system in the world, there's no denying that there is a considerable degree of rectification to be done. If you look at the passages of passing, the attacking speed etc OGS is bringing back the United way but it will take time. When Fergie commented that OGS is one of the most talented managers he has seen, that's no lightweight comment. He just needs time to fix the mess created by those who never did and never will understand United.

Sir Alex was a "once in a lifetime" Manager & all subsequent incumbents will unfortunately be compared with him. As for Ole, I feel that it's always easier being a stopgap Manager as there is far less pressure.

Rabble is not my choice for an expression but by the club’s own very high standards set in the SAF era things are not so good. There are only two trophies that are highly valued in the uk amongst fans of EPL. Winning the premiership is the absolute number 1 and the champions league is good but not so highly prized. Ask any Liverpool supporter what they really wanted last season and you won’t find much variation. Other trophies are good as long as they are stepping stones. Finishing second behind their “noisy neighbours” is not acceptable and there are plenty of disgruntled Utd fans these days. Plenty of fans would love to support a team that has enjoyed that much success but that’s no consolation for the club in its quest to be number 1. The bar is set very high.

Nemesis - you end the debate with the author on a personal attack that fails to relate to the article’s claims and while your passion for Man Utd may be credible in your own eyes it serves only the purpose of blinding you to the quality of your arguments. To attempt to compare MU’s football achievements with the perceived failures of MC & Liverpool is a category error ... which makes your argument turn on itself . In other words, you become your own nemesis...too much ‘sound and fury signifying nothing’.

Agree. Add to that the failure to replace Herrera, their most consistent midfielder with anyone. A midfielder, if not 2 light, at least one attacker light. They've continued on exactly as they finished last season

But their recent form trajectory has all been downwards . 2018/19 season they finished 6th on the ladder a massive 32 and 31 points behind City & Liverpool ! They got beaten 3 times last year by Wolves ? They conceded 54 goals ( 27 & 28 more than City & Liverpool & even 6 more than 13th placed Newcastle ?) with De Gea having his worst year since joining the club. Their defence has been completely useless in the air from crosses for years and every opposition knew it. Central defenders were clueless and De Gea won’t come off his line , so oppositions just needed to float crosses across the 6 yard box for general success. Finally this year they have tried to address it somewhat with the addition of McQuire in the middle. And then we look at the other end of the field where they can’t settle on a striker with any consistency, and where the 17 year old Greenwood might still be their best option, with the way Martial won’t put in, and Rashford misses more opportunities than an average striker. They have shown nothing in the past two matches including the missing of two penalties ( by their supposed best in Pogba & Rashford) and giving up 4 points already after 3 rounds, to suggest anything more than them still being the rabble that had been fully developed last season .

Maybe you need to appreciate how difficult it is to win the trophies you're aiming for. Manchester City for all their wonderful football, can't win a Champions League. Liverpool has never won the Premier League. Last time Liverpool were Champions of England was 1990. Were you even following English football in 1990?

May 2017: Man United won the Europa League. Following EPL season 2017/18, Man United finished 2nd in the Premier League. Finished above Pochettino's Spurs. Finished above Klopp's Liverpool. Finished above Wenger's Arsenal. Finished above Conte's Chelsea. Rabble?

Would there be anything wrong with relying on a 17-year-old Mason Greenwood upfront? Greenwood is a great young player and deserves to be given more playing time. Next game, why not play Rashford upfront with Daniel James on the left and Greenwood on the right? I doubt that will happen, Ole can't seem to make a bold move until they're being held at 1-0 down against Crystal Palace. Although it would be worrying due to the injuries, having Greenwood start could be the best thing for Manchester United at the moment.

Nonsense article. I've watched all 3 United matches this season & it's utterly ridiculous to make over-arching statements about the club being a rabble. Why? Pogba missed a penalty and De Gea let through a last minute goal. That's all that separates United from being equal 2nd on the table right now. After 38 matches if United have finished mid-table, then we can start analysing what needs to be done to rise back to the top. But, after 3 matches, anyone who draws any conclusions about the English club football exposes himself as a naive novice & clueless about the Game.

The missing ingredient at Old Trafford since before SAF retired is the word PLAN. There was never a succession plan in place; I don’t believe that anyone seriously had Moyes lined up and everything in place for him to succeed and keep the club moving in a similar direction to what had been enjoyed for some years. However, if you are going to put a case for the club to represent a type of football, dominance etc be mindful that it only really applies during a relatively short period of time. Prior to the change from div 1 to Premier League, MUFC were often an “also ran”. They enjoyed fairly regular cup successes in the days when there was a lot more value attached to the FA Cup, Cup Winners Cup and UEFA cups etc but they were always playing second fiddle to the might of merseyside in the 80’s and the 70’s was a real eclectic mix of winners and included a mid decade journey into the second division. What we learn during our lifetimes is that dynasties are hard to create and harder to maintain and it takes far more than just the playing staff to get everything in place to dominate a league. Exactly what the formula is (apart from oil money)remains the holy grail. If that isn’t true then Liverpool would surely have lifted that elusive trophy at least once since inception; after all they had the formula almost to themselves in the 1980’s. Ultimately, what we learn is that the game is always on the move, times change, circumstances change and if you stand still you get overtaken. That is the cut throat world of the EPL.

Excellent article that captures a brutal reality about professional sport and its American form of capitalist commodification... more about the market place than the ‘ Theatre of Dreams’ . Manchester Utd ,if it does not wake up as a football club once again embracing the beautiful game , could be heading down the same long ‘bloody’ slide and packaging as the New York Nicks NBA franchise : nothing more than a tourist novelty , ‘full of the sound and fury’ at Old Trafford but signifying nothing.

Good article. Definitely a rabble onfield, the lack of a plan very evident. The spiral started when Fergie was allowed to appoint his own successor, a man never cut out for it (Fergie had lost his talent for recruiting top talent a couple seasons before, his judgement clearly on the wane). Incredibly in the following seasons both Pep AND Klopp were available. Both would have been perfect, playing what we used to call the "United Way". Why they didn't make a play for them is staggering. So much of the blame lies at the feet of Woodward, a man with no plan, bar lining the Glazers pockets. Recruiting has been shocking, reactionary, with no foresight. Compare that to Liverpool and Spurs (City don't count, their dirty money taints their success hugely). The consolation is that while they are not at the playing peak they can afford anyone. But first Woodward and OGS need to go. Repeated failure to beat the stragglers at home is a sure sign he's not the man for the job.

Right now MU looks like a good mid-table side. Little quality upfront, mediocre in the middle and a brittle defense: as shown by Crystal palace on Saturday. Huge gap between us and Liverpool and Man City. Hope the club's fortunes soon change. It's been a difficult six years.