Bear with me on this, you’re most likely thinking I’ve had too much butter cup syrup this morning, but by the time you’ve finished reading, it’ll make as much sense as vinegar on chips! (Hopefully)
As they floundered from supremacy to mediocrity in the eyes of the world as they moved from debut album to the much maligned second, they had to overcome many setbacks in their line up, such as….
Tone deaf front man – let’s compare this to our midfield, it’s lacking in the depth and range needed to carry a team, it’s flat, and it’s so easy to find fault with it’s become laughable, but the team has done what it can to work around it to try and get by and achieve some success despite this major weakness.
Damaged guitarist who left the group – let’s compare this to our defensive options, a defining aspect of the success the group achieved over the years, as Squire adapted how he played to give the Roses their era defining sound, United have done so with their defence and achieved some amazing things, but this summer, the great majority of that experience and success has walked out and been replaced with potential rather than established talent, as the Roses found out, maintaining the same success rate with fillers was impossible.
Disgruntled bassist – this falls painfully inline with our crop of forwards, all the talent in the world, but if all around him is failing to deliver, then there’s little to nothing he can do to shape the fortunes of chaotic mission he’s involved in.
Which brings me on to the point of all this…
The drummer – the guy who sets the pace the team play at, he was the first to leave and the one who’s absence was papered over by the other issues that were raised above, but look back over the last 20 years at United and at those who’ve got paint on their boots in the United colours, Giggs, Sharpe, Kanchelskis, Beckham & Ronaldo to name the stand out ones, they had different skills as individuals, but most importantly, whatever their skills were, they could use them to drive the team forward, we could turn defence into attack quicker than women can turn molehills into mountains, we had sides fearful of attacking us as we had wide men of mass destruction who would exploit any space left open to brutal effect. But where are the players who can do that in this United side?
As the Roses found in replacing Reni, it’s not an easy thing to do, we’ve found in trying to replace Ronaldo, world class talent is harder to find than a natural tan in Essex, just look at the post CR7 names below…
Nani – so woeful that we’re paying his wages to deliver his own brand of unique ineptness for his old club instead, I’d hoped that last summers 5 year deal would be the making of him, but once again, he managed to show his performance level could go down more often than a scouse lass on a doorman.
Valencia – rumour has it he’s the quickest player in the premiership, I’ll have to say its a rumour as all I’ve seen him do in the last 2 years is stand there looking for a sideways pass, or for a first defender to hit with a cross so that he doesn’t have to do something vulgar like run at his full back, which is made even more frustrating by the fact that he did it once at Sunderland, and we scored from it, but being a polite guest, he wasn’t gonna upset his hosts by doing so again.
Young – growing in confidence and stature under LVG, but still some way short of delivering the standard required to shape games week in week out in a United shirt, which is why I truly believe that the next guy is the vital cog in helping move things forward and returning us to the glory days.
Di Maria – the performances he’s delivered for Real & Argentina have been what we’ve been crying out for for years, his pace pulls defences apart, he can turn a punt clear into a through ball with a burst of pace & he can pick that killer pass in the final third that the likes of Rooney, Van Persie & Mata would thrive off, and that’s just to list a few of his skills.
Perhaps most importantly, he’ll lift the mood of all around him, it’s clear that this United side is playing with huge fear, where it used win games in the tunnel with the quality and confidence that flowed through every member of the line up, it’s now playing with a fear that teams are exploiting.
I’m not so naive as to think one man will change everything over night, but he’ll push us a huge step in the right direction, one that’ll have us once again seeing how joyful being a red can be, the Roses taught me that too, Squire, Mani & Brown did decent things without Reni driving them, but having been at Heaton & Finsbury parks in recent years, I can see how much better they are with him leading the way.
