Mourinho swooped to bring Alexis Sanchez to Old Trafford in the winter and get one over Arsene Wenger. However, the signing didn’t do Manchester United any good…
United these days is like a Suzuki Mehran with a Ferrari engine. The make and model just can’t support the fireworks up front. Assuming that common sense prevails at the Theatre of Dreams this summer, United should have upgraded from a Suzuki Mehran to an army tank.
There was a small period of time in the 2016/17 season when Eric Bailly and Marcos Rojo seemed to have solved Jose Mourinho’s defensive conundrum, becoming mainstays in the starting XI. However, an anterior cruciate ligament injury to Rojo shattered any hopes United fans had for a set centre-back pairing going into the new season.
United’s start to the 2017/18 season was spectacular as they kept seven clean sheets in their opening eight league games with Phil Jones and Eric Bailly starting together. However, with Jones inexplicably dropped and Eric Bailly out injured for four months, United lost the next two out of three. Swedish newcomer Victor Lindelof failed to settle early on and with Chris Smalling’s error-prone tendencies, not even the ever-reliable Nemanja Matic providing protection in front of the back-four was enough to prevent United from suffering in the absence of a fixed centre-back partnership. However, centre-halves were not the only defensive positions in need of reinforcement last summer.
Manchester United are trying to finalise a deal for Diogo Dalot before his release clause kicks in. https://t.co/3ureSD34TV
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) May 31, 2018
Mourinho had two natural wingers, Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young, playing as full-backs for the majority of the 2017/18 season. One of them even wore the club’s famous #7 jersey for a season; Imagine Manchester United’s #7 playing at right-back. The full-back issue should have been addressed by the club in January, if not last summer. Instead, the manager opted to do a straight swap in the winter window between one winger/forward for another. Alexis Sanchez was a ‘want’, not a ‘need’.
With the rumoured arrivals of Alex Sandro from Juventus (Matteo Darmian moving the other way) and teenager Diego Dalot from Porto, United appear to have finally realised their biggest vulnerability – full-backs. No team can logically compete for the Premier League title without any natural wing-backs among their ranks – and even less so with the only recognized full-back, Luke Shaw, facing a struggle to prove his fitness and ability to Jose Mourinho.
While teams like Chelsea and City have top full-backs like Cesar Azpilicueta, Marcos Alonso, Kyle Walker, and Benjamin Mendy in their squads, United have tried to make do with Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young over the past couple of seasons. It hasn’t worked yet and they won’t be becoming world-class full-backs anytime soon, which makes reinforcing the position an absolute necessity.