Why Mourinho is Handling Manchester United Youth to Perfection

Numerous criticisms have been publicised portraying Jose Mourinho a villain orchestrating the demise of Manchester United's youth traditions. Given the number of loan moves, sales and further planned outgoings of young players, the common fan can easily be deceived and misinformed by what is actually happening at the club.

Fans should not be fretting, they should be impressed by Mourinho’s way of working. By shipping out players who don’t have the quality to succeed at United, loaning those who could have a great future at the club once they take their opportunities to impress and keeping some who he deems are good enough like Marcus Rashford and Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Mourinho is conjuring up the perfect balance.

The Portuguese boss has an excess of experienced and recently transferred players who can’t even make the match day squad. The likes of Matteo Darmian, Ashley Young, Phil Jones and Memphis Depay have missed out on the bench in a few of the games already, showing the competition for places is intense. If they can’t even make the bench, keeping young players who are not rated highly as passengers for the sake of upholding the United youth tradition is incredibly counterproductive for both the youth products themselves and for the betterment of the team.

For instance Donald Love. If he had stayed, he would have been in all probability fourth choice right-back so his departure was the right decision for his career and for the club. Joe Rothwell was a more than a justified sale, after failing to impress with spells at Barnsley and Blackpool, coupled with injury troubles, he did not have sufficient quality to make the cut. Ashley Fletcher’s departure was another which was convenient for him and the club. After his loan spell at Barnsley, he wanted the promise of first-team football which was never going to come his way given the purchase of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Rashford’s emergence.

The only sale that provoked discussion was Paddy McNair's, given he started 15 Premier League games under Van Gaal and showed promise in several games including at Stamford Bridge. However when considering all the questions, his sale seems not only logical but again correct. Yes, he is strong on the ball and is relatively composed, however he hasn’t impressed to the level which was first envisaged, it seems his potential ceiling is ‘good’ at best and that is substandard for a manager with lofty ambitions.

It is not a matter of Mourinho destroying Manchester United’s proud youth traditions, the fact that he rates Axel Tuanzebe and Fosu-Mensah as effective squad members shows it is a matter of quality control.

The loan departures are well-thought out, rational decisions, too. In terms of the defensive loanees, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson has demonstrated potential. His United appearances have illustrated his defensive assuredness and superb crossing ability but his starts would be limited if he stayed as Luke Shaw’s back-up. For a 19-year-old, one season in a competitive Championship will give him the perfect chance to develop physically, as a defender and get game-time to prove his worth. James Wilson, Adnan Januzaj and Andreas Pereira have all been lauded as some of the best talents to emerge in recent years. Wilson was given the chance last year to impress at Brighton and didn’t stand out, so another opportunity to sway the United hierarchy seems fair, especially considering United’s current striker options. 

Januzaj is a bizarre one, as he had United fans and pundits raving after his outstanding debut in the David Moyes era, but since then Van Gaal, Marc Wilmots, Thomas Tuchel and even Mourinho supposedly have been unconvinced by the Belgian’s attitude. Now reunited at Sunderland with Moyes, the manager who he had initially mesmerised, and handed a starting spot in a Premier League side, he has the chance to show he has sufficient quality and consistency against tough opposition. It is the perfect marriage for him and the club.

Pereira is yet to find a loan move but is expected to. He has dominated the U21 league but there is no immediate promise of first-team football, so a temporary switch away to demonstrate his ability at a higher level on a consistent basis is exactly what is needed. Jesse Lingard is a great example of someone going out on loan and earning a squad place so should be the benchmark.

Mourinho isn’t forced to hand youth players debuts because of squad deficiencies and injuries like Van Gaal, he will play them on merit when they deserve their place.

He is not dismantling years of tradition by selling and loaning young players, the sales indicate his ambition and his unwavering winning mentality in wanting all his players to be of the required United standard. The loans show his willingness to nurture young players with real promise who need regular football, giving them the best chance to able to eventually break into the United first-team. 

All of that, alongside the likes of Rashford, Fosu-Mensah and Tuanzebe being seen as squad players this season, exemplifies that Mourinho is playing his cards right when it comes to handling the youth of United.

By Hesham Bilal-Hafiz

As featured on M.E.N: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/man-utd-news-mourinho-rashford-11791206

Why Louis Van Gaal should be sacked irrespective of a Top 4 Finish

After 4 wins in 4 consecutive games in February, it appeared fans and journalists alike were utilising this turn in form as potential justification for why Louis Van Gaal merited seeing out the final year of his contract, especially so if it culminates in desired achievement of finishing Top 4. Irrespective of recent results, this season should not be looked at with short-sightedness, looking at it with the necessary panoramic view clearly displays why even a Top 4 finish should be insufficient to sweep all of Louis Van Gaal's deficiencies under the rug and justify the retention of his job.

Style of Football

Whether something is boring or not is usually subjective and purely opinion, but Manchester United's style of play has been irrefutably dull - one of the major concerns of the Van Gaal era. Stats more than back up the cries of 'Attack, Attack, Attack!' we have heard ring from the Stretford End.  If goals are a measure of entertainment, Red Devil fans have been sentenced to death by boredom. United have the scored the fewest number of goals in the Top 6, they are 13th in the league for most shots per game, they have played the highest percentage of backwards passes in the Premier League and they have participated in more goal-less draws than any other English team in the season (6).

The players seem fearful of misplacing a forward pass and when approaching the opposition box the players are wary of shooting to upset the rigid thought-process of their manager - it is painful watching this slow, safety-first approach by a club historically famed for exciting, fast-paced, whole-hearted football. It feels as though Van Gaal has put a footballing straitjacket on the players, inhibiting their natural attacking instincts so it is no coincidence forward players like Di Maria, Memphis, Januzaj, Falcao and even Van Persie have struggled under his tutelage.

Manchester United fans used to enjoy watching matches, now they just endure them.

Ineffective Use of Players

A frustration of both fans and the players themselves is how Van Gaal has used the players at his disposal this season. Morgan Schneiderlin is one for instance he came in with a reputation of being one of the best holding midfielders in the league with no other midfielder having made more interceptions in the Premier League over the last 3 seasons. Remarkably, Manchester United have only lost 2 games out of the 26 he has started this season showing just how crucial he is to the club's success this season. Yet his exquisite reading of the game from the middle has been under-appreciated by Van Gaal, in the horror Christmas fixture phase with back-to-back losses to Wolfsburg, Bournemouth, Norwich and Stoke - Schneiderlin was not on the pitch for a single minute. Andreas Pereira, last season's U21 Player of the Year for Manchester United, has played just 4 small cameos in the Premier League and has not even started an FA Cup game. Every time he plays he exudes confidence, he has shown tremendous creativity and maturity in the final third, lauded as arguably the best young talent in Manchester United's youth grades but Van Gaal has failed to give him the opportunity to show the outstanding potential he really has. Adnan Januzaj is another, he was brought back from his loan spell at Borussia Dortmund at the end of December, yet he has played 15 minutes in 2 sub appearances since - he is yet another passenger in Van Gaal's era of baffling management.

                             

Record Against Smaller Teams

Sometimes stats can justify things just on their own. Against the Premier League's bottom half (10 sides), Manchester United have gained 21 points out of 45 points, and only 11 points out of a possible 27 against the bottom 6 Premier  League sides. For a club which should be challenging for the league title and be within the Top 4, those results are unforgivable. It is a trait which even haunted Van Gaal last season, early season points were dropped against Swansea, Sunderland, Burnley, Leicester (then fighting relegation) and West Brom derailing any potential title challenge alongside a humiliating loss against MK Dons. West Brom beat Manchester United only a few weeks ago, usually there would be an uproar and it being labelled as a real upset, but now it is just a, run-of-the-mill result, epitomising how low United have sunk under his tenure.

Irrespective of how good Louis Van Gaal's record is against the Top 6, a manager with that abysmal a record against lesser teams, a club like Manchester United expects to beat given their resources and ambition, should not be given another year to further illustrate the same tactical deficiencies.

                             

 Illogical Substitutions

Usually, substitutions are a key reflection on the tactical awareness and footballing intelligence of a manager. If used effectively, substitutions can salvage games from losing positions, win games petering out to draws and secure all 3 points when in a winning position. For instance, logic for any avid footballer fan when a team is losing would be to put an attacking / creative player on capable of injecting some life into a performance by creating or scoring a goal in the place of a tiring or less attacking outlet. Unfortunately, logic and Van Gaal are two words often not paired together. Frustratingly, substitutes have been more counter-productive than actually changing the course of affairs in a positive manner. It is so farcical that it is now almost laughable the amount of times this season we have seen a defender being substituted for a defender i.e. Matteo Darmian coming on for Guillermo Varela against West Ham whilst level at 1-1. We have also seen a not so dissimilar trend with midfielders, with the likes of Michael Carrick for Bastian Schweinsteiger. All these wasted substitutions for the Red Devils' fans culminate the likes of Andreas Pereira and Adnan Januzaj as well as other attackers on the bench being unfairly under-used. Van Gaal has even mirrored Tony Pulis' Stoke when he lumps Marouane Fellaini on as a ‘Plan B’ target man to have long balls aimlessly launched at - the less spoken about that the better.

                              

 If any substitution epitomises the mind-boggling decision-making of Louis Van Gaal which has alienated players and fans alike, it is the substitution of Juan Mata for Nick Powell, despite having been absent out of the first team for 16 months, in the pivotal Champions League deciding game against Wolfsburg. Bizarre.

Youth Policy Myth at United

One of the major selling points of Louis Van Gaal as Manchester United manager in the media and by fans has been the amount of youth he has blooded into the first team, he has given debuts to 7 academy players this season, continuing the proud traditions of the club. However, is this influx of youth a real Van Gaal masterplan or is it in truth something which has been done out of necessity?

Manchester United have had 60 separate injuries this season, there was even a point in the season where there were simultaneous injuries to crucial players which would otherwise star in Manchester United's first team (De Gea; Darmian, Jones, Rojo, Shaw; Valencia, Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin, Young; Rooney & Martial). Whether that's down to intense training methods or pure misfortune is up for debate, but what is not up for debate is that this has dramatically forced Van Gaal's hand in his squad selection. 

                                

For Jesse Lingard, early in the season he was brought in as a starter after cameos at Everton and Palace away, so all of his success this season can be attributed to Van Gaal's decision to promote a Manchester United youth product. However, other than that, the majority of the youngsters that have played a part in the first team set up have only featured due to injuries depleting an already wafer-thin squad.  For instance two full-backs which have impressed greatly with their maturity in defence and menace going forward are Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Guillermo Varela who would never have been given such a chance without a United defensive injury crisis. A season-destroying blow to Luke Shaw, long term injuries to Marcos Rojo, Ashley Young and Phil Jones meant that Borthiwck-Jackson was thrust into the first-team almost as a last resort to fill the left-back slot. Varela has experienced similar luck, given the lengthy setbacks of Antonio Valencia and Matteo Darmian alongside the aforementioned absence of the versatile Ashley Young meant that Van Gaal had no one else to play right-back. Even now, the emergence of the hotshot Marcus Rashford is purely by chance and not by design with his inclusion in the team only coming on the back of a striking injury crisis with Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial and Will Keane all out at the same time.

Would these players really have been played and given the opportunity to flourish without injuries? The consistent exclusion of Andreas Pereira and Adnan Januzaj suggest otherwise.

Since December, Louis Van Gaal has lost as many games as recently sacked manager Steve McClaren who has put Newcastle deeper into relegation trouble. This abysmal stat alone would amaze onlookers as to how the manager of one of the biggest clubs in the world still has a job, especially so since a tailor-made replacement, one of football's elite managers in Jose Mourinho is currently sitting in his London home without a job. This Manchester United season of frustration, boredom and never ending disappointment should be enough to convince Ed Woodward and co that change is undoubtedly necessary.

Should Van Gaal stay as Manchester United manager for the 2016/17 season? No way José.

By Hesham Bilal-Hafiz (@hesham786)