UAE

Life and Living

World

Opinion

Business

Sports

Entertainment

Lifestyle

Travel

Reviews

Brands

Supplements

KT Events

KT APPDOWNLOAD

Type your keywords

The Football Insider with Mikael Silvestre: Big challenges ahead for both Manchester clubs

United is the bigger job and that is going to take years rather than months

Read more...
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim during the team's 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth. — Reuters

By Mikael Silvestre

Published: Mon 23 Dec 2024, 5:20 PM

In Premier League history there is no worse time to be a football fan in Manchester than right now – whether you are a Red or a Blue.

Manchester United is a football club that is broken from top to bottom and it is not just on the pitch where they are a million miles away from challenging for the title.

Advertising
Advertising

They don’t have the quality of squad and they don’t have the structure in the club that the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal have. The 3-0 beating they took from Bournemouth is just the latest demonstration of this.

The only way forward is to use this season to start again, play attractive football for the fans and get results when they can – such as the recent Derby win over City – to give supporters something to smile about now and then.

They did create chances in this game which is some form of comfort but they lost to the better team and I am afraid that is going to happen more often than not in the coming weeks and months.

Over at the Etihad the outlook isn’t quite as bleak, but I have never seen in my footballing life a championship-winning side fall so fast and so far as City have this season.

They look like they have no clear tactics, are losing challenges all over the pitch and in the final third have no ideas on how to get the ball in the back of the net.

The only target for them now has to be top four and I am sure Pep Guardiola is already looking to next season and what needs to be done in terms of squad rebuilding to get them back to the dominant side they have been.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and Bernardo Silva look dejected after the match against Aston Villa. — Reuters

There is no doubt the players look tired but that aside there is no reason Erling Haaland should still not be scoring regularly and at the back they look like they will concede when a team attacks.

Aston Villa are a decent side but City allowed them to play and if you do that in the Premier League you will lose – there are no easy games.

So is it all doom and gloom in Manchester?

The positive for me is that both teams have managers who are totally committed and will not rest until they get it right.

United is the bigger job and that is going to take years rather than months. No matter what, Ruben Amorim must be allowed to shape the team the way he wants and he needs strong support at Old Trafford.

At City they will obviously give Pep time but the next ten games are for me key to whether this is a situation that can be fixed this season or if the rot has set in more than we realise. Is it the case this team has reached the end of the line and wholesale changes are needed?

And if that all wasn’t enough for the fans in Manchester, after this weekend Liverpool are going to take some stopping from winning the league!

(Former French defender Mikael Silvestre won five Premier League titles with Manchester United. He was also part of the United team that won the 2008 Champions League title)

ALSO READ:

Mikael Silvestre

Published: Mon 23 Dec 2024, 5:20 PM

Recommended for you