SAME OLD TACTIC, BUT DIFFERENT RESULTS?

Source

If there's one thing that has been consistent with Manchester United in the last decade, it's been their ability to make the same mistakes time and again without ever seeming to learn anything from it. There's been a sheer lack of quality in some areas of the team in the past few years with no strategic action taken to address these issues, rather the club has been comfortable with extravagant but ineffective flex of their financial muscles.

The latest symbol of this flex is Brazilian midfielder Casemiro who's deal has been gotten over the line in a matter of 2 days after the club spent the best part of the window chasing shadows in the market with respect to defensive or holding midfielders.

It begs the question of why the club spent the all that time wrangling with Frenkie De Jong when they could have gotten other options this easily. But that's story for another day.

There has been a frenzy about the acquisition of the Brazilian which has the all the ingredients of the Glazers trying to show shareholders that the club - I mean their money making machine - is still a force to be reckoned with and still has the clout to attract the best players in the game. But should the fans be really happy and optimistic about this deal, or it's going to be business as usual?

Since SAF's retirement, Manchester united have spent a fortune on headline acquisitions without a clear plan as to the specific holes they were to pluck in the team in tandem with the coaches' needs.

From the knee-jerk signing of Fellaini in 2013, to the headlining transfers of the likes of Angel di Maria, Juan Mata, and Ander Herrera (2014), Paul Pogba and Mkhitarian (2016), Schweinsteiger (2015), Fred (2018), Donny Van der Beek and Fernandes (2020).

It was clear that there was no clear recruitment plan as none of those players were the holding midfielder required to pluck the whole in midfield that was left behind by Fletcher and Carrick's retirements.

That's not to mention the monies invested on the likes of Zlatan, Memphis, Cavani and Falcao. Apart from Memphis, the popular narrative was that the others were experienced eggheads whom the youngsters will learn a lot from. But looking at the likes of Martial and Rashford, I still don't see what they've learnt so far.

Last year was the turn of Varane, Ronaldo, and Sancho, even when the most pressing need was a CDM. That filtered into this season as the club spent the whole first two months of the season chasing a player who made it clear that he's not interested in the club, only to quickly snap a renowned winner within 48hrs after the club fell into new lows at the beginning of the season.

This begs the question, is this really what the coach wants, or its just another Glazer puzzle to show the stakeholders that their money is safe?

All of a sudden, there's a new midfielder in the team along with all these frenzy about Antony, Sergej and Gakpo. The truth is we've seen alot of these nightmares play out at the theater of dreams, that one can be excuses for still being sceptical about the renewed optimism. But the one positive here is that it addresses and attempts to fill a gaping hole in the team, which is the quality CDM vacuum.

But Casemiro thrives best with more creative foils beside him in the middle of the park as shown with his partnership with Kroos and Modrić at Madrid. That's where the real problem will be for ETH especially if Cas wasn't really his choice.

Who will partner him in the middle and what formation will be deployed? Does he stick with 4-2-3-1 with Fred partnering Cas in a double pivot? Or does he revert to 4-3-3 which Cas is most familiar with and pair him with the more creative Eriksen and Fernandes?

Time will tell what the answer will be and if this transfer is truly worth celebrating. But for now I'm not getting carried away even though there are clear reasons for optimism. And let's not forget that Cas is to be made one of the highest earners at the club, so it's very much possible that he's here for his retirement benefit and not for a new challenge.

Welcome to my blog, you can relax and be rest assured of quality content on diverse topics. You're free to air your views and opinions in the comments section, and It'll be my pleasure to learn and engage