What next for Manchester United?
One step forward, two steps back was the feel of Manchester United's season, which ended with a major trophy but a slip to fifth in the league. After a chaotic summer 12 months ago, things must change
If you’d said 12 months ago Manchester United would end up with a major trophy at the end of the 2023-24 season and local rivals Manchester City would not, you’d be forgiven for thinking United had taken another major step forward under Marc Skinner.
In one way, they have, with the FA Cup a much needed tick in the box on an otherwise dismal season to forget, with all excitement off the back of a title charge which went to the final day of the season this time last year long in the past.
A first major trophy is something you can’t take away from Skinner, as he guided United past the likes of now seven-time champions Chelsea to lift the trophy on the famous Wembley balcony..
How it’s gone quite so wrong elsewhere though is anyone’s guess, but there are likely various factors to consider in how United somehow managed to go from second, finishing behind Chelsea only, to fifth, six points behind a Liverpool side they were comfortably clear of last season.
The stats lay bare just some of the issues.
42 goals scored compared to 56 last season, and more alarmingly, 32 conceded compared to 12, despite roughly the same defence and goalkeeper as the 2022-23 campaign, minus the departure of key player Ona Batlle.
All of that left United with an alarming 21 points less than last year – that’s seven wins worth of points worse off.
Skinner has been defiant throughout, sweeping away the criticisms, and in a way you have to admire both his defiance in believing he can continue to take this team forward and his reluctance to give in, because at the end of the day he did help lead this team to much better things 12 months ago, which has made the drop off all the more puzzling.
In his last few press conferences, including after the embarrassing 6-0 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday, Skinner suggested people were not watching the whole 90 minutes, only highlights.
That may well be fair, and I certainly won’t sit here and say I’ve had the time nor access to sit and watch 90 minutes of every single club every single week this season, but sometimes the score lines do not lie.
In some ways, Saturday’s abysmal display was the paradox of what United have been this season, because a month earlier I sat in the Leigh Sports Village and watched the same United team outwit the same Chelsea team for at least half an hour, creating a lead which was insurmountable by the time Emma Hayes had got her head around Skinner’s approach.
It was one of their more impressive displays, and under Skinner’s leadership United have now beaten all three of Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City, the latter two on several occasions, but this season they were too few and far between, while the dropped points against teams around and below them were too prominent.
Recruitment has been a key talking point among fans. Skinner has often lamented that United cannot shop in the same market as their rivals, which has some element of truth to it and will always be a drawback of not entering a team into the leagues until 2018, when all three of their main rivals were already well down the road, but there appears to be a ‘throw mud at the wall and hope it sticks’ approach.
Last summer was chaotic to say the least. United did secure a key target in Barcelona’s Geyse, but the Brazilian has returned just one league goal from 1,118 minutes on the pitch, and has looked bereft of confidence of late.
But elsewhere it was scattergun to say the least. There is belief within United that Japanese star Hinata Miyazawa is going to be an excellent proposition, but was not on the radar until after her World Cup performances.
Four more deals were completed on deadline day alone, but between them came only 14 league starts, skewed by Gabby George’s season-ending injury in just the third game, but neither Phallon Tullis-Joyce or World Cup winner Irene Guerrero made a single league start this season.
There has, as fans wished for, been slightly more rotation, but at times more through force of hand than anything else, and certainly more in the attack where United have lacked the regular focal point of Alessia Russo, regularly chopping and changing between the likes of Geyse, Melvine Malard, Nikita Parris, Rachel Williams and co.
Those who were regulars last season have held the same stature again, with all four of Mary Earps, Katie Zelem and centre-back pairing Maya Le Tissier and Millie Turner starting every game, with Hannah Blundell starting 21 and Ella Toone 20.
After that though there is a gap to Parris who started 16 and another gap down to Leah Galton and Lucia Garcia who started 13 each, a drop off of seven for Galton compared to last season’s standout campaign.
The big question mark though has been Hayley Ladd, who is really the only natural defensive midfielder in the United squad, yet this season started just seven league games compared to 19 of last season, where she was a pivotal part of the team’s relative success.
This season, Skinner has favoured a pairing of Zelem and Lisa Naalsund, but neither has been a natural sitting player in front of the back four, and it’s certainly been easier to get at the backline, emphasised by the 20 goals more conceded than 12 months ago.
Zelem created more chances than anyone in the whole league in the campaign just gone, 55 to be exact, and there’s no doubt if Skinner and United are willing to spend big again this summer, they could do worse than blowing a chunk of the budget on a top class defensive midfielder, which would solve several issues in both the middle of the park and the defence.
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Defiantly again, Skinner asserted post-match on Sunday he knows where his side falls short, knows how to address it and will be “ruthless” in his approach to the summer, but without the carrot of Champions League football and just a fifth-placed finish, it may not be easy to attract that calibre of player, with all of their rivals looking like a more tantalising prospect than 12 months ago.
Again, that is partly down to United’s own failings of not re-launching a women’s team until six years ago, they are always going to be playing catch up to teams who were splashing the cash on big internationals while the concept of Manchester United didn’t even exist.
There has been other factors, of course, such as the departure of well-respected assistant coach Martin Ho, who led most of the training sessions. It’s not uncommon for assistants to lead sessions, but Ho was seen as a big loss when he left for SK Brann at the start of last season.
Skinner could do worse than go back to basics. For all the criticisms his ‘non-rotational’ approach got him last season, it was affective, and you generally knew what you were getting whenever United went out onto the pitch, with two out and out wingers either side of Russo, constantly getting balls into the box.
Garcia has yet to sign a new deal, Malard will likely return to Lyon and Parris still retains interest from the NWSL, so it could be a chance to once again change the attack, and behind a defensive midfielder an out and out number nine should be high on United’s list of targets.
Russo served an important purpose, but United should have been able to replace the 10 league goals she scored and they haven’t got close to doing so.
Harvey Bussell, hired as Head of Recruitment last summer, leads most of the scouting now and reports back to Skinner, but this season needs to look a lot more well planned out than last summer did.
At the other end, Earps is also out of contract, but her options to leave are dwindling, with Arsenal moving onto other targets.
In Skinner’s defence, there are three or four exciting players in the squad you could already fit into the old cliché of ‘like a new signing’, including full-back George who was a key target for most of last summer, even if the deal went down to the wire.
Many managers now are obsessed with balance and having a left-footed player on the left side and George fitted that bill, plus had started the season well before suffering her ACL injury against Leicester City in October.
Hinata too has missed a large chunk of the season due to injury and certainly offers a different skillset to her teammates, while other attack-minded midfield players such as Emma Watson and Grace Clinton should add to their talented list of options next season.
Clinton’s loan to Tottenham Hotspur was the right thing to do and she should return in top form, while Watson is one of the most exciting prospects to come out of Scotland in some time, but she too suffered an ACL injury last summer.
There is no doubt there is some potential in this United team, and Skinner has shown in flashes he can unleash it, but this season was a step backwards, and while it needs him and his coaching staff to step up, you can’t help but feel there is still some need for a clear long-term strategy behind the scenes, with more changes such as Polly Bancroft leaving allowing for little consistency in approach.
If United want to hit the ground running in a season where everyone will be hoping Chelsea slip up while adapting to new leadership, they need to execute a clear summer plan, and can’t afford to head into deadline day scrambling around for whatever’s left again like last season.
Players dont want to join under marc skinner management
Even players with one year left dont trust he will play them
We need clarity over who is staying, & who is leaving, Earps, Zelem, Garcia, & Parris all have their current contracts expiring at the end of June, plus will Williams stay on again.....with full respect, she is an absolute legend of the game, no doubt about that, but she is shall we say.....more advanced in years these days....
Then there is the issue with Polly and John leaving this summer, plus Matt is only on a shirt term move with the women's setup....where are the personnel who will seek out and find these players that we so desperately need to close the gap on the teams above us??
We are already playing catchup, and if say Viv joins City as rumoured, then once again, we will be starting even further behind.....there just doesn't seem the impetus, the desire to really improve the women's side, not least whilst the men's side seemingly takes priority.....