Pivotal game against arch rivals amid the shadows of 73-74 relegation

Fans and media must keep the pressure on Ed Woodward esp since Oliver Holt's article in the Daily Mail which hit the nail on its head. There are parallels with end of Busby and Ferguson illustrious trophy laden reign - towards the end the investment in the squad dried up which meant they did not replace their key players like Herd, Foulkes, Stiles, Charlton, Law from 1967 on wards and Keane, Ronaldo, Neville, Giggs, Vidic, Ferdinand from 2005 on wards. In 1974 MUFC hurtled downwards to relegation with a very decent defense in Buchan and Holton but without any prolific striker, a situation very similar now. Is the MUFC team now too good to go down? This accentuates the urgent need for MUFC to buy a proven striker in January.

Ed Woodward has come out with his justifications on wasting most of #850 million dollars under his watch and how can any sane MUFC fan believe him. What worries fans further is that this 6 years & #850 million mess is not the benchmark to rectify other areas like youth policy where they are well behind most of their rivals. He has however backed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ahead of the most crucial fixture in our calendar but has it come a week early? Does Ed believe that MUFC will get anything out of this game?

MUFC have in the past ended Arsenal's 49 game unbeaten run that stopped the invincible's in the famous 'Battle of Buffet' and now despite being in bad form, crucial players in Paul Pogba and David de Gea injured and the squad being low on confidence, given the nature of this fixture between the two most successful English football clubs they can stop LFC's run of 17 game winning streak. Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay and Axel Tuanzebe being the academy lads will be crucial to channel their high emotions into decent performances belying their age given the thread bare squad. While the wide area's at full back need to counter LFC surge and Ole might play a three man defense to release Dalot and Young while another exciting prospect at left back Brandon Williams might get some game time.

Huge credit to Marcus Rashford for carrying on despite his lack of form and non-coherent midfield where he does not know where the through ball is going to come from. Yet he has backed himself for the cause of the team and being on the pitch. Having aspirations to be central striker is not bad which means he is prepared to work to make it happen despite being found out a few times or missing a few runs. Marcus Rashford is of the same age as Tammy Abraham and already with 36 caps for his country while Mason Greenwood a good four years younger. One of the traits of players like Cristiano Ronaldo who reached 700 career goals is how they personally look after themselves and avoid injury in spite of  training regimes at club and country. Rashford has at least kept himself in the reckoning for a start always where as Anthony Martial who finally gets his chance at being the No 9 is returning from injury. Martial though has still scored a third of MUFC goals this season and hoping the Frenchmen adds to his tally against LFC to cement his favourite position #AM9.

On paper and form its a 0-3 defeat and anything better especially team coherence and fighting quality with a plan from Ole will take it as a positive sign. 1973-74 season after 8 games 10 points(3W, 4L, 1D - 8GS 10GC) and in 2019-20 season after 8 games 9 points (2W, 3L, 3D - 9GS 8GC) a serious cause for worry. Coincidentally the 9th game of 1973-74 season was against Liverpool at Old Trafford which ended in a 0-0 stalemate, even a similar result in 2019-20 might not be good enough in the eventual league standings at the end of the season.

As for LFC it will be crucial to not only win but do the double over their arch rivals MUFC similar to 1963-64 season that setup them up for a first League Championship win after 1946-47 and not mind the margin of victory. In hindsight Klopp might seek to improve the performance at Old Trafford where they dropped two points last season while at the end they lost the league title by only one point to MCFC. Old Trafford is the last summit LFC need to conquer to avoid complacency of last season and lay down the fears of a meltdown that accompanied Arsene Wenger's Arsenal after the 49 game unbeaten streak was ended by MUFC.

Happy 82nd birthday to the ultimate English sporting legend Sir Bobby Charlton

Of the many famous quotes describing Sir Bobby Charlton the one I like the most is undoubtedly from Geoffrey Green: "He always possessed an elemental quality; jinking, changing feet and direction, turning gracefully on the ball or accelerating through a gap surrendered by a confused enemy."

Just ahead of Arthur Hopcraft's The Football Man in which he met Sir Bobby Charlton's sports master Mr McGuiness who had this to say: "Thin lad of 9 playing football with 14 year old's & just waltzing through them. Even at 9 he had a body swerve & a natural check that would take other man the wrong way."

Apart from that much talked about semi-final win over Portugal in the 1966 World Cup, his 68 goals in 3 seasons immediately after Munich on his less favoured left-wing speak volumes of his dedication for Manchester United Football Club. Sir Matt Busby summarized it as "When things looked their blackest after the Munich accident, and there were times when I felt great despair, I was enormously cheered to think that Bobby Charlton was there. His presence was a great source of inspiration to keep working for the restoration of Manchester United."

The official MUFC dedication last year with a poetry was top class. 

"This boy came down from Ashington in 1953, no-one could imagine what a talent he could be..."

A stirring poem about @SirBobby's incredible career, on his 81st birthday. 🔴 pic.twitter.com/edo0kI2Dk3

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) October 11, 2018

Other notable quotes about Sir Bobby Charlton:
"Dispossessing Kostic about forty yards from goal, this gifted boy leaned brilliantly into his stride, made ground rapidly for about ten yards, and the beat the finest goalkeeper on the Continent with a shot of tremendous power and superb placing. There, one thought, surely goes England's Bloomer of the future."
Don Davies the 'Old International' of Manchester Guardian 5th Feb, 1958, Belgrade

"Bobby Charlton was still there, a cornerstone on which '62 side was to be built. Alongside me, Busby bought Cantwell, Setters, Herd. These were the new 'Busby Babes': Giles, Stiles, Chisnal, Nicholson, Lawton. Little did we know how good it was going to get over the next 5 years."
Sir Denis Law on his arrival from Torino

"I have nothing but respect for Bobby now, but we were totally different characters, and for a long time didn't get on. There was one similarity. Like me, he was his own man." 

George Best

"England beat us in 1966 because Bobby Charlton was just a bit better than me."
Franz Beckenbauer

"He was a global star of his day. Go to any country in the world and even if they couldn't speak English, the two words they did know were: 'Bobby Charlton.'"
Sir Geoff Hurst

"Some say Bobby Charlton was a scorer of great goals, rather than a great goalscorer. Yet no player has scored more for England and no player has scored more for its greatest club , Manchester United. So his 49 goals for England and his 249 for United can’t all have been 25-yard thunderbolts – it just seems that way in the mind’s eye. When he hammered one into the top corner from long range it was as if he were a man possessed, desperate to separate the leather casing from the bladder. I made virtually all of my 57 England appearances alongside Bob and I can remember few greater competitors and few greater professionals. His fellow greats like Best and Moore did not lead blameless lives away from the game but Bob was dedicated to his craft.His sainted image made it difficult when you played against United though, because although I never heard him swear at a referee, Bob would moan at them constantly and they would be so in awe of the great man that they’d usually do as they were told. I can remember, more than once, yelling: “F***ing hell ref, why don’t you just give Bobby the whistle, you might as well!” But this is a man who survived the Munich air disaster in 1958, won the World Cup in 1966, the European Cup in 1968 and played a key role in the appointment of Alex Ferguson as Old Trafford manager in 1986. He’s history in the flesh is Bobby Charlton. He’s our greatest living football man."
Jimmy Greaves

Four-time FA Youth Cup winner, FA Cup winner, Thrice English League winner, 1966 World Cup winner, Ballon d'Or winner/European Footballer of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year, European Cup winner!!!

Easily the Greatest English sporting legend who conquered it all.

Back Ole but not without specific objectives

Even the most die-hard fans of MUFC have basic demands from the Manager and its not without any riders even if he is an ex-legend who scored that winner in Barcelona to win the unprecedented Treble in '99.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer started very well last December and has not recovered from the loss to Arsenal, Wolves and Barcelona stretching way back to March last season. Away record is pathetic, creativity from open play non-existent, players just active in transitions like counter-attack, two central defensive midfielders stifle the movement while covering for the only area made strong with summer transfers in Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka (i.e., double whammy!), extremely poor free-kicks and corner-kicks worse than a Championship team, inability to drop non-performing players due to thread bare squad, mounting injuries, sticking to only one system 4-2-3-1 despite poor results, making the number 10 nonexistent on the pitch exasperating the situation further, so on and so forth.

Any new manager in charge of MUFC now would struggle, yes, but might on the contrary develop far more detailed technical plan than just hire young and hungry British players. The injury crisis continues before and after Rui Faria the assistant to Jose Mourinho. MUFC cannot dominate the midfield and control a game even against teams in the relegation places. Selling Fellaini is a step in the right direction until fans favorite Ander Herrera was short changed (while the board renewed and rewarded Phil Jones recently voted the worst defender in the world) leaving the 'engine room' woefully inept.

Ole must deliver a top 6 finish and a good run in at least two Cup competitions esp the Europa. Failing which the manner of the play (urgently needs a reset to initial days of Ole) and player morale will be scrutinized (which not surprisingly has improved since majority of dead wood have been removed), and if found satisfactory given the difficult season he might just be "Our Man of Destiny" as Sir Alex Ferguson prophetically described him, to turn around MUFC in the coming years. Anything short will lead to accusations ascribed to David Moyes - lacking the big picture.

The first quarter of a season over MUFC are 12th in the table which is underwhelming to say the least. League table does not hide the poor performances against Newcastle, West Ham and Crystal Palace while the Wolves draw might feel bit unlucky but the penalty miss owing to confusion on who should take it was their own doing. Ole needs to turn things around especially at three away games at Norwich, Bournemouth and Sheffield United with key players in Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba returning from injuries, else it might not be a surprise if Ole isn't around at the end of November.

Ole needs to reset in order to unleash Pobga

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer needs a reset now that he has completed one sweep of evaluating all players including from the academy within a single system that he has finalized upon given that he has cleared majority of the dead wood. He needs it now to arrest the decline of attacking threat considered the 'de facto' USP of any iconic club not least Manchester United.

Central to that is to get the best of Paul Pobga which Ole himself famously said when he took over from Jose Mourinho. Goals from open play has been the problem for MUFC and no one better to provide that incisive pass to create a game defining goal than the Frenchman. No other MUFC player in the meantime has taken the opportunity to make the number 10 role their own which opens the door wide for player of Pogba's caliber. Player of the season thus far Scott McTominay to anchor the midfield with Fred alongside Pogba just in front. Expecting Pogba to do that was a mistake especially when he had such established players at Juventus and France National team set up the platform for his creativity to flow.

Getting Pogba to play where he can express himself better will increase the chances of MUFC scoring goals and in turn increase his worth in the transfer market. Both will be beneficial to the club when his contract comes up for renewal now. In the present context Pobga's worth has fallen based on the his own form and that of the club from approx #180 million to #100 million which is a massive decline coinciding with the MUFC stock finishing the lowest at 16.09 on 01-Oct. Ole's appointment initially reversed the decline in December last year to reach a high in late Feb at 21.21 before the win away in Paris. Stock did not sustain a boost from opening of the summer transfer period in early July and has generally waned down ever since. In summer MUFC relinquished its top spot on Forbes list of most valuable football club to the two Spanish giants with FIVE English clubs also chasing down fast. Although MUFC revenue has been resilient to slump in on-field performance due to its global branding the club needs to be mindful of strides made by its competitors as its the major trophies that ultimately defines this giant club.

Come January, 2021 which is just 15 months away the clubs arguably most prized asset Paul Pobga in his prime age of just 28 can be free to negotiate with other clubs will NOT bode well with club hierarchy either. Pogba himself may aspire to win trophies which may be 2-3 year distant on MUFC horizon considering the rebuild now and he may want out as Gary Neville points out. But for now the Reset with Pogba as a catalyst can be the springboard that the emerging rookies like Greenwood, Gomes, Chong, Garner, Williams et al can rally around to turn the fortunes till fresh reinforcements can be targeted in January else Ole risks the patience of Old Trafford faithful accustomed to winning.