MANCHESTER UNITED LEGEND’S COMMENTS ALMOST HIT A HOME RUN

The English Premier League has evolved & the Premier League will keep evolving season after season. These words might sound a little redundant, as they should because these words are redundant. However, in certain situations, in other to prove a point, sometimes the best lead way into making any relevant point is through a little redundancy.

A few years ago, Premier League were known to be operating with the popular 4-4-2 formation with two strikers mainly giving the responsibility of getting the most goals and subsequently winning football matches for their respective football club. Of cause, the Premier League has clearly evolved from the 4-4-2 formation era as most modern football club will much rather favor the 4-5-1 formation than the previous 4-4-2 formation. what is the point of this discussion you might ask? Simple is 65 combined goal between three players a reasonable bar to set for three front players per season? that‘s a question presented by one of Manchester United's very own retired legend this week Wednesday.

Looking at the expectation of a combined 65 goal a season shared between three players anyone will be tempted to asked if the expectations put on the shoulders of Manchester United players, especially the demands put on the clubs notorious front three Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku, and Anthony Martial has simple reached an unreasonable magnitude.

 Don’t misunderstand the intention here. The intention is certainly not to say that Manchester United's front three are certainly not capable of producing a combined rate of 65 goals a season, players such as Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku and Anthony Martial are three outstanding individuals that have proven their worth already in the Premier League and are certainly capable of producing outstanding goal rate tallies.  However, focusing such a massive rate of goals to come from three specific players might result in individual players losing focus on the value of shared teamwork and subsequently substitute teamwork for individual glory.  

Paul schools, the retired Manchester United legendary player was quoted during one of his recent commentary demanding more from Manchester United's three current stars:                                                                                                       

“When you look around the squad the players are there, the talent is there.

I talk about the front three all the time and you think of the pace and strength that they have got.

OK, (Romelu) Lukaku is probably struggling for a bit of confidence, Marcus (Rashford) is probably struggling for a bit of confidence but you look at the three and think they should be getting 65 goals a season!"

(BT Sports Channel on October 24, 2018 )  

   From a certain perspective of simply expecting more from players that have proven they can produce more, surely a good number of people can understand where Paul Schools is coming from. But the question is: is Paul Schools being a little too narrow with whom Paul Schools is allocating the blame for lack of goals for Manchester United and also, considering how competitive and high maintenance Premier Clubs today are, is Paul Schools asking for just a little too much? Let’s not forget to factor in the reality being that with half the Premier League season almost over, Manchester United was operating with a lactic, slow build-up method put in place by Jose Mourinho during the early parts of the season, most criticisms laid on the player can be argued to be a little unwarranted.

Although certain cases can be made against Paul Schools on laying the majority of the blame for Manchester United's lack of goals on three specific players, frankly a team should be able to have more than just three-goal source on the pitch- should one or three sources dry out  then other players should contribute to finding the back of the net. Nevertheless, Paul Schools did make a strong valid argument in demanding more from three main players Lukaku, Rashford, and Sanchez.  Marcus Rashford might be allowed the excuse of having to operate in a position that is not particularly Radfords' favorite position (Right Wing). However, considering the superb quickness Marcus Rashford brings to the table, Manchester United will keep improving his technique of using his quickness to cut into the penalty box and improve his goalscoring tally as the season progresses.

On the hand, Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez are just two current Manchester United players that simply have no one else to blame for their poor form but themselves. If you consider the thought of players struggling to find the right form in the Premier League or more importantly, if you are about the dive into a debate with anyone, a debate based purely on  analysing why any player will possibly struggle in the Premier League, no one will be blamed for expecting the argument to be centered around players  new to the Premier League.

To be a little more specific, if a debate was held at this very moment surrounding the reason why an unnamed player is struggling to find form in the Premier League, fair to say that instinctively spectators will probably guess the players struggling to hit peak form for Manchester United will be one or two newly recruited players.  Few vastly experienced Premier League players Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez. But the situation concerning experienced players struggling to hit peak form is unfortunately what Manchester United had been facing as discussed by the great Paul Schools and most Manchester United supporters appear to stand with the Manchester United legend requesting that some Manchester United players need to live up to their expected potential while wearing the Manchester United jersey.

Finally, regardless of what Jose Mourinho has done or what Jose Mourinho has failed to do as a manager at Manchester United, the fact remains that there comes a certain point amongst the continuous dysfunctionality currently taking place at Old Trafford when the players have to stand up and show they have the level of quality that makes a champion. Back to back draws to teams such as Crystal Palace and Southampton right after a humiliating defeat to bitter derby rival Manchester City really does not spell progress for Manchester United.

Yes, the truth is just like other managers around the Premier League and other football league manager around the world, Jose Mourinho has to shoulder a good portion of the blame for teams poor performance. However, the moment of assigning complete blame to the manager for Manchester United’s failure to live up to the teams potential appears to be over and the time for Manchester United players to stand up and take responsibility for their performance looks to have arrived.