da gbg bet： Manchester United’s centre back positions look weak. That’s not to say they actually are weak, but there’s a perception that United’s defences are easily breached – even though they have yet to concede a Premier League goal.
da bet7： Tyler Blackett, Paddy McNair, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling – all young players with time on their side, but all young players who don’t look to be progressing at the rate required to become totally world class defenders.
When Phil Jones signed in 2011 he was hailed as a future England captain, such was his prestige, dominance and characterful style of play. In 2013, Sir Alex Ferguson said that Jones could become United’s ‘best ever player’.
After a season under the tutelage of David Moyes Jones and Chris Smalling were starting to be seen as players who hadn’t made the necessary progression to be Manchester United’s first choice centre back pairing. In the wake of the departures of Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra – three of the four pillars of a mean United defence – Smalling and Jones just looked a step down.
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But all of this is based upon perception. We kept saying last season that United had a leaky defence, but they only conceded 5 more goals than Chelsea last time, and they conceded fewer than Manchester City. It was their attack that failed them, their inability to break teams down even with the majority of the possession. A lot of goals conceded by United last season were counter-attack goals, goals conceded because of a ball carelessly given away upfield, or an impatient pass borne out of the frustration of not being able to break down a stubborn mid-table defence. Their defence wasn’t leaky. Or at least, no leakier than that of most other teams.
When United lost Ferdinand and Vidic, they lost the most feared pairing in the league. It’s a pairing that goes up there with Bruce and Pallister in United folklore, and probably even surpasses it. But they didn’t just lose Ferdinand or Vidic, they lost them both at the same time. And when that happens, people start to wonder how you cope.
And then come the inevitable questions – are Smalling and Jones up to the task? Will they bring in replacements? Just how many goals will United concede not that their defence has had its heart ripped out?
The fact that neither Ferdinand nor Vidic was replaced is the root cause of the idea that United don’t have a functional defence. It’s the fact that the back four doesn’t have a star name. For years Arsenal have faced the same questions and it seems we’ve only now learned to stop asking them. After losing lots of the invincibles team, how many times did we hear that Arsenal were a ‘team in transition’? That’s the perception that arises when a departing star isn’t replaced with a ready-made star to plug the gap.
Had United signed Hummels or Ramos or another defender of that ilk, then we’d say Unied had a good defence. Vidic and Ferdinand are star names, and if they aren’t replaced with star names, then the whole defence loses its gloss. But a car is no less functional if its outer coat loses its gloss. So long as it doesn’t lose the quality of its constituent parts then it’ll still be as good.
This season, Chris Smalling has started stepping up to the plate, Daley Blind has done surprisingly well at the heart of the defence, and it may just be the season where Phil Jones starts to look something like the player we thought he might become.
United’s defence isn’t as bad as you think it is, it’s just less glossy than it used to be, but it works just fine.
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