Abhranil Roy
It’s been a roller-coaster season, this one, and with 5 league games still to go, we are still waiting to find out if it will end on a high or a low. This year was supposed to be “our year”, and we were supposed to fight for the title and the cup, as well as make it to the Knockout Stages in Europe, at least. Instead, we are now one points off the fourth spot, and we have an FA Cup semifinal meet with Everton at Wembley on Saturday. Now ofcourse, the immediate focus is to bag the Cup and all 15 points on the offer, and hope that Manchester City somehow mess it up, since they still have to play Arsenal, Southampton and Stoke. Whatever happens, here are 3 things, I personally hope the players try to implement in the remaining set of fixtures:
1. Pass the ball with a bit more urgency-
Since his first day incharge, Louis van Gaal and his team have been guilty of overplaying it: the ball is backpassed and sidepassed when too many times, midfielders don’t pick out players with through balls, strikers don’t make clever runs off the back of defenders. The Dutchman likes to play it safe, we get it, but it hasn’t worked. Sometimes, you need to take risks, you need your players to try an outrageous skill or a slick pass to break teams that set up to defend, but United just don’t do it anymore, which is one of the reasons why we have managed to score only 40 league goals this season. I hope, we atleast pass the ball faster and better in the remaining games, which are mostly against teams from the bottom half of the league who like to ” park the bus”, something I believe will yield much better results.
2. Show more cutting edge-
Another tale of United’s season has been the lack of cutting edge, selling off the likes of Van Persie and Chicharito has rendered our strikeforce weak. Wayne Rooney has just returned from injury, and while both Rashford and Martial have performed admirably given it’s their debut seasons, yet we do need a lethal finisher upfront, someone who can score 20 goals a season. More often than not, United’s widemen have put in balls in the box, only to find that there is no one to slot in home. I would really like to see the team playing 2 upfront for the remaining fixtures now, and do away with the double pivot in the central midfield. Time to take some calculated risks, maybe?
3. LVG show some passion, please?-
It’s the final stretch of the season, and I hope to see a lot more involvement from the Gaffer in the touchline. Barring a few occassions, he rarely leaves his seat, something we Red Devils are not at all used to see given how Fergie always hounded the officials over a foul or the duration of play. It is probable that the former Ajax manager will be sacked at the end of the season, but he might earn some points with us supporters if we actually gets up and shows his involvement in the game physically, especially in the at Wembley.
