After a year away we welcome back our regular Man Utd contributor Mike Glasgow — probably the only Man Utd fan I’ve actually been able to tolerate for any length of time — to give us his opinions on the current situation at his club.
Were you surprised at just how badly the first season after Alex Ferguson went?
MG: Yes, I think everybody just expected things to pick up, but we never got going. Admittedly the chasing pack were poor in Ferguson's last season, but to go from champions to seventh was a shock. The most surprising thing was how quickly the belief seemed to disappear from a squad containing so many players used to winning trophies.
What do you put it down to? How much blame goes to David Moyes, how much to Ferguson himself?
MG: I don't think any one person, but losing Ferguson and chief executive David Gill at the same time was huge because as well as being left with a demoralised squad we lost a pairing that was brilliant at attracting players to the club. Senior players need to take a fair share of the blame too -many just weren't interested last year. Ferguson got a lot of stick for leaving Moyes an underprepared squad but we have invested quite heavily in young players in recent years and had a handful of others already in the squad; collectively they just haven't kicked on. Between them, Moyes and Woodward cocked up the summer transfer window but we should have had a quality midfielder beforehand.
Presumably you agreed with Moyes being sacked, and were delighted with Van Gaal? Anybody else you would have liked to have seen instead?
MG: I think the manner of his sacking was embarrassing for the club, but the complete lack of morale and confidence was very obvious in performances and something that I'm not sure Moyes could have turned around. Van Gaal, too early to tell. He's got a great track record that commands respect, but a reputation for being very abrasive. We allegedly discounted Mourinho for the same reason 12 months ago. I think everyone was hoping for Klopp, but when he committed to Dortmund and Spurs were about to get Van Gaal then he became an obvious choice, if only to upset Daniel Levy.
What have you made of another poor start to the season? Why has Van Gaal not been able to make an immediate impact? Do you think he'll succeed?
MG: Our play has been very average and we look horribly vulnerable to counter attacks. I would expect that to improve over time, but there's a worry about how far off the pace we will be when things click. We looked brilliant in pre-season, even Ashley Young, so I'm hopeful that it will work, but the problem so far has been imposing a system to accommodate key players, the majority of whom are either injured or unfit. The players are saying the right things and it looks like morale is a lot better, so I think we will get there.
Assess your very high profile, high priced summer transfer business for us. Lots of left backs and strikers...
MG: Well you can never have too many left backs, that's how Armand Traore is still playing. (Touché — ed) We've strengthened most of the areas we needed to and we have quite a lot of versatility now in terms of the systems we play. For most of the season there should be names on the bench who could come on and change a game. Shaw looks like a good player; Herrera we've scouted extensively and helped to destroy our midfield at Bilbao a couple of years ago; Rojo and Blind join after decentish World Cups so hopefully they bring that form and don't go all Karel Poborsky on us; Falcao and Di Maria I think almost every team in the world would take, we just need to get them firing before atumn when six months of Mancunian rain will kick in. We've done some good loan business too with Cleverley, Nani, Powell and Hernandez all going. Some hopefully come back stronger, others hopefully stay at Sporting...
Where is the team strong, and where is it weak? (left back and striker presumably)
MG: Up front we're looking very strong, the challenge is just having a system that gets a number of them on the pitch working well and with the space to play. We had almost no goals from midfield last year and injuries meant we relied on Rooney, but we have five or six attacking players capable of getting to double figures now. Centre back still looks problematic, although with Shaw and Rafael returning to fitness and Blind and Rojo arriving, that should help provide more stability. David De Gea was brilliant last year.
Much talk about the wing back system Van Gaal likes to play, does that suit the players you have? Will it work when everything settles down?
MG: Impossible to tell so far because we haven't had anything like the eleven he would want to fit in. Van Gaal wants more attacking players on the pitch, which makes sense when you have Falcao, van Persie, Rooney with Januzaj, Mata and Di Maria behind. Our wingers have been disappointing the last few years, so even though it's a departure from our traditional approach, having creative players centrally with full backs overlapping to provide the width might work. In fact, Evra and Rafael have been doing that for two years because the wingers have been so useless. All depends on whether we can find some solidarity between the back three, or whether we can score six or seven goals a game. It would be nice to start this weekend.
How do you think you'll do this season?
MG: Well, if van Gaal can turn Marouane Fellaini into a world beating midfielder then we'll obviously win the league by 15 points. As things stand, if we can make the top four and get back to the Champions League, that has to be a job well done. I think we'll be lurking around the edge of those spots, but I think there have been too many changes for us to mount anything approaching a realistic title challenge at this point.
The Twitter @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images