The infamous
gargoyle-scowl chiseled onto Louis van Gaal’s face as he left the
Liberty Stadium after his side’s 2-1 loss to Garry Monk’s Swansea City
bespoke a frustratingly persistent niggle still lingering around
Manchester United, a cluster of critically vital problems that refuse to
allow a crippled club to rise to the place it had gotten so accustomed
to occupying.
Seventeen months have now passed since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure and few obvious points of progression at United post-Moyes can be nailed down in spite of the fact that truly gargantuan financial sums have been fervently offered up to the continent in a jittery bid to salve cuts and bruises that are proving uncomfortably stubborn.
After his 50th match as United manager, Van Gaal – the touted savior of a club in indefatigable distress – has collected just one more win and five more points than Moyes did during his 51-match tenure at Old Trafford.
What is more, such meager footballing development has embarrassingly come at a cost of £227.4 million – Van Gaal’s five extra points come courtesy of him being able to spend more than four times the amount of money Moyes was given in 2013/14.
Blind possesses a virtuous mantra of footballing skills, chiefly his keen reading of the game from a midfield position and his ability to pick acerbic passes to whittle through stoical opposition banks.
Yet, despite this, Blind is no centre-back, let alone a Manchester United-quality centre-back. His place in this team as par of the back line serves only to emphasise Van Gaal’s veritable failings in the market when it came to recruiting that imperatively proficient defender to provide more than the ad hoc Blind plaster over a particularly pressing wound.
Seventeen months have now passed since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure and few obvious points of progression at United post-Moyes can be nailed down in spite of the fact that truly gargantuan financial sums have been fervently offered up to the continent in a jittery bid to salve cuts and bruises that are proving uncomfortably stubborn.
After his 50th match as United manager, Van Gaal – the touted savior of a club in indefatigable distress – has collected just one more win and five more points than Moyes did during his 51-match tenure at Old Trafford.
What is more, such meager footballing development has embarrassingly come at a cost of £227.4 million – Van Gaal’s five extra points come courtesy of him being able to spend more than four times the amount of money Moyes was given in 2013/14.
In spite of scurrilous
spending, Daley Blind remains Van Gaal’s preeminent choice at
centre-back alongside a much-improved Chris Smalling – a fact that is
curiously incongruent for such a well-established European powerhouse.
Blind, an admirable utility player with obvious values in a number of positions, is very simply not good enough as a first choice centre-back for a side for whom winning the Premier League should be a perpetual expectation.
Physically, Blind is not suited to the position. It is not his lack of height that renders him sub-par; the 5’9”, 2006 World Player of the Year Fabio Cannavaro discredited archaic presumptions that centre-backs had to be lumbering man-mountains for almost two decades.
It is rather Blind’s fundamental lack of a genuine adroit virtuosity when it comes to the pivotal qualities possessed by the world’s most successful centre-backs that severely limits him in the position.
Blind, an admirable utility player with obvious values in a number of positions, is very simply not good enough as a first choice centre-back for a side for whom winning the Premier League should be a perpetual expectation.
Physically, Blind is not suited to the position. It is not his lack of height that renders him sub-par; the 5’9”, 2006 World Player of the Year Fabio Cannavaro discredited archaic presumptions that centre-backs had to be lumbering man-mountains for almost two decades.
It is rather Blind’s fundamental lack of a genuine adroit virtuosity when it comes to the pivotal qualities possessed by the world’s most successful centre-backs that severely limits him in the position.
Daley Blind Duels
Swansea City’s Bafetimbi Gomis showed how easy it is to corporeally man-handle Blind as he routinely rolled and generally juggernauted past the Dutchman as if the former Ajax man was not there.
Swansea City’s Bafetimbi Gomis showed how easy it is to corporeally man-handle Blind as he routinely rolled and generally juggernauted past the Dutchman as if the former Ajax man was not there.
He has lost more tackles than he has won this season, and
does not have Cannavaro’s disproportionate strength to combat larger,
more imposing forwards, nor does he have the Italian’s NBA-esque leap:
both qualities that come more naturally to those displaying the classic
centre-back’s somatotype.
Blind also lacks the pace of an Eliaquim Mangala or a Raphaël Varane, furnishing his mistakes with an immediately harsh price as he inevitably struggles to recover from mistakes typical of a man playing out of position.
Blind also lacks the pace of an Eliaquim Mangala or a Raphaël Varane, furnishing his mistakes with an immediately harsh price as he inevitably struggles to recover from mistakes typical of a man playing out of position.
Where Blind blossoms is in
possession. With the ball at his feet, there are few better-versed
centre-backs when it comes to picking a pass, as his 91% pass success
rate shows, and retaining a crucial modicum of nurtured composure before
choosing the invariably correct option.
Looking forward, Blind is an excellent passer to have in order to catalyse early moves, but – conversely – it is far from Blind’s area of comfort to display the cold-blooded 360º awareness necessary to efficaciously shut out oppositions in the Premier League.
Given that, in nine of the last 15 Premier League seasons, it was the title-winning team that boasted the tightest defense, Manchester United’s centre-back roster of Chris Smalling, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo, and Phil Jones is underwhelming to say the very least, particularly when compared to the likes of Vincent Kompany, Eliaquim Mangala, Nicholás Otamendi, and Martín Demichelis at City.
For a club of United’s size, that no signings have been made to bolster a defense that is glaringly undermanned in the quality department will likely prove evermore costly given the team’s budding profligacy in front of goal.
Looking forward, Blind is an excellent passer to have in order to catalyse early moves, but – conversely – it is far from Blind’s area of comfort to display the cold-blooded 360º awareness necessary to efficaciously shut out oppositions in the Premier League.
Given that, in nine of the last 15 Premier League seasons, it was the title-winning team that boasted the tightest defense, Manchester United’s centre-back roster of Chris Smalling, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo, and Phil Jones is underwhelming to say the very least, particularly when compared to the likes of Vincent Kompany, Eliaquim Mangala, Nicholás Otamendi, and Martín Demichelis at City.
For a club of United’s size, that no signings have been made to bolster a defense that is glaringly undermanned in the quality department will likely prove evermore costly given the team’s budding profligacy in front of goal.
Clean sheets in the opening three matches for United came as
fortuitous to say the least. Tottenham Hotspur – most notably when
Christian Eriksen ghosted past Blind, who was drawn to the ball far too
easily, and lobbed over the bar – spurred a number of chances.
A lacklustre Aston Villa failed to test Blind having lost their spearhead Benteke to Liverpool, and Newcastle United’s best chance came as Blind wandered out of the back line, allowing Mitrović to slip in and head onto Sergio Romero’s bar.
What has proved the semi-saving grace for United has been Morgan Schneiderlin’s presence; the Frenchman offers a parachute in midfield, a safety net to drop deeper and sweep up threats that would otherwise regularly confound centre-backs keen to push up, yet wary of being needlessly caught on the front foot.
Blind’s slightly oblivious soirées into midfield have been subtly camouflaged by Schneiderlin, whose effect on Smalling has also been patently evident as the young England defender enjoys his best start to a season for United.
A lacklustre Aston Villa failed to test Blind having lost their spearhead Benteke to Liverpool, and Newcastle United’s best chance came as Blind wandered out of the back line, allowing Mitrović to slip in and head onto Sergio Romero’s bar.
What has proved the semi-saving grace for United has been Morgan Schneiderlin’s presence; the Frenchman offers a parachute in midfield, a safety net to drop deeper and sweep up threats that would otherwise regularly confound centre-backs keen to push up, yet wary of being needlessly caught on the front foot.
Blind’s slightly oblivious soirées into midfield have been subtly camouflaged by Schneiderlin, whose effect on Smalling has also been patently evident as the young England defender enjoys his best start to a season for United.
Morgan Schneiderlin's tackle map from his Manchester United debut against Tottenham
Furthermore, that Blind’s
defensive naivety places extraneous pressure on Schneiderlin kills a
swathe of attacking impetus that could otherwise be conjured up by the
midfield. Dropping deeper, Schneiderlin – by default – drags Rooney
further away from goal as the England striker looks for the pass,
highlighting United’s flagrant lack of pace wither in wide areas or
through the middle even more blatantly and producing the tedium of
horizontal passes that have come to characterise all that is defective
in Van Gaal’s United.Blind possesses a virtuous mantra of footballing skills, chiefly his keen reading of the game from a midfield position and his ability to pick acerbic passes to whittle through stoical opposition banks.
Yet, despite this, Blind is no centre-back, let alone a Manchester United-quality centre-back. His place in this team as par of the back line serves only to emphasise Van Gaal’s veritable failings in the market when it came to recruiting that imperatively proficient defender to provide more than the ad hoc Blind plaster over a particularly pressing wound.
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