Football Thoughts

If you were to ask anyone remotely familiar with Erik Ten Hag's first season as Manchester United boss, they would likely define Marcus Rashford as the X-factor, the difference-maker, the main man. Sure, you might encounter the hipsters who identify the Brazilian maestro Casemiro as the true catalyst for improvement with his insertion into the heart of the team. One might even make a shout for Lisandro Martinez, who led the line for a golden-glove-winning back line that finished with a league-best 17 clean sheets. But even those folk will make a mention of United's number 10, whose 41 goal contributions in all competitions made the resounding difference in a team whose goal count severely lacked in comparison to the teams around them. And goals, after all, win games. Fast forward to the present, however, and Rashford is nowhere near on track to match his output from the 2022/23 campaign. While the counting stats are not the be-all and end-all for analyzing a footballer's ...

We have been here far too often. A Manchester United manager has had an underwhelming summer transfer window entering his second season, dealt with injuries to the squad, and now murmurs of job security following a slow start to said season welcomes one into the realm of unfortunate and ominous conversations. When will the cycle be broken at this football club?  The answer - to me, at least - is indeed found in the bald Dutchman currently employed. And no, Donny van de Beek hasn't suffered from hair loss; rather, recency bias has clouded seemingly everyone's judgment over what Erik ten Hag has accomplished in his first 16 months as manager of the club. When accounting for situational circumstances, ignoring the paracosm that some live in where United is apparently anywhere near the levels of their cross-town neighbors, and analyzing the club from the perspective of their on-field product instead of presuming that the PR-machine megabrand is representative of the state of the ac...

Details of the length or expiry of managers' probationary periods don't get released following their exits from football clubs, but it became quite apparent recently that former Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjær had finally had the green and yellow tape ripped from his lips. What came out, as a result, made one feel as though the Norwegian had been loading up since that fateful day of defeat at Watford for his chance to let rip, and an analysis of the entire interview from start to finish would be closer to the length of a book.  Hence, we will focus on one particular comment; one that admittedly went under the radar amidst the more pressing, headline-creating matters that Solskjær addressed. "We wanted Jude Bellingham badly... but I respect he chose Dortmund . That was probably sensible." Interesting. Now, we all understand that it is easier for Ole to praise Jude's anti-United decision-making once he's 20 months removed from the job and sat comforta...