'It's Deja Vu' - Dan Thomas on Manchester United's horrid start 😬 | ESPN FC

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ESPN FC on Manchester United's awful start: changing the manager will not fix the deeper squad, recruitment and leadership problems

The show discusses Manchester United's poor start to the season and argues that changing the manager will not fix the deeper problems in squad quality, recruitment and club leadership. The guests also question Michael Carrick and Jason Wilcox, say United no longer attract top players, and call for a rebuild through smarter recruitment and youth development.

Shaka Hislop, Steve Nicol, Mark Ogden and Mario Melchiot join Dan Thomas on ESPN FC to discuss Man United's worst start in 40 years and who is the most to blame. ✔️ Subscribe to ESPN Unlimited: https://plus.espn.com/ ESPN ESPNFC

Transcript

Manchester United meanwhile on their worst start to the season in a very long time indeed. 40 years is the last time they commenced the campaign uh with this poor start of course dropping points against Spurs at the weekend. Second best of Spurs uh at the weekend. Michael Carrick will see United take on Atletico Madrid this weekend in the Champions League. That's why you're in London, Mark. that's wearing the hotel there before you fly to uh Madrid tomorrow. It is deja vu. It's deja vu with Manchester United. New manager comes in, cheers everyone up. They get a good result towards the end of the season. Start a season badly and then we have these conversations. When do we get to the stage in this conversation where look it doesn't matter if Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Carlo Angelotti, the whole shebang are in charge. this group of players and the way in which they've got this squad together. They just aren't good enough. That's where it is. The players aren't good enough. The expectations are too high. Doesn't matter who's in charge. >> Absolutely 100%. You know, this is the problem that if Michael Carrick is sacked and let's be honest, they've got three really tough away games in the next week. They've got Athletic tomorrow, leads on Sunday, and then Ko next week. So, they could lose all three of those games and the pressure will then become intense. But, you know, he's been left with the squad that is not fit for purpose. didn't sign a left back and guess what? Luke Shaw's injured again. Didn't sign a striker. Guess what? Benjamin Cesco's injured again. He's been injured for about six months now. So, he's been given a squad that is not good enough. I mean, there's so many players that I'm looking at there. You know, Harry Mcguire been there forever. You know, is is Yo a right back? Not really. And Bumo, he's not a center forward. You know, Rashford isn't in that graphic, but Rashford's been there and he's come back. And it's just a real mismatch match of players. And what they need is some direction from the top of the club. But you know, Michael Carrick is probably not up to the job as a coach. Nice guy, but he's not got the credentials at the former middle manager. Jason Wilcox probably not good enough as director of football because he's never had a position of this level anywhere close. Omar Barada, one of the guys that were happy to let go. Why were they happy to let him go? He's the CEO. Jim Radcliffe, well, we know that Jim Rackliff is not the best owner in the world because he keeps making massive mistakes. And then you got the Glazers. So there's nobody at Man United who's any good basically. And that's part of the problem, isn't it? whoever comes in, you know, Antonio Conte, Eddie How, they're still working with that group of players. You know, there's players like Diego Dao that have been there forever, not good enough. They just don't clear people out. So, and I was watching him at the weekend against Tottenham. It was the slowest Man United team I've ever seen. You know, Tielemans and Kobe Mayu in midfield, they couldn't move. But who signed Yuri Tielemans and put him with Kobe Mayu? It's just crazy. So, I do have sympathy for Michael Carrick because, you know, the way that this team doesn't run and how slow they are. They're playing Atletico Madrid tomorrow and you know in the Metropolitan Diego Simeone that'll run all night. It could get very messy. So, [laughter] you know, Michael Carrick is is set up to fail because the squad isn't good enough. >> But you look at Manchester United and the way this squad has been put together, Auggie, when's the last time they made a signing? You thought, "Oh, what a who that is." Is it just a case of no matter who Jason Wil who it is that that's in charge above the manager? Manchester United don't have the allure that they used to when it comes to the top players. So this is just where you are. This is the they're the architects of their own downfall. You've been rubbish for the last six, seven years. If I'm a top player, why am I choosing you instead of Arsenal or City or Madrid or Barcelona? Well, to answer your question, the last time they signed a coup of a player was Robin Van Persia and that was the Fergie era. Since Fergie left, I mean, you name a player that Man United have signed that another big club wanted really. I mean, did anyone else want Paul Pogba back in 2016? Maybe, but not not too sure about that. So, they've been mismanaged at all levels for over a decade. And you're right that they haven't got that that draw anymore. That what Man United need is they need somebody at the club with a presence, a character to drag it to somewhere where it needs to be. And it's ironic that I think it's we're approaching next month the 40th anniversary of Six Ferguson coming in as manager. Now, those days are gone of a of a a manager like Ferguson, but they need either a director of football or a CEO or a manager that's able to have some character, some personality to say, "Right, we need to go in this direction." Cuz right now, it seems that everybody's looking after themselves and nobody's leading. Nobody's in a position where they can unify the club because you got two ownership groups who, you know, kind of like both of them aren't very good. Bara hasn't really proved himself. Bar's made two appointments as coach. He's appointed Amariman and and Carrick. Now they've been successful so far. So and they handed an extra contract to Eric Tanhag. So all the way back through the through these last five or six years they've made silly mistakes and they don't listen. They don't learn from them. So I mean where do you go? I do wonder if if carrot doesn't work the pressure will be on Bararda because you know Jim Rackley brought him in from City that was heralded as a big coup that they brought the CEO from Man City or that he was the chief operating officer at the time and he's not really had a successful appointment since he's been there almost 3 years ago. So wherever you go, there's people that need to be better. >> We talk about Manchester United because they're a big name in football, one of the biggest. But in fact, if you looked at the team and what they do every week, we wouldn't discuss them that much because our expectations of them would rightly not be that high. >> Yeah. So it it it kind of seems like forever we've just been talking about Man United managers and at the end of the day I I don't care how apparently great you are as a coach. When you've got the players that they have got, what do you expect? It is the the the importance to proper recruitment and the right recruitment. This is the perfect example of how to spend money and end up with well, your recruitment teams should be sacked. I mean, it really is that simple. You know, I think [snorts] somebody said it last week on the show that somebody was talking about how, you know, coaches are, you know, coaches are are they're not the be all and end all because at the end of the day, if you've got players that can perform, I don't care how good a coach you are. You know, again, from a coaching point, you can tell players what you want them to do. After that, you've got to hope that they're capable of taking it in number one, understanding what to do and then being able to do it on the field at that that particular moment. And so when you get your recruitment wrong and you bring in so many players that can't grasp that and are not capable of it and are not really contributing to anything, never mind the supposed talent they're meant to have, then I don't care whether Pep Guardiola Pep Guardiola could be sat on the bench right now for Man United >> and and they're going to struggle. >> I believe I made that point. So So yeah, it's Listen, it's >> So what do you do now? You you have to hope that the recruitment like Auggie was talking about, you know, they don't get rid of players. Well, what a recipe for disaster. You don't get rid of the players that are no good and you keep signing players that are no good as well. >> So, what do you But how can you attract big players now? You can't. >> Well, yeah. Well, you have to start. Listen, Liverpool's probably a good example, right? When clock took over, Liverpool were floating around between six and eighth, right? That's what Man United are pretty much doing. Yeah. And how did they change it? Well, yes, they managed to get Klopp, but the recruitment, they were getting Sadadio Mani for 30 million, Salah for 30 million, you know, smart moves. People people scouting players, people recruiting players that that that actually had ability, quality, they they figured out how they wanted to play. So that's the the profile of the player. >> Yeah. And Manchester United just forever since Fergie's gone has had a shambles of recruitment. >> They can't say they've not had money. They spent what a billion billions. >> So it's not that they haven't had the money. If you get the recruitment wrong, >> yes, a manager like Klopp or a Pep can do some certain things, but they ain't turning you into championship winning teams. They're just not. >> Mar's night and day compared to the United sides that you played against. >> Yeah. But you know you know the the time when we we talking about and we you know all I'm mentioning is when you were at Man United right you play against them a player would come in and you would go like you you always uh check him out and say like hey is he Man United ready even if you were not a Man United player now it it's almost like people don't even talk about it anymore you go there okay cool yeah he's going there but because I think now whoever comes into the club they somebody needs to be there that says if you're not making the team better than what it is right now, then there is no need for you to come. So if you if they highlight a player that they want to scout or want to bring in, they got to look in, okay, am I going to bring a left back? Are you better than the left back that we have? If that is not the case, don't bring him. Find someone else that is better. And then because competition works very simple. If you bring in better, the one that you have has to app up his game. If he doesn't do it, that means that hey, eventually he will lose out in this battle. Competition is very important, but competition of people that are similar in levelwise is not a good thing. You always need one that is higher, so the [clears throat] other one has to push up. And I think if Man United doesn't do it, where are all the young talents that they were bringing through? You understand? You bring a couple. Okay, Bayu is in the one that they that we all focused on. And yes, you know, that kid got his point and he broke into the first team, but where is the rest? It's nice to put in a little color, but I want to see more because Man United is built from homegrown players now. I don't see any of that because they're just buying people, bringing them in, and it becomes easy. >> Yeah, it's [clears throat] it's a great point, Mark. Like, where is the the youth coming through? Well, City stole them all obviously because they got all the money. And Stevie is like, why isn't the scouting better? what what seems to makes complete sense, but they just seem to drop the ball each time. >> Yeah, I mean [sighs] they've gone from all sorts of ideas. They they wanted to sign young players. They thought they were identifying the best young players in Europe by signing people like Raasmas Hland and Joshua Zerki, but that obviously that hasn't proven to be the case. They they were signing players from the wrong leagues in Italy and that the the quality wasn't good enough. They just haven't got the the knowledge. They haven't got the people, the right people in place. I mentioned Jason Wilcox, but you know Jason Wilcox was an academy director at Man City and he had a year at Southampton. Now Maner Academy is not being a director of football at Man United. It's a totally different skill set. So he's not really cut out for the job. So they've got the like I said they got the wrong people. What's what's United's network like? That what's their scouting network? You know over the years they've they've reinvented the wheel so many times. I remember Ed Woodward telling us that they had over 55 scouts but at a point when people was when people were getting away from scouts and having data so they always been behind the trend or following last year's trend and getting it wrong. So you know in terms of the kids as well you know I think last summer it was the year under 20 on the 21 championship and United have a single player not for England but any player in the tournament so their youth academy is not very good either because what this team needs right now is youthful energy and quality and they haven't got it. So my point about them being lacking energy, not running very fast is because they haven't got any youth in there. The the second oldest team in the Premier League behind Aston Villa. So it's just a mess. It's an absolute mess. And you know, remember when Dashworth was cleared out a couple of years ago because he wasn't moving quick enough. Or you look at Dashworth now, you think, well, maybe they should have kept Dash because at least he had a pedigree for what he's doing. But he's gone as well. >> Uh it may surprise everyone to know that Auggie maybe has the reputation of not being a guy who's full of sunshine and flowers. Darth Vader of the team, I think is the way that Alexis describes you, Mark. But it was your birthday this weekend. So, I reached out to your family to ask for the last time they had a picture of you smiling. >> There it is. [laughter] [laughter] >> I'm speechless. I really am. Yeah. >> I guess I guess I guess your mom caught your ear. [laughter] Those are the boogies. Those are That's why that's why >> Auggie, thank you very much, mate. Much appreciated. Happy birthday to you. Thanks to your boy as well for setting me up with that. Just a reminder. Yes, back on your screens tomorrow. Atletico Madrid taking on Manchester United. Our feature game. They will be focusing. Oil will be there.