After a disastrous season, Manchester United need a makeover and the club management are in full knowledge of that. No one can disagree that Sir Alex Ferguson was a special manager and he had this unique ability to make the team win trophies even with an inferior squad. But not everyone have the same aura and thus United are in dire need to increase the quality of their squad to challenge others for the coveted trophy.
As a first step United have already roped in Louis Van Gaal as their manager for the next season. The veteran manager has a tremendous history and is sure to have things his way. There are rumours that he has already roped in a few top players of the world in his team and is set to let go of a few players whom he doesn’t deem fit for the United team.
While many were assuming that Patrice Evra would be in that list to part ways with the club, the French international has actually signed an one year extension with the club. As much as an experienced campaigner Evra is, this decision has every chance to backfire for the club. United loyalists on their part, can argue that Evra still has a couple of years of top football in him and that there should be some of the old faces in a system during the transition, but when a club looks to make changes at every department, then retaining someone like Evra may not look justified.
Patrice Evra joined United in 2006 and so far has featured in 273 league games for the club. He was known for his defensive qualities, his pace, his runs down the flanks and his crosses. United’s who game play depended on how their wingers and their full backs performed and Evra was vital to their plans. The French left back has also scored 7 goals for the club over the years and Sir Alex Ferguson rated him extremely high.
But age has taken a toll on him and the main aspects of his game have been hampered. His speed has reduced, his interceptions have suffered, his ability to muscle through the opposition defence has taken a blow and his overlapping runs have substantially decreased. Evra had remained static for most of the season in the left back position and it was one of the main reasons why United wing play suffered this term under Moyes.
Evra’s pass accuracy for this season is just 83%, may be a high figure for many others, but nothing to boast about in Evra and United’s standards. Evra has won 50% of the average duels that he attempted and that is not going to help United regain their pride back. Evra still managed to create 38 chances for his club this season and the new manager would rather believe that he retains this portion of his game going into the new season.
At the end of the day, United could have gone for a new face, but their choice of Evra puts some question marks on the management. They would now hope that he remains at the top his game for another season at least. This also means that United’s long term target Luke Shaw is free to join his boyhood club Chelsea as Jose Mourinho tries to lure him to the Stamford Bridge. With Ashley Cole set to depart the Blues, Mourinho is definitely in the market for another Left back as he cannot afford to use his make shift left back Cesar Azpilicueta throughout the season. So by the end of next year when Evra’s contract is up, Shaw would have already established himself at Chelsea while Leighton Baines another United target, who has a contract with Everton until 2019 will turn 30.
Stats via squawka