It’s been far from a vintage season from a Manchester United perspective.
The Red Devils were stagnating under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and it was always going to be just a matter of time before United relieved their former star of his managerial duties.
Their issue thereafter was who to bring in to replace Solskjaer, given that the confidence in the team was at an incredibly low ebb and any new incumbent had to hit the ground running.
Ralf Rangnick hasn’t quite done that as yet, and although results have generally been acceptable – not much more than that – performances in all areas have been well below par for a team so storied as United.
Many of the same players have retained their places in the side, despite not really setting games alight, and it begs the question as to why certain fringe players aren’t being given their chance.
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Jesse Lingard is a prime example, as is Dutch midfielder, Donny van de Beek.
The former showed exactly what he can do with a run of games at West Ham whilst on loan with the East Londoners.
Van de Beek just can’t seem to get a start for love nor money, and this treatment for a player that was the fulcrum of a brilliant Ajax side that went all the way to the Champions League semi-finals a couple of years ago.
If he’s still not being given the respect of some match time now, after so long at the club, what chance does he have of making his mark in the near future?
It’s about time United either played him or allowed him to move elsewhere, because football in general deserves to be able to see a player of his talent on the pitch week in and week out.