Ras' Football World

Manchester United's season ended valiantly in defeat last Saturday to our neighbours, Manchester City who have also taken over us now as the leading team in the city and the land. Let me present to you, my analysis of United's season. In the English Premier League, our season didn't start well. Like the previous Dutch manager we had, Louis Van Gaal, we followed up a pre-season campaign that raised the hopes of many followers, with a whimpering start to the season - a 1-2 defeat at home to Brighton & Hove Albion. Same result and the same venue as the defeat that was inflicted in Van Gaal's first competitive match in charge. A week after, things were to get worse as we slumped to a 4-0 defeat away to Brentford, losing all 4 goals in the first half. There were fears that nothing has changed from the horrendous previous season but thankfully, that was not the case. However, inconsistency still plagues Manchester United. We have looked imperious at home, the first-day de...

I have not posted anything about Manchester United aside from the calamitous start to the season. Since then my thoughts have been limited to Twitter with short tweets on how I felt the match went. Finally, after 6 years, Manchester United have a trophy to celebrate. In that period, we have lost 2 Cup finals, the FA Cup in 2017-18 under Jose Mourinho and the UEFA Europa League in 2020-21 under Ole Gunnar Solksjaer.   The opponents in the final brought back memories of the historic FA Cup final win in 1999 when we clinched our second trophy on the way to the Treble. I felt at that time, the real final was played in the semi-final against Arsenal and it was just a formality against Newcastle. My favourite memory of a Wembley meeting against Newcastle came in the 1996 Charity Shield when United hammered our then-title rivals 4-0. Newcastle was at that time a very strong team. Going into this final against Newcastle, it didn't feel like a formality because I felt this Newcastle te...

I was excited as this weekend edged closer as it meant the return of European football starting with the English Premier League as is normally the case every season. After a horrendous season the last time out, I was looking forward to seeing what Manchester United was going to produce this season. The pre-season results have been good and the performances have been bright and sharp. But the cynic in me wasn't willing to read too much into the pre-season results and performances. I have seen this story before. Ironically, it was played out ahead of another Dutch manager's debut season, Louis Van Gaal.  As it turned out, my cynicism wasn't unfounded. Just like his predecessor, Erik Ten Hag started his competitive journey with Manchester United with a defeat. The symmetry is shared with the result, 1-2 and the venue of the match, Old Trafford. That season, after the defeat, United made four signings having only signed two players prior to the start of the season. This time, U...

 It’s been 2 weeks since Manchester United’s season ended and I have been conspicuous by my absence. I have not said a word about Manchester United in the season that has just passed since the 20 th of January this year. What is there left to be said that has not been said by the fans and pundits? Where do I start and where do I finish? Having said that, this will inevitably be a long piece. This has been the worst season I have experienced as a Manchester United fan. We started with enthusiasm after the signings of Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane and that reached fever pitch with the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo. It was exciting. I didn’t think we would have won the league with these signings but I had in mind a different kind of season than the one that unravelled. Like many, I thought this season was the do-or-die season for Ole Gunnar Solksjaer as United manager but little did I know that he would be “killed” so soon in the season. I have always maintained my respect for h...

 Manchester United beat Brentford 3-1 and with that, we became the first-ever Premier League club to win 300 away matches in the league. But I am not breaking my long draught of not writing about Manchester United to write about the game. I don’t even know where to start and what to say about Manchester United anymore. Is Manchester United cursed? Did someone put a curse on Manchester United Football Club? It sounds ridiculous but it does feel like it now. Did Sir Alex Ferguson have a magic formula with him and brought it with him? So many pundits are trying to put a finger on what is the issue at the club but honestly can only speculate. Ex-players can only talk about the past and past glory. Sometimes, I feel these former players should just turn up for the training sessions at Carrington unannounced to watch the training sessions, study the body language of the players and the rapport the players have. There have been so ma ny reports and rumours of unhappiness and negativity ...

 Michael Carrick ended a 15-year stint at Manchester United as a player, coach and interim manager at the end of Manchester United’s win over Arsenal. It came as a surprise to me but it was the right thing for him to do and it is nice for him to leave on a high. Michael Carrick, the player, I felt got better as he aged like fine wine. Today, we deeply miss a player like him in our midfield. He was a great servant to the club, a classy top-quality player but under-appreciated. If he was an Italian, Spanish, Argentine or Brazilian player, he would have been appreciated better. Carrick, The Coach As a coach, he worked under Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at a time when the club lacked stability and there were higher than usual expectations placed on the team to deliver silverware. In his time at the club, the club failed to deliver any silverware and the jury is out on player development; there might have been one or two players that have improved but not enough to bring t...

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the player gave us a lot of joy. He was one of the best finishers in the Sir Alex Ferguson era and played a massive role in helping us win the Treble – not just the winning goal against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final but also the winning goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup 3 rd Round. Besides that, he has contributed to United winning trophies in his time at the club with his goals. At this point as well, I want to point out that aside from the goals, he was a team player. In the 2002-03 season, he played a part in United winning the league title playing out wide on the right as an outside forward. That is Solskjaer, the player. Solskjaer’s Entry As a manager, he came at a time where I hope a former player would be the manager but I didn’t think that Solskjaer was the right profile but was open to being surprised. He did a great job when he entered a fractious dressing room; he improved the team’s mood, united the team and gave the team a feel-g...

I am not going to write about how the match went. Everyone saw it and if you missed it, I am going to paste the link to the highlights of the match below so if you are interested, you can check that out. My Desire To Hire A Manchester United Man What I am going to write about is my feelings and thoughts about the situation Manchester United finds itself in. After the disarray and toxicity of the Louis Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho stints at the club, I wanted someone who was associated with this club; someone who understood what it meant to play for Manchester United, the ethos of the club and the playing style that made us successful. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was not the first name in my mind although I did struggle to think of the right name considering the less than impressive record of ex-United players turned managers. But Solskjaer it was and if anything, it could have been an interim appointment to stabilise the club before an elite manager of the right profile was available to take ...

If you are Ole In or Out, this article will not convince you to think otherwise. That is not what the purpose of this article is. I recognise that whichever side of the fence you sit on, you are convinced why you should be where you are. It’s a shame that fans of a club are split like that but most importantly, everyone should always be Manchester United In. Big Relief Win For that reason, we should enjoy United’s convincing 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. After some poor performances that culminated in a humiliating defeat to our arch-rivals, Liverpool, having our faces rubbed in mud by their supporters and turmoil around the future of our manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, this should be a welcome relief and departure from the doom and gloom. Safety-First Approach In the days leading up to the match, I was joking that players who were clearly so poor and off-form like Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Scott McTominay and Fred will start this match and true enough they did. It...

 I cast my mind back to 2008-09, we were playing against Liverpool in a top-of-the-table clash and took an early lead through a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty. At the time, I had a flashback of similar kind of clash between these two teams in the 2002-03 season and that match ended in a 4-0 rout. What transpired on that day in 2008-09 was beyond my wildest imagination. It was a collapse that left me depressed and shaken up. At that time, I was dating someone, I was so shaken and down that, I broke up with her. Real Meaning Of A Footballing Nightmare If I thought the result in 2008-09 was a nightmare then I was wrong because the true meaning of a nightmare was introduced to me last night. Paul Scholes’ prophecy after United’s 3-2 win over Atalanta held up. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer did not heed the warning signs and played the same team that started the match against Atalanta and United were taken to the cleaners by our arch-nemesis, Liverpool. Their fans were having a merry time in their e...

Ole Gunnar Solksjaer lived to see another day as a Manchester United thanks to his old team-mate, Cristiano Ronaldo. I don’t feel he would have been sacked had we lost to Atalanta early this morning, the pressure on him would have just increased. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDd7LBIprIQ Reception Of The Fans At The Stretford End Solksjaer walked out to songs sang in the adulation of him this morning and that left me puzzled. Since this slump of results, the loudest voice and most articles have been on how he is inept and incapable of leading United to glory on social media. The fan base was being forcibly divided into Ole In or Ole Out and it appeared to me that Ole Out was winning. What I saw this morning showed that the fans at Old Trafford and in the Stretford End believed in him. Manchester United fans that go to stadiums to watch United play have been very kind and patient, unlike the vitriol you see online. You would rarely hear the team being booed off the pitch or the ma...

Under Pressure – that’s a song from the British rock group, Queen featuring David Bowie and that is probably what Ole Gunnar Solksjaer is feeling right now after another poor performance and result yesterday against Leicester City. One win in 5 games across all competitions for the Red Devils is not acceptable form. Manchester United’s long inconsequential run of unbeaten away matches is over and just as well I say. Inconsequential because it didn’t lead us to any silverware. The team and manager were already under pressure before the international break and this defeat has intensified that pressure on United. Midfield Pairing Not Working No matter which centre-midfield pairing the manager puts out, it is easily bypassed; Fred, Scott McTominay, Nemanja Matic and Paul Pogba have all got a run in the centre of the park but no one can exert control there. In the last 5 matches, I have seen Aston Villa, Villareal, Everton and now Leicester City overrun and outplay us in midfield. Defen...

I used to love matches played at primetime, Singapore/Malaysia time. I remember the commentary of Martin Tyler and Andy Gray and the sun-soaked pitches. United played well and won, United played ugly and won and there were some disappointing days where we lost. Nowadays, the experience is never good. My superstition practices have been disrupted too so the overall experience has not been good. Anger & Frustration With The Starting Line-Up I got angry and frustrated when I saw the starting line-up before the game and that meme of the angry old couple on the bench - the old man sulking in one corner holding out an umbrella for his wife in the other corner comes to mind. That meme exemplified what I felt like at that time. I wasn’t surprised that Fred and Scott McTominay were back in the starting line-up because they were Solksjaer’s first-choice central midfield pairing despite what the majority of United fans think of them. Cristiano Ronaldo not starting was fine with me because t...

I would call the result early this morning as a get out of jail result. Encounters between Manchester United and Villareal in the Champions League have all ended in 0-0 draws and I remember in every match, we have found it tough to break them down and score. We played each other as recently as last season’s Europa League final which also ended as a draw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljTZtMDSVig Great Villareal Performance Manchester United got off to a strong, purposeful start, trying to press high and playing with energy but slowly that faded. Villareal started carving us open and created chance after chance denied time and again by David De Gea. The performance was reminiscent of that on Saturday against Aston Villa. In possession, as usual, we looked clueless on how to get past the organised Villareal team. In possession, Villareal was everything United were not, neat, tidy, attacking with pace and verve. Before recording my latest episode on my podcast show, Back Passt With ...

It was a dramatic and breathless night for Manchester United fans; night for those of us living in Asia. The Olympic Stadium in London has witnessed some bad days for United, the best memory I have of United playing against West Ham in that stadium is the 2-0 win in Jose Mourinho’s first season at United, 2016-17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhKVqNZ-HCA United Dominance I felt United dominated the game which is not something we can say often of our matches played there. Even in the 3-1 win last season, it was exaggerated as West Ham was on top in the game but we had a period of 10-15 minutes where we were clinical. United had a lot of possession but space was a premium as West Ham sat back in numbers and made it tough for us to penetrate. However, unlike other matches where we have faced a low block, I felt United navigated it well with some good off-the-ball movement and runs to the byline. We created a lot of chances but Kurt Zouma and Angelo Ogbonna were immense in West Ham’...

It appears Cristiano Ronaldo or no Cristiano Ronaldo, the Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde Manchester United refuses to go away. We slumped to our first defeat in the season in our maiden Champions League match this season. You can’t win them all and at some point during the season, a team will lose, a fact that I can accept. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6IxCiumYYk Great Start We got off to a great start early in the game when Cristiano Ronaldo converted a great assist from Bruno Fernandes; it was our first real attempt on goal. On a counter-attack after scoring the first goal, Ronaldo nearly made it 2-0. That was as good as it got for us in an attacking sense. We had a shout at a penalty in the second half when Ronaldo raced clear of the Young Boys defender, Ali Camara appeared to nudge him in his back. Turning Point The turning point in the game came in the 35 th minute of the match when Aaron Wan-Bissaka was sent off. I will not criticise Wan-Bissaka for getting sent off as he made a genui...

 It was a dream come true, the return of a legend after 12 years, returning to the club that developed him into becoming one of the greatest of all time. The player in question, Cristiano Ronaldo and the club, Manchester United - no big surprise there. It has created a major buzz among United fans worldwide and every one of United persuasion was waiting for 11 th September 3 pm (UK time) for his first official steps back onto the hallowed turf of Old Trafford in the red jersey of Manchester United. Cantona 1995-Ronaldo 2021 Leading to that moment, my mind raced back in time to think if I ever remember a moment like this. The first thing that came to mind was Eric Cantona’s return against Liverpool in 1995 after serving his suspension for kicking a fan. Like that day in October 1995, Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Old Trafford and scored. While Cantona’s goal that day was crucial to seal a 2-2 draw, Ronaldo opened the scoring against Newcastle and scored a second goal at a crucial...

Wolverhampton Wanderers have always been a tricky team to face for Manchester United and I believe most other big teams as well since their promotion into the Premier League under Nuno Espirito Santo. Nuno has left Wolves to become the new Tottenham Hotspur manager and Wolves have a new Portuguese manager in charge in the form of Bruno Large. I have not watched them play their first two matches but I am aware they have lost them both. Wolves Domination Against United yesterday, they dominated us. Adama Traore was a handful with his direct running, pace and power while Trincao was causing problems with his trickery and dribbling. We were lucky in the first half that Traore made some bad decisions in good positions and Aaron Wan Bissaka produced a great last-ditch sliding tackle to clear off the line from Trincao. We never got going in the first half. We were better in the second half but we were still not at our best. We had our first shot on target in the second half. Wolves’ threat re...