Manchester United's Defensive Frailties Have Been Years in the Making

Considerable criticism has been levelled at Louis van Gaal since the beginning of the season for his and vice-chairman Ed Woodward’s failure to rebuild Manchester United’s defence.

However, the issues plaguing United’s beleaguered back line are a result of years of neglect, indicative of the huge upheavals in the club’s management in that time.

In the past, United’s defence was virtually static, often for years at a time. Sir Alex Ferguson was a staunch believer in solidity and shared game time as key to a successful rear guard, and his dedication to this maxim was vindicated by United’s defensive record under him.

Even taking into account their season with David Moyes in charge, United still have the best Premier League defence of all the ever-present sides.

Ferguson’s last core defence—which won the Premier League five times—consisted of Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville and, later, a combination of mainly Rafael and Phil Jones.

All but the latter two players have now left the club. Vidic exited following unflattering comparisons between himself and Phil Jagielka made by David Moyes, per The Telegraph. However, Ferdinand and Evra’s departures were the club's decision.

There’s no denying that Ferdinand’s abilities have waned, but he still would have offered a much-needed guiding hand to the younger players and would have been a better option than either Tyler Blackett or Paddy McNair in United’s injury-hit defence.

Club captain Patrice Evra was made an undeserving scapegoat for the team’s faltering form last term. While it is true that, like Ferdinand, the Frenchman’s best years are behind him, he still had much to offer the club both on and off the field.

United's decision to allow both players to leave over the summer is appearing increasingly shortsighted as they continue to look defensively frail.

Another feature of Ferguson defences was his use of good-quality and versatile utility men to supplement the regular back four.

The final generation of these players—Jones, Chris Smalling (both of whom would have expected to serve in that capacity until graduating to the senior positions) and Jonny Evans—have suddenly found themselves with the lion’s share of defensive responsibility.

Their sporadic and positionally varied appearances in the final years of Ferguson’s reign suggest this was not a role intended for them, at least not this soon.

United’s new recruits also leave much to be desired. Marcos Rojo lacks experience in a top European league and has been bought largely on the back of a strong World Cup showing.

Luke Shaw is still only 19 and can’t be expected to shoulder the responsibility left by the departed stars. Daley Blind is a good signing, although he appears destined to fill the gap in defensive midfield rather than defence.

Had the legendary United manager remained in charge, he would have used last season as the moment to begin transitioning to a new-look defence, through a combination of high-quality signings and elevating certain squad players.

But with United changing managers twice since his retirement, the cyclical nature of this process has been completely abandoned, and with it, the team's defensive rigidity.

It's understandable that both Moyes and Van Gaal were preoccupied with settling into the job and putting their stamp on the team. Moyes in particular can be forgiven for assuming the defence that won the title the season before he joined needed little attention.

The real blame lies with the unfortunate timing of Ferguson's departure as his last great defence began to deteriorate and Woodward, who must have been briefed by Ferguson and David Gill about the guiding principles of United's transfer policy.

Instead, he has appeared more concerned with currying favour with glamorous attacking signings than addressing the true issues in United’s squad. This was as true when he worked with Moyes as it is now.

Van Gaal has certainly contributed to United’s shortcomings defensively by failing to sign experience and enough cover over the summer.

However, he certainly doesn’t deserve to take all the blame; after all, he hasn’t caused this problem, he’s merely yet to fix it.