Manchester United Football Club have had a torrid week, with Jose Mourinho’s men losing three huge games in a nine-day period. Just two weeks ago they were being talked about as being right up there in the hunt for the Premier League crown, and things have dramatically changed already, and it doesn’t look like getting any easier for the self-proclaimed Special One.
The injury problems have been mounting up recently, and the latest man to suffer an issue is left-back Luke Shaw. The 21-year-old is believed to have a minor groin strain which will rule him out of the Northampton Town match tonight; and likely beyond that.
Although Jose came out and publicly critiqued the display of the England left-back at the weekend, he is still one of the most talented players in the country, and by far Manchester United’s best option in that area of the field.
United’s Portuguese manager will now have a selection dilemma on his hands and he isn’t blessed with brilliant options, let’s take a look and see who the best bet will be for the foreseeable future.
Marcos Rojo
The Argentine cost United just over £12million a couple of summers ago, and he made a bright start to life at Old Trafford. In his first season he was utilised as both a centre-back and left-back and for the most part did well. However, in the second season he was just shocking. It looked like his head wasn’t in it at all, and tactically he isn’t good.
I’ve never seen a professional footballer with such poor sense of awareness and direction, and he is just an accident waiting to happen.
Matteo Darmian
Darmian is predominantly a right-back, but we’ve seen his versatility being used by Louis van Gaal during the last campaign. He has always done a decent job when deployed in the left-back spot, and he should definitely be above Marcos Rojo in the pecking order. The one concern about the Italian is the fact that the 26-year-old is a natural right-footer, which sometimes makes it difficult to deliver that pinpoint cross into the box.
Daley Blind
Blind is, without doubt, the best of the three players but he just isn’t a left-back. He is too good to be deployed in that area of the field and is a much better centre-back than many give him credit for. His future under Jose Mourinho certainly lies in the middle of the park for me though.
Personally, I’d give it to the best of a bad bunch in Matteo Darmian. Daley Blind is by far a better option at centre-back and in the midfield, and quite frankly he’s wasted at left-back despite being the better player. At least the Italian has a bit of speed about him, and is positionally aware of his surroundings unlike Marcos Rojo, who just runs around like a headless chicken…
Featured Image: All rights reserved by Laurent Lairys.