Getting a much needed win at Everton on the weekend, Manchester United climbed up to 14th in the table at the international break. While that is a dreadful spot for a club like this to be, they do have a game in hand on three others sides (although that still doesn’t make it too much better).
Up next is a home league clash against West Bromwich Albion a week from Saturday. So with the time off, let’s take at what’s trending, news wise in the United world.
Team captain Harry Maguire, both affectionately and condescendingly know as “Slab Head,” says the criticism of the club is rooted in jealousy. (Uhm yeah, have you seen some of the final scores this year? In various competitions yet!)
“At this club one thing I’ve noticed in my time here — I’ve been here a year and a half — is we are the most talked-about club in the world,” Maguire said to the club’s official web channel.
“Why? Because we are the biggest club in the world. People don’t want us to do well. Why? Probably because of the success we’ve had in the past.”
“We have to live up to that, we have to react to it and don’t let the negatives get into our bubble inside the training ground. Sometimes it is difficult for the lads.”
I’ll give him this though- it’s true that a lot of people hate United because of their wealth, power and history of success. He’s right that many are jealous of MUFC and thus like to see them fail. It’s true, but the timing of these remarks is way off.
Maguire, the world’s most expensive defender, plays in front of the world’s highest paid goalkeeper and just behind the most expensive player in English history, and yet they’re just above the drop zone right now in the table.
That’s shambolic for a team with their resources and standaards. Off to their worst home start in nearly a half century, they deserve to be criticized. Maguire needs to save these kinds of remarks for when the club is winning consistently, and winning big silverware.
Elsewhere, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has blamed the club’s woes on the schedule makers, a song so overplayed by managers everywhere, it’s basically “a standard” now.
However, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, another boss who loves to hit out at the schedule makers, has joined him in this chorus, and backed him up on his points.
Finally, Inter Miami CF, the Major League Soccer franchise partially owned by David Beckham, snuck into the MLS Cup playoffs on Decision Day, the regular season’s final date with scheduled matches.
While this is certainly an achievement for an expansion club, at the same time, almost everybody makes the playoffs in MLS. The playoff picture is so diluted now that you can get be quite bad and still get in.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.