Manchester United are gradually becoming one of the average clubs in the Premier League that have to wait for years before they can win a major title. The last time the Premier League giants won a major title was in 2017 when the club’s former coach Jose Mourinho led the club to beat Ajax 2-1 to win the 2016-2017 Europa League title.
Since then, it has been four years and 257 days that Manchester United and the club’s players touched a major title. Despite that, the club has spent £640 million to recruit players in the last five years.
After the exit of Jose Mourinho in 2018, the club brought in Ole Gunnar Solskjær in an interim capacity and subsequently made him the club’s permanent coach.
Under the reign of the 48-year-old Norwegian coach, Manchester United came very close to winning the Premier League title in the 2020-2021 season. His team finished runners-up with 74 points, 12 points behind the winners, Manchester City.
Aside from helping Manchester United to finish runners-up in the Premier League, Solskjær became the first coach since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement to help the club finish in the top four in two successive seasons.
Another outstanding aspect of Solskjær’s reign at Manchester United was that he took the club very close to winning a major title multiple times. Recall that the Norwegian coach-led Manchester United to one EFL Cup, one FA Cup, and one Europa League semi-finals before he was sacked on November 21, 2021, due to a poor run of games.
Solskjær’s performance in the first half of the 2021-2022 season could not be forgiven because ahead of the season, the club signed world-class players like Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund and Raphael Varane from Real Madrid.
To crown it up, five-time Ballon d’Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo returned to the club in August 2021 after playing 9 years at Real Madrid and three years at Juventus.
Despite the big-name summer signings, Manchester United could not play and win games with ease like most football enthusiasts anticipated. Hence, Solskjær had to go.
At the point of his exit, Manchester United were occupying the 7th spot in the 2021-2022 Premier League season.
A former player of the club, Michael Carrick was first appointed as the caretaker of the club before Ralf Rangnick was appointed as the interim coach.
The arrival of Rangnick was expected to be the answer to the Manchester United struggle in the 2021-2022 Premier League campaign and other tournaments this season. However, things have not been as smooth as expected.
Ahead of his arrival at Old Trafford, Rangnick was expected to make Manchester United a more attacking-minded team by influencing the team to play high-pressing football. Unfortunately for United, the Premier League giants have been struggling to adapt to the tactics of the German tactician.
Hence, United are still how they used to be. The only thing that has changed since Rangnick took charge of the club is that the club has moved from the 7th spot to the 4th spot in the Premier League with 38 points in 22 games, on equal point with 5th placed West Ham United, and 19 points away from first-placed Manchester City.
The fact that United have not won a major title for almost five years regained attention when lowly rated Championship side Middlesbrough knocked out the Premier League club from the 4th round of the FA Cup 8-7 on penalties on February 4, 2022.
As it stands so far this season, Manchester United have the chance of winning only one title which is the UEFA Champions League. Before they can do that, they have to knock out Atletico Madrid from the competition’s round of 16.
The first leg of the round is scheduled to kick off at 21:00 on February 23, while the second leg will kick off at 21:00 on March 15, 2022.
𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒘𝒆’𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒚𝒔.
— Manchester United Foundation (@MU_Foundation) February 6, 2022
In 2018, our participants joined @ManUtd players to record this moving poem to mark the 60th anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster.
Today, we share it again, as we remember the #FlowersOfManchester 🔴❤️ pic.twitter.com/rOk3tsdIDQ
