Football fraternity is like a whole world in itself filled with experts, pundits, and all kinds of game professionals who take themselves as the true interpreter of every little happening over here. If we compare current Premier league with that of previous one, there is one significant difference, i.e., performance of defending champions; perhaps it is the worst campaign for United in last 24 years, and it is highly unlikely they can defend their title this time. Things were not so under former manager Sir Alex Ferguson, but it is getting very difficult to manage things for the newly appointed boss David Moyes. There is nothing which is happening all of a sudden coz many pundits have hinted something like this when Moyes was failing on each of his aspirants in the last transfer window. In fact, he could only sign one player Marouane Fellaini successfully while missed on at least four players. Football pundits are comparing current Manchester United team with that of Liverpool of 1990 who was then the league champion, but since struggling to reclaim their silverware, and the possible reason for their debacle is not being able to replace players at the right times.
Alan Hansen, who was the part of winning Liverpool squad in the nineties, describes it as, “Liverpool began to flounder because they failed to replace good players with better ones. The club has paid a heavy price in the two decades since.
“But alarm bells are ringing and there are clear similarities between the United of 2013 and the last Liverpool team to win the title back in 1990. I played in that Liverpool team 23 years ago and it was in the bottom three of the eight title-winning sides I played in at Anfield. It was an ageing team, one which Kenny Dalglish was looking to break up and build again with new players. In the past the club had successfully combined winning and rebuilding, but this time was different.”
The 58-year-old former Scotland defender could be right about his understandings of current United team’s combination where he finds enough meat but lacks a proper combination of young and old players. If corrective actions are not being taken up at this time, there could be a drought of league titles for them in coming years. He added, “United have more depth and quality than the 1990 Liverpool side, but I would say that the two first teams are comparable in terms of the issues they faced. Both could be described as ageing teams that needed breaking up, but with issues over those brought in as younger replacements.”