Cavani to Barca? Don’t rule out a Man Utd revival
Robin Bairner
- 26 Nov 2021 11:21 GMT
- 5 min read
Edinson Cavani’s second season with Manchester United might not be going entirely according to plan, but new life could soon be breathed into the Uruguayan’s Old Trafford career.
The decision to sign Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer was always likely to be one that came to the cost of Cavani.
Allied with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s failed policy of selecting his 11 best players, throwing them onto the field and hoping for the best, Cavani was always unlikely to get a look in beyond Ronaldo, whose prolific goalscoring has masked greater deficiencies in Man Utd’s game.
But the arrival of Ralf Rangnick in an interim managerial role could be about to change that.
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Cavani still has a role at Man Utd
The German was one of the pioneers of Gegenpressing, a system of football that requires to actively participate defensively.
Ronaldo is unlikely to favour this style of football. Indeed, the Portuguese presently post embarrassing pressing statistics and it would force him to change the whole dynamic of his game if he were to start implementing this.
On the other hand, Cavani is a defensive workhorse from the front of the team. This is an attribute that Rangnick is likely to see favourably.
While it is inconceivable that Ronaldo will be dumped because of this, if he is forced to expend more energy defensively, that will provide Cavani more opportunities to impress.
The veteran has previously shown himself to be intelligent and selfless in his play in the No.9 role, making him just the sort of player that Rangnick appreciates.
For this reason, it seems inconceivable that Manchester United would have allowed talks between Cavani and Barcelona to have opened, as reported by Fichajes.
Rangnick – or whomever the interim manager is – will want to come in and assess their squad first hand.
Cavani, then, still has a say in his Manchester United future, and that is not good news for Barcelona.
