Why Manchester United may never catch Liverpool - no matter who they sign

Paul Macdonald

• 20 Apr 2022 15:26 BST
• 5 min read

Manchester United’s plight is no longer simply down to money.

The Premier League giants have spent more than anyone in the past decade, amassing a net spend of just over £900m (€1.1bn), higher than even rivals Manchester City and three times that of the Liverpool team that have defeated them 9-0 on aggregate this season.

United’s problem is such that even if the off-field issues that have blighted them - managerial insecurity, no director of football, and lack of clarity in decision-making at the highest level - were all sorted tomorrow, the club is still already trailing City and Liverpool in virtually every other area.

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When Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp joined both clubs in 2015, both were handed mismanaged squads that required wholesale transitioning in order to play in the style each coach desired. It’s not easy to move on relative deadwood and receive a decent market value for them, and it took time for both men to make their teams in their own image.

In fact, you might say that it’s taken until now - seven years later - for both sides to have absolute strength in depth across all positions. United, as we know, are not even at the beginning of the journey - they are still tying their laces to run a race they will unquestionably lose.

Man Utd don't know what they want to be

Whilst United continue to attempt to move on after Sir Alex Ferguson, now departed almost a decade ago, they still don’t know what they want to be. How they want to play. How they want to build a team. How they want to even scout these players, given two of their prominent men in that department left on Wednesday.

These are the questions that they are striving to answer, trying desperately to find their own Klopp or Pep, flailing from one ill-advised decision to the next, all while their rivals stride off into the distance.

It’s no longer a case of simply finding the right man, and everything will be fixed. No, the incremental gains that City and Liverpool have achieved in the past half-decade, and will continue to make, mean that the gap is becoming borderline unbridgeable.

Both sides have made massive progress in respect of data analysis, hiring teams of scientists to re-evaluate the concept of data and how to perceive it. Liverpool have a team of physicists, headed up by director of research Ian Graham. City, meanwhile, have acquired Laurie Gray as their lead AI scientist. These people and their teams are literal geniuses, aiming to take analytics to the next level. United have nothing even close to this in place.

The example of Luis Diaz is most pertinent. Liverpool scouted, crunched the numbers and applied that logic to Klopp’s formation and philosophy in and out of possession. Diaz therefore looks like a player who has been there for years, because they knew he would fit perfectly into their system. City have done similar with the likes of Ruben Dias, Ederson and Rodri; find the way of playing first, find the players second.

United’s hopelessly scattergun approach in the transfer market is the antithesis of this. Swooping for Cristiano Ronaldo, simply because he became available. Waiting an age for Jadon Sancho, then having no idea what to do with him. Offering Raphael Varane extraordinary terms only for him to be perennially injured. And, of course, the scouting of Harry Maguire.

Then there’s the approach to squad building, to promotion of young talent, to the literal facilities in which they are working. Old Trafford, outdated, crumbling, lacking in even basic facilities. It’s a remnant of a former era, much like the team on the pitch.

What next for Man Utd?

So the fans are right to protest the Glazer’s tenure, using it as they do; a cash machine they leveraged debt onto, one which was formerly free of it. United make more money than ever before, but a not-insignificant chunk is siphoned out on interest payments each and every year.

But copious amounts have still been spent. The team has been refreshed, and refreshed again, and still we are left with the performance at Anfield on Tuesday, a nadir in a decade packed full of them.

And the realisation should hit home for United that even if a heroic coach rides over the sunset to save them, they are still seven years behind where City and Liverpool are now. That should be a sobering thought.