You don’t have to go far to find a Manchester United critic, even when they’re having a good week, and this week it’s journalist Wim Kieft’s turn.
He’s been talking about Manchester United’s run to the Europa League final, where they’ll take on Tottenham in Bilbao, in his column for De Telegraaf, relayed by Voetbal Primeur.
They secure their place in that final against Tottenham with an impressive 4-1 win over Athletic Bilbao at Old Trafford giving them a 7-1-win aggregate after their even better performance at San Mames a week ago.
All eyes are now on winning that final and securing a place in next season’s Champions League, with the Europa League winners handed a spot at UEFA’s top table the following year.
Securing Champions League final would put a major positive on an otherwise miserable year for Manchester United, particularly in the Premier League, where they sit 15th in the table with 39 points.
It has not been a good year domestically and even the sacking of Erik ten Hag, who was replaced by Ruben Amorim at the beginning of November has not helped to improve things.
A big summer is expected, particularly up front, where Kieft was acerbic about the current options available to Amorim.
“If you analyse the matches against Olympique Lyon in the quarter finals and Athletic Bilbao in the semi-finals, you have to conclude that they are not very good in terms of quality as a team and individually,” he said.
“It is actually unbelievable how many players fail there and make very little of it, even though they were lured to Old Trafford for enormous transfer fees and salaries. In fact, only Bruno Fernandes is a bull’s-eye.’
“But if you see Rasmus Højlund play and analyse him as a striker and combine that with the price tag of €77.8 million that Atalanta Bergamo collected for him, then it is all in all a very sad picture.
“Zirkzee is simply a class better than the Dane, while in the Netherlands we still have big question marks about whether he is good enough for the selection of the Dutch national team, let alone for the international top.
“After Real Madrid, perhaps the biggest and richest club in the world, which has to make do with the occasional FA Cup or Europa League… A band-aid, because such a consolation prize remains below the level of such a club.”
