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CARPE DIEM

Carpe Diem .i.e, sieze the moment, sieze the day – it’s a concept Manchester United grab only occasionally. There was an excellent piece by Carl Anka today in The Athletic, which highlighted the similarities between the Istanbul game and what transpired last night. Let’s hope what transpires after this isn’t the same as what we saw in the CL group.

Siezing the moment is something those at a boardroom level at United also fail to do when it comes to football. You are in January, your manager has toiled hard to get an imbalanced squad to the top of the league, and not only are you still struggling to get rid of the deadwood, you are sleep walking through a golden chance to give the squad a boost with a couple of smart signings. There was a mad scramble for Bruno and Ighalo last year when European football was at stake, there should have been a madder scramble when a Premier League title was surprisingly within reach.

Seizing the moment is something Martial too has failed to do. This was his season to build on the improvements from last season. Instead, today he wears the no 9 but cant play like a no 9, the only other position he can play is LW but he doesn’t make the channel runs, nor has any passing ability to play there. Positional awareness and tracking back was something he always lacked, but his regression in dribbling and link up play – is emblematic of a player whose future doesn’t lie at United. Cavani at age of 33 has shown more desire to resurrect his career and earn the right to play for United. Congratulations Anthony, you have single handedly relegated yourself to the fourth best forward at the club in a matter of six months!

Seizing the moment is something Dave, Slab and Pogba miss doing. Pogba for a World Cup winner, has an uncanny knack of resting on his laurels after a few decent performances. Dave oscillates from being our savior to Santa Claus for the opposition. And there is Slab, a player who does so much on and off the pitch to admire, but undergoes in almost every game a couple of brain fade moments that defy logic!

I really hope those mentioned above for the sake of this club, for the sake of the fans and for the sake of that wonderful Norwegian and his team giving their blood, tears and sweat for us – learn to CARPE ************ DIEM. This is the moment, this is the rarest of chance to defy logic, defy imbalance and inefficiency – and restore the sparkle back to Manchester United.

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