I realise this post can be easy to say in defeat, but this is something that I've been thinking for a while... it's time to ship out Mike Phelan and his short shorts.
Phelan is completely out of his depth - he lacks the tactical nous, an appreciation for continental football and a touchline charisma. It's no coincidence that our period when we played our most attractive football was when Queiroz led the training sessions or was ordering players from the touchline. Ever since Queiroz has left, our style has slowly degenerated from a free-flowing 4-3-3 formation with rotating forwards (Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez) to an old-school rigid 4-4-2. I realise we have reached CL finals and won the league since Phelan took over, but most of that has been down to a system and legacy laid down before, which over time is slowly crumbling.
How many times have we been hopelessly outplayed this season? City both games, Benfica, Basle, Atletic Bilbao, Wigan... the list goes on. And this is not symptomatic of this season, this has been happening for the past 2 years.
Changes are required in the staff this summer, and this needs to start with the removal of Phelan and the appointment of an experienced and cultured man with new ideas.
