Manchester United failed to stop a rare Arsenal attack on Saturday, allowing Arsene Wenger’s team to snatch a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, bringing into focus the home side’s occasional lack of resilience, quality and experience.
Attentions are already focusing on how United can remedy that in coming transfer windows, and Bayern Munich’s versatile David Alaba could offer a solution to some of the problems.
The Daily Mirror reported that United watched Alaba twice during the international break when his national side, Austria, faced the Republic of Ireland and Slovakia. Below we look at the case for and against Jose Mourinho signing him.
Alaba could operate on the left side of defence, which has been a problem area for Mourinho so far this season. The Portuguese has had a challenging relationship with his first-choice left-back, Luke Shaw, at times, publicly criticising him.
One of the backups in that position, Marcos Rojo, is arguably the biggest defensive liability that United possess, while Daley Blind has also made costly errors.
Should Alaba prefer to feature in a defensive midfield role, as he has done for his country, he could fill the void that will eventually be left when Michael Carrick moves on — and help to liberate and supply Paul Pogba further. He can even play in an advanced role, though he struggled there for Austria at Euro 2016.
At the age of 24, Alaba also has plenty of football left in the tank. Having been a footballing prodigy, he is already highly experienced at the demanding levels of the Champions League and Bundesliga. He had already won the Champions League as a teenager, and as the star man for his country, he has 50 caps at the international level.
Mourinho wants players who put in the hard yards as well as having technical gifts, and that has often been the case with Alaba.
Bayern coach Carlo Ancelotti thinks he can get even better, while former manager Pep Guardiola went even further by saying that the player could be remembered as an all-time great at the German club. Despite a fondness at times for entertaining on social media, he is also reputed to be a down-to-earth character.
Alaba is a decorated and respected player, but he has not always lived up to that billing in recent times, which included a disappointing campaign at Euro 2016. Being shifted into central defence for Bayern Munich amid an injury crisis has not exactly helped his progression in his more natural positions, either.
Mourinho laid out a vision when he took charge at United of having specialists rather than multifunctional players, and the Austrian has been very much in the latter camp. The United manager could also have a problem on his hands if the player insists, for example, on more time in midfield — while the club’s demands could be more pressing elsewhere on the pitch.
Should he be recruited as a left-back, then it would stifle the progress of Shaw and increase Mourinho’s reputation for failing to develop English youngsters. That would go against the traditions of United, adding to the regression in that area that has been seen already, with Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Timothy Fosu-Mensah further away from the first-team picture than they were under Louis van Gaal.
Alaba is also under contract at Bayern until 2021 and will attract interest from other heavyweight clubs, so United could be forced to pay well over the odds, in the way that they did for Pogba. Alaba has also been schooled already at Bayern, first by Van Gaal then in the Guardiola philosophy, so playing for Mourinho may not come naturally for him.
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