The National’s Sport cover for the Tuesday, September 23 issue, featuring Richard Jolly’s cover story on the defending woes exposed in fantastic fashion at the weekend for Manchester United.
Jolly breaks down exactly how this happened, writing about how flashy purchases and a glut of attacking players has turned Louis van Gaal's current iteration of United into an English version of Real Madrid's 'Zidanes y Pavones' sides.
Writes Jolly: “Zinedine Zidane, the world’s best player, was one of the attacking galacticos, while the homegrown, substandard Francisco Pavon became the epitome of an underfunded defence. It proved a faulty formula.
Now, minus Jones and (probably) Evans, United are set to face West Ham on Saturday with the appalling Chris Smalling the senior centre-back.
It is a failure of planning, an issue that predated Van Gaal’s arrival.”
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