What a difference a year makes.
Exactly 12 months ago today, Manchester United announced their second signing of the summer transfer window, confirming the arrival of Christian Eriksen. The Dane arrived in M16 on a free transfer after turning down the offer of a new contract at Brentford.
The Dane, who had joined the Bees on a short-term deal only a few months before, arrived at Old Trafford with the reputation of having been one of the Premier League’s best attacking-midfielders, on and off, for the best part of a decade. He regularly pulled the strings in the No.10 position at Tottenham Hotspur and scored goals and registered assists at a consistent rate.
With that said, almost everyone expected him to provide competition and support for Bruno Fernandes in the No.10 position. But after Erik ten Hag deployed him as a false-nine and then as a defensive-midfielder in his first two games in charge, Eriksen found home in the No.8 position.
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He excelled as a deep-lying playmaker, orchestrating proceedings and bossing possession between both boxes. Just moments before he operated in that position for the first time, starring from deep in the 2-1 win over Liverpool last August, United unveiled their second midfield signing of the summer, parading Casemiro around Old Trafford after his £60million arrival from Real Madrid.
Though the Brazilian was never United’s No.1 midfield target last summer, with the club having spent more than 100 days going after Frenkie de Jong’s signature, he was the perfect alternative. He brought a world-class presence and a winning mentality to Old Trafford that had been missing for years.
Once he had adjusted to life in England and found his way into the team, it was not long before he, working alongside Eriksen and Fernandes in the engine room, showed why he was what United had been missing for so long. The Reds had been in desperate need of adding a world-class defensive-midfielder to their ranks for years and Casemiro soon provided them with the defensive nous and destroying capabilities that they were lacking in the middle.
After Scott McTominay and Fred, more commonly known as ‘McFred’, had struggled to give United the quality and control the club of its size should have been producing in midfield, Casemiro, Eriksen and Fernandes quickly transformed proceedings. United finally had a world-class midfield and it quickly blossomed into one of the very best in the Premier League last term.
However, it was evident towards the end of the campaign, certainly in the cases of Casemiro and Eriksen, that the gruelling nature of United’s fixture schedule was taking its toll. Standards started to drop and fatigue was an evident issue. Ten Hag often refused to rotate his pack, even in cup matches, perhaps because of the lack of sufficient quality in reserve.
United have already made their first move to address that issue this summer, bringing in
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