O’Shea shock over Man Utd’s rapid decline

Sunderland: The most damning thing is, when John O’Shea was asked the question about whether his former club Manchester United had lost their aura he knew it was coming.

United do not scare anyone any more, not even a team like Sunderland, fighting to save themselves from relegation. This was the first time O’Shea, the home captain, had beaten his old club in the league since he left Old Trafford almost five years ago. It was the first time Sunderland had beaten United at home in the Premier League era.

O’Shea naturally retains a strong connection with the club he joined as a young boy from Ireland, graduating from the academy to make 392 appearances first-team appearances. Like so many others who gorged on success under Sir Alex Ferguson, he is struggling to comprehend how rapid their decline has been. He was polite and diplomatic, but the fact remains, Sunderland knew they had a good chance of beating United, which has never been the case before.

He said as much in the dressing room before kick-off. “Because of the season they are having and the amount of injuries they have got, it is difficult for them [to retain their aura],” O’Shea said. “They still have some very good attacking players. I thought our full-backs did particularly well in closing them down, but they don’t have as many players as they used to have. That said, they had only lost once in 2016 before here. They have been getting a lot of credit recently. They are still a very good team, but, they are not challenging where they want to be in the table, that’s for sure.

“Champions League qualification is the minimum target for them. That is the given beforehand, when you look at the squads and the budgets, and what is spent at clubs to get into the Champions League.

“Not just Man United, the top five and six spend big to get into the Champions League, because that is where the rewards are and that is what attracts bigger and better players. That is the challenge they have and they are having to adjust. It’s difficult for them. The quality in the Premier League is increasing.”

United’s ambition is disintegrating under Louis van Gaal and so is their reputation. The Dutchman has never sounded more defeatist than he did in the aftermath of Sunderland’s 2-1 win. The top-four finish that represented a minimum requirement back in August, is slipping away from him and he was in no mood to argue otherwise. Perhaps the constant chatter about his future and the belief that Jose Mourinho’s arrival in the summer is a fait accompli, has knocked the fight out of the Dutchman. Never mind that there are still more than enough points available, as well as games against the teams above them in the table, for United to finish in the top four, their biggest games now will probably come in the Europa League, a competition so often derided during Ferguson’s glory years.

Rio Ferdinand even went so far as to call a United team in the Europa League an “embarrassment”, but nobody will be looking at it like that at the moment, least of all Van Gaal. United will play their strongest possible side against FC Midtjylland in Denmark on Thursday night because winning European football’s second-tier competition could be their only route back into the Champions League next term. It is also a major trophy to win and should not be sniffed at in United’s position.

Neither will the FA Cup. There is intense pressure at Old Trafford and O’Shea sympathises with the young players who, like him, have come through the academy system there. “I was a young lad coming into a team, but that was after winning the league,” O’Shea said.

“It was that bit easier. If you are coming into a team that is not first or second in the table, there is that bit more pressure. You will see with managers, they want to bring in young players when the team is doing well. But United’s hand has been forced because of the injuries they’ve had.”