Massimiliano Allegri is one of the most successful managers in world football today. The Italian won the Scudetto as many as five times for Juventus, winning it once at the San Siro with AC Milan. But his links with Manchester United should ring alarm bells in the minds of many Old Trafford faithful.
It is by no means disrespect to the man from Livorno though. He took the Bianconeri to two Champions League finals, only to lose to Barcelona in 2015 and to Real Madrid in 2017.
Allegri, who is known to be a typically Italian pragmatist, used a 3-5-2 shape in the early part of his Juve tenure. But as time went on, he began using a 4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1 more often than the 3-5-2.
Last season, Juve looked sluggish though. They did sign Cristiano Ronaldo but the playing style was dour and slow. In a system like that, flair players like Paulo Dybala and Douglas Costa struggled. La Joya’s goalscoring tally came down from 22 in the 2017-18 season to five last season. Douglas suffered injury issues and scored only one goal.
It was a case of being too pragmatic. Ajax managed to oust the Old Lady from the Champions League, as the young side from the Netherlands ran rings around a Juve side that seemed bounded to chains.
That should be a warning sign for United. Similar to Jose Mourinho, they are looking at a ‘serial-winner’ who prefers a pragmatic brand of football as opposed to an attacking brand. There was constant criticism from United fans about Mourinho’s playing style and how he held back the talents of many flair players.
Players like Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Anthony Martial were criticised for not working hard enough. Like Mkhitaryan, Martial was also close to leaving at one point. His agent had made that clear.
That situation is similar to how things were for Dybala. The Argentine was bound to chains and was shunted wide, being asked to do what he couldn’t do. There were reports that Dybala would leave Juve, if Allegri had stayed. Since Allegri left, Dybala stayed.
These situations present stark similarities. There is no doubting Allegri’s abilities, but some managers just aren’t suited enough for a club.
The Premier League has managers who play an attacking brand of football. Especially the top managers like Pep Guardiola, Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp play football that involves getting on the ball, pressing high and scoring goals. Allegri is exactly the opposite.
Having said that, United’s real problems don’t lie at the managerial level. The lack of a football man in the board has seen as many as four managers come after the Sir Alex Ferguson era and fingers have been pointed at Ed Woodward for failing to get his transfer decisions right.
A manager like Allegri, who worked in full cohesion with Fabio Paratici at Juve, would need the full support of a football man like Paratici himself at United. But the club doesn’t have that. In that sense, a move like that is likely to be a cause for self-destruction.