The Most Important Thing Is...?

What do you want from life?

Love? Growth? Happiness? God? Money? Pleasure?

Okay. All good and omnibus but...

If I asked what you wanted right now, depending on the current situation you find yourself, the answer would widely vary. It could be N10 million naira, £10 thousand dollars, a job, a new job, answered prayers, a new president, realised investments, extended deadlines, a pet, healing and even for some, a new manager.☺(more on that later...)   

The request is usually predicated by the need.

It is with this prism that I would view the reality football show put on yesterday by Manchester United against St. Etienne in the 1st leg of the Round of 32 in the Europa League Cup. A home win was required. Check. Make that 'comfortable' home win. Check. A clean sheet. Check. No new injuries to speak of. Check. Mission accomplished.

In what was an enjoyable game especially for the neutrals and especially for the Pogba family. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a hat-trick in spite of having a meh game, the first from a deflected free kick which advanced over the line in ultra-slow motion, the second, a tap-in similar to a chance he had previously squandered and the third an authoritatively well-taken penalty. While Zlatan can sometimes be a source of great irritation with his Berbatov-ish demeanour and approach to football (at least he has the excuse of advancing age), goals are what the club desperately needs and goals are what the Zlatan delivers, more often than not. 23 so far for the season in all competitions. Robin Van Persie gave us a total of 30 in our last title-winning season. (Conservative) Criticisms of his contributions to some games are valid but you simply can't fault the value and volume of his still rising goal haul.

The other headliner of the day, Paul Pogba also had a fairly efficient game. When not seeking out his older brother, Florentin at every opportunity for a laugh and ha-ha session, he did the basics correctly and hit the bar once even if it is arguable that he should have scored it. One could however accurately suspect that the back story of the family reunion and the sensationalism it occasioned, unconsciously took precedence in our No. 6's mind over the footballing business of the day. Mourinho confirmed as much during the ensuing press conference. Warren Joyce, the current Wigan manager, who coached the Manchester United youth teams for many years until recently, had previously warned Pogba not to let his off-field activities distract from his ambition to become the world's best player. In his words,

"He (Pogba) always wanted to be the best player in the world...He set his standards  to try and do that. I had a go at him a couple of times because he never tackled. But he's always had that inner drive to want to do that. Can he achieve it? That depends on him really. It depends whether he keeps having them stupid haircuts, and is involved in too many gimmicks of the field...it's up to him what he does...".

While I wouldn't necessarily agree that the 'stupid haircuts' (Messi has had several and currently has one) and off-field gimmicks (CR7 has tonnes) are the issue per se, Pogba seems to get deeply drawn into them rather than excel because of them. Though far more matured in his career, a Ronaldo would seek to score a hat-trick after signing a new deal or endorsement - Pogba withers under the spotlight or gets carried away because of.

My fear continues to be that Zlatan and Pogba, possibly the two most dominant personalities in the dressing room, act as the primary play-pulse to the rest of the squad. They approach the game somewhat lackadaisically, the rest of the team follow suit. They come for a carnival, Lingard the others also come wearing tu-tus waving colourful balloons. It may not be too dissimilar to the current state in Catalan country where you have the celebrated 'MSN' (Messi, Suarez and Neymar), three superstars who are the rudder, captain and coach of the Barcelona luxury yacht. Sometimes everybody forgets that only one man (at most 3. And that's even too much) is allowed to walk around and look disinterested and then everybody starts doing it. 11 'superstars', it then erroneously becomes. To be 4-warned is to be forearmed. Super Bowl Champs, New England Patriots attest that they have been able to have such long-running success because their star player and quarter-back, Tom Brady submits himself to be coached as intensely as the rest of his teammates by the stoic head coach, Bill Belchick. It's the best method to be employed in a team sport in my opinion. No off-day superstars. I tend to trust Jose on these sort of issues anyway...

What else?Anthony Martial, as usual, was electric and unplayable. His close control, at full sprint,  continues to be a sight to behold. We are watching you, Jose Mourinho. Nuff said. Luke Shaw should get his own protesters who wouldn't be two-faced and back down before d the steely special-one...

Ander Herrara had one of his worst performances in a United shirt. Gave the ball away with reckless abandon and collected a customary school boy booking that ruled him out of the return fixture. He's due a rest anyway.

The Jose Mourinho/Fellaini experiment failed again.

The back line was carved open over and over again particularly in the first half but for some poor finishing, the story and scoreline could have been very different. Even King Bailly was into it too. The manager was disgusted enough with what he saw to make a bee-line to the tunnel by the 43rd minute. The defending in the 2nd half was relatively much better and no goal was conceded. The goalkeeper of the day, Sergio Romero, has now not conceded a goal in his last 6 appearances dating back to September 2016.

Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford added much required speed to the game play and didn't need to be excellent to bring about a significant improvement.

One leg and an arm into the last 16. Today, that is the most important thing.

Blackburn Rovers next on Sunday in the FA Cup at Ewood Park. Poignantly, their club's motto is 'Arte et Labore' - 'By Skill and Hard Work'.

Signing Out...

B.L

In Other News:

* Even I sometimes blur the lines between emotion and objectivity. Heart vs Head. Wishes vs Reality. It is assumed difficult to detach from a long term relationship even if it has strong elements of emotional abuse and is downright unhealthy. If one has persisted for say, 20 years, why can't it just continue? "The devil you know is better than the angel you don't know". "Next year will be better. He/She will improve". 'Look at what happened to Manch...' "Money answereth all things. My ship is coming in soon and I'll be able to properly lubricate this romance". Blah, blah, blah and blah.

Rubbish.

This is a business relationship, Gooners. And by 'business', it involves (being competitive for) titles and trophies and not just a plump account balance. It's no longer about a false sense of 'loyalty' or 'stability'. Senor AW has run his course with this side. The statistics are as damning as the futile attempt to justify perpetual UCL qualification as a pro at this point. Severe the relationship while it can still be kind to all parties. You have become the marginalised clown student who eats in the toilet in a posh school not because he is being bullied or asked to do so but because he's stupid enough to believe that a bourgeoisie turd is the same thing as a sausage.

On second thoughts, keep at it. I need some entertainment before the next 'Game Of Thrones' season comes out...

* I've been accused of not saying too much on the Italian and German leagues. What's there to say? *spoiler alert* Juventus WILL win. They won last weekend and they will win this weekend. Higuain will probably score. Dzeko too. It's like the Scottish league where the Indomitable Celtics lead by as much as 50 points (Okay, I kid. 'Just' about half of that). 

Germany? Paraphrasing that great quote, the league is basically 18 teams competing for 8 months and then Arsenal's daddy (Editor - how puerile!) Bayern Munich are crowned champions. I understand Bet365 may have stopped taking punts on these leagues. C'est vrai? 

* For your delectable aural pleasure this weekend, listen to The Weeknd's 'Kiss Land' album...