Who is really responsible for Manchester United’s underachievement since Sir Alex Ferguson left?
In this era of social media, fans around the world are no longer passive observers. Match-going fans have always been known as “the twelfth man”, because their mood, cheering, encouragement and belief can transmit itself to the men on the pitch and drag them over the finish line when they need support.
The fans who watched on TV had no way of getting their support felt and heard by the men in red.
The new twelfth man
Nowadays, though, they can. Players use social media like everyone else, so what is said on fan forums and in comments on posts from players, clubs, journalists and the like all form part of the twelfth man.
For all we know, one of United’s players could be reading this article. He could scroll down to the comments and read what YOU write in response to what I am saying. Your words could get inside the head of a Manchester United player today. What do you want him to hear from you?
Now multiply that by 200 million – the approximate number of United fans on social media. If the majority of those fans are spewing frustrated criticism of the manager, team and club, it would be naïve to think that such a tidal wave of negativity would not affect the confidence levels of everyone employed by the club. It is a 200,000,000 strong 12th man.
Three fingers pointing back at you
Most of us blame United’s identity crisis since Sir Alex Ferguson retired on the owners, the Glazer family.
But in a period that has seen active users on Twitter/X double and on Instagram multiply by 10 to 20 times, might it be us – the twelfth man – who are to blame for the toxicity and negativity that has dragged the club down over the last 12 years?
What percentage of United fans’ posts on social media would you say are critical compared to those that are supporting and optimistic? 70%? 80%? That is around 150 million negative users and their posts.
Imagine if every home game at Old Trafford saw 70% of the crowd booing the team as they walked on the pitch. 75% booing their own players, shouting “Amorim out!” and so on. Would it affect the team? Of course it would.
It is ridiculous to believe that a 200 million-strong social media “crowd” is not having a similar effect on them.
The fact that the likes of Paul Scholes, Roy Keane and Gary Neville are paid good money to lay into the current team with relentless negativity feeds into this vortex of self-inflicted doom.
Taking responsibility
Of course, fans will always want to analyse and discuss what is right and wrong about today’s United. This very site exists to offer opinion as well as news. We publish player ratings articles and reviews of player performances after a match that can be savage at times. We are also part of the problem.
As the twelfth man, it is part of our job to give the team a piece of our minds when they don’t appear to be trying hard enough. It may even be our job, and it is certainly our right, to call on the manager to make changes if we feel a player is underperforming. We don’t have to be Pollyanna-ish or watch United through rose-tinted glasses. We are allowed to get angry and frustrated.
But we have to be aware that our anger and frustration can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whatever we say on social media, or in blog posts, on fan sites, in newspapers or as a pundit in a TV studio will be read or heard millions of times over by the players and staff we want to motivate and give confidence to.
We can be the problem, or we can be the solution.
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Red Billy
Red Billy is the managing editor of The Peoples Person, author of three books and totally obsessed with football’s transfer market. Billy still insists Matteo Darmian and Alex Telles could have made it at United given half a chance.
