The differences between Barça and Manchester United’s resets

Ten Hag agreed with Xavi Hernández yesterday that United and Barça and United are playing a knockout match in the Europa League due to their own mistakes. As much as they’d like to play this match in the Champions League, both teams will face off in what is essentially Europe’s second category. During the press conference, Ten Hag stated that: “Both clubs have hit the reset button and it’s going well. We’ll both improve.” Both organizations have signed good players and had a string of good results, but their ‘resets’ aren’t exactly the same.

For these four reasons. Manchester United is in dire need of results:

1. The last time United won the Premier League was in 2012-13. They’re approaching 10 years without winning the league. In that span, Barça won five league trophies with Luis Enrique and Valverde.

2. United last won the FA Cup in 2015-16. Barça also won Copa del Rey last season, plus three others since then. The last one came while Koeman was still in charge.

3. Barça has always qualified to play in the Champions League, while United has missed five of the last ten editions of the tournament. Finishing outside of the top 4 in five of the last 10 seasons makes the team look bad.

4. While we still caught a glimpse of Messi with Barça, United resigned Cristiano Ronaldo at the worst time of his career. In the end, both teams’ rebuilds will depend on how fast they can move on from the memories of their biggest stars.