Ten years is a long time. After a successful decade at Real Madrid (2011-2021), Raphaël Varane left his comfort zone by joining Manchester United this summer. Six months after his arrival, the French defender finds the Spanish capital, the time of an eighth final on the lawn of Atlético, Wednesday, February 23. In an English semester, the world champion has experienced many adventures.
Upon his arrival, Varane had to stabilize the defense of Red Devils, deprived of the Premier League title for eight years. A simple reading of the classification, the contract is not fulfilled: eighth defense of the championship, Manchester United accuses seventeen points behind its neighbor City, intractable leader. Worse, his fourth place is threatened by the late meetings of Arsenal and Tottenham.
But stopping at these strict data is simplistic. Impossible indeed to impute to him all the Mancunian ills since he missed a good third of the matches. Injured in the groin during the Nations League final with the Blues, the ex-Madrilenian relapsed in early November in Bergamo. This hamstring glitch deprived him of competitions for six weeks.
The two faces displayed by United in the Premier League depend greatly on Varane’s presence on the pitch. With the Frenchman, Paul Pogba’s teammates concede an average of 0.86 goals per game, or 13 in 15 outings. When he squats the infirmary – or the bench during the recovery period – this average soars to 2 goals per game. The three knockdowns against Leicester (2-4), Liverpool (0-5) and Watford (1-4) coincided with his absences.
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However, Varane does not fully hold the house when he is aligned. In Bern in the Champions League (2-1 for the Swiss) as in Newcastle (1-1) in the league, his ball losses led to an opposing goal. “If you talk about Raphaël Varane, it must be said that he has been useless since his arrival here”, outright dispatched Tim Sherwood, former Tottenham manager, on Sky Sports. No doubt exaggerated, especially since the former Lensois is favored by his coaches: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and then his successor Ralf Rangnick have made him a key element.
Aligned sometimes with Harry Maguire (8 times), sometimes with Victor Lindelöf (4 times), or even with both in a three-way defense (at Tottenham for a 3-0 victory), Varane holds his rank. Since returning in late December, United have lost just once in ten outings. “For me, the most important thing is that he stays healthy and doesn’t have any other injuries, especially to his muscles. In that case, he can obviously become one of the best defenders in the league.”recently analyzed Rangnick at a press conference.
Can the French, precisely, get rid of these glitches? These may be due to the specificities of an English football “more physical, faster” than La Liga, according to the German coach. Since August, Varane has missed thirteen games. We have to go back to 2016-17 to find traces of such a contrasting season (14 missed matches). Back “in shape” according to Rangnick, he will be an essential link in Manchester United’s quest for the cup with big ears. Already titled four times with Real Madrid, the native of Lille knows how to do it.