Opinion: Blind's been vital in winning start
Praise and attention has been directed at summer signings and emerging talents this season, yet ManUtd.com’s Mark Froggatt is keen to highlight the contribution of Daley Blind…
Daley Blind is not often the centre of attention at Manchester United. He rarely wins awards, he isn't showered in praise and his name is seldom splashed across the sporting headlines, yet the Dutchman remains an indispensable member of the team and Jose Mourinho’s plans.
It was Eric Bailly who collected a third Man of the Match award of the season at Hull City on Saturday and the Ivory Coast international deserved it, following an impressive and authoritative display in rain-soaked Hull. But his fellow centre-back could easily have taken home the prize.
Blind was also excellent at the KCOM Stadium where he maintained his fine start to the first campaign under Mourinho, keeping the hosts' striker Abel Hernandez at bay and playing a key role in what became a dramatic 1-0 win. He was later among MUTV's three nominees for the star-man poll and earned 21 per cent of votes cast by followers of
@ManUtd on Twitter, while Bailly triumphed with 64 per cent.
Missing out on Saturday's Man of the Match award will not have given Daley a sleepless night, in fact he may not even have been aware of the result, but it feels worthwhile to highlight the Dutchman's influence on the result in a season that has so far been dominated by summer signings and emerging talents.
Blind’s intelligent performances at centre-back are perfectly complimenting the more combative approach of Bailly, forming a silk-and-steel partnership that is pivotal to United currently boasting the Premier League’s meanest defensive record with just one goal conceded from three matches played.
Theirs is a perfect blend. Blind uses street smarts as a weapon of choice when other players in his position lead with their imposing height or electric pace; he reads football like we read words, only much quicker and more intelligently. Bailly more commonly deploys his physical and athletic attributes, out-muscling and out-running the opposition. There’s something gloriously old-school about him; he’s an evolution of the classic Premier League defender.
Another interesting sub-plot to their relationship is the advisory role that Blind, 26, has adopted for his much younger team-mate, given that Bailly arrived at United in the summer with only 52 senior appearances to his name for previous clubs Villarreal and Espanyol. Daley tallied 56 outings in 2015/16 alone and you cannot underestimate the experience that he can share - even if the pair do not share a common language!
One imagines they’d be perfect at the old good cop, bad cop routine. Daley would offer a cup of coffee and a phone call home, using subtler methods of persuasion to glean a confession, while Eric might manhandle the accused and throw said coffee cup at the wall. In the end, they'd always get their man.
Indeed, this flourishing relationship at centre-back has caught many supporters by surprise, namely because Chris Smalling was so outstanding in the starting XI throughout last season and even came close to winning David De Gea’s Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award. But the England international’s suspension for the opening-day win at Bournemouth appears to have cost him his place, in the short-term at least, with the manager now reluctant to separate his two in-form defenders.
While very few predicted the successful partnership of Blind and Bailly, history shows it is comparable with the contrasting styles that have traditionally mixed so well at Old Trafford. They’re a little like Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister in the 1990s, Treble-winners Ronny Johnsen and Jaap Stam in 1999, Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand in the 2000s, or even Smalling and Blind last season. Each had different ingredients and qualities, but they came together to form a potent cocktail of defensive strength.
Blind’s importance to the team will be further highlighted after the international break when he is expected to start the Manchester derby, tasked with extinguishing the fire of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in what is surely English football's biggest contest this season. It will be another test of quality and one that examines the true strength of his alliance with Bailly, as well as his own place in the XI.
There's evidence to suggest our no.17 will rise to the challenge. After all, he's the man that disproved critics at Ajax who claimed his starting place was indebted to his famous father, Danny. He's the man who started 55 games at centre-back last season in spite of pundits claiming it wasn't his position, and the same man who has usurped Smalling this campaign amid media speculation that he might even depart.
Yes, the season is young and it remains to be seen whether he will finish it as Mourinho's first choice, yet Blind has proven to be an invaluable member of the squad. He deserves all the praise and recognition that comes his way.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be considered as representative of Manchester United Football Club.
