In defence of Sander Berge. He is now 22 years old, the youngest first team regular in the United squad.
Until now, his 5 years in the pro game, has been confined to European football. He comes from a small town near Oslo, so he will have little or no experience of a major English City with considerable northern industrial heritage.
His team mates have all grown up steeped in the culture of English league football, with little in the way of recent experience in the modern international game. The lack of international success for British teams can be viewed through watching top level players at foreign clubs.
Their football is a different game to the EPL. Some southern clubs have adapted foreign players on a large scale, like Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea, using billionaire owners. The success enjoyed by Manchester clubs and Liverpool is also underwritten by wealthy owners.
It is probably fair to say that our club is based more on British players steeped in English football backgrounds, and molded by an innovative manager, to be more than the sum of their individual talents. Based on hard work, organisation and a little sprinkling of skills.
Berge has joined a team based on agricultural effort and work rate rather than silky foreign skills.
The young man has shown good positional skills and some pace in his earlier games, but much of this has been buried in favour of the team ethic, which now dominates his play.
Players of his background and undoubted quality, have managed to fit into top English teams, where they are surrounded by similarly talented individuals. Man City and Liverpool being prime examples.
If our fans see him as a fish out of water, they are spot on, but to blame him for his youthful eagerness to fit in Is to do him a disservice.
His attitude and adaptation will develop under Wilder, I’m sure. We are lucky to have him at a bargain price, on such a low wage. He wil eventually become an asset to the football team, or to the business, maybe both.
