If reports are to be believed, Manchester United are pursuing the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Sergio Ramos and Karim Benzema, among others this summer.
Louis van Gaal is obviously a man who knows his mind where it comes to football. But when we consider the Manchester United of last season, one foible immediately comes to mind – a lack of pace.
Manchester United eventually cobbled together a decent formula with Marouane Fellaini elbowing his way to prominence and Juan Mata keeping the ball well on the other flank. But this incarnation lacked pace and instead zig-zagged the ball up the park until they got close enough to have a shot on goal.
It worked for a while but it’s certainly not how we think of Manchester United at their best. Through the glory years their style was typically swashbuckling, quick and counter attacking. At their best they could get the ball from one end of the park to the other, on the ground, in a few seconds.
And once Louis achieved a top four finish with Manchester United we fully expected him go out and buy pace – loads of it.
He did well with Memphis Depay. But in terms of these prospective signings we wonder whether enough groundspeed will have been added to really make a challenge for the league come September.
Depay has a lot of pace
Ramos is no slouch of course. But, at 29, he will get slower year on year and may well keep the much pacier Chris Smalling out of the side.
Schweinsteiger probably wouldn’t win a 100 yard race with Van Gaal himself. And Benzema is quicker of mind than body.
So while many Manchester United fans feel that these are just the sort of signings that the club needs this summer, they feel somewhat underwhelming to us. Speed is, of course, just one part of a great team. But it’s becoming an ever bigger part and Manchester United still don’t have enough.
