Manchester United seemed in pretty decent form during their pre-season tour of America.
What’s more the squad looks in much better health than it did at this time last season when an injury crisis greeted the new season.
But Manchester United’s manager Louis van Gaal gave a fairly downbeat verdict on the current state of the squad and their ability to cope with the challenges ahead.
‘We’re not on schedule to be champions because we need speed and creativity at the front.
‘Whether we can win the title [in the next two seasons] is dependable if we can buy players with speed and creativity.
We couldn’t agree more.
Even when Manchester United have been getting results over the last two seasons the football hasn’t exactly been speedy or spectacular.
It’s been much more about control of the football as the likes of Fellaini and Mata have zig-zagged the ball up the park in pedestrian fashion and poked around for opportunities to break the opponent down.
It’s certainly not the bewitching blend of football that Manchester United fans have been accustomed to for the last couple of decades.
The likely loss of Di Maria is a hammer blow. Even though he wasn’t at his best at United, he tends to speed things up and puncture the opposition defence with his pace and power.
Di Maria: A big loss for United
[Ashley] Young had a great season. [Juan] Mata also. But they don’t have the speed of Hazard or Robben. We have to improve our selection in that way.’
At least the boss is on the same page as many of the supporters in terms of what is needed.
Rooney is the perfect player for Manchester United as chief goal scorer at the head of the team, but he needs even better service.
We think that the addition of a top winger and the deployment of Memphis Depay on the other flank, could totally rejuvenate the team.
Spanish Red
Aug 2, 2015 at 5:50 pm
I disagree on two counts. Di Maria going is a blessing as he should never have been bought. He was and is an average, overpriced and vastly overrated player. PSG have also vastly overpaid for this clown.
Rooney scored one goal in the pre season which was a header from an unmarked position on the six yards line. He is at the stage in his career where he needs three or four chances to score one goal and this is not good enough for United. He should have been sold to Chelsea the SECOND time he threw his toys out of the pram and disrespected United.
We should have two world class strikers at our disposal, not one fat scouser. At least Pedro arriving will give us a bit more quality going forward unlike Big Ears who, when he wasn’t giving the ball away, was falling over it.
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