We very much agree with Louis van Gaal’s assessment that this Manchester United team needs more pace.
But, having spent so much money over the last year you would have thought that this might have been addressed.
In truth, the likely loss of Angel di Maria hasn’t helped and the Argentine’s desire to leave isn’t entirely the fault of the Dutchman.
But we think that the current team can be set up to better exploit what pace it does have.
Firstly, Memphis surely has to be played out wide.
He may well eventually prove to be a deadly number 10. But he scored 22 goals from out wide last season and Manchester United desperately need his pace on the flanks to exploit the space behind the opposition fullbacks and get some service in to Rooney.
We think that Manchester United should try Mata in his preferred role at number 10. He is decent on the right but offers no pace or crosses from that flank.
Ashley Young is likely to get the nod but, after a really impressive pre-season, we would try Andreas Pereira out wide right and put Memphis on the left with Mata in the hole.
Pereira is strong enough to get a chance in the first team at this point and we believe that he will offer more creativity than Young.
That gives Manchester United much more pace in their attack and the likes of Depay and Pereira have loads of room to manouevre.
Having seen some really sloppy play from the centre backs against PSG we are also going for the pace of Smalling alongside Blind for this one.
So here is our strongest XI to play Tottenham on Saturday, assuming Pedro doesn’t come in meantime.
Manchester United fans: let’s have your thoughts.
trust
Aug 4, 2015 at 10:27 pm
Very strong but l prefer young for pereira