Manchester United have struggled to improve this season, despite spending vast sum’s of money…
If there is one statistic that sums up Manchester United’s season it is this one – in 21 games this season, they have won 37 points, exactly the same number as last season under David Moyes.
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This is a United team that under Louis van Gaal have spent £150m on transfers, and not had Champions League football too worry about. Would the result have been any different if Moyes had been given the same backing last term?
The Dutchman might have led the Red Devils back into the top four, but if he had been made to work under the same circumstances as his predecessor, when Liverpool and Arsenal were both performing brilliantly well – let’s not forget the Gunners were top for much of the first-half of the season – would he be any closer to returning the club to it’s former glories.
There have been some small signs of improvement this season, but even over the course of a ten game unbeaten run, the club’s performances were still regularly maligned by fans and pundits alike. Even a 3-0 win over rivals Liverpool was partly down to David de Gea’s brilliance in goal.
BBC Sport’s Robbie Savage described the United back three as ‘woeful’ during Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at home to Southampton, which allowed the high-flying Saints to leapfrog the Red Devils in the table.
It seems astonishing that a manager of Van Gaal’s quality would fail to rectify such an obvious shortcoming in United’s team – particularly when you consider that his arrival at the club coincided with the departures of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand.
There is no consistency in United’s choice of formation, and Van Gaal still appears to have little idea of what his best team is. The decision to leave out Radamel Falcao, who was not even amongst the subs on Sunday, was the latest in a long-line of astonishing choices this term.
Yes, they have struggled with injuries, and they’re team was extremely understrength when they were humbled by MK Dons in the Capital One Cup, but against Southampton, at home, Ashley Young was the only player missing. And yet still they failed to have so much as a shot on target.
United aren’t in the position they were last season, looking up at the top four, but they mustn’t fall into the trap of thinking they’re even remotely close to winning titles again. The Manchester United post-Sir Alex Ferguson era still has a long, long way to go.
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