Manchester United take on Burnley at Old Trafford tonight in a game that is being billed as the clash of the long ball merchants – just don’t tell Louis van Gaal.
The United boss came under fire from West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce of all people for the way in which his side played direct football to salvage a point at Upton Park at the weekend – a comment that seems to have gotten under the Dutchman’s skin.
He spent his pre-match press conference yesterday explaining to anyone who will listen that the claims from ‘Big Sam’ don’t add up, with the use of some pretty diagrams he had printed off that morning especially.
A look at the stats however has revealed that United are only behind Burnley in playing the most long balls this season and supporters are getting frustrated with the poor performances on show, especially when you consider close to £200 million has been spent in the last 12 months.
Here we have identified five issues van Gaal failed to resolve during the transfer window just passed.
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Click on Louis van Gaal to reveal the 5 issues Man United failed to resolve in the January transfer window.
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Still no sign of a new centre back…
Manchester United have been heavily criticised for managing to spend almost £200 million in 12 months and yet failing to add a new centre back to what seems an incredibly unbalanced squad.
Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Jonny Evans and Marcos Rojo have done okay this season whilst van Gaal has had to call on youngsters such as Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett on occasions.
United fans have been spoilt down the years with the partnership of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, and it is quite clear the defenders currently on the club’s books are not in the same class.
It is clear United need to add defensive reinforcements if they are to get back to where they want to be, as there is only so many times David De Gea can get them out of trouble.
And still no sign of a defensive midfielder…
Whilst the failure to sign a new centre back is strange, the failure to land a defensive midfielder is even more confusing, especially since van Gaal sanctioned the departures of Darren Fletcher and Anderson with no sign of replacements.
United have been linked with a host of big names since the summer with Roma’s Kevin Strootman, Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin and Sporting Lisbon’s William Carvalho all thought to be targets.
But not even a bid was made in January with the United boss seemingly content to go on with his unbalanced squad from now until the end of the season.
No replacement for Falcao
On paper, United have one of the most feared strikeforces in all of Europe. However, Radamel Falcao has simply not done enough to justify his massive £200,000-a-week wages since his loan move from Monaco.
Four Premier League goals and no shortage of injury problems will have done little to persuade van Gaal to pay the £40 million asking price to make the deal permanent.
United’s strikers have been living off their reputation for the majority of this season and it would have been wise to add a proven Premier League goalscorer as a long-term replacement for the Colombian international last month.
De Gea is yet to sign a new deal
David De Gea has once again been the star of Manchester United’s season and Real Madrid continue to be linked with a move.
Reports suggest the Spaniard has begun negotiations over a new deal at Old Trafford which would come as a massive boost.
It would have been a big statement had he signed during the January transfer window whilst the signing of Victor Valdes on a free transfer seemed to be a show of surrender in terms of hanging onto him for much longer beyond the current season.
There’s still some deadwood floating about
Louis van Gaal will point to the fact that Darren Fletcher and Anderson are both off the wage bill following the January transfer window but there remains a few players United fans will feel frustrated to see picking up weekly pay packets of up to £70,000.
Ashley Young, Marouane Fellaini, Chris Smalling and others could all argue they have done enough to stay at the club for now but are they the long term solutions?
Chelsea were cut-throat last month, selling Andre Schurrle to Wolfsburg and loaning Mohamed Salah to Fiorentina while bringing in a top class replacement in the form of Juan Cuadrado.
Manchester United need to be taking advantage of the transfer windows to produce that sort of business as their rebuild still clearly has some way to go yet.
