You could forgive Manchester United fans for thinking that aside from Real Madrid, is is now their side that also boasts something of a Galactico policy after they read today that the Red Devils are chasing the signings of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sergio Ramos this summer.
What is somewhat strange this summer is the fact that most of England’s elite clubs are trailing after completely different transfer targets altogether which isn’t often the case with the Premier League’s superpowers usually trailing after the same targets.
Arsenal are closing in on Petr Cech while monitoring Morgan Schneiderlin, Liverpool have signed James Milner and Danny Ings, Chelsea are set to wrap up the signing of Radamel Falcao while Manchester City continue to play their own version of Fantasy Football after declaring an interest in England pair Raheem Sterling and Jack Wilshere.
At this point, our resident United fans concede that while Schweinsteiger and Ramos would be wonderful additions in positions that require strengthening, it will be an extremely difficult task for Louis van Gaal to prise them away from their current clubs and this is worrying fans somewhat.
Memphis Depay is already in the bag of course but United fans are chasing more concrete news of bids that have been submitted for a new centre back and a central midfielder.
All of this news has got us thinking just which current Manchester United players need to up their game next season in 2015/16 in order to fend off competition from potential new arrivals in Louis van Gaal’s squad.
That’s why today, our Red Devils fans have listed five United players who must improve their performances next term. Do you agree with their selections?
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 Manchester United stars that must improve next season.
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Angel Di Maria
Similarly to Mesut Ozil at Arsenal, former Real Madrid star Angel Di Maria endured a quiet, below-par first season in English football.
After signing for a whopping £60 million last summer, his capture sent United fans into overdrive, delighted with the fact that they managed to prise away a truly world class talent despite a failure to secure European competition for 2014/15.
The simple fact of the matter however is that United fans didn’t see enough of the talent Di Maria possesses for nearly long enough last term with the player fading badly in the second part of the season.
After initially lighting up van Gaal’s squad in the first half of 2014/15, particularly at Leicester City away despite the shock 5-3 defeat, Di Maria was often found wanting in games and even became a substitute in Louis van Gaal’s squad with the Red Devils boss selecting the likes of Ashley Young over the Argentine and who could’ve thought that’d ever happen!
Di Maria must improve next season and like in the aforementioned case of Ozil, United fans would be foolish to be giving up on the Argentina international just yet with Ozil having proved that despite being such a big name in the game, it can in fact be hard to adjust to English football right away.
The likes of Alexis Sanchez may differ but given the world class abilities of Di Maria, he is more likely to succeed next term than flop for a second successive season.
Adnan Januzaj
Say what you want about former flop of a manager David Moyes but it was he that successfully brought Adnan Januzaj through to the Red Devils’ first team.
Even boasting a place in the ever-competitive Belgian squad for the 2014 World Cup due to his excellent performances for United in 2013/14, 2014/15 didn’t nearly boast as many positive moments for 20-year-old Januzaj whose stock has fallen rapidly you feel.
A victim of Di Maria’s signature, not to mention the improved form of Ashley Young, Januzaj found regular game time extremely hard to come by last season and when you consider Memphis Depay is arriving to boot, a loan move or permanent switch away can’t be ruled out this summer.
This would be a shame for a player who has come through the ranks at Old Trafford but nevertheless, in the games that he did play last season, Januzaj was often found out and too easily to boot.
Often stalling opposition defenders ahead of beating them for pace up the line, Januzaj lost the ball too often with his productivity suffering as a result.
You can’t write him off already, I mean he is only 20-year-old and a raw talent in the game.
That said, it seems the upward curve Januzaj was riding has now stopped with an onus on the player to improve his form to get back into Louis van Gaal’s starting eleven next term.
Robin van Persie
There was no hesitation from Manchester United fans that Robin van Persie would be a decent signing despite approaching his thirties when signed back in August 2012. After all, he was banging in goals for fun for Arsenal.
We have seen this summer with the likes of Arsenal that they’re unsure over signing Porto’s Jackson Martinez given the fact that he is 28 and rapidly approaching 29 – considered by many to be an age which marks the start of a decline in value and form.
The latter statement is certainly true of van Persie’s current status at Old Trafford at the minute with the Dutchman having just endured a difficult third season at the club due to injuries that have in truth ravaged the majority of his career.
Injuries aside however, when van Persie took the field for United in 2014/15, there was a general feeling that he is starting to look like a player who is 31-years-old – a yard off the pace, not as clinical as he used to be and boasting more grey hairs than ever before!
This past season was a campaign in which Wayne Rooney yet again confirmed his status as United’s first choice centre forward with both van Persie and Radamel Falcao not being good enough to be relied upon in front of goal.
van Persie will hope he rediscovers his best form in 2015/16 and after all, the World Cup wasn’t so long ago and the striker looked something like his best under van Gaal back then.
Phil Jones
Both England internationals, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling are often thought of as a pair given the fact they they often join forces to marshal the Red Devils’ defence together on many occasions.
However, they’re also thought of as a pair because they are seemingly going through similar motions in their professional careers to date.
Both looking like superb defenders who can sure up United’s defence long-term on their day, it hasn’t been their day regularly enough for United fans to truly feel comfortable in their defensive abilities in recent seasons.
There were signs that out of the pair, Smalling was improving and performing to the standards required towards to the end of 2014/15 but as for Jones, the jury is still out on his talents.
If you drew a line graph of his performances in a United shirt, you wouldn’t see an upward curve but rather an erratic deviation from good to terrible, the sublime to the ridiculous.
This is simply the form we’ve become accustomed to seeing from Jones who again, will need to improve his consistency levels as someone Louis van Gaal can truly rely on next season.
With Marcos Rojo expected to play far more of a part in the starting eleven after injury, not to mention the club’s interest in Valencia’s Nicolas Otamendi and now Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos, the time for Jones to improve is now!
Luke Shaw
At times during 2014/15, Luke Shaw looked like a young English player who was simply buckling under the pressure of being officially the most expensive full back in world football, ever.
Undoubtedly talented and still fully expected to be a vital cog in United’s squad for the next 10 years or so, there is no denying that Shaw is still a raw talent that is developing all the time.
We saw the best of Shaw at his former club Southampton, simply born out of the fact that he was cutting his teeth in the game with no real pressure in familiar, homely surroundings.
Moving to such expectant surroundings at Old Trafford at a young age isn’t easy, let alone for the £30 million fee he arrived for but Shaw has time on his side.
Given Louis van Gaal’s tactical tweeks in formation, we often saw Ashley Young deployed as a left wing back and given his successes in the role, not to mention injury troubles for Shaw, the latter Red Devils ace didn’t see as much game time as we were all expecting.
As a result, Shaw never found his best form and trademark bursts of pace up the flank from left back in 2014/15 and this fact sets him up nicely to improve and remind everybody of his ability next term.
