The Football Transfer Tavern is full of festive cheer this Christmas Day with punters popping into the bar after their roast dinners earlier on today.
A time to be merry and upbeat, unfortunately for our Manchester United supporters, they haven’t been feeling much like this in recent weeks with three consecutive defeats to Wolfsburg, AFC Bournemouth and Norwich City and with all due respect to those sides, the Red Devils should be beating them.
Louis van Gaal is understandably under huge pressure at the moment and with Jose Mourinho’s name being touted around as a potential replacement, all eyes are on United at present.
Facing a tough assignment away at Stoke City tomorrow lunchtime, it won’t get any easier for van Gaal who will know that three points away at the Britannia Stadium will be a tough assignment.
But that is the minimum requirement in the eyes of United supporters who need their team to dig deep during this festive period to keep themselves up with the likes of Leicester City, Arsenal and Manchester City rather than using the remainder of the season to battle Tottenham and Liverpool for fourth place.
With everybody feeling a little reflective by the bar this evening with 2015 nearly over, we’re taking this moment to devise a list of the five best Manchester United goals so far this campaign.
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Click on the image below to reveal the five best Manchester United goals so far this 2015/16 season.
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Andreas Pereira vs Ipswich Town (H)
If you’re Manchester United manager, there’s a huge onus on bringing through exciting young talents given this is how Sir Alex Ferguson set about masterminding his success at Old Trafford.
While the Class of 92 were an outstanding bunch of individuals in their own right, one man who does boast the potential to make a name for himself in his own way is young Andreas Pereira.
We’ve steadily seen the young Belgian-born Brazilian youth international become more and more of a fixture in United squads over the past season or so and the 19-year-old got a rare start against Ipswich Town in the third round of the Capital One Cup back in September.
Taking his chance admirably, his free-kick that put United 2-0 up in an eventual 3-0 victory over the Tractor Boys was absolutely sublime displaying his huge potential.
Absolutely rooting Bartosz Bialkowski in the Ipswich net, the curling effort was one Pereira will never forget given it was his first ever strike in United’s first team.
Anthony Martial vs Liverpool (H)
‘Welcome to Manchester’ were the words of a jubilant Martin Tyler back in September when Anthony Martial burst onto the scene at Old Trafford in a dream debut for the Frenchman.
Signed from Monaco for £36 million in the final knockings of the summer transfer window, the teenager showed exactly why he’s been compared to Thierry Henry, cutting in from the left hand side on his right foot before side stepping Martin Skrtel and slotting coolly beyond David De Gea.
While the strike would have been applauded massively against any opponent, this was Liverpool at the end of the day and being the most important game for United’s supporters season in, season out, this 3-1 result with Martial getting in on the act early was something United fans probably dreamt about the night before!
Memphis Depay (1st) vs Club Brugge (H)
Now pretty much half way through his first ever season as a Manchester United player, in the headmasters’ report, Memphis Depay would probably get a B- or in other words, could do better.
Undoubtedly a hugely talented footballer, consistency has been the Dutchman’s problem and unfortunately for the player, the demands placed on succeed are huge at a club like United so he needs to be swimming rather than sinking on as close to a week-to-week basis as possible.
Not always in the starting line-up and taken out of the firing line on occasion by Louis van Gaal, the pressure on Depay to deliver the goods is huge considering he cost £31 million.
While he’s been treading water of late, a standout moment for the former PSV Eindhoven man was his first ever competitive goal for United back in mid-August in the Red Devils’ Champions League qualifier first leg against Club Brugge.
After Brugge took a surprise early lead through a Michael Carrick own goal, Depay took on the responsibility of juggling the ball over a Brugge defender’s head in the left channel before cutting inside and sending more defenders on a merry dance before picking his spot with great composure.
Daley Blind vs Liverpool (H)
We’ve already included Anthony Martial’s first ever United goal in the game against Liverpool earlier this season but in the very same fixture, we saw another cracking goal from Daley Blind to open the scoring.
Giving United the impetus just after half-time in the 49th minute, Juan Mata’s sideways free-kick deceived the whole Liverpool team who left an unmarked Blind to slam the ball past Simon Mignolet perfectly from just inside the Reds’ box.
Placed to perfection, there was nothing the Liverpool stopper could do about it and what’s more, United fans were expecting anybody but Blind to open the scoring in such fantastic fashion.
Memphis Depay vs PSV Eindhoven (A)
It was always going to happen wasn’t it?
Signed from PSV Eindhoven in the summer of course, Memphis Depay returned to the Philips Stadion to bite off the hand that once used to feed him back in mid-September with the Dutchman putting Louis van Gaal’s men into a first-half lead.
As we all know by now, United went onto lose the same game 2-1 and the club’s failure to beat the Dutch side in two attempts during the group stage was a huge contributor to the fact they currently find themselves within the Europa League.
But anyway, Depay’s opener on that night in the Netherlands was superbly taken with the 21-year-old cutting in off the left flank before carefully making his way past Santiago Arias and Jeffrey Bruma superbly to then slot the ball home past Jeroen Zoet with his left foot.
Sensational!
