With a home fixture against Swansea City to come tomorrow, at least our resident Manchester United supporters in the Football Transfer Tavern are approaching their third festive fixture with more optimism following a decent attacking showing against Chelsea on Bank Holiday Monday.
Doing everything but scoring against Guus Hiddink’s Blues, a large section of Red Devils supporters arrived at Old Trafford ready to give Louis van Gaal hell but as it turned out, a lot of their chants were then aimed at supporting the team who were visibly giving their all for their under-fire boss.
With Juan Mata hitting the bar, Anthony Martial hitting the post Ander Herrera being denied by a fantastic Thibaut Courtois stop and Willian handling the ball in what should’ve been a United penalty, there was no doubting that this was an invigorating Red Devils performance compared to the past seven games previously.
All of that said, they still didn’t get the all-important goal they were craving and nothing more than a win will do against the Swans tomorrow to prove United are setting about turning the corner.
In Alan Curtis’ team, Swansea City have proved a thorn in United’s side in recent seasons with the Welsh side having strangely prevailed by a 2-1 scoreline in the last three meetings between the duo.
While that game will sort itself out tomorrow, we’re today looking at Manchester United fans’ five biggest fears for the remainder of the campaign.
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Click on the image below to reveal Manchester United fans’ five biggest fears this 2015/16 campaign.
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That the club won’t land a good enough striker in January
For all Manchester United’s knocking on the door against Chelsea on Bank Holiday Monday, they still didn’t grab the vital goal they craved and despite improved performances from Anthony Martial and Wayne Rooney, the Red Devils are still in need of an additional striker.
Considering Memphis Depay was the only real senior attacking threat on Louis van Gaal’s bench against the Blues, a team like United should really have more weapons in their armoury.
That said, signing top quality forward players in January is likely to prove a tough task with sought-after pros such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang surely not for sale this month?
Somebody who might be is Saido Berahino who Tony Pulis has dropped out of his starting line-up for the past month or so with the England Under-21 international surely going to be moving on from his time at The Hawthorns this January?
Berahino was again linked with a United switch by Metro at the start of December but our Red Devils contingent by the bar are asking whether he is genuine United quality with the likes of Matteo Darmian and Memphis Depay struggling in patches this term.
That their Europa League commitments may hinder their top four battle
For all Manchester United’s troubles lately, you would still expect Louis van Gaal’s side to progress beyond FC Midtjylland in the last 32 of the Europa League next month.
But could that prove a problem in terms of their league form?
It’s overstated but for a club such as United who were used to playing Tuesday/Wednesday – Saturday rotations in the Champions League, suddenly switching this regime to Thursday – Sunday’s given their Europa League commitments may upset the apple-cart.
We’ve seen lesser teams such as Everton struggle to cope with this schedule in the recent past and for a United squad that has endured its fair share of injuries this term, battling on two fronts may prove problematic with a fair way to go if the Red Devils truly have designs on winning Europe’s inferior competition.
That Louis van Gaal remains in charge full stop!
With P45 banners away at Stoke City and home-made signs claiming ‘Leave, Vanish, Go!’ at Old Trafford for the Chelsea game on Monday, there are most definitely a large amount of United supporters who have quite simply had enough of Louis van Gaal and his philosophy.
Using several excuses for United’s shortcomings this term, not to mention the fact that exciting performances such as the one against Chelsea are too few and far between, it’s crushing Red Devils supporters that the days of Sir Alex Ferguson are over.
With wild rumours of a return to the dugout for Sir Alex Ferguson lately, surely that won’t come true but a change is what many United fans want and Jose Mourinho is the bookies favourite to succeed Louis van Gaal at the minute.
While the home-made Mourinho scarves outside the ground looked embarrassing for all involved, appointing the Special One would give United a new sense of direction and the Portuguese would be determined to prove Roman Abramovich and the Chelsea board wrong.
That Wayne Rooney continues to look a shadow of his former self
His terrible tackle against Oscar aside, all that was missing from Wayne Rooney’s performance against Chelsea on Monday was a goal with the England international putting in a decent display that we haven’t seen in a long while.
For whatever reason, Rooney has gone off the boil and badly this term with the former Everton man’s breaking of Sir Bobby Charlton’s England scoring record being his only real highlight from the 2015/16 campaign.
The feeling a lot of United supporters have on the Rooney situation nowadays is that he is no longer a 20-goal a season man and that’s disappointing with the striker having been such a force in his earlier United career.
Whether it’s confidence or something else entirely, it just hasn’t happened for Rooney so far this term and if he continues to score at a rate of one in four games for example, this won’t be great for United’s Champions League qualification prospects.
That they finish in a Europa League spot come May time
As alluded to on our second slide, the Europa League could cause a problem for this United side this term with their continued involvement in it ensuring a hectic programme in Spring time.
Say United were to progress to the last eight, the Red Devils would have to massively improve their week-to-week form they’ve been displaying in recent times to make a good first of their domestic top four battle, not to mention their European commitments to boot.
Sitting in sixth place right now, all Red Devils supporters are praying the club don’t end up finishing the season in such a position.
Getting into the Champions League again is vital for United’s overall development and despite signing the likes of Angel Di Maria without European football to tempt him in the recent past, everybody knows that playing in Europe’s elite competition gives you more of a chance to land the world’s best talents in the summer transfer window.
