Having seen them team register a total of ZERO strikes in their last three competitive fixtures against Manchester City, Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace, the alarm bells are starting to ring for Manchester United supporters in the Football Transfer Tavern.
With Anthony Martial now coming back down from cloud nine and Wayne Rooney seemingly going through the motions in his career at 30-years-old now, the Red Devils have dried up in front of goal and Louis van Gaal has taken some stick from former players Paul Scholes and Andrei Kanchelskis of late.
With Kanchelskis claiming that the Dutch manager has the team playing like “robots” right now, all is not well at United but a win against CSKA Moscow at home tonight will put the Red Devils back in with a good shout of qualifying from Group B in the Champions League.
It appears patience is running thin with van Gaal at the minute given the sheer amounts of money the Dutch manager has spent on the playing squad in the last two summer transfer windows with United fans, ultimately used to winning.
Right now however, the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal look far more consistent, particularly in front of goal with some of our resident Red Devils fans earmarking the FA Cup as more of a winnable competition with van Gaal still trophyless in charge.
The January transfer window may prove huge for United but on the face of it, the club’s links with both Riyad Mahrez and Alexandre Pato today will do little to really excite Red Devils supporters.
Nevertheless, we’ve devised a United eleven today with these two players included just so Red Devils fans can take a peek at how their squad might look with the Leicester City and Sao Paulo men included.
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Click on the image below to reveal the best Manchester United XI including Riyad Mahrez and Alexandre Pato.
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David De Gea
Unfortunately for David De Gea right now, he’s just not seeing his Manchester United team in front of him tuck away the goals with therefore more pressure on him to keep them out at his end.
If the truth be told, De Gea is good enough to keep United in several fixtures, such has been his development over the past couple of years after a shaky start at Old Trafford.
Up there alongside the world’s best goalkeepers in Manuel Neuer, Thibaut Courtois and Petr Cech right now, the way De Gea commands his penalty area stands him apart from most other ‘good’ goalkeepers.
Matteo Darmian
Having been a fixture at right back for the most part this season, Matteo Darmian has proved himself to be a relatively good acquisition so far with probably just the Arsenal game away proving his only noteworthy disaster.
Dropped for Antonio Valencia in the Manchester Derby where Louis van Gaal opted for more pace down the flank, Darmian is still the better option all round in the eyes of many United fans by the bar.
Before landing the Italian in the summer, United were chasing Southampton’s Nathaniel Clyne according to the tabloids but in fairness, United fans aren’t ruing the fact Liverpool managed to sign him too much with Darmian having done OK so far.
Chris Smalling
A special mention must go to Manchester United’s Chris Smalling who has turned his personal form around this term with the player’s game having advanced impressively.
Having bulked up, Smalling is an incredible physical presence nowadays and is rarely beaten off the ball in terms of strength.
Don’t get us wrong; he’s still not totally infallible but we just believe that incidences such as his silly red card at Manchester City last term may now be a thing of the past with the player growing in both maturity as well as stature.
Daley Blind
Having been initially dropped out of United’s team in favour of the returning Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo recently, Daley Blind returned to Premier League action from the start against Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.
So far this season, van Gaal has managed to take a look at all of United’s defenders, albeit on just a few occasions for some but on the whole, Blind hasn’t done that bad a job at centre back.
Having played as more of a defensive midfielder in his first season prior to van Gaal swooping for both Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin this past summer, the fact Blind has reverted back to left back and centre back with minimum fuss and relatively combative performances deserves some credit.
Luke Shaw
With Luke Shaw now injured for the entirety of the 2015/16 campaign, the spotlight has fell upon who exactly may get the nod as Roy Hodgson’s first choice England left back for Euro 2016 next summer.
Surely Ryan Bertrand, Kieran Gibbs, Leighton Baines and possibly Danny Rose’s names are all in the frame but lets be honest; none are as good as Shaw.
Having endured a relatively poor debut season last term, Shaw was coming to the boil nicely this season, producing some of the great all-round performances we saw from him in his time breaking through with Southampton.
With everybody in the tavern wishing him the speediest of recoveries, there’s no doubting that Shaw will be back in United’s starting eleven following his spell on the sidelines.
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Starting again against Crystal Palace at the weekend, Bastian Schweinsteiger must now be fully acquainted with English football having gone up against a plethora of opposition.
We’ve seen the World Cup winner bring a calm influence to the Red Devils’ midfield so far this season and it must be said that the former Bayern Munich man never looks rushed in the engine room – apart from that away game at Arsenal.
One of those players who can control the pace of a game while being good enough on the ball to buy himself time, Schweinsteiger has quietly gone about his task well at Old Trafford on the whole.
Morgan Schneiderlin
Much like Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin has been steady in his fledgling United career to date.
With Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini still knocking about, most United fans would select their two new central midfield signings to start.
What is the case however is that if both Schweinsteiger or Schneiderlin’s form wanes, van Gaal can select from with an embarrassment of fellow riches that also include Ander Herrera and young Andreas Pereira.
Juan Mata
Having enjoyed a good season on the whole, Juan Mata has surprisingly benefited from being deployed on the right hand side of an attacking midfield three under Louis van Gaal.
In his time at Chelsea, a lot was made of Juan Mata’s talents being wasted on the flanks as opposed to his favoured number 10 berth but in fairness to the player, he’s made it work out wide this term.
A standout player in United’s win away at Southampton earlier this term, Mata is a contributor of goals but he’ll need to step up on the scoring front even more right now with Wayne Rooney going through a barren spell in terms of confidence.
Wayne Rooney
In many ways, Wayne Rooney’s current week-to-week form in the Premier League is akin to the temporary demise of Chelsea.
While United fans keep expecting Rooney to regain his former killer instinct next week in the league, it simply rolls around to game day and he’s still producing forgettable performances that are doing nothing to turn around the jibes that he could now be past it.
Like Chelsea, we know that Rooney still has a lot to give and is just going through a period where he is devoid of confidence but if the truth be told, the length of time he is taking to get back to his best is worrying.
Of course, Rooney offers a lot more to this United team than goals alone but with Anthony Martial having been deployed on the left wing in Memphis Depay’s absence recently, he needs to be getting on the scoresheet.
We’re including Rooney because he’s the captain of the United ship and quite simply, will continue to receive regular chances to turn it all around.
Riyad Mahrez
Bagging a brace away at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday afternoon, these strikes represented Riyad Mahrez’s sixth and seventh Premier League strikes of the season so far.
Turning into a regular source of goals this term, the Algerian international has been one of the vital cogs in the Foxes remarkable turnaround to being considered a Europa League chasing outfit under Claudio Ranieri.
Rather unsurprisingly, the tabloids such as The Mirror are linking flavour of the month Mahrez with a January switch to United but our resident Red Devils fans are split on whether he’s a big enough name for the club.
With many favouring a swoop for Southampton’s Sadio Mane instead, only time will tell whether United will sign an additional winger in the New Year but to be fair, the club didn’t end up replacing Angel Di Maria with Pedro so there could yet be more room for another attacking midfield reinforcement.
Alexandre Pato
Remember him?
Well Alexandre Pato’s name is back among the English transfer rumours with Manchester United today linked with an Old Trafford switch by The Mirror.
Basically, the former AC Milan man has come out and claimed that he doesn’t expect to be remaining in Brazil next year in what is usually called a come-and-get-me plea by the press.
The question remains however; is Pato good enough for a club such as United any more?
Undoubtedly a huge prospect a couple of years ago, the sheer fact Pato departed Europe back to his Brazilian homeland in 2013 tells you everything you need to know about his career tailing off.
Some of our United fans claim he’d be an ideal signing for the likes of Stoke City who like to collect more exotic sounding players nowadays but few would accept Pato over new signing Anthony Martial.
