Are we in better shape for this season?

We're clearly a striker and a centre back short but we've bought well and we have several players who definitely have more to offer than they have in the last couple of years. If Rojo can build on a promising season and Chicharito can rediscover form we're much of the way there.

I don't see us making a strong title challenge unless lots of things come together at once but we can certainly consolidate.
 
No we're utter shit and probably won't even get top 4
 
Our central defense is extremely weak IMO, and without a quality addition there, we won't be near fighting for title. The second problem is can Wayne Rooney give us 20 league goals next season. The last time he did so was on 11-12 and in fact he has done it only twice in his career. And the third doubt is what will happen if De Gea leaves.

I think that our midfield is very good. As are our wing backs.
 
The problem is that so many people seem incapable of recognising any middle ground between 'we're just as bad as last season' and 'omg we're gonna win the league and reach the CL final!'

Last year was difficult, but we very obviously took a big step up from where we'd been under Moyes. And the table reflected that.

This season will also have its difficult moments, but I'd be very surprised if we haven't taken another big step forwards, and I expect that to be reflected in the table with a 2nd place sort of finish, and probably a good showing in the Champions League.
 
Wilson Litchmore said:
Disagree. The biggest problem are now GK, CB's and now a forward. That's mostly the spine of the team.
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We are the team that conceded the least shots and we improved our back four with Darmian and our central midfield with Schneiderlin and Schweinsteiger. We virtually fixed our problems and you are shifting the goals, bringing a top CB should make our defense one of the best in Europe and until proven the opposite De Gea is a United player.
 
This window has been fantastic for us so far. Schweinsteiger, Morgan, Darmain and Depay in and Cleverley, Anderson, Falcao, RVP and Nani out. The only negative for me is losing RVP without replacing him but we still have time. If it closes and another deal is not done then we have done really well still and anybody who thinks we haven't is spoiled.
 
Yeah we are much better than last season. Our biggest problem last season was that every time Carrick got injured we would fall to pieces. We now have 2 new players that can step in and cover for Carrick, giving him time to recuperate between matches hopefully reducing his chance of injury. Memphis looks really good in the no 10 slot and he will only grow better as time goes on.
 
I am worried too. Yes we have strengthened in midfield and at RB so they are the positives. Apart from that I don't see us any stronger that last season, especially with the way Van Gaal seems to be setting us up, if pre season is anything to go by.

It looks like our best CB in Smalling has now been shoved down the pecking order behind Jones and Blind. Plus if we sign Ramos or Otamendi to play at right CB then that will be the end of Smalling due to this stupid rule Van Gaal has of having to play with one left footed CB and 1 right footed CB. Then we have Herrera who also looks like he has moved down the pecking order again and may well be out of the first 11. Thats 2 of our best players from last season benched for weaker players IMO.

Going forward we are no stronger, we lack firepower. We are about to offload Di Maria and we have got Depay instead. He may be good in the future but I cant see him being a huge player for us next season.

Up front we have Rooney who is past his best, Wilson who is very Young, Hernandez who is crap and whoever else Van Gaal wants to experiment with and try and turn into a striker. So we are arguably weaker in this position too.

Having said all that, I do think this squad is good enough to challenge for the title but I do think we will fall short unless we sign another world class attacking player. The other worry I have is that Van Gaal will persist with the likes of Blind at CB, leaving Smalling out, leaving Herrera out until he is forced to changed things due to bad results and injuries as people forget we actually started playing well last season when certain injuries meant Van Gaals hand was forced. Last season Shaw was injured so Blind was forced out of midfield and into left back. RVP was injured so it meant Rooney was out of midfield and up top on his own, this made a midfield position free for Herrera to come in, Di Maria also being suspended injured, Fellaini got a position. All this was pretty much forced on the manager IMO and that's when we went on a great run. I don't completely discredit LVG as i think he is great at setting us up against the bigger sides and that was part of the reason why we wiped the floor with Tottenham, Liverpool, City as at the same time he was forced to changed things due to the injuries. I just hope it doesn't take us going on a massively bad run for him to realise things need to be changed if we start losing because thats ok when your going for top 4 but if you are going for the title you cant have to many slip ups.
 
Think it's pretty obvious we're in better shape just because we've signed four new players and LVG has had a season to get to know the squad. Like others have said though, a CB and striker/wing forward would be perfect. Don't want to be dependent on our CBs and Rooney staying fit.
 
BringNaniBack said:
I am worried too. Yes we have strengthened in midfield and at RB so they are the positives. Apart from that I don't see us any stronger that last season, especially with the way Van Gaal seems to be setting us up, if pre season is anything to go by.

It looks like our best CB in Smalling has now been shoved down the pecking order behind Jones and Blind. Plus if we sign Ramos or Otamendi to play at right CB then that will be the end of Smalling due to this stupid rule Van Gaal has of having to play with one left footed CB and 1 right footed CB. Then we have Herrera who also looks like he has moved down the pecking order again and may well be out of the first 11. Thats 2 of our best players from last season benched for weaker players IMO.

Going forward we are no stronger, we lack firepower. We are about to offload Di Maria and we have got Depay instead. He may be good in the future but I cant see him being a huge player for us next season.

Up front we have Rooney who is past his best, Wilson who is very Young, Hernandez who is crap and whoever else Van Gaal wants to experiment with and try and turn into a striker. So we are arguably weaker in this position too.

Having said all that, I do think this squad is good enough to challenge for the title but I do think we will fall short unless we sign another world class attacking player.
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Think again, no one is challenging for anything unless we get a cb.
 
Id say we are slightly better but still not good enough to win the league.

Midfield seems to be finally sorted, we've got a proper RB in and signed Memphis.

If we want to win the league or progress to the knockout stage of champs league then we still desperatly need a CB and a proper number 9 striker. Also we need to try keep De Gea at all costs.
 
I think we're just behind with the business to where we would probably like to be at this stage, we have nailed the midfield and RB positions with genuine quality and intelligent (for a change) signings, Depay looks like a beast and I have really high hopes for him too. But the fact remaian that assuming DDG goes we need at least three new players still, maybe even four which is hardly ideal given how crucial August is for us.

But like for like we are still in a way better positiin than this time last year when we'd still only signed two players, had barely moved anyone on, and LvG was just at the start of getting his philosophy across.
 
I can't help but feel frustrated looking at how much money we've spent (OVER £250 MILLION ffs!) since Fergie retired, and yet we're still left here looking at the holes in the squad, bemoaning the lack of firepower, and not having any true world class players in the team. With that kind of money, we really shouldn't still have these problems.

We really have spent our money terribly over the last few years. I mean, really really really badly. Its very hard to put up a argument when ABU's laugh at the money we've spent relative to the quality we have in the squad. Arsenal and Chelsea have both built better teams, with far less money spent.
 
I think our squad is quite comfortably more than good enough to mount a title challenge - though if we do end up selling Di Maria I'd potentially like us to bring another player in.

Not quite convinced on van Gaal yet however.
 
I believe LVG will be Manchester United Manager for 3 seasons, he won't be sacked and he will honor his contract IMO.

Which means next season any players bought in will know that a new manager will be taking over after the next season. Which is not ideal and if it is a battle to sign the player.

Which means in a 3 year plan the second year becomes the most important, but I fear LVG is gonna try to be too clever again this season and not play players in there best positions.

I hope I'm wrong!
 
The squad (bar new additions) will be far more familiar with LvG's demands. That can only be good -- we also have a better squad than we did last year, with the improvements in midfield and at RB being a far bigger plus than the loss of two under-performing strikers. We still need a forward and a CB. With two quality additions in those areas we will be in far better shape than we were this time last year.
 
Yes. We've got rid of the two worst regular first teamers from last season (Di Maria and Falcao.) weak positions have gotten improved.
 
It depends on how our injuries fare this time. Last year Chelsea were a really thin squad. An injury to Matic would have seen them play mikel at DM. That was like us playing Fletcher when Carrick was injured.

If we have a core team available week in week out, I think we are ready
 
I will be happier if we sign a CB, a forward and DDG stays at least for this year.
 
Lawman said:
This window has been fantastic for us so far. Schweinsteiger, Morgan, Darmain and Depay in and Cleverley, Anderson, Falcao, RVP and Nani out. The only negative for me is losing RVP without replacing him but we still have time. If it closes and another deal is not done then we have done really well still and anybody who thinks we haven't is spoiled.
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will you feel the same when Di Maria and most likely De Gea go quite late on? And what happens if Rooney gets any kind of injury?

Without those 3 I think we're struggling for top 4.
 
Sandikan said:
will you feel the same when Di Maria and most likely De Gea go quite late on? And what happens if Rooney gets any kind of injury?

Without those 3 I think we're struggling for top 4.
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Replacing Di Maria isn't going to be a problem. As good as he can be in our imagination - or he was for Madrid 15 months ago - he wasn't that good for us. Good numbers but poor performances. When Ashley Young and Maroune Fellaini are above you in the pecking order, then something isn't right.

If we sign Pedro and Otamendi/Ramos we'll fight for the title (assuming that De Gea stays). If we don't sign a CB and we lose De Gea, then I think that very likely we'll finish outside of UCL zone.
 
Sandikan said:
will you feel the same when Di Maria and most likely De Gea go quite late on? And what happens if Rooney gets any kind of injury?

Without those 3 I think we're struggling for top 4.
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DDG leaving late wont be an issue. If he is still here when the UCL qualifier comes around he will be cup tied so wont be going anywhere.

ADM wasn't really that important to our successful period last season. Yes he got a few assists but was hardly a player we can't do without.

If Rooney get's injured I would like to see Adnan given a run up top. He looked really good in the second half yesterday. I don't see it happening as we will be bringing in another forward.

That said we are not finished in the transfer window. If DDG goes before the qualifier he will be replaced. We will probably get another CB and another forward.
 
I hear you chaps. My muppet mode after the very quick back to back signings of Darmian, and the Schws got my mode full on competing for trophies again, fusing the memories of the good displays in big games last year.

It's just those doubts creeping in again now. The uncertainty at centre back, a fair few of them made of glass. The lack of options up front now. Beyond Young, Mata, Rooney and Depay we're really skirting around. Januzaj and Chico can't fill with too much confidence, unless we again go back a few years. Fellaini did have that great spell, but we can't rely on that.

I think it's really only centre mid where we look stacked, before any of them get crocked!
 
Ideally before the window closes we'll get a CB that is comfortable on the ball with good distribution and a back-up for Rooney. I think there are definitely more signings to come so we can't judge things properly yet.
 
Sam said:
I can't help but feel frustrated looking at how much money we've spent (OVER £250 MILLION ffs!) since Fergie retired, and yet we're still left here looking at the holes in the squad, bemoaning the lack of firepower, and not having any true world class players in the team. With that kind of money, we really shouldn't still have these problems.

We really have spent our money terribly over the last few years. I mean, really really really badly. Its very hard to put up a argument when ABU's laugh at the money we've spent relative to the quality we have in the squad. Arsenal and Chelsea have both built better teams, with far less money spent.
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Cannot disagree with that. With 250m of pounds, it should be possible to create a title winning team from the scratch. Instead we haven't done so, despite that the zero point was a title winning team (with multiple problems, but still a title winning team).

About the money spend, I think that this problem has been here even before Fegie left. Frankly speaking, since the summer of 2007 we have been absolutely terrible in transfers.

Nani, Anderson, Hargreaves, Tevez, Berbatov, Valencia, Owen, Obertan, Diouff, Tosic, Manucho, Smalling, Hernandez, Bebe, De Gea, Young, Jones, Kagawa, Van Persie, Fellaini, Zaha, Valera, Mata, Falcao, Di Maria, Blind, Rojo, Herrera, Shaw, Darmian, Memphis, Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin and some other nobodies whose name no-one has heard before or ever since.

If you look at those transfers you can't find a single player (bar De Gea) for whom:
a) we didn't overpay
b) performed well each season.

There are a few who satisty the first (Valencia, Blind, Hernandez, Kagawa, Hargreaves, Smalling) or second criteria (Mata?), but no one (bar De Gea) who satisfies both of them.

I bolded the transfers we did this season, and I genuinely think that it could be our best ever summer when it comes to transfers. Somehow we managed to get the players we wanted for fair prices, and all these players seems to suit our game and be needed here. Still think that we desperately need a top CB who is a leader but is also good technically. I am a fan of Blind but can't see him being a top CB (if he becomes a CB in the first place), I am still not convinced by Rojo, I think that Evans is awful and needs to be shipped and I think that a combination of Jones and Smalling will destroy any chance of developing a good posession based game (which is LVG's target). We are three weeks till the new season starts, and we haven't yet fixed the position we were weakest last season.
 
Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Yes unless we decide to strap our newly signed players to a rocket and fire them into the sun.
 
Players out:
RVP
Falcao
Nani - wasn't involved last year
*Valdes - barely involved last year
*Di Maria
James - barely involved last year (I think one game only)
*Rafael - barely involved last year

Players in:
Darmian
Schneiderlin
Schweinsteiger
Depay
Chicha - coming back from loan

* As it stands at the moment I'm assuming Di Maria, Valdes and Rafael are gone, but DDG, Lindegaard, Evans and Chicha are staying. I'm also assuming that youngsters involved on the tour (Januzaj, Lingard, Pereira, Blackett, Johnstone and McNair) will be staying and not loaned out.

If the above assumptions are right, I think we are in a much better shape even without any more signings. Here is my reasoning:
GK (same as before) - lost Valdes, but we didn't really need him if DDG was staying. Also Johnstone looks good.
RB (big improvement) - lost Rafael, but his injuries prevented him to be really involved in the first team. Darmian looks like the best RB we've had for years. Also Valencia would have gained an extra year of experience as a RB.
LB (slight improvement) - having Shaw fit feels like a new signing. In Blind, Rojo and Blackett we have enough competent backup.
CB (slight improvement) - having solid FBs and DM, plus the super GK would protect our CBs more this season. McNair has also grown in experience and Rojo should have improved his English, plus Blind looks like he might be a decent cover as well. I think even without reinforcement we will be more solid in the back this season.
DM (big improvement) - Schneiderlin was brought as Carrick's replacement I guess, plus Schweinsteiger and Blind can play there too and we still have Carrick :drool:. I would even say that we are the best in the league in this position - only Chelsea with Matic have a player who is arguably better, but they don't have so much depth.
CM (improvement) - Di Maria is the only loss, who could play there, but he barely did for us. Schweinsteiger is a great addition, Schneiderlin could probably play there too, plus Fellaini and Herrera are very solid and maybe Blind could play there as well.
LW/RW (same as before) - lost Di Maria and Nani, added Depay - theoretically we should be worse off after losing two players, especially considering one of them was world class, but first Nani wasn't involved at all last year and second the loss of Di Maria is not as bad as it seems. Yes, he is world class player, but he didn't fit in our team - he had a great start, when he was unplayable for a month and managed be productive with assists even when he wasn't playing well in the second half of the season, however he was frustrating a lot of our fans and even lost his place to Young. On the other hand Depay is very exiting addition and seems like he will fit us like a glove. We also have Young, Januzaj, Wilson, Mata, Pereira and Lingard, who can play on the wing.
CF (slight weakening) - lost RVP and Falcao, added Chicha. This is the only position, where we have weakened, but not as much as it seams at a first sight. First Falcao has barely contributed anything - his loss is not going to be noticed. Second RVP although definitely a big loss, wasn't as influential last year as in previous campaigns. To balance it out we only added Chicha, who many feel has regressed a lot in the past 2 years, but I think he would make a good backup to Rooney. He had very limited opportunities at Real Madrid, but he did very well when he played. On top of that we have Wilson, Januzaj and Depay - there is very good potential there, but the most important reason why we haven't weakened that much is because it looks like LVG will play with one striker this year in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation as opposed to last year, when he played with two upfront. So as a whole we are not that bad in this position as some make it out to be. Now, there is question if Rooney is the same player as before, but this a whole different discussion.

So, I think we have improved or stayed the same in all positions, except CF and things are not that bad there either. Add to that that we have had a year with LVG's methods and everyone knows what is expected from them, plus some very exciting youngsters, who look to have matured a lot and I think I am right to say that we are in a much better shape currently. Of course, things could change a lot if DDG leaves, we let go of Chicha and sell/loan some of the youngsters mentioned above.

Edit: Forgot we also lost Cleverley and Anderson, but this changes nothing, cause they weren't involved enough.
 
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I think we are sorted right now, no new signing required now.

I think he want to buy new player now, it should be upgrade than what we have.
Also I think LVG is planing give our youth some chance.
 
----------------DDG
Darmian-Smalling-Jones-Shaw
--------Bastian-Morgan
-------------Herrera
Mata--------Rooney-------Depay

Adding our youth, plus the depth from Fellaini, Young, Valencia, Blind, Rojo etc, that is a squad that is hard working, strong and has enough flair, add Pedro, a CB and maybe a GK then we are flying. It may lack some goals but I trust the manager and Woodward to address that, they have addressed every other problem this season. I'm annoyed about Di Maria but he wasn't that good in the EPL in the end.
 
Sandikan said:
will you feel the same when Di Maria and most likely De Gea go quite late on? And what happens if Rooney gets any kind of injury?

Without those 3 I think we're struggling for top 4.
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We all knew DDG was leaving so that changes nothing. We need Rooney cover no doubt but we now have the strongest midfield in the league, plus strong full backs. Our centre backs are better protected plus our wingers are decent. Question marks over number 9 fair enough but Rooney might turn out to be a star turn as he always is.
 
We've probably weakened our attack by getting rid of Di Maria, RVP and Falcao, with only Depay coming in. I know none of them set the world alight last season but that's depth and (some) quality we've lost.
 
On paper we have a very good and well balanced midfield, average selection of center halves, good but inexperienced full backs and very unexciting attack. I don't expect us to play good free flowing football because front line with new signing Depay who's only 21, Rooney and one of Young/Mata is not really one that will play brilliant football at blistering pace. We should be well capable of getting results though because it's a solid side and we ought to be able to control games in midfield but I don't expect 4-0 batterings of anyone etc.

I had a look at 2006-07 review yesterday and wow, we did play some wonderful stuff that season. Same goes for 2007-09 period really even though we were into grinding 1-0 wins a lot more during that years.
 
I'd rather fix the squad completely and scrape 4th this year, for so to have us challenge for multiple seasons and be back to where we only need minor changes over years.
 
AkaAkuma said:
another worried thread.
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Yeah, I think we should have a 'I dont like this at United thread'.


Anyways after spending 250 mil we're in a terrible shape! If only we were like CHelsea, but we're not and its hard to see anything but scrapping 4th.. If that!
 
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