How good is our squad, really?

Pexbo said:
At 19 I think Shaw is a shoe in for Top Quality hence the purple.

As far as Young and Valencia go, at their age do you really see them as players we can plan for the future with? The target according to Woodward and Van Gaal is to target being a Champions League contender. They don't fit in that target for me, even as squad players. We need to replace them with players who don't just "do a job" but make a difference.
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They've been among our best players this season. On that basis alone, it seems silly to single them out as one of only four players who you don't think is good enough.

It's probably more of a reflection on the limitations of the other players on that list but they've been doing all that's asked of them and would clearly belong in the top tier compared to the rest of our squad.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
They've been among our best players this season. On that basis alone, it seems silly to single them out as one of only four players who you don't think is good enough.
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They've been doing a job. I don't believe for a second that Van Gaal plans to use the 3-5-2 beyond the summer. Hopefully sooner than that.

Where do they fit into the future then?

They've also got 0 goals and 3 assists between them all season. It's really, really not good enough when you see the output other fullbacks and wingers have at other clubs.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Yup. I would agree with all of that. Van Gaal inherited a deeply flawed squad and seems to have (at this early stage) spent an awful lot of money without significantly improving it.

It's a bit mad that Fellaini, Young and Valencia would be among our best performers this season and most United fans wanted all three of them gone in the summer.
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LvG/Woody only fixed one and a half positions. Shaw should be nailed on LB and Blind might replace Carrick. I am not sure if Rojo really is the solution for our defence and Falcao + Di Maria just added to positions, where we already had players.

Compared to top teams we are missing a RB, a CB, a wide men and one CM. Considering the age of our attackers and Carrick, the real overhaul is still ahead. At least half of our squad can be called into question.

Chelsea is miles ahead. City´s squad is clearly better, but has major flaws. Overall its overrated. Arsenal is slightly ahead. At the moment their squad isnt necesarily better, but its far easy to sort out their issues. If they buy a good DM and another CB they are in for the title.
Overall our squad is the 4th strongest, but we need a fantastic transfer window to solve the issues.
 
I think it’s hard to say at the moment because we misuse so many of our players you can’t say “this guy does a job in his position” or “he’s not good enough”…it was the same under Moyes.
Our players have been horribly mismanaged for such a long period of time now it’s more or less impossible to assess a large number of them as individuals.
In fact, as an example, lets give it a try:
DDG – Top class, but may well need replacing in the summer
Valdes – Hasn’t played for us yet
Other goalkeepers – Hanging out with Liam Miller
Rafael – Tailor made United player but we play a formation he doesn’t have a position in. Often bizarrely overlooked for clearly inferior Valencia even when we do.
Shaw – Good prospect. Shouldn’t be a first choice fullback at his age…also sometimes is a wing back which he’s not suited to at all so haven’t been able to judge how good he actually is yet. Same problem as Rafael…a player who plays in a position that doesn’t exist in LVG’s formation, except LVG plays him anyway.
Young – Not good enough as a winger. Seems to be a good wing back but is literally the only player that system suits
Valencia – Past it, imo. Useful as a back up full back if you don’t mind your back up full back being a bit shite
Jones – Played sporadically. Gets injured, injures team mates. Still have no idea if he’s really good or really crap.
Smalling – Good defender but not good enough on the ball to play the type of football his manager wants him to. Unclear whether his role will change or if he’ll need to be replaced by someone who can play it better.
Evans – Seems to have regressed into playing like a panicky conference player. Second time he’s done this so don’t think he can be relied upon.
Rojo – A nutter. Might be good but keeps getting injured.
Blind – Is he a midfielder or a full back or a defender? Or just a John O’Shea type thing?
Herrera – Looks really good but is never used and invariably dropped even when he’s clearly MOTM in the previous game. Probably our best midfielder but we play strikers in midfield instead of him. Baffling scenario
Carrick – Too old to play as a one man midfield, which is what he’s used as. Impossible to say if he can play in a proper midfield because we have’t fecking tried since about 2008!
Fellaini – Is he a midfielder or a no10? Elbows people. Scores the type of goals a tree might score if you put it in a United shirt. No idea what the plan is with him.
Fletcher – Looks like he’s forgotten how to play football…but then every time he plays it’s as a one man midfield, which is basically impossible for anyone who isn’t Paul Scholes.
Januzaj – Hard to tell because he’s not allowed to play. Another who has no position in our system.
Mata – Hard to tell because I still can’t figure out what position it is we are playing him in. It’s not midfield but it’s not as a no10 either.
Rooney – Good striker/no10…used as a below average midfielder but not quite midfielder instead.
Di Maria – Record signing who doesn’t have a position in the formation the manager who bought him has chosen to use. Completely fecking ridiculous situation.
Falcao – Doesn’t play often enough to judge. Gets dropped or subbed off regardless of performance level or the fact his striking counter part has been equally as poor.
RVP – Think he’s past it as a first choice/lone front man. Still useful though.
Wilson – Good prospect. Too soon to make any real judgement.
All I can glean from the current scenario is we need fullbacks and maybe need players in basically every other position, but wont know for sure until we start using the ones we have properly.

I don't think some of our players are nearly as good as some people seem to think they are, but at the same time they're definitely better than the shite we produce on the pitch every single week. I would estimate we're a top 4 team with a couple of major flaws preventing us from pushing on for the title. Insted atm we're performing as a mid table team scrambling against the odds to be a top 4 team.
 
Pexbo said:
They've been doing a job. I don't believe for a second that Van Gaal plans to use the 3-5-2 beyond the summer. Hopefully sooner than that.

Where do they fit into the future then?

They've also got 0 goals and 3 assists between them all season. It's really, really not good enough when you see the output other fullbacks and wingers have at other clubs.
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I don't think there's a fullback in the league with more than 3 PL assists. So Valencia's two assists is hardly "really, really not good enough".

As an aside, in Rafael's best ever season for United (2012-13) he managed a grand total of 3 PL assists all season. If you want to ditch Valencia for a lack of productivity, you'd have to say Rafael is in the firing line too.
 
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good but not good enough with the specific skills to perform the philosophy apart from Blind and Carrick. Too bad they happen to play in the same position.
 
What I don't understand since LVG took over is, he bemoaned the lack of central midfielders and defenders, and said we had too many attacking players.

Herrera and ADM where then bought who both play in attacking midfield, in fact LVG has pushed ADM further forward than where he showed his WC form last season, I realise getting Falcao to replace Welbeck was a last minute decision and not something he prioritied, but I don't see how he was ruthless or made any brave decisions or strange signings that could prove fruitful.

I would love to see him sell one of Mata or Herrera and buy a defensive midfielder, someone who can retain possession and playmake from deep, then sell Evans & Paddy will be gone end of season probably due to contract situations..and we literally can get several players in like Hummels, Subotic, Godin, and buying someone like the Villa CB then, he'd be a strong squad option..
 
Its a squad, 6 months into its life cycle, with a huge amount of potential and ability. Atm its unbalanced in terms of the quality being spread over positions, but that will (hopefully) be addressed over the next window or two (most likely the Summer).

Fans nowadays are far to impatient. You can't just build a great team (squad) in 6 months. That Arsenal team that you're comparing it to has been constructed by Wenger over years and years, and still looks nowhere near winning a title, and its also worth noting is behind us in the table.
 
As we can't do much about squad quality until the end of the season, I'm more worried by the performances of quality players in the squad. I've not yet seen Di Maria, Herrera or even Mata play as well as they can. RvP and Falcao may be for whatever reason playing as well as they can so I'll leave them out of the "good players not playing as well as they can" equation. Same with Rooney, because he's always been inconsistent. But that's a lot of our creative game I'm writing off as under-performing.

Why aren't good players looking as good as Cazorla? There could be lots of reasons, but I really don't see the formation, or the random placement of players inside it as helping.

Of course it's all about balance and consistency, things that take time (injury-free time at that) but watching us this last few weeks, it looks like LvG has got his round holes pre-drilled and is disappointed that the square pegs don't fit.
 
Sam said:
Its a squad, 6 months into its life cycle, with a huge amount of potential and ability. Atm its unbalanced in terms of the quality being spread over positions, but that will (hopefully) be addressed over the next window or two (most likely the Summer).

Fans nowadays are far to impatient. You can't just build a great team (squad) in 6 months. That Arsenal team that you're comparing it to has been constructed by Wenger over years and years, and still looks nowhere near winning a title, and its also worth noting is behind us in the table.
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Yeah, it's a strange claim to make about a team behind us in the league. It's just watching Cazorla doing his thing against City got me thinking whether Van Gaal has players in his squad capable of putting in that kind of match-winning performance in a really big game. A masterclass in technique, graft and footballing ability. Especially when you consider that Cazorla might not even be part of their first XI. Who would be the equivalent in our squad?
 
We are good in GK, midfield and attack, but our defense options are mid table at best. Also our attackers, while very good individually, struggle to find any chemistry when played together, so we need to work that out too.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Yeah, it's a strange claim to make about a team behind us in the league. It's just watching Cazorla doing his thing against City got me thinking whether Van Gaal has players in his squad capable of putting in that kind of match-winning performance in a really big game. A masterclass in technique, graft and footballing ability. Especially when you consider that Cazorla might not even be part of their first XI. Who would be the equivalent in our squad?
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Eh? You're saying you've never seen this from Mata, Rooney and Van Persie in big games?

Also, it's even stranger considering yesterday was Arsenal's first win against a big team in the league in how long? Though I understand in isolation it was a fantastic performance from Cazorla.
 
jojojo said:
As we can't do much about squad quality until the end of the season, I'm more worried by the performances of quality players in the squad. I've not yet seen Di Maria, Herrera or even Mata play as well as they can. RvP and Falcao may be for whatever reason playing as well as they can so I'll leave them out of the "good players not playing as well as they can" equation. Same with Rooney, because he's always been inconsistent. But that's a lot of our creative game I'm writing off as under-performing.

Why aren't good players looking as good as Cazorla? There could be lots of reasons, but I really don't see the formation, or the random placement of players inside it as helping.

Of course it's all about balance and consistency, things that take time (injury-free time at that) but watching us this last few weeks, it looks like LvG has got his round holes pre-drilled and is disappointed that the square pegs don't fit.
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Agree with that but when has any current member of our squad ever put in a performance like that for United against top opposition. Maybe Rooney? The Van Persie of two seasons ago? After that I'm struggling.
 
Locka said:
Eh? You're saying you've never seen this from Mata, Rooney and Van Persie?
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Mata's never come close to that for United. Not against top opposition. Rooney has done. Van Persie too. Although Rooney's the only one of the two of them likely to do it again IMO.

And let's not forget we're talking about an Arsenal player who probably wouldn't even be in their best XI, with everyone fit and available.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Mata's never come close to that for United. Not against top opposition. Rooney has done. Van Persie too. Although Rooney's the only one of the two of them likely to do it again IMO.

And let's not forget we're talking about an Arsenal player who probably wouldn't even be in their best XI, with everyone fit and available.
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When has Rooney played like this?
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Yeah, it's a strange claim to make about a team behind us in the league. It's just watching Cazorla doing his thing against City got me thinking whether Van Gaal has players in his squad capable of putting in that kind of match-winning performance in a really big game. A masterclass in technique, graft and footballing ability. Especially when you consider that Cazorla might not even be part of their first XI. Who would be the equivalent in our squad?
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We've definitely got the players capable of putting in performances like that (and have done many times down the years). Di Maria, Rooney, Mata, RVP and Falcao have all destroyed teams in the exact same way down the years. Di Maria won MOTM is the Champions League final just over 6 months ago.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Mata's never come close to that for United. Not against top opposition. Rooney has done. Van Persie too. Although Rooney's the only one of the two of them likely to do it again IMO.
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Mata hasn't had a great deal of big games to prove it in for us though. But he showed it multiple times for Chelsea - against us a few times unfortunately.

He's clearly capable of it though.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I don't think there's a fullback in the league with more than 3 PL assists. So Valencia's two assists is hardly "really, really not good enough".
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He's not a fullback though, he's a wingback. He should be putting better figures out there than defenders.

Anyway, I couldn't care less about figures to be honest. It's perfectly clear to anyone that we need to upgrade Valencia and Young if we want to compete with Bayern, Real, Chelsea and City. They haven't got Youth on their side anymore.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Yeah, it's a strange claim to make about a team behind us in the league. It's just watching Cazorla doing his thing against City got me thinking whether Van Gaal has players in his squad capable of putting in that kind of match-winning performance in a really big game. A masterclass in technique, graft and footballing ability. Especially when you consider that Cazorla might not even be part of their first XI. Who would be the equivalent in our squad?
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I think this is significant. Under the three managers we've come in big games to sit deep and play an efficient counter game but it's been quite tough to watch because we can't keep the ball the way Arsenal did yesterday, or Chelsea did at the Etihad last season. Both those sides created more clear cut chances whereas when we try to play that game we hoof the ball, and sh*t ourselves.
 
We're still completely unbalanced. The 352 will stay as we won't be able to get the players in January to go 433. Finishing in the top 4 will be a massive obstacle and i'm not sure we can do it with this 352 but hopefilly Van Gaal can start finding a solid starting 11.The rot started when Moyes failed to buy the players we needed in weakened positions and in total panic he bought in players for overinflated sums who were not as good as players we already had in positions that were not priority for improving. Fellaini has been our best player this year but his lack of creativity in central midfield makes it harder for us to open teams up so of course he is not the Wilshire, Ramsey, Modric, Yaya Toure, Vidal or Fabregas etc that the club needed... . It was that lack of balls or ambition from Moyes when we had the pull of CL football that caused the rot. Van Gaal will no doubt sight 4 top players in the summer to balance the team if we finish in the top 4. Clyne, Otamendi, Strootman and Depay would be a good bet. Bale would be fantasy...I like the fact that Van Gaal has given chances to the likes of Jones, Smalling, Fellaini etc instead of signing expensive replacements but every manager needs at least half a season before seeing who needs to be chopped, van gaal already knows this but won't find the replace, ents in January
 
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Sam said:
Its a squad, 6 months into its life cycle, with a huge amount of potential and ability. Atm its unbalanced in terms of the quality being spread over positions, but that will (hopefully) be addressed over the next window or two (most likely the Summer).

Fans nowadays are far to impatient. You can't just build a great team (squad) in 6 months. That Arsenal team that you're comparing it to has been constructed by Wenger over years and years, and still looks nowhere near winning a title, and its also worth noting is behind us in the table.
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Sense.

As I said, people are pointing out Mourinho buying Fabregas and Costa to finish their squad and complaining that we didn't do that.

Well why didn't Mourinho do that in summer 2013? What's with the big delay for a year complaining about his squad not being good enough?

It's a rebuilding process. You work with what you have, assess, tinker, reassess and then change as you see fit, then you keep building on that.

Van Gaal is in the first six months of working with this squad, people expect miracles.
 
The OP is pessimistic as feck IMO. Sure Arsenal has great players, but on paper, we have even better ones. OP talks about players on form, but if both squads were to be at the top of their game and all synchronized, our squad would be challenging Chelsea's, not Arsenal's.

Our squad is one of thr best in the world; we just need to get everyone fit and firing. And most importantly playing in the right positions in a formation that utilises their skills.
 
I'd argue that minus a top centre half, it's a good bit better than the squad that won the league and outplayed Real Madrid, it just isn't being utilised effectively. Unless we have Fellaini to go long to, we tediously struggle to transition the ball from defence into midfield, no matter who the opposition is, and I'd say that's tactical rather than down to a lack of talent in terms of personnel.
 
We're above them in the league, and that's good enough for me:

787d52f2-5c85-4b1a-8f7e-e4c60f6c031c


Arsenal? I've shit 'em.
 
Sam said:
We've definitely got the players capable of putting in performances like that (and have done many times down the years). Di Maria, Rooney, Mata, RVP and Falcao have all destroyed teams in the exact same way down the years. Di Maria won MOTM is the Champions League final just over 6 months ago.
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Performances for United would carry a lot more weight tbh.

Di Maria probably deserves a pass because, as you say, he was so good for Madrid in the recent past. Been very dissapointing for United but hopefully that's just an acclimatisation thing.

I worry about whether Mata can ever become a really influential player for us. Mourinho's marginalisation of him is definitely a red flag. RvPs done, if you ask me. Been too poor for too long. Falcao? Feck knows. I think there's a decent chance he'll be gone in the summer.
 
Its not that the players are bad in general. They are just extremely bad (most of them) for the modern passing/combination game and thats whats happening. A "philosophy" based on possesion and building up, but performed by players who want to cross and hoof.

The real victims of this is our frontline, as they got so little to work with, and they end up being the ones frowned upon.
 
Pexbo said:
He's not a fullback though, he's a wingback. He should be putting better figures out there than defenders.

Anyway, I couldn't care less about figures to be honest. It's perfectly clear to anyone that we need to upgrade Valencia and Young if we want to compete with Bayern, Real, Chelsea and City. They haven't got Youth on their side anymore.
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You brought them up!
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Performances for United would carry a lot more weight tbh.

Di Maria probably deserves a pass because, as you say, he was so good for Madrid in the recent past. Been very dissapointing for United but hopefully that's just an acclimatisation thing.

I worry about whether Mata can ever become a really influential player for us. Mourinho's marginalisation of him is definitely a red flag. RvPs done, if you ask me. Been too poor for too long. Falcao? Feck knows. I think there's a decent chance he'll be gone in the summer.
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If you're only looking at United performances then you're going to be really limiting yourself. Di Maria and Falcao have only been at the club for 6 months, and are both new to the league, Mata just over a year (and during the worst 6 month period of the clubs PL era). That leaves Rooney and RVP. Rooney's obviously put in countless match winning performances and RVP, although past his best, is still capable.

As I say, that Arsenal team should be ahead of us, the fact that they're not is pretty damning of them imo.
 
I don’t think we have a very good squad. We’ve been fooled that having 4 similar strikers is a way to score crazy amount of goals (I keep reading those posts about how can a team with Rooney, Mata, Falcao and RvP not score goals against any team).

I expect De Gea to stay so we’re more than fine. In defence I would say we have 2 players who are very good (Smalling and Shaw), then we have Jones who I think will be a very good defender in the future but I’m not convinced by him right now (still 2nd best CB). Evans regressed drastically and at this point I have no idea what to do with him, very unreliable. Jury is still out on Rojo, likeable fella but not sure if he’s a good defender and I think we made a terrible deal here, honestly I thought we could do better with that money. Rafael is always injured or not rated by the manager. Need top CB+RB.

Midfield is far from being good enough. Carrick was very good in his first games this season but doesn’t look that good now, considering his age IMO he should be rotated with Blind who is an excellent signing to be honest. Herrera looked very good at times but he’s a risk-taker, and better in advanced positions. Still I find baffling that he’s used so little (another one clearly not rated by LvG). Di Maria is a brilliant midfielder but ONLY in one position in a midfield of three, I’ve been saying this since day one when we signed him but a lot of people didn’t believe me. He can be a very good winger but left midfield is the only position where he is consistently very good. I don’t think Fellaini will be with us for long because he’s the easiest one to get rid of if we want to bring a top box-to-box midfielder.

Mata is something in between but more of a striker and I don’t rate him that high, other players in our squad can do his job.

Valencia and Young have been doing great job as wingbacks but I’m 100% sure they won’t be regular wingers for us, they are just better at defending than attacking. Need at least one top winger.

We are over-stocked with world-class strikers, but we don’t create them a lot of chances so we go back to the midfield issues. One will definitely go at the end of season (and I think I know which one).

Regarding youngsters I have high hopes for Januzaj (doesn’t fit into any formation we play but eventually he will come good I’m sure), and Wilson starts showing why he is so highly rated.

EDIT: By "top" I don't mean Reus+Pogba+Hummels level (would be nice though), just very good players, and probably costly too.
 
Sam said:
If you're only looking at United performances then you're going to be really limiting yourself. Di Maria and Falcao have only been at the club for 6 months, and are both new to the league, Mata just over a year (and during the worst 6 month period of the clubs PL era). That leaves Rooney and RVP. Rooney's obviously put in countless match winning performances and RVP, although past his best, is still capable.

As I say, that Arsenal team should be ahead of us, the fact that they're not is pretty damning of them imo.
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I don't think their manager has been getting the best out of his squad. I also don't think our own manager has been getting the best out of his squad!

Was just wondering if we could put that aside and assess the talent and ability of the two squads, side by side. Which is where I think we don't look great at all. Especially in terms of ability on the ball.

Watching last night's game it was amazing how many times you saw players from both teams dribble their way out of a tight situation which got me wondering how many United players are capable of doing the same. Obviously, it's only one aspect of football but it does show a mastery of technique that you see throughout most really good teams. I'm not sure about Van Gaal at all but he must be tearing his hair out when he sees the quality on display at the teams we're up against, compared to so many of the players in our squad.

Paul Scholes was a master at wriggling his way out of a tight situation and Giggs on the run was a sight to behold. That's without even mentioning their vision and eye for a creative pass. I just don't see anyone reaching that level of mastery of the football and it's a big reason why we sometimes struggle to break teams down or do anything meaningful with all our possession. Add to that the loss of defensive rocks and Evra's relentless attacking down our left flank and it's no great surprise we're so far below the best sides of Fergie's last few years in charge.
 
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I still feel we should start playing a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 right away and build a team around these two formations do it with the players we have right now and see who best fits the system and who isn't good enough for it or surplus to requirements and get rid of them. But stop fanning around with formations just to accommodate 2 strikers who only end up getting isolated since we haven't got enough players in midfield anymore, especially if you add to this that we are playing with three CBs there is another midfielder we are missing.
 
Difficult question. But..........

-------De Gea----------
Rafa Smalling Rojo Shaw
------Carrick Blind--------
----------Mata------------
----Rooney----------Di Maria
----------Falcao

Valdes
Valencia
Fellaini
Van Persie
Jones
Januzaj
Wilson

Is certainly a very strong line-up and bench. Personally i would say there is as much class, know how, experiance and qaulity in there as chelsea and city have. There's also good variety and options.

People continuousley point to the defence but i think Rafa at 25 is the oldest member of that defence, i think if we can get those 4 on the pitch together for the remainder of the season, with Blind and Carrick offering protection then ive just convinced myself our squad is strong. Very strong. I think our squad depth has been proven by the fact we are fourth despite the injuries.
 
Its been a long time since we've had a squad with so few weaknesses imo.

GK - Have people forgot what life was like before VdS and De Gea. Imagine if we didn't have the lifeline of such a brilliant goalkeeper

Our defense has had these problems for a long time and managed. Evra so often a liability, Vidic hardly played, Ferdinand crocked and poor. Evans, Jones. Smalling have had a greater say in recent years than this place seems to remember. They're all better than Silvestre, Brown and O'Shea.

Midfield has long been our achiles heel and with the personnel we now have there's no excuses. We've never had backup to Carrick and only the old guard have partnered him to any success, we now have many variants we could field.

Up front, we have Rooney, RvP and Falcao enough said.

It would be ridiculous to have expected LvG to come in for us to instantly be challenging for the title but that doesn't mean he gets let off for us barely looking like making top 4. A decent manager should get this squad into the top 3/4 easily, we're now at the point where he has to get the most of this squad no excuses.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
:lol:
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In all seriousness though, I think I've been very objective with both of them. I gave, particularly Valencia, scathing criticism while I thought he deserved it whereas I have been quick to credit him this season where it has been due.

I just don't see where they fit in beyond the summer that should see us cover the right back positiom while Blind and Rojo can both play left back. Further forward I don't see them competing for a spot against the wealth of talent we posess and should be acquiring this summer.
 
Smores said:
Its been a long time since we've had a squad with so few weaknesses imo.
GK - Have people forgot what life was like before VdS and De Gea. Imagine if we didn't have the lifeline of such a brilliant goalkeeper

Our defense has had these problems for a long time and managed. Evra so often a liability, Vidic hardly played, Ferdinand crocked and poor. Evans, Jones. Smalling have had a greater say in recent years than this place seems to remember. They're all better than Silvestre, Brown and O'Shea.

Midfield has long been our achiles heel and with the personnel we now have there's no excuses. We've never had backup to Carrick and only the old guard have partnered him to any success, we now have many variants we could field.

Up front, we have Rooney, RvP and Falcao enough said.

It would be ridiculous to have expected LvG to come in for us to instantly be challenging for the title but that doesn't mean he gets let off for us barely looking like making top 4. A decent manager should get this squad into the top 3/4 easily, we're now at the point where he has to get the most of this squad no excuses.
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You say that, but is it possible to come up with a first team without obvious flaws in it?
 
Pexbo said:
It's got a core of very good players but squad players who just straight up aren't good enough no matter what excuses are made for them and we are currently having to rely on them.

GOALKEEPERS
De Gea
Valdes

DEFENSE
Shaw
Rafael
Smalling
Jones
Rojo
Evans

WINGERS
Valencia
Young

CENTREMIDS
Di Maria
Blind
Fellaini
Herrera
Carrick
Fletcher

ATTACK
Rooney - Top Class - reasonable age vital experience.
Wilson - Great Prospect - Great age huge potential.
Mata - Top Class - good age and will be a vital tool.
RvP- Top Class - Not a good age, declining clearly.
Falcao - Who Knows - big question marks.


PURPLE - Great players, no questions.
BLUE - Good squad players, few questions over age, injuries or ability as first choice.
GREEN - Good players but not long left.
RED - Not good enough for United as an elite club.


Obviously just my opinions but that's the shape I think it's in. I've not included players I think don't have any real future here. That includes all first team loan players and McNair and Blackett who are just filling in a role in exceptional circumstances.

We're desperate for a right back, a replacement for Evans and genuine top class attacking wide players to offer us something different in attack.

All in all good shape going forward, good ages and potential but the development of the squad as a cohesive unit has been severely hampered by injuries. The more they play together the better they will become.
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I would agree mostly with it. Shaw however is far from being a purple one. The system isn't helping him, but he needs to progress significantly attacking-wise to be considered s a top left back.
 
Last season the major complaint we had as fans was the lack of quality midfielders. Over the summer we acquired Blind, Herrera and di Maria so we cant say that the squad has not been strengthen but at the same time we are still lacking a World Class midfielder i.e someone who is among the top ten best players in his position.

The issue with the defense has come about when Rio and Vidic left, while they have passed their prime they were still a solid CB pairing and the trio of Evans, Jones and Smalling have proved to be unreliable at best. Rojo is not very good to begin with but then again unlike midfielders it is very difficult to find great/world class defenders case in point Barcelona.

Taking all of this into consideration, the majority of fans were not expecting us to challenge for the title this season and settle for a champions league spot. Is the current squad good enough to achieve this goal? Yes, it should be even though you can say that it is an unbalanced squad we should be able to score far more than we have. This is my problem with the 352 it provides decent defensive coverage (would'nt have mattered without DDG btw) as such I would rather sacrifice defensive coverage as opposed to creating/scoring more goals to win games. I would argue that LvG's stubbornness at the moment and the insane amount of injuries are the things that could prevent us from finishing in the top 4.
 
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