Updated at 19.38
FOR ALL THE upheaval at Manchester United in recent times, they have spent more than €257 million on new signings since they ran away with the Premier League title in 2012-13.
Louis van Gaal is experiencing a few teething problems at the start of the new campaign but there is no excuse if United again fail to secure a Champions League place for next season.
Without the complication of European fixtures this season, United can focus solely on the league and they now have the best attack in the country in Radamel Falcao, Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Angel Di Maria and Juan Mata.
Expectations may have fallen at Old Trafford but Van Gaal will have failed if he can’t guide a team with this much quality to a top-four finish, even with the atrocious state of his defence. United have started slowly and suffered embarrassing losses to Swansea and Leicester, yet six games into the campaign they are ahead of Liverpool and Everton, level with Tottenham, just two points behind Arsenal and three off champions Manchester City.
Ed Woodward, the club’s executive vice-chairman, has said the expectation this season is to finish third in the table and that should be well within United’s reach. Champions Manchester City and leaders Chelsea are miles better than the chasing pack and will likely streak away from their rivals in a two-horse race for this season’s title.
Beyond that, though, the candidates for the remaining two Champions League spots all have significant question marks hanging over them, as well as glaring holes in their squads. Liverpool are already toiling without Luis Suarez and with the added complication of midweek Champions League fixtures, Arsenal are suffering from their age-old problems, chielfly failing to deal with set-pieces and floundering without a defensive midfielder fit for purpose.
United’s defence is terrible and looked an utter mess in the 5-3 defeat to Leicester last weekend, but the issue is surmountable, particularly if Van Gaal is finally able to sign a top-class central defender in January. At the moment, United are going through a painful period as the players adapt to Van Gaal’s philosophy while building a chemistry as, essentially, a new team.
(Robin van Persie was on target during Manchester United’s unconvincing win at the weekend)
The 20-time English champions have beaten just QPR and West Ham at home and no-one is getting ahead of themselves after they scraped past the Hammers with 10 men on Saturday. But their rivals are equally liable to drop points against the lesser lights. Arsenal are already drawing too many games, Liverpool lost at home to Aston Villa and away to West Ham, and Tottenham are, well, Tottenham. It means a Champions League place is there for the taking for United, providing they can add some sort of defensive organisation to their game.
The absence of a defensive leader, injury problems and the departures of Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra have left United’s with a title-winning attack backed by one of the most mediocre defences in the league. Di Maria, in particular, looks capable of repaying every penny of the €76m spent to sign him from Real Madrid and is the match-winner who can decide tight games with his skill, speed and creativity. United’s philosophy of “you score four, we’ll score five” will certainly be interesting to watch and we will have a much clearer idea of where they stand by the end of November.
Among their next six league fixtures, United face Everton, Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal. By then, you would expect Van Gaal’s imprint to begin to take effect and the new signings should start settling in. If Van Gaal can find that click, then he has no excuse not to ensure that last season’s seventh placed finish was a disastrous one-off.
LACK OF EXPERIENCE COULD COST LIVERPOOL IN EUROPE
We have heard much about how Liverpool ‘belong’ in the Champions League since the five-time European champions booked their place in the competition for the first time in four years. Brendan Rodgers, though, has marked down Wednesday’s away clash with Basel as the key game in his side’s chances of progressing to the knockout stages of the competition.
The Swiss side have beaten Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham in home European matches in recent years and are the Reds’ main rivals to progress from Group B along with Real Madrid. I worry for Liverpool.
They were unconvincing in their opening victory against Ludogorets Razgrad and are struggling to find anything like the intensity in their play that we saw last season. A defeat in Basel could see the Reds’ Champions League dream start to become a nightmare. I’m not sure if Rodgers even knows how to play for a draw, but they need to show some savvy that has been missing from their performances so far this season.
POCHETTINO BRAVERY SHOULD BE APPLAUDED
Finally, a word of praise for Mauricio Pochettino for his decision to throw in academy product Ryan Mason for his Premier League debut in Tottenham’s 1-1 draw with north London rivals Arsenal on Saturday.
Mason, 23, could have been forgiven for thinking that his chance had passed him by but immediately caught Pochettino’s eye with his performances in pre-season training and tour matches in the United States.
In fact, Mason was in line to start for Spurs in their opening day clash against West Ham but was ruled out through injury.
That Pochettino selected Mason on Saturday over the likes of Mousa Dembele and Paulinho reflects the bravery, faith in youth and system of meritocracy that convinced Tottenham to hire him in the first place.
– Greg Stobart
