As we head into an International break, what have we learned about our team? Well, for one, we seem to have found two decent goalkeepers. After a mistake ridden start, David De Gea has settled and made some very good saves. He has stopped dropping easy crosses and missing longs-hots and frankly, I have hope he will be a stalwart. Anders Lindegaard is solid and a good back up. Thomas the Pole is unlikely to play again, and that’s not a problem for me, as he is not the greatest keeper we’ve ever had.
In defence we have discovered Phil Jones is special, I never saw Duncan Edwards but I imagine him to be a cross between Phil Jones and Roy Keane, I like what I see. Chris Smalling is class, how on earth did he play lower league football so recently ?
Rio Ferdinand is finished, I don’t see him making up ground on Smalling and Jones. Jonny Evans and his own brother Anton are better now (and Evans is an accident waiting to happen, something I always said about Wes Brown too) and Nemanja Vidic remains the best header in the league despite his weaknesses on the floor.
At fullback we need cover for Patrice Evra, we need Rafael and Fabio to stay healthy too. We are too thin at fullback. Wide players are good, Park Ji-Sung, Antonio Valencia, Ashley Young and Nani do it for me, no issues there. Also upfront Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck, Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Owen and even Ryan Giggs do enough to rotate and always have a threat.
The problems are midfield. I wish Anderson was convincing but he is not. Tom Cleverley is good but lightweight, Darren Fletcher works hard but really is he good enough? Michael Carrick is too lazy and lacks confidence. Giggs is at the end whilst Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison are too soon and in the latter case more likely to be in trouble than Mario Balotelli.
We need 2 midfielders, a creative genius in the same vein as a Luka Modric/David Silva and a powerful box to box player like Yaya Toure.
The season is young but our squad is not enough for 60 games. We also are falling behind the best teams, Barcelona remain ahead, Bayern are rising, Real Madrid are improving, Manchester City look strong and could be a real shocker for us. United urgently need £60m investing in 3 players to maintain a challenge on all fronts.
Despite that though, things could be worse though, Liverpool spend £110m and look what they bought! I mean Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Andy Carroll – King Kenny – I don’t think so!
