What are the problems at Manchester United?

It was well documented at the start of the season that Manchester United had an array of attacking talent with very little quality at the back; but as the season has gone on it’s become clear that the problems we face are, in fact, the other way round.

First things first, let’s take a look at our supposedly awful back line. This season in the premier league United have conceded 21 goals, the 3rd best record in the league, and only 2 more than table-topping Chelsea. In fact, in Sir Alex’s last season at the club – when our defence had the likes of Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra – we had conceded 29 goals in the league after the same number of games. So it’s clear to see that our defence – despite some poor performances – has been nowhere as bad as we all feared.

So, where do our problems lie? The answer is a lot of places, but the most obvious are the lack of understanding from the attackers and the lack of midfield penetration.

The money spent last summer has been talked about a lot, and whilst personally I don’t care how much we spent, it is true that for such an investment I would have expected more out of the forwards. Of course it takes time for new signings to settle in, but after 5 months nothing seems to have improved. Falcao and Di Maria in particular have seriously struggled lately, and the relationship between them and the other forwards just hasn’t developed. That’s resulted in a real lack of goals, especially recently; we’ve only scored 6 goals in our last 6 matches!

via @ManUtd

But probably the biggest problem is the lack of midfield penetration. So many times in every game our centre back or holding midfielder picks the ball up and just has no option. As a result, the ball constantly goes backwards and sideways and we end up having the ball for long periods without going anywhere. We cannot get the ball to the attackers anywhere near enough, and when they do come deep to collect the ball, there is still no penetration through the midfield and we again go backwards or sideways. The movement has to be better but so does the vision of the midfield, and more risks have to be taken if we’re to start creating attacks from the defence and holding midfield. This was never more evident than against Cambridge; it was so easy for the Amber Army to just get numbers behind the ball and sit deep because we never looked like moving swiftly through the centre of the park.

If we are to cement our top 4 position, we have to find a way of improving these aspects – whether that’s through new signings, a different system or a new style of play, frankly I don’t care. But it’s now up to Van Gaal and our heavily paid players to step up to the plate and improve our play, and quickly.