Crystal Palace 1-2 Man Utd: Crawling Over the Line

Yesterday, we were treated to another nervous 90 minutes, watching a pretty poor performance, and that is being generous. It’s quite hard to watch such dull football from a team that is likely to now finish 4th. We have to be very thankful for 2 main things this season: the very short spell when we actually played well against Spurs, Liverpool and City, and probably most significantly, David De Gea. Realistically, without him between the sticks this season, we may well have finished below where we were last season.

There’s not a great deal to say about the game yesterday, other than we were very lucky to leave South London with all 3 points, and yet again I believe it showed that quite a major overhaul is still needed if we are to have any hope of challenging for the title next season.

It’s always a big talking point between the top clubs as to which of their players would get into the rivals’ teams, and looking at yesterday’s starting line up, I think our only 2 players that would get into the 3 teams above us are De Gea and Shaw, with maybe Herrera getting a look in at Arsenal and City.

[bctt tweet=”Our only 2 players that would get into the 3 teams above us are De Gea and Shaw.”]

We can say that Young has had a better season, as has Fellaini, but are these players going to help take us from 4th to 1st, or are they merely going to help us become the new Arsenal, where gaining 4th place is akin to winning the league? I still believe Rooney is a valuable player for United, but would he actually get in City or Chelsea’s starting 11? I think he probably would at Arsenal, but at who’s expense?

Blind looks more and more like a really good squad player for a club like United, but not quite good enough for a regular starting place. I feel the same about Fellaini, Young, Valencia and Jones, and in order to seriously compete next season, we need to buy 4 top quality players – 2 for the back line, a Carrick replacement and a striker. My choices in defence would be Clyne and Stones. In midfield, it would be Gundogan (if we can’t get Pogba back), and as for a striker, I would be tempted by Benteke or Ings, rather than buying from abroad and then finding they just can’t cut it in the Premier League.

If money is no object I would also buy Hummels – he and Stones would be a great central partnership, but as English clubs need to have English players, if it’s a choice I think I would go for Stones over Hummels. Of course, we need to keep David De Gea and have him sign a new 4-5 year contract. United should definitely look to sell players like Evans, Rafael, Nani and one or two others that really are mid-table players at best, and should not be getting close to our team. Whoever we buy, the most important thing is what we do on the training ground and what style of football we look to play under LVG.

I would like to see a United starting 11 something like this next August:

Finally, it would be great finish our last home game in style by beating one of our main rivals – Arsenal – next weekend. Come on you Reds!!!