MANCHESTER UNITED SETUP TO SUCCEED THIS SEASON?
Is Manchester United a strong, realistic, candidate for winning the Premier League trophy, and are Manchester United strong enough candidates to win the UEFA Champions League trophy as well this season? Before the start of the season, the concerns around the group of players manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer had on his squad was simply the conversation of an unsatisfactory number of players left on Manchester United’s bench after looking past five important players in Bruno Fernandes, Paul Pogba, Donny Van De Beak, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford.
Five players are not enough to maintain creative consistency for an entire team right? Consider this, Manchester United was already knockout of the race for the Premier League trophy as early as November during last season. Granted we will have to factor in some important pieces which were clearly missing and these missing pieces played a major factor in failing to succeed last season for manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer. One of the missing pieces last season being the absence of two out of four of the most creative players Manchester United currently have in their squad in Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford faced major injury blows that rendered both players inactive for major parts of last season.
Another missing piece that limited Manchester United’s level of success last season was the late arrival of yet another midfielder whom most football analysts and football enthusiasts have regarded as the midfield hitman for the Red Devils. So, with the possible exception of Paul Pogba whom might miss a handful of Manchester United for obvious health reasons, all players for Manchester United are healthy and ready to perform the entire 2020/21 season- is Manchester United ready to lift the Premier League and UEFA Champions League trophy next season especially with the inclusion of talented dutchman Donny van der Beak this season?
According to the response seen from football critiques and the response seen from Manchester United supporters, Manchester United are still not ready to become Premier League champions and the Red Devils are certainly not favorites to lift the UEFA Champions League trophy at the end of the 2020/21 football season as well.
Right off the bat, there should be a near-unanimous decision in regards to talks involving Manchester United that what describes success for the Red Devils come the conclusion of the 2020/21 football season is possibly making the quarterfinal stage of the UEFA Champions League competition at least, then winning the Premier League competition and possibly winning the FA Cup this season. To achieve this goal Manchester United will need creativity from just five players to conquer injury and fatigue this 2020/21.
Looking at the squad manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer has at the palm of his hands, there is a case to be made that Manchester United possibly lack creative depth in their squad to accomplish the goal of winning multiple trophies this season. Yes, the truth is that with the addition of Donny Van Der Beak to a squad that already has Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes in their roaster, the Red Devils at least have one creative force coming to possibly change the game or seal victory for Manchester United.
However, in a season filled with 38 games in just the Premier League alone, fatigue and injuries will most likely demand a team reinforces themselves with more than four creative players in their squad if the club is to achieve the goal of being crowned champions in both the UEFA Champions League competition and the Premier League competition after the 2020/21 season. Suffice to say that Manchester United have come up short in reinforcing quality in the current squad for deep rotation to be had through the course of the 2020/21 season. With that being said, what is the realistic goal for Manchester United to come to the end of the 2020/21 season?
The top four in the Premier League table and UEFA Champions League quarter-finals at best might be the ceiling for Manchester United come to the end of the 2020/21 season. The evidence is already there as the first match of the new Premier League kicked off with a defeat against Crystal Palace. The truth is that while Manchester United board of director continue to present a case that the current Manchester United assembled for manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer is good enough to win the league and make a significant run in the UEFA Champions League competition this season, the evidence the early part of the current 2020/21 season suggests that more work needed to be done during the 2020/21 summer transfer window to elevate Manchester United back to winning ways and back to winning trophies once again.
The club still has time to pull together a few more signings this summer with players such as Jadon Sancho before the 2020 summer transfer window ends in two weeks. However, judging from recent comments received from the Executive vice-chairman of Manchester United football club ED Woodward, high optimism for multiple new signings by Manchester United over the next few remaining days of the 2020 summer transfer might not be a realistic mindset to have.
"Disruption from the pandemic is continuing to create huge economic pressures from the top to the bottom of the football pyramid and, while we are fortunate to be in a more resilient position than most clubs, we are not immune from the impact," Woodward said in United Review. "Despite this, we are delighted to have brought in Donny van de Beek from Ajax, adding further quality to a midfield already strengthened by the recruitment of Bruno Fernandes in January.
Both Donny and Bruno are players we had been tracking for some time and their signings reflect our long-term approach to blending high-quality recruits with homegrown talent to develop a squad capable of winning trophies playing attacking, entertaining football.
"As part of that process, we have also awarded new contracts to Nemanja Matic and academy graduates Dean Henderson, Brandon Williams, Scott McTominay, and Mason Greenwood over the past year. We have also continued to strengthen our thriving academy by attracting several promising young players from across Europe, including Marc Jurado from Barcelona and Alvaro Fernandez Carreras from Real Madrid.
"Together, these investments reinforce our optimism about the future, and we will continue to build on these strong foundations. However, we must also be responsible in our use of resources during the most extraordinarily challenging time for everyone in football."
(Richard Fay -ED Woodward, M.E.N. September 19,2020.)
