As Sir Alex Ferguson begins his campaign to secure a 20th league title for the Reds and plans to land the Holy Grail of the Champions League once again, M.E.N. Sport's James Robson assesses the season ahead and United's hopes for glory at home and abroad.
Expectations
Ferguson has already completed his mission statement of knocking Liverpool off their perch with a record 19th title last season.
The next challenge to extend their lead over the Merseysiders, who believe they are set for their own renaissance under Kenny Dalglish.
More immediate is the threat from closer, but equally as fierce, rivals City while Chelsea and Arsenal will again be the main challengers in the Premier League.
Home rule is Ferguson’s priority – but he has also made it clear he wants to cut the gap between United and European champions Barcelona.
He vowed to rise to the challenge of toppling the brilliant Catalans and has spent £50m so far to rebuild a side that was so outclassed in the Champions League final.
He hopes to make Wesley Sneijder the final piece of the jigsaw – and if a £35m deal for the Dutch superstar can be agreed, he will believe that he can lead United to a third European Cup of his Old Trafford reign.
Potential problems
The biggest problem for United will be replacing the experience that has left Old Trafford this season.
As well as the retirements of Paul Scholes, Edwin van der Sar and Gary Neville, stalwarts John O’Shea and Wes Brown have also departed.
In their place Ferguson has put his faith in youth, signing 20-year-old goalkeeper David de Gea, 19-year-old Phil Jones and recalling England Under-21 internationals Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck from loan spells.
It is a bold move by the United manager to rely so heavily on young players, with Chris Smalling and the Da Silva twins also part of his squad.
While his latest generation’s outstanding display in the Community Shield on Sunday pointed to a bright future, United have lost a huge amount of title-winning know how.
The greatest test will be how the youngsters respond when results go the wrong way.
There is also the issue of replacing Van der Sar. De Gea was far from convincing on his Wembley debut when he was culpable for at least one of City’s goals.
At the age of 20, he has been tasked with the thankless job of replacing a legend at United. And to compound the issue, understudy Anders Lindegaard is untried at the highest level.
Then there’s the Scholes dilemma.
Ferguson has spent all summer trying to find the man capable of filling his shoes – and Sneijder looks like the ideal candidate.
Barcelona’s demolition of United at Wembley – particularly in the centre of the park – only highlighted the strides the Premier League champions need to make in that department.
Ferguson has plenty of options in Michael Carrick, Anderson, Ryan Giggs, Darren Fletcher and Cleverley – but it will be a case of finding his best partnership.
His best teams have been blessed with world-class central midfields that included Bryan Robson, Paul Ince, Roy Keane and Scholes.
It remains to be seen if he can emulate that as he attempts to build his last great side before he retires.
Pivotal to any success this season will be getting the best out of Wayne Rooney.
The England striker cannot afford to have as sluggish a start as he did last term when he failed to score from open play until New Year’s day.
Tactics
The biggest criticism of United last season was that they failed to reproduce the flair of their predecessors.
Ferguson promised to rise to the challenge of Barcelona – and emulating their style will be part of that.
The introduction of £16m Ashley Young is the perfect example of Ferguson’s desire to add more flair and pace to his team.
Along with Nani and Antonio Valencia, United now have three players who can run with the ball and take defenders on.
With Rooney and Javier Hernandez as well, United have an attack packed with pace, power and skill.
Anderson and Cleverley will add crucial energy to a midfield that looked laboured at times last season with the ageing legs of Scholes and reserved style of Carrick.
Ferguson is blessed with players who will allow him to swap between 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 formations.
Last season’s player of the year, Nani, will be expected to take on greater responsibility as a match-winner, but it is the signing of Sneijder that will be crucial to elevating United to the levels Ferguson believes will be needed to be reached if they are to genuinely challenge Barcelona.
No-one in his current squad possesses the Dutchman’s ability to dictate a game with his passing, as well as being a goal-scoring threat from midfield.
Biggest challenge
The biggest challenge must surely come from across town at the Etihad Stadium.
Don’t read too much into United’s dominant Community Shield triumph – there is every reason to believe Roberto Mancini’s side will pose a genuine challenge for the title.
Sergio Aguero and Gael Clichy are top-class additions, while the existing members of City’s squad will still be riding high on their FA Cup success last season. United, on the other hand, are a very different side to the one that ended the last campaign.
Ferguson’s evolution will see an exciting young side expected to continue United’s dominance in the Premier League, while also taking Europe by storm.
Chelsea may have been quiet in the transfer market, but John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba have a immense title-winning experience.
Arsenal look set to lose Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, but have exciting youngsters Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey ready to lead a new generation at the Emirates.
Kenny Dalglish has spent heavily at Liverpool and will be without the distraction of European football as he prepares to cross swords with old rival Ferguson again.
What is your verdict? Have your say.
Manchester United out to go one better
August 11, 2011
Comments
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United, hopefully will still get Schneijder and then its all systems gooooooo.
My verdict is that United will retain the title by a greater margin than last season. The only question mark is over how quickly De Gea settles but I believe he will be OK with the best centre-back pairing in Christendom to help him. Strong title favourites and one of the most exciting young United squads we've seen for years.
Chelsea do not appear to have improved their squad, will miss Essien, and are starting to look like an old team. Second or third.
Arsenal will be weaker through the loss of Fabregas and Nasri - even if Wenger uses all of the funds generated by those sales to bring in good quality players, there will be a settling-in period. Third or fourth.
It remains to be seen whether City can hold on to Tevez and, if so, whether he becomes a negative influence in the dressing room. Either their stand-out performer from last season is leaving or he will be less effective. To compensate, they will be relying on Aguero but he is unproven in the PL and would likely to at least require a settling-in period. If he settles quickly and they get Nasri, they will probably achieve second place, otherwise they will be fighting it out with Liverpool and Spurs for fourth.
United will win 20th title and demonstrate that money can't replace the formation and the love of the shirt
United will win 20th title and demonstrate that money can't replace the formation and the love of the shirt
Nice hat lol
I think we're favourites for the title and rightly so. We have the best squad in the league. Unless De Gea is an absolute disaster, which is highly unlikely, I dont see us having any major problems retaining our title. Its been a while since we wont the FA Cup, and i think we could and should run it close this season. The league cup we usually do well in and again, i'd imagine we'll be in the semi's at least unless we get a bad draw. Europe is a different matter. Unless someone else beats Barca we'll not win the European Cup. We've shown emphaitically in 2 finals that we dont have an answer for them, so hopefully Real or someone beat them, and if so then its game on
We dont need Wesley Sneijder as we have the the new Paul Scholes already at the club in the form of Tom Cleverley.
The 20th Title is already in the bag, we have the best squad in the league and will walk to the Title as everyone else falls away and fights over 2-4.
I am not at all impressed by the rubbish liverpool have bought, I mean Henderson, Adam and Downing in the midfield, Adam is absolute rubbish, Henderson is just hype and will flop like so many other L'pool players and Downing is only half decent, none of them could get into our squad and will be no threat to us this season.
Arsenal are finished, that simple really.
Chelsea are jsut an old squad with a nobody rookie manager talknig as usual. Problem for them is the fact their decline is only just beginning.
City? I'll never take them seriously.
The Title is OURS.
Cant wait for the League to start.
if we play like we didon sunday no one will stop us winning a treble again
I'd like to see Park playing center mid now that we have more wide players. He played there at PSV and did really well.
Okay, this is an example of a non-story:
"As well as the retirements of Paul Scholes, Edwin van der Sar and Gary Neville, stalwarts John O’Shea and Wes Brown have also departed"
God bless the Ginger Prince, but he has not really been a factor for a couple of seasons nor has Gary Neville. Wes Brown and O'Shea were never factors.
Indeed EVDS will be missed.
As for Rooney's slow start last year, that was completely on his ankle injury. If you recall, he went to the Nike facility in Oregon last winter and returned a new man. If Rooney stays healthy, there is no reason he won't stay in form.
There is not enough of a threat in the EPL to stop United from getting number 20.
CL, on the other hand is 1 Sneijder away.
3-2 or three -two thats easy enough to spell!!!!
get STRICTLAND BANKS on the coaching staff he knows all about PLAN B
So, Giggs, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Fletcher isn't enough title-winning experience for you lol? You're joking, right? Not to mention the host of other players who've won titles with Man United - Nani (3 PL titles), Rooney (4 PL titles), Anderson (3 PL titles), Carrick (4 PL titles)... How much more title-winning experience you want lol? All the top teams in the PL would wish to have that many players with that much winning experience and know-how.
I think your overplaying the experience factor - remember only Paul Scholes, Edwin Van der Sar and Gary Nevile retired - the majority of the players who've been key for United in the last few seasons are still playing at the club. In other words, the title-winning spine of the team is still there. You're talking as if the whole Man United squad retired and was replaced with a younger squad or something lol.
As for the youngsters, as you saw in the Community Shield (however much you want to downplay that game), the youngsters like Smalling, Cleverly and Jones looked very assured on the ball and looked as if they'd been playing in the United team together for years, which obviously shows that the experienced title-winning players in the team that you seem to claim are few have rubbed off on the youngsters. And what better match to play great in but the Manchester derby? I'm pretty sure United will cope as they've always done in the past in bringing through the youngsters and developing them into first-team title-winning regulars. Remember Alan Hansen's, "You can't win anything with kids!" line?
My concern is with Man United's central midfield (like most fans and neutrals like me): while I'm sure Cleverly will grow into a top quality player - the season is too young to judge or determine whether if he will play consistently good, turn up at the big games when you need him to and play good with pressure. And you can't expect him to outplay the likes of Xavi and Iniesta (if United meet Barca again in the CL), so it would be a huge risk for Ferguson and United to not buy a world class midfielder like Sneijder, who will undoubtedly raise United's overall game by a huge margin. And I think with Sneijder, they would be able to compete with Barcelona's midfield (the CL final so blatantly highlighted the gulf between their two respective midfields). Sneijder definitely has the goods to outplay Xavi and Iniesta as long as he has a strong, assured defensive midfielder playing alongside him.
The reason the Man United team looked so terrible in that match against Barcelona was because of the total ineffectiveness of the United midfield, which in turn put immense pressure on the defense (If United get Sneijder, this will not happen). The forwards, Rooney and (especially) Hernandez were isolated for long periods, mainly because of Barca's total domination in midfield, but partly due to United's ineffective midfield which failed to break up Barca's play and create chances for the forwards - with what little occasions they had the ball. And this of course forced Rooney back deep into midfield, looking for the ball. All of which I'm sure everybody already knows. Just wanted to highlight the importance of my point about Man United's central midfield in the previous paragraph.
Man United will win PL of course. And no, I don't support them.
United have shot themselves in the foot regarding Sneijder. They should have sold Rooney when he threw his toys out of the pram. By caving in to his ludicrous demands they have made it very difficult, if not impossible, to pay other top class potential signings less money. Sneijder would be more useful than Rooney, therefore is worth more money but United, as usual, have one rule for some and another rule for others. How can you say there is a wage ceiling that you won't go beyond and then go beyond it for one player but not another better player. They need to either, reduce Rooney's ridiculous salary or raise the ceiling to pay even more ridiculous salaries. At least with the latter they will attract better players.