Progress

For years everyone has laughed at Arsenal for celebrating fourth place in the PL. Now the shoe is on the other foot. After years celebrating titles, it felt strange to be celebrating Liverpool failing to win at Chelsea and all but guaranteeing United fourth place this season. How the mighty have fallen...

Following on from C's fantastic appraisal of QPR's season, J is following suit with an assessment of United's season and where we can go from what seems like a fourth place finish (barring 2 losses and a 14 goal swing).

Review: 

It's been a strange season where United started poorly - losing at home to Swansea, drawing at Sunderland, drawing and failing to score at Burnley etc. but United have unquestionably progressed since last year. We've competed for the top four all year and looked far more entertaining (for the most part) as well as more confident and resolute.

The results picked up at the back end of the year, draws at home to Chelsea and wins at Arsenal & Southampton showed results were heading the right way even if performances were still stuttering.

For all the world it looked like everything had clicked with the run of six wins on the trot including Tottenham and the mauling of Citeh at home. Fellaini looked like a beast and it seemed like LVG had had his 'Juventus' moment that he'd been going on about all year...Only for the recent run of 3 defeats on the trot without scoring and the return of boring, predictable football again. Saturday saw United scrape through against Palace and it was fitting that it was two men who LVG has revitalised that won it for the Reds - Ashley Young and Fellaini. This and a special mention for our player of the year David De Gea, who made some unbelievable saves yet again to secure the points.

So now we have to avoid defeat in just one of our last 2 games - Arsenal at home and Hull away - to finish in fourth position and enter the qualification rounds of the Champions League.

So what should be the plan for next year?

The plan:

This year the plan was arguably to finish in the top four. Next season? Surely it has to be to challenge for the title - challenge being the operative word!

First of all, and most important of all - keep David De Gea. This is a big ask - Madrid is his home and when Real Madrid come calling you pretty rarely see someone saying no. United need to do whatever they possibly can to keep him here and get him signed up on another contract. Do whatever it takes to show his girlfriend that Manchester is much lovelier than the back of a fridge - get her on a tour of the Northern Quarter with Juan & Ander, just do whatever it takes to sign the man up! He's showed time and time again this season how he is one of the very best keepers in the world and has saved this team at least 12 points this season if not more.

Secondly - sort out the Angel Di Maria situation. Di Maria clearly hasn't settled in England and isn't enjoying life here whatsoever. He started the season looking like the quality footballer we all know he is and he can't have lost that ability and the form he showed for Real the year before. Di Maria is the type of next level player the team needs but at the moment it looks like United are putting a square peg in a round hole whenever he plays. He clearly isn't comfortable on the wing where he's playing. The system that LVG is now employing is clearly the one he likes and it looks to be staying - so is Di Maria redundant? The board and LVG need to work that out quickly. Either get him playing in this system and confidently, or call it quits.

A lot has already been said by more esteemed observers than me about who United should sign, but in my humble opinion we need four players at least. Even that depends upon whether they sign Falcao permanently and whether RVP is staying or if they wipe the slate clean and go for a breath of fresh air up front (Which personally appeals to me on both counts).

So if I were in charge I would sign a right back, a central midfielder, a central defender and at least one striker.

A winger is already sorted and I am seriously excited to watch Memphis Depay at OT next season. He's torn the Eredivisie up this year, and while that isn't always a guarantee for success he looks like one of the best prospects in European football currently. Plus, to snatch him from under the Scouser's noses is always nice! He's also scored four free kicks in his last four games - we haven't had a free kick specialist since Ronaldo and I'm sick of the amount of dire free kicks in good positions we have put up with this year.

So, the right back - all the talk is about Nathaniel Clyne and he would seem to be a very good signing. He knows the PL and has steadily improved over the years. Apparently United were in for him when he left Crystal Palace but he opted for the Saints and the move has obviously worked wonders. He's now surely got to be rated as England's best right back (Johnson, Walker? No thanks). He'd probably cost a pretty packet but he's only 24 and could be the future right back for 10 years for United and England. It's a shame that Rafael seems to be out of the picture completely but Clyne would definitely be a serious upgrade on Tony V particularly defensively where he is always suspect.

Centre back - who else but Mats Hummels? The Metro have got a story today stating that the Reds are in advanced talks with Dortmund to sign Hummels who would cost £37m. Every man and his dog has their opinion and everyone's an expert now. I've read a huge amount of talk that he's too slow for the PL etc etc blah blah blah. LVG had him at Bayern Munich and Klopp has built a team on the foundations of Hummels and Subotic at Dortmund. If those two coaches rate him then that tells me all I need to know. Sign him up, Ed. Get Jones or Rojo fit and consistently playing and we have a very decent centre back line up.

Central midfielder - Gundogan, Pogba, Khedira, Vidal, Wijnaldum? In an ideal world if this was Fifa 1998 and any bid for a player at the right price meant that they'd move to you I'd say Pogba. He has everything. We should swallow our pride and put the fact that we had him on our books to the back of our mind and just pay what it takes to get him. But I seriously can't see us getting him. Pogba will have his pick of teams to go to and in all likelihood he'll go to Barcelona (when their transfer ban is up) or Real won't he? In that case, I think we should go for Gundogan. He's got a great range of passing but can put a foot in as well. He's a great mix of qualities that we need and he's realistically "available".

Striker - I'm going to plan that we don't have RVP and Falcao. In which case, I think we probably need two strikers. I'd try and poach Danny Ings from the clutches of Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal or whoever. He's available on a free (well a tribunal fee, but considering what he would be worth it's peanuts), he's young, he's English, he can score in the PL and he is direct and pacy. At OT he stretched the play very impressively and ran the channels better than anyone else I've seen this season. In short, he's exactly the kind of player I think we've missed by getting rid of Chicharito and Welbeck. The other striker? I think we should sign Jackson Martinez from Porto. At 28 he's got Champions League experience and has shown consistently that he is better than the Portuguese Liga. In three seasons at Porto he has scored 31, 29 and 28 (and counting) goals. Martinez scored 7 goals in the CL this year so the argument that he's good in the Portuguese Liga but that doesn't guarantee goals is somewhat nullified by that. It would be a slight gamble but I don't fancy Cavani and I'm not sure someone like Benzema is realistic.

In an ideal world if those gaps in the team are plugged I think we stand a very good chance of getting into the group stages of the Champions League plus getting into the knockout stages, challenging for the PL title and potentially winning a domestic cup as well. It might be pie in the sky but this year has seen us progress and we've ground out a lot of results playing badly. I have faith that next year once LVG has a full summer to build his own team, the sky's the limit! (hopefully this hasn't jinxed United for Sunday now!!!)

J