Are you happy?

[United again!]

Weird thing to get bothered about. We've still got McNair, Wilson, Lingard, Johnstone and Pereira in our first team squad. Name another top four contender with more academy graduates in their squad at the close of the transfer window? It's not as though we sold off Januzaj anyway. He's gone out on loan. The young player who could feel most threatened by Martial is Wilson, yet there's a consensus on here that we still don't have enough strength in depth up front, even after this latest signing. So why would Wilson be bothered?

None of them have featured at all. Yet more money has been shelled out for a young and unproven player. It makes little to no sense, just use Lingard on the right or Peireira at 10, or Wilson up front. I don't understand the logic of sending Januzaj on loan either. Just use what we have or buy proven ready talent to play a backup role. (It would be different if we Martial was coming in to put the finishing touches on an already well rounded squad, mind.)

I certainly don't agree with signing young players with huge money, we've got a reputation of sustained growth from within. It just rubs me the wrong way, that is all.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

None of them have featured at all. Yet more money has been shelled out for a young and unproven player. It makes little to no sense, just use Lingard on the right or Peireira at 10, or Wilson up front. I don't understand the logic of sending Januzaj on loan either. Just use what we have or buy proven ready talent to play a backup role. (It would be different if we Martial was coming in to put the finishing touches on an already well rounded squad, mind.)

I certainly don't agree with signing young players with huge money, we've got a reputation of sustained growth from within. It just rubs me the wrong way, that is all.

I see you dodged my question about the homegrown players at other top four clubs...

Loads of players have featured very little so far this season, young and old. Martial will give us a bit more quality and an extra body where we need it, up front. His signing will do nothing to block Lingard or Pereira and, like I said, we're sufficiently short of strikers that Wilson shouldn't be bothered either.

In fact, all the youngsters I named play in positions where we're a little short of cover (central defence, wide attacking players, up front). So the squad we've ended up with looks, if anything, like it's been geared to give them plenty of chances, which signing Martial hasn't changed at all.

What I also don't get is why you seem so bothered about Martial's age? Why is signing a young player so much more of a kick in the teeth to our academy graduates than signing a player in his prime? Because we clearly needed another striker. That's not even up for debate, surely?

 

[Smores]

So you've decided that Rooney is unreliable?

A bit odd considering his record.

We need to make more chances for him to score - he'll put them away alright.

I'm genuinely confused by what record you mean, his record does now show a striker who is going to reliably get us 20+ goals in the premiership, thats what he'll need to do.

That's assuming he's still the player he was a few years ago, do you really think that's still the case?

We do not have a player you'd expect to get us that many goals. Just players we hope we hope might.

 

[Rozay]

Think we've done very well, just one player short who can come in and contribute on the right wing. I don't think Mata is the answer. I think if we had added Pedro, we would have had a brilliant window.

 

[The Stain]

7/10. Very good but we were so close pushing us from a very good, to a superb squad. Defense is still a question mark, not convinced by Blind in central defense and Smalling/Jones are injury prone. Otamendi or Laporte were getable. Would have preferred Pedro rather than Mata on the right. Januzaj going out on loan is just strange. I'm fine with Rooney for this season (even though i think he's finished) and happy with Martial. Adding Zlatan would have been ideal, though.

Positives are that we have cleared out players that are past it, strengthened central midfield considerably. Darmian. Shaw is like a new signing, added two great prospects in Memphis and Martial. De Gea staying! We stuck it to Real!

 

[sincher]

I'm genuinely confused by what record you mean, his record does now show a striker who is going to reliably get us 20+ goals in the premiership, thats what he'll need to do.

That's assuming he's still the player he was a few years ago, do you really think that's still the case?

We do not have a player you'd expect to get us that many goals. Just players we hope we hope might.

All opinions, but I think Rooney certainly can score 20+ goals a season playing as a striker. I don't think his performance level has dropped much over the last few years either. Last season 12 from 33, but played many games in midfield. 2 seasons ago, often playing wide, he scored 17 from 27 starts. Season before that 12 from 22. Season before that 27 from 32, playing as a striker.

His record stands at 233 goals (and 119 assists) for us from 483 games. Many of those games were not playing as a striker.

He's not at the Aguero or Suarez level, I admit, but I don't see a player we could have bought this summer who is.

 

[11101]

8 for me. We needed the following:

GK: DDG staying was the best option, even if he didnt want to.
RB: great signing
CB:
CM x2: Schneiderlin was everyone's top choice, and Bastian was a dream signing.
Winger x2: signed best prospect there is.
Striker: signed top prospect.

Points lost for the shambolic way we handled the De Gea non transfer, our failure to sign a RW and a proven striker.

Over the last two summers we have addressed almost all our weakspots. Maybe even all of them.

 

[RedDF]

THE GOOD
Happy De Gea has stayed and we didnt get Navas, keeping the second best goal keeper in the world for a season is better then getting the second best keeper at madrid last season, even if he isnt that happy, he will still want to play.

Think Schneiderlin and Darmain are great signings who have improved our first team straight away.

Depay has bags of potential and down the line should be a great player, but, as we've seen so far its a big step up to the premier league and its gonna take time so we can't rely on him week in week out at the moment, but think he has potential to have a big future.

Romero is an ok back up keeper, nothing more. But for free not a bad bit of business

Delighted Nani has left, most frustrating player i can ever remember in a united shirt.

THE BAD

I would rather we had not signed Schweinsteiger, think he will stunt the progression of Herrera, cause over rotation and it isn't worth it for a player obviously on the decline.

Sad Di Maria didnt work out, think he is a special player better then anything we have bought in, but didn't really fit Van Gaal's style and once he didnt turn up for the tour had to go, but its a real shame.

Also think we should have kept one of Hernadez or RVP we need a proven goal scorer other then Rooney. and think Weve left each ourselves a bit short up front.

Sad to see Rafeal and Evans leave thou they probably had out stayed thier usefulness... still sad thou


THE WEIRD

Confused by Martial not sure £36 million for a player who may not be ready for our first team.... seems a bit crazy. especially now that we have him Depay who is also gonna take time to adapt... having our only two quick attackers kids who arnt 100% ready... seems mental. Not to mention most of us didn't know he existed till 2 days ago, many of us even having watched a few Monaco games.... very bizarre to pay £36 million

SO HAPPY?
i dunno think we still have an un-balanced squad, last year we where top heavy, this year we are probably light upfront, and over stocked in center midfield,yet still without the right balance as we still dont have a single midfielder with pace.
I think i may be the only united fan happy with our defense, i like Blind in their, think having a defensive minded midfielder in their is a the natural progression considering most teams only play with one striker now, think their will be bumps on the road... like Swansea .... they need to be more inter changeable Smalling needs to stay on the striker while Blind picks up number 10... or summit.... but i like the theory behind it.
And im happy De Gea is here and think were ok with Romero as a back up... incase he doesn'tget his head straight.

so all in all think where about as strong as we where last year, and think we will end up probably in a similar league position and probably still play quite a lot of hoof it to Fellaini(which makes me unhappy). but think we will qualify for the CL next season which is good enough

wonder if people had these fears when we had wayne and cristiano coming through.

 

[prath92]

People voted 2 or 3? How idiotic can people get. It's a solid 7 at worst.

 

[Long Ball]

It's just a partial success. There are still massive glaring holes in our squad that were known before the start of the window.

This sums up my attitude towards it...

I would have deemed the window a success if we ended with a squad that I feel is capable of winning the league. Right now I just feel we will be battling for forth again

I think the negativity is also stemming from me beginning to lose faith and question LVG

 

[vidic blood & sand]

Just about to have a sigmoidoscopy, so will be happier after that.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

wonder if people had these fears when we had wayne and cristiano coming through.

It depends what we want to do though, if we just want to finish top 4... fine (though I'd argue we are more reliant now on Depay and Martial then we were on Ronaldo or Rooney in their first seasons) but to put up a challenge for the title? It's perfectly fair to have concerns.

Remember - Rooney is a little different, because had already played 2 full seasons in England, and gone to the Euro's with England and performed... Ronaldo took 2/3 yaers to settle, and... we didn't really challenge for the title in his first 2 seasons.

Also, Ronaldo only cost £12million... Rooney was very expensive, but you kind of knew what you were going to get with him. There was a slim chance he wasn't going to turn into a great striker.

 

[United again!]

I see you dodged my question about the homegrown players at other top four clubs...

Loads of players have featured very little so far this season, young and old. Martial will give us a bit more quality and an extra body where we need it, up front. His signing will do nothing to block Lingard or Pereira and, like I said, we're sufficiently short of strikers that Wilson shouldn't be bothered either.

In fact, all the youngsters I named play in positions where we're a little short of cover (central defence, wide attacking players, up front). So the squad we've ended up with looks, if anything, like it's been geared to give them plenty of chances, which signing Martial hasn't changed at all.

What I also don't get is why you seem so bothered about Martial's age? Why is signing a young player so much more of a kick in the teeth to our academy graduates than signing a player in his prime? Because we clearly needed another striker. That's not even up for debate, surely?

I don't care about other clubs, I don't invest my interest in other clubs and their players, I don't know about them and I don't care. Wilson, yes it actually does benefit in the short term you are right and fair point because he is much closer to selection but that is not the point I am trying to make here.

If we were adding another senior member of the squad which was probably in the context required, then adding a top dollar player under those circumstances doesn't effect the fringe youngsters (not fringe second teamers). The senior player comes in and they have the respect for them and have a chance to learn from them. But when you pay top dollar for young players to come into the fold from other leagues then you're sending a message to the rest of your crop that it doesn't matter whether you're in the fringe youngster category, we can always buy someone unproven for an insane amount of money to play as well.

In terms of our homegrown pedigree and our youth development (and in general in my opinion) I just don't like that notion at all. We should be spending big on proven, senior players and developing our young lads for the fringe and the step up.

If we disagree then that is fine.

wonder if people had these fears when we had wayne and cristiano coming through.

Rooney is English and had played in the league, it was a no brainer swiping a young domestic talent. Ronaldo was a value for money punt, however it turned out.

 

[NessunDorma]

Good signings:

Schneiderlin
Darmian
Schweinsteiger (on balance, £6m for someone with his talent and experience is a good deal).

Jury's out signings:

Depay
Martial

Both could turn into world beaters in the way Rooney and Ronaldo did, but . . . sometimes young players don't kick on in the way you expect. Paying the money we did for them is a bit of a gamble.

Should have been handled better:

The De Gea situation.

We're going to lose the best young 'keeper - and arguably the best 'keeper period - in the world on a free transfer. Let's imagine De Gea had come through at Spurs, and we wanted to sign him. They'd be squeezing us for like £40m+, and we'd probably end up paying it.

But now Real are going to get him for nothing from us - a world class keeper with his best years ahead of him for free. Essentially just given away, after we'd paid £18m to sign hm and invested in improving him. That has to be bad business. Insanely bad.

 

[Red Stone]

wonder if people had these fears when we had wayne and cristiano coming through.

Back then we had Ruud and Saha as strikers, who were both pretty much guaranteed to reach double figures barring injuries. We also had Scholes who had just scored 34 goals in the two seasons before combined, and Giggs who always gave us a decent return.

It's much harder to see where the goals are going to come from now. Rooney has never been the goal machine that Ruud was, and apart from him, we have no-one that has a proven record of more than 10 goals in a season in the PL. There's a chance that Memphis and Martial will start scoring regularly, but it's a huge gamble. Especially considering Rooney, Fellaini and Mata are our three biggest goal threats with Premiership experience. If they replicate their best ever seasons they'll get us 50 goals combined, and the chances of that are extremely slim. That means we need to find roughly 30 goals from the rest of the team to produce the same output as previous league winners.

 

[Sunny Jim]

I have mixed feelings regarding this summer

Outs:

I do understand that every manager has a right to build a team according to his ideas and standards. That justifies ins and outs.
I' m very happy with the number of player we sold as in most cases these player were either not good enough, on decline, did not fit Van Gaal's ideas or their performance did not justify their wages.

In case of outs i would give a 10 but for two players departure I'm going to give 9.

Rafael- IMO, hes a great full back. No, he does not fit Van Gaals philosophy of not being born Brazilian but I thnik he was hardly given a chance to adapt his game.
Nani- I like his a player, and if Van Gaal can turn blind eye on other players inconsistency and ball losing then we could use Nani. He could provide good back up, competition, alternative to our wide players.

Outs: 9.

Loans:

Januzaj - I'm not a big fan, however given his age I'm willing to wait before making final judgment. I think he would be useful this season. His loan to Dortmund might be a good idea but if the loan does include buy-out cause then I'm worried we may lose talented player.

Wilson- never happened and i think it should have.

Blackett - thank God.

Loans: 6


Ins:

Goalkeeprs

Romero is a mistake, clearly LVG's bunny. I hope LVG wont stick with him since DDG is available.
Valedes. Mix reports, im not sure what his status is. Clearly better than Romero. Our handling of this case has been poor.

DDG- shambles all the way. Glad he stays. Now, i hope LVG plays him.

Goalkeepers: 10 -because DDG is staying, 1 for the way we handled these cases. 6 is the average.

Defenders:

Darmian is a good addition. Valencia as back-up will unfortunately get some playing time. so i think we missed a trick with not buying a back-up for Darmian.

Lack of LCB - well, if Van Gaal wants a left -footed center back he should have got one. Blind experiment will end in tears.
Lack of cover for Shaw- we have a make-shit midfielder and center back to cover for Show. Not perfect.

Verdict: 4


Midfield: 10

Great players, no regrets really.

Attackers .

Mephis shows some good promise, Martial is unknown entity. For promise and hype- i'd give 10, actual quality here and now 6.

Verdict: 8.


Our transfer window in total: 7. Had DDG gone to Madrid (and we got Navas) it would have been a much worse score.

 

[Striker10]

wonder if people had these fears when we had wayne and cristiano coming through.

Probably not cause we still had Scholes, Giggs, Ruud etc...

 

[Enigma_87]

We got some quality midfielders and fixed 2 positions possibly for years ahead. We brought in Darmian as well who is a great full back IMO that fixes the RB position for years (hopefully) and 1 talent in Depay. That's the positives.

Negatives being IMO more than the positives tho. We binned almost all experienced players in attack, left ourselves short of attackers, overpaid massively for Martial(yes 50m eur is a lot of money for someone who played less than 50 games in inferior league), didn't bring in central defender(chased Ramos whole summer) which I think was needed for the long season as well as CL. And on top of that we've let a massive mess for the GK position. Also missing out on Pedro was really dick move.

All in all 4.

 

[Giggsy92]

I'm torn between 6 and 7. Happy with all our signings, and I'd only disagree with a couple of our outgoings, but we're still too light up front. Keeping De Gea is a huge plus though, that alone probably pushes it up to a 7.

 

[prath92]

Should have been handled better:

The De Gea situation.

We're going to lose the best young 'keeper - and arguably the best 'keeper period - in the world on a free transfer. Let's imagine De Gea had come through at Spurs, and we wanted to sign him. They'd be squeezing us for like £40m+, and we'd probably end up paying it.

But now Real are going to get him for nothing from us - a world class keeper with his best years ahead of him for free. Essentially just given away, after we'd paid £18m to sign hm and invested in improving him. That has to be bad business. Insanely bad.

 

[Todd]

End of 14/15 campaign: We snuck into CL; job done. Now, we need a RB, CB, CM, winger and striker to put us in a good position to compete for what we should be aiming for next season, that being an EPL title and a solid run in Europe. Cautiously optimistic.

Start of summer: Memphis, Darmian, Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin in, just like that...wow! Is this real life!?. Just like that, 3 of the 5 items on my wish list crossed off, and we doubled up on my CM wish no less! Outlook is very, very good. Can't wait to see what else we pull off. Rest of Europe be warned.

Middle of summer: RVP and Falcao gone, okay, that was to be expected...but now what's this about Di Maria? This was not in the plan, boss. And why isn't the Ramos deal done yet? Oh well, maybe that was a pipe dream, at least there's still Otamendi. But let's get on it signing that new big-name striker, okay? And we better start thinking about a Di Maria replacement...everything's still okay, guys, nothing to worry about...

End of summer: We didn't sign a CB? Seriously?? No big-name Di Maria replacement? Really? Who is this Martial kid anyway? He's gonna slot right in and score 20 in the league, right?

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Projected lineup by the time November rolls around, when all the usual suspects are injured:

--------------------Martial-------------------
Memphis--------------------------------Mata
-----------------------------------------------
------------Herrera----Fellaini---------------
-----------------------------------------------
----------------Schneiderlin------------------
------------------------------------------------
Blind---------------------------------Darmian
------------Rojo-----Carrick-------------------
-------------------------------------------------
------------------Romero-----------------------

Should be good for a Europa League spot, yeah?

 

[Rob Bowman]

Honestly this window started well and ended a mess.

Memphis- Great prospect and speed to burn- 9

Schweinstieger- Leader and a DCM- 10

Schiederlin- great mobility and energy- 9

Darmian- Superb value for the money- 8

Martial- good prospect but 36M pound... seriously?


And that is the problem, we needed another winger/attacker who could produce now. Where is Greizmann or Ruess. Who else can play striker? Why bungle Pedro? We are close. We have about 7 position full with top players and their back ups but for some reason skipped buying the last few pieces...

GK- Love DDG. I hope he gets focused and back on the pitch

Back 4- Darmian, Smalling, and Shaw are locked in starters. We have adequate cover for them as well. Blind is LVGs love child and we will have to live with it although to be fair it is looking okay now.

CM- Carrick, Schweinie, Scheiderlin... we are loaded.

Winger- We have Depay and Young with maybe Martial. Why did we do nothing to address this when ADM left? Honestly a club like us should not have to play a #10 out wide as the first option. What happens if Mata is hurt? Who plays RW then?

Stiker- Rooney... again what happenes when Rooney is injured?

Seriously how do we think we are okay up front when we have one player out of position and are two injuries away from a train wreck?

 

[Shiva87]

@Sunny Jim Agree with most of your analysis except defence. I'll give that a 7 (not 4). Valencia is now a full time RB, and Darmian is a great upgrade (much better than Clyne IMO) at a good price.

We needed a new CB - but we seemed to have identified one in Blind and LVG is giving him a run there - which freed up space for a 2nd CDMs (i.e. allowing squad space for all 3 of Carrick, Schweinstiger and Schniederlin). All in all, we have 5 CBs which will give McNair some game time this season when injuries inevitably come.

 

[Todd]

@Sunny Jim Agree with most of your analysis except defence. I'll give that a 7 (not 4). Valencia is now a full time RB, and Darmian is a great upgrade (much better than Clyne IMO) at a good price.

We needed a new CB - but we seemed to have identified one in Blind and LVG is giving him a run there - which freed up space for a 2nd CDMs (i.e. allowing squad space for all 3 of Carrick, Schweinstiger and Schniederlin). All in all, we have 5 CBs which will give McNair some game time this season when injuries inevitably come.

We have 5 CBs and 4 of them are nowhere near good enough to be in a team that has aspirations of winning a title and competing in the final stages of Champion's League.

-Smalling is proving himself as a top player, that is beyond question at this point. I have full faith in him.
-Jones is far too injury-prone and a bit too wreckless
-Rojo has potential, I think, but he's an unpolished talent at this point and besides, where in the hell is he? It shouldn't be taking this long to get up to 'match fitness,' he's a professional athlete for gods sake.
-Blind is not a true CB by nature...he can do a job against a team like Brugge, but week in and week out in the physical EPL he is outmatched. I see him as more of a cover at LB for Shaw, who is inevitably going to get hurt, and as cover for a proper CB.
-McNair is just a kid and doesn't belong anywhere near a top-4 starting eleven.

If we wanna compete legitimately we need a legitimate world class CB to pair up with Smalling.

 

[ravi2]

Think we've done very well, just one player short who can come in and contribute on the right wing. I don't think Mata is the answer. I think if we had added Pedro, we would have had a brilliant window.

That is the thing, we were pretty much one Pedro away from declaring it a fantastic transfer window.

 

[shabadu84]

In my opinion, this window was another positive step to the ultimate goal of the LVG era. We didn't bring him in, on a 3yr contract, to be the new Fergie because that's an impossible task. We brought him to fix things - overhaul the squad, restore morale, get us back into Europe - and that is how he should be judged.

So in the vein, I think the squad today is streets ahead of where we were 14 months ago. We've got a good mix of emerging young talent, a solid core of 20somethings in/entering their peaks, and a handful of experienced old hands to guide them all. No, it is not a finished product but it's well-positioned to compete now and grow into a force in the future. The manager who takes over from van Gaal, 2 years from now, should inherit a well-drilled, experienced team who know eah other well.

For this year, the key is getting them all on the same page after another summer of significant changes and I think we can do that faster than last season. With time, this can become an exciting team soon and I believe LVG can get us playing like want. I'm looking forward to it and everyone else should too.

 

[Glanville95]

I'm satisfied with it, I don't know how a United fan couldn't be.

We had so many areas that needed addressing, not just in terms of arrivals, but departures too and we've more or less seen to all of them and that's also in the face of wholesale changes. A rightback, two central midfielders a left-sided winger and a striker were all required and I'd say three of those were very astute, sensible pieces of business, while Martial and Memphis are risks, but also huge prodigies.

I'm not one too take pride in net-spend and the like, but it's also very good to see our wage bill reduced significantly and nearly every 'deadwood' player shipped out, Powell and Valdes aside. It's left us with a thin squad and it's questionable whether a squad of our size is sustainable while we compete across four competitions, but all the players that have left permanently had to leave as they simply don't have a future here. I can only assume LvG didn't view Januzaj as a wide option given our dearth of options there, otherwise he likely would have stayed.

What could prove our most important piece of business is retaining de Gea though. He's proved himself as a model professional over nearly the whole course of his United career and even if his mind hasn't been in the right place lately, his move to Madrid fell through. Hopefully, we will see a player return from the international break highly motivated and ready to usurp Romero (shouldn't be difficult) with the Euros on the Horizon. He simply can't afford to place his position in the Spain squad in jeopardy, so I'd be surprised if he doesn't show anything but 100% commitment and perform to the lofty standards he's set over the last two seasons.

 

[Shiva87]

We have 5 CBs and 4 of them are nowhere near good enough to be in a team that has aspirations of winning a title and competing in the final stages of Champion's League.

-Smalling is proving himself as a top player, that is beyond question at this point. I have full faith in him.
-Jones is far too injury-prone and a bit too wreckless
-Rojo has potential, I think, but he's an unpolished talent at this point and besides, where in the hell is he? It shouldn't be taking this long to get up to 'match fitness,' he's a professional athlete for gods sake.
-Blind is not a true CB by nature...he can do a job against a team like Brugge, but week in and week out in the physical EPL he is outmatched. I see him as more of a cover at LB for Shaw, who is inevitably going to get hurt, and as cover for a proper CB.
-McNair is just a kid and doesn't belong anywhere near a top-4 starting eleven.

If we wanna compete legitimately we need a legitimate world class CB to pair up with Smalling.

I agree that we needed a CB to partner with Smalling - no arguments there. My point was, if we look at our defence - we did address a major weakness. The new RB doesn't get injured (he is not injury prone like Rafael) and is great at blocking the cross. RB was our weakest position without a doubt. So I'd give a 10 on that.

To address the CB position, we are playing a revised formation - i.e. point backwards 4-3-3, which was an alternate option to addressing the issue with a CB purchase. Given that it has worked (from a defensive standpoint) in 5 of the 6 games we have played, I'll give him a 4 there. So all in all - it was a 7.

 

[RedMilo]

I am not happy. The clubs transfer dealings aren't what they used to be. The players bought for £250m arent that much of a significant improvement on the team SAF left behind. We have allowed young players to leave with bright futures, Januzaj being the latest one. I hate the style of football we are playing. I cant stand the fact we rely on Fellaini as our main go to guy when a goal is needed. I dont know all the answers but I do know what I dont like and its the way we are going under current Manager and CEO.

 

[bosnian_red]

Delighted personally. Januzaj staying would've made it better and signing a reus/griezmann would've made it perfect, but its still an excellent window. We kept de Gea, the best keeper in the world over the past year. We signed darmian, schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin, Memphis and martial. 2 incredibly promising players with great pace and ability to go past players, which we lacked for years now (and januzaj is only a loan so will be back). Finally having a world class midfield again, and 4 excellent options there. Smalling and Shaw developing into top players and darmian finally looking like we sorted the right back position after years of inconsistency. We also got rid of a ton of dead weight over the last few years basically and have a great squad looking forward. The only problem is the tactics being way too slow and cautious so it doesn't suit our attacking players, but that's nothing buying players could change.

 

[NL Max]

Am I happy with this transfer window? Yes I think we've made excellent signings and in the positions we needed them, we've also let go of players who were deemed surplus to requirments. I also think we have enough multifunctional players to cope with a regular injury crisis, van Gaal is a coach who rather relies on youth when shit hits the fan massively with injuries and I like that more than stocking up players on the bench just in case who would sulk if that didn't happen. Our starting XI posseses enough quality to compete for trophies imo, especially when you consider the tactical changes van Gaal can make with our options from the bench as they all offer something different.

I do think van Gaal is being ambitious, I know he prefers a mix of talent and experience (I do too) but we don't have alot of the latter left in the squad. I do however feel the club has made big steps to undo the debacle year under Moyes, I don't think we'll need a massive change of personnel anytime soon since we've adressed most issues for the long run hopefully. We still have some area's which need to be adressed but I didn't expect an overhaul as big as we've seen already, I think a CB+ST/RW might've been too much and there clearly weren't alot of genuenly top players available.

I'm not overly optimistic for this season yet, but I think we're on the right track and have definately improved on last year's squad. Alot will depend on the youngsters this season (Shaw, Memphis, Martial and even McNair, Lingard, Pereira) to deliver, wether they will is up to them. I like the thought of seeing those players progress at Manchester United but do realise that they will need time and will make mistakes, it all makes me excited for the future and hope they will make it here. Having de Gea for another year whilst we bed in alot of the new signings is a blessing in disguise imo, when he eventually leaves the team will most likely be much better defensively to cope with his loss.

Realistically I don't see us dropping out of the top 4, but neither do I see us winning trophies easily. I've doubted van Gaal at AZ, Bayern and the Netherlands NT but he proved me wrong time and time again, this time I'll wait to judge him and hope he surprises me again. He's taken on a massive rebuilding project and has been backed tremendously by the club, I'm very intrigued to see what he can achieve with the club in his time here but even more what sort of squad he will leave behind. I think the club will benefit from appointing van Gaal in the long run, even if he himself doesn't do well here.

All in all I'm alot more hopefull for the future than I was under Moyes, we clearly have a plan this time.

 

[Browniee]

am worried about squad depth though, especially after tough away fixtures in the CL. The youngsters are really going to have to step up this season, no excuses now. They'll be needed and very soon I expect.
Hope DDG can make his claim to get back into the team. Can't wait to see him in a United kit once again.

 

[redevil2]

None of them have featured at all. Yet more money has been shelled out for a young and unproven player. It makes little to no sense, just use Lingard on the right or Peireira at 10, or Wilson up front. I don't understand the logic of sending Januzaj on loan either. Just use what we have or buy proven ready talent to play a backup role. (It would be different if we Martial was coming in to put the finishing touches on an already well rounded squad, mind.)

I certainly don't agree with signing young players with huge money, we've got a reputation of sustained growth from within. It just rubs me the wrong way, that is all.

I feel exactly the same way. It's not Martial's fault and there is nothing against him. If we are just spending say £15-20m for him (all in) then it is logical. To buy a potential (however quick, he's still not much more experienced thannour own youngsters) at such price is a crazy idea and it set precedent. From here on clubs won't sell us rubbish players for cheap.

Januzaj out on loan is sad. When we have so many games to play we need players who can do a job when we need to rest players or just having normal rotation. It doesn't make sense to ship out little pea either. I am a bit mad the way this is going.

 

[redevil2]

Teenagers really should cost this much not tens of millions!
Just saw this headline:
LIVERPOOL SIGN BRAZILIAN YOUNGSTER ALLAN
The Reds are reported to have paid around £500,000 to secure the signing of the 18-year-old, who featured in three friendlies for the club's Under-21 side in the summer

 

[quiet_united]

eh Rooney and Ronaldo?

 

[Nytram Shakes]

wonder if people had these fears when we had wayne and cristiano coming through.

thier was question marks when we bought Ronaldo, becuase we had lost beckam and gone to get Ronadlinho ... failed so went for ronaldo... who turned out to be one of the best players ever, but thier was lots of question marks about him in his first 2 seasons.

Thier wasn't when we bought Rooney cos he already proved he could deliver and we had Saha, Ruud, and Smith as other stikers

 

[shamans]

To all of you comparing this to Rooney and Ronaldo:

They were exceptional players. One of them became (arguably) the best in the world and the other might be the PL's all time top scorer. That's not to say there is no chance Depay and Martial will turn out the same, but to use Rooney and Ronaldo as something that is bound to happen is quite silly.

 

[RedDF]

To all of you comparing this to Rooney and Ronaldo:

They were exceptional players. One of them became (arguably) the best in the world and the other might be the PL's all time top scorer. That's not to say there is no chance Depay and Martial will turn out the same, but to use Rooney and Ronaldo as something that is bound to happen is quite silly.

Nobody using them as something that is bound to happen, more like something to dampen the pessimism on her about having 2 players that are too young, could end up very well

 

[Heine]

Teenagers really should cost this much not tens of millions!
Just saw this headline:
LIVERPOOL SIGN BRAZILIAN YOUNGSTER ALLAN
The Reds are reported to have paid around £500,000 to secure the signing of the 18-year-old, who featured in three friendlies for the club's Under-21 side in the summer

There is a big difference though, the teenager we bought has played (well) in the CL and been first choice in Ligue 1. However, he was overpriced, but pretty much every talented player with potential is today.

I'm pretty sure Martial will have a bigger impact both short term and long term than this boy.


In general I like the strategy of transfers this year. Looking at the players in we have only bought one superstar player (Schweinsteiger) and considering his age he is also bought in to be a leader and mentor for our many young guys. Other than him we have gone for signing either the best players from weaker clubs (Darmian and Schneiderlin) or players with the potential to be stars (Memphis and Martial). To me that is a sound tactic and a good way to build the team. Then we can always argue that we should've strengthened more, and I agree. I also think that we look a bit thin on several positions. However, this might mean that we can give some more playing time to academy players and talents, if just one of those work out I would be in heaven

 

[Sarni]

Not very happy. I think all our transfers were spot on but you cannot let so many attacking players go without having replacements lined up. We are going to go into a potentially 55-game season with 5-6 attacking players if you count offensive midfielders and 3-4 if you only count actual wingers and forwards. A couple injuries will ruin our season.