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The Premier League season will start soon and football fans are anticipating it with real excitement. Manchester United, like every other top Premier League side, will be looking to challenge for the Premier League title this term having missed out in the last season to their city rivals.
Do Jose Mourinho and Manchester United have any realistic hope of challenging for the premier league or even winning it?
Early signs
To start with, the pre-season has not been very positive for Manchester United. They have had three consecutive draws, a heavy defeat to Liverpool and only one win against Real Madrid.
Admittedly, a host of first-team players – who participated in the 2018 FIFA World Cup - are not available at the coach’s disposal. Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Jesse Lingard and Marouane Fellaini are currently on holiday as a result of their World Cup exploits.
But this should not be a problem for a team as big as Manchester United. This brings us to the main reason why they cannot win the Premier League.
Lack of squad depth
Manchester United can not boast of quality squad depth as of now. Over the course of last season, Manchester United's starting XI was so predictable, not because of minimal injury issues.
There were very few players who could challenge for the starting spots and when these key players lose form, the team was always in trouble as there was no adequate cover from the bench.
For example, Paul Pogba lost his touch at some point last season but there was no real replacement for him – one who can create chances from the midfield base, hence, Jose Mourinho opted for 21-year-old Scott McTominay.
Lukaku went through some barren spells last season but there was no real genuine like-for-like replacement on the bench. Marcus Rashford is nowhere close to being a reliable or consistent goal scorer and his being shifted to the wing by Jose Mourinho must have changed his goal-scoring mentality a bit.
In a nutshell, all Manchester United players who do not feature in the starting XI (bar Jesse Lingard) are either not so reliable or largely inconsistent. Some key examples are Matteo Damian, Luke Shaw, Phil Jones, McTominay, Rashford and Anthony Martial. Potential League winners should not have this problem.
Dull Transfer Window
Manchester City almost won the league unbeaten last term but have still gone ahead to strengthen their squad with the acquisition of Riyad Mahrez.
Liverpool splashed out almost £200 million on Alisson, Xherdan Shaqiri, Fabinho and Naby Keita. Both teams have made a real statement in the transfer market so far and will be hoping to challenge for the title in the forthcoming season.
The same cannot be said of Manchester United so far, even with the acquisition of Diogo Dalot and Fred.
Granted, there are no assurances of who will win the league now because it is going to be a long hard season of 38 matches.
However, from the look of things now, Manchester United don't look like a team ready to win the league just yet.
