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With just a day to go for the 2015/16 Premier League season to kick off, all teams are engaged in finishing their preparations and getting their league campaigns off to the best possible starts. Having gone through a season of transition under Louis van Gaal last time around, Manchester United would be looking to build on their decent league showing last year, and try and challenge Chelsea for the title.After having made it back to the top four, their next goal would be to work towards staying consistent all through the season and then look to imbibe Van Gaal’s well-professed ‘philosophy’ and get back to winning silverware on a regular basis. Following his splurge in the transfer market last summer, the Dutch manager has been pretty active this time around too, as he has worked to build a squad capable of contending for top honours. With the Champions League returning, the competition for places in the side will automatically increase and it will be interesting to see who makes the starting XI for United on a regular basis. Here’s our view on what the predicted starting line-up will look like –
#1 Goalkeeper
The goalkeeper’s spot at Manchester United is one full of uncertainty at the moment. The summer so far has seen one goalkeeper leave the club, one ostracised by manager Louis van Gaal, one move to the club having previously worked with Van Gaal at AZ Alkmaar, one with too little experience of regular football for Manchester United and one who looks set to leave the team.
All this while the regular goalkeeper David de Gea’s future has been unsettled due to Real Madrid’s interest in signing him. The Spaniard hasn’t expressed an explicit interest in leaving the club, but has not rejected reports linking him with the Spanish giants either, thus keeping the possibility of his transfer to Spain open.
Although Real bought Kiko Casilla as reserve and promoted Keylor Navas to the no.1 goalkeeping spot following Iker Casillas’ departure, they have still been linked with a move for De Gea. These rumours have troubled United boss Louis van Gaal enough for him to decide that United’s goalkeeping stalwart is not in the right frame of mind to play against Tottenham on the opening day.
With the future of last season’s Player of the Year in doubt, the United manager brought in Sergio Romero from Sampdoria, who also spent a season on loan at Monaco. The Argentine international is a good shot-stopper and also great at penalty shootouts, but his command of the penalty box is iffy, at best. Romero has also not played in the Premier League before, and that means that he could take a little time to adjust.
Similarly, with Lindegaard looking to be on his way out of the club, and De Gea’s stay at the club uncertain, Sam Johnstone is the only other player available, and although he played a couple of matches on the club’s tour of the United States and looked solid, his inexperience is a big factor to consider.
#2 Defence
The area of the team that looks the most dodgy at the moment is the Despite finishing with the 4th best defence in the Premier League last season, it is a known fact that the backline of the Red Devils needs some fixing and that was visible even during preseason this year.
Van Gaal strengthened the right-back position by bringing in Italian international Matteo Darmian from Torino. Darmian is a two-way player, who has good pace, likes to go forward and is defensively very aware. Although Rafael da Silva was allowed to move to Lyon, the team still looks well stocked at the position, with the dependable Antonio Valencia providing backup to Darmian.
Luke Shaw has worked hard on his fitness and looked very good in preseason and would want to cement his spot in the starting line-up after a injury-filled first season. Blind, Rojo and Darmian can all fill in at left-back if needed.
Although the team boasts of many central defenders in the form of Jonny Evans, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo, Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett, the Dutchman will start the match against Tottenham with Daley Blind and Smalling as his centre-back pairing. Blind impressed playing as the left-sided centre-back during preseason and Smalling was the most assured of all the others playing that position.
Both Phil Jones and Jonny Evans struggled through the tour of the United States as they were frequently found out by balls in behind and their judgement of situations was pretty poor (An example of this would be Jones’ role in the 2nd goal United conceded against PSG where he was completely clueless and couldn’t pick up Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s run and didn’t have the foresight to cut off the cross.
With Rojo having just joined the team after his exertions with Argentina in the Copa America, Van Gaal was clear that he wouldn’t be starting the season. Both McNair and Blackett though talented, are also very raw, and haven’t really outperformed the others to merit a place above them.
Smalling improved gradually throughout last season and by the end of the season was a trusted lieutenant of the manager’s by then. The Englishman is also Manchester United’s 3rd captain and has assumed a leadership role for them.
United, however, have been on the lookout for a central defender all through the transfer window, and were very heavily linked with both Nicolas Otamendi and Sergio Ramos, but both those pursuits seem to have now stalled.
Backline: Darmian – Smalling – Blind – Shaw
#3 Midfield
Manchester United will continue to play the 4-3-3 formation that yielded them success during last season. The team needed to strengthen badly in midfield, and Ed Woodward did just that, adding Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger to give the midfield a strong spine.
German legend Schweinsteiger joined from Bayern Munich in a deal that was a win-win for all parties involved. He will provide great power and control, in addition to big-match experience to the middle of the park. His fitness, though, has been questionable of late, and Van Gaal will look to get him involved slowly so as to not hamper his progress.
Schneiderlin will fulfill a huge hole in the United midfield, that of a tough-tackling, ball-winning midfielder. He will help add some threat going forward at set-pieces and will also help keep possession of the ball.
Marouane Fellaini is suspended for the first 3 matches of the season due to his red card against Hull in the last match last season, and he won’t be available initially. Michael Carrick should keep his position at the base of the midfield, where he can act as the fulcrum, keep possession and make crucial interceptions while defending.
Carrick is very crucial to Van Gaal’s system and the team lost only one match he started last season. Once Schweinsteiger is fit, he will definitely be expected to challenge the Englishman for his position.
Though the midfield bears a solid look, preseason showed that it sometimes could be very static and not a lot of bodies were seen getting into the box. This is where the role of Ander Herrera will come into prominence, as his ability to link up well with the forwards and look to get into the box, in addition to his good goalscoring record will help give some much-needed support going forward.
The width in the midfield will be provided by Memphis Depay on the left and Juan Mata on the right. Depay has the pace and power necessary to go past defenders on the flank, and he definitely has an eye for goal, as was shown by him last season for PSV, when he scored 22 league goals.
Mata has shown that he fits the formation preferred by Van Gaal very well and was pivotal in Manchester United’s great displays March onwards in the league. He prefers to cut in, and exchange passes with Herrera running in, which helps create space for the right-back, which could be used well by Darmian.
Midfield: Carrick – Schneiderlin – Herrera – Depay – Mata
#4 Striker
Following the sale of Robin van Persie and the completion of Radamel Falcao’s loan spell, Wayne Rooney is the only established striker at the club. Though he played many matches for the team as the lone striker last season, he also had to play many matches in midfield, which affected his goal haul.
Rooney though, has said that he is ready to get back to scoring loads of goals, and the season ahead will show whether he is still capable of scoring for fun, as he has shown previously for the Red Devils.
The other striking options include youngster James Wilson, who is a promising prospect and looked good in the matches that he played last season. The squad also has Mexican striker Javier Hernandez, who has come back from a season on loan at Real Madrid. Though his future at the club is not certain, he could get the team goals if put into the lineup as his instincts and goalscoring ability are second-to-none.
United’s options up-front are not really a lot, and they will need Rooney to stay free of injuries for them to have a great season. With bench options sparse at the moment, Van Gaal might look to strengthen before the end of the transfer window.
For now though, this looks to be the strongest United team, and is solid enough to pose a genuine threat to defending champions Chelsea and the other title contenders.
This is how the team will line-up:
