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Manchester United face a crisis: are they prepared to accept mediocrity or will Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman, allow José Mourinho a serious squad overhaul? When wages are factored in the bill for this will run to close to half a billion – as much as United are in debt via their owners, the Glazers. Here is what is required to end United’s stagnation as the one-step forward, one-step back proposition they have become.
Goalkeeper
David de Gea is again proving a supreme No 1, possibly the only player Pep Guardiola would have in his Manchester City XI. Until the Spaniard signs a new contract United will be twitchy. There is a 12-month extension United can trigger to keep him until 2020 but to do so would show desperation and to lose him completely would signal an undeniable deterioration in the club’s status. Sergio Romero and Lee Grant are adequate back-ups.
Ins None (but tie up De Gea)
Outs None
Defence
United conceded 27 Premier League goals last season, the second lowest, yet have already allowed 21 this campaign, and there is deadwood in every position. At right-back Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young – each 33 – are auxiliary operators and each should leave, along with Matteo Darmian. Once 19-year-old Diogo Dalot is fit he should be given a chance to establish himself and Mourinho should buy a fresh recruit of the ilk of Juventus’s João Cancelo. At left-back Luke Shaw has improved but was caught out for City’s opening goal and needs competition: Juve’s Alex Sandro would be ideal. Of the centre-backs the defensively suspect Chris Smalling, Marcos Rojo and Phil Jones should be sold, and two new ones bought to compete with Victor Lindelöf and Eric Bailly. Why Mourinho did not move for Virgil van Dijk when Liverpool took him from Southampton is a mystery.
Ins A right and left-back, two centre-backs
Outs Smalling, Valencia, Young, Jones, Darmian, Rojo
Midfield
Paul Pogba was missed against City but Fred must be alarmed to hear Mourinho bemoan how this meant Marouane Fellaini, preferred to the Brazilian, would have been better utilised as an impact substitute. This places Fred behind the Belgian despite being last summer’s flagship £50m signing. Nemanja Matic should become a squad option only, and the average Ander Herrera and Scott McTominay sold. More artistry is required to complement Pogba’s verve: Juve’s Miralem Pjanic is of the requisite quality.
Ins A central midfielder
Outs Herrera, McTominay
Attack
Mourinho’s need here is two-fold: a game-breaker with serious pace such as Manchester City’s Leroy Sané and a finisher who can bag 18 league strikes as Raheem Sterling did last season for City and still be second-highest contributor – as he was to 21-goal Sergio Agüero.
Sterling’s tally was two more than Romelu Lukaku, United’s highest scorer, and with Gabriel Jesus registering 13 and Sané 10 the champions had four players better than United’s second best – Anthony Martial with nine. Alexis Sánchez was meant to be the answer but has scored once in nine league appearances this season and is thought to want to leave. Factor in him being a free transfer who earns at least £350,000 a week and United should offload him in January. Marcus Rashford again failed at centre-forward against City and appears lost so at 21 would benefit from a loan. Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard are merely squad players.
Ins An elite-level finisher and a game-changer
Outs Rashford (loan), Sánchez
Bench
When City beat Fulham 2-0 in the Carabao Cup Guardiola made 10 changes to field a “second XI” that featured Brazil’s No 9, Jesus, Vincent Kompany, the captain, England’s World Cup player Fabian Delph, Sané, Danilo and Kevin De Bruyne, who when fit again may put Bernardo Silva back on the bench. Mourinho can only dream of these riches: his outfield replacements for the derby were Jones, Darmian, Fred, Sánchez and Lukaku – the latter still recovering from injury.
Manager
At the heart of United’s crisis is Mourinho. What is the point of attempting to revive the side via a macro-investment move that may take up to the next four transfer windows if Woodward and board are unsure regarding their manager? In the summer Mourinho was refused funds to move for Leicester City’s Harry Maguire or Bayern Munich’s Jérôme Boateng because Woodward et al deemed both no better than Mourinho’s centre-back quintet. Never has the back-or-sack truism been more pertinent than now. Considering the uneven resources he has Mourinho still finished second last year and is able to engineer eye-catching one-off results, as the Juve win illustrates. In this glass half-full scenario Woodward and company may take the view that Mourinho is in a third year of a rebuild and to discard him would put United even further back and maybe consign the 20-times champions to a generation in the non-title-winning wilderness.
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