Back in the summer Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho stated that he ideally wanted to bring in four new faces to strengthen his squad.

When transfer deadline day passed Man Utd had brought in three signings and then also announced that they had retained Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

£75m striker Romelu Lukaku has been in scintillating form since his arrival, scoring eleven goals in his first ten games for the Red Devils.

Holding midfielder Nemanja Matic has also walked into the first eleven at Old Trafford and played remarkably well. He does an excellent job protecting the defensive line and is great with ball retention too. The Serbian international looks well settled in his new team and certainly adds much needed balance in midfield.

United also brought in Swedish defender Victor Lindelof. He has taken longer to get to grips with life at United. The twenty-three year old has yet to make his Premier League debut but has played in the League Cup and the Champions League. He’s had to wait for his chance in the league due to the impressive form of Phil Jones and Eric Bailly. He normally plays centrally but he can also find himself in the right-back slot.

So do Manchester United really need to add anymore faces this January?

Well they have been in terrific form so far in this campaign. They’ve easily negotiated their Champions League fixtures and they are joint top of the Premier League with rivals Manchester City.

They seem to have one of the strongest squads in England’s top flight and also have great strength in depth. Jose is also very keen to fill his pool with versatile players who can play in various positions and he has that with this United squad.

They are creating chances and more importantly they’re taking those chances.

While Lukaku is obviously the main goalscorer, others in the squad are also getting on the scoresheet with United having ten different scorers recording goals so far this term. Not bad given the fact that they’ve still got Zlatan to comeback from injury to help things up-top.

At the back, Man United have a world-class goalkeeper in David de Gea and regularly play in a stable back four. In the league their mean defence have only conceded twice in seven league outings.

It was suggested that Mourinho really wanted to bring in another winger to improve the squad further. That being said Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard have all provide assists from wide positions. While Juan Mata offers craft and vision as well as experience from the righthand side.

Paul Pogba has been in fantastic form this term, with goals and assists to his name. The Frenchman seems to relish playing with the freedom starting alongside Matic gives him. But unfortunately for Pogba he has suffered from a hamstring injury and that has kept him out of the team in recent weeks. Fortunately for Mourinho and the club players such as Marouane Fellaini and Ander Herrera have came into the side and filled the void left by Pogba with ease.

Ask most Man United supporters if there was a position that they were still unconvinced by then I’d guess that the left-back position would be mentioned the most.

Luke Shaw is still looking for full fitness and a return to form. Daley Blind can be seen as good defensively and can also provide a very decent cross but question marks arise when he comes up against an extremely pacy winger. Matteo Darmian will give you his all but he’s really better on the right-side. Ashley Young seems to be a player Jose trusts in that position but he’s never too far away from a spell on the treatment table.

As for left-backs, United still have Marcos Rojo to return from injury. He was hitting his stride last season before his knee ligament injury. So while they don’t perhaps a world class left back, Man Utd still have plenty of players that can do well in that area.

United boss Jose Mourinho stated at the start of this campaign that he had to have a strong squad:

“Everybody’s in the plan,”

 “The plan is to have a good squad, not to have a good team.”

I believe he currently has that at Old Trafford and probably doesn’t need to dip into the transfer market come January. That being said, he will have the funds if the right world-class star were to become available or if they suffer from any injury crisis between now and the winter window!

Whether they do or don’t purchase anyone in January, I believe Man United will be challenging for the title come May.

Posted on October 4th, 2017 by scott
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