Premier League preview: Manchester United
The transitional period at Old Trafford looks to have passed, last season’s major departures, Carlos Tévez and Cristiano Ronaldo, are almost forgotten, and the side seems very settled with the younger members of the squad gaining invaluable experience from last year’s title chase.
Players such as Antonio Valencia and Nani should progress accordingly this season with both looking to put themselves into the world-class player bracket.
The pressure to achieve their 19th league title will be on Wayne Rooney shoulder’s, who will need to rediscover his superb scoring form of last season after a horrendous summer with England, and he will need to be supported by Dimitar Berbatov, who had a poor season considering his standards. Games seemed to pass the gifted Bulgarian by, and he never really got into the rhythm that he showed at Tottenham. If given a sufficient run in the side the Bulgarian has the talent to prove his critics wrong, and could prove a profitable addition to a fantasy football side.
The one area concerning United fans is the holding midfielder role, which some feel Sir Alex Ferguson has failed to address since the retirement of Roy Keane. Owen Hargreaves flirted with making the position his own but injuries have derailed his career while Michael Carrick’s form over the past few seasons has left doubts surrounding his United future. Paul Scholes seems to be getting better with age, and is United’s best option in the midfield department. He controls the game, and he is still of the best passers of a ball in the world, but he won’t be able to regularly play week-in, week-out.
Despite chief executive David Gill going on record saying that the transfer kitty is bulging, actions speak louder than words and there has been little transfer activity from Sir Alex once again this summer and the failure to address the lack of steel in the midfield could prove costly.
The two players he has brought in, Chris Smalling and Javier Hernández, are relatively unknown to the connoisseurs of world football, but both emphasise that Ferguson is planning for the future and is suitably happy with the squad he has already.
Smalling, 20, has endured a rapid rise through the football ranks, appearing a handful of times for Maidstone United in the Ismathian League before sensationally making the step up to Premier League with Fulham. He then attracted the attention of United last season and completed the move in the close season, despite only 13 professional games under his belt.
Hernández has already made himself a hit with the United faithful with his sublimely ridiculous goal in the Community Shield, he somehow to contrived to fall over the ball with the empty goal gaping and ricochet the ball off his head into the net. But comedy goals aside, he looked a real prospect in the World Cup with Mexico, bagging two goals in the process and with a nickname like ‘Chicharito’ he is a commercial relations dream.
Ben Foster is the only first-team player to have left Old Trafford this summer, snapped up by Birmingham for £6million, which means the squad is very nearly identical to last season’s side which finished second in the league. Unless some of the younger players step up, or Berbatov find’s his scoring boots, then United will probably find one team just too good once again, but as die-hard watchers of Premier League’s gone by will tell you; underestimate United at your peril.
Premier League team previews
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Arsenal-a21521
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Aston-Villa-a21522
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Birmingham-City-a21523
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Blackburn-Rovers-a21524
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Blackpool-a21527
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Bolton-Wanderers-a21528
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Chelsea-a21529
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Everton-a21530
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Fulham-a21531
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Liverpool-a21532
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Manchester-City-a21535
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Manchester-United-a21536
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Newcastle-United-a21538
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Stoke-City-a21540
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Sunderland-a21542
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Tottenham-Hotspur-a21543
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-West-Brom-a21548
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-West-Ham-a21551
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Wigan-Athletic-a21555
*
http://www.senore.com/Premier-League-preview-Wolves-a21556
Tags: