Manchester United need to buy players, urgently!

An unprecedented opening day for Manchester United folded out against Swansea City last weekend. The Reds fans were in for a surprise when the match-day squad was announced. There were 4 debutants in the squad and around 8 to 10 players were yet to recover from injuries. Swansea City, against all the odds, went 1-0 up before half-time and the Rooney-led team then looked depleted. At full time, United had suffered a 1-2 defeat which was a rarity of sorts because it hadn’t lost a single opening game of the league since years.

Some might consider the fact that Manchester United was not at its full strength and the unavailability of the players had a bigger role to play in the defeat. But, can the Reds manage a top-4 finish even after the missing players are back from injuries? The chances look bleak at the moment. 5 players left the club this summer and the only eminent signings were those of Ander Herrera and Luke Shaw. A top drawer team which has performed disastrously in the previous season would have been expected to be more active in the transfer market.

Louis Van Gaal sounded confident in the post-match conference and said that the club won’t make panic signings just because of a single defeat. Unfortunately, it is only him who is not worried and the reasons of all the worried fans cannot be ignored. United need a couple of big signings, one in the defence and one in the attacking half for it to be hopeful of performing respectably this season. Despite the above comments, LVG signed Marcos Rojo from Sporting Lisbon and further said that he would take decisions as per the requirements of the team.

Another reason why LVG might be hesitant in signing new players is that United won’t be playing in either Champions league or the Europa League and it would be a huge task to keep each and every player happy with the amount of matches they get to play. He indicated after the last match that he might want a couple of players to leave but it is up to the player also to make that decision and he alone can’t force someone out of the club. Clearly, he wants to offload and get in some new players but there are constraints which he might not be able to address at least in this transfer window.

LVG needs to find the right balance before the transfer deadline to address the team needs and win the upcoming matches. Manchester United have supposedly closed in on Angel Di Maria of Real Madrid after his club left him out of the Atletico clash and the Real Madrid president confirming Maria not being in their plans for the upcoming season. If LVG manages to get a player like him, who can lift the spirits of the team and if the number of injuries reduce, United would have a decent enough squad to compete with the top teams. The Reds have a week to decide their fate.