Just two points from their first three games and getting dumped out of the League Cup by MK Dons in a season with no Champions League football is not something that a Manchester United fan is familiar with. Hence, the question arises, where did it go all wrong?
The answer to this simple question is actually not that simple. In fact it is quite complex.
While the highly leveraged buyout of the most successful club in England did curtail their ability in the transfer market, Sir Alex Ferguson had always maintained that there were no problems with the owners as far as funding for new players.
What is interesting to note here is that, in the same manner as Liverpool in the 1990s, Manchester United have let their domestic rivals get ahead of them by refusing to spend the going rates in the transfer market.
Although Ferguson was a great manager, what was evident during his last years at the club was that there was an over-reliance on Paul Scholes. While the manager looked for quality in the middle of the park there was no serious investment in this area and that came to haunt David Moyes. He paid with his job, and now the current incumbent of the Old Trafford hot-seat Louis van Gaal has to deal with the same predicament.
After the end of last season, the club allowed the likes of Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra to leave for peanuts. Thus, a club which already had a gaping hole in their midfield now also have to contend with a similar situation at the back.
Fans have already started to revise their opinion of David Moyes, who was not afforded the luxury of spending millions in his first transfer window. And we all know what happened. This debacle clearly did not happen over the last season. This was coming for a while and it is a shame that Ferguson, great coach that he was, did not do anything to set the house in order.
Van Gaal is a great tactician with a proven track record. The Dutch coach has already admitted in his interviews that the system he is looking to play at the club, the much-spoken 5-3-2, will need at least two to three months before it starts bearing fruit.
However, the capture of Angel di Maria and the presence of Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata and Adnan Januzaj in the same team means that either all these players will not play together, or the coach will change the formation to accommodate them sooner or later.
Van Gaal has admitted that it is a possibility now that the club have got him a quality winger who can thrive at the theater of dreams.
The Carrington-based side have spent quite heavily in the transfer window and their spending is expected to top the £200 million mark come September 1.
Van Gaal has found it tough to lure an experienced centre back who can play in the back three. Marcos Rojo is one for the future and Luke Shaw’s arrival has strengthened the left back slot. The England defender is destined for greatness once he gets over his fitness issues that have kept him from featuring for his new side since the start of the current season.
Ander Herrera brings great ability and creativity in the middle of the park and even if he is half as good as the man he replaces, he will be great for United. However, the need of the hour for Van Gaal is a robust central midfielder who can boss the game.
Also, throughout their period of prolonged success, United are a side which have consistently been able to outscore their opponents in order to win games rather than defending in convincing fashion.
This side will need to start scoring enough goals to create pressure on the opposition rather than depend on the defence. The defence clearly does not inspire much confidence and a single transfer window is not enough to address such a pressing area.
With all that said though, we have not seen the first-choice 11 play together for Manchester United yet, thanks to a series of fitness issues and injuries. There is enough quality in that team for United to qualify for the Champions League next season and that would be a realistic target for the club after what has transpired in the last couple of weeks.
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