After a poor season last year, Manchester United kept just two clean sheets at Old Trafford and stumbled to a sixth place finish under legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The defence came under a lot of scrutiny and in order to compete once more for those Champions League places, Ed Woodward has decided to bring in a number of key defenders to help try and fix the problems. Here are 5 reasons why the Red Devils defence is now good enough for the top four…
Harry Maguire
The £80 million defender was brought into be United’s main centre-back this year after a successful period at Leicester City. His experience and know how of the Premier League will come in handy and he has proved in the past that he can compete with some of the world’s best. The defender said he’ll give everything to be successful.
His ability to carry out the ball from the back is one that many top clubs wish to have amongst their defenders. Manchester City were also linked which shows how highly sought after the defender was. Maguire played a crucial role in England’s route to the World Cup semi-final last summer and will be hoping that he can use that experience to become one of the Manchester United greats.
Partnership
Victor Lindelof and Maguire now sit at the heart of Manchester United’s defence. After an impressive season last year, Lindelof will be hoping to push on at Old Trafford and form what could be a great partnership with Maguire.
The Swedish centre-back has all the attributes to compliment Maguire’s game, and vice-versa. Manchester United tickets will be flying through the roof if these two can be anything like legends Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. However, it looks like it’s the closest they’ve been for years.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
The young right-back joined from Crystal Palace for a staggering £50 million this summer, but he’s totally worth the price tag. He’s already set a number of targets.
A number of Premier League managers voted the full-back into their team of the season last year and it was very much justified. He won the Crystal Palace fans player of the season over Wilfried Zaha last season which shows just how talented the right-back is. His potential is through the roof and he has every chance of being a world-class player.
De Gea confidence
The United keeper will be full of confidence after seeing Woodward bring in new defensive recruits. For a while now De Gea has made it clear that he isn’t happy with the defence that he has had in front of him. The Spanish goalkeeper even came close to leaving a few years ago, but luckily for United a dodgy fax machine means he is still at the club.
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He will be in a much finer mood after seeing the Reds spend £130 million on two defenders to bolster their starting side. After the 4-0 victory over Chelsea on Sunday, De Gea has already got half the clean sheets he had at home last season.
No Champions League means extra rest days
The Red Devils not being in the Champions League will only help them in the Premier League. Due to the lesser importance of the Europa League, Manchester United will be able to rest key players all the way through the competition – right up until the latter stages.
This will only help them in the league as they will be able to keep key players such as Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and Harry Maguire fit for the Premier League.
