2014/15 | Final Thoughts.
Final Thoughts.
There were so many high hopes going into this season with a number of great players joining United, as well as a new world class manager who's track record would certainly suggest that he was the right man to lead us back to the top. Yet the inability of the big name players to instantly fit in and make the difference we expected, as well as all the chopping and changing in formation by the manager, meant our season never really got going.
Injuries of course played a massive role in the slow start we experienced, but it should not have taken van Gaal until the end of February to finally figure out his best starting XI. A run of six straight wins spanning from February 28th to April 12th - including wins at Anfield and our first victory in the Manchester derby since 2012 - saw us play our best football of the season, but it was all too little too late. False hope was immediately installed with some people going as far as suggesting we could go on and win the league, however the derby win was annoyingly followed by three straight defeats and we ended the season winning a poor five points in our final six games. Yet, thanks to the non-existent challenge from Liverpool and Tottenham, a fourth spot finish was comfortably ours in the end.
Elsewhere, we failed miserably in the League Cup (losing at the first hurdle 0-4 to MK Dons of League One) and under-performed in the FA Cup - a competition many thought we could go on and win as the other big teams in the league were either knocked out early or distracted by European football.
On a positive note, van Gaal's "philosophy" definitely started to take shape towards the end of the season, and the improvement from last season's United are obvious (what the manager has done to get Young and Fellaini performing as well as they did is incredible), so there are certainly positives to take into next season as we look to bring in some more world-class players as well as hope to get the best out of Di Maria.
The signing of Depay to boost our midfield, with United beating the likes of Liverpool and Real Madrid to his signature, was fantastic but van Gaal now needs to focus on sorting out the defense that came under a lot of scrutiny in his first season in charge. After losing Vidic and Ferdinand last summer, United fans waited patiently for some decent defenders to join the club as replacements, yet only Marcos Rojo (still relatively inexperienced and an unknown prior to the World Cup) was brought in, meaning we had to rely on the likes of Smalling, Jones and Evans to help fill the void - and when the injuries began to rapidly pile up, the inexperienced Blackett and McNair were prematurely brought into the first team to help out. Not quite the defensive cover we expected. But thankfully, as the season went on and some stability was installed, we became more and more convincing at the back. And of course, we can't talk about the defense without mentioning the exceptional David De Gea.
Our goalkeeper was in incredible from for us this season. Almost every game consisted of a miracle save by De Gea, winning us countless points with his heroics. The only problem now is: can we keep him? I don't think anyone can begrudge the Spaniard a move back home, but where will that leave United who's one and only stable position is in danger of being disrupted? As strong as the rumours are linking De Gea with a move to Real Madrid, there have been zero stories linking a world-class 'keeper to United. Unless the plan is to utilise the experience of Victor Valdes - not the worst suggestion perhaps when you think he is still only 33 years old and van der Sar was 35 when he joined United. Only time will tell. But one thing is for sure - it looks like it's going to be another interesting summer.
Back to the season...
So in the end our 'bare-minimum' goal of Champions League football for 2015-16 was achieved, yet a sense of disappointment and overriding air of frustration is unavoidable. After last year's debacle, things could only get better yet with no European football distracting us but after some pretty phenomenal acquisitions in the summer (something David Moyes and the Board forgot to do in 2013) we could have, and certainly should have, done a lot better than settling for fourth place.
There were so many high hopes going into this season with a number of great players joining United, as well as a new world class manager who's track record would certainly suggest that he was the right man to lead us back to the top. Yet the inability of the big name players to instantly fit in and make the difference we expected, as well as all the chopping and changing in formation by the manager, meant our season never really got going.
Injuries of course played a massive role in the slow start we experienced, but it should not have taken van Gaal until the end of February to finally figure out his best starting XI. A run of six straight wins spanning from February 28th to April 12th - including wins at Anfield and our first victory in the Manchester derby since 2012 - saw us play our best football of the season, but it was all too little too late. False hope was immediately installed with some people going as far as suggesting we could go on and win the league, however the derby win was annoyingly followed by three straight defeats and we ended the season winning a poor five points in our final six games. Yet, thanks to the non-existent challenge from Liverpool and Tottenham, a fourth spot finish was comfortably ours in the end.
Elsewhere, we failed miserably in the League Cup (losing at the first hurdle 0-4 to MK Dons of League One) and under-performed in the FA Cup - a competition many thought we could go on and win as the other big teams in the league were either knocked out early or distracted by European football.
On a positive note, van Gaal's "philosophy" definitely started to take shape towards the end of the season, and the improvement from last season's United are obvious (what the manager has done to get Young and Fellaini performing as well as they did is incredible), so there are certainly positives to take into next season as we look to bring in some more world-class players as well as hope to get the best out of Di Maria.
The signing of Depay to boost our midfield, with United beating the likes of Liverpool and Real Madrid to his signature, was fantastic but van Gaal now needs to focus on sorting out the defense that came under a lot of scrutiny in his first season in charge. After losing Vidic and Ferdinand last summer, United fans waited patiently for some decent defenders to join the club as replacements, yet only Marcos Rojo (still relatively inexperienced and an unknown prior to the World Cup) was brought in, meaning we had to rely on the likes of Smalling, Jones and Evans to help fill the void - and when the injuries began to rapidly pile up, the inexperienced Blackett and McNair were prematurely brought into the first team to help out. Not quite the defensive cover we expected. But thankfully, as the season went on and some stability was installed, we became more and more convincing at the back. And of course, we can't talk about the defense without mentioning the exceptional David De Gea.
Our goalkeeper was in incredible from for us this season. Almost every game consisted of a miracle save by De Gea, winning us countless points with his heroics. The only problem now is: can we keep him? I don't think anyone can begrudge the Spaniard a move back home, but where will that leave United who's one and only stable position is in danger of being disrupted? As strong as the rumours are linking De Gea with a move to Real Madrid, there have been zero stories linking a world-class 'keeper to United. Unless the plan is to utilise the experience of Victor Valdes - not the worst suggestion perhaps when you think he is still only 33 years old and van der Sar was 35 when he joined United. Only time will tell. But one thing is for sure - it looks like it's going to be another interesting summer.
Back to the season...
So in the end our 'bare-minimum' goal of Champions League football for 2015-16 was achieved, yet a sense of disappointment and overriding air of frustration is unavoidable. After last year's debacle, things could only get better yet with no European football distracting us but after some pretty phenomenal acquisitions in the summer (something David Moyes and the Board forgot to do in 2013) we could have, and certainly should have, done a lot better than settling for fourth place.
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