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What United Need To Do To Finish The Season On A High

With less games to go than have been played we can start to look at what United need to happen to finish the year on a high.

In terms of player development there are a number of factors that will strongly influence the direction of the club and the needs in the summer market.

1) Goalkeepers

David De Gea has proved true to his Dracula nickname in that his fear of crosses plagues his progress. An excellent shot stopper but an accident waiting to happen on corners, his skinny frame is always a target for opposing centre backs and big strikers. Time might change that but he has proved to me that we cannot wait for his emergence.

Anders Lindergaard is an able deputy; he is safe and reliable in the main but hardly world class. Ben Amos must wonder what his future is at the club.

We need an established world class keeper who is 30 and can play for at least 3 seasons, release Amos if we aren’t going to place our future in his hands and rotate De Gea in the Cups and lesser league games to build him up physically and mentally.

2) Defence

The rest of the season needs to see Rafael and Fabio establish a run in the team, and for Chris Smalling and Phil Jones to build a partnership with Jonny Evans as their back-up. With Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, its time to consider their contracts, and know they are in decline. Patrice Evra needs a return to form this season or it may also be his last.

We need defensive reinforcements. Gary Cahill was an obvious miss, Leighton Baines and Kyle Walker must be targets, and then we are set.

3) Midfield

The early season promise of Anderson and Tom Cleverley has turned into mid season Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick, and we are desperate to add to our midfield. Jones has proved he isn’t good enough to play there; Ryan Giggs is a 20 game a season genius, as may be Scholes. Park Ji-Sung is also in that category and Paul Pogba is a talent but may leave on a free.

We need two or three players who can control the game and win the ball.

Talk of Jack Rodwell, or some European talent, comes at a cost of £100m in total and that’s about what we need. But the owners don’t have it so I hope we don’t do a Liverpool and go down the Charlie Adam type road.

For me we should focus on Jack Wilshere, and Moussa Dembele with Jack Ramsey a target too. Don’t buy ageing Italian or Germans at cheap prices; you get what you pay for.

4) Goals

We are blessed with talent, out wide Nani, Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia are as good as any. Park and even Giggs can add to them.

Scorers like Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernandez are hard to beat.

Perhaps though it’s time for Dimitar Berbatov and Federico Macheda to go though and one more striker is then needed, someone who can back up the others on a rotational basis like Danny Sturridge or even Jermain Defoe.

I see us as 5 players short of a top team, which I define at being at the level of the Spanish giants.

Our problem will be cash.

The price of my dream team adds £140m in transfer fee and wages that follow, to a team that has spent little over the last few years. The sales we made this year in Ravel Morrison and Darron Gibson showed how flat the market is outside the big teams, we really just offloaded the wage bill with that and our loan deals.

United deserve a great team but will be looking at Rangers and knowing that the Leeds United effect is not far away from even the biggest Clubs when they sell themselves to the Banks.

If we win the Premier League this year I will say it’s our greatest achievement as the team needs an overhaul, but it’s also lucky that English football is so poor this season that only Manchester City are a challenger, and if we beat them we will prove that class can’t be bought, and that money can’t buy history.

If we beat them I’d luv it, luv it, just luv it! (thanks King Kev).

Of course it could be worse, imagine supporting Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal! Now that doesn’t bear even thinking about!

By Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve

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