Squad Balance.

With the probability of further movement in the market over the last few days of the window, it has brought about many a rumour regarding incomings and outgoings.

I would like to make a few predictions/put forward a few opinions on our rumoured transfers.

I'll start with player sales:

Tom Cleverley:

Bids from both Villa and Valencia according to SkySports. Now for a while I considered Tom a worthy member of the squad but lacking the quality to be a starter on a regular basis, but for the rumoured 8 million that Villa are offering, we should snap their hands off. LvG has gone on record in saying we are light in midfield, may indicate that we are on the lookout for an upgrade. I certainly hope so anyway and I think there is very little chance of him remaining a Man Utd midfielder much longer.


Danny Welbeck:
Spurs are interested in a loan deal plus Arsenal, Hull & Everton have been linked also. I think LvG has told Welbeck he won't be 1st choice, that he wants to keep him, but can understand if he wanted to seek regular first team football elsewhere. I hope we keep him because he is one of the few players we have who can influence the game through athleticism and frightening pace. We looked much livelier when he replaced a rusty Van Persie on Sunday and for what its worth, I think he has a role to play here and would rather see a few others leave before saying goodbye to Danny. Tough one to call what happens for sure.


Javier Hernandez:

Juventus want a loan deal & now cash rich Valencia linked too. In the Fergie years, Hernandez was a deadly weapon in our arsenal but seems to have gone off the boil. Never a rounded footballer but always a goalscorer, lately he has looked incapable of scoring & has wasted his first team opportunities. I think the rumours surrounding him are true & would like to see him resurrect his career at a different club. He's a great guy who has scored crucial goals & played his part, but in our current predicament, we don't have time for sentimentality. Its time to be a bit more ruthless. I see him ending up at Valencia for around the 10 million mark, a profit on the peanuts we paid for him.


Shinji Kagawa:


I waxed lyrical about this guy when we were after him and was absolutely made up when we signed him for a bargain 12 million. As many others have mentioned, he was doomed the minute we signed Van Persie and he has struggled to impose himself ever since. Our style of play hasn't helped him, Dortmund played a much higher tempo and transition from defence to attack was done in lightspeed compared to the laboured style that United have adopted since the exit of Ronaldo. A combination of these factors and the failure to adapt to the Premier League's physical and mental demands has culminated in Kagawa looking really out of sorts unfortunately. Di Maria, Mata, Rooney and Januzaj are all arguably better number 10's and he is now so far down the pecking order that I can't see any other outcome other than a Dortmund return with Klopp welcoming him back with open arms. 8 million would be good business for a player we now no longer need.


Anderson:


We are lumbered with a player who has been blighted with injury and little interest has been shown in taking Anderson off our hands. Maybe he will run down his contract and leave after I don't know, but in all honesty we should let him go if we receive so much as an offer from any interested party. I'd rather Ben Pearson, Nick Powell or Joe Rothwell given a chance than see Anderson in a Utd shirt any longer. Hopefully we sell, but the problem is getting him off the books.



The fact that we are prepared to let a forward go suggests to me that LvG is willing to revert back to a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. He mentioned that the squad was unbalanced & top heavy so is in the process of removing who he no longer wants. He stated he didn't want to play either one of the above formations because it left too many strikers on the bench. Getting rid of one (or two) could indicate he is going back to a lone striker formation and will therefore require less strikers.

Cleverley looks likely to go, meaning we are likely to see a CM signed. I'm hoping for an energetic, combative and tough tackling midfielder to help us dominate and stop us being overrun. A move for hatchet man De Jong would be welcome and would help us greatly, or we could go back to Sporting and invest in Carvalho, another player who excels in the art of disruption. These are the types of midfielder we are lacking and I would be very surprised if we didn't sign a midfielder of this ilk.

I don't think we will sign a defender. Maybe a right back to rival Rafael? That would depend on whether LvG sticks with a 3-4-1-2 or not. Rojo, Keane, Blackett, Evans, Jones and Smalling is a lot of centre back options, so its unlikely we will strengthen there now.

I am happy with our 4 signings but a cm and a few sales would round off a good summer.