10 Concerns Man Utd Should Have Ahead Of The New Season

3. An Inadequate Midfield

Louis van Gaal mentioned that he feels as though he has inherited a 'broken and unbalanced' squad from previous regimes at Manchester United, and he's also inherited a dire midfield. Especially on the wing. In the wide areas, United have a very noticeable dearth of quality in the wide areas. For a team famously used to playing with width, and having boasted such talents as David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo in the past, this is unusual. But the likes of Nani, Wilfried Zaha, Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young have hardly covered themselves in glory recently - particularly the latter. Young has earned criticisms for his penchant of throwing himself to the ground under the slightest of challenges while his form has been dipping ever since he left Aston Villa. Valencia isn't the same player since breaking his leg against Rangers in 2010, Nani has failed to live up to his potential in seven seasons at the club (and never will) while Zaha faces an uncertain future having spent half of last term on loan at Cardiff City. United's wingers only reaped a four-goal return between them in 2013-14 while targets such as Angel Di Maria managed that amount on their own last season. United's lack of quality on the wing is troublesome and rivals such as Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal boast a far superior midfield. It will be interesting to see how (or indeed whether) van Gaal deals with this problem in 2014-15 and his success in doing so could hinge on whether the club make it back into the Champions League.