A lot of Manchester United’s problems this season has come from the club’s lack of threat down the wings. In years past, they’ve had genuine pace, trickery and guile in this area of the pitch. This season, however, the ball’s moving that little bit slower, with less accuracy and less cutting edge.
This is in part due to David Moyes’ conservative tactics (he seems to fear the counter-attack a little too much) and the personnel that the club has deployed down the flanks.
Antonio Valencia was one of the Premier League’s best a couple of years back. Whilst he still has bags of pace, the opposition seems to have figured him out. He doesn’t get in behind as much as he used to and when he does, he’s not delivering as many killer passes.
Nani looks entirely disinterested. Shinji Kagawa is a central midfielder who shouldn’t be playing out wide. Ashley Young is wildly inconsistent. The options just aren’t good enough.
So let’s hope that David Moyes opts to rectify this in the summer. The future of this club may just depend on it.
A recent article in The Mirror suggested that Manchester United sent a scout to watch Julian Draxler in action for Schalke against Augsburg last Friday. If this is true, it suggests that the Manchester United boss is already drawing up a list of wing-wizards to pursue in the summer transfer window.
The United scout will likely have been impressed by what he saw. Draxler had a goal disallowed in the 2-1 Schalke victory and also set up a goal for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
He’s a player who has been strongly linked to Arsenal over the last six months and it would represent something of a coup if Manchester United were to pull this deal off.
With The Star claiming that Draxler has a £37m price-tag, he certainly won’t come cheap. But quality never does. It’ll certainly be interesting to see if David Moyes can outsmart Arsene Wenger in the transfer market.
What’s your take? Is Julian Draxler the answer for Manchester United? Should David Moyes be looking at a cheaper option?
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