While it hasn’t been a great start to the season by any stretch of the imagination for Manchester United, a full-blown crisis has been averted since the previous international break.
United recorded a decent 1-1 draw against Jurgen Klopp’s formidable Liverpool side, and then registered three away wins on the bounce against Partizan Belgrade, Norwich City and Chelsea.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men then slipped up away at Bournemouth, before bouncing back again with victories over Partizan and Brighton.
United subsequently find themselves seventh in the Premier League table, top of their Europa League group, and through to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals. All in all, things could be worse for the Red Devils.
That said, it’s still a million miles away from where a club of United’s stature should be. This is a club that’s lost its way since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure in 2013.
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The Premier League giants have some decent players at their disposal, but you never would have guessed they’d splashed out around £1 billion in the transfer market over the past six-and-a-half years.
To say they’ve been left shortchanged would be an understatement.
FullTimeDEVILS - the United fan-run YouTube channel - have gone through the current squad and ranked every player into five different categories: ‘World-class’, ‘Potential legend’, ‘Good squad player’, ‘Future star’ and ‘Deadwood’.
And following an hour’s worth of debate, here’s what they ended up with…
‘World-class’
Paul Pogba
David de Gea
So, United fans reckon they have only two world-class players right now: Pogba and De Gea.
Plenty would debate that these two deserve to be called ‘world-class’ based on their performances over the past 12 months, mind…
‘Potential legend’
Marcus Rashford
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Victor Lindelof
Harry Maguire
Anthony Martial
Five decent players here. Rashford has looked superb in recent weeks, while Wan-Bissaka also looks like a real star of the future.
Lindelof and Maguire, in particular, are both fine centre-backs.
Martial blows hot and cold but could become a first-class attacking forward.
‘Good squad player’
Eric Bailly
Jesse Lingard
Luke Shaw
Daniel James
Sergio Romero
Andreas Pereira
Juan Mata
Fred
Scott McTominay
Marcos Rojo
Axel Tuanzebe
There are quite a few players that can consider themselves fortunate to even make this category.
Bailly is injury prone, Lingard isn’t producing the goods at all right now, Fred has been poor since his big-money move to Old Trafford, while Rojo isn’t exactly a convincing defender.
The likes of James, Romero and McTominay can certainly be described as good squad players.
‘Future star’
Angel Gomes
Diogo Dalot
James Garner
Mason Greenwood
Timothy Fosu-Mensah
Tahith Chong
There’s some real talent in this category.
It’s exciting to see how good Greenwood, Gomes and Chong - along with the rest on this list - will become over the coming seasons. Brandon Williams also belongs in this category, by the way.
‘Deadwood’
Phil Jones
Ashley Young
Lee Grant
Nemanja Matic
These are four players that most United fans, you suspect, would be happy to see the back of in 2020.
It will be interesting to see what business United end up doing when the transfer window re-opens in January.
Fans will be expecting Solskjaer to bring in a couple of new faces to ensure the club finish as high up the Premier League table as possible.
One thing’s for sure: this squad needs improving for United to become a major force again.