The premier league season is officially over and Manchester United have finished the season in fourth place ensuring that they will play Champions League football next term. The goal of making it to back to Europe was achieved. Truth be told, 4th place is definitely a disappointment given the amount of money that was spent in the transfer window.
Their most expensive signing Angel Di Maria could not even make it into the first team at the end of the season. He made 27 appearances scoring 3 goals with 10 assists. His blistering start in the Premier League fizzled very early on in the campaign. Although he was their leading assist man, Di Maria had little impact on the game. On many occasions, he was very wasteful and was wayward on many audacious passes. Radamel Falcao falls into the same category as Di Maria having endured a campaign that fell way short of the expectations. He scored only 4 goals from 29 appearances.
Man United were unfortunate will all the injuries during the course of the season. That however, is part of the game. Every squad deals with injuries and suspensions. Furthermore, the brand of football was not as exciting as promised. In the final weeks, there was lots of possession but few goal scoring chances were created to be honest. The majority of possession featured cross field passes and back passes to the defense and goalkeeper – this has to be a major concern for van Gaal going into next season. As unlucky as they were with injuries, the team was spared a lot of blushes thanks to the brilliance of David De Gea. This season has seen the emergence of Ashley Young (who has been United’s best attacking player in recent weeks) Chris Smalling and Marouane Fellaini.
Overall Grade: C+
Louis van Gaal was able to bring back some of the aura that was lost at Old Trafford during David Moyes’ time. The away form however, was atrocious. In the end Manchester United only claimed 6 more points than they did last campaign. What was more worrisome though was that the big names flopped and one of the few bright spots from the previous season (Adnan Januzaj) was relegated to bench warmer. There is still a lot of work to be done.