Whilst Manchester United’s defensive record has been pretty good in the latter stages of the season, there’s clearly some issues that need to be dealt with in this area of the pitch. Take their recent game against Arsenal in the FA Cup. If it wasn’t for a defensive slip-up, The Gunners wouldn’t have got through to the next round.
Unfortunately, The Red Devils followed that game up by making a similar mistake against Tottenham (fortunately for Louis Van Gaal, this error wasn’t capitalised on). There’s clearly some frailty at the heart of Manchester United’s defense. The fact that Chris Smalling and Phil Jones can’t stay fit doesn’t help either.
Have The Red Devils ever really recovered from losing both Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand last summer?
Regardless, it looks like Louis Van Gaal is already on the hunt for a new centre-back. Hopefully he’ll be primed to go as soon as the summer transfer window slides open. According to The Metro, Manchester United are working away at a deal to sign Valencia’s highly regarded centre-back, Nicolas Otamendi.
The Red Devils tried to sign him during the January transfer window, but their £25m bid wasn’t enough to convince Valencia to cash-in on one of their key players. In fact, the aforementioned source suggests that Van Gaal and co. will have to meet the players £35.9m release clause if they want to sign him in the future.
That’s a lot of money, but Otamendi has a lot of talent. At 27-years-old, he’s just about to hit his peak. He’s quick, he snaps into tackles and he makes smart decisions. He’s rarely caught out of position, because he’s a smart cookie. Whether he’ll adapt quickly to the Premier League remains to be seen (his compatriot Marcos Rojo has taken some time to settle in), but I wouldn’t be against him.
Now we just need to wait and see if Louis Van Gaal is ready and willing to spend big on a defender.
What’s your take? Should Manchester United be interested in this expensive Argentine defender?
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