Manchester United are currently sitting in 3rd place in the Barclays Premier League, one point behind joint-leaders Manchester City and Leicester City, but all is not well at Old Trafford.
While the defence has shown a solidity that has not been seen for years, even going back to Alex Ferguson's final years with the club, the effectiveness of the team in terms of attacking is as low as it has been in recent memory.
Louis Van Gaal is deploying a possesion-based, patient game with few risks being taken in the attacking third, and many fans are becoming disgruntled at seeing their side look so toothless when it comes to creating chances and scoring goals, but former club captain turned Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville believes that the club are two big signings away from "comfortably" winning another league title:
If you put two more players into Manchester United's team, say a Gareth Bale or a Cristiano Ronaldo into that team, that team could win the league. Because the structure that is being built at this moment in time is solid.
But they need that match-winner, that Neymar, that Luis Suarez, the one that is going to light up a game and score one or two goals to take it away, then all of a sudden they would look like a Barcelona, because they're dominating possession, making teams look foolish.
Sounds easy enough, just buy Bale and Ronaldo in January.
Obviously that's not what Neville is trying to say, instead he feels that a big signing is what United need to go to the next level, but he also admitted that by saying that he wants to see United throwing bodies forward in attack, that perhaps it's his heart ruling over his head.
Historically, you would like to see punch after punch, you would want to see bodies being thrown forward, but you might get caught on the counter attack and lose 2-1 that way.
But that's not the way in which this Manchester United team play, and the heart wants them to go forward, commit players and be reckless in some ways.
I do think they are quite close when I think about it with my head, but my heart thinks I'd like to see them die trying a little bit more and go for it.
There have even been calls from some fans for Louis Van Gaal to be sacked as recently as last week when his side drew 0-0 at home to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League, but the club are clearly in a better position than they were under David Moyes, as can be seen by their league position at this point in the season.
Something is going to have to change, however, as Manchester United must find a creative spark from somewhere if they want to compete for trophies this season, and who knows, maybe some January transfer activity will provide just that.
via SkySports.com
