Despite their opening weekend win, Paul Scholes has raised personal concern over Man Utd’s ability to fight for the Premier League title this season.
The Red Devils got their campaign off to a winning start last Friday, picking up a 2-1 victory over Leicester City at Old Trafford to boost morale.
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However, having finished 19 points adrift of Man City last season, coupled with the improvement that Liverpool have made over the summer with the signings of Alisson, Fabinho, Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri, there is concern over whether or not Man Utd have enough to compete.
Jose Mourinho saw Lee Grant, Diogo Dalot and Fred arrive this summer, but as noted by the Metro, there are question marks over the Portuguese tactician’s future at the club.
While they didn’t entirely convince against Leicester and were left trophy-less last season, there are concerns over United’s ability to compete for major honours this year and those are echoed by Scholes who believes that the current squad also lack real consistency in their play.
“When you look at Manchester City, possibly Liverpool, I don’t think they [United] have the quality of those two teams at the minute,” he is quoted as saying by The Mirror.
“I just don’t see United getting closer to City. City are a really good side, great manager, some great players, a way of playing that they all know about and Manchester United seem to be not too sure what’s going on.
“You don’t really know the team, you don’t really know the players, you don’t know how they’re going to perform from one week to the next. So I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see them challenging for the league this year.”
City were able to keep their core together and add Riyad Mahrez to Pep Guardiola’s squad, and judging from their first two games of the season against Chelsea and Arsenal for the Community Shield and in the Premier League respectively, they certainly look capable of setting the pace again this year.
Time will tell if Mourinho and Man Utd can keep up, or if Scholes is right to raise concerns so early in the season.