Those in the squad who could greatly improve this term.
It’s all change at Manchester United this summer as after their worst ever Premier League season in 2013/14 there has been an overhaul of both the squad and the management.
David Moyes has been sacked and Louis van Gaal hired as his replacement, with the recently retired Ryan Giggs operating as the Dutchman’s assistant.
Although the Red Devils are still in pre-season there are already signs of a revival and some players from last term look to have an improved campaign following van Gaal’s appointment.
Here are the top five:
Phil Jones
Was one of the most promising centre-backs in the country when signed from Blackburn Rovers in 2011, but now aged 22-years-old has not exactly lived up to his billing.
Jones never had a consistent spot under Moyes and his versatility was his downfall, but van Gaal looks set to take things back to where they started and play the England international in central defence.
Juan Mata
After being named Chelsea’s Player of the Year two seasons running there is no doubting that the Spaniard possesses class, but again needs to be given a role that suits his ability.
As any football fan with some nous can tell you that is as a No.10, where Mata can pull all the creative strings from behind the strikers and van Gaal looks ready to deploy the 26-year-old in a similar role to that of Wesley Sneijder in the Netherlands national team.
Wayne Rooney
Although the 28-year-old was one of the few players to come out of the last 12 months with any real credit, it was still not a great campaign by the forward’s standards and again he has suffered from being versatile.
Pundits bang on about the fact Rooney is best as a striker and as monotonous as this may be at times, they are right and van Gaal looks ready to go against the modern grain of coaching and deploy two players up top.
Robin van Persie
Along with Mata and Rooney the Dutchman makes up the trio of stars at Old Trafford who can genuinely be considered world-class, but under Moyes the 30-year-old cut a frustrated figure who was constantly injured.
Van Gaal and van Persie have a good working relationship from their time with the Oranje and if anyone can get the best out of the former Arsenal captain the 62-year-old can.
Ashley Young
Finally it is a winger who has been much maligned at United for some time and at 29-years-old the Englishman appears to be regressing as opposed to improving.
However, in a new 3-4-1-2 system van Gaal has been using Young as a wing-back and would you believe it the ex-Aston Villa and Watford man is thriving and could well play a key part in the coming year.
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