7) Lacking balance
You can’t argue with their team on paper. Most clubs would love to have Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Radamel Falcao, Juan Mata, Angel di Maria, Adnan Januzaj… but that doesn’t mean they can all play together. Rooney is not an adequate number ten, he is a striker. You can’t expect Di Maria and Mata to do lots of tracking back, they are attacking players. Add in their difficulties in defence, and it seems extraordinary that Van Gaal focused almost all of his attention on strengthening United going forward, rather than at the back this summer.