Arsenal Legend Slams Manchester United Defence And Says Van Gaal Won’t Win Anything Until He Changes It

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Wright is critical of the Red Devils.

Manchester United have a woeful defence and need to improve if they want to win anything under Louis van Gaal – says Arsenal legend Ian Wright.

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The Red Devils succumbed to their second home defeat in the Premier League on Sunday and fourth in total in the English top tier this season as they lost 1-0 to Southampton.

Despite spending a record £150m on new players over the summer Wright believes that whilst their attack is impressive, they have failed to address the problems they have at the back.

“It doesn’t matter how many attacking superstars you have in your side – if you’re dodgy at the back, you’re going to struggle,” the former Gunners striker wrote in his Sun column.

“And that’s something Louis van Gaal is still trying to resolve at Manchester United after what we saw against Southampton on Sunday.

“We all know that when it comes to marquee players, United are the Galacticos of the Premier League.

“Stars like Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Angel Di Maria, Juan Mata and – although he’s still to show it regularly – Radamel Falcao are pretty much as good as it gets.

“But until Van Gaal sorts out those problems at the other end of the pitch, United will not achieve everything they should.”

The Saints avenged their 2-1 loss at St Mary’s to United earlier this term at Old Trafford thanks to a single goal from Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle gave centre-backs Phil Jones and Chris Smalling a torrid time.

Van Gaal has tinkered greatly with his defence this campaign, with the likes of Tyler Blackett, Jonny Evans, Paddy McNair, Marcos Rojo and even Michael Carrick also being used and Wright thinks they can be easily exposed.

“The thing with United at the moment is that it isn’t taking something out of the top drawer to find a way through their defence,” the 51-year-old continued.

“Quite often it’s a failure to deal with a simple long ball.

“And that isn’t something you could ever say about the great United sides of the past which had the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, or Gary Pallister and Steve Bruce, at the heart of their backlines.

“Until he sorts out those problems in defence, you couldn’t back United with total confidence to win anything.”

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