So another season comes to a close for Manchester United as they complete phase one of their rebuilding process after David Moyes’ destructive reign. Louis van Gaal’s red army finished their season with a nil-nil stalemate to a Hull side needing to win to avoid relegation. With neither team able to break the deadlock here are four things we learnt from the match.
1. Victor Valdes can be first choice goalkeeper
David De Gea’s transfer rumours will not go away, which has led to journalists and fans throwing around names of potential replacements, often overlooking the former Barcelona goalkeeper on the bench who has accumulated an impressive 15 trophies with the Catalan club. Valdes’ performance against Hull was a strange one, he fumbled a couple of simple crosses in dangerous areas and would have put the Red Devils behind if it were not for Paul McShane being offside. Yet, despite his mistakes it never seemed to knock his confidence and he produced a phenomenal save low-down from an Elmohamady header and another one later on in the game producing an excellent reaction to a shot goal-bound at his near-post. In his pre-match press conference Van Gaal didn’t give a definitive answer to whether Valdes was good enough to replace De Gea, but his vast tonnes of experience at the highest level of European football, his expert positioning and with a bit more match practice he could be a worthy replacement to De Gea in the short-term at the very least.
2. Antonio Valencia is a worth back-up player
I was cautious in mentioning this one as I know how a lot of fans feel about Valencia, but hear me out. Valencia has previously stated that he feels right-back is his third most preferred position behind his usual winger role and a midfield role. Over the past two seasons he has been picked to play right-back either because of Rafael’s constant injuries, plunged into an unfamiliar role. He has had his shockers, most notably his abysmal display against Arsenal in the FA Cup, but his performances against Manchester City and again versus Hull City have made me believe that he is more than capable of filling that role part-time when our fixtures get heavier next season. His passing accuracy, strength, speed and increasing positional awareness all make him a viable right-back. Whoever our first choice right-back is next season – whether it be the forgotten Rafael, the hotly-tipped Natahnial Clyne or the excellent talent that is Dani Carvajal – Antonio Valencia can do a more than decent job as a back-up.
3. One or two dynamic midfielders are needed
Despite the Manchester United players clearly failing to match Hull’s motivation in this game due to their circumstance, they were again in control of the majority of the ball and had spells during both halves to go ahead, yet only managed to create a single shot on target. Strangely, it was Ashley Young who was deployed in a left central midfield role over Fellaini and Di Maria and it was evident throughout the game that there was a missing piece in United’s midfield. Daley Blind is a good and consistent player, yet whether he is the desired long-term United holding midfielder is debatable. İlkay Gündoğan has been consistently mentioned, but his talents lie as more of a “number 8”, which begs the question is a Morgan Schneiderlin or a Sami Khedira type player also required to add the final ingredients to United’s midfield which can truly turn them into title contenders.
4. Memphis Depay and Ángel Di María have to start next season
If Manchester United want to seriously challenge on all fronts next season Ángel Di María and Memphis Depay have to start as United’s out and out wingers (assuming Gareth Bale does not sign). Whilst Ashely Young and Juan Mata have performed valiantly as United’s wingers over the past months, the Hull game showed that Manchester United need more penetration from the wide areas in the final third and the ingenuity and pace of Di María and Depay can provide that for United whereas often Ashley Young and especially Juan Mata appear to run out of creative ideas out wide against stacked and well-organised defences as was clear against West Brom and Chelsea. That’s not to say they don’t have a future as Ashley Young could fulfil a back-up role whilst Juan Mata could easily cover out-wide against more expansive teams and obviously his more usual central role. Di María and Depay could be the vital attacking ingredients in United’s campaign next season.
