The short answer is no, not at the moment. One or two further additions to the squad, however, may change things around somewhat.
The full back positions do not need urgent surgery as, with a fully fit Luke Shaw along with Darmian and Varela, there should be sufficient cover although Jose does not seem totally convinced about Darmian so don’t be too surprised to see a replacement brought in. I can’t see Mourinho persisting with Antonio Valencia at full back as he has proven, on a few occasions, that he can’t play the position and Ashley Young is nothing short of a joke at full back.
At present Mourinho has addressed one of the centre back positions by bringing in Eric Bailly. I assume this will mean that United will be listening to offers for Marcus Rojo, who hasn’t convinced at either centre back or left back. This does not solve the problem of the other centre back.
Jose does not seem to favour playing Daley Blind there as, unlike van Gaal, he is not a fan of playing players out of their natural position unless in an emergency. This leaves him with Phil Jones and Chris Smalling. As everybody is aware, Jones is injury prone and has not progressed as everyone expected when he arrived from Blackburn. He may yet be given a chance if he can stay fit. Smalling, for me, is far too inconsistent. He can be caught out of position easily, gives the ball away a lot and can’t keep his hands to himself in the penalty area.
If United could get Stones or Varane it would be well worth cashing in on Smalling and sending him back down South. The purchase of one or both of these should see less reliance placed on David De Gea next season.
Mourinho has also strengthened midfield with the purchase of Henrikh Mhkitaryan from Borussia Dortmund. He has had rave reviews for his performances last season but, apparently, it was a bit of a breakthrough season, not a normal one. Let’s hope it wasn’t a flash in the pan. With Mhkitaryan playing alongside a new addition, Herrera, Schweinsteiger and /or Carrick and maybe, unfortunately, Rooney, who appears to be able to do no wrong no matter how badly he plays, the midfield area should be a lot tighter and more fluent.
Upfront I would expect Martial to continue getting the goals with, hopefully, a little help from Zlatan Ibrahimovic. This is more of a quandary because the Premier League is an unknown quantity for the Swede. He proved that he could score in a very poor French league, then proved that he couldn’t in the Euros, against better defenders. So, apart from the United fans who know little about football, the jury is out for the time being and Ibrahimovic, whatever he says, has it all to prove.
His signing probably means that Alvaro Morata, who was linked with United having worked with Mourinho before, will now go elsewhere as he seems to think he would only make the bench at Old Trafford. Let’s hope the Ibrahimovic gamble pays off!
So new signings are required in the defensive areas, possibly another in the midfield as it looks like the end for Mata, Fellaini and Schneiderlin, and maybe another forward as back-up unless Mourinho is sufficiently confident in Marcus Rashford for that role.
With Antonio Conte starting his first year at Chelsea, Pep Guardiola and Ronald Koeman doing the same at City and Everton and ambitious managers like Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino vying for the title, it should be an interesting season.
Not to mention the old man at Arsenal. Arsene Wenger, as usual, will be happy to sneak into the top four and have a decent cup run. That’s about as far as his ambition goes nowadays and, surprisingly, the Arsenal heirarchy are happy with it.
Source: Why say anything