A lot has changed at Man United this year. David Moyes was sacked late into last season, Louis Van Gaal was brought in as his replacement, and many players have departed.
Key figures gone
Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, and Ryan Giggs were the most significant departures. The first three to new clubs, and Giggs retiring after a staggering 24 years with the first team. He has moved on to be Van Gaal's right hand man, the assistant manager. Most would agree that the departure of all those players badly hurt the amount of experience the team had.
Saviour?
As well as all the exit of all these players, many new faces have come in with United spending big. Players like Angel Di Maria, Radamel Falcao, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo, and Luke Shaw have all come in as Louis Van Gaal was planning to rebuild a United team which massively under performed under David Moyes. How is that rebuilding going, 8 games into the season?
In short, not so well.
United were given a relatively easy start, playing against the 3 newly promoted teams, and Everton being the only team who finished in the top 10 last season. Despite that, they find themselves in 6th place, 10 points behind leaders Chelsea. Whereas most of the teams above them have had a much tougher 8 games to play. United started their season with a very dire 2-1 loss to Swansea at home, followed by two draws to Sunderland and Burnley. It was only in their 4th game they got their first win, a 4-0 hammering - bottom of the league QPR. We'd thought that would get them going, and would start a string of wins. Only for them to succumb to Leicester in their next game.
Leicester overcame United in remarkable fashion. netting 5 times
A 5-3 loss showed how fragile United's defence was. What followed was two wins in a row - West Ham and Everton that were less than convincing but minor improvements to defence meant United had got the 6 points they had well needed out of the two games. The Everton win was also mainly due to goalkeeper David De Gea's super performance, saving a Leighton Baines penalty, the first keeper to ever do so in a Premier League match, and 4 clear cut chances.
Again, everyone thought that United would be able to start a winning streak, and they had a visit to West Brom next, which ended in a hard-fought 2-2 draw.
Now, they face a very tough run of games - Chelsea, Manchester City, Stoke and Arsenal. The real test lays ahead for Louis Van Gaal and his 'Gaalacticos'. However, one can't be blamed for being pessimistic seeing as United's defence has been very unreliable. Going forward, Di Maria has been magnificent, he's provided 4 assists and 3 goals, and has been arguably United's best winger since Cristiano Ronaldo. Daley Blind has been very consistent and is seen as the engine in midfield. He's got a very cool head, manages to find space, and picks out smart passes, proving to be a bargain buy for the red devils. All the other signings have been fairly average. Ander Herrera has had a few interesting glimpses and will only improve. Marcos Rojo has been shaky at most times, and will require further training to get used to the English game. Luke Shaw was unfit for most of the start of the season, and has only started to get a run of games. Much of the same goes for Radamel Falcao, who's coming back from a knee injury, and had to fight jet lag after trips to Colombia for multiple international games.
At the end of the day, under Louis Van Gaal, United are almost guaranteed to move forward. He's known to have a perfect balance of youth and experience, and has also been acknowledged to make the most of under-par teams. The Netherlands team of this summer's World Cup was enough proof, going to the Semi Finals despite having a fairly unknown team. He has a philosophy, and it more than often works.