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Why £200 million expenditure won’t fix Man Utd

There are numerous pundits banging on about how Moyes needs to spend hundreds of millions to rebuild a ‘terrible’ squad but I don’t think that is quite right. Firstly I’m not sure it would be wise for the Glazers to invest that much when the manager isn’t exactly proving to be red hot and secondly the players at his disposal are not that bad.

The same team won the league last year and whilst many argue that they won by default because other teams were so poor that simply isn’t the case, they still had an attacking flair, played teams off the park and had an air of invincibility. Now you expect them to lose to almost anyone.

He certainly needs to strengthen in midfield and at the back but the players are not as terrible as people are making out. Moyes can line up with a front 4 of Mata, Rooney, Van Persie and Januzaj or Valencia and with Carrick holding thinggs steady and Fellaini getting forward from midfield as he did against Palace that a promising line up. At the back is where it falls apart. De Gea is on his way to becoming the best keeper in the league but in front of him, his two full backs have poor defensive capabilities and his centre halfs just seem to have gone off the boil. Vidic is on his way out and has never recovered from his injuries, Rio is past it, Evans solid but not spectacular and Jones, heralded as the new Bobby Moore reads the game as well as Rooney reads War and Peace.

What Moyes does need is a change in approach, the players look tired and lethargic and it has been suggested this is down to Moyes’ ‘prehistoric’ training methods. They need to move the ball quicker and some pace wouldn’t go amiss. The front 4 is not that quick compared to others in Utd’s recent history. Rene Meulensteen is free again and Moyes really needs to be talking him into coming back.

The other issue that I have is that everyone knows a back 4 that doesn’t change is key but Moyes chops and changes every week without fail. He averages 3.5changes from match to match, the highest in the league.

He does need to spend some money though, not everything can be fixed with a change of approach. he definitely needs some pace up front/out wide. A midfielder who can penetrate packed defences is key along with strengthening all the way across the back line.

Hmmmmmm maybe he does need £200million after all, but I still maintain that won’t fix everything. A change in approach/methodology is needed. His methods may have worked at Everton but they are clearly not working at Old Trafford.

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Arsenal’s big ‘collapse’ and Ozil’s so called downfall

ImageThe English media seem to want Arsenal to fail, in fact they are waiting for it so they can say ‘I told you so’. The fact is Arsenal are having a much better season than everyone expected.

OK, so Ozil doesn’t score and set up 3 goals a game, but I don’t think that is entirely due to a dip in form. At Madrid he had amazing players around him to create chances for and play off. At Arsenal he has Giroud who, although decent enough, lacks any movement and definitely not the type of player who Ozil can slip in behind (ooh err missus) with his vision. He ran 11.6KM last night and although he switched off at times people should not be questioning his effort. As arseblog.com states, Arsene did not buy him for his defensive qualities. The team lack the pace and penetration that Ozil thrives on. I think next season is the litmus test with Theo hopefully back, the Ox in the team and if Arsene pulls his finger out and buys a forward with pace and movement. Although I do admit Sanogo looks a prospect.

As for the supposed collapse of Arsenal, they are one point off the leaders, and into the quarter final of the FA cup. They went toe to toe with Bayern and looked the better team until the sending off. So all in all they are doing much better than anyone, even the die hard Arsenal fans, expected.

I think Ozil may get rested for the Sunderland game and Podolski who has been in good goal scoring form recently in as a replacement. Wenger doesn’t trust or like Podolski for some reason and he doesn’t get the number of starts he should but he is their best finisher. A win is needed to keep the media at bay and I think they’ll get it quite comfortably.