Manchester United are about to seal a deal for Sporting Lisbon's Argentine left-back, Marcos Rojo, in a forced late window signing due to their shortcomings in defence. At €20m, this represents a gamble but it is an understandable one.
D. Ray Morton, 19th August 2014.
Argentina's Marcos Rojo is set to join Manchester United for a fee of €20m from Sporting Lisbon in the coming days
The English Premier League kicked off this weekend and it turned out that most of the top teams started their campaigns with wins. North London duo Arsenal and Tottenham both picked up victories against Crystal Palace and West Ham respectively though Everton were held by newly-promoted Leicester on Saturday. Sunday saw Liverpool and Manchester City get past Southampton and Newcastle whilst Chelsea beat Burnley on the road last night. Prior to all of these results, however, Manchester United started off the season with a miserable 1-2 humbling in their own backyard at the hands of Swansea City. The performance was poor from start to finish apart from a brief spell in which they had equalised yet Gylfi Siggurðson put them to the sword with a finely worked winner. United's performance still had that Moyesian feeling about it. Weak in front of their home fans, a lack of fight demonstrated.
They lined up in a 3-5-2 formation as expected based on their pre-season. The back three drew red flags before a ball was even kicked. Tyler Blackett, a débutante, started alongside Chris Smalling and Phil Jones. The three had the task of marking Swansea's lone striker, Wilfried Bony, meaning that there was an unnecessary amount of cover in an area the Swans did not intend to dominate. Instead, United's midfield had a man less and the visitors were able to pick them apart through efficiency of central possession. They broke in unison and found it relatively easy to pick off Louis van Gaal's men. In desperation, they changed to something along the lines of a 4-4-2 in the second half but this meant that Ashley Young would have to play at left-back, an experiment which should never be repeated. The fecal matter unleashed by the overflying bird into his mouth, as captured by the Vines of social media enthusiasts, was nearly fitting.
Manchester United's new manager was left stumped by their poor performance against Swansea City and may get more annoyed if the club do not secure some vital transfer targets before the window slams shut on August 31st
Van Gaal must be pretty frustrated at the lack of transfer activity coming from the club. Ed Woodward appears to be in charge of such matters and, like last summer, he is proving to be out of his depth. This is a man who is good at negotiating corporate sponsorship deals, not signing top level talent from around Europe and the rest of the world. Only Ander Herrera, who failed to impress on Saturday, and the injured Luke Shaw have arrived. This is set to change with only eleven more days of transfer window time left. Argentina's World Cup silver medallist Marcos Rojo is being lined up, a desperate reinforcement for a rickety back-line. With key targets like Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels and Ajax's Daley Blind missed, it is imperative that they get players of any reasonable standard in quickly.
Rojo is of a fine standard it should be pointed out. Whether that standard meets the touted €20m transfer fee is another question. Though he was seen as a potential weak link in Argentina's starting XI in Brazil, he had a very good tournament scoring a goal in the process. He is also coming off the back of his best ever domestic season with Sporting Lisbon where he made twenty-five appearances and scored four goals in the Portuguese top flight. He was deployed as a left-back in Alejandro Sabella's side but United fans should be aware that the 1.86cm defender can also play as a centre-half giving some much-needed versatility.
This move is a gamble but a necessary one and there may be a few more within the next week and a half of this transfer window. United have got the money and are ready and willing to pay a bit over the odds for numbers in their squad. Selling clubs know that they are desperate and this is far from an ideal start of the Louis van Gaal era. There are other areas where they need strengthening, central midfield being the obvious one still, and it should be fascinating to see if the Old Trafford club spend a fortune on getting a legitimate world star in before Sky Sports News' Jim White calls an end to transfer proceedings come midnight on August 31st.
Bring back Moyes!!
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