WHY SAY ANYTHING?

The short answer is yes, it would be and for the following long reasons.

Leaving aside Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is now no longer an option, Manchester United had nobody reaching double figures in the goalscoring charts last season.

That was one of the reasons  United didn’t challenge for the title and, in the end, didn’t even really challenge for the top four. Too many games were drawn at home and the annoying aspect of those draws was that the majority of them were 1-1 results where United had led the games for lengthy periods, with the obvious exception being the Liverpool game where they actually managed to come back and draw in the last minute.

Two problems arise from these draws at Old Trafford. The first is that they didn’t score enough goals, as previously mentioned. The second is that they were incapable of defending their leads.

Once it has been established that a second goal is going to prove difficult to come by, then everything must be done to prevent the opposition from scoring.

Remember the boring Arsenal teams who used to win virtually every game 1-0, or the Ferguson team with Cantona which won many, many games by the same scoreline. In both those teams there were world class centre backs to ensure that the opposition had no easy route to an equaliser. In fact, in the Arsenal team of George Graham, it appeared there was a goalkeeper, nine centre backs and Ian Wright!

This Manchester United team had Blind/Rojo/Bailly/Smalling/Jones all playing at centre back at various stages of the season and they did reasonably well but none of the pairings were good enough to maintain their 1-0 lead in matches, hence the arrival of Victor Lindelof.

We fervently hope to see Lindelof paired with Bailly, Rojo at left back if Luke Shaw is not the answer and Valencia continuing at right back.

Phil Jones should be kept on as his form was good towards the end of last season and he is certainly a decent utility player to have around the squad.

Chris Smalling, we think, should be sold as anyone who is a regular reader of these chronicles will be aware. Our new favourite comparison is now with a baby giraffe learning to walk, only Smalling is not that good!

At the other end nobody was good enough to score a second goal in many games and this is a situation which certainly needs addressing. Whether it be with Alvaro Morata, Andrea Belotti or A.N.Other doesn’t really matter as long as it is somebody who will score goals.

Paul Pogba is one player who can consider himself a little unlucky that he didn’t finish the season with more goals. He hit the framework more than anybody else in the Premier League and, if football goals were 8.5 feet by 8.5 yards, he would have made double figures quite comfortably.

So the answer to the question originally posed is; yes, it would be a disaster but, providing a proven striker is signed, it wouldn’t be a disaster if no more then were to follow. It would be disappointing, it would be annoying because United do need to buy more players, but it wouldn’t be a disaster.

The two most problematical areas of the team would have been taken care of and a title challenge would be possible from this squad.

Let’s just hope, however, that more players are on their way.