It’s no secret that Manchester United has had a severe dip in playing quality football ever since the retirement of the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, often considered to be the greatest manager of all time. The situation became significantly worse at Old Trafford which is evident from the fact that Man United hasn’t won a PL Championship or a UCL trophy ever since. In fact, in the current season, things are going beyond worse as Man United is struggling at 12th position, only 2 points ahead of the relegation spot. Fact is, that things haven’t been looking good. That being said, it wasn’t always all bad. Man United did finish second in 2017-18 and they did win the FA Cup, Community Shield and Europa League in the meantime. While a lot of their signings have been looked down upon for being poor investments, there were a few very good ones that helped the team out. Here’s a look at some of their best signings in the post-Fergie era.
#1. Nemanja Matic:
Matic’ came along with Jose Mourinho from Chelsea, akin to a package deal. While some might argue that he only gave one good season (his debut season), there’s very few players as of now who can even claim that type of achievement. He proved to be a very strong central midfielder. His defensive skills were just the right amount of aggressive and thwarted away a lot of attackers. He’s strong in the air and is clever with interceptions. In his first season, he managed an 87.7% passing accuracy completed 1.9 tackles and 1.9 interceptions per game. Even in his second season, he maintained similar nos. Matic’ gave quite a few good games, effectively making him one of Manchester United’s best signing since Ferguson left.
#2. Anthony Martial:
The Frenchman who was the Golden Boy recipient in 2015 is definitely one of Man United’s best players right now. He was signed for an initial fee of £36 million and he’s been helpful to the reddevils on multiple occasions and is now one of their most depended-upon players. The forward has showcased incredible skills over the years with an immense strength when it comes to pace and dribbling. He often uses clever skills to get past defenders and his pace is well integrated into his dribbling. He has decent finishing and is a smart passer and even now, is just 23 years old. In his first season for Man United, he scored 11 PL goals and was fantastic in the Louis Van Gaal years. In the previous season, he was Man United’s top scorer aside from Pogba and Lukaku.
#3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic:
Ibrahimovic is one of the greatest strikers of all time and when Manchester United signed him for free in 2016, it was a huge bargain. He made his presence felt, despite suffering a dip in playtime due to injury. He kept his finishing and attacking awareness as strong as ever not showing his age and using his strengths wisely. He was brilliant in the one season that he played in, scoring a whopping 17 Premier League goals and 5 assists. He even hauled 5 for the reddevils in the Europa League along with 3 assists. Short but sweet is all you have to say in regards to Zlatan’s tenure at Man United.
#4. Ander Herrera:
A lot of fans were extremely angry on hearing that Man United was not able to keep Ander Herrera for the 2019-20 season. Ander Herrera was very impactful despite in the red jersey despite not playing many matches. Out of the 5 seasons at OT, Herrera had only 1 where he got to have more than 20 starts and that could mostly be seen as regrettable. The Spaniard was an extremely utilisable central midfielder who was particularly strong on defence. He showed a great level of aggression and his interceptions, passing and tackling proved beneficial on multiple occasions. He was a strong attacker as well, having scored 6 goals and 4 assists in his debut season in the red jersey. Even in the 2018-19 season, he had 3 assists and 2 goals despite only 16 starts. His defensive numbers have been consistently great with him managing over 2 tackles per game throughout his tenure at the club(PL). He also managed an average of 1.7 interceptions in his final season at the club. Herrera was simply a very resourceful player and now that they are struggling, it’s evident that they should’ve kept him to bolster the club.
