Can United Win Without Strengthening?

It is not a new situation for the defending champions to be in; the start of the 2007-08 season saw them in exactly the same position. They were ‘rescued’ by Cristiano Ronaldo’s phenomenal goalscoring exploits but to rely upon that to achieve glory once more is a dangerous game to play.

Undoubtedly, United possess one of the most skillful attacks in world football. In Tevez, Ronaldo and Rooney, they have three exceptionally creative players.But a striker who leads the line in much the same manner as Ruud van Nistelrooy would better enhance the forward line. That may result in a diminishing of Ronaldo’s goals but increase the overall total scored, a balance that Sir Alex would be seriously considering, as Ronaldo already gone to Real Madrid.

That it is an issue he is acutely aware of is clear by his public attempts to sign Dimitar Berbatov. A move for a similar striker should not be ruled out. A failure to sign anyone would leave the squad at the same level as last season whilst his closest rivals have sought to improve their squads.

A relatively injury-free season last time around was Ferguson’s biggest ally. United’s first team by comparison to their closest rivals was fittest for the longest spells. That is not the reason they won the league – their consistency of performance produced the silverware, but it was a huge contributing factor. From his own experience, Ferguson knows the rarity of that aspect.

United’s real strength last season was the reliability of Ferdinand and Vidic, undoubtedly the strongest central defensive pairing in England, and their incredible home form. Whilst there is no reason to doubt that the defence can again hold firm, it would be nothing short of miraculous if they repeated as near perfect a home record as the English Premier League has ever seen.

There are two big threats to United this season. Chelsea may be reinvigorated under Ancelotti’s regime. A more expansive game has been demanded by Roman Abramovich and it is delivered by a strong and pack diamond's formation.They will be an extremely difficult team to beat. Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal squad is one year older. Forget the media talk that it is not strong enough to win the league; they came close enough last season for such dismissals to be folly.Not to be forgotten, Three Threats ; Manchester City, Totenham Hotspurs and Aston Villa.

Ferguson cannot afford to be complacent. He has an excellent starting eleven but scratch the surface and the squad is not as deep as the media lead us to believe. Thomas Kuszcak could potentially be a good replacement for Van der Sar but defensively, United are weak in reserve; Brown, Evans and O’Shea are not high quality players but their weaknesses are covered by others in the first choice back four. In midfield, Valencia, Anderson and Carrick provide definite strength in depth but question marks will start to emerge now as age catches up with Giggs and Scholes. Up front, Danny Welbeck did well but lacks experience at the highest level. Can United get through to the end of the season with those gaps in the squad and win silverware? Time will tell but the fates need to be on their side.