Manchester United: 5 Key Areas to Improve Upon for Next Season

Despite the fact that as of right now United have guaranteed no silverware for the campaign, this has in general been a relatively good season for the Red Devils—domestically, at least.

At one stage, it looked like the league title was far beyond their reach, with most United fans giving up hope that they would catch local rivals Manchester City.

Tonight's game at the Etihad arena is without a doubt the most important clash of the entire season.

If United win then they will all but guarantee their spot as English Champions for a record-breaking 20th time.

However, despite an impressive run in the league this year, there are always elements of any team's game that need to be strengthened from season to season in order to keep pace with the ever-changing nature of football.

United have had weaknesses this year, and they will need to stomp them out in the 2012/13 campaign. 

Here are the five key areas that need to be focused on to maintain the level of dominance that United show year in, year out.

Finding a Permanent Right Back

Since the departure of Gary Neville at the midpoint of last season, United have failed to really fill the void that the former United skipper has left.

Fergie has experimented with Fabio, Rafael and even Chris Smalling on the right side of the defence, but he has yet to find someone to consistently play the part.

This is the exact problem for United when it comes to their right-back. Consistency.

All three men—especially Fabio and Smalling—have had games where they could not have looked more at home in the role.

However, unfortunately for United fans, they have also all had matches where the exact opposite could be said, as they were found seemingly out of their comfort zone.

This is really the only position in terms of the first 11 that doesn't have a permanent occupier.

Over the summer, Fergie needs to asses this and develop one of his young talents (most likely Smalling, as it seems Fabio will be going out on loan to Benfica) to fit this role better.

As the saying goes, the key to a good offence is a good defence, and with a cog missing from the back, it genuinely hinders the rest of the team going forward.

Bolstering the Midfield

It's no secret that most United fans have been crying out for a central midfield player to come to Old Trafford for the past three or four seasons.

This year, the shock return of Paul Scholes, along with the huge improvements of Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia, have meant that the United midfield has actually been one of the most impressive in Europe.

However, we cannot realistically expect this to continually see us through next year.

Valencia has always been a talented player and hopefully should be able to maintain at least a similar level of performance for next season.

But Carrick and Scholes are far less predictable.

Now, I'm not saying outright the two will definitely be poor, but it's a lot to ask (especially of 37-year-old Scholes) to keep up this standard in the centre of midfield for next year.

Future talents like Tom Cleverley promise a lot for Sir Alex's men, but again, relying on somebody who has not quite had the chance to prove himself regularly is risky.

It seems as if Fergie is moving toward the signing of Argentinian star Nicolas Gaitan from Benfica.

This is a step in the right direction and, although playing a completely different style of football to Carrick and Scholes, Gaitan could be the perfect type of player to sit in the middle of that United midfield.

If he does come to Old Trafford, I can certainly see the man from Buenos Aires and Tom Cleverley working well as a central midfield partnership in the coming years.

European Performances

This one somewhat goes without saying.

United were, for lack of a better word, terrible in European competitions this season.

In the easiest group the Red Devils have been drawn in for quite a while in the UEFA Champions League, they managed to end up finishing only third—demoting them down into the Europa League.

Once there, lacklustre performances against an admittedly decent Ajax side saw them scrape through into the last 16 of the competition. 

At this stage, they were drawn against Atletico Bilbao.

Now, as a follower of Spanish football, I knew that this side were not quite the "minnows" the British press made them out to be.

The likes of Fernando Llorente (a target of both Barcelona and Real Madrid) and Iker Muniain were always going to make this a devilishly hard match.

However, despite being possibly one of the most underrated sides in Europe, Bilbao are still not quite just yet on the same level as United, and as such, the defeat in both legs was flabbergasting.

It was almost as if United had lost all ability to play the smooth, flowing football they have shown us the rest of the year round in English competitions when playing sides from abroad.

Its doubtful we will see performances like this again from the Red Devils in Europe for quite some time.

Nevertheless, to ensure that, Fergie has to make sure that his players step it up on European nights next season—just like they have done in so many of the years gone by.

Clinical Finishing at the End of the Season

I'm sure many of you read the title of this slide and wondered where on Earth I was coming from, as the men in red have netted a whopping 86 goals in the league alone this year.

But in recent weeks, United have started to make crucial errors in front of goal that could literally cost them the title.

Against the likes of QPR, Blackburn and Fulham—games that United won, 2-0, 2-0 and 1-0 respectively—Fergie's men dominated possession and had chance after chance after chance.

Yes, they won all three of those games, and nobody should realistically ask for more than that.

But each match could have easily ended 4-0, 5-0 or even 6-0 to the current champions.

If Manchester City win tonight by just one goal, their goal difference will be plus-nine over United's.

If more chances had been taken over the last month or so, this gap would have been totally narrowed—and if anything might have been more in the red half of Manchester's favour.

Against Wigan, it was worse than just not building on our goal difference. For the first time in 14 matches, United not only failed to beat the Latics—they lost to them.

Again, there were opportunities for United to put the game past the Lancaster side early on that weren't taken.

Admittedly, this is only really something that has been a problem for the final quarter of this campaign, but still, its something that needs to be looked at and addressed. 

After all, the final quarter is the most important for sides still in contention for the title.

Now is not a good time to be missing goal-scoring opportunities. 

A New Fourth-Choice Striker?

It's questionable whether United really do need another forward at the moment.

The likes of Rooney, Wellbeck and Hernandez are all of the quality expected at the top of the English division.

As is Dimitar Berbatov, but with the big Bulgarian more than likely looking to leave United this summer, it poses the question: Do United need a fourth striker?

And if they do, will they look for a striker that fills that void of "fourth choice," or perhaps opt for a player of a higher quality—eliminating either Chicharito or Danny Wellbeck down the pecking order?

With Federico Macheda looking like he is on his way to Portuguese side Benfica, does this mean Michael Owen will be given the opportunity to step up and take Berbatov's place?

This is really an issue that has a lot of United fans thinking, and I'm sure Sir Alex is considering it, too.

It's always good to have a fourth-choice striker that can come in in case of a double-injury worry.

But will Sir Alex splash the cash, as he hates to do, just to bring in a man that is effectively a backup for his better players?

This all being said, Fergie seems to have a lot of faith in Michael Owen, so perhaps the former England forward will be given the chance to prove himself once again on the big stage.

This is certainly less of a critical issue than the other four improvements posed in this list, but nonetheless it is definitely still an area of debate that needs to be resolved before next year's season starts.