Manchester United's Defence Will Hamper Any Premier League Title Challenge

Wayne Rooney has become something of a lightning rod for criticism in these tricky times for Manchester United.

This is understandable to an extent, given his appointment as captain and his often infuriatingly inconsistent play, and as their leader it would be tempting to point the finger of blame at him at least partly for the collapse that led to their 5-3 defeat against Leicester on Sunday. Particularly given the way Rooney screamed at his young defence for conceding the equaliser in that game, when it stemmed from a ludicrous misplaced pass by the United skipper himself.

However, while Rooney's status as captain and place in the team itself can be questioned, if United do not succeed this season then it won't be down to him. Or, at least, the primary reason will not be him.

It is understandable that Louis van Gaal is positive about United's chances this season, and compared to the overly-cautious David Moyes reign it is refreshing to see a United manager acting like he's in charge of one of the biggest, if not the biggest club in the world.

However, Van Gaal's aim of winning the Premier League title this season, stated via ESPN and the BBC, will fail unless something fairly drastic is done about United's defence.

In the significant overhaul that the Manchester United squad underwent in the summer, surprisingly little attention was paid to their defence. Luke Shaw and Marcus Rojo were recruited, but Shaw is a young left-back and Rojo a defender that can play either in the middle or the flank, and who sometimes looked like the weak link in Argentina's back line during the World Cup.

Since United lost four defenders in the summer in Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Alex Buttner, and knew about at least the former two with plenty of advance notice, not bringing in suitable replacements, or indeed any replacements at all, looked like negligence at the time and is being proven as such now.

While Vidic and Ferdinand had passed their peak a couple of years ago, these were still two of the finest defenders United have seen in modern times, perhaps ever, so to not convincingly replace them seems ridiculous and looks like United have essentially resigned themselves not to challenge this season.

Phil Jones shows the potential to be a decent defender, even if his constant selection for the England squad says more about the lack of options available to Roy Hodgson than his quality, Jonny Evans has his moments but has spent a worrying amount of time on the treatment table, Tyler Blackett is inexperienced and is nowhere near good enough now, if he ever will be, and patience is wearing out with Chris Smalling, who has been around the first team for too long now to excuse the errors he makes.

Of course, one could quite sensibly argue that if the defenders Van Gaal wanted in the summer (the likes of Mats Hummels etc.) were not available, then there was no point in recruiting one for the sake of it, but it's not as if there wasn't quality available in that position. Manchester City bought Eliaquim Mangala, Bayern Munich recruited Mehdi Benatia, even someone like Ron Vlaar would probably have been available. The Dutchman is perhaps not the quality of player required to win a Champions League title, but he is certainly better than some of the options United have been forced to field.

Perhaps more worrying for United fans is the idea that Van Gaal believes the current crop are indeed good enough.

He was quoted in pre-season by ESPN as calling his defenders "amazing," while after the defeat to Leicester he said, as per the BBC:

"

You cannot say the defence was weak. You play like a team, Leicester showed that. We did not play like a team in the second half and that is not only defence. In a defensive situation the whole team is responsible, not just one defender.

"

It's possible that United will become this season's version of Liverpool, in that they will provide plenty of attacking threat and score goals aplenty, but they will simply be too brittle at the back to maintain any sort of consistency. Indeed, at present their defence looks worse than Liverpool's did last term.

This will make them a pretty entertaining side to watch for us neutrals but for United fans a season of frustration awaits. Unless something drastic happens to their defence, a title challenge is out of the question and they may even struggle to finish in the top four.