Manchester United Transfer News: Latest Gossip on Louis van Gaal's January Plans

Manchester United threw a lot of money at their problems this summer, adding players like Radamel Falcao, Angel Di Maria, Daley Blind, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera and Marcos Rojo. It looks like they may take a similar strategy in January.

With the club struggling out of the gate and taking just five points from five Premier League games despite the budget of a small country, the team's top brass are reportedly set to meet to iron out January's plan of attack, per Paul Clennam of Goal.com:

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Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal is set to meet Ed Woodward this week as the club step up their January transfer plans, Goal has learned.

Van Gaal, who is hoping to spend up to £50 million this winter, has long considered Kevin Strootman his No.1 target and is also keen to bolster his defence following a shaky start to the season.

Following the second biggest summer transfer spend in history, such an outlay would take the club past the £200m barrier for the 2014-15 season.

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The moves would make sense. Strootman would give the team both a defensive presence in the midfield and an incisive passer to move the play forward. Adding a little more bite in that department to support what can only be described as a lackluster defense is vital. 

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Of course, solidifying the defense seems even more necessary. Louis van Gaal had to scrap his 3-4-1-2 pretty quickly due to injuries, a lack of talented central defenders and the need to get as many of United's pricey midfielders and attackers on the field as possible. 

The result has been a team that is arguably the most dangerous EPL club going forward and one of the most vulnerable when forced to sit back and defend. Against Leicester City, they looked like a sports car with no brakes. They raced out to an early lead on the open road, but as soon as they hit traffic, they quickly crashed and burned.

Things aren't about to get easier, as Jamie Jackson of The Guardian wrote:

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Van Gaal has nine players injured and a further one unavailable in Tyler Blackett who is suspended. He has a crisis at centre-back because Chris Smalling is injured along with Phil Jones and Jonny Evans. And as Blackett is also unavailable as a left-sided player in the position, Van Gaal confirmed he will have to turn to the under-21 squad for replacements for the home game against West Ham on Saturday.

'As a manager you know in advance it’s a big challenge and the club is in a transition but you don’t know in advance the difficult moments,' he said.

Van Gaal shrugged off any idea there was panic at the club, saying that United just have to accept their situation. Of the injuries he said: 'I have to admit I’m never in this situation before so that’s strange.'

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Not surprisingly, United have been linked to quite a few defenders, from Gerard Pique (though Shakira appears to have ruled that one out, per Charlie Skillen of the Daily Mail) to Ron Vlaar.

With that being said, another club similarly depleted in defense, Arsenal, might give them a fight for the standout World Cup star, according to Anthony Chapman of the Daily Express (via the Metro's Vaishali Bhardwaj).

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The problem for United in their pursuit of both Strootman and additional cover in defense is whether or not they can continue to spend at will. After all, for all of the superstars they've added, one from the group of Falcao, Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata is going to be relegated to the bench from game to game. 

It's hard to imagine any of those players being pleased with a deputizing role.

At the moment, Mata appears the most likely to be sent to the bench, though Van Persie's recent form suggests he perhaps deserves to take on a supporting role. 

In a nutshell, that seems to be the problem with United's approach to the transfer market thus far. Falcao and Di Maria were shiny new toys, and they'll upgrade pretty much any team in the world, but United also had far more pressing needs than the attack.

In particular, the spine of the team.

Leicester City exposed that fact. After all, Di Maria's blinding runs and brilliant touch are wasted if United give up five goals and lose the match. 

The club must be smarter in January, and they must consider moving one of their pricey stars in the attack to keep both the team sheet and budget balanced. Van Gaal has inherited quite the project. Simply throwing money at the problem is like putting makeup on a wound—it may temporarily make things look a little better, but it sure won't stop the bleeding.