Why Virgil Van Dijk Is the Southampton Player Manchester United Should Sign

When Manchester United last faced Southampton, Sadio Mane was picked as the man to sign, but for the sake of variety, this time we will look to the defence and to the Saints' dominant Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk. 

Back in September, I wrote of Mane:

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...with United's attacking resources spread thin and often ineffective, Mane would have been an asset to the Red Devils. As the season progresses, United fans will hope that Rooney, Memphis, Martial and Mata can score enough goals that they are not left ruing yet another name on the list of the ones that got away.

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Given the way the season has progressed, the lack of attacking resources has, indeed, proved a problem.

Mane, though, is hardly tearing up the goalscoring charts, with just three league goals to his name. He does have six assists to his credit, but his last nine appearances in all competitions have yielded no goals and just one assist.

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Advocating a short-term deal for Graziano Pelle was considered briefly in a bid to bring in some more goals, but the Italy international is in the midst an eight-game cold streak for club and country. Bringing in an out-and-out centre-forward would also cause tactical issues regarding the deployment of Wayne Rooney.

With Southampton's attackers not necessarily meeting the bill for United's current needs, it is time to look at that other problem area of the Red Devils' squad—centre-half.

While Daley Blind and Chris Smalling have formed a reasonably effective partnership, it is hard not to suspect that the conservative midfield setup Louis van Gaal chooses is designed partly to protect a back four that lacks defensive certainty.

Evidence for this can be found in those games where Van Gaal has not started with two effective holding midfielders. Sadly for those advocating a more progressive approach, this has often resulted in United looking shaky at the back, particularly when facing the counter-attack.

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Examples of this have included the Champions League game at PSV Eindhoven, the trip to Bournemouth, the visit of Norwich City, and the recent trips to St. James' Park and Anfield.

Thus, in spite of the stultifying effect on United's attacking football, Van Gaal may well have perceived a conservative midfield to be a necessary evil.

Van Dijk might not be quite the elite quality needed to bring United's defence up to the best-in-Europe status they should be aspiring to, but he is a very decent centre-half.

Since arriving from Celtic in the summer, he has played 18 games for the Saints and has been the WhoScored.com man of the match in four of those—twice as many as any other player in Ronald Koeman's squad.

Two of those games came as he scored his two goals for the season, but the other two matches came as Southampton kept clean sheets at Sunderland and at home to Watford.

That performance against the Hornets saw him make six out of his six attempted tackles successfully as well as making five interceptions and eight clearances, a remarkable set of defensive numbers. 

As the player playing out of position, it is natural to view Blind as the man to be replaced by an incoming centre-half. His main asset as a central defender is his use of the ball when United are in possession.

Of centre-halves in the Premier League who have played over 10 games this season, only Dejan Lovren can match Blind's average of 0.6 key passes per 90 minutes.

Van Dijk—who has averaged 0.3 key passes per 90 minutes this season—is a relatively safe option when it comes to finding a colleague, although Van Gaal would certainly look for him to improve on his 83.1 per cent pass-completion rate this campaign.

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However, where Van Dijk has the clear edge over Blind is in physical presence and centre-back experience.

He would be an effective back-up for Smalling at the very least, something which the repeated injuries to Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo have made a significant area of concern for United. If the former Fulham man gets injured, the options run thin very quickly.

A punt on a player who showed plenty of promise at Celtic, has made the step up to the Premier League with relative ease and is just 24 years old could be a sensible one to address a key need in United's squad.

All statistics per WhoScored.com.