OVERALL PROSPECTS

MANCHESTER UNITED’S humiliating 1-0 home defeat to the Premier League’s bottom club West Brom, which confirmed local rivals City as champions, showed the scale of the task facing Jose Mourinho in making the Reds title winners.

Mourinho may have won the title at all the clubs he’s managed, but the odds are against him maintaining that record at United, with Pep Guardiola’s City looking unassailable domestically.

Mourinho needs at least five signings this summer to have any chance of pushing City next season, and the calibre of players he needs means an overall spend of up to £300million. Players that must go include Daley Blind, Matteo Darmian and Luke Shaw. Juan Mata and Ander Herrera are under threat, Michael Carrick is retiring and Marouane Fellaini can leave on a free. Mourinho (left) needs to find a way of getting the best out of clubrecord £89million signing Paul Pogba consistently, and needs to bring in a holding and a creative midfielder for better strength and variety.

United need to be less pragmatic and play with more attacking verve as Mourinho’s favoured policy of containment and caution belongs to a bygone era.