Van der Sar or Nev could rescue Reds

THE spine of Manchester United’s team needs surgery and, if I were in charge at Old Trafford, there’d be two things I’d be doing right now.

One would be moving Ed Woodward (right) solely into the role of financial director to keep him away from football matters.

And the other would be getting Gary Neville or Edwin van der Sar (below) in to perform a complete audit of the playing staff.

What’s needed is for someone to go through every player at the club and put a tick or a cross by them.

They should then go to the Glazers and say, ‘This should be the football plan, and these are the players you should target to replace those who need moving on’.

There are problems throughout the team, but I looked at the defence in particular against Crystal Palace. I have to say that, if you didn’t know who Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof were, you wouldn’t have batted an eyelid if they were playing for Nottingham Forest or Derby at the weekend. Maguire could be a modern-day Titan next to Virgil van Dijk, but he just hasn’t got the same level of players around him.

It is up to the Reds’ owners whether or not they want to change.

But if they at least started down that path, United would be looking like a club wanting to win trophies, rather than just collect blue-chip sponsors and advertisers.

I’M a big fan of Arsenal’s Spanish coach Mikel Arteta (below) barking instructions to his players during games in their native tongue. Communication is one of the most important aspects of the game and there are plplenty of managers, eeven those who speak English as a first language, who aren’t ggreat at it.

SoS anything that makes things clearer for players and makes that bond between the squad and their boss stronger, I wholeheartedly support.