I think now that we are officially at the halfway point of the season it's really good to judge and see how far we have come. This time last season we had accumulated 28 points (scored 26, conceded 23), this season we have 40 points at the point (scored 36, conceded 25), and this seasons stats are skewed by that freak 6-1 defeat to spurs. We were in 8th then and 1st now.
We were a mess defensively last season and whilst we still arent where we want to be in that aspect, the reemergence of Shaw and Maguire has been great to see, they've been immense for us recently and I think we are just a consistent version of Bailly away from being so so good defensively.
The biggest improvement can be seen in our midfield though, Fred has been one of the most improved players this season, he has become a key part of our team and a lot of the credit has to go to Ole for the way he has utilised him. Bruno has obviously been the biggest addition to the side and has proven himself to being one of the best players in the league, his contribution to the scoresheet has been incredible to say the least. Pogba has also really stood up and proven that he can be a match winner and he can step up when it matters most, if he helps us to a title win then itll justify the fee we paid for him a few years ago.
I think going forward is still our biggest point of concern, Rashford and Martial are the most hot and cold players in the league, when they are firing they are two of the best in the league, but they can really hamper us when they are misfiring, which has been the case for Martial mainly and Rashford to a lesser extent this season. At this point last season Martial, Rashford and Greenwood had combined for 27 goals in all competitions between them, this season Martial, Rashford, Greenwood have combined for 24 goals. However, that has been offset by the excellent signing of Cavani who has chipped in with 5 goals. Still if we want to win the league this season then at least one of the three younger players has to step up and be that consistent finisher for us.
Our big signing Amad Diallo, a tricky right winger has recently arrived and he has received some rave reviews already and looks like he will feature in the first team sooner than expected, if he can have any sort of impact on the team than he could be the one to take us to the next level seeing we have been operating without a traditional left winger for longer than I can remember.
