5 things Mourinho has to do to revive Manchester United

#1 Protect De Gea

David De Gea cannot be expected to keep up his current heroics forever

Manchester United have regularly been one of the best teams when it comes to keeping clean sheets.

Over that time, the likes of Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo and Eric Bailly have all been given praise for their role in United’s sterling defensive record, but the true hero is and always has been David De Gea.

United’s number one is, by far, the best goalkeeper in the league and almost all of his 12 Premier League clean sheets – the best tally in the league – have come as a result of one or more ridiculous saves in a given match.

No one can expect De Gea to continue to perform such heroics for the rest of his career and while he stops so many opportunities, he needs more support from those in front of him.

He has made a decent United defence look significantly better at times over the past four years and despite Mourinho’s efforts to bolster the defence with the signings of Bailly and Victor Lindelof, the back-line must remain a priority in the coming transfer windows.

How much value there is to be found in the market for defenders, in light of Liverpool’s mammoth £75 million deal to sign Virgil van Dijk from Southampton, remains to be seen, but Mourinho will need to find a way to bring in a marquee central defender he can build his defence around.