EPL 18/19 Squad preview: Manchester United

As the curtain rises upon a new and exciting Premier League season, we take a look at how José Mourinho's squad fares in this intense competition. The previous season saw Manchester United finish a respectable 2nd place, accumulating 81 points through 25 victories and six draws.

Although some consider last season as remarkable, considering their recent history since Ferguson's departure, finishing a staggering 19 points behind local rivals Manchester City means Mourinho and co. have plenty of work to do in order to restore Manchester United's status as English champions.

This 2018 summer transfer window saw three new recruits in Brazilian holding midfielder Fred (£52m), talented Portuguese U-21 full-back Diogo Dalot (£19.3m), and veteran English goalkeeper Lee Grant (Free) join the squad for the upcoming season while Ajax Amsterdam welcomed back Dutch defender Daley Blind (£14m) from United, and Aston Villa made the loan signing of Sam Johnstone (£6.5m) permanent this summer.

Potential Manchester United 2018/19 Starting XI

The addition of Fred to the squad means Jose Mourinho has a dominant midfield. The Brazilian midfielder had an 84% passing accuracy with 276 out of 327 successful passes in the recently concluded champions league.

Astonishing results considering Shakhtar Donetsk only had around 32-44% possession during their group stage games. Ex-Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic, with 317 recoveries, 202 duels won, 57 successful aerial battles and a tackle success rate of 60%, can allow club record signing Paul Pogba play more freely with an attacking mindset.

Arsenal's stalwart in recent years, Alexis Sanchez, has a reputation of finding the back of the net with ease as well as provide key passes in the final third. 6'2'' tall and 94kg Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku will be tasked with providing Manchester United with the goals along with academy graduate Marcus Rashford, who inherits the famous No. 10 shirt previously worn by legends such as Zlatan Ibrahimović, Wayne Rooney, and Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Côte d'Ivoire central defender Eric Bailly is currently United's best defensive bet for this season. Manchester United failed to capitalize on rumors linking them to central defenders like Toby Alderweireld, Harry Maguire, Yerry Mina and have not managed to sign a single first team defender this window.

Swedish international Victor Nillson Lindelöf, who had a stellar World Cup and managed to reach the quarter-finals with his national squad, would most likely be Bailly's central defense partner in their four-man backline.

Newly appointed captain Antonio Valencia would start in his natural position of right-back with Matteo Darmian as his backup if United manage not to loan him out this summer. Their biggest conundrum though lies in the left-back position.

Manchester currently possesses English international Luke Shaw, who lost 19 aerial battles and 38 total duels in the 11 games he played throughout the entire season. Although he does have an 83% tackle success rate, his injury proneness is a huge concern for the management.

Another English international, Ashley Young, won 136 duels and has 72 clearances in the 30 EPL games he played last season, but his age and lack of match fitness is another growing concern for Manchester United.

United have been linked with Juventus left-back Alex Sandro for more than two years, who would have easily solved this dilemma United still hold but have not made any formal approach for the player.

Manchester United seemed to have covered up most of their positional problems ever since Mourinho took the reigns but still have a few areas which need to be improved quickly as other teams can look to exploit them.

Hopefully, with these new transfers and the fact that they retained their core squad members, Mourinho can employ a more attack-minded and entertaining style of football on his quest to claim United's 14th Premier League title.