Gary Neville believes Manchester United have got their hands on two ‘exciting’ players in Raphael Varane and Jadon Sancho but feels Solskjaer must ‘sort out’ their goalkeeping situation, with the No.1 spot still up for grabs.
The Red devils finally wrapped up a £73m deal with Dortmund for Jadon Sancho after missing out on the player last summer.
Unuted have been in the market for a right winger for the past 18 months and Solskjaer will have been pleased to finally sign the England winger.
Next on the agenda for United was improving their defense and last week it was announced that the club had reached an agreement for the transfer of Varane, subject to the player signing a contract & completing a medical.
Solskjaer has been desperate to sign a proven centre-half to play alongside Harry Maguire and Neville has been impressed with his former team’s business this summer.
‘I think Varane is really exciting. Sancho’s exciting but it was almost inevitable that was going to happen,’ he told Sky Sports.
‘They needed to fill that right-wing spot. It’s been a bit of a problem for the last year or two. I think demonstrating patience and getting him, to be fair, was a bit more measured.
‘United have become a bit more measured in this last two or three years. I think Ole has brought that to the club, they’re not getting players for the sake of it.
‘Varane is exciting and I think last season, every United fan, every commentator, pundit, fan and analyst watched United and said, “They need a partner for Harry Maguire”, and they’ve got one.’
Neville believes Varane could be ‘the last piece of the jigsaw’ from a defensive point of view for the club, as long as either Henderson or De Gea is able to nail down the No.1 jersey this new campaign.
‘He’s a good age, got massive experience, he’s got a good centre-back alongside him. In fact, he’s got a good back-four,’ the ex-England full-back added.
‘So he’s not coming into a team where he’s having to hold it together. He’s, you could argue, the last piece of the jigsaw in the sense that the rest of them are doing a pretty good job.
‘[Victor] Lindelof did a good job, [Eric] Bailly did a good job alongside Maguire but there weren’t just that little bit extra that you need.
‘And I think Harry Maguire will come out of this tournament with England strong, more confident than ever before, he’s got a great centre-back partner alongside him now in Varane.
‘Varane has played at Real Madrid in the biggest games you could ever play in – World Cups, the lot – so they’ve got two brilliant centre-backs.
‘If they can stay fit together… and obviously the two full-backs as well who have got great energy, both of them are great defenders – one of them is great going forward and Aaron Wan-Bissaka is definitely improving.
‘I think just sort the goalkeeping situation out, settle that down, decide who is going to be number one and United are in a good position defensively and Sancho can hopefully bring that balance that’s needed in attack.’
