Manchester United: 12 Biggest Problems Facing Red Devils at the Moment

Defending Premier League champions Manchester United may be just three points off the top of the table and through to the fourth round of the FA Cup, but things are not exactly going swimmingly at the moment.

The Red Devils have had a tumultuous campaign by their own standards, and it has come at just the wrong time with both title rivals—Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur—on an upward trajectory.

There is still a long way to go this season, and as such there is plenty of time for one or more of them to conspire against them.

Here are a dozen problems that are currently threatening to affect United.

Sir Alex Ferguson has been in charge of the club for 25 years now. His extraordinary tenure was recently marked by having a stand at Old Trafford named after him.

He recently stated that he thinks he has three more years in him, as long as his health holds up.

The last time Ferguson put a date on his retirement back, saying that the 2001-02 season would be his last, the campaign ended with the club enduring a rare year without a trophy. Ferguson himself admitted that the decision to announce his plan was "a disaster."

While Fergie is still in the job, there will always by that elephant in the room and as time goes on, it will be an increasingly difficult task preventing that ever-increasing doubt creeping into the squad once again. 

On to more immediate concerns now (and one that Ferguson faces on a weekly basis); the problem at the heart of his defence.

With the club robbed of the services of club captain Nemanja Vidic for the rest of the season, the pressure has been heaped upon Rio Ferdinand's shoulders. However, the England international is himself visibly struggling with injury, and is playing within himself in a bid to avoid injury in the run-up to the European Championships.

Phil Jones has made an immediate impact since joining from Blackburn Rovers in the summer but the other options—the questionable Jonny Evans, regular right-back Chris Smalling and square-peg-in-round-hole Michael Carrick—do not exactly fill one with confidence going into the latter stages of a title fight.

Jones has grabbed plenty of attention for his bold, authoritative defensive displays and his rampaging, all-action performances in midfield.

Over-excitable pundits have been quick to liken him to everyone from Franz Beckenbauer to Duncan Edwards, but the truth is he is far from the finished article.

For all of his star turns, there have still been plenty of occasions when the highly-talented teenager's lack of experience has found him wanting. With the aforementioned injury crisis in defence and several midfielders missing too, United are suddenly heavily reliant on a young player still learning his trade at the very highest level.

Scholes's return from retirement was announced just an hour before United's FA Cup third-round clash away to neighbours City last Sunday. While the news sent a wave of nostalgia washing over football fans everywhere at the time, it is perhaps a worrying symptom of United's desperation.

Bringing a 37-year-old out of mothballs is not exactly the traditional way to give a team a title-winning edge. Scholes's return shows that United were unable to find an adequate replacement or unable to afford one.

Tom Cleverley's form early in the season looked as though it could fill the hole left by Scholes, but his injury problems have left the squad exposed. As good as Scholes may still be, he is surely no longer cut out for the rigours of a season run-in.

In football, people are always quick to make snap judgements. David de Gea has been quickly written off by some as not up to the task of being United's No.1 after a handful of costly mistakes early on in his United career. 

All goalkeepers make mistakes, but the £19 million summer signing has now been tarred with the brush of being a "dodgy keeper."

However, Ferguson has perhaps exacerbated the situation concerning the 21-year-old's confidence by sporadically dropping him in favour of Danish keeper Anders Lindegaard, who himself has just a dozen first-team appearances under his belt.

With Tomasz Kuszczak on his way out of the club if United can find a buyer, this is not the time to have uncertainty hanging over what should be the first name on the team sheet.

The row between the United left-back and Liverpool striker has cast something of a shadow over this season, as it was the most prominent of a series of incidents of alleged racist abuse.

For his actions during the 1-1 draw between the two sides at Anfield in October, Suarez got an eight-match ban, but the bitterness stirred up in one of the biggest rivalries in English football has reached unprecedented levels.

United and Liverpool face each other twice in the next month, and the poisonous atmosphere surrounding the fixture is sure to affect both games—most notably the league clash at Old Trafford on February 11, when Suarez will be available again for the Reds.

Since Malcolm Glazer and his family took over ownership of the club in 2005, United have won four league titles, the Champions League and the Carling Cup. They have also spent their fair share on players, including major fees expenditure laid out on the likes of Dimitar Berbatov, Phil Jones and David de Gea.

However, the fact that the Glazers purchased the club via a leveraged debt, which they have increased through refinancing since, will eventually catch up with the club's transfer budget.

Many of the club's fans have become so disgruntled that the the phrase "Love United, Hate Glazer" is heard as often around Old Trafford on match days as "Glory Glory Man United." Some supporters became so disillusioned that they ended their association with the club and formed their own team, FC United of Manchester.

As the interest repayments on the club's debts continue to be serviced, the financial squeeze is soon likely to hit United in a way that would not so long ago have been unimaginable.

Okay, so dwelling on the financial aspects of football is hardly the most interesting thing about the game, but it is becoming an increasingly relevant part of it.

UEFA's regulations regarding all clubs wishing to enter their competitions is now in effect, although the first true assessments of balance sheets will not be instigated for another three years.

Given the way the Glazers have chosen to run the club's finances, and with them not being able to make a cash injection via a loophole like City's owners were by effectively selling the naming rights of their stadium to themselves, United's accountants must already be breaking into a sweat.

Not only were United dumped out of the Champions League before Christmas, they now have to contend with competing in the Europa League.

As a matter of pride, Ferguson and Co. have all claimed that they will approach the competition looking to win it. That may well be true, but when the reality of the fixtures in Europe's secondary competition bites, it may be a different matter.

United face a tricky tie in the form of Ajax, with the first leg coming right after the aforementioned league clash against Liverpool. Should they make it through to the next round, their preparations would be disrupted by a potentially title-deciding clash against Tottenham. 

Even if they advance at that stage, they will only then reach the quarter-finals. If United are going to win a competition they do not really care about but have to maintain the facade that they do, they will have to play nine matches—two more than if they were to reach the final of the Champions League. 

With City's squad much deeper (and out of the FA Cup, thanks to United) and Spurs not having to contend with European football, the Europa League could prove one handicap too many for United.

For years, United have used their air of invincibility to defeat many opponents before they have even taken to the pitch. A visit from the Red Devils is usually enough to strike fear into the hearts of most teams, let alone a trip to Old Trafford.

But the recent 3-2 defeat at home to Blackburn and a resounding 3-0 loss at Newcastle in consecutive matches either side of the New Year—not to mention to laboured and nerve-wracking way in which they beat City 3-2 in the Cup—has shown that United have a vulnerable streak more than at any time in recent memory.

Now even a team struggling at the wrong end of the table will feel there may be something to be gained from going at the champions, rather than merely shutting up shop and hoping for the best. A couple more results which go against the odds will be more than enough to derail United's title tilt this season.

Rafael Benitez and Claudio Ranieri were both pilloried at various times during their respective tenures at Liverpool and Chelsea for constantly chopping and changing their teams. Ranieri did so to such an extent that he became known as The Tinkerman during his time at Stamford Bridge.

Ferguson has in recent years been almost as indecisive in his team selections as either of those two bosses, but the Old Trafford trophy room has always been vindication of his approach.

Still, over the past few seasons there has been a creeping sense that he has simply does not know his best team. His switches often seem to go further than simply playing the opposition or squad rotation. 

Now that he is faced with uncertainty over the goalkeeping position and injuries in both defence and midfield, the lack of a definitive and settled first team has been brought into sharp relief. 

The net result is that for the rest of the season there may be lineups fielded over the next few months that feature players who have not played together that much, in positions with which they are not familiar.

On so many occasions since the vaunted generation that brought through the likes of Paul Schools, David Beckham, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers, United have produced at least the occasional talented youngster who has at least helped them in their hour of need, if not gone on to become an established member of the squad.

Ferguson must have hoped that something similar would happen when he entered the game against Blackburn on New Year's Eve with a bench that featured the likes of Will Keane, Ezequiel Fryers and Paul Pogba. That didn't quite work out as expected.

Now, with Ravel Morrison (pictured) and Pogba threatening to let their contracts run down and leave for nothing in the summer, United's current crop of young players does not look like they're coming to Ferguson's rescue any time soon.