Robson: “United two to three signings away from the title”

Bryan Robson believes Manchester United are still “two to three” signings away from winning the title and mount a serious challenge in Europe.

United are on course to achieve a top-four finish in Louis Van Gaal’s first season at the club and could even finish above Manchester City, even though City’s run-in looks easier on paper.

The former United captain told the Manchester Evening News that United were not too far away from being a title contender again.

“We’ve proved this season that we are not far away as far as the Premier League is concerned,” he said.

“Yes we are a good number of points behind Chelsea.

“But you look at when we beat City by 11 points, they went on and won the title the next season.

“But they have coped with it and going into the last four games, we are still in a good position for a Champions League place which has got to be paramount for the club.”

Robson added that he was impressed with United’s current midfield crop but insisted a replacement for Michael Carrick was needed.

“Herrera, Fellaini and Mata have played really well over the last month or so and are finding their feet at the club which is pretty good,” said the 58-year-old.

“The one thing I think the Chelsea game showed, and it’s happened before, is that we miss Michael Carrick when he doesn’t play.

“It means Wayne has to drop back into midfield and then we miss Wayne up front too.”

Rooney has been wearing the armband once worn by Robson and the former United captain believes the 29-year-old is doing a fine job.

“I never thought there would be a problem,” he said.

“He’s a good captain. A few stories have come out saying that he’s had a word with the lads before important types of games which has had an affect on the players and they have responded.

“For Wayne, he needs to make sure he keeps performing the way he has performed this season and to make sure he doesn’t go away from that.”