Former Manchester United striker Michael Owen believes that new manager Louis van Gaal will guide the club back into the higher echelons of the Premier League next season.
Twelve months ago David Moyes inherited a title-winning team from Sir Alex Ferguson, but United struggled to find any consistent form under the Scot's management and they eventually finished the campaign in seventh place.
Van Gaal has since succeeded the Scot, who was sacked in April, and the 62-year-old has achieved immediate positive results in pre-season, culminating in a 3-1 victory over rivals Liverpool in the final of the International Champions Cup in Miami last night.
Although Owen has accepted that Van Gaal still needs to make additions to the playing squad at Old Trafford, the BT Sport pundit has told Sports Mole that he would "be very surprised if they weren't in the top three next year".
"They still need to fill one or two positions in their squad, but I think they will do that. I've been really impressed with Van Gaal because he looks as though he's really added some belief to that squad. They seem to be playing with confidence again," said the 34-year-old.
"With their sole objective to do well in the Premier League because they have no Champions League football to distract them, I'd be very surprised if they weren't in the top three next year.
"They need another midfielder, but defensively they could do with strengthening because they've lost their main men from over the years in Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand. They've replaced Patrice Evra with Luke Shaw, but the centre of defence needs improving. Van Gaal has been playing with three at the back a lot of the time, which suggests he needs at least two centre-backs because I can't imagine any of the full-backs will come inside to play that role."
United have been linked with a host of players in recent weeks, including Arturo Vidal, Mats Hummels, Thomas Vermaelen and Daley Blind.
Owen was speaking after he had trained with Chester City to launch BT Sport's exclusive live coverage of the Vanarama Conference which kicks off this weekend. BT Sport will show up to 30 exclusively live games from the Vanarama Conference this season including the Promotion Final at Wembley. BT Sport is free with BT broadband, to find out more visit www.btsport.com.
Liam Apicella
