Manchester United keeper David de Gea is distracted and Angel di Maria AWOL... Louis van Gaal has eight days to get his house in order at Old Trafford 

• e-mail

Manchester United's summer of reconstruction seemed to be going rather well as they made a cluster of new signings just before heading on tour to America.

But two and a half weeks on, and with eight days to go until United's opening league game against Spurs, boss Louis van Gaal has some issues to deal with.  

Here, Sportsmail's Ian Ladyman takes you through the challenges facing the Dutchman... 

Louis van Gaal has eight days to sort out Manchester United's problems ahead of the new season  

Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney grimaces after missing a chance to score against PSG 

DISTRACTED GOALKEEPER

United have been playing hardball with David de Gea over his desire to move to Real Madrid and at the moment it would appear to have backfired.

With the season upon us, United should have either sold and replaced him or persuaded him to sign a new contract.

Instead, they find themselves with a distracted player who is short of match practice after beginning this tour with a mystery back 'injury' and two back-ups in Victor Valdes and Sergio Romero who, for different reasons, are in no position to play, either.

United's insistence that they will not accept a cash deal from Madrid for De Gea now looks rather foolish in the wake of the Spanish club's refusal to do a swap involving central defender Sergio Ramos.

United goalkeeper David de Gea concedes a goal from PSG's Blaise Matuidi following a defensive mix-up 

Real Madrid's open courtship of De Gea this summer appears to have turned the Spaniard's head  

DEFENSIVE DILEMMA

The word from United is that they are no longer in the market for a central defender.

Only time will tell if Louis van Gaal agrees with that but, at the moment, he would appear to be heading towards the Tottenham game with a rather unconvincing looking pairing of Daley Blind and one of Phil Jones or Chris Smalling. 

Blind is a handy utility player and did well last season at left back and in the centre of midfield but a Premier League central defender he surely is not.

Essentially, he is filling in while the left-footed Marcos Rojo gains match fitness after missing this tour with passport problems. That in itself was a shambolic episode. Rojo has already been fined for not keeping his paperwork up to date but footballers are notoriously disorganised and the fact a Premier League football club was not aware of one of their player's visa issues is embarrassing.

Chris Smalling jumps for the ball alongside Matuidi during United's 2-0 pre-season friendly defeat by PSG 

PSG left-back Maxwell bursts forward with the ball and leaves United's Phil Jones floored in his wake 

A PROBLEM LIKE DI MARIA

It finally appears as though United's record signing Angel di Maria is about to join Paris Saint- Germain and the club have struck a decent deal by recouping £44m of the £60m spent on him a year ago.

Di Maria's failure to board a plane to join his team-mates last weekend, however, was allowed to become an issue that overshadowed the final leg of this tour.

For reasons known only to themselves, Van Gaal and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward refused to discuss Di Maria's absence. The United manager declared, rather peculiarly, after Wednesday's game against PSG that he didn't know where the South American was.

The chances are that wasn't true and United were keeping quiet so as not to antagonise Di Maria's agent Jorge Mendes, who also looks after De Gea.

Whatever the case, the whole episode left United looking unable to control their own players and that is never good.

United misfit Angel di Maria has fallen some way short of the expectations attached to his £60million fee

Di Maria is close to joining PSG and bringing his ill-fated spell in English football to an end 

STRIKER LIGHT

Is it possible to win the Premier League with only one true goal-scorer in your squad? It seems that United are about to find out. This time last year, Van Gaal was packing his squad with traditional centre forwards, adding Radamel Falcao to a squad that already contained Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie.

With Falcao and Van Persie jettisoned, it seems strange that Van Gaal isn't seeking to replace them with at least one world-class striker. United have bought one offensive player in Memphis Depay, although he is young and unaccustomed to the Premier League, and are still expecting to replace Di Maria with Pedro from Barcelona.

United allowed Robin van Persie to leave the club in order to join Turkish side Fenerbahce this summer  

Radamel Falcao has also left United and signed for Premier League rivals Chelsea on loan  

Rooney, meanwhile, remains United's talisman and their most important player. But asking him to score 25 goals this season seems an awful lot for a player who hasn't actually done that for some time now.

When you consider that Chelsea and Manchester City will head in to the season with players like Diego Costa and Sergio Aguero leading the line, then United's options begin to look a little thin.

With United short of firepower up front, the burden of goalscoring will fall to Rooney next season 

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL 

All is not lost, of course. United still have a month to add to their squad and they certainly have the money to do something special in the transfer market.

Equally, Van Gaal would appear to have made some astute additions already.

The United manager believes Depay is one of the best young players in Europe and the Dutchman has certainly looked rather special on this tour of America.

New signing Memphis Depay has got off to an encouraging start for the Red Devils  

Depay appears technically excellent and intelligent enough to play in different positions. Already he looks to be forming some kind of understanding with Rooney.

The effectiveness of Bastian Schweinsteiger will depend on the German's ability to stay fit, but the signing of Italian full back Matteo Darmian and midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin appears to have brought United quality in key positions.

The unheralded Darmian looks perfect for the Premier League in build, temperament and efficiency. He can play at left back as well, if necessary. If only he could play in goal.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, the midfielder signed from Bayern Munich, could yet prove to be a huge success