Manchester United Transfer News: Red Devils Lining up Move for Highly-Rated Defender

Manchester United, in the latest transfer news, are reportedly lining up a £16 million bid to sign Argentina defender Marcos Rojo from Sporting Lisbon.

The Red Devils are still looking to sign some new defenders following the departures of Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic to Juventus, Queen Park Rangers and Inter Milan respectively.

And, after failing in their attempts to sign Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen, who eventually joined Barcelona for a reported £15 million, United have shifted their focus to Rojo.

The 24-year-old defender attracted a lot of attention after his impressive performances with Argentina in the 2014 World Cup, with him being named in the team of the tournament.

Despite being pursued by many clubs, It is believed that Rojo is interested in working under Louis van Gaal at Old Trafford.

According to ESPN, the Argentine has gone as far as to submit a transfer request in order to force a move to Manchester United.

Rojo, who is capable of playing in the left-back as well as the centre-back position, would certainly be a good addition to the squad especially with van Gaal trying to implement the new 3-5-2 system at Old Trafford.

Although Rojo's transfer may be complicated by third party ownerships (something common in Portuguese football), this shouldn't be a problem for United considering they are willing to break the bank on their transfer targets this summer.

Meanwhile, van Gaal says that he was disappointed with Manchester United's performance against Valencia, claiming it was their worst performance of the preseason.

Despite dominating large parts of the game, the Red Devils were made to sweat for their narrow 2-1 win after failing to convert their chances.

And the Dutchman, who criticised his players for making the wrong decisions, feels that the Red Devils need to improve this aspect of their game before the start of the new season.

"We have won in spite of that we have played our worst game. We made a lot of wrong choices, wrong passes and we didn't press too much, the Dutchman told MUTV after the match.

Nevertheless, the former Barcelona boss praised his side's never-say-die attitude as they went on to win the game in injury time.

"We have dominated the game, only in 15 minutes in the second half we are not dominating, I think, and at the end we are the winner because we are fighting until the last minute and that is also a good signal, I believe," he added.