With the loss of Scholes & Hargreaves and the likely transfer of Darren Gibson Fergie and United face the prospect of starting the season with only Fletcher, Anderson and Carrick as recognised senior central midfielders. What are the options available to Fergie and why hasn’t he moved to sign someone quickly so they can get the benefit of pre-season with the squad?
It’s an area of the team that’s been crying out for fresh blood for a number of years, highlighted by the use of Giggs in an CM role for the last couple of seasons. So what are the options?
I personally believe that Fergie hasn’t signed someone yet because he wants to assess the potential of our current crop of players during pre-season. Now that Tom Cleverley has joined the tour in the USA he will surely get the opportunity to stake his claim in the heart of the midfield. We only have to look at the progress Wilshere has made at Arsenal to see the benefits of going on loan and this is an ideal opportunity for Cleverley to show what he can do.
Whilst at Wigan, he was played mainly out wide but his favoured position is in the centre of midfield. He certainly has some excellent qualities and he has the right mix of physicality and technical ability to succeed.
The question is whether he will be able to handle the pressure of playing for United in what is probably the most important position in the team. Does he have the temperament do dictate play and take control of games in the way that great players like Scholes, Keane & Robson did? Can he step up to the next level and dominate games in the Champions League? These are the questions that Fergie will be asking as he plans for the new season.
The next player that will need to really step up is Anderson. We all know he has talent but he has yet to consistently produce top form over an extended period of time. It’s been 4 years since he joined the club and we are yet to see him really produce the type of performances that have been expected of the man dubbed “the new Ronaldinho” by fans and media in Brazil.
He has had his fair share of injuries and a full pre-season should do him a lot of good. His ability isn’t in question but it seems strange to me that a player who was identified as an attacking threat from midfield has been shackled by Fergie into playing a more defensive role. Towards the end of last season we saw him playing in a more advanced role and he showed flashes of brilliance and even found the net four times.
It might be that a more astute signing would be a midfield general to allow Anderson’s natural attacking game to flourish. After investing a reported £17m in Anderson it would seem wasteful to then spend a further £30m+ on a player like Sneijder or Modric.
Personally I think a player like Daniele De Rossi would be a welcome addition to the squad and his destructive style would allow the likes of Anderson, Carrick and Cleverley to do the majority of their work in the final third where they can really do some damage. It’s no coincidence, in my mind, that some of Anderson’s best games were when he played alongside Owen Hargreaves.
De Rossi is an aggressive, tough tackling midfielder with great technical ability. He’s now in the last year of his contract and, at 27 years old, should be playing his best football. He would likely command of fee of £20m but I think it would be well worth it. His tactical awareness and ability to sniff out danger would also allow Carrick to use his undoubted passing ability to dictate play further up-field.
It’s not difficult to see that our main strengths in the squad are out wide. With the addition of Ashley Young to the squad alongside Nani, Valencia, Park and Giggs we have great attacking options. With De Rossi in the team Carrick and Anderson (not necessarily at the same time) will be able to use their passing game to release the wide players higher up the field.
I think the squad currently has a really good balance to it at the moment and with the addition of a central midfielder we would have real strength throughout. Whether it will be enough to win the Champions League remains to be seen but we certainly have the quality to retain the Premier League. Barcelona are currently the benchmark and midfield is where they truly dominate, allowing their attacking players to finish teams off. We need to find a formula to solve our own midfield conundrum.
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