A piece of mind: The Midfield Puzzle, by Rahul Ponodath

The conclusion of the 2010/2011 Barclays Premiere League saw Manchester United claim a historic 19^th premiere league title and in the process knocked them scousers off their perch. In the midst of all the celebration and joy, lot of people seemed to have brushed aside some glaring question marks over certain areas of United’s game. Don’t get me wrong, I am not taking anything away from the season we’ve had, but here at United its not about what’s been done, it’s more about what needs to be done to be even better. I think that’s the philosophy with which Sir Alex Fergusson has instilled an undying hunger in his squads over the years.

Let’s take a look into some of the areas of concern for the Red Devils. Main cause for concern is a very light weight Central Midfield department. Our squad seems to be too heavily dependent on creativity popping up from the wings rather than the centre of midfield. Though this has worked in the league, its against the likes of Barcelona where our inability to command control in the middle of the park came to the fore. For years now, Paul Scholes has provided invaluable service from the midfield, but with his departure, Sir Alex has quite the situation on his hands. I won’t call Scholes’ departure an outright gaping hole in our midfield, primarily because Scholes over the last couple of years has featured in lesser and lesser games, but what he did bring was a vast amount of experience that used to settle the entire team down when he played. What Sir Alex will be looking for in this summer transfer window, is by no means a “replacement” for scholes, because, let’s face it, Our Ginger Prince can never be replaced, but what Sir Alex will do is bring in someone with the kind of experience that will allow the likes of Cleverley, Anderson and the others to learn from and at the same time provide that little bit of magic from the centre of the midfield.

Keeping this in mind, the 3 main protagonists of our summer pursuit of a central midfielder have been Samir Nasri, Luka Modric and Wesley Sneijder. All 3 of them in their own respect, exceptionally talented and would definitely add quality to the United squad. But the catch here is, when united look for a player, it isn’t just about the quality, it’s also about what the player has to offer in terms of experience, and it is for that very reason I believe that Wesley Sneijder is Manchester United’s number one target for the Centre of Midfield.

Though Modric and and Nasri are experienced, in terms of big game experience, the likes of modric and Nasri lose out on a lot of fronts. Modric, part of a Tottenham side that played in the Champions League only last season after a long time, Tottenham haven’t been in the mix for the league title for quite some time and the Croatian side, well, by no means a bad side, but let’s face it, they haven’t exactly set the world on fire. Samir Nasri, another fantastic player, quick, clever, and loads of skill and a reasonably good return on goals too, however, where his CV stumbles is again, titles, part of a choking Arsenal squad that always stumbles when it’s time to up their game and a part of a French side that has dropped off the radar quite dramatically. That leaves us with Wesley Sneijder, World Cup finalist withNetherlands, treble winner with Inter Milan in the 2009/10 season and has controlled the midfield for these 2 teams apart from Real Madrid and Ajax. Now that is some real quality, not just in terms of the football he brings, but in terms of the big game experience too.

This Central Midfield addition could go a long way into determining the success of this new team Sir Alex is planning to build, because I as one am looking at this position to become the fulcrum of our attacks, the feeder to our wingers and attackers as well as the test book for our upcoming central midfielders to learn from. It will be interesting to see if Sneijder is snapped up or not. These are entirely my personal opinions on this subject and I could be completely wrong, but I genuinely and strongly feel this is the way forward.