Manchester United’s central midfield enigma and the man to solve it

Currently there is a dark cloud over Manchester with the transfer saga of Wayne Rooney and his much publicised desire to leave the club. Rooney had previously been touted as a future hall of famer at the club, with enough years left and enough skill to break the clubs all time scoring record. The capture of Robin Van Persie has left the striker frustrated but despite all of this he remains a key player for the club. The reason for this is because of Manchester United’s current style of play. 

The lack of penetration from midfield means that Manchester United’s build up play involves possession football through the middle with most of the penetration coming from the flanks in a 4-4-2. This is perhaps the reason that Rafael and Patrice Evra had such stand out seasons (Evra offensively.) The French full back finished the season with 4 goals and 5 assists domestically, a great return for a wing back. The only players to finish with more assists than Evra were Van Persie (8) and Wayne Rooney (10).

 This shows a key feature of their build up play was to get the ball in to their strikers and allow them to play, rather than the Chelsea method of having the players operating behind creating the chances for the strikers. Manchester United do not have this kind of penetration coming from behind, so must allow their strikers to work at creating their own opportunities for each other. This aspect of the game is one which Wayne Rooney is very useful at and contributes highly in Manchester United’s overall build up often coming deep to get on the ball.

Should Rooney leave then this may present Manchester United with a problem. Michael Carrick had easily his best season with the club, combining his world class ability to keep possession with his ability to perform a defensive duty through his reading of the game and interception making.  However Carrick’s role in the side is not a creator, he operates from deep as a distributor of the ball, getting it into the feet or sometimes into space in the channels for Manchester United’s more creative players to operate. Ferguson last season liked to deploy an energetic midfielder next to Carrick, often Tom Cleverly due to the fitness problems of Darren Fletcher and Anderson. Cleverly performs these duties well, however last season in the Premiership he averaged 1.7 tackles per game. Carrick not noted as the most physical of players averaged 2.3. Cleverly is a good short range passer, very tidy in possession but is not the most creative of players. Last season according to WhoScored.com the midfielder had 3 assists in all competitions but all came in games he was asked to fill in on the flanks rather than coming from his central play.

Rooney leaving gives Manchester United a conundrum centrally, as without his 10 assists and his ability to create from the middle Manchester United really struggle for penetration that isn’t coming from the strikers themselves or from wide players. One possible solution is the outrageously talented Shinji Kagawa. However the Japanese playmaker plays best when he operates behind the lone striker in that pocket of space, most often in a 4-2-3-1 rather than centrally in a 4-4-2. United could easily go out and buy a very technically gifted playmaker to create from deep, but this could upset the natural balance of the squad. Because United enjoy build up through the wide areas and letting full backs bomb on, whoever operates centrally must have the ability to be defensively solid as well as comfortable opening up teams.

Another transfer saga United are involved in is to capture the Catalan superstar and ex Arsenal captain Fabregas. The midfielder is frankly wonderful in possession. Neat, tidy and with a wonderful passing range there is no doubt that Fabregas would be an excellent addition to the Manchester United central midfield. It is difficult to compare La Liga stats with Premiership stats because of the drastic variation in styles of both leagues but last season Fabregas only attempted 1.4 tackles per game. The defensive side of things is not the Spaniards main strength and with the reports that the fee to land the star could be in excess of £35million, perhaps Manchester United could land a more suitable player for less money.

What Manchester United are looking for then, is a midfielder who would be comfortable next to Michael Carrick in midfield. A midfielder who is comfortable with the physical side of the game, and who also has ability to make play from deep, rather than operate behind the striker. One particular player who could solve this puzzle might well be the Chilean midfielder Arturo  Vidal contracted to Italian champions Juventus.  In 38 starts and 2 sub appearances in Serie A and in the Champions League last season Vidal averaged an impressive 13 goals and 10 assists, all coming from a central midfield area. The Chilean made on average 4.9 tackles per game which is significantly higher than Carrick, Cleverly or Fabregas. In Serie A he also averaged a pass success rate of 87% which would complement the ball keeping abilities of Michael Carrick well. With these statistics it may well be that Vidal has suddenly become Europe’s best all round midfielder.

The Rooney debacle has still to be played out, who knows what will end up happening in the race for the striker, what we do know is that Manchester United do not want to sell but the player wants to leave. Regardless of this, Moyes strongly feels the need to add a top quality central midfielder to his ranks and just perhaps the Chilean Vidal might be the solution to his midfield puzzle.