Ever since Louis van Gaal’s admission that he was on the look-out for a right-sided midfielder to play in that number six position, the press have gone haywire regarding Manchester United’s potential transfer targets. Van Gaal had stated:
“I don’t have another right-footed player who can play there so I have had to use Herrera there. He has done it very well, but it isn’t his specialist position. I’ve also played Rooney there. It isn’t his favourite position but I have had to use him in that role. So it is a key role but I can’t discuss it further because then I show too much.”
It all began with Der Westen’s insistence back in April that the Dutchman was keen on signing Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan. A fee had been discussed and it was said that the transfer was very much on.
However, there have been conflicting claims from the press in general whether he is truly a target. The German midfielder was poised to leave his current club in the summer with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Arsenal amongst the other clubs reportedly interested. Today, Bild insisted, however that there is a small chance that the 25-year old may even stay at Dortmund.
Schweinsteiger, another combative German, who Van Gaal incidentally managed during his tenure at Bayern Munich has also been mentioned. The 31-year-old appears to be considering his options regarding his future at the Bundesliga champions.
One name that recently cropped up is Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin, now a seasoned Premier League campaigner and who had a stellar campaign for Ronald Koeman’s men this season. The Frenchman has previously expressed his desire to leave the club, for a side that plays in the Champions League. Tottenham were strongly linked last summer and it was largely touted that the star would end up at Arsenal instead, as the London club could fulfill his dream of playing in Europe’s premier club competition.
A few weeks ago, though, France’s InfoSport+ tweeted that Schneiderlin was in fact closer to a Manchester United move rather than Arsenal, sparking a considerable deal of excitement amongst the Old Trafford faithful. This morning, Manchester Evening News also insisted that he was a target for Van Gaal. And there are overwhelming reasons why. If you look at the statistics from Squawka.
The Frenchman is an intelligent player who can read the game extremely well to close the gaps in midfield from onrushing attackers, having made 63 interceptions in the 2014-15 season, one of the best numbers in the league for a midfielder. Moreover, he is particularly adept at breaking up play and harassing opponents, having made an astonishing 79 successful tackles during the 2014-15 season from midfield, only fewer than Nemanja Matic of Chelsea and George Boyd of Burnley out of all of midfielders in the Premier League. However, the French midfielder boasts a better tackling success rate (47%) than the Chelsea man (42%). The 25-year old is also decent in the air, having won 45% of his aerial duels, despite being only 1.81 metres tall.
An assured passer, with a success rate of 89%, the same as Ander Herrera, Schneiderlin is also capable of launching the ball forward quickly as evidenced by his average pass length of 19 metres. In that sense, he becomes the perfect link between defence and attack. His four goals and nineteen key passes in the Premier League indicate that although the Southampton star does not venture into the attacking third too much, he is capable of scoring goals when finding himself in the danger zone.
Manchester United have cried out for a Roy Keane type figure in midfield for several years now and while you can never truly a replace a figurehead such as Keano, with the way the transfer market is these days, Schneiderlin would be an excellent acquisition for Louis van Gaal. Given that the Dutchman only has four recognized natural central midfielders in Michael Carrick, Daley Blind, Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini, it is possible that he could be on the look-out for more than one midfielder this summer and that’s where potential acquisitions of Gundogan and Schweinsteiger could also make sense.
Original post on;
No comments:
Post a Comment