The missing link at Old Trafford
The Rooney saga highlighted the concerns the all Manchester United fans have at the moment. The lack of investment and ambition were the two reasons cited by Wayne Rooney as to why he wanted to leave Old Trafford.
These concerns are echoed by most Manchester United fans, as the club has allowed players like Ronaldo and Tevez to leave, without any high profile replacements. The financial problems at Manchester United are evident even though the club continues to refute
the idea that the club is in a great financial mess.
It seems like the United are reluctant to make big money signings but at the same time they have invested heavily in young players backing Sir Alex’s’ judgment. The three signings made this summer (Chris Smalling, Xavier Hernandez and Bebe) are all under
the age of 22 but have cost nearly 22 million pounds combined.
This season Manchester United seems to have lost their cutting edge and their ability to kill games off. They have already lost 6 points from winning positions this season; that’s twice as many as the whole of last season.
The lack of creativity is evident with Wayne Rooney out of form; there is hardly anyone else in the current Manchester United squad who could come up with the tempo when desperately needed.
Berbatov with all the skills he possesses is by no means going to get them out of jail by pure passion. Hernandez is only starting and while Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs have got what it takes to control games and carve open opposition defences, they are
really being pushed to their limits by Sir Alex Ferguson.
Paul Scholes early season form has slowly faded away and one cannot blame the United legend, as his team has been below par and he certainly does not have the legs to run around the pitch and dictate the game.
Manchester United are crying out for a Steven Gerrard or a Frank Lampard or a Cesc Fabregas. It’s about time the Manchester United replace Paul Scholes.
With Nani and Valencia very able replacements on the wings for Ronaldo and Giggs, there is none for Paul Scholes. Manchester United needs to find a ‘playmaker’. They have been linked with Wesley Sneijder in past, a player who is one of the favourites to
win Ballon d’Or, and he could be the ideal man to play at Old Trafford.
Manchester United’s problems do not end here. Rio Ferdinand is reaching his twilight years and has managed to play only 37 premier league matches in the last two seasons. He is injury prone and his back up Johnny Evans is not considered up to the mark.
Rafael Da Silva is making good progress as a right back but has a lot of work to do before he can finally make the right back berth his own.
Darren Fletcher, Anderson and Michael Carrick are all decent footballers but if United starts with two of them in the centre of the park, they really look short of ideas and lack creativity. Up front United is the strongest, with Berbatov finally living
up to his expectations and Rooney staying put at United, at least for the time being, and Xavier Hernandez looking promising, Sir Alex should not be looking to sign a striker in the coming January transfer window.
If United are to make one signing then they should look no further than Wesley Sneijder, However, it will be a big ask even for Manchester United to lure the Inter Milan’s talisman.
There are other options available too. United have long been linked with Standard Liege’s 22-year-old skipper Steven Defour; a player whom Sir Alex admires and would fit in with the clubs policy of adding young players.
Another highly rated youngster is Marek Hamsik. The 23-year-old has been Napoli’s hit man for a few seasons now. The Slovakian is a typical goal scoring attacking midfielder who has netted 33 times in 112 games for Napoli.
None of these would be a cheap option but if United are to get back to the top they need make signing of another Paul Scholes their utmost priority.
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