“He can play there” has replaced “No value” or “I’m not getting into that” as the catchphrase during the Boss’ weekly press conferences.
Phil Jones can play there, Wayne Rooney too. Ji-Sung Park can play there while Ryan Giggs now calls it home. Yes it’s the middle of the United midfield otherwise known as the hole to be filled by any fit player in red who may possess the ability to trap a ball and occasionally pass it.
The mere notion that an injury to Tom Cleverley would cause a ripple of panic amongst reds would have seemed ludicrous last season. That is not a slight on the youngster who has displayed dynamism and a committed intelligence in every one of his performances so far in this campaign.
That Cleverley has emerged central to United’s game-plan is not a knock on the slightly altered way we are playing either. The ponderous passing of last season was swept away at the beginning of this in a tide of devilish triangles and physical pressing. There was pace to everything United did and a brashness not seen since ’08. Cleverley was often the tip of the triangles until a crude challenge from Kevin Davies put him out of the game, and knocked United’s rhythm.
The holes started appearing. The upgraded Anderson reverted back to the leaden one footed model we are all so accustomed with. Darren Fletcher has had to fight serious illness and with it weight loss and his form has suffered accordingly. The Scotsman has never been the all action figure that reds have yearned for anyway. He is a shuttler in the Ramieres mould. A man capable of covering a vast amount of space but ultimately one incapable of dominating in a two man midfield.
Michael Carrick seems unable to start a season in any kind of form. Sir Alex has mentioned before that the Geordie hits his stride in the winter and we need him to. He remains a polarizing figure amongst reds. Both sides are too extreme in their arguments. Carrick is a facilitator, a delivery system between attack and defence with the positional poise to protect his centre halves. If he gets over his autumnal blues then his restoration should be the starting point.
Then it becomes a numbers game. The sizzling form of Javier Hernandez has demanded that two strikers play but do United have the personal now for a two man midfield? Even if the Dutchman who shall not be named landed at Old Trafford it is difficult to imagine the midfield would have been transported into a Barcelona style carousel. It simply doesn’t work like that.
Perhaps that is the problem. Barca are the benchmark and we have to eclipse them yet the feeling is we have to eclipse them by playing like them. We can’t. Their philosophy is their own just as ours is. Barcelona at their best cut you with a thousand passes, United at their best need only three. It’s a high intensity, high pressure specialist way of playing. It requires a dominant general.
We have been raised under Fergie on a staple diet of Keane and Robson and maybe despite the incredible success enjoyed since, we have never really recovered from the loss of the former. The double of ’08 was formed off the back of the best centre half pairing in the world and the goalscoring of the best player in the world. Three were deployed in the middle, the passing of Scholes, the positioning of Carrick and the lungs of Hargreaves held the fort and got the ball as quickly as possible to the devastating trio upfront. In the absence of two of that trio and with the fading of that central defensive partnership, cracks have emerged.
People can point to last season’s success as proof that the middle cannot possibly be as weak as it is perceived and perhaps they would have a point. Having to continually rely on another Indian summer from Ryan Giggs though is surely not an option United can continue to countenance.
Perhaps Cleverley will continue his progress and United will join the latest trend across Europe and plum for a diminutive playmaker. It’s a snarling beast we need though. One mixed with skill and stamina with balls to boot. Who is that to be? Who knows, but we will know we have him when the gaffer stops saying “He can play there”.
This article first appeared in Red News fanzine : http://www.rednews.co.uk/
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