It is no surprise that he has been likened to the great Duncan Edwards, who could do everything. He is very strong likes to come out of the back can chip or hit a pass score goals with foot or head. Of course he can play centre-back, but he has already shown that he may have many of the qualities Roy Keane had. Neither he nor Sir Alex yet knows what his best position is, but like Smalling, he can play at right-back. The thing is that Phil is a very versatile player. OK, there will be plenty of people at this stage saying "what about Phil Jones?" In any case, why look outside Manchester United when the solution may already be there?
He can play the footballing central defender but is also a world-class defensive midfielder.īut Martinez cost almost £34 million and Hummels' fee wouldn't be much less than that. Javi Martinez was in some ways the dream ticket before he went to Bayern Munich. At Old Trafford he could become the best in the world. Jan Vertonghen was a possibility before he went to Tottenham, but Hummels is the complete central defender. If Sir Alex was to look elsewhere to find the player who ticks all these boxes, he should look no further than Mats Hummels. The value of having a footballer in the back line was shown on Friday, when Roy Hodgson was thinking about dropping Carrick in as a centre-back as the game progressed, to make England even more aggressive. He is potentially the Paolo Maldini of United. He is the one player out of himself, Scholes and Giggs who should get another one-year contract. This doesn't mean he doesn't have a future at Old Trafford. Sadly, Rio doesn't have that pace or recovery ability any more. The Spanish striker was always able to expose Vidic's lack of pace while he was at Liverpool. Especially when a Fernando Torres is around. That was also how he scored against Galatasaray.īut you can only be a marauding centre-back if you have the pace and legs to get back when needed. The old Rio would have been able to bring the ball out from the back, allowing Carrick to move higher in the way he did so well for England against San Marino. He is a footballing centre-back who started life as a striker. If anything, he should have attacked more from the back. Once upon a time, not so long ago, Rio Ferdinand was that man. He had a "bad hair day" before finally getting sent off. His Achilles heel, however, is occasional lapses in concentration.Īgainst City in the 6-1 defeat last season, he was totally to blame for Balotelli's first goal that unlocked the floodgates. He loves to go forward like Mats Hummels does for Dortmund. Jonny Evans has been performing that role alongside both Vidic and Ferdinand this season. Apart from having a more mobile player like Cleverley or Anderson alongside Carrick, he needs to play a pacy centre-back. Sir Alex wants his team to play a much higher line as they did so successfully against Cluj and then Newcastle. And the attacking players either don't get the service they need or have to keep coming deep to get the ball.Ī second reason is that when Vidic and Ferdinand play together, neither has the legs to be up on the halfway line one minute and back in the box cleaning out a pacy attacker the next. So a vacuum opens up between them and the front line, which Tottenham were able to exploit in the first half.
United's attacking style doesn't require two holding midfielders. He makes up for this with his ability to spray accurate passes, but Carrick is supposed to be the holding player. One of the reasons why other teams have been able to put pressure on United's defence in early season is because it has been playing too deep.įirst, when Paul Scholes plays, he sits too deep. He'll be back in late November at the latest, but Sir Alex now has two problems to resolve to cement the defensive solidity. He may have pushed his body too far and the knee could not take the strain. He may not have been quite match fit, but as captain he was desperate to ease the centre-back injury crisis. Vidic's natural aggression and all-round physicality is probably why he is back in the physio room. Sir Alex has suggested he use his ability to read the game to compensate, making smarter decisions. Rio still reads the game extremely well and the only limitation he now has is that he has lost some of his pace. At last United had a clean sheet and the offense prospered. Together with a more mobile midfield and the re-introduction of Tom Cleverley, the defence was watertight at St James' Park.
0 kommentar(er)
