If only we had a central midfield

Twigginater

This year. We would be out of sight by now.

Annoying how Ferguson can't see our weaknesses. If only we'd have signed Martinez/retained Pogba in the summer.

Zen86

Yawn.

FortBoyard

The rise and rise of Tom Cleverley

Twigginater

He has been absolutely superb. I hope that other teams keep underrating him, because he's a key part of us playing so well.

Ole's_toe_poke

Oh look Twiggie is doing his thing again.

adexkola

I'd wait till after the Madrid tie.

Thanks.

Twigginater

Would you not be happy with going out to Madrid and winning the league?

amolbhatia100

I hate these threads mocking critics, as if nothing about Manchester United can ever be imperfect. Our midfield has been poor at times over the last few years (relative to the quality of the rest of the team). This season Cleverley has made a huge impact.

NoLogo

Tom has really been impressive this season and not picking up a long term injury obviously has helped his development a lot.

If Anderson can now overcome his injury problems, Jones improves as a midfielder and Powell can get a few more games we might actually be set up quite well in central midfield.

Ole'sbodyguard

It's not just Cleverley is it. Carrick has been consistently very good building on a very good season last year. Anderson has also looked good, albeit in fits and starts and I have been pleasantly surprised by Jones last two midfield displays. Powell's also a talented prospect.

We still NEED to sign another midfielder in the summer to replace Scholes in the squad but it's not AS BIG a problem as the CAF made out in the summer.

noodlehair

Keeping hold of Pogba would indeed have been quite handy as opposed to letting him leave for free and watching him become a superb midfielder for another team.

Also, we're still slightly fucked if Carrick gets injured. Handy enough lead in the league to hopefully still get by, but yet, slightly fucked.

Twigginater

We didn't let him leave for free!

Ole's_toe_poke

According to Twig, United have absolutely 0 problems.

noodlehair

He plays for Juventus now.

He's going to be a fantastic player who pretty much any team would want...Unless you post on the caf, in which case he isn't quite as good as Ryan Tunnicliffe

kps88

Our team is perfect. Absolutely no problems or weaknesses. No scope for improvement whatsoever. Happy days.

Cina

I have a feeling this thread will be bumped after some CL matches.

Plechazunga

There was a massive difference after Carrick came on

Cleverley and Jones played well, but they can't control a game yet. We were dominated for much of the first half, second half we kept the ball, it was a proper United home game after Carrick came on.

VoetbalWizard

laugh after we win the CL.

stupid thread as midfield quality is no where near as required domestically as it is for the holy grail.

noodlehair

Jones did a good job on Felony which justified him being there, but he's a fecking awful midfielder. He doesn't know how to pass.

Twigginater

Incredibly yes it will.

10 page post match thread if we draw away at Tottenham. Nothing today like.

amolbhatia100

I know. It's really tedious.

NoLogo

Which actually is a problem.

Even when you play as a defender you need to be capable of building up game with a good pass or at least a secure pass.

He really needs to improve the footballing side of his game, no matter where he will end up playing for us.

Rado_N

Has anyone actually said that? Even once?

I'll tell you one thing, though - if he had Ryan's work ethic he'd still be here.

I'm sick of reading posts on here blaming SAF for the way things went with Pogba and painting him to be this perfect player whom the club fucked up over and lost. Talent only gets you so far, you have to bloody work for your place at United.

Plechazunga

I think noodle overstates it. He can't play the passes required of a CM, at least no under pressure. But he's a perfectly decent passer from defence.

The 'footballing' side of his game is fine. Why do people think Jones is some sort of oaf who just brings power and commitment? He's a classy player.

Brightonian

I don't think they're ever particularly supposed to be able to, to be honest. Even Fergie obviously doesn't see Jones as a proper midfielder. He just plays him there sometimes to man-mark someone, in this case Fellaini. The requirement was never to control the game

With Jones thus occupied and Giggs giving the ball away a lot on his other side, I thought Cleverley did very well. Starting to think I'd definitely prefer us to leave Kagawa on the bench and start Ando-Carrick-Cleverley in midfield.

Plechazunga

Well I don't think the plan was to have Everton pass round us for most of the first half at home.

Brightonian

Agreed. For a defender, he's good on the ball. Not as supremely comfortable as Evansbauer, but much better than the average CB and better than Smalling too.

Nor did they. Averaging out the first half I'd say it was pretty even, except that our possession was more useful then theirs. We had the first 20 minutes, they had the next 15, we had the last 10. With a changed team like this and one eye on the CL match, I reckon that's good enough. If we'd started Kagawa and Carrick instead of Giggs and Jones we'd have passed them off the park.

Plechazunga

I think Smalling's pretty good on the ball too! They've both just been injured a lot. In his first year Smalling looked slick with the ball at his feet, though his passing wasn't all that.

noodlehair

I've had two seperate arguments on here with multiple people claiming Tunnicliffe and Lingard had been better players for United's reserve/youth team than paul Pogba, so yes, anyone has, more than once.

Also, Pogba was by all accounts a hard worker and excellent professional while he was at United, and is now good enough to start games for Juventus (whose midfield is a fair bit better than ours) so not sure where you've got that from. Tunnicliffe celebrates a league cup sub appearance by smashing his expensive car up whilst drink driving. If only Pogba had his work ethic eh?

amolbhatia100

You have to work hard for your place at juventus as well. He seems to be doing that and making his mark. In the end, in today's game, top young talents will always want first team chances quickly.

Twigginater

Don't get where Fergie "obviously" see's Jones as a CM. He's played their multiple times for us now and done well.

SER19

while i agree there is a difference, thats not what people were saying when we lost the league last year. definitely the hardest to please fans ive ever come across.

noodlehair

Yeah, that's what I meant. He's fine playing out from the back or even bringing the ball out of defence, but that's entirely different.

When he's in midfield he's not a midfielder, he's a defender pretending to be one. He has no idea how to position himself or which pass to pick out, and lacks any kind of composure in tight situations. He looks like the sort of player who would inexplicably get picked to play in midfield for England ahead of Michael Carrick.

Rado_N

Pogba's effort in reserve matches was seriously lacking on multiple occasions. He thought he was above it and deserved to be playing for the first team and couldn't be arsed to put the effort it. That's a bad attitude and it won't get you anywhere.

What does his car accident have to do with his work ethic? He wasn't 'drink driving' either, he was over the limit from the night before, it's not like he'd got smashed and decided to drive, but hey don't let that stop you.

Work ethic relates to what you do when you're at work, and he always puts in his full effort, which is something Pogba could have do with doing more often.

MikeUpNorth

Yes.

Plechazunga

Hmm, I saw it differently, I thought after a bright start we got pretty much outplayed through midfield for about 25 minutes.

It was absolutely good enough before a CL game, I agree. But it obviously would have been better if we'd been able to control the game, as we did when Carrick came on.

noodlehair

Also he always looks like he's just been hit by a bolt of lightning.

Plechazunga

He did

FortBoyard

This thread has the two opposites of the spectrum, the eternal optimist Twigginater and the doom and gloom merchant that is Noodlehair.

amolbhatia100

I vote noodles