I miss Scholes, Keane and Carrick

[RedRoach]

Watching us recently and damn do I miss these guys. I miss Keane's crunching, decisive tackling and recovery to then release the ball forward for our attacking players to counter. I miss his drive, his menace and his captaincy.

I miss the way Scholes (our Xavi) would completely dictate the pace of the game and how his passing was predictably outstanding, from penetrative forward passes to cross field hollywood balls to the wings and full backs. Granted his tackling wasn't up to much, but at everything else he was outstanding.

I miss the way Carrick read the game, intercepted passes and was able to calmly control and shield the ball then release a forward pass to a player in a better attacking position.

I miss the fact that we would sign excellent midfielders like Veron and Hargeaves and there would be no guaruantee that they would be good enough to claim a place in our outstanding midfield. I miss that we could nitpick as fans over the relative inadequacies of players like Fletcher and Butt (two players who were both twice as good as anything we have in midfield today) and that these players were under pressure to meet exacting standards of a quality midfield.

Mostly I just miss the days when we had an actual competent midfield with players who could calmly control the ball and execute the basics of finding a correctly placed and paced forward thinking ball to the attacking players. Is this too much to ask as a United fan?

 

[Annihilate Now!]

You don't have to miss these three... Butt, Fletcher, Hargreaves, hell even someone like Park who wasn't a CM (but played there a few times all the same) would walk into our midfield.

 

[Robertd0803]

Phil Neville would walk in to our midfield at the moment (thats not a knock on him either by the way). The mentality is just all over the place.

 

[RedRoach]

Frankly Fellaini would walk into this midfield that is how low it has sunk

 

[Moston Red]

kleberson and the Djemba twins would walk into this team.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

I’d have Anderson over Fred actually and Fletcher easily over McTominay.

 

[MattofManchester]

This lot will have you missing Cleverley and Anderson, they're so bad.

 

[Ayoba]

Cleverly and Gibson would walk into this midfield

 

[RedRoach]

Anderson was overweight and lazy but he had more talent in his left foot than McFred combined

 

[Plant0x84]

I understand the OP nostalgia but the game has changed. This is the era of the social media fan, where quick and extreme soundbites hold sway over genuine reasoned analysis.
Keano would be a dirty disgrace of a player, shunned for daring to challenge for the ball, Scholesy would be branded a long ball hoof and hope merchant and Carrick would be branded irrelevant and not good enough because he didn’t play for NT much. What a time to be alive.

 

[horsechoker]

Vinnie Jones and Ben Thatcher would walk into this midfield

 

[minoo-utd]

OMG the state of us.

 

[RedRoach]

I understand the OP nostalgia but the game has changed. This is the era of the social media fan, where quick and extreme soundbites hold sway over genuine reasoned analysis.
Keano would be a dirty disgrace of a player, shunned for daring to challenge for the ball, Scholesy would be branded a long ball hoof and hope merchant and Carrick would be branded irrelevant and not good enough because he didn’t play for NT much. What a time to be alive.

Each had the personality and fundamental raw talent and brilliance to rise above that. They were sensational players and would be in any generation. They would simply make the Twitter mob look stupid.

 

[Chipper]

Taibi and Buttner would walk into this midfield.
Not really, just seeing how far we can take this.

 

[tenpoless]

I can understand Carrick and Scholes. Keane in this team will result in players getting injuries after training.

 

[McGrathsipan]

Watching us recently and damn do I miss these guys. I miss Keane's crunching, decisive tackling and recovery to then release the ball forward for our attacking players to counter. I miss his drive, his menace and his captaincy.

I miss the way Scholes (our Xavi) would completely dictate the pace of the game and how his passing was predictably outstanding, from penetrative forward passes to cross field hollywood balls to the wings and full backs. Granted his tackling wasn't up to much, but at everything else he was outstanding.

I miss the way Carrick read the game, intercepted passes and was able to calmly control and shield the ball then release a forward pass to a player in a better attacking position.

I miss the fact that we would sign excellent midfielders like Veron and Hargeaves and there would be no guaruantee that they would be good enough to claim a place in our outstanding midfield. I miss that we could nitpick as fans over the relative inadequacies of players like Fletcher and Butt (two players who were both twice as good as anything we have in midfield today) and that these players were under pressure to meet exacting standards of a quality midfield.

Mostly I just miss the days when we had an actual competent midfield with players who could calmly control the pall and execute the basics of finding a correctly placed and paced forward thinking ball to the attacking players. Is this too much to ask as a United fan?

Basically players that cared for their team and themselves.

Practically non existent now and will never be seen again.

Football players have changed.
Football isn't as important to them as it should be.

 

[Chicharo]

Giggs...Scholes...Keano...Beckham.....

I know football has changed, but I don't know if I should feel sorry for the kids who haven't watched United under SAF or not
If they had watched it, they would feel like shit now (as the majority of us)
If they had not, it would of meant they missed some incredible moments

 

[RedRoach]

Giggs...Scholes...Keano...Beckham.....

I know football has changed, but I don't know if I should feel sorry for the kids who haven't watched United under SAF or not
If they had watched it, they would feel like shit now (as the majority of us)
If they had not, it would of meant they missed some incredible moments

Started watching United in 89. We have had so many outstanding midfielders in that time that were pure joy to watch from Robson to Ince to Keane, Scholes, Beckham, Carrick etc. my how times have changed. The drop off in quality is astounding.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Giggs...Scholes...Keano...Beckham.....

I know football has changed, but I don't know if I should feel sorry for the kids who haven't watched United under SAF or not
If they had watched it, they would feel like shit now (as the majority of us)
If they had not, it would of meant they missed some incredible moments

We had the best midfield in the world at that point.

Now we have one of the worst midfield in the league.

 

[sillwuka]

Carrick was vital in our success. I recall being super critical of certain aspects of his game but he is in a different realm to our current central midfielders.

 

[Adam_S]

Started watching United in 89. We have had so many outstanding midfielders in that time that were pure joy to watch from Robson to Ince to Keane, Scholes, Beckham, Carrick etc. my how times have changed. The drop off in quality is astounding.

I say we bring back Roy Keane to sort out the team's morale issues. Imagine that training session:

"Hello everybody, I'd like to start today by introducing you our new morale officer. His name is Roy, but you might be best calling him Mr. Keane. From now on, if you're feeling a bit down in the dumps and not really wanting to give it your all any more, I'd like you to book some time to speak to Roy. I know he has some very strong views about how to motivate all of you to give your best and I want you to know he has my full support. Now, before we start our training session today, Roy has made it clear he would like to address the squad. I'll see the survivors on the training pitch in ten minutes."

 

[Tom Van Persie]

40 year old Ryan Giggs would walk into our midfield.

 

[Lee565]

Giggs...Scholes...Keano...Beckham.....

I know football has changed, but I don't know if I should feel sorry for the kids who haven't watched United under SAF or not
If they had watched it, they would feel like shit now (as the majority of us)
If they had not, it would of meant they missed some incredible moments

Even though they were wingers during their prime, both giggs and beckham would still walk into our current central midfield, though tbh I could imagine if Beckham played in this modern era of the game he would be used as a quarterback style midfielder rather than a right winger.

I would also happily have fellaini and Herrera back in our midfield as they at least had a nasty streak and were warriors on the pitch but hey ole knew best that he could easily replace them with the likes of mctominay, fred, beek, Pereira etc.....

 

[RedRoach]

40 year old Ryan Giggs would walk into our midfield.

Giggs was in retrospect outstanding when he was moved to the middle in his latter years. Just wasn’t appreciated as much since he wasn’t surrounded by today’s shower of shite.

 

[davidmichael]

I’d take Paul Ince, Neil Webb, Nicky Butt and Seba Veron over anything we’ve had since Carrick retired

 

[Tom Van Persie]

Giggs was in retrospect outstanding when he was moved to the middle in his latter years. Just wasn’t appreciated as much since he wasn’t surrounded by today’s shower of shite.

Agreed. His vision was outstanding.

 

[Kramer]

Fabio and Rafael D Silva would walk into our midfield.

It’s just become infuriating to watch.

 

[Freak]

Cleverley-Anderson would do better than our current midfield.

 

[horsechoker]

Stephen Hawking and Christopher Reeve would walk into our midfield.

 

[antohan]

What I find really funny is we also spent SAFs last five seasons or so moaning we needed to sign midfielders. Somehow, he still managed to win the league regularly playing a pairing of Giggs and Park, or Phil Jones and Rafael.

Legend.

 

[Leftback99]

Frankly Fellaini would walk into this midfield that is how low it has sunk

Undoubtedly. We'd also have a set piece threat again.

 

[AndySmith1990]

I miss them too, but not necessarily for the talent, but the professionalism and the combined focus on working hard for each other and desire to win above all else.

 

[Chicharo]

We reached the final in 2011 with Giggsy and Park as midfielders...Fabio(I dare you to guess where he plays now) was our RB. Nough said

 

[MartinRed]

I understand the OP nostalgia but the game has changed. This is the era of the social media fan, where quick and extreme soundbites hold sway over genuine reasoned analysis.
Keano would be a dirty disgrace of a player, shunned for daring to challenge for the ball, Scholesy would be branded a long ball hoof and hope merchant and Carrick would be branded irrelevant and not good enough because he didn’t play for NT much. What a time to be alive.

You nailed it!

 

[TMDaines]

What I find really funny is we also spent SAFs last five seasons or so moaning we needed to sign midfielders. Somehow, he still managed to win the league regularly playing a pairing of Giggs and Park, or Phil Jones and Rafael.

Legend.

Yeah, we’ve never really been well stocked since 2007/08 after Hargreaves and Anderson became unavailable.

I’m so disappointed that we signed Pogba, thinking that that was the job done, rather than sign and build an actual midfield that would simply feature Pogba.

 

[Redfrog]

When I thought, few days ago, about the great midfielders we had, it was this three names that came to my mind.
The quality on the ball in our midfield right now is laughable, even when you put Pogba into it. Pogba is indeed a good passer but his ball retention is not good enough to play in the middle at this club. The less said about the rest the better.

 

[Bebestation]

It would have been very valuable if SAF had helped us replace Scholes or Carrick before he retired.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

It would have been very valuable if SAF had helped us replace Scholes or Carrick before he retired.

Thiago. We spent years scouting him and Fergie had all the work done for us to sign him in the summer but he retired of course and Moyes turned him down.

 

[Amira]

Starting to miss Carrick the manager

 

[Bebestation]

Thiago. We spent years scouting him and Fergie had all the work done for us to sign him in the summer but he retired of course and Moyes turned him down.

Yeah and Kroos if I remember right.

It's just that one thing I look down upon of the last SAF years is how old everyone was who he left behind.

I remember how Giggs had arguably turned in to one of our main CM's during the last couple of years of SAF's years.

Then players like Rio, Vidic, Evra were old, Scholes retired literally with SAF, Carrick being old soon etc, ashley young and Valencia being average getting old players, even Rooney's and Van Perise were arguably on the last years of their prime.

Considering how good we were in 2007/08 , I felt like SAF had the ability to start even half of a good young build for us but it didn't happen in the 5 years up that led up to 2013.

Anyway, it's in the past and not worth crying about. It's just I do wonder what "Class players" he did leave behind.