Midfield

So assuming you're a competent manager, which chances are you might be as your name isn't David Moyes, and seeing every single @#%&!ing game this season we've been destroyed in midfield, even by £#%&!wits like Sunderland and Swansea...

Fergie ignored it for years and compensated, sticking non-midfielders in there. Moyes can't even be £#%&!ed to do that and just avoids it altogether, plays two in the middle every game and tells everyone to go around it, over it, everything but through it.

Stocks are bare at youth level, the ones we have have been £#%&!ed around by these shite tactics, Carrick is too slow, and don't get me started on that Everton £#%&!wit. So basically we need new players. Three or four of them at least, and that's before we think about the defence, because part of the problem with our defence is our hopelessly inadequate midfield leaving them so open all the time.

So bearing in mind we can't get the top level players now champions league football is out the window, and presumably we have to at least offer an exciting new project (ugh) which surely means no more Moyes...

Who would you get in?

I'd play Phil Jones as a libertarian

What's wrong with our midfield?











Pretty sure Reus and Gundogen would rather contend for a title next season than play CL group stage football and come second to Bayern in Bundesliga? I'd throw 50million on the table and try and get Vidal as well.

Carrick's not finished but he can't be a regular every week at his age

Ffs he was the best midfielder in England last season but under Moyes soul draining regime he has been shite

The rest of the so called midfield can get to £#%&!

Need 3 midfielders, one powerful and great defensively, one great playmaking creative midfielder and one who is a bit of both but all of them must have energy and be relatively quick

Originally Posted by andyroo

Gundogan's back is Donald Ducked isn't it?

Vidal's the dream option but why would he leave Juventus who have just come out of this kind of cluster£#%&! only to jump into a club just going into it? We can forget Pogba ever coming back either.

Pretty sure he's back now, he'd probably end up paralysed after one of our training sessions though.

I don't think Vidal would turn his nose ate joining us, hopefully we're not in the Europa either and have a clear goal of winning the league..possibly the F.A cup. I have a feeling we'll end up wasting the window after Kroos a la Thiago.

Originally Posted by BarryX

End of thread

Front six:

...Pogba........Vidal
............Mata
Welbeck.........Rooney
..............RvP

Then you have Carrick and T-Clev who can come into midfield. Kagawa for Mata. Rooney or Welbeck can play upfront too. Janujaz can play in place of either Rooney or Welbeck. It's a good mix of forwards.

Lots of movement and boring passing. Pace in the wider areas from fullbacks/Welbeck. Jones partnered with a top quality centre back, letting the whole side play further up the pitch. Pump them full of EPO and press like mother£#%&!ers. Sorted.

Originally Posted by The Watcher

Front six:



Then you have Carrick and T-Clev who can come into midfield. Kagawa for Mata. Rooney or Welbeck can play upfront too. Janujaz can play in place of either Rooney or Welbeck. It's a good mix of forwards.

Lots of movement and boring passing. Pace in the wider areas from fullbacks/Welbeck. Jones partnered with a top quality centre back, letting the whole side play further up the pitch. Pump them full of EPO and press like mother£#%&!ers. Sorted.

Pace, energy, skill, movement and not a Moyes in sight

What's not to like

we need to play three tight players like ando - carrick - valencia, two of whom have pace and make thrusting runs down the middle, two of whom can pass, all of whom can tackle and one of whom has positional sense. be nice if they could all wake the £#%&! up (maybe too late for ando). the obvious answer is to put rafael in midfield, but then we'd need a right back. and I'd play buttner ahead of fellaini too. rooney shouldn't be allowed in our half. him, welbz/janners/veep and mata/kagawa up front. mata and kagawa to stop dithering on the ball.

or we could spend.

shame gundogan is dead.

to be honest, we don't need better players as much as a better manager.... but we do need better players. be easier to tell if we were actually making the best of what we had, though.

Would rather see Kagawa and Mata in centre mid than watch Fellaini romp around like a #@&%!.

Originally Posted by The Watcher

Front six:



Then you have Carrick and T-Clev who can come into midfield. Kagawa for Mata. Rooney or Welbeck can play upfront too. Janujaz can play in place of either Rooney or Welbeck. It's a good mix of forwards.

Lots of movement and boring passing. Pace in the wider areas from fullbacks/Welbeck. Jones partnered with a top quality centre back, letting the whole side play further up the pitch. Pump them full of EPO and press like mother£#%&!ers. Sorted.

You'd need an extremely good defence to get away with playing that midfield.

if we had fabio c (still only 26) and rafael providing width, a midfield 3 would provide plenty of cover for smalling and jones.

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

Pace, energy, skill, movement and not a Moyes in sight

What's not to like

Rooney threw a strop last season when played out of position, what would be so different this time?

Originally Posted by Chipsauce

Rooney threw a strop last season when played out of position, what would be so different this time?

he's been played out of position all season.

anyway, a good manager could point out the difference between a winger and an inside left.

Originally Posted by Coracao

You'd need an extremely good defence to get away with playing that midfield.

Relax pal, I've got this.

Originally Posted by The Watcher

Relax pal, I've got this.

The Watcher has been a true shining light through this whole sorry moyes debacle. A tour de force and one of the few things to drag us through this last couple of days.

Stay with us until the end big fella

Turn it round 50s style and go 2-3-5. Two good centre halves, a midfield general with shinj and mata either side, two wing backs who can defend and get three strikers. Nobody has defended against it apart from with 4-4-2 and nobody apart from us plays 4-4-2

Originally Posted by My Name is Keith

Stay with us until the end big fella

Originally Posted by The Watcher

You already have Luke.

I'm afraid Carrick is done.

We need an entirely new set of midfield options. Cleverley should be sold for the sake of his career, being here much longer will ruin him. Fellaini will have to stay for now, I suppose, let's make him 4th or 5th choice though. Fletcher's disappearance implies he's finished, Anderson has gone and Giggs should retire. I make that 4 or 5 players requires

As we've £#%&!ed £40m on Mata, we need some serious pace in and around him, which means funding alternatives to RvP, Rooney, Young, Valencia, Januzaj etc. you might get away with Mata + 1 of them, many more and it all becomes very pedestrian imo.

The one good thing about Moyes is that he's brought our entire team down to such a level that the midfield isn't actually such a glaring problem anymore.