Man Utd - buy a midfielder!

wintereverlong said:
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2nd in the league, just beaten Liverpool who are in 3rd place, 2nd best GD in the league behind Chelsea and the leagues top goalscorer. All with a bad midfield, I'm not worried about CL qualification at all, things could be a lot worse.

BrenOS said:
I'm glad you're not manager.
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lol Thanks, I don't have the proper Fifa coach badges anyway.
 
But at the back we will have Vidic, Brown and Rio (don't ever want to see Silvestre again) all fighting for two places. And with Browns current form I really don't see him being dropped easily. I wouldn't be surprised if Ferguson started playing Rio in midfield with Vidic and Brown in central defence once Vidic is fit, even if its just for the short term. I don't necessarily agree with it, but he's playing a striker in a defensive midfielder role for heavensake ;) lol
 
Mr_L said:
2nd in the league, just beaten Liverpool who are in 3rd place, 2nd best GD in the league behind Chelsea and the leagues top goalscorer. All with a bad midfield, I'm not worried about CL qualification at all, things could be a lot worse.
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I agree with you in the sense that we appear to be doing quite well with a crap midfield :) But there is another side to the coin, we were lucky to beat Liverpool who outplayed us for the majority of the game, our midfield was a shambles, Rooney and Van Nistelrooy have had to fight hard this season to get those goals and I wouldn't necessarily credit the midfield for their inspiration either. Imagine how much better we would be with a fantastic midfield? :) food for thought... two proper wingers crossing balls in every game with a creative genius and tough defensive midfielder between them.

Champions League is very important, money wise and sponsor wise. It would be a mistake to not be worried about it. Things could be worse as you have said, but things could be a damn sight better if Ferguson opened his eyes or someone else took over. :p
 
I'm not against buying players, but I'd just prefer to wait for the right player who is also young enough to have a good future with United.

United have wasted so much money buying pointless and useless players, they just can't afford to keep doing it. Especially now they've been lumbered with a huge debt.
 
Man U have a midfield that would struggle to impress in the Championship at the moment, I have never seen someone give the ball away as much as Fletcher, O'Shea is not exactly reliable and even on a good day is average, Smith looks lost a lot of the time, Ronaldo isn't performing and Giggs is inconsistent!

They need to buy a stop gap for this season, and if they can then buy better players in the summer it will provide some depth to the squad.
 
yeah, I definitely wouldn't want to see another Djemba Djemba, Kleberson or Veron in midfield again. But we really need someone to fill the stop gap between now and the summer, Gravesen would be cheap, and I'm sure Utd are getting some sort of insurance as well from Scholes being injured, they should use this money to help buy a player in. Otherwise we will witness further faultering tactics and team selections from Ferguson for the rest of the season to accomodate not having a proper central midfield.

My argument for Gravesen would be that he is a good player, proven in the premiership which is the most important factor, I don't want Ferguson to sign someone who hasn't played in the Premiership otherwise we'll be bleeding in a new player who is not likely to make any sort of positive impact. Gravesen will be cheap and not ask for a lot of wages. He is exactly the type of player we need, a defensive minded midfielder who can distribute the ball well. We have no defensive minded midfielders at all in the entire squad. He wants to play for us, wants first team football and will have a point to prove as well coming back to the Premiership. We all know that our 'big' buy for midfield will be in the summer.
 
wintereverlong said:
He is exactly the type of player we need, a defensive minded midfielder who can distribute the ball well. We have no defensive minded midfielders at all in the entire squad.
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I think some people get hookwinked into thinking that because he has a shaved head, looks quite hard and tackles occasionally - but he's actually not really a defensive midfielder if you speak to people who have watched him regularly (Everton fans).

Personally I think Rio could do a job in midfield, he is a graceful 'ball-playing' centrehalf and his lapses of concentration probably wouldn't prove so costly there. Towards the start of the season he making some absolutely HORRENDOUS gaffes, looking twice as dopey as Silvestre has of late.

With him deputising for Smith/O'Shea when not available, there would be the opportunity to drop Rooney back into the Scholes role and have someone else alongside RvN (Solksjaer/Rossi preferably, maybe Sahahahaha) .

I'm not suggesting that Rio should be permanently moved into midfield, but I think until this crisis is over he could do a job there, in the way that Ledley King has done.
 
Are you saying that all defensive midfielders are bald and look hard? :p

I said he was defensive minded, ie, he would play deeper than his partner in central midfield and cover attacking opposition players. His distribution of the ball is good, a lot better than O'Shea and Fletcher. Keane in recent years had thrown in less tackles but his leadership and reading of the game was up there with the best and it helped the defence behind him. We no longer have a player like this in midfield, no one to support our defence or to spot attacks. Gravesen is a tough player, I'm not basing my opinion on him being bald either ;) I've seen him play quite a few games and he would do a good job for us. He's more of an all round player but we would use him as a holding defensive type midfielder. :)

Rossi should be breaking into the first team this season. And with regards to Rio, he may do a good job in midfield but I'm yet to be convinced of his passing.
 
NokkonWud...nail...head

this would be the central defender that Ferguson thinks is a midfielder ;)

our midfield this season

Park - currently injured, not played even when fit
Smith - currently injured, striker forced to go against instinct and play in midfield
Giggs - too old, hit and miss in games
Scholes - currently sidelined with eye injury, out for the rest of the season, poor anyway, hit some good form though
Ronaldo - potentially a great player but too immature or not being looked after correctly by our staff
Keane - shown the backdoor for saying something Ferguson doesn't have the stones to admit or even say to the players, still had a lot to offer the club
Fletcher - world class player, reminds me of Brazilian football, absolute poetry in motion, must be related to Pele, the similarities are so obvious
Richardson - hit or miss in games, not consistent
John O'Shea - currently injured, central defender played in midfield with no success
 
NokkonWud said:
Not having him play would be the same as having him on the field though!
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Best news I've heard in ages that is. We should have gone for De Jong at for a million or two. We offered for graverson before the window but nothing came of it. At the very least David Jones needs to be recalled, played very well for preston this season, started well at NEC with two goals last week too.
 
Leeds can keep him, he's rubbish, I've heard that some of the Utd players even think he's rubbish when they trained with him. Gilly how's he doing at Elland Road? ;)
 
Surely desperate times call for desperate measures though. He's also had the experience of playing for arguably the two biggest clubs in British football.

Miller and Fletcher in centre midfield, you know it makes sense
 
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