Manchester United's Midfield: A Concern?

(Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

In the last weeks or so Manchester United have been linked with several wingers and strikers as various people wonder what exactly Sir Alex has up his sleeve as he tries to replace Cristiano Ronaldo and, to a lesser extent, Carlos Tevez.

As it turns out Fergie has opted for Michael Owen and the success of this move will be judged by the amount of silverware that can be won.

It is rather interesting however that United have not been linked with too many central midfielders. Even though they have numbers a plenty in that particular department, anyone who saw the Champions League final can tell you that Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets were on a different planet to Carrick, Anderson and Giggs.

United lacked that steel in midfield that Hargreaves would have provided. However can Ferguson afford to pin his hopes on Hargreaves, who has been injured regularly the last few seasons?

Hargreaves is the only one of his kind at Old Trafford in a squad otherwise that boasts at least two players per position. He adds pace, ability, movement and work rate while Fletcher adds only couple of those qualities to the side.

Carrick has been United's No.1 midfielder the last three years but once again is he as good as the players that some of United's competition have? His short comings were magnified against the superiority of Barcelona but even a close analysis of his performances against those closer to home suggest that he maybe nothing more than a player who is effective against lower opposition.

Apart from "that" night against Roma has Carrick really taken a game and stamped his authority on it, the way that Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Iniesta, Mascherano, Essien etc. do most weeks.

As for the other options that United have, Scholes and Giggs can no longer be asked to produce on the big occasions. Certainly they will do well in the odd big game but the legends are at the twilight of their careers and no where near good enough to trouble Europe's finest.

Anderson had a superb debut season and showed flashes last year but has gone backwards. He is still 21 however, and has time to learn and will become a good player eventually. Once again though, is he the man who can produce instantly.

All this leaves Man Utd with Carrick as their main midfielder with a crocked Hargreaves second closely followed by Fletcher. The rest include two players coming to the end of their careers and a highly talented youngster who is still learning however.

The case then can be made that United do lack a world class midfielder. Time and again the United midfield was over run by the better teams and someone with skill and steel and the ability to score a few would be an ideal buy.

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