Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes: OAPs or VIPs?

Is it time for the old guard to take a backseat and let youth flourish? 

In the past two United games—4-0 v Arsenal and 1-1 v Lyon, it seems as if the performances of Giggs and Scholes are becoming less effective.

I know Scholes has just come back from an injury lay off, but Gigs surprisingly has been pretty much injury-free, but hasn’t really had that sparkle this season, and it has been a hit-or-miss year for him.

Giggs has never really had any competition for his place—and to be honest, who was there to rival Giggs? We had Blomqvist in 1999, but he was even more injury prone than the great man himself. This year we have Nani, and although he hasn’t yet set the stage alight, there have been glimpses of what a good player he can be. 

Against Arsenal he was excellent, and the game changed on Wednesday night when he and Tevez came on to replace Giggs and Scholes.  Suddenly, United looked much more of a threat, and it was Nani’s cross that led to the goal.

With Scholes there is no doubt he is an excellent pro and unlike Giggs he has never had great pace and doesn’t need it, but if you look at the other midfielders now at Sir Alex’s disposal—Carrick, Hargreaves, Anderson, and even Fletcher—Scholes is no longer able to command a regular place. 

My own preferred midfield partnership at the moment is that of Carrick and Anderson as they are the most dynamic, although Hargreaves is an important cog as unlike the rest he is happy to stay back and do the messy part of the job. Against the more dangerous and top teams, especially in Europe, he has an important role to play in the coming months—if he can stay injury free!

I’m not completely condemning these two to the retirement bin—Scholes would still be in the England set-up if he had not retired. I just think that they no longer should be definite first-team players, and that the team should be picked on merit and not on name.