Wesley Sneijder: Why a Move to Manchester United Is Needed to Revive His Career

When you hit the world's-tallest-building-type heights Wesley Sneijder enjoyed during the 2009-10 season, when the Dutch trequartista won an unprecedented treble with Inter Milan and compounded a sensational individual season which vaulted into the discussion of premier attacking talent—not just in Europe, mind you, but worldwide—it's easy to have subsequent seasons considered "letdowns," regardless of your actual on-field product.

That's just what's happened to Sneijder, who was the focus of a very good analysis by Zonal Marking's Michael Cox, who contributed to ESPN for a piece about the Inter and Dutch No. 10's declining form, which has been growing...er...perhaps "diminishing" is the better word, since Sneijder lifted the Champions League trophy back in May 2010.

Appropriately enough, he'd won that title on the Bernebeu turf, the site where he had languished for two seasons while with Real Madrid. He'd earned 52 club appearances, but had rarely found himself a mainstay in the first-choice XI.

Once Manuel Pellegrini assumed the Madrid post, Sneijder appeared surplus to requirements, overtaken by the newest "Galacticos" project.

His performance against Bayern Munich in that 2010 final: two assists for Diego Milito made Madrid seem short-sighted, and Inter look like geniuses.

Those two assists seemed to verify his deliverance from that two-year spell of listlessness, which had ended in him being cast off to Inter for £13.2 million at the tail end of August.

Given Sneijder's spectacular form that season, that fee seemed a mere pittance.

But at some point following that spectacular 2009-10 season, followed by a World Cup in which Sneijder started every game for a Dutch side (seven in total, in which he scored five goals—including a vital brace against Brazil in a 2-1 quarterfinal win) that made its way to the final before coming up just short to Spain, his career light, which had seemed on an irreversible upward path, began to glimmer, then grow steadily dimmer.

Fatigue was always going to be an issue heading into the 2010-11 season for Sneijder.

After all, Diego Forlan, the Golden Boot winner at the World Cup for Uruguay, had come off his own excellent 2009-10 season for Atletico Madrid, when the blond-haired instrument of destruction had notched 22 goals in all competitions.

During the World Cup, Forlan, like Sneijder, earned raves for his performances, scoring five goals in seven matches (like Sneijder), including some absolute peaches.

The following season, Forlan's league goal total dipped from 18 to eight. He'd played seven fewer matches, but looked off the pace of what he'd been.

Sneijder dealt with a similar dip in form. While that is no excuse, it remains likely that it played a part in his overall disintegration.

As Cox rightly notes, Sneijder was dealing with a different manager (Rafa Benitez had been brought in to replace Jose Mourinho, who'd taken the Real Madrid job), and a different system of play, in which he wasn't allowed the same freedom in the attacking third.

Compound that with tired legs, and you've got a one-way ticket to a growing problem.

Inter lost sight of the player who had pulled the strings so brilliantly as they'd counter-attacked their way through the European and Serie A campaigns just months before. They failed to defend their Serie A title and bowed out to Schalke 04 in the Champions League quarterfinals.

Cox rightly says that Sneijder is many things—a deft passer, an expert finagler of tight situations, to name a couple—but he is not an out-and-out goal scorer. And that is exactly what it looked like he was attempting to become a season ago.

Under Benitez, Sneijder felt he was being pushed into an attacking role he did not feel comfortable playing. From the Soccernet article:

"I got frustrated under Benitez. … He wanted me to play as a striker," Sneijder said.

Cox notes that the "striker" role Sneijder was slotted into was one immediately behind a central forward, much as we'd seen Benitez do with Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard while with Liverpool.

"I don't like playing in central midfield at all," Sneijder said.. "I like to be further forward, closer to goal … better a second striker than a central midfielder."

Given Cox's statistical analysis, Sneijder's shots per-game ratio have shot up each season since 2009-10. In 2009-10, it was 2.42. In 2010-11, it jumped to 3.38. So far in 2011-12, 3.80.

He may not consider himself a striker, but he appears to be growing into that type of role, at least while with Inter.

In truth, the Dutchman is at his best when he is given free reign in midfield. To put it in somewhat vague terms, his true worth cannot be constrained by one set position. He enjoys freedom. Perhaps that's what can be gleaned from his quotes about his favorite position on the pitch.

In watching him at his best, that observation would seem to turn into reality.

Watching him with Netherlands, one doesn't see a man fixed in any one position. Instead, he roams throughout, a vagabond in the attacking third looking to link up play and send killer passes in behind the defense. Bert van Marwijk certainly took notice.

He drops deep to get touches on the ball. On Wednesday against England, he was able to do just that, drifting about behind the main striker Van Persie and combining with teammates, bringing them into the play.

He looked like the Sneijder we'd seen for Inter in the first half of 2010, when any pundit would have been hard-pressed to dredge up a more dynamic individual.

When on form, his passing enters into the "out-of-this-earth" realm, abetted by the superb vision and fluid technique owned by the best playmakers.

How much his form was attributed to the esteemed tutelage of Jose Mourinho is a subject of much debate.

Cox believes Mourinho's near-unparalleled capacity to bring the best out of his players, irregardless of their quality, and get them playing as world-beaters made Sneijder look incrementally superior than he actually is.

Think of it as akin to a troubled artist embarking upon a season-long burst of productivity, only to be followed by the necessary dips and lulls of normalcy.

One can only maintain a climb up Everest for so long, after all, before making the subsequent descent. It's too cold at the top to linger too long.

One season, after all, does not make a career. No matter how brilliant it was. And to date, 2009-10 remains an outlier to an otherwise decent but unspectacular career for Sneijder.

Yet if it is in fact a head coach with keen powers of motivation that can unlock his best output, there is an option for Sneijder should he choose to breathe new life into his since-sputtering career.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is renowned for both his psychological exploits and a spectacular capacity to get his teams to adopt his steely mentality.

How many times have Manchester United looked outsiders at best for a Premier League title, only to fire into form in the final months before capturing the championship in a fantastic flourish?

If Sneijder can revert back to that creative force who took Europe by storm in 2010, eschewing belief that he was nothing better than a fringe player in a talented Real Madrid side, it would seem that he would be apt to cast his lot with Ferguson.

Van Marwijk certainly lends his support to the proposed move, noting that Manchester United's playing style more closely resembles that of the one he employs with the Dutch team than Inter's, now under Claudio Ranieri.

There have been myriad comparisons between Ferguson and Mourinho, who enjoyed a famous rivalry when both were managing in England. Ferguson has even said in the past that the Portuguese tactician would be one of his first choices to succeed him at the United helm.

There is space in the Manchester United team for Sneijder, should Sir Alex choose to sign him. While some might argue that Sneijder's penchant to roam might clash with Wayne Rooney, who often drifts about the attacking third during games, it is a "problem" any coach would love to have.

Many said that Cristiano Ronaldo cut into Rooney's freedom and, therefore, production (the two often seem to be directly related), yet it was with those two that United reached its greatest heights in the last decade.

True, Rooney embarked upon his best season to date in 2009-10 after the Portuguese star left for Real Madrid, scoring 33 goals in 40 matches (all competitions), but one thinks he'd lend his support to a move to land Sneijder if it meant winning more silverware.

United don't play with an attacking midfielder, although their two central mids—usually Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick—do push forward in attack.

One thinks that if Sneijder were to sign, one of those deeper-lying creative mids could be sacrificed, leaving a holding midfielder (perhaps tough-tackling Darren Fletcher once he recovers from injury), allowing Sneijder room to roam in the attacking third.

Or United could sacrifice a striker (probably Danny Welbeck), and recreate to some extent the 4-2-3-1 Van Marwijk uses for Holland, where Sneijder plays behind Robin van Persie, and is allowed freedom to roam due to Nigel de Jong and Martin van Bommel's tireless industry in central midfield.

A move has yet to go through, yet the ever-persistent rumor mill continues to link Sneijder to Old Trafford.

Should he go, we might just see him get back to where he'd been in 2009-10. Which for any neutral would be a cause to rejoice.

For opponents of United? Not so much.