Examining Manchester United's Midfield Options in the Absence of Paul Pogba

All is not well in Jose Mourinho's Manchester United camp. The combination of a punishing fixture schedule and a relative lack of rotation is taking its toll.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's suspension coincided with injuries to Anthony Martial and Wayne Rooney. Now Ander Herrera's suspension—earned through two yellow cards against Chelsea in the FA Cup on Monday night—has been compounded by injury to Paul Pogba.

Pogba limped out of Thursday night's win over FC Rostov in the Europa League. After the game, Mourinho indicated he thought the France international would be out for around three weeks with an injured hamstring, per Sky Sports' Mark Crellin. 

Mourinho could perhaps not have expected to so regret selling Morgan Schneiderlin, but at this point, his midfield resources are stretched thin at a time when every game carries enormous weight.

The battle for the top four remains winnable, as does the Europa League. When added to the EFL Cup win, either could serve as a decent platform for next season and beyond. But if United get neither, Mourinho will start his next campaign under pressure.

So what should he do in Pogba's absence? We asked fans on Twitter to share their thoughts about how the Red Devils could cope with their current travails.

Sometimes the discussions around a club's culture can happen through rose-tinted spectacles. The notion, for example, that United always played free-flowing attacking football under Sir Alex Ferguson does not hold up to close scrutiny—see the semi-final of the Champions League in 2008 for a very obvious example of a different approach.

But one trope about United supporters that is accurate is that they want to see young players come through at their club. And as Marcus Rashford showed Louis van Gaal last season, opportunity can be born out of a crisis.

Timothy Fosu-Mensah was one of the many players handed a debut by Van Gaal, who took this aspect of his job seriously. And, for the most part, the youngster shone. He played at right-back and in the centre of defence for the senior side, but in the youth ranks, he has shown an aptitude at central midfield.

Throwing Fosu-Mensah in as a defensive midfielder at this point would be a bold gambit from Mourinho. With so little football this season, there is likely to be some ring rust, and he has hardly played in midfield at senior level at all. On the other hand, he does need first-team exposure and is blessed with considerable technical and athletic abilities.

It would be a bold move from Mourinho, one that would further endear him to large sections of United's support. Given his paucity of choices, it's not the worst option for him to turn to.

At the other end of the experience spectrum lies Bastian Schweinsteiger. While Mourinho would clearly have been happy to be rid of him last summer, the German could be an important asset over the next few weeks.

With United often dominant in possession, they can probably afford the luxury of a player like Schweinsteiger, who is unlikely to trouble any land-speed records but whose range of passing and leadership could have helped more than once already this season.

This would be a more obviously suitable option were either Herrera or Pobga available, but alongside, say, Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini, the lack of pace could be really troubling.

In truth, this would seem the most obvious option. Fellaini, though much-maligned, does have the odd good game in him, as the second half against FC Rostov showed. Indeed, he performed effectively at the beginning of the season, too.

The problem, though, is that while the highs are reasonably high, the lows are cavernously low. And to get the best out of him, you do not ideally want to play him in a midfield two with Carrick.

The amount of pressure on the Belgian in those circumstances would be significant. Any reasonably well-organised opposition midfield will press those two to within an inch of their lives. While that would potentially leave space behind that speedy forwards could exploit, how well that was exploited would depend heavily on which Fellaini turned up.

Carrick too has something to prove at this point. United's upturn in fortunes this season coincided with his return to the team as part of a 4-3-3, but in recent weeks, Mourinho has been reluctant to deploy the experienced midfielder. Twice he was removed from action at half-time having started.

And both when Herrera was sent off against Chelsea and Pogba injured against Rostov, it was Fellaini to whom Mourinho turned.

This is probably the way it would have to work if Carrick and Fellaini are to be paired off. Both Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Juan Mata are smart and capable enough to drop into deeper areas of midfield and supplement United's resources there.

In Rashford and Martial—or Jesse Lingard if Martial is not fit—the Red Devils have forwards who can continue to apply pressure to opposition defences even if extended space opens up between them and the midfield behind them.

Indeed, either Mata or Mkhitaryan could probably drop all the way into a midfield three. With Carrick holding and Fellaini in the more box-to-box role, either of the two playmakers could bring an influence to the centre of the park.

It is hard not to see this lineup as defensively vulnerable, especially to the aforementioned press, but if the midfielders can get their range of passing right in the face of pressure, it should be effective.

Daley Blind is, of course, technically an option in the centre of midfield, though not an option to which Mourinho has turned to so far this season. The Dutchman has plenty of experience in the role, but while his reading of the game and passing are both obviously excellent, his physical shortcomings must surely play into his manager's reluctance to try him in midfield.

He and Carrick in a midfield two would be vulnerable to runners breaking beyond them from midfield, applying significant pressure to United's central defenders.

It is easy to imagine any physical-minded opposition midfielder's eyes lighting up at the prospect at this technically gifted but relatively immobile midfield. Wayne Rooney's time in a midfield three was consistently unimpressive. It would seem unlikely Mourinho will go with this choice.

The absence of Pobga and Herrera at the same time means there are no good options. Not too many teams in the Premier League could happily cope with the loss of their two first-choice central midfielders. Mourinho has a menu of choices available to him, but none of them seem all that appealing.

How he handles the next few weeks will be fascinating and also critical to how his first season is remembered.