A Defensive Midfielder Should Now Be United's Primary Concern

Sir Alex Ferguson dropped a bomb for Manchester United supporters today: Owen Hargreaves will not be fit to start the new season with the club due to a minor recurrence of his knee injury. I quote from Ferguson himself, "The bad news is that Owen Hargreaves is back in America seeing a specialist. He will not be ready for the start of the season. I do not know when he will be back."

To say that assessment is damning would be a major understatement.

It also goes to show that the United manager might have finally lost his patience with the player and given up the battle to get Hargreaves to play at a competitive level at the club. In fact, Sir Alex might have now begun doubting Hargreaves' ability to play at all, whether due to actual physical concerns or a mental block due to the fear of the injury flaring up again.

This news suddenly depletes United's strength in midfield for the new season by a fair margin.

Add to this the manager's assessment that Anderson won't be ready to play until late September (the player can then only be match fit almost after a month) and that all United players at the World Cup will have two or three weeks off (Michael Carrick might not start pre-season immediately then), and United's midfield options are arguably limited.

By all accounts till now, fans and supporters were of the opinion that Hargreaves would be fit to start the new season, but with no return date even speculated for, it puts a massive dent in the confidence of the supporters in the player. Time has now come for United to seek a new player in his position.

There are three players on the club roster who are capable of partnering Darren Fletcher in defensive midfield—Darren Gibson, Anderson, and Carrick. Of these, the latter two will not start playing immediately, and the former is not exactly a confidence-inspiring player, primarily due to his relative inexperience. Everything points to a new player being sought for, then.

So, who can be the relevant candidates to fulfill the defensive midfield role at Old Trafford? Criteria include relative experience, adequate strength and speed, superior fitness, and a lack of injury record, and of course, a decent footballing brain (it's amazing how many players seem to lack basic understanding of the game these days).

Time for the candidates to be lined up (if you haven't seen some of them being linked with United till now, wait for a couple of days). First up is Germany's replacement for Michael Ballack, Sami Khedira of VfB Stuttgart.

Khedira is an all action, combative defensive midfielder. Quite experienced for his age of 23 at club level as well as the German youth teams, he combines defensive solidity with exceptional stamina and good distribution skills. Due to his propensity to often chase the ball across the pitch (he does this regularly at Stuttgart), he can sometimes be found positionally lacking, often in counter-attacks by the opposition. He can, however, make up for it due to his speed and movement.

Linked to United, Chelsea, and Real Madrid a couple of days ago due to a strong showing at the World Cup, Khedira would be a pragmatic buy valued at €12-15 million by his club (he is in the last year of his contract). He is also the youngest and the most inexpensive of all the possible replacements.

The second player is Lassana Diarra of Real Madrid. A well traveled Frenchman, he missed the World Cup due to the diagnosis of a rare medical condition regarding his blood cells. This makes him an immediate injury risk for a United squad which has its fair share of injury prone, or almost always injured personnel.

Look beyond the prognosis, and we find a player who is superb in the defensive midfield role. Diarra has excellent positional and movement sense and, in his one-and-a-half seasons at Madrid, has been pivotal in preventing a number of attacks and counter-attacks against his team. He is also experienced in both the Premiership as well as La Liga, which can be vital.

He was linked to United around a month ago, with an asking price quoted at around £20 million. Since then, the injury diagnosis has meant that the price must have fallen dramatically, combined to the fact that Jose Mourinho, the new Real manager, has plans of bringing his own transfer targets, and those include midfielders. Diarra is currently 25 and would certainly make a good addition to the United squad, unless his medical condition is diagnosed to be as dangerous to his playing as Hargreaves'.

Another defensive midfielder linked to United is Mohammadou Diarra, also of Real Madrid. While he might have been at the risk of an early transfer from Madrid, L. Diarra's medical condition has meant that he is more at risk than M. Diarra. He has more experience compared to the younger Diarra but, at 29, is not an ideal United target, even if his valuation will not be much more than €10 million.

If, however, United wish to bring Paul Pogba from the Academy into the first team as a first choice defensive midfielder, then M. Diarra is at an ideal age. Pogba is 17 now, and in around four years, when M. Diarra is on the verge of retirement, Pogba can step into his shoes alongside Fletcher.

A name hardly ever mentioned in transfer circles is that of Lyon's superb defensive midfielder, Jeremy Toulalan. A player as much at ease at centre back as he is in front of the defense, Toulalan has been the bedrock of many of Lyon's successes over the years. Now 27, he went to the World Cup with France and pretty much came back with his reputation intact, with his name never figuring in the raging controversies, having attempted to do his job as quietly for the national team as he does for his club.

However, the calm demeanour hides an extremely combative player, one with superb positional and movement sense, as well as strength and aerial ability. While a price is never quoted for him, Lyon would possibly be loath to go of the player for anything less than £20-23 million.

The last name on this list has to be the ever present Danielle De Rossi of Roma. A mainstay of the Italian national side who did not have a very good showing at the World Cup (but then, which Italian played well, anyways?), De Rossi is also Roma's captain in the absence of Francesco Totti.

Arguably the best defensive midfielder in the world (Michael Essien of Ghana might contend that), De Rossi is a Roma youth product, and despite intense transfer speculations linking him to Chelsea last year, he has never really looked like leaving.

The same still holds true, even though Roma are now under the administration of a bank (Unicredit) and are looking for a new buyer. After Totti, De Rossi is considered a club talisman, and rumours indicate that Roma asked for £40 million for the player when Chelsea inquired into his availability. That price will not have changed significantly in a single year, and thus, pretty much puts him out of United's range.

However, writing off United in the transfer market has always been done at one's peril. United have been known to get their man, and behind all the flurry of transfer rumours, a sudden and massive signing can be announced by United. One never knows with Sir Alex Ferguson, even though he is currently playing the "there is no value in the market" track over and over again.