As an Arsenal fan I was equally perturbed by not signing Dembele, particularly at that price. However, I have it on pretty good authority that the player and his other half both absolutely love London life and staying in the capital was key for them. Suspect that’s as much a reason why he’s not at Old Trafford.

It’s not quite like buying a plasma when you can’t buy milk, more like having a fridge full of chicken and mince and buying a nice juicy steak. Probably a better option that what’s already available but the cupboard is bare, there’s no potatoes. You can get by with steak and veg but surely a Dembele potato would make more sense and probably be more filling points wise.

Shredding his legacy at every turn eh Rob?

Nice article Rob. As a United fan this issue is nothing short of infuriating. For at least 2 years it has been glaringly obvious to every punter and his dog yet transfer windows have come and gone without even a sniff of a proven centre mid. Surely the only reasonable explanation, as you alluded to in your piece, is Ferguson’s personality? He’s avidly intelligent and a force of nature, no doubt, but also cantankerous and scandalously stubborn in his old age. His utter contempt for the press is a disgrace. The louder they talk of our midfield the more obstinate Ferguson will be in his refusal to listen. Mike Phelan and the rest of the back room staff should also take a share of the blame for not having the balls to point out the bleeding obvious.

Maybe rather than pay £30m+ for a 28/29 year old (Schweinsteiger, De Rossi, Sneijder etc) Ferguson would rather place his trust in a proven veteran and the younger midfielders he has. The press talk a lot about the midfielder situation but seem confused about what Utd need, last season it was all about ‘creativity’, now it all seems to be about midfielders with defensive qualities. Which is it? Dembele, certainly, I would define as an attacking midfielder. It’s worth pointing out that Utd’s central midfield is almost the same now as the one that reached 3 Champions League Finals- Carrick, Fletcher, Anderson, Scholes; with Cleverley and Kagawa instead of Hargreaves and Park. That’s 3 CL finals, a better record than Utd ever had in the Roy Keane era.

“His suggestion that Powell could be Scholes’ replacement was a self-justification that verged on the bizarre”- Powell is, what 18,19, why is it bizarre to assume that the player might have some potential for the future? Why do you think they bought the player, to make a decent reserve team? Your comment reminds me of the journos who mocked Ferguson in the 2003-2005 period for suggesting that Cristiano Ronaldo might actually be able to replace David Beckham. Your article has exactly the same kind of guffawing, disbelieving tones. We’ve been here before.

Tiote is still an option.

It’s fairly plain to see that Ferguson did not address United’s need for a dominant central midfielder in the summer window, and equally that Dembele would have been a very suitable signing. What seems to be less commonly observed, though, is that Ferguson has exacerbated this long-standing problem by signing players (Kagawa and RVP) who play higher up the pitch, and offer less defensive protection, than the players they’ve replaced. (Danny Welbeck is especially underrated in respect of his ball-winning abilities.) At the other end, United are still too reliant on the defensive pairing of Vidic and Ferdinand, who are dropping deeper and deeper with each passing year. The result is that the space between front and back, which their (already brittle) midfield has to cover, has become even larger. In conclusion, then, it’s not as simple as United signing a midfielder like Dembele — as a player who likes to run with the ball and often leaves space in behind, I’m not sure he would necessarily make them more solid. The point is that the whole shape and balance of the team is basically out of joint, and until that is addressed they will continue to be overrun by more compact and energetic opponents.

Yeah you’re right. Let’s just keep Carrick (31), Scholes (56), Fletcher (chronic bowel condition) and Anderson (shit) forever shall we? Sure we might as well give giggs a five year contract while we’re at it. While you’re at it, why don’t you tell yourself ‘our midfield IS world class’ before you go to bed every night and, in all likelihood, that’ll do the trick.

I don’t think you should be criticizing anyone’s analogy-making skills, Rob Smith.

Here’s my blog on the subjecthttp://baconeggsandfootball.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/wayne-rooney-the-missing-link-in-man-uniteds-midfield/

http://baconeggsandfootball.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/wayne-rooney-the-missing-link-in-man-uniteds-midfield/
Didn’t post correctly first time.

http://baconeggsandfootball.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/wayne-rooney-the-missing-link-in-man-uniteds-midfield/. For a discussion on Rooney’s potential in this role

Two words. Wayne. Rooney.

It’s precisely the importance of midfield which explains as to why Ferguson does not buy this type of tough-tackling player. If there’s one trait that fits the type of players Ferguson has utilised over the years, it’s versatility. The last tough-tackling midfielder (the one of which you cried out for in THAT article Rob – no, we haven’t forgotten and no we won’t let it go) was Hargreaves, whom at the time was the fastest player in the United squad and would usually be a player who started counter-attacks, not the Makelele sitting type of player. Lest we forget, in the season United last won the Champions League Hargreaves was on the bench away to Roma in the q/finals, played right back against Barcelona in both legs in the semi’s and spent most of the final on the right wing. United have reached two subsequent European finals without a holding midfielder (one match aside at the Emirates where Fletcher played the role) and won 3 titles.

Apart from the latter stages of his career, Keane was no holding midfielder (his very respectable goal-scoring record in Europe is testament to that).

Ferguson rightfully sees a Mascherano-type player as a waste: if you are going to play a 2-man midfield, as United often employ, then you limit your options to one the number of players that can spread the ball out to the wide players. Thus you become predictable. It has never really been Ferguson’s policy either to have specialised players who either only defend or attack; the idea being the team works as a unit in both areas.

There have undoubtedly been problems this season but I’m not sure a sitting player would add more than he would take away; for me the problems have revolved around set-pieces (largely sorted out since the opening days) and not enough awareness from certain players as to when to cover for which the full backs have generally been at least as guilty as the midfielders. On those CL runs to the final United have generally had a more defensive-minded RB to balance out the attacking nature of Evra (Brown, O’Shea for instance) but at the moment both Evra & Rafael are showing a lot of attacking instinct. Whereas before we would see one tuck in whilst the other went forward, against Spurs we regularly saw both being caught upfield, leaving the central defenders isolated.

Ask yourself this; how many sitting players do Barcelona & Real Madrid use at the moment? Or Arsenal, whom many seem to be trumpeting as having the best midfield in the country at the moment.