With the addition of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin, the Man Utd squad get a powerful boost adding to Anders Herrera, Daley Blind, Maroaune Fellaini, and Michael Carrick to give a crowded look in the heart of midfield.
Out of these six, Schneiderlin, Blind, and Carrick play deeper and bring different strengths to their game. Carrick is a very good distributor of the ball, excellent at influencing the tempo of the game. Schneiderlin is adept at enforcement with his tackling and interceptions breaking up counterattackings, and Blind in addition to holding duties can play full back.
Schweinsteiger, a former winger cut his teeth as a box to box midfielder at Bayern, Herrera is the most attacking and creative of the central midfielders, and Fellaini, the most physical in attitude and size, used frequently as a target man in Louis Van Gaal’s work in progress.
The most likely configuration will see Schneiderlin or Carrick sitting in front of the back four while Schweinsteiger and Herrera share space in front. Lets look a little more closely at what Man Utd are getting.
Apart from Carrick, the rest are relatively new to the United set up with Herrera and Blind going on their second season. In fact, Schweinsteiger is Man Utd’s first German addition in its club history. This midfield will require sometime with its new additions to bed. Fellaini is in his third season but he’s more known for his disruptive fouling and aerial challenges, qualities which don’t require much co-operation and linking up.
A salient point for Utd fans to consider: they shouldn’t look to this Man Utd midfield for an instant upgrade when it comes to the crucial aspect of goalscoring. Schweinsteiger averages about 4-5 goals and that many assists. Herrera had a hand in four goals and scored 6 more as he became more prominent towards the latter half of last season as a starter. Fellaini scored six but as a refurbished striker. He had no assists.
The top assist man is Angel Di Maria, facing a unsure career at Man Utd, subject to strong rumours of a PSG departure with 10 assists.
That load has been carried by Wayne Rooney, derogated as Shrek, written off too many times to count, but lets look at the figures. They don’t lie. 2012-13: Second in goals (12), first in assists (10): 2013-14: First in goals (17), first in assists(10): 2014-15: First in goals scored (12), second in assists (5).
From their 2012-13 league winning high of 86 goals scored, a significant drop off with 64 goals in the 2013-14 season finishing seventh, before rebounding to fourth place with fewer goals scored (62) last season with a better defensive record. It’s clear Utd need improvement in the goalscoring department
United will most likely continue to show improvement in its defensive dimension but the attack is still too reliant on Rooney for consistent goalscoring and assists. Herrera might have a monstrous season too showing enough promise. Memphis Depay is an exciting Eredivisie prospect but only time will tell whether it can be translated into the Premier League.