The Premier League Owl
Manchester United may have won on Sunday, and may well be off to a good start in the league, but that hasn’t stopped lots of pundits questioning whether they need a little more bite in their midfielder.
For the sake of an opinion, maybe the era of ‘one creative, one destroying midfielder’ is over and that a top-tier side can survive in the Premier League and Continental competition without that kind of player. Sides today tend to favour more than just two bodies in central midfield, and so are able to divide up the midfield attributes amongst three players or more – collective midfielding, if you will.
Anyway, there’s some speculation around that United will again move for PSV’s Kevin Strootman in the january window and that he’s the player to add the required balance to the middle of Sir Alex Ferguson’s side. From these quotes from the Dutchman’s agent, it certainly seems as if he’s on his way out of the Eredivisie:
“Strootman has had a good time in Eindhoven, but we decided that he wants to prove himself in a better league.
If an agreement is able to be reached with a potentially interested club, PSV will allow Kevin to leave in January.”
(Quotes – Click Manchester)
What creates doubt over the link with United, is that if Ferguson was that keen on Strootman, then surely he would have moved for him in the Summer – if he was truly convinced that this was the player to solve the issues in and around the centre-circle, then there would have been more of a concerted effort to bring him to Old Trafford.
That’s just a logical conclusion, but you can see the theory.
While we’re at it with Strootman, enough of the ‘new Roy Keane’ moniker – that’s very misleading as a comparison. Keane was so much more than just the sum of his playing attributes, so you can’t possibly draw any parallels between the two at this stage.
Follow The Premier League Owl on Twitter and Facebook.
William Hill – Free £25 bet for new users.
Paddy Power – Free £25 bet for new users.
Bet365 – Up to £200 in free bets for new users.
