What Manchester United’s Midfield Target Could Have Offered Them – The Statistics

Manchester United’s midifeld problems have been ongoing for some time now. With Paul Scholes having to come out of retirement last season to shore up the Old Trafford midriff, David Moyes has been busy working to secure a deal for a top class central midfielder. After supposedly missing out on Cesc Fabregas, Luka Modric, Marco Verratti, Daniele De Rossi, Wesley Sneijder, Fabio Coentrao and Sami Khedira – the club finally agreed a deal for Marouane Fellaini, and snapped him up on deadline day. But another player – Ander Herrera of Athletic Bilbao – was reportedly another near miss, so we had a look at what did United missed out on when they failed to sign him.

The 24-year-old is an energetic, hard-working box-to-box midfielder who loves a tackle. From his 117 attempted last season, he came away with the ball on 90 occasions, leaving him with a percentage of 63% – the third highest in the Bilbao squad.

He mustered just one goal, but created 37 opportunities for his team-mates and completed 81% of his passes.

The agility that he offers would have been the perfect fit beside Michael Carrick, who, to be kind, let’s say allows the ball to do the moving for him, and would have almost certainly knocked Tom Cleverley out of the frame.

The midfielder could have offered a hell of a lot, to answer our original question, especially for a 24-year-old.

All statistics provided by Squawka.