Ander Herrera is Man U’s most prized player
Football News – Manchester United are making progress under Jose Mourinho and whilst results may be way below what is required to cement a place in the Premier League’s top four, by far the most important decision made by the Portuguese coach has been to trust Ander Herrera to run his team.
Old Trafford has found leaders scarce since Alex Ferguson retired. The old guard of Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra all departed in one fell swoop a season later and whilst Wayne Rooney is the club’s official captain there has been a lack of drive in the team, particularly in the heart of the engine room which has often led to collapses.
As Graeme Souness is so eager to point out quite regularly in his punditry duties, the most important area of the pitch is midfield, you need characters in there who will give the team an identity. It’s unusual for Manchester United to lack such a presence following years of Roy Keane being the flag-bearer of the club and only Owen Hargreaves has come close to filling the gap left behind by the Irishman.
It is easy to confuse this role with the rather lazy belief that any tough tackler can come into a team and do a job, but it is a role of great complexity and this gives an indication as to just why it is so important for a football team to have.
Paul Pogba’s arrival was heralded as the moment which saved the Reds’ ailing midfield, but although he is a quite wonderful footballer, it is actually the reintegration of the former Athletic Club midfielder that has boosted Mourinho’s charges the most.
Louis van Gaal’s spell in charge at Old Trafford will forever be one of modern football’s great mysteries, such was the puzzling nature of some of his decisions, yet by far the most perplexing question remains why the veteran coach never seemed to trust Herrera.
The Spaniard arrived from Bilbao perhaps a year later than many would have wanted after David Moyes’ ill-fated late move in the summer of 2013, but whenever he played he clearly stood out in United’s midfield.
He was composed in possession, able to pick a pass and had perhaps one of the most sought after intangibles in the game today: a genuine passion for the sport and the club he was now a part of.
Yet as Van Gaal reeled from a harrowing experience at the King Power Stadium in September 2014, he constantly chopped and changed his team with the £29million man never truly a trusted figure. Safety first was very much the mantra that engulfed a club that for so many years was associated with cavalier football, and a player of Herrera’s qualities and build wasn’t deemed safe enough much to the chagrin of supporters.
The first five months of Mourinho’s tenure have been the complete opposite, at first Herrera was eased into a team which was working against a host of principles set by the previous administration, yet his performances were so impressive that he could no longer be left in the cold.
Category: Football
