Yes, Cleverley is one of those players that need skillful players to interact with as opposed to someone like Modric who creates regardless of his team mates. He'll look much better playing with us.
Wigan and Watford pretty much played 4-2-3-1. Even Wigan at times played Diame, Thomas and McCarthy central with Cleverly and Nzogbia outwide. I do think we possibly overrate him a little, but nothing compared to our other youth prospects. I wouldnt say we go overboard.
They are big black but not defensive midfielders, the only defensive midfielder in these teams I have seen is Eustace at Watford who knew what he has doing in that role, positioning. Playing 5 midfielders doesnt mean defensive approach, Watford used to play Howie Lansbury and Cleverley as their their 3 attacking midfielders while disciplined not real defensive mids and a 18-19 year old in midfield (cant remember his name) who was box to box plus one more who was more changeable.
Packing midfield for me means bounding the midfield to some predefined roles for defending, how much roaming they are allowed, how much going forward they are allowed, do the midfielders take positions deep inside their half.
Excuse my ignorance. I thought packing the midfield just means throwing bodies in midfield to crowd the middle, regardless of the attacking or defending intent. Diame and Thomas are the ones usually winning the ball back, or defending.
Then I have a different view to packing, packing means me to be solid, no leakages which refers to defensive strategy or defensive side of tactics. Playing 5 midfielders doesnt mean you are packing the middle of the field so the opposition can not find holes.
Im not saying I totally disagree with you. But we are talking about Wigan. Defensive tactics are pretty much useless when you have who they have at the back.
I've been stoked on Tom since last summer's USA Tour where he played amazing I hope we give him and Welbeck the chance they deserve to step up and play for us and get some first team action with us this coming season
No loan moves for United pair Sir Alex Ferguson has tipped Tom Cleverley to follow Danny Welbeck into the England squad and confirmed neither player will be leaving Manchester United on loan this season. ‘They won’t go on loan again,’ the United boss said, ‘going on loan only serves one purpose; keeping them happy by playing all the time. ‘At their ages, it wouldn’t do us any good because other clubs would be benefiting from what we could be benefiting from. Because of the experience they have had, keeping them now benefits us.’ http://www.manchesterunitedmagazine...ks-tom-cleverley-as-an-england-international/
We keep talking about midfield signings. Here's number 1. Interested at seeing how he does with the big boys. I still think we have to sign a midfielder if only to bulk up the squad size, but I am very excited to see how he does.
I don't see Cleverly as MUQ in terms of midfield player. I don't see him holding down the CM position for any period of time apart from a few FA cup and Carling cup games This certainly is very puzzling on part of SAF and his coaching staff.
Well it isn't puzzling to me. I tipped him last year to have a role to play in our team. I've been very nervous about him getting a chance so I've toned down my touting of him I suppose, but he excites me. For starters, he's as good with interplay and finishing as any CM we've had at the club for years (pretty much since Scholes retreated to retainer/DLP). I think he'll grow into other aspects of his game but we can live with that. We've lived with it from Gibson and he pretty much was deficient (or lacking consistency) in every facet but shooting (top percentile) and carrying the ball (he was average for CMs above average for our CM).
Hmm.. I think it's a bit strange that we're keeping whilst seemingly blocking every avenue into the team he has except in CM, which is not the position he has been honing during his loans and development. Park, Nani, Valencia and Young take up the wing spots and even as 5th choice, I think we might put Welbeck out there over Cleveley, so outside of being dynamite during pre-season and also really impressing in training, I'm not sure how he's supposed to even get his foot in the door. CM is a different matter entirely, as we're obviously weak there in terms of bodies and quality, but one assumes we'll buy at least one high class CM and may even be in for a second CM. If that does happen, then I'm pretty sure Fergie will renege on this statement and Tom will be sent on loan to a much better side than Wigan. The big problem I see here, as opposed to Welbeck's situation, is that Cleverley's loan was blighted by injury and was pretty average at best. It was not the form that says this lad must be part of the rotation of the best side in the country during the next season, and for sure, if he performed like that here, he wouldn't be in the first squad. I know we can consider how crap Wigan are, but at the same time, they are an attacking side who give the forwards and penetrative midfielders lots of chances to shine as individuals. The form Tom was in and the way he played for them before the injury is the form that would get him a serious look in here. The form thereafter was a 4 at best so the upcoming month of warm-up games are essential for him to really come in and make an impression. What will be interesting is seeing where he is deployed. If it's exclusively in CM, then we may well only see one CM brought into the club, should he excel there. If it's out on the wings... then, well, I think Tom's got a serious fight on his hands to even get PT.. and at his age and stage of development, he really doesn't want an up and down season of reserve to Utd bench footy.