With the Frenkie de Jong signing almost completed, it’s time for Erik ten Hag and Manchester United to decide what shape they are going to opt for in midfield next season and who will play. Many do see this as a step in the right direction, however, is signing Frenkie alone good enough to fix the current midfield woes?
Past Positioning
At Ajax, ten Hag often used a 433 or 4231 shape on paper depending on the players he had available, in possession it looked like a 3232, where a fullback would join the midfield, and one of the deeper midfielders would push on forward. In Ajax’s 2018/19 UCL run, a 4231 shape was used with Van de Beek as the 10, and Frenkie as one of the two deeper midfielders, paired with Schöne. However, Frenkie had a very free role, where he was both a ball progressor from deep and a playmaker.
Since then, Barcelona have tried to play him further forward as an 8 in a fluid 433 instead of in a pivot. He’s since spoken out about this role, saying: “Here in the national team, I have a position that suits me better. I like to be the first player to receive the ball from defenders. I play in a different way in the national team compared to Barça” [Sport].
Fortunately, this is ideal for Manchester United, as they have to also accommodate Bruno Fernandes in their midfield, one of the league’s best creators who will only get better with a stronger midfield behind him. Bruno works best when he is the focal point of a team, in the no. 10 role where he’s able to drift side to side and take up pockets of space where he is most dangerous. In a 433, Bruno has poor positional awareness and discipline when playing as an 8, so it is key that Erik ten Hag plays Bruno in the 10 (high playmaker or second striker role) in a 4231 to get the best out of him.
As for De Jong, for the Dutch national team, as he’s said, he often plays as the deepest of the three midfielders, a role which allows him to collect the ball from the defenders and progress it, one of his best abilities. Similarly, under ten Hag, Frenkie would play a similar role, where he’d be able to collect the ball from the defenders and look to play it off to someone ahead of him.
ten Hag has also come out and said “He is not a goalscorer; he is the player who is in charge of supplying, of supplying the team-mates who give the assists or who score the goals from their position”. He does this best in a midfield two, where he is part of a double pivot, rather than being a lone 6, or an advanced 8.
Who Should Partner Him?
This then causes another question to arise, who will Frenkie play best in a pivot with? Whilst Manchester United have tried to get away from the ‘McFred’ pivot, one of the two could feature with De Jong next season in order to bring stability. De Jong is quite quite passive in defensive transitions, so it makes sense to play someone who is aggressive next to him.
Based off last season, Fred was definitely the more aggressive out of him and McTominay, ranking in the 88th percentile for pressures, and he was also winning the ball very high up the pitch. Scott on the other hand ranks in the 48th percentile for pressures, and hasn’t won the ball very high this season as he’s often been used as a 6 by Rangnick.
Is it fair to judge the pair off last season to be a partner in a pivot? Not really, last season we primarily used a 433 with Scott playing much deeper than Fred, in prior seasons where they’ve played in the pivot together, Scott has been far superior as Fred would often struggle with ball retention as well as his tendency to rush into tackles.
If one of them had to play in the pivot with De Jong, for me it would be Scott solely due to him being competent in a pivot in comparison to Fred, but it is not the ideal situation.
That is where the transfer market is Manchester United’s best friend, Murtough appears to be doing well with the De Jong deal and other transfers, and he could well go and get us some further additions in midfielder, specifically a ball winning pivot player.
Potential Signings
A player that Manchester United have been linked with frequently is Rúben Neves. He’s an excellent deep lying playmaker who has the traits necessary to be given a defensive role, however, his skillset appears to overlap with De Jong a lot.
Neves plays in a midfield 2 at Wolves with a back three behind him, he does do a lot of defensive work, ranking 25th in the league for tackles won (68), and 48th for interceptions (55), which does make him a suitable 3rd midfielder for us to sign.
My only worry with Neves is the amount of times he is bypassed. Neves ranks in the 5th percentile for dribblers tackled which is quite woeful, it wouldn’t be very safe to partner him with de Jong unless the pair work on their ball winning ability.
As seen by the radar chart, a midfield of Bruno, De Jong and Neves does seem to work pretty well based off their profiles, but Neves does have a considerably high price tag on his name this season. Maybe one for next season.
This would deal would be so typical of Manchester United, but yes, N’golo Kante. The player seen as ‘bringing the best out of Pogba’, you may ask, why are we signing him now that Pogba has left? N’golo Kante would be a stop-gap signing, someone who should only stay at the club for a few years whilst we address other positions.
Since Sarri came in, Kante has been playing in a midfield pivot as a box to box midfielder, but also as the primary ball winner. He is known for his high stamina defensive game where he can quite literally play on for 180 minutes! Since he’s been used as a box to box, his offensive stats are inflated, but his defensive stats are very solid.
He ranks much higher in interceptions and tackles won, but not as highly in ball recoveries. The prior two stats are very promising, as that is what we would require our ball winning midfielder to do, making Kante the ideal player. My only worry with Kante is his injury record, in recent seasons, he’s been missing more games than usual, which is a concern.
On a cheap transfer, United should definitely explore the possibility of signing him as a temporary fix.
Declan Rice is the expensive fix, but is he the ideal choice? He’s an excellent tackler and interceptor of the ball, but he isn’t the most aggressive. As a partner to FDJ, it is key that you have a more aggressive midfielder, having said that, he would be the ideal midfield option to sign if ten Hag looks to transition to setup in a 433 rather than with a double pivot.
Rice is also a good player in possession, he’s a high volume passer who is great at controlling the game (less important as De Jong is around). The downside to signing Rice would be that he would cost an absolute fortune, and in doing so, we would be left with less money to spend on other positions.
Another player who could be seen as a new addition to the squad is James Garner. The 21 year old has just had a stellar season with Nottingham Forest, having played a key role in their promotion to the Premier League.
Garner has played many positions this season, most frequently CM in a 4411, and at times he has also played as the no. 10. He averages 1.4 interceptions per game and 1.8 tackles, as well as playing around 28 passes per game (Championship games generally have much less passes than Premier League matches) [sofascore].
Garner can be aggressive at times, but his game relies on reading the opposition as he looks to cut out the pass in the channels many times. The English youngster’s versatility will also be key for ten Hag as he’s able to play in the double pivot, play as a 6 (with appropriate coaching), and play further forward as a 10. A good preseason could lead to Garner being a regular in the side, but a loan to a Premier League side could be very useful to further his development.
What Next?
It’s good that Manchester United are looking to strengthen their midfield with Frenkie de Jong, however it is vital that they do address who his partner will be. In the current squad, the best option appears to be McTominay as he is very experienced and is good in the advanced role, as well as being a decent ball winner. Garner is another one who may impress ten Hag which could lead to him having a first team place next season.
To dive into the market and secure a good signing this late would be difficult, especially since many of the top ball winners are already at established winning sides. A player not covered above that I think would be ideal is Ismaël Bennacer, however, it’s very unlikely that he would want to leave an AC Milan side that just won the league.
For Manchester United, it could be a case of holding out for a season and evaluating their current options, and if they need improving upon, they can target the right player next Summer when they’ll have hopefully qualified for the UEFA Champions League.
