After the departure of Paul Scholes and Sir Alex Ferguson, one of the key areas that needed strengthening was the midfield of Manchester United and Louis Van Gaal sought to just do that. Ander Herrera came first but it was the arrival of the “Schmidfield” which truly got the United fan’s going. Two seasons since then, both Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin, who collectively formed the word “Schmidfield’’ are now looking out of sorts under the new manager Jose Mourinho.
Schneiderlin, with one terrific season in the South Coast at Southampton, made it clear that he has what it takes to be one of the best central midfielders in English football. The move to United wasn’t surprising at all because both Arsenal and United were the front runners to land him and United trumped the Gunners to land the then in-demand midfield enforcer.
He has made 33 appearances for Manchester United but only three this season. While his average passing accuracy remains a staggering 90%, his role as a defensive midfielder hasn’t been up to the mark. The statistic that his average duels won has come down by 10% (45 % to 35%) after he joined United from Southampton illustrate the fact perfectly.
It was widely accepted that the interception rate and ball distribution of Morgan was one of the best in the league without a doubt but at United due to a comparatively lesser role, a lot has changed. The rise of Ander Herrera, the significance of Michael Carrick and also the signing of Paul Pogba has brought a truckload of quality to the United midfield and also the manager’s preference with Marouane Fellaini leaves Morgan at the end of the pecking order.
And all this has added up to give weightage to reports that he is on his way out of the club and Everton are supposedly ahead in the queue.
Ronald Koeman’s managerial start at Everton has been topsy-turvy and the Dutch manager is in the process of getting his team together. Morgan will undoubtedly be a quality signing with Premier League experience in abundance.
While Idrissa Gana Gueye and veteran Gareth Barry have established themselves at the club, Everton need a more solid approach in the midfield as well as a ball distributor and Morgan is proven for it. The main problem at Everton has been the lack of link-up between the midfield and the attack and Morgan can be the gel that links both. The lad is also well known to pick diagonals and for the approach Koeman has for a game, he will be a top-class player in the midfield who can be a retriever as well as a pass picker. It is evident that Koeman needs to improve his squad and Morgan Schneiderlin will be an excellent addition in that regard.
