Who says white men can’t jump?
Remember the time when Reds used to debate as to whether Michael Carrick was actually good enough for Manchester United, a time when the likes of Paul Scholes, Anderson and even Owen Hargreaves could hear their name sung every week while the former Spurs man suffered in unappreciated silence?
Now though it’s pretty much established throughout the entire United supporting Universe that Carrick is the greatest midfielder in the history of association football and should have his own statue in front of the Trinity one, made from of all the trophies he’s won and painted in the blood of all his doubters.
One player who’s rapidly emulating Carrick in the dividing if not performance stakes, is United ‘youngster’ Tom Cleverley. The Bradford-born midfielder was being hailed as the new shining light in English football following a decent international performance against a decidedly average Moldova team. Following England’s five nil win Roy Hodgson somewhat over-excitedly claimed: “Tom Cleverley, I suppose you could say, is an attacking midfield player but he’s an attacking midfield player in the same way Cesc Fabregas is.”
While that statement may be true in the sense that saying Clint Hill is a defender in the same way that Nemanja Vidic is- meaning that both fulfil similar roles, despite being miles apart in ability- it now seems a little daft to be mentioning Fabregas and Cleverley in the same way.
Since that impressive outing for the national side, Cleverley has played an important part of United’s march to a 12 point lead at the top of the table, without ever reaching the level that’s made him a definite starter for some of the bigger games.
The biggest criticism of Cleverley seems to be that he doesn’t fulfil a specific role as a midfielder, that his attributes tend to be more ‘jack of all trades master of none.’ Cleverley doesn’t break up the play or have the range of passing of a Carrick, he doesn’t have the attacking qualities of a Shinji Kagawa, nor can he carry the ball and move past people like we’ve seen Anderson do in the past.
What the England international does offer is energy, a good touch and a willingness to make himself available for passes as well as getting involved in attacks and closing down the opposition. Part of the problem for Cleverley is the pedestal he was put on with the media over-hype following the England game, a hype which all but died a mere four days later when the national side drew with the Ukraine and the United midfielder was subbed on the hour.
Since that night in September Cleverley has played eleven more times for United in the league scoring twice and grabbing an assist, although we shouldn’t get too distracted by stats like that as players like Carrick and to a lesser extent Paul Scholes have shown that goals and assists don’t always tell us just how influential a player has been.
Cleverley still hasn’t convinced a lot of Reds he’s ‘United class’ and the problem for him could be that he’s running out of time to fully persuade the manager he should be a regular in the side.
I know Cleverley was picked for the recent Champions League game against Madrid, but would he have been on the pitch had Phil Jones been fit? I’m not so sure.
I don’t for one minute think that Cleverley will be sold, but with Summer approaching and the distinct possibility that Sir Alex will delve into the transfer market to buy another central midfielder, not too mention the emergence of Phil Jones, the need to accommodate the gifted Kagawa and the murmurings that Wayne Rooney’s future may lie deeper than the attack line, the next few months could be vital to the former academy player’s prospects.
Should Cleverley fail to have a real impact going into the final furlong of the season, then the doubters may have reason to believe he’s destined to remain something of a bit part player and maybe see his chances become more limited. If however we see the Cleverley that took us all by storm at the beginning of the last campaign then maybe the man who’s yet to reach 50 games for the Reds – at the not so tender age of 23- could be the answer the the midfield question we’ve all got sick of asking.
It’s a simple question, is he good enough to be a regular? Answer it below if you can be bothered:
Running out of time? He’s been only around one and a half season in the first team and unfortunately being ruled out for a few months last season because of injury. We have to be patience with him.
a couple of bad games and suddenly he is not a united class ?
I think this article is a bit harsh. Tom is a player in his first full season at united. Last season cannot be considered his first as he was injured and therefore didn’t get much game time. He may just be mentally tired and in need of a rest. I have a feeling Anderson will be given this weekend’s game and possibly the replay against Chelsea so Tom doesn’t get too tired and mentally stretched. You have to remember that Tom just came off the back of a week where he started against Madrid and Chelsea.
I think the fact that we are 12 points clear in the league has quietened a lot of United fans including myself. When you look at the top sides around Europe I still feel we fall way short in central midfield. The absolute glaring need for a top drawer CM has been there for literally 5 or 6 years & I still can not fathom why Alex has continually let it go without buying. If you look at our last 5 or 6 years compared to the 5 or 6 previous, we are simply not dominating games like we used to. How many times this season have we scraped through games against average opposition? Yes Carrick is finally looking a very good player, yes Cleverley looks ok, yes Anderson continues to dupe us into thinking he’ll stay fit & finally be a player, yes Jones looks like he could ‘become’ a Robbo, but please, tell me does our midfield EVER look half as intimidating as numerous ones of the past? Even the 80’s set uo of Robson, Strachan, Whiteside etc was better than now. I’m also a bit sick of reading smart arse devils advocate type articles about our midfield.. We have needed at least one Sneijder for 6 years. Strangely in the Chelsea game I realized how good Scholesy is because he wasn’t there and the totally immobile Cleverley looked even more average in comparison. All I a can say is please please please Alex buy a couple of top class cm’s in the summer…
i dont think the boss is unaware of our midfield problems, its just that there are bigger ones elsewhere!
i personally wouldnt go back to the start of the season and swap RVP for a Sneijder…..would you?
I think cleverley is still far from ben regular player, but is a kind of player that grow faster. Victor
Oh no worries, TC… SAF will pick you for big games in his “tactical” formations…like he did for Real game. Dear TC, it’s not your fault you couldn’t help much…nothing can be done if the ability is so very limited. Only SAF probably should explain why Giggs ( sentiment ?? ), TC and Nani were fielded at the inexplicable expense of WR, AV and SK/A’son. The outcome? We all know, no need to rub it in. Utd are also-rans, yet again.
i thought the Boss got his team lineup and tactics spot on to be fair. someone text me 5 minutes in asking me what i thought of rooney not playing. i simply text back that i was happy with the team selection. the fact that i think it was proven correct by the way the game “was” playing out is neither here nor there…..fact is the Boss knows more about tactics than you me or any other know it all will EVER know!
cleverly will definitely turn out right in the end, just like carrick. Dont forget he is in his first full season for united. He needs to keep playing regularly at the highest level to finally fulfil his potential. I just hope he can do that at united.While he is still learning and perfecting his trade we need a more reliable midfielder to pair with carrick. He is not a jack wilshere thats for sure. And the game against chelsea has told us that we need depth in midfield, the likes of wanyama, we also need powell to make the step-up. Maybe we should consider selling Anderson since he cant be relied on to do a job for the team when called upon. I respect anderson for his obvious ability. But his injury record has affected his ability to consistently put out good performances. In order to rediscover his form, needs to go to a place where he can play regularly. Probably the portugese leagu or bundesliga that is not as fest paced as the premier league.
I think Clevs would suit the likes of Spurs, Newcastle, Fulham etc, he has great awareness of his surroundings and likes to get forward, he is also a crafter who puts his neck on the line for his team. All that said we are Man Utd, so we need someone with that something extra. I can’t see Clevs ever cementing that role and making it his own. We need world class in midfield to carry on competing at the level we have for years, if we had had that last year, We wouldn’t have exhibited the CL so early and City would never had won the league.
Interesting that Cleverley has played 11 times since September (6/7 months ago) so can’t see where the comment about him being mentally tired is coming from as said in an earlier comment. Also hate the comment ‘hes still learning his trade’. Hes been at United since a teenager and has been playing football since an earlier age at various levels so see this comment as an excuss for a player who I feel is not good enough to hold down a first team place at United. United for countless years have needed to find someone who can dictate a game like Scholes can but SAF for whatever reason has refused to buy a world class midfielder. Weve bought Kagawa but he isn’t worl class and SAF doesn’t play him in his prefered role.
When it comes to playing the better teams our midfield has been overrun so many times – Chelsea have midfielders with energy, the ability to run and also dribble with the ball. Even the Real Madrid game showed Real to have more shots than us and possession. Unfortunate that Nani was sent off so we will never know if United would have got through. Bringing Moderic on was inspired who could United have brought on to change the game.
i think “hes still learning his trade” comes from the fact that his top level appearances are still very very small. with the amount of games he has played for united and england i cant see how anyone cannot understand that he is still learning?!
It’s a tough one, he was below par on Sunday against Chelsea and often lost the ball when we were pushing forward. I was a critic of Fletcher in the early days as well as Carrick and was I wrong, but I’ve just got this feeling that Cleverly won’t ever quite be a big enough force for United, hes a jack of all trades master of none.
Yes i have that same feeling, no disrespect to Tom but i also noticed he lost possession and played a few misplaced passes a
few times, Tom is a very very good player but having watched
Manchester United for most of my Seventy four years, i feel Tom lacks the dominance needed to put fear in to opposition players,
i hope Tom can prove me wrong, but sadly i have my doubts,
when you think of players like Duncan Edwards and Roy Keane type players etc, Tom is not in their league, even though Duncan was gentle he was such a powerful player opposition players feared him, if you could combine Tom and Ryan Tunnicliffe together,
There is your answer to all our problems.