3 players who could have replaced Paul Pogba at Manchester United

Modified Aug 09, 2018 06:38 GMT

Chelsea v Manchester United - The Emirates FA Cup Final — Pogba might be plying his trade somewhere else at the end of the Transfer Window

#2 Thiago Alcantara

Spain v Switzerland - International Friendly — Alcantara has been running the show at Bayern and Spain

The ex-Barcelona player is currently the midfield maestro at Bayern Munich and in the recent friendly played at the Allianz Arena, Thiago gave Manchester United a look at what they were missing.

Thiago is 27 years old and is in the prime of his career. He joined Bayern from Barcelona in 2013 and has 151 appearances for Bayern, scoring 25 goals. At Bayern, he has won 5 Bundesliga, 1 DFB-Pokal, 1 DFL-Supercup and 1 FIFA Club World Cup.

Thiago is extremely gifted, with superb dribbling skills and a highly technical style of play. He is basically a playmaker, and he excels in both the deep playmaking role as well as the more attack-minded player.

His ball control is exquisite and his passing sense is extremely accurate. He rarely mispasses a ball even when attempting cross-field passes and he is amazing in both short and long passes. He also has a very high passing accuracy rate.

His ball distribution skills would delight United, as they look for someone to lead their midfield and bring the forwards and the wide men into the attack. Technically, Thiago would be a superb replacement to Pogba, as the Spaniard at par with the Frenchman in terms of quality, if not even better, and bringing him to Old Trafford would be a coup of sorts for Manchester United.

What the Papers say

Real Madrid are reportedly interested in him. Chelsea and Manchester United were both keen on getting Thiago, however, there have been no developments of late.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written over 8500 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

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Edited by Shambhu Ajith