3 players who could have replaced Paul Pogba at Manchester United

#2 Thiago Alcantara

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.