Would Strootman have been perfect for Manchester United instead of Fellaini?

Kevin Strootman

Manchester United have had a dismal start to the season. Points dropped at home to both West Brom and Southampton combined with defeats to rivals Liverpool and Manchester City have seen them lingering in a disappointing mid table position.

While the front two of Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney appear to be hitting their stride, and Javier Hernandez adding goals whenever he gets some time on the pitch, David Moyes’s boys look decidedly average around the rest of the pitch with the centre of midfield looking particularly weak.

Moyes has chopped and changed in the middle of the park with only Michael Carrick featuring in all nine league matches so far. Tom Cleverley has played six times while new signing, and the only summer signing, Marouane Fellaini, has only played in four Premier League games for Manchester United.

With centre midfield possibly a more vital position than ever, the area of the field where the ball is lost and won and goal scoring moves begun Moyes may well regret not strengthening further during the summer and may also regret missing out on one of his targets, Kevin Strootman, who went from PSV to Serie A leaders Roma in the transfer window for a fee reported to be around £15 million.

Roma’s charge to the top of Italian football has been amazing with nine straight wins at the start of this season and the best defence in Europe’s top leagues conceding just one goal. The Netherlands international has been a big part of that, playing in every single Serie A game this season and performing well.

His Performance Score of 184 is higher than that of every single United midfielder, bar Carrick who scores 330, and dwarfs that of Fellaini who scores poorly with 46.

Strootman has done this by being the archetypal all round midfielder. He can tackle, win the ball and distribute well. This can be seen by his 64% success in tackles, 60% success in areal duels and 12 interceptions made, over one per match. In addition he completes 86% of passes, 59% of those are played forward.

Kevin Strootman stats

Equally impressive is Strootman’s key passes and assists. In nine Serie A matches he has made 14 key passes with five resulting in an assist. He is currently the top creator the goals in the whole division. In comparison United’s midfield have only made one assist between them, that coming from Antonio Valencia.

Strootman – Assists and Key Passes

Moyes favours a midfield duo, whether he is playing a 4-4-2 or a variant of the 4-2-3-1, and it Strootman would have played that role excellently. He has the ability to compliment Carrick as he can perform the same duties as the England man but is also more dynamic and creative.

So while Carrick is steadily going about his business, and being good at it, he misses a partner in midfield to help him out, and United need someone in that position to help impose their game on the opposition.

Tom Cleverley and Marouane Fellaini do not seem up to the task as it stands, although it would be premature to write them off altogether this early on.

However, one man who probably would have made a difference would have been Strootman, but with Roma doing so well and the transfer only happening a few months ago now David Moyes will have to regret missing out on the World Cup bound midfielder, just one of many targets that slipped through his grasp since his arrival at United.

??Football graphics and stats from Squawka???