The rumour that won’t go away: Man United linked with world class playmaker

Fresh from last week’s rumours linking him with a move to Chelsea, the Express has today linkedWesley Sneijder with a move to Manchester United. Perennially linked with a move to the Premier League, Sneijder has been at Turkish giants Galatasaray since January, but has been playing against a backdrop of speculation in recent weeks. Linked with United both before his move to Turkey, and before his move from Real Madrid to Inter Milan, would Sneijder be a good fit for United? Here’s our Squawka scouting report.

Sneijder would bring United qualities that they are currently lacking. Whilst speculation linking him with Chelsea seemed unlikely given their abundance of attacking midfield players, United are lacking in attacking midfield areas. With Shinji Kagawa out of favour and seemingly only trusted to play from the left, Sneijder would offer an option to play in the number ten role.

His preferred position, Sneijder has returned to a number ten role at Galatasaray, following a period of playing from the left at Inter Milan. The pass map above shows the areas that he picked up in the Turkish club’s win over Copenhagen in their midweek Champions League game. He operated in a 4231 behind the main striker, creating two chances and scoring a goal himself.

Sneijder would help United to improve upon the number of chances that they create, which is currently poor. United are ninth in the Premier League in terms of chances created – a position unbefitting of a side that were only crowned champions five months ago. David Moyes’s side have only created 78 chances this season – a mere 70% of the 110 created by Tottenham. A lack of creativity in midfield can be partially blamed for this low number. Patrice Evra, Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick all share the mantle of being United’s most creative player, with 11 chances created. With none of them playing as attacking midfielders, there is certainly room for a creative force in an area of the pitch that is currently creating little.

Sneijder has created five chances over Galatasaray’s three Champions League matches. This is not a bad number in itself, but is more impressive when considering that the Dutchman has only completed one of the three games, and that the trio of fixtures includes an away game at Juventus and a 6-1 thumping in Madrid.

If Sneijder were to join United, then it would lead to questions over the future of at least one supposedly key player. With Rooney currently on form up front, Sneijder would be keen to replicate his current role behind the striker. The most balanced way that this could happen would be behind a lone frontman, with Carrick and Fellaini as deeper midfielders. However, this would leave Robin Van Persie out of the side. Playing behind a front two would either leave United very open, or see Sneijder take on more defensive duties. It would also see Carrick or Fellaini make way. Inter Milan experimented with shifting Sneijder to a wide berth, but soon found that he was lacking the physical attributes – namely pace – to take on his man and make a success of a wide role.

Whilst all the top sides have a degree of squad rotation, it would be interesting to see where Sneijder would it at Untied, should the Dutchman join. A role behind Rooney would seem to make sense, but would leave international teammate Robin Van Persie in an uncertain position.