Paddy Power have already paid out on United winning the treble, which while a little silly is at the same time hard to argue with. If you don't concede goals, then who is going to stop you? Winning the quadruple is actually an extreme possibility for this current United squad, but my question is this: Will they be winning all of these trophies with one of the most average group of midfielders that a successful team has ever had?
There can be no denying United's defensive excellence, whilst an attack boasting Ronaldo, Rooney, and Berbatov is devastating (in theory at least). However, their midfield regularly consists of three of the following players: Carrick, Fletcher, Giggs, Scholes, Nani, Park, Anderson. Bear in mind that Giggs and Scholes are not who they used to be (despite what most people are saying).
For me, that is such a middle-of-the-road midfield. Does anyone on that list get you excited? Scholes in his day was an exquisite player, but he has been shown up in any big games he has played this season, with Ferguson hauling him off early against both Liverpool and Chelsea. Carrick is seen as the creative lynchpin, but I can't help but think of all of the important games I've seen Carrick disappear in. Against a good midfield his shortcomings are there to see. And even though the friendly against Spain recently wasn't important (although imagine how important it would have been had England won), it was notable that Carrick was way out of his depth. Excusers will say that he wasn't surrounded by the calibre of players he finds himself amongst at Man Utd, but are Barry, Lampard and Wright-Phillips really that much worse than Fletcher, Park, and Giggs?
The point I'm trying to make is that what United look set to accomplish is absolutely astounding. Should Barcelona win the treble (La Liga, Copa del Rey and CL), it will be very easy to point to their players and say "That's why". As I've said before, Iniesta and Xavi are the two best midfielders around, and it will come as no surprise if they are part of a successful team. The same simply cannot be said about any of United's midfield players, so what is their secret? I'll be watching them in the Champions League next week so maybe I'll find out then.
By way of closing, here is a statistic related to the above: Outside of their front three, United's highest scorer in the League is Vidic with 4 goals.
There can be no denying United's defensive excellence, whilst an attack boasting Ronaldo, Rooney, and Berbatov is devastating (in theory at least). However, their midfield regularly consists of three of the following players: Carrick, Fletcher, Giggs, Scholes, Nani, Park, Anderson. Bear in mind that Giggs and Scholes are not who they used to be (despite what most people are saying).
For me, that is such a middle-of-the-road midfield. Does anyone on that list get you excited? Scholes in his day was an exquisite player, but he has been shown up in any big games he has played this season, with Ferguson hauling him off early against both Liverpool and Chelsea. Carrick is seen as the creative lynchpin, but I can't help but think of all of the important games I've seen Carrick disappear in. Against a good midfield his shortcomings are there to see. And even though the friendly against Spain recently wasn't important (although imagine how important it would have been had England won), it was notable that Carrick was way out of his depth. Excusers will say that he wasn't surrounded by the calibre of players he finds himself amongst at Man Utd, but are Barry, Lampard and Wright-Phillips really that much worse than Fletcher, Park, and Giggs?
The point I'm trying to make is that what United look set to accomplish is absolutely astounding. Should Barcelona win the treble (La Liga, Copa del Rey and CL), it will be very easy to point to their players and say "That's why". As I've said before, Iniesta and Xavi are the two best midfielders around, and it will come as no surprise if they are part of a successful team. The same simply cannot be said about any of United's midfield players, so what is their secret? I'll be watching them in the Champions League next week so maybe I'll find out then.
By way of closing, here is a statistic related to the above: Outside of their front three, United's highest scorer in the League is Vidic with 4 goals.
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