So from a fairly uninspiring group of right wingers Nathan Dyer emerges to become the sixth man into the XI. Next up we need a pair of centre-mids to power the engine room of our team and I'm expecting a much more stellar group this time around. So same rules as the CB nominations, put forward the TWO players who put in the best performances against Saints this season. And away we go!
Fellaini for sure. For the other I'm tempted to say Claudio Yacob but there are probably others I'm forgetting.
Yes to Fellaini. Crazy dominant in midfield. Paul Scholes as it was probably the best substitution of the season. Was a pleasure to get to see him play before his latest retirement. Probably my favorite united player of the Fergie era. But he did only play 45 minutes. I'm not a fan but Nolan was a thorn in our side & Cabaye was good at St James.
Scholes put in the best performance I've seen this season but it was only half an hour, that's why I didn't pick him.
I didn't include Mulumbu for the same reason as Scholes - he only played one game. Granted, he still played about three times as much as Scholes did, but regardless I find it hard to include someone who had literally no impact in one of the two games.
It's obviously the uncommon opinion but personally whilst I love Scholes I didn't think his performance against us at SMS was particularly breathtaking, he came on against three knackered centre-mids, we had no pressure on the ball and he was free to spray the ball around, I think most players worth their salt could have an impact in that scenario. By the point he came on we had just shrank back onto the edge of the box and were letting them play, he played some very nice stuff but didn't actually play a part in either of their two goals at the end of the day. I've just never bought into the hype around his performance in that game. Haven't decided who my nominations will go towards yet, there's a lot of strong candidates.
Fellaini and Mulumbu. Even though mulumbu only played one game, his single performance was more impressive than most players I've seen this season.
fellaini and toure. I thought toure showed incredible skill in our first match can't remember him much in the second but he played the whole match so might have done something decent then as well. whenever toure got the ball in the first match of the season I thought we were done. And i'm saying fellaini because others have said fellaini I can vaguely remember our defense not being able to handle him but can't picture anything in particular he did. I can barely isolate any quality 90 minute performances against us tbh and there must have been hundreds. edit: actually sandro was incredible for tottenham, especialy when he blocked morgan's shot with his head late on, saved them the points. I don;t think he played the other game but he was good enough in the first. Sandro and fellaini.
I considered that, but I felt he did more in that one game than most CMs did in two, and it was just too good of a performance not to be considered.
