I'm sure he CAN play CM in a 4-4-2 formation. Whether he would want to is another matter entirely. In my view we should be moving away from 4-4-2 altogether. Like the tabloid press that champions it, it's a thing of the past.
True but I don't think Sneijder has the discipline and tactical awareness for that deeper role, I could be wrong though.
True, but much of that was down to Keane's ability to win the ball back. Keane himself admitted that his role in the Utd midfield was "win the ball, give it to Scholes". Not sure we'd be quite so effective with Carrick or Fletcher alongside Sneijder, although Rooney dropping back would help. I'm impressed you think that Scholes did have the discipline for that deeper role
I think the problem we face with buying another all-out AM is the fact that we never really replaced Keane. We didn't need to. We evolved into a team that would play 2 CM's, both with more or less equal attacking/defensive duties. I also think that we may have tried with Hargo, but we all see how that turned out. If we signed, say, sneijder, i think we would have to play someone with more energetic defence than Carrick, no offense to him, he relies on making interceptions and what-not, but a work-horse defensive unit would give the other CM more attacking freedom.
I agree. It's all about partnerships no matter where on the field you play. 2 centrebacks, the full back and the winger in front of them and the 2 "strikers". Take Carrick and Anderson for example. Both of them played towards the end of the season and played really well. It's because they complimented each other nicely. Carrick was the shield, passed the ball well. Anderson was the tackler and looked to run with the ball forward. Out of all of our midfielders, Fletcher offers the most all round ability. Has the defensive qualities and can score goals, so logically you would look to partner him with someone similar and the best example of that I can think of is probably Bastian Schwienstieger. As long as the partnership knows the roles of each other then it should be sucessful. The example you used for Sneijder is that we would need a more hustle and bustle midfielder than Carrick to compliment Sneijder and I don't think we have that at the club. Sure Anderson and Fletcher close down the opposition well but they aren't naturally defensively minded, the former certainly an attacking midfielder. I could see Sneijder playing in the "Rooney" role however just behind the striker which would still allow for a conventional 2 CMs.
But, by then playing that formation, we must drop one of rooney or hernandez. This would not go down well.
Hence why ive said if we don't buy a new midfielder it wouldn't be the end of the world. Or not just someone that is as "attacking" as Sneijder
It wasn't strictly a 4-4-2. Rooney would drop deep, and the wide players would help out the midfield (when Valencia wasn't playing).
