Our Depth

I haven't posted in a while here, so yes, I'm back.

Recently I've been thinking about our current squad - in particular, the defense. So, anyway, right now our starting defense for the past couple of games looks like this:

Smalling-----Evans-----Jones-----Evra

Squad: Vidic, Ferdinand, Rafael, Fabio, etc.

When you consider who isn't starting, you'd think that's a second-string defense were starting. But they've performed amazing in our start to the season.

I wasn't focusing on that, though. I was focusing on this --> What happens when Rio and Vidic come back?

As much as our current backline is THE future of Old Trafford (bar Evra, well Evans can be a squad player I guess), that's not going to be enough to continue benching Vidic and Ferdinand. One is our captain, the other a longtime stalward, and together, one of the best club partnerships we've seen in the recent decade. The amount of accolades we've won with these guys at the heart of our defense is just astonishing. Much as I want to put faith in these young ones, at the end of the day Ferdinand-Vidic is still a very, very solid partnership that deserves to be starting.

That, of course, leads to another question: What do we do with Jones & Smalling when they're back?

Now, call me crazy, but I believe these guys have to be getting a ton of time. As in, Jack Wilshere-esque minutes. It hastens their development, exposes them to top level football, and is also good for England - the faster these guys mature, the better.

Solution? Continue to play Smalling at RB. Now, it'll take a while for him to fully adapt to the role, but he's already shown that he's versatile enough to play there. This would ensure that he gets regular playing time, as Rafael is our only real viable option for RB right now with O'Shea and Neville gone. Now we have two hungry youngsters competing with each other for a regular XI spot week in, week out. Both have already shown big glimpses of potential - it can't get any better than that. Of course, it's a bit of liability in big games (especially if Rafael repeats Bayern Munich again) but that's the only real drawback. Smalling can still play as a CB, of course, but only when we really need it (ie. Our only available option, knock on wood, is Evans-Carrick for defense ).

So now it would be:

Smalling/Rafael-----Rio-----Vidic-----Fabio

Phil Jones, then. Future captain of England, beast, and all that. Thankfully, like Smalling, he's got another alternate position he can excel in - DM. He can do a fine job of sitting infront of the defense and anchoring it. Another easy solution, then.

Our current CMs are Carrick, Fletcher, Cleverley, Anderson and Giggs. Of these, one is average over time, one a veteran who shouldn't be playing week in, week out, one just coming back from a virus, and two young ones who've got a long way to go. Now, if Fletcher doesn't turn out the way he used to be (hopefully not), and Anderson somehow fizzles out, then I say smack Jones right in there. Of course, a Jones-Cleverley pairing would be insanely young (and a risk, even), but hell, we're doing Anderson-Cleverley right now and it's doing just fine.

Point of it all is.... our depth is insane. I've only discussed the defense part. On wide men alone, we can afford to bench one of Young, Valencia or Nani as the need arises - PLUS if we ever face an injury crisis, Rafael and Fabio aren't that shabby on the wings either. Up front, we have Rooney plus Welbeck right now, which is enough to bench last season's revelation (Chicharito) as well as Berbachrist who not too long ago was the PL's top goalscorer.

Sure, we could do with maybe one more experienced player in his prime at the middle, but with a young trio of Cleverley, Anderson and even Jones all viable options for that slot, we're not doing too bad.

And we haven't even gone over the likes of Morrison, Pogba, etc. yet. Insane depth. And to think only how recent was it that we had to play with Michael Carrick and an inexperienced Ritchie de Laet as our defense...

I think we should stick to Ferdinand and Vidic for now, but not saying that can't change. We haven't faced any opponents that really had a go at us in the last two games. And when they did like, Arsenal did, our (young) defense didn't look too stable at times. I still think Ferdinand and Vidic are the best CB partnership in the world, especially with De Gea's confidence right now, I think it's better at least for the short run, to play with more experienced players at the back.

Although, we can play our entire second team with the odd first teamers in the CL and qualify comfortably. With the likes of Giggs, Valencia, Park and co. it should be easily strong enough. The only problem is with the lack of competitive matches they would of played this season, will the team chemistry naturally decrease?

On Smalling, between the injury proneness of Rafael, Ferdinand and the rare occasion of Vidic getting injured, thrown in with the inevitable CL and domestic cup games he will get, he wil easily play a lot of games.

Vidic is untouchable right now, he is our captain and is a level above our young defenders. Rio is the one who should be very worried imo. He is still a WC defender, but has lost all his pace and has become increasingly injury prone. I honestly think this will be the last season where he will be an assured starter in the team.

The way Jones and Evans are looking, you can tell they sense an opportunity to establish themselves at the expense of Ferdinand and that competition for a place to partner Vidic has seen them excell in their performances. I tip Jones to be the one to displace Rio at club level and Terry at international level.

Smalling will be our O'shea type player for the meantime until Vidic packs it in. The fact that he is so comfortable on the ball has allowed him to seamlessly slot in at RB. i think he will be one player who in the future will get games all across our backline if he is needed to. One thing I'm concerned about is that Fabio atm is being overlooked because of the impact Smalling is having there...and what about when Rafael comes back? They are both unlucky with injuries at times, but they are so good to leave out.

The thing with United is, as a team, they are consistently reaching the latter stages of all comps. With injuries, suspensions and what not, we are gonna see the advantages of having such a huge depth of quality players.

here's the crazy thing to, we can play this team against Leeds in the Carling Cup next week:

--------------------------Lindegaard-------------------------
Smalling-----------Rio-----------Vidic----------------Fabio--
Valencia----------Carrick--------Fletcher------------Park--
--------------------Berbatov-----Hernandez--------------

Rafael should start imo,much more comfortable than smalling with the ball

i agree Rafael should be at RB....he is much better at running at and taking on defenders, and has more pace, believe he offers more for wing play....as good as smalling is on the ball Smalling is a CB....he will just have to wait a little longer then jones i believe to get his spot in that back line

Agreed, I'd rather have Rafael play, and would like Fabio to start getting minutes too. The twins are very good technically.

Devil-Is-Red wrote:

--------------------------Lindegaard-------------------------
Smalling-----------Rio-----------Vidic----------------Fabio--
Valencia----------Carrick--------Fletcher------------Park--
--------------------Berbatov-----Hernandez--------------

7 started the CL final that day.

ronaldo__9 wrote:Agreed, I'd rather have Rafael play, and would like Fabio to start getting minutes too. The twins are very good technically.

Devil-Is-Red wrote:

--------------------------Lindegaard-------------------------
Smalling-----------Rio-----------Vidic----------------Fabio--
Valencia----------Carrick--------Fletcher------------Park--
--------------------Berbatov-----Hernandez--------------

7 started the CL final that day.

incredible ain't it. Further highlights just how well the younger players have done so far.