Here's a thought...Stop playing the guy out of position.
He was never known for giving up possession nor unable to evade a player or two when he was at Arsenal...what happened since then? Song has always been a defensive minded player, in fact, he was a defender until Wenger moved him into a holding/defensive midfield role in 2007/2008. It's not quite rocket science what has happened to the Fabregas we all knew in the Premier League and what he's now asked to become at Barcelona. His correct position is where Xavi is playing and until that happens, he'll continue he the 'sub-par' player you're referring to.
And pattern our team after Arsenal? Uh, no thanks.
Even in Xavi's position, he is constantly dispossessed or intercepted - everyone seems to make the very stereotypical error of comparing apples to oranges when it comes to the Premiership & La Liga. Different league, team, style and responsibilities. He was formed into the player he is today (Or at Arsenal) at Barcelona, but he adapted his game to where it suited his strengths the best at Arsenal and in the Premiership. As good a player as I know he is, he is better back at Arsenal
I would've loved to have seen what could've been had Pep been able to get Rosell to land Thiago Silva a year earlier and make that 3-4-3 the next generation of tiki taka. There, Cesc's skills would've worked better. Now, he sticks out like a sore thumb a majority of the time and still isn't playing to his strengths. Shame because I don't see it improving anytime soon and yet that won't matter in any transfer possibility. With Thiago & without, which do you think was a more reasonable scenario to snare Cesc?
I see. That's a good insight, I never realised he was so far off your and NT's style. Do you think you might want to sell and replace him with someone else then?
If it were up to me? Would've loved to,
before losing Thiago. Now? Even I can see the disaster that awaits if they lose both midfielders this quickly. Only club that could accomplish that is a belligerent Perez & the capital club. United have no chance in this, at this point. Assuming he even wants to leave.
I imagine you'd have prefered to keep Thiago then. If we didn't waste our time on him and came for Fabregas earlier it'd have been better for all sides - us because we'd be getting a midfielder and you because you'd find a way to convince Thiago to stay as without Fabregas he'd be getting more time.
Anyone who has seen even a few of my posts know I preferred Thiago, even before Cesc was brought back - I wanted nothing to do with Fabregas. But absolutely and I posted this at the outset of transfer season, even before most on here even believed Thiago was attainable. Once Thiago was posted in the mercado on
MD and rumours were out there of a Cesc exit, I could see how it was going to play out. And, sadly, I was pretty confident it was going to turn out more or less like it has.