Its been too long since we've had a midfielder that can score goals. Can't even remember the last time. I want to say Scholes but towards the latter part of his career he was far from prolific.
Ander Herrera is the most complete midfielder in the league
- Thread starter Brwned
- Start date
- Status
Fair enough...in that case quite possible he is
Fair enough, but based on this season, Toure and Ramsey are definitely not as good. Difficult to compare him with Matic or Carrick as it's a different position. Fabregas had a brilliant start to the season, but Herrera, in my opinion, offers a lot more.
I don't think he's the best. Fabregas is surely #1 and I'd probably have Carrick, Matic, Toure and even Cazorla ahead of him, but none of them have such a well-rounded skillset that they can play as a defensive midfielder, a centre mid and an attacking midfielder all to a high level. Carrick and Matic aren't great dribblers or goalscorers, Fabregas and Cazorla don't have anything like the defensive nous Herrera has...and Herrera has all the qualities they possess except that long range pass, which is surely less important than dribbling or defending.
Madrid will be delighted with us if he keeps improving like this
True I'm obviously talking overall rather than based solely on this season. Remember it took Herrera half a season before he was even deemed a first team starter by LVG (rightly or wrongly)
I love him but an in-form Toure is probably a more complete player.
Agree with this
It's more Barcelona who seem to be interested in him, heir to Iniesta in a way. Hopefully they pick up Gundogan or something instead.
Toure can't/won't defend for toffee.
Absolutely. To think that many thought he was second tier and a poor-man's alternative to missing out on Thiago/Cesc. Well worth the wait after that shambles of a first transfer attempt.
Definitely. A class apart imo.
He's everything we originally hoped Anderson would be and more!
Love this guy. Everything he does is positive. Either forward to a teammate or with intent to spark team into life. Never feel like he's just passing for passings sake.
that's very realistic, and what I don't like about those SPaniards, loveable as they are
He is second tier and a poor man's Thiago/Cesc.
Our best signing this season and a definite starter for next.
Love him! Probably our most important player at the moment, you could see how much it hurt the team when he was hamstrung by playing deeper. The way he glides past other players is something no-one else in the team is capable of.
So basically he's a far better version of Cleverley then, who was average at everything.
He a different type of CM to cesc tbh, not that I am saying he is in his class
He needs a better midfield partner next to him.
Absolutely.
Ander Herrera has to the centerpiece of our midfield moving forward. Said it in the Carrick replacement thread before, and he really has the potential to take over from Michael in terms of influence, if not function or form. Those who saw him play at Athletic Club, particularly the team under Bielsa; or the Spanish U-21 team with Thiago and Javi were acutely aware of of his talent. The great thing about Ander is that, he might not be a 10/10 in one particular aspect of midfield play, but he is a high level 8 or 9/10 kind of player across the board with great technical ability. Like a hybrid version of Schneiderlin and someone like Fabregas.
Statistics can't used as a form of definitive argumentation, but a lot of Ander's numbers kind of reaffirm the dynamic, all-round impression one gets watching him play. eg. If we compare his overall defensive output vs Cesc and Schneiderlin, Ander isn't far behind the latter, but is consistently superior to the former in a statistical sense :
Conversely, from an offensive standpoint, he is superior to Schneiderlin and worse off than Cesc (though numbers are inflated by Chelsea's style of play, set pieces etc) :
Not superior to either when compared with area off specialty, but as a combination of the offensive/ defensive aspects, he is better than both of them on the evidence of this season. From an overall functional sense, he compares rather favorably to someone like an Ilkay Gundogan from his 2012/ 2013 domestic season for Dortmund.
Just a brilliant all-action kind of midfielder who is adept at all facets of the game and has underrated defensive output, which alongwith his nationality and slight frame leads to erroneous #10 comps. Another brilliant part is that he shows a great deal of passion and at times even cnutish commitment to the cause from a potential leadership standpoint. This is just his first season in the league, but as he gets more accustomed to the setup, his consistency in terms of effectiveness and production will only increase. One does hope he gets better help around him in the midfield area to extract the 100 % of his abilities.
Ander Herrera has to the centerpiece of our midfield moving forward. Said it in the Carrick replacement thread before, and he really has the potential to take over from Michael in terms of influence, if not function or form. Those who saw him play at Athletic Club, particularly the team under Bielsa; or the Spanish U-21 team with Thiago and Javi were acutely aware of of his talent. The great thing about Ander is that, he might not be a 10/10 in one particular aspect of midfield play, but he is a high level 8 or 9/10 kind of player across the board with great technical ability. Like a hybrid version of Schneiderlin and someone like Fabregas.
Statistics can't used as a form of definitive argumentation, but a lot of Ander's numbers kind of reaffirm the dynamic, all-round impression one gets watching him play. eg. If we compare his overall defensive output vs Cesc and Schneiderlin, Ander isn't far behind the latter, but is consistently superior to the former in a statistical sense :
Conversely, from an offensive standpoint, he is superior to Schneiderlin and worse off than Cesc (though numbers are inflated by Chelsea's style of play, set pieces etc) :
Not superior to either when compared with area off specialty, but as a combination of the offensive/ defensive aspects, he is better than both of them on the evidence of this season. From an overall functional sense, he compares rather favorably to someone like an Ilkay Gundogan from his 2012/ 2013 domestic season for Dortmund.
Just a brilliant all-action kind of midfielder who is adept at all facets of the game and has underrated defensive output, which alongwith his nationality and slight frame leads to erroneous #10 comps. Another brilliant part is that he shows a great deal of passion and at times even cnutish commitment to the cause from a potential leadership standpoint. This is just his first season in the league, but as he gets more accustomed to the setup, his consistency in terms of effectiveness and production will only increase. One does hope he gets better help around him in the midfield area to extract the 100 % of his abilities.
Yeah, that's true.
I wouldn't argue with him being the "most complete" midfielder in England to be honest. Don't think being complete matters that much though, Xavi is the best midfielder of his generation in my view but he's not a complete midfielder.
So he had a decent game. OP is ridiculous though.
I'm not criticising him in any way... Just pointing out there is a lot of quality such as matic, fabregas, Carrick, coutinho, toure, schneiderlin etc... I wouldn't like to have to rank them
In what way? He's not claiming he's the best midfielder in the league or anything. I can't think of someone who's as good an all rounder as him, can you? Schneidlinn is the closest I can think of but he's not as good attacking wise.
Ramsey too. Not as good defensively but still gets about the pitch, works hard and puts up alright numbers. 3.5 tackles/interceptions per game which is lowered by the games he's played wide/further forward. Better going forward though that's no slight on Herrera.
tie the lad down to a long contract with a huge buy out clause....
simply a wonderful footballer.
as close a player to Scholes I have seen.
simply a wonderful footballer.
as close a player to Scholes I have seen.
He's an absolute class act. Outshone the Arsenal midfield and pretty much did it on his own with Fellaini and Blind besides him.
I definitely think so.
But, if he's that complete, should we be seeing Rooney playing as DM when Herrera could slot in there?
Probably more appropriate to say the thread's ridiculous, given the amount of people in agreement with the OP here...but then I suppose that's not antagonistic enough for your liking.
There's a bunch of central midfielders who are better than him. You can argue the toss all day about how you define "most complete" but it makes him sound like the best CM in the league. Which is nonsense, obviously. He's not even the best CM in our team.
Fades away too much in the 2nd half, needs to improve on his long range passing.
He was great tonight, his second half of the season has been sensational.
Ramsey? He does everything too and can legitimately play in every midfield position. He also has a higher flair level.
Steady on lads.
I don't see anyone arguing that there aren't a bunch better than him, though.
- Status