The thing with Schweinsteiger is he's always injured and we are already going to be managing the games of a 35 year old in the same position, just not ideal in the PL IMO. The thing for me is even if we disocunt Pogba for a moment we have Carrick, Herrera, Martial, Ibra and Mkhitaryan all best suited to playing 4-3--3, only Rooney would benefit from 4-2-3-1 as it makes Herrera and Carrick in particular ineffective.
Then I look at this:
------------Ibra
Martial---Rooney---Mkhitaryan
----Matuidi---Schneiderlin
It doesn't really fill me with confidence in terms of being well balanced, it's too slow in the center of attack and the midfield has no creativity or real passing quality in it..
Agreed on Weigl, his understanding of the holding role is very impressive for such a young player in his first big season, tremendous bit of scouting from Dortmund to pick him up so cheap.
True - Schweini, Rooney and Ibra in the same team will be too slow for a lot of games, especially if Carrick is going to be playing (which I imagine he will, as we aren't linked with any real holding midfielders). I do think that when he's fit, though, he will be useful in games where teams sit back and don't press us, like if we're chasing a lead late on, or behind to a lesser team.
I imagine Mourinho will have to decide soon enough what his first XI will be - a 433 (with Rooney dropped or on the wing, where he hasn't played since 08/09), as Mou said he won't be playing in midfield, or a 4231 with Rooney as a 10. An in form Rooney for the whole season would make the second option better, but he hasn't been consistent for a whole year since around 2013 (the run in of 12/13 and the start to the Moyes season). If we have to shoehorn an out of form Rooney into the side and play 4231, it will definitely hold us back.
I wasn't aware that BVB bought Weigl, actually - I always thought he came from their system. Whoever does their scouting is doing an amazing job. He reminds me of Carrick in so many ways, less defensively apt but he can cover more ground and is very good when he is under pressure. Hope he isn't at Bayern in 3 years...
FWIW, I think a midfield 2 of Matuidi and Schneiderlin could prove sufficient in a lot of PL games, like the ones at home against non top 4 sides, or against the lesser teams. Schneiderlin will definitely have to recapture his Soton form for it to work, though - he is playing with a lot of inhibition at the moment, but I like to think that will change because we no longer have Van Gaal. Still, if 4231 is what we will be playing, I don't see how Pogba, Rooney and Herrera (especially) will fit in, as you say. Surely they will all be competing for the #10 spot?
.Zlatan might as well not even bother showing up then if that is the case.I really am getting tired of all this "He's to old, we need to buy somebody younger".Jesus, at 29 the guy has plenty of great years of football left in him.