What you call strong season barely lasted 4 months on a good level. Against top teams he was always found wanting. While Herrera was also not a perfect type of cdm or controller. He excelled in this first season only after carrick was back in lineup behind him and pogba in a 4141 as a more advanced pressing machine or a b2b ball winner. Never really a player who builds from the deep.
Matic is not a successful purchase. After carrick we have not had one player who controlled the midfield for us, just bunch of ill fit guys in the middle getting exposed time to time including fellani, schneiderlin, bastian, and Herrera who was never really a playmaker or controller but hard worker who let go his natural game to adopt to teams and managers demands.
For me this problem has lasted ever since Fergie Left. Woodward and moyes passing out on Kevin strootman to roma in 2013.
‘Reasonably’ strong, and four months at a good level is certainly more than we’ve had from our right wing over a similar period. He has not been a good purchase though, because he was a short term signing which was unnecessary.
Herrera excelled in Mourinho’s first season when he, as well as Carrick, got a run in the side - Fellaini was tried with Pogba first. He did play higher, with Carrick behind him and Pogba, as the energetic pressing midfielder you describe. But then Jose removed Carrick (for no good reason as far as I can remember, unless that was when he started having health issues?) and went to a 4-2-3-1 with Herrera and Pogba deep in midfield. Ander played as the holder and his performances got better and were consistently great finishing the season. Hence why Matic was not needed.
Pogba is capable of playing consistently in a deep no.8 position and would fit the description of controller/ playmaker, interpreting the role in broadly the way that players like Rabiot, Thiago, Modric, Kroos and Verratti do. There was plenty of evidence of this early on in his career here, but it has been less and less apparent as time has went on - due to all his issues (motivation, immaturity, disillusionment, condition?) and also because he has been deployed there less frequently. He is very strong in that role for France, with him being the best midfielder at the World Cup last year.
I think, in Herrera and Pogba, we have had the right personnel here in recent seasons but management have made poor decisions with how to utilise them and build around them in terms of recruitment.
As things stand, for the holding midfield role we could go for either a ‘passer’ or a ‘destroyer’ as we still also need - even more urgently, in fact - a player for the third midfield position too. Both positions, along with the intended role for Pogba, need to be taken into account when deciding who to go for. Buy a destructive anchorman to pair with Pogba deep and get in a proper no.10, or purchase a metronomic distributor at no.6 and a combative box to box player in the other no.8 position to compliment Pogba in the role he was deployed in the second half of the season.
It’s probably looking for too much though to expect two midfield signings while retaining Pogba, if we are in the market for a right back and centre half as well. Unless we are able to avoid a big transfer fee by bringing in someone like Rabiot on a free - but he doesn’t really fit with Pogba in any standard way (unless he indeed can, and actually would, play in the holding role). This is also assuming that we will play a regular shape (4-3-3/ 4-2-3-1) and Daniel James will be tried at right wing, without considering what needs to happen with Lukaku and Sanchez - so there could be much more necessary work on top of that. A centre half, right back and two from a no.8, no.10 and a right winger depending on the envisioned formation, could all be prioritised over a holding midfielder.
