Sport

Herrera can be United’s player of the season next year

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has significantly improved his side’s midfield options already this summer. The unveiling of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin—two combative distributors who can patrol the halfway line—should allow the Dutch manager to finally utilise the underrated quality of Ander Herrera.

Although a bit-part player during first half of the 2014-15 campaign, Herrera made a telling contribution to the club’s capturing of a Champions League place after February. He gained momentum with an assist in the FA Cup win over Cambridge United, before proceeding to underline exactly why David Moyes tried to sign him the summer before.

Herrera finished his debut Premier League campaign with six goals and four assists in 1869 minutes worth of play across 19 starts and seven substitute appearances. He produced a telling contribution over 187 minutes, or once every two games, to mark himself as a creative and fearless worker in midfield.

However, Herrera was forced to adapt to English football in a consistently changing midfield. Michael Carrick’s failure to escape injury saw the Spaniard shackled in order for Van Gaal’s side to maintain balance. Herrera produced just one goal in seven games after Carrick hobbled off during the victory over Manchester City—having netted four and assisted one in the previous seven—a decline partly due to LvG’s squad not flaunting quality cover for the Englishman. That has now changed.

As such, we can expect to see Herrera enjoy greater liberty next season. He plays immaculate football when confident, but needs a physical presence around him so that he doesn’t become isolated. Although the 25-year-old will never back down from a midfield battle, he needs ample support in order to step up and begin buzzing in a way that improves United’s creativity in the final third.

At his best, Herrera gets the ball out of his feet on the first touch, looks up and sprays possession toward runners who are bursting forward. Positivity resides within his nature—the former Athletic Bilbao man is a chirpy, constantly smiling character—and his combativeness deserves to have ended Van Gaal’s initial qualms about his lack of size.

We saw this during United’s 2-1 win over Liverpool. Not only did Herrera deliver the killer pass for Juan Mata’s first goal, he proved a constant thorn in the side Joe Allen, Jordan Henderson and eventually Steven Gerrard, who was red-carded for mistiming his tackle on the Basque player just seconds after coming on at half-time. Herrera followed this performance with two strikes in the win against Aston Villa.

Many of Herrera’s goals came as the result of late runs last season. He succeeded with a remarkable efficiency, racking up six with just seven shots by the time he opened the scoring against Arsenal on May 17. This isn’t something he’s going to keep up—particularly if he plays in a more advanced role now Van Gaal has more than adequate options to deploy across the middle—but United fans should be itching to see Herrera working closer to Wayne Rooney.

Van Gaal could utilise a 4-2-3-1 formation with this mind. Schneiderlin must sit ahead of the defence no matter what, and the likelihood is that Carrick/Schweinsteiger will interchange depending on their fitness. Just ahead of them should be Herrera, who can act as the spearhead of a midfield triangle, with Memphis Depay/Angel Di Maria and Juan Mata taking up the wide positions.

Herrera can dictate possession in the final third, not too dissimilar to Cesc Fabregas at Chelsea, if he is surrounded by this combination of power, physicality, pace and incision. He’s the type of star who watches play develop, frees himself up and advances possession with a clever pass. Quite often Herrera’s quality is subtle; it may be a smart run or blocking of an opponent. This kind of knowledge and willingness to make a difference in a precise, often undetectable manner underlines his value to a side who should play some big and brash football next season.

While United may never replace Paul Scholes, Herrera’s game shares many similar qualities. His goalscoring touch is a bonus at this point—last season was the highest-scoring domestic campaign of his career—but this is a sign of his development. If harnessed properly, Herrera is more than equipped to enjoy a starring role in United’s assault on four fronts, and indeed, stake a claim for the club’s player of the season trophy next year.