Paul Scholes examined Manchester United\u2019s midfield choices and placed Crystal Palace\u2019s Adam Wharton above Brighton\u2019s Carlos Baleba and Nottingham Forest\u2019s Elliot Anderson as the trio most discussed ahead of January. Scholes set the assessment against the context of Ruben Amorim\u2019s current midfield: Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro, who will be out of contract next summer and will be 34 by then.<\/p>\n
On Baleba, Scholes was cautious. \u201cBaleba is very young,\u201d he said. \u201cQuality-wise, is he quite there? I think he\u2019s almost in a [Mois\u00e9s] Caicedo type of way.\u201d Scholes added: \u201cHe\u2019s done really well at Chelsea, don\u2019t get me wrong,\u201d and questioned the fit. \u201cbut is that the type of player Manchester United need? I\u2019m not sure.\u201d The comparison to Caicedo was noted alongside the wider Premier League transfer context.<\/p>\n
Elliot Anderson drew praise for his recent England role. \u201cI\u2019d say, going off the England form, this has surprised me more than anything is Elliot Anderson,\u201d Scholes said. \u201cI really liked him when he was at Newcastle, but I thought he was more of an attacking player, maybe play the 8 or 10. I don\u2019t like saying numbers, but he looks more of an 8 or 10. He\u2019s come into that role for England and looks very accomplished, very stylish. Keeps the ball really well, will pass it forward as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Anderson\u2019s progress, Scholes\u2019 preference remained Wharton. \u201cI\u2019d probably say I\u2019d go Wharton,\u201d he concluded. \u201cI just think Wharton\u2019s got a little bit more quality. That\u2019s tough saying that. I think he\u2019s got more quality than Baleba. Baleba\u2019s got more legs,\u201d Scholes added, \u201cso that evens itself out a little bit. It\u2019s close between Elliot Anderson and Wharton. I\u2019d just pick Wharton.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scholes also offered broader solutions, suggesting United might need \u201ctwo Bruno Fernandes\u201d to cover playmaking needs and voiced frustration at Kobbie Mainoo\u2019s limited involvement. \u201cOne of the most disappointing things for me is Kobbie Mainoo not being involved in this Manchester United team,\u201d he said, later adding, \u201cWe saw how good he was 18 months, two years ago, and for some reason it\u2019s not quite happened for him. The manager doesn\u2019t seem to quite fancy him, but we all know the qualities he has.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paul Scholes ranks Wharton ahead of Baleba and Anderson as United weigh January midfield options Jan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,172,1163],"tags":[216,215,939],"class_list":["post-4739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-epl","category-transfers","tag-adam-wharton","tag-carlos-baleba","tag-casemiro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}