Manchester United are reportedly on the verge of signing German international Bastian Schweinsteiger, for a fee of just £7.5 million according to the Sunday People.
The Bayern Munich star has made over 500 appearances for club and over 100 appearances for country, including an influential role in the 2014 World Cup triumph in Brazil.
With Louis van Gaal promising to sign players prior to the tour of the US, the Dutchman is looking to add to the signing of Memphis Depay.
United were believed to looking to sign Ilkay Gundogan prior to targeting the Bayern Munich star, with Van Gaal hoping his time with Bastian Schweinsteiger when he was manager from 2009 to 2011, is enough to secure his signature.
The draw of Louis Van Gaal
Bastian Schweinsteiger played under Louis Van Gaal during his short stint as Bayern Munich manager in 2009 to 2011 and enjoyed good seasons in both years even chipping in with 11 goals from a holding midfield position. In an interview with the Guardian back in 2014 Van Gaal spoke about Bastian Schweinsteiger, “I told Bastian: 'I think you have to play in the midfield.' At that time, we played with two holding midfielders and a No10, which was [Thomas] Müller. Then he played in a holding role and found he liked the game more than ever. Now he's playing at No6 with [Pep] Guardiola [as manager].”
With Schweinsteiger entering his final year under contract he is apparently more than happy to join former manager at Manchester United.
Who would he replace?
Last season Manchester United played with three central midfielders with one of them being in the holding role. The regulars in midfield last season were; Blind, Fellaini and Herrera. Herrera enjoyed a productive debut season scoring six goals, creating 26 clear cut chances with four of them turning into goals. With Van Gaal’s ideology in possession football Herrera contributed to this with 89% pass completion (Squawka).
Blind was another new signing and he also had a solid first year scoring twice, creating 17 chances and two of them turned into goals in the Premier League. As for possession football the Dutch midfielder also boasts an 88% pass accuracy, as the holding midfielder he also had to play a role defensively and contributed 81 interceptions in the league last season (Squawka).
Finally Fellaini who enjoyed his second year at the club considerably more than his first, scoring six goals in the league compared to no goals last season. The Belgian international did create 21 chances but none of them were turned into goals by his teammates. (Squawka). But he did enjoy more of a successful season with his club under Van Gaal.
With all this in mind it is really an open competition for whoever will be replaced but on stats alone, Herrera looks the most likely to secure his position. But a player of Schweinsteiger’s calibre will more than likely walk into whatever position Van Gaal wants him to, it is likely that Fellaini will be placed back on the subs bench with it being well known that the manager is a big fan of fellow countryman Blind.