For the sake of the forward five, Sir Alex has little option

Football FanCast columnist Jez Howard feels that Fergie needs to bring in a midfield enforcer, before the close of the transfer window.

I find it very difficult to criticise Sir Alex Ferguson, especially given the success he has brought to Old Trafford, but he has to address the most obvious failing within squad in the next 12 days of the transfer window. Failure to do so could prove crucial, if we have any hope of retaining our Premier League title.

This isn't an overreaction to one defeat, far from it, but this and Sunday's performance highlighted a real deficiency in our set-up and the way we intend to play now we are without the services of Cristiano Ronaldo. We need a strong holding midfielder pure and simple, to give our midfield the freedom to attack.

The simple truth is when Ronaldo was playing for us, everything went through him. He was our talisman, the man whose game covered up a whole manner of sins, with goals that use to bail us out all the time. I think had Cristiano played last night then there is no way we would have lost that game. The point is without him we have to rely on other players to deliver the goods; therefore we have to show greater discipline in our formation that will allow us to maintain our shape going forward. What we need, now we haven't someone of Ronaldo's gifts to rely upon, is to bring in a Keane-esque enforcer who will give the rest of the front five freedom to attack at will, like the good old days.  

I don't know about anyone else but I have reached a point of no return with Hargreaves and really believe that Fergie would be making a grave mistake in counting on his return to fitness to solve this problem. O'Shea and Carrick look woeful in the middle yesterday and although Fletcher could come in, I just wonder if he has a big enough presence to be able to control the midfield in the way that Keane did for us all those years ago. There are plenty of options available out there like Sissoko of Toulouse or Senna of Villarreal, but someone has to be brought in to provide that platform in which the offensive team can play from.

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