What does someone like Pedro offer United that our current players don’t?
It’s an inkblot test of a question. No matter who you ask, you get a different answer.
For me he brings many things, such as (the following is in no particular order or rank)…
Hunger
He’s a winner, you don’t stay at Barcelona as long as he has if you’re not a driven individual who’s desire to win is endless.
This works beautifully for us, we’re (hopefully/imminently) getting a player whose desire to carry on winning will add great value to a squad whose experience of winning has been thinned out significantly in the last 2 or 3 years.
Increasing the quality of the squad technically is always a must, but what’s equally important when adding the likes of Pedro & Schweinsteiger is that the squad is filled with players who can show those around them what it is not just to chase glory, but to achieve it.
Throw in Pedro’s desire to achieve it in his own right after years of being classed as something of a supporting cast member behind the likes of Messi, Neymar, Sanchez & Suarez, and you can see how this move allows him the joy of stepping free from their shadows and showing he can still achieve greatness without hanging on to the coattails of players like that.
Class
Let’s be honest, looking at our forward options last season, Rooney, Wilson, Van Persie & Falcao, we looked to have an embarrassment of riches when 14/15 kicked off, by the time it closed we just had embarrassment.
Van Persie & Falcao have had moments of unquestionable, almost arousing brilliance during their peak years, but those peak years exist in the past, there’s little to no sign of them being lived out again in the current or future years.
Rooney, his waistline may not indicate that he lives a feast or famine lifestyle, but his goal scoring record certainly would. He’s simply hot, or he’s not. He’s scoring 10 in 6, or none in 9, that’s just the way he’s been for the majority of his United years.
Wilson, a bright hope for the future, but a talent to drive us to success in the here and now he is not.
Throw in the returning Hernandez who appears to be interested in nothing beyond moaning about how he’s being treated, and for all our happiness at the incredible midfield options, the fact that we are thinner up top than our captain’s hairline cannot be lost on us.
Looking at that, class in the final third is in short supply as you lay out our striking options, but add to this the final third prowess that Pedro offers, and the shoots of hope start to burst through.
He offers so much in the final third. If he’s staying out wide he delivers something that those bombing into the box can actually make use of. If he makes a run through the middle, he’s a calm enough head on his shoulders that he’ll put the ball between the sticks far more often than he won’t.
Given many of our current struggles in these areas, his arrival would be a huge boost to our hopes of success in this and future campaigns.
Fear factor
In years gone by, the attacking side conceded possession 40 yards from the United goal, they panicked, and rightly so, we exploited such failings like MP’s do the laws around second homes.
But since Ronaldo’s departure, we’ve lacked an attacking outlet we can hit with a clearance who has the pace and composure to make the opposition panic as he eats up the yards at speed heading towards their goal. Valencia has been useless at it. Nani made more eyes roll to the sky’s than many a night bus sex act has. Young despite his huge improvement under Van Gaal delivered little in terms of end product, certainly too little for a side that’s looking to mount a genuine title challenge, and so the list could go on if I had the time or motivation to do so.
What we have in Memphis is a more reliable option, a player who can burst forward at speed, cut in and hit the target, or stay wide and get a decent delivery in. What we’ll have in Pedro is the added bonus of having the ability to do so from either side.
Having such options available to get the ball to when we have such amazing distributors as Mata, Herrera, Schweinsteiger, Carrick & Schneiderlin is a truly beautiful thought.
I’m sure I’ve missed out further positives that deserve a mention, I’m also sure that some of you will feel I’ve overcooked some of the good points above, but that’s the beautiful thing about optimism, it affects us all in different ways, and I look forward to this lad delivering much of it down the years once he’s finally wearing the United shirt.
