CONFIRMED: Finally Sky sports confirms Erik ten Hag set to seal deal for £70m sensational midfield duo before end of transfer window with talks ongoing and ‘Verbal terms agreed”

CONFIRMED: Finally Sky sports confirms Erik ten Hag set to seal deal for £70m sensational midfield duo before end of transfer window with talks ongoing and ‘Verbal terms agreed”

Man Utd will look to sign another midfielder before the end of the summer transfer window.

Last season, it took just two matches for Manchester United to realise they needed to sign another midfielder. This season, they’ve come to the same realisation again.

Erik ten Hag has known all summer that his side was in need of at least two new faces in the middle of the park, and after scraping past Wolves and losing to Tottenham, those needs have only been exasperated. The harsh reality is that United have already missed out on the best options.

Jude Bellingham was a ‘dream’ target but never a realistic one, while Moises Caicedo and Declan Rice were both well out of budget.

United went early with a move for Mason Mount and Ten Hag’s reputation is on the line after spending so much on a player who would have been available on a free at the end of the season.

A year on, United are considering a late move for Bayern Munich midfielder Ryan Gravenberch and there is also prolonged interest in Fiorentina ace Sofyan Amrabat. They might not have been the first-choices at the start of the summer, but right now, with time running out, there might not be anyone else above them on the list.

It is easy to see why. No, not just because they were both born in the Netherlands and have played in the Eredivise, though that certainly helps.

Ten Hag is gradually moving closer to having a squad that is completely in his mould, and ideally, he would like every player at senior level to be aligned with his tactical approach. In order to do that, he would like to have midfielders who are comfortable with the ball at their feet and capable of playing the progressive style of play that he desires.

Amrabat and Gravenberch are better passes than United’s central midfielders from last season.

If you compare their average output per 90 minutes last season with United’s midfielders, it is obvious why they would be welcome additions for Ten Hag.

The duo both possess better passing accuracy and long passing accuracy than Casemiro, Fred, or Scott McTominay, while Amrabat loses possession less often on average than them all, and Gravenberch has the best ground duel success rate.

What is clear is that each midfielder has their own area of expertise, and while McTominay and Fred were perhaps more workmanlike in their approach, Amrabat and Gravenberch are certainly better suited to a passing approach.

By signing either of them in the final days of the transfer window, United would be gaining a more suitable replacement should any of their starting midfielders get injured, though they’d still be without the specialist midfielders who helped them so often.

It is not to say Fred should have stayed beyond this summer, though it is no surprise that they missed him so much against Tottenham, a team he often terrorised with standout performances.

However, United will hope that by being in control of games more, they will therefore not have any need for midfield ‘pests’ like Fred and McTominay, who are often at their best when they harass opponents out of possession.

A key reason United moved for Mount this summer was because they wanted a younger profile of midfielder who could contribute to long-term success, and that could well work in favour of Gravenberch, 21, who is six years younger than Amrabat.

The next step in their rebuild will be finding a better-suited alternative to Casemiro, and while right now there is not a single standout candidate for the role, there are clearly two who are a closer match