David Moyes and his defensive dilemma: Choosing the successors to Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand

David Moyes needs to sort out his central defensive partnership

Nemanja Vidic is leaving Manchester United at the end of the season for pastures anew after a trophy laden spell at the club and while Rio Ferdinand’s future has yet to be decided he could well also be heading out of the exit door when his contract expires in the summer.

Additionally this season looks set to be a write off for David Moyes and his boys. They are out of both domestic cups, out of the title race and maybe even out of the race for a Champions League spot in the league, form would have to be dramatically improve if they are to make the top four. They also face a fight to remain in the Champions League itself. Overturning a 2-0 deficit at home to Olympiakos is certainly doable but given the way they have played this season it could well not happen.

With these two things in mind Moyes should really demote the experienced duo of Vidic and Ferdinand to back up and trying to forge a good partnership between two of the three younger centre-backs at the club, Jonny Evans, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling.

Performance score comparison

Both Ferdinand and Vidic have had their injury problems, not just this year but in recent seasons and as good as they have been for the club and as good as they perhaps still are they cannot be relied on to be ever present. This is good enough reason to move them out of the starting line-up. They may not be available for much of this season let alone leaving the club for the next campaign.

Ferdinand has only played in nine Premier League games this season although he does have a 55% success rate in both tackles and headed duels however in the last Champions League match, the disappointing loss out in Greece he did not win a single tackle and never even attempted a headed duel. He is definitely on the wane in terms of quality and fitness.

Rio Ferdinand Statistics against Olympiakos

Vidic has been far from ever present either this season playing twice as many games as Ferdinand, 18 out of a possible 27 in the league. In those matches he has a similar tackle success to Ferdinand and has won 65% of headed duels.

So it is clear that they both have something still to offer and if United still had something to play for this season this article would have a different tone but with somewhere between very little and nothing left to play for Moyes should really try out the other centre back options he has available to him.

Comparison matrix- Manchester United central defenders

This includes England international Phil Jones who is currently injured. Jones has been played in a number of positions by Moyes and his predecessor Sir Alex Ferguson but clearly favours and is best in the heart of a defence. He has won 53% of the 58 tackles challenged for and 52% of the 56 headers while making over two interceptions per match. His pass completion is also excellent with 88% of passes completed, equal fourth best among the squad.

Smalling is another deployed in various roles by Moyes and Ferguson but certainly has potential. He has missed seven games in the Premier League this season, most of those at the start of the campaign due to injury. He has won a higher percentage of tackles and headers than Vidic, Ferdiand and Jones with 60% and 63% respectively.

Most impressive though is Evans who has played 16 times and won a massive 73% of tackles and headed duels and has made 21 interceptions with an 88% pass completion.

Jonny Evans – Stats

All of these three have the quality to establish themselves as a United centre-back and just need a run of games. As well as this Moyes has been linked with a move for a number of defenders including Santiago Arias of PSV.

So the United manager needs to work out if the defenders he has for next season are up to the task before splashing the Glazier’s cash on new acquisitions and if they are up to standard he needs to work out what is the best combination.

For those reasons alone Ferdinand and Vidic should be forgotten about, at least on a domestic front where there is so little to play for. After all the other options are not any worse and could even be better.