Guess who Sir Alex Ferguson misses the most right now?

No Nemanja Vidic, no Javier Hernandez, no Tom Cleverley, no Anderson, a misfiring Wayne Rooney, a lacklustre Rio Ferdinand and no Champions League nights this season. And, well, no cash to buy any more players. That is the current Manchester United situation. Guess who Sir Alex Ferguson misses the most right now? Wes Brown and John O’Shea. Not that it wasn’t a good decision to let Brown and O’Shea depart, and the future looks pretty secure with Chris Smalling and Phil Jones but an emergency January buy is the last thing that Ferguson needed at this point. He needs a lynchpin in the middle, a talisman who can be employed alongside the determination and stamina of Anderson, Fletcher and Cleverley, a player with flair who needs an inch of space to put Rooney through on goal and shoot from distance when it matters most. And none of their midfielders can do that. Probably the shrewdest move would be buying Cheick Tiote from Newcastle. The Ivorian has created a stir in his young Premier League career. Paul Scholes has retired, Luka Modric is at Tottenham, Mario Gotze should have been bought earlier, the bid for Aaron Ramsey should have been higher and Wesley Sneijder’s wages are unethical in United terms. Where’s the bench Fergie? Chelsea have just shifted a gear after beating Valencia and will now carry on with some good form it seems. Take a look at their bench which includes Raul Meireles, Jose Bosingwa, Salomon Kalou and John Obi Mikel among others. Even Arsenal look stronger now with Oxlade-Chamberlain, Marouane Chamakh, Emmanuel Frimpong, Sebastien Squillaci, Andrei Arshavin and Johan Djorou as back-up. And what about Manchester City? Let us not even go down the slick oily road that leads to the Etihad Stadium. With both United and City left with 24 games in the league and also playing in the Europa League, we could see a lot of encounters between them. All the fault lies in one fact - the lack of a creative midfielder who can make something out of nothing in the blink of an eye, coupled with injuries to those who were supposedly stepping into the shoes left behind by Paul Scholes. That does not mean United should have splashed the cash on Wesley Sneijder at a time when clubs are struggling to break even. It means Sir Alex either needs to buy smart or give a re-think about how his team plays. [caption id=“attachment_152238” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“United lacked the presence of Cleverley and Chicharito against Basel. AFP”]  [/caption] Cleverley and Anderson, however odd it may seem, are their most creative minds in their midfield. Cleverley had already become a regular fixture in the side with his quality performances getting him an England cap and Anderson was looking like he had finally come of age after a lot of patience. But Sir Alex needs a driving force like Roy Keane, a raging bull who can carry the team on his shoulders just when everything goes wrong. And right now, everything seems to have gone wrong. Michael Carrick can play the occasional quality pass and Ryan Giggs in midfield is romantic, but in a game where he really needed to stifle out the opponents with a 4-4-2 or a 4-5-1 formation, Sir Alex went for 4-3-3 with the Welshman partnered by Park Ji-Sung and Phil Jones in the middle. Park is not a thinker…he runs, he dives into tackles, he wins the ball. But against Basel, he was part of a three man midfield required to create chances for Young, Nani and Rooney. Didn’t work. Phil Jones is a good option, but Ferguson limited his chances to go up. Why wasn’t Darren Fletcher played? Where was their strongest and rawest player in the form of Antonio Valencia? The zipping pace and energy of Danny Welbeck only came on in the 65th minute. SAF was trying to stop the worst from happening but his wariness just added to the already hapless United attack. All this while, Xherdan Shaqiri found gaps and was delightfully whipping in quality crosses, going through United’s defence like a hot knife through butter. Sorry, but Ferguson lost it tactically. Even when United needed to really take the game by the scruff, the Nani of defence – Johnny Evans – came on… brilliant when he wants to be and prone to commit hazardous mistakes when you least expect them. If one isn’t not wrong, Sir Alex went for a protective cover rather than try to outscore their opponents. The Scotsman is a master of rebuilding and one who has proved it again and again. For some reason, a United fan should see it as a chance to go home and give Thursday nights to the youngsters to get some Europa League action. But it comes at the costly price of around ₤30 million lost in TV revenue alone.