xhaka vs pogba vs kante vs wanyama vs wijnaldum vs gundogan
thats new central midfielder signings from the top 6 teams in england.......how would you rank them???.....they are all relatively young too aged between 23-25.

Comparing Kante and Pogba is a crime. Although both are CM's, Kante plays CM/CDM while Pogba plays like a hybrid between CM and CAM. While both of them started in the same role, I believe a more apt comparison would be between Kante and Matic...

Fair, but then again Kante and Matic play the CDM role in completely different ways. Kante's 5'6' and uses his stamina, tenacity, and reading of the game to clean up with interceptions, tackles, blocks, and start attacks with pace.

Matic is an enforcer. Much taller, much stronger and offers less in orchestrating attacks but has an absolute bullet of a shot. A better comparison is Matic with Bakayoko. Literally signed, as a direct replacement, with hope that he'll become better than what Matic was.

Would this help at all?

I still find Kante to easily be a better player than Pogba. Pogba is far too wasteful, and Kante's mature and energetic playing-style gives you a reassurance that he will make the best possible decision almost every single time. Not to mention that he's a complete hound on defense.
Imagine the **** this man would do if he was 6 feet in height lol.

That's a fair enough observation. Simply seeing every game Pogba plays gives me insight towards him that I can't possibly have towards Kante. However saying that Kante's decision-making is better than Pogba's is limited to two factors in my mind, first, Kante's lack of dynamic forward gameplay meaning nearly everything he does is high percentage, and second, Kante's professionalism towards his position. That doesn't mean he's making good decisions, it means he's making high percentage ones. And because Kante isn't the type of player to force through balls or have goes from distance, he naturally seems more mature. When looking at Pogba's game - if he WASN'T doing those things he'd be getting the exact opposite side of the stick.

Don't get me wrong, sideways passing has its place, and the way Chelsea have built their side firmly slots Kante into a destroyer CDM who gets the ball to players who actually then do something with it. And there's nothing wrong with that. But criticizing Pogba for not doing the same seems odd.

Not saying Kante isn't the better player, although I have some major doubts, and certainly felt that Kante's POTY last season was grossly misplaced. Even so, the statement of "he's easily the better player" rubs me the wrong way for all the right reasons.

We can't ignore the fact that Kante joined a relegation battling Leicester side who already had their core players, and took them to the title, then joined us in 10th and took us to the title. For sure Ranieri and Conte played big parts but at the end of the day its up to the 11 men on the field, and Kante for me was the most important player in both these teams. Ranieri and Conte without Kante would not have had the same success.

We can't ignore the fact that Kante joined a relegation battling Leicester side who already had their core players, and took them to the title, then joined us in 10th and took us to the title. For sure Ranieri and Conte played big parts but at the end of the day its up to the 11 men on the field, and Kante for me was the most important player in both these teams. Ranieri and Conte without Kante would not have had the same success.

Casemiro did a very similar thing for Real and I've hyped him up over it, and I would have to be blind not to see that Kante did the same. Getting the system to work is very important, and as we saw with Madrid, benching an objectively more talented James for Casemiro is what made the system work, despite the gap in skill level, it was the gap in skill sets that really mattered.

No one is trying to say Casemiro is Madrid's best player, nor the best player in La Liga, despite the difference that he made. I see Kante much the same way. I am nothing if not consistent, despite how much of an ass it probably makes me look.

@sunflash very goo analysis +1

I think the CDM is definitely the most important player as we have discovered at Manchester United bringing in Matic has improved everyone on the pitch's individual game play as well as their team play. You don't even have to have the best CDM to make this system work. For this reason I think maybe Kante isnt as good a player as his impact would suggest. I think it's more the position he's playing that allows him to have this impact than his quality as a player. Don't get me wrong he is very good individually too. Just not quite competing with Pogba.

Hard to compare player who have different playstyle though, because like it was said before, they don't play the same so its sure that their stat are gonna be different. Guess you can compare them in the sense of the impact they had over the team then.

SunFlash

I still maintain that Wijnaldum doesn't play as a CM

Then where? GK? CB? ST? I need to know this mystery.

@amir LMF or RMF maybe. :P A bit like where Milner is supposed to play.

Saying 1 year ago Wijnaldum ain't CM is fine. But he played entire season at CM. Klopp could use him at LW but he never did, as Klopp knows that would just be a waste. His number 1 position in career and Liverpool has been CM.

Maybe know some things about player positions before talking Sun?

Pogba is an all round midfielder who can do a little bit of everything

Kante is a defensive midfielder who is world class at That.

@Chelsea8 No, you got that wrong. Pogba is also world class, at dabbing! :P But seriously, I agree he is more of an all-rounder than the other one. Wich is great for Mou, he like polyvalent player.

Saying 1 year ago Wijnaldum ain't CM is fine. But he played entire season at CM. Klopp could use him at LW but he never did, as Klopp knows that would just be a waste. His number 1 position in career and Liverpool has been CM.

Thought this question was redundant, but you seem really determined for some reason.

Winjnaldum is "listed" as a CM on pretty much every Liverpool match lineup, but actually watching where he is on the field in relation to the ball shows more of a CAM/LM inclination. To be perfectly honest, it's much the same with Lallana. Only Henderson and Can actually play the game anywhere near the CM/CDM role, and you can be sure as hell that neither Winjaldum or Lallana play the game like the other CM's being discussed in this thread. Pogba is a clear box-to-box, and so is Gundogan. Xhaka, Kante, and Wanyama are all laying deeper, some as playmakers, most as destroyers. Winjaldum plays nothing like them.

Maybe know some things about player positions before talking Sun?

Maybe you shouldn't call out people when you don't understand what they're talking about. Just because you see him listed at that position when you watch a Liverpool highlight video once a year doesn't mean that's actually the spot on the field that he plays. I assume you watched Liverpool rip apart your beloved Arsenal the other day, hopefully between the tears you were able to spot Winjaldum...who basically played as a CAM all game ahead of Can and Henderson. But please, don't let me stop you from assuming the self-imposed ego trip you have going on in literally every single thread you post in.

Dammit why do I always allow myself to be baited into this bs

@Sun

Dammit why do I always allow myself to be baited into this bs

I'd say its because your proud of yourself and hate it when people act superior toward you, especially if you believe or know they are wrong. Could be wrong though, my sister is the psychologist, not me. XD

I'd say its because your proud of yourself and hate it when people act superior toward you, especially if you believe or know they are wrong. Could be wrong though, my sister is the psychologist, not me. XD

What if I'm just a douchecanoue though? :P

Because you are MU's fan :D

@Sun: You're a douchecanoue though.

:P

@Sun: You're a douchecanoue though.
:P

@Sunflash I was just trying to say you were in a nice way. :P