Ilkay Gundogan

Screw the Metro actually, their story is from 5 days ago and their source is The Sun! It's updated however.

Der Westen is the real deal and a freshest of the lot.

After that back injury he adjusted his game and movements a bit. Used to be a real box to box player but as of late he doesn't burst forward in every opportunity. Still has a very good stamina and his technique is up there with the best. Very well capable of taking that anchor role that Carrick plays.

Edit: We all know as well that Carrick didn't play like this always and was more advanced player. Gundogan shows very similar qualities.

I still really like Blind, he's not done a lot wrong this season. Just not as experienced as Carrick and still adjusting to this new league. I still think he'll eventually be good enough to do the holding role full time. Lets not forget at the beginning of the season everyone was raving about him and stating how you could already see he's an ideal replacement for Carrick. I think he's too good to become a John O'Shea type player, filling a gap when you need him to.

Fair enough he'll play his fair share of games and win his fair share of trophies but I feel he's good enough or he will be good enough to be a starter. I know he's sort of established his place at left back right now but even that's in jeopardy due to his injury and Shaw's fantastic display last week.

On Gundogan, we're all assuming he may be brought in as Carrick's long term replacement because the newspaper headline says so. For all we know, if we sign him he may be our one and only midfield signing this summer and Van Gaal may see him more as the player he was 2 seasons ago, the energetic box-to-box player that was the heartbeat of that quality Dortmund side. He may have slowed his game down a bit this season because Dortmund's form required him to do so.

When I think about it, if he found his game from 2 years ago he'd work pretty well in a midfield 3 with Carrick/Blind and Herrera. He's got a superb passing game (long and short) and should fit into our system with relative ease as I think it will suit his game pretty well.

Not me, I'm speaking from my feelings when I watched him this season.

Saw a lot of Dortmund's matches and some comments I read on the internet are based on an actual Dortmund's poor run and underachievement on the Bundesliga table and not on people actually have seen them play every week. I'm talking about both Hummels and Gundogan, both were seen as an underperformers but the truth is somewhere in between really. While Hummels could have done better (had some mistakes unusual for him), he was still one of the best in their side, Gundogan needed to adjust  his game a bit and play with more caution and still was fairly good. Some other players in their team have done a lot more damage to their performances and results than those two, Immobile, Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan for example.

I am sure a 101% that Gundogan has an awful lot in his locker to offer in Carrick's role long term. Actually, wherever you put him in the middle he'll do very well. Wouldn't struggle with physical side of the game too, bags of stamina and toughness in him, can't be shrugged off the ball so easily.