Frankly unlikely?

Could Frank Lampard be the man to solve the conundrum that is the centre of Man United's midfield?

"Do you really think Chelsea would sell to United in January? There's no foundation in that. Chelsea want to do something in the second half of the season so they want to keep their best players." Sir Alex Ferguson. And so it would appear one of the transfer window's more spurious rumours is put to bed. When we turned to the back pages of the Daily Mail this morning and were greeted with the headline 'Fergie wants Frank' our initial assumption was that they were referring to the helpline. In a way they were. In the past Sir Alex has regularly spoken of the disdain he reserves for shopping in the January sales, so a purported bid for Frank Lampard seems unlikely; although, with the England man seemingly less than enamoured with Andre Villas-Boas' predilection to see him more as a squad man than regular starter and United short in the centre of the field, the story is perhaps not as left-field as it first seems. The manner in which Ferguson elected to deflect attention by saying Chelsea would never sell to United, rather than deny any interest outright, gives the impression he's not averse to the idea of Lampard being sat at home wondering whether red would suit him. The manner in which Newcastle's twin engine room of Yohan Cabaye and Cheick Tiote dominated Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick at St James' on Wednesday evening has once again brought to the fore a wide-held belief Manchester United are light in terms of both numbers and first-rate quality in the centre of the park. While it is kneejerk to suggest that United are 'in crisis' as they sit just three points shy of their neighbours with half of the season still left to play, even the most blinkered supporter would concede the current side lacks a natural leader to dictate and dominate. In the first four games of the season United were superb as Anderson and Tom Cleverley profited most handsomely from a hangover endured in May, when United were outplayed by Barcelona at Wembley, which rendered Fergie still cranky when the new season kicked-off in August. Ferguson's decision to twin the arch underachiever Anderson with the latently talented but untested Cleverley was vindicated as United swept all before them. In the four games the pair started together United scored 18 and conceded just three goals (although it's worth pointing out Cleverley lasted just 24 minutes of United's 5-0 win at Bolton). Giggs and Carrick, at this point, seemed a footnote to a previous chapter in the club's recent history. Ferguson's recruitment over the summer had pointedly looked to the future, with Carrick's profligacy in the company of Xavi and Andre Iniesta seeing him ostracized to the point he made not a single start in United's first eleven games of the season. On this point, it is worth considering none of United's midfielders figure in the Premier League's most accurate list, with stray passes a constant source of irritation in midweek.

PL Midfielders - 11/12
Player	Passing Accuracy	Passes
Britton, Leon	93.8	1046
Allen, Joe	90.3	1013
Arteta, Mikel	90.0	1393
Yaya Touré	90.0	1552
Parker, Scott	89.9	983
Modric, Luka	88.3	1128
Silva, David	88.0	1117
Barry, Gareth	87.2	1145
Ramsey, Aaron	87.1	1252
Lampard, Frank	86.7	941
Minimum 900 Passes

The presence of Leon Britton and Joe Allen underlines the quality of Swansea's short passing game (mini-Barcelona indeed) but perhaps even more telling is the inclusion of midfield pairings from each of United's title rivals. Scott Parker and Luka Modric complement each beautifully - the quintessential passer and tackler pairing - at Spurs, while the underrated accuracy of Manchester City's Gareth Barry allows David Silva and Yaya Toure to flourish ahead of him. Arsenal are represented by Aaron Ramsey and Mikel Arteta but Chelsea, tellingly, can boast only Lampard in the top ten as like United their failure to have a consistent first XI seems to have stopped a natural partnership developing in the centre of the pitch. Xabi Alonso recently spoke eloquently of an English obsession with tackling: "I can't get into my head that footballing development would educate tackling as a quality. The collective ideal hasn't always been there. Paul Scholes maybe hasn't had the international career he should have. Or Michael Carrick: he makes those around him better, regardless of the fact that he's not the one who scores the most goals, or a great tackler."