Tom Cleverley kicks off his stay at Aston Villa with a 1-0 win at Liverpool and must now kickstart his career too
Aston Villa pulled off a shock 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday with Tom Cleverley making his debut for the visitors in midfield. It's been a tough time for the England international but there is still time for him to turn his career around, writes Adam Bate.
Saturday 13 September 2014 23:47, UK
“Cleverley had no physique, was wiry as hell, but he was as brave as a lion, had good feet and could score a goal.”
It’s fair to say that Sir Alex Ferguson’s assessment of Tom Cleverley hasn’t always struck a chord with supporters of Manchester United and England. His account of a 2010 conversation with then United chief executive David Gill feels particularly pertinent in light of his Old Trafford struggles.
“David Gill said one day, ‘What are you going to do with Cleverley next year? He’s scoring a lot of goals at Watford.’ My answer was, ‘I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to play him, to find out whether he can score goals for me as well as Watford.’ Could he score six for me?
“If Cleverley could score six goals from midfield, he would become a consideration. The demarcation line was always: what can they do and what can they not do? The can-do question was: can they win me the game? If they could score six goals, I could ignore some of the negatives.”
After 79 appearances in a Manchester United shirt, Ferguson and the rest are still left waiting for that sixth goal. Indeed, in 35 matches for club and country last season, Cleverley came up with just one of them – against Aston Villa, the club with which he now hopes to reignite his career on loan.
Football can be a fickle business and there is nothing unique about a young player losing his way. And yet, the case of Cleverley feels particularly curious given that the typical explanations of injury and inopportunity are not obviously applicable in this instance.
Instead, this is a 25-year-old player apparently still searching for his identity. “My job goes under the radar at times,” he told the Daily Mirror earlier this year. “I am not a player who's going to beat three or four people and stick it in the top corner or go round tackling people like Roy Keane.”
For a player booed at Wembley in March and the victim of an online petition calling for his international axe, it rather demands an answer to the question - what are Cleverley’s strengths? After all, while it’s evidently possible to dismiss the qualities of tackling, dribbling and goalscoring in a single sentence, that trio of talents are highly regarded by football fans for a good reason.
Jack Wilshere caught the eye on Saturday with a robust midfield performance for Arsenal in which he won possession of the ball 12 times in the match, providing one of the game’s highlights as he sauntered past Gael Clichy before finishing beyond Joe Hart. Tacking, dribbling and scoring. Pah.
But Cleverley has other qualities. The ability to retain possession is something he prides himself on. “I watch Spanish football a lot. If they pass the ball sideways but keep possession, the fans clap them. Their attitude is that as long as you have got the ball, the other team can’t hurt you.
“I know the mentality is different here but sometimes I have got to not listen and play my game because I feel I’m doing the best thing for the team. I feel I’ve been made a scapegoat a little bit. A few people in the media certainly seem to have a perception of me not doing much in the team.”
Problem
The problem for Cleverley is the risk that h
