Exactly the type of midfielder we need though. Potentially an upgraded version of Gibson. No one else has that passing range from deep. Ledson might be an alright player but what does he bring that McCarthy Besic Cleverley are not already offering? If Dowell Evans and Walsh kick in to join Barkley we could have great strength in depth in the next few years but like Baxter, Lundstram, even Rodwell, you can never tell when they are just going to plateau. Another manager may have even lost patience with Barkley.
Yes I think that's a fair summary. Walsh is the type of player that English teams full stop don't produce much and when they do they tend to misuse them. If you look at Scholes for England he was shunted out to play left wing to allow for bigger/more physical lads like Lampard and Gerrard to play. The only real exception to this was Alex Fergusan who had a better understanding of football than the entire FA put together at times.
Even if you listen to Gary Neville's debate with Carragher on who was better out of Lampard and Scholes you could tell that one was schooled by perhaps the finest mind to ever to involved in British football, the other is echoing clichés out of the England handbook. (I happen to really like Carragher as a pundit by the way so I'm not just trying to knock him).
Carragher was quoting Gerrard's goal record especially in big games. Or the fact he'd make a crunching tackle. Neville said there are many ways to win a game, not just by scoring a goal, and that Scholes allowed you to control them tempo of a game. He said at United when they would finish sessions with a 5 a side match the side Scholes was in would always win as they would keep the ball.
I remember big Joe Royle also saying about Alan Ball that he could "run a game" which seemed to echo a lot of what Neville said. Great teams need a player of that ability and only truly great thinkers can understand the need to protect them.
Walsh has got a long way to go to get to that level. However at under 18's I have seen him control the flow of a game in that manner. When we beat Liverpool last season 5-0 he basically dictated the whole game at his pace. The Everton players always looked to pass him the ball and conducted play.
Gibson is of a very similar school, but I think Scholes (and Walsh) have a bit better special awareness than Gibson. Gibson has a fantastic long passing range, but Scholes was also able to find space for himself, play short passes as well as long passes when necessary. Being smaller I think helps with that special awareness.
As for Ledson he will be far more in the mould of a McCarthy type player. He is a bit taller than McCarthy and probably a bit better at passing. He has the potential too to be better than alright, but I get the point, he is a very standard English midfield player.
