Honestly don't get the hype with Schneiderlin.
Everyone revolts about the far cheaper, and more experienced, Song. Honestly see little difference. Two solid pros that do a job. Neither's anything special and neither is anything like a £25 million pound footballer.
The two key ones for Les Bleus in that role going forward to partner Pogba are Kondogbia and the lad at PSG who's name escapes me.
That is an insufficient comparative.
Song, whilst defensively astute and relatively consistent, is quite limited. Outside of protecting the defensive line, he cannot affect what is in front of him all that much. It's why he was left to be the combative force in West Ham's midfield and let Mark Noble dictate the rhythm.
The same, however, cannot be said of Schneiderlin. Even in what Song does best, Schneiderlin has invariably performed better. The latter has averaged more tackles and interceptions - not just more than Song last campaign - but more than any other player in the league since 2012/13.
Additional advantages over Song are that he is also much more comfortable aerially (ninth among central midfielders in the Premier League) and only sixth overall among his class of midfielders in passing distribution in the league. A stone's throw away from our own Michael Carrick at thirteenth in the league.
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If it's not his individual performance, it's the intangibles; when Song has not featured for West Ham, his side are W2 D3 L2 in all competitions. For Schneiderlin it's W5 D0 L8. In those eight defeats, Southampton conceded 13 goals. West Ham, seven. Some of them were in the league, and in them Southampton garnered 13 points of a possible 36. That's why he is far and away better than Alex Song.
In regards to his value, it's because he is a premium talent for the role he performs. There is, and has been for a very long time in this country, a paucity of players that are similar to his ilk. It would be the same for nearly any other position. A midfielder that can impact both halves of the field with such consistency and be detrimental to his side's fortunes when unavailable only serves to justify his £25 million value.
People have lauded Nemanja Matic because of how similar a case he is. It's further justified when it's in a winning side, which invariably overshadows his contributions. You only have to look at Sergio Busquets to get the true definition of such a scenario when Barcelona's first eleven comprises of arguably the best front three in football at the moment. Usually it's because of how football's linear statistics in goals and assists that other players' contributions are strongly negated.
Is he worth £25 million, maybe. Injuries, as they always will do, curtailed an otherwise very impressive season. But for a team like Manchester United - or indeed any team that can accommodate him and wants to win titles - would say he is worth every penny based on the abovementioned.
