The potential of Ander Herrera to be the "top class" midfielder is believed by Michael Owen. For Owen, Herrera can fill the missing piece at Manchester United by Paul Scholes.

Scholes took home 11 Barclays Premier League titles at Old Trafford before retiring in May of 2013, and Owen, who will be reunited with his former United team-mate at BT Sport for the 2014/15 Barclays Premier League campaign, told premierleague.com that Herrera can stand up as a key role that has been lacking in the team.

"Manchester United have needed a central midfield player for some time now and have never really had that one absolute, top-quality central midfielder since Roy Keane or Paul Scholes," Owen said. "Michael Carrick has done an amazing job for a few years and it has been a case of Carrick plus one, so they have needed a central midfield player for quite a while."

Owen said that for this role that Spaniard is well geared and suited; then he warns that the curtain-raiser for the 2014/15 Barclays Premier League season, when United host Swansea City, live on BT Sport will be a whole different proposition to the pre-season friendlies in which Herrera has showed great excellence.

"Herrera has come in and done really well in pre-season," Owen said. "But the real stuff starts this weekend."

Five years before his summer move to United back in 2009, Owen transferred in the opposite direction to Herrera when he penned for Real Madrid from Liverpool. After having 118 goals in 216 Barclays Premier League appearances for the Reds Owen found it difficult to settled in the Spain but he agrees it will not be as much as an issue for Herrera.

"Football is not as hard to adapt to as it once was," Owen said. "Football has become a global game where all different nationalities play in different leagues."

He added: "The main thing is to get settled off the pitch, to find a house, to get your family settled and to speak the language and really get stuck into it."

(Source: Barclays Premier League official website)