Everton's Pienaar challenges for the ball with Tottenham's Sandro (R) during their English Premier League soccer match in London.
Sandro has attracted United. Reuters

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson reportedly is interested in Tottenham's young Brazilian defensive midfielder Sandro and believes that the player could be the key to bolster his squad's midfield that, only recently, has seen lack of mettle against opponents.

Sandro, 22, was previously linked with United whilst he was with Brazilian side Internacional and now Ferguson is looking to bring in the player as early as in January to help the players come through the club's academy, and also to add steel to the current squad's midfield.

Although Ferguson has a host of central midfield options, he still lacks a defensively minded combative player to help break down any advances from the opposition, and is now monitoring the Brazilian international who has spent most of his time on bench this season at the White Hart Lane following the arrival of Englishman Scott Parker from West Ham in the summer.

United previously decided not to offer Owen Hargreaves a new deal in the summer due to the growing injury concerns and during the many months the England international spent on the sidelines with injuries, the boss had to fill up the space with the likes of Anderson, Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher, who had to combine their usual forward roles with defensive shifts. But now a permanent solution has to be found and arguably Sandro could easily step up to the occasion.

Sandro cost Tottenham around £8 million and although he has only made 13 Premier League starts, he has impressed many of the European clubs with his talented performances, and in particular his performances in the Champions League last season, according to a Caughtoffside report.

Sandro Raniere Guimaraes Cordeiro has made a total of 33 appearances for the Spurs since his arrival from Internacional in 2010.