No, Herrera is excellent in the final third, in my opinion that's where he plays his best football , Gundogan is better in the middle of the pitch at 40-50 meters from the goal. So no this midfield on paper is perfect.
İlkay Gündoğan
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No, Herrera is excellent in the final third, in my opinion that's where he plays his best football , Gundogan is better in the middle of the pitch at 40-50 meters from the goal. So no this midfield on paper is perfect.
1) First of all Sport Bild says so
2) Sport Bild are loving rumours
Sport Bild is saying we aren't interested?
Yep they did. I was wondering where @Sean_RedDevil was going with this.
Well that blows, especially if it's because of shite like De Jong or LvG finding out that Woody forged Strootman's death certificate.
Sport Bilds is a tabloid who loves gossips, that's where he is going.
Might as well call this a nothing story then!
Well, you never know maybe it's true, maybe we never were after him.
Do you really believe he will go for the quoted 15m? I really, really don't see that happening. Even if he has a year on his contract, surely there will be more clubs after him?
I never understand that, for how much Kroos, Strootman, Tevez, Blind, Ozil(from Werder), left their clubs ? The prices are only ridiculously inflated in England. Outside of England if there isn't a clause the players go for reasonable prices.
With one year left in his contract Gundogan will go for a price between 15-25m.
If we want him, we will get him.
Barcelona can't sign him, Bayern don't need him, Madrid are the same and seem to have their eye on Pogba. Arsenal have the likes of Ramsey, Cazorla, Wilshere etc in that position. City? Maybe, but Gundogan is meant to be a United fan and has spoken about wanting to join us before. Chelsea have Fabregas.
Barcelona can't sign him, Bayern don't need him, Madrid are the same and seem to have their eye on Pogba. Arsenal have the likes of Ramsey, Cazorla, Wilshere etc in that position. City? Maybe, but Gundogan is meant to be a United fan and has spoken about wanting to join us before. Chelsea have Fabregas.
So that Honigstein guy is saying United have pulled out and its now City who are after him. Would be very disappointed if thats true. Don't know why I do this to myself. Transfer season...bloody hell.
Before his back injury nearly the whole of Europe wanted to sign Gundogan, after all the injuries combined with the fact he is entering the last year of his contact means few if any would pay more than £15m for him now.
For that price, he is definitely worth the punt but Veratti would be my #1 choice for CM.
I know he's got great passing range but how are his defensive abilities, e.g. reading of the game/interceptions and tackles.
Verratti would cost upwards of 40 million though. Gundogan on the cheap would be a much better deal.
Brilliant.
FWIIW
His tackling and interception stats are poor for this season. Vastly inferior to Schneiderlin or Coquelin, for example.
Isn't he a bit crocked?
"Poor" tackling stats? What on earth is that?! Making a small number of tackles does not equate to contributing little in defence.
Sir Alex on Maldini said:
In any case going by your definition Gundogan's stats are "better" than Carrick's which is more than enough. I think in reality he was at a similar level defensively pre-injury but with that loss of dynamism and energy his pressing game's not quite at the same level and he's slightly worse. Certainly not a defensive liability in any case.
Well I did qualify it with FWIIW.
You would expect a good defensive midfielder to have good tackling and interception stats, one, the other or both. Unless the player is more in the Carrick or Pirlo mould.
But yeah I was just throwing those out there, not using them as any kind of defining argument.
Sadly, there's no reason for PSG to sell, or Veratti to push for the same.
I do not think that PSG would sell (for anything under 40m) or that veratti would like to leave. I would be happy with gundogan but he seems too similar to Herrera.
I think it could be because he has Sahin to do the defensive job. I heard a bundesliga fan on here say that he has Sahin to rely on so i think it is by design, not so much that he lacks the defensive attributes. Having said that id be happy if we signed Sahin too. Heck lets get both lol.
Not quite as reputable an opinion as Sir Alex, but Rio Ferdinand has a similar view.
Rio said:
Makes sense thinking about the players Van Gaal has used at the base of his 4-3-3 in the past e.g. Guardiola, Xavi etc. Gundogan suits that profile of player, as does Carrick: Not a pure destroyer like Makelele, but the man who starts everything off. Gundogan would be a good buy for this job.
He may never regain that full dynamic quality he had but that would irrelevant as a #6, it's all about position and passing and I think he'd be ideal for us and the role would be a smart next phase in his career.
I don't think it's irrelevant at all, he doesn't look like the same player post-injury.
He's got a great range in his passing but is he really good enough positionally to play as a #6? I assumed at his best he would play ahead of Carrick and allow Ander to play further forward, with two dynamic central midfielders together like that.
Daily Mail articles are like 4 lines of writing with 20 pictures.
@#07 I think it means more that he will replace carrick in terms of dictating the game with his passing not that he will be playing as a number 6 in the carrick role. He needs Sahin to do the defensive stuff at Dortmund now so he certainly won't be able to do it for us.
@#07 I think it means more that he will replace carrick in terms of dictating the game with his passing not that he will be playing as a number 6 in the carrick role. He needs Sahin to do the defensive stuff at Dortmund now so he certainly won't be able to do it for us.
Not the same player since the injury we should steer clear of him, maybe worth looking at in another year but I don't see the need to take risks with t resources we have.
Probably got his information of the newb section. Gundogan is not a number 6 and playing him their will restrict his ability.
@Attila its possible Van Gaal believes that Gundogan has the profile he wants for his #6. Xavi's best football was not played at #6 but that's where Van Gaal used him, he played there against us back in 1998/99. You can argue that's one of the reasons we drew 3-3 twice but Van Gaal, as he's shown several times in his career, is not above trying to re-educate players into carrying out certain functions. If Van Gaal feels Gundogan has the basic skill set to play at #6 it wouldn't be out of character for him to try him there. Will it work? Who knows. However, I wouldn't write it off. With Van Gaal the sum always somehow ends up being more than the parts.
@NL Max - how important has a players passing range important for van Gaal's #6's in the past? Of course, I imagine he wants all the core elements a #6 but Rooney's best trait in midfield is his raking long pass. Carrick is fantastic at it too, and if these rumours are to be true, Gundogan is very good at it also.
Depends a bit on his formation. He has played 433 with the point forward and backward. If it's backward (like we currently use) the 6 is important for the buildup and the passing range will be very important.
If the point is forward the 10 is more important, and the 6 will have less of an influence. Overall it's an important part though, and it surely will be one of his criteria.
OT: I'm not sure if Gundogan is a player we need right now. Van Gaal said he bought Blind for midfield, if we already buy a replacement for Carrick, while he's still here, what would that mean for Blind? He's defensively aware, reads the game well and has a great pass in him. He's done well in his first season, he looks like the replacement for Carrick to me.
I think we could better look for a backup for Herrera who could play 6 if both Carrick and Blind are out, while still maintaining the defensive balance. Otherwise we'd still see Rooney in midfield next year since Gundogan isn't very good defensively. If we buy Gundogan we'd still need another midfielder, since we're short on defensive midfield options.
If we would chose Gündogan as our number 6 we might have a good passer in that position but the past has shown that he is a bit lackluster defensively and can't offer much in terms of defensive stability which Carrick is so great at. Imo he is just too much like Herrera to really work in a midfield with Herrera and Fellaini. Maybe if we could get a defensive power house in midfield and play him alongside Herrera and Gündogan it would be a good match but in our current setup I don't think he would fit anything else than what Herrera plays right now and probably wouldn't even offer the same defensive contribution that our little Spaniard does right now.
Gundogan and Herrera for one spot, with Carrick and Blind for the other spot. It makes perfect sense especially considering that both Gundogan and Herrera are very versatile and can play as No.10 and No.6 too.
If Gundogan gets back to his best, he would easily bench Herrera (who I think is awesome). If not, then he would at-least be a very good cover/competition.
That midfield still lacks physicality imho. Its something I feel we're lacking right now.
@NL Max The indications seem to be LVG wants another midfielder, who is defensively minded, do you think he'll be looking for a physical type of midfielder? Someone to compliment Carrick/Blind/Herrera or is he not so bothered by that?
I loved (pre-injury) Gundogan, but I just think that he isn't what we need. We've got plenty of options for attacking midfield, we need defensive midfield players. Otherwise van Gaal will still shove Rooney in there, because he wants his balance. This balance means that he plays with 2 defensively good midfielders.
Gundogan can't replace Fellaini (our defensive 10) in our lineup since we'd be too lightweight. This would mean one of Rooney/Fellaini would always need to play alongside Gundogan/Herrera and Blind/Carrick. I rather we get someone in who could take over Fellaini's defensive task with Mata/Herrera at 10 to bring defensive balance and could even cover for Blind/Carrick in case of emergency. So a combination 8 & 6.
Gundogan doesn't seem the type of midfielder van Gaal meant in his interview where he said: I'm looking for a midfielder to bring balance.
Dammit Sam I wasn't ready yet with typing
!Van Gaal said he underestimated the physicality of the PL so I'm pretty sure he will. It'll be more about being smart/good defensively than pure body though I guess. Someone like Strootman is what he's looking for, too bad the real Strootman will only be back just before preseason so I don't think he'll go for him.
Gundogan and another defensive midfielder could be an option, but van Gaal likes smaller squads so a 8&6 player is more likely I think.
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For people saying we'd lack physicality in midfield just remember one of the greatest midfield 3 of all time consisted of Iniesta, Xavi and Busquets.
Sorry @NL Max! Thanks for the info as usual though. Whats happened to Strootman really is such a shame, he would have been perfect for us.
Thanks for the info as usual though. Whats happened to Strootman really is such a shame, he would have been perfect for us.- Status