We'd have
Amad who can play CAM/RW
Sancho who can play RW/LW
Greenwood who can play RW/CF
Rashford who can play LW/CF
Martial LW/CF (could leave)
Could add Elanga to that as RW/LW too.
Then we have Cavani.
Not bad at all that.
The key difference between us and this City comparison that everyone keeps making is the profile of the players. These are predominantly under 23 and need significant investment in terms of time. Quite simply, we cannot have it all.
Amad looks special to me, and judging by the investment the club made in him, I would presume they feel the same. We have had Ronaldo, Rooney and Greenwood over recent times in this sort of profile - and they have all taken a similar role at the club. These are not regular young players - these are players that we believe are good enough to be amongst the VERY best, and as a result, they have not been limited to the ofd Carabao game, but have been very involved members of our squad. Recently we had Rashford come through in a similar capacity. When we first saw him as a striker, our move was to buy Zlatan at 35 to bridge the gap, with clear succession planning in evidence. With Greenwood, we have seemingly done similarly with Cavani. If Sancho and Amad are both seen as right wingers, then it is quite clearly a contrasting type of deal. People keep talking about ‘next season’. We can send Amad on loan as is said. Okay, then what?
Sancho is one of the best in the world as I’ve been told many times in this thread - but that is largely because of the investment Borussia Dortmund made in his development. And as I’ve said, many people seem to have an issue that WE are not doing the kind of deals Dortmund do. Well we can see why. If we don’t want to make the same kind of investment Dortmund made in Sancho, then we shouldn’t expect the same result. Which is why players who feel they can be the world’s best at that age are starting to favour them.
Now I don’t want our entire team full of 18 year olds, but I have found this right wing weakness massively overstated. I cannot accept that Greenwood’s role in our current best XI is somehow supposed to be spun as our ‘greatest need’ or something. It clearly isn’t. In fact, I’d argue that it is a position currently occupied by one of our better players. People say ‘and he’s a striker’, when he clearly isn’t at the moment. No more so than Rashford is. He plays 90% of his games on the right. And if he did so again next season, he’d likely get a lot of goals and perform well from there. Again.
If Mason is to be a 9 in a year or two, but is clearly good enough on the right to have gotten himself not only into the United side, but the England squad, then he can surely play another 40 games there next season. People should be far more concerned that McFred start weekly for us than Mason. If we, as a club, truly believe that Amad is, say, a couple of years away from being one of the best on the right, then we need to back that. And Amad being a couple of years away from being great isn’t just about time. If he were in a coma for two years he wouldn’t come out developed. He needs that couple of years to be like the couple of years Ronaldo had, the couple of years Rashford had and the last couple of hears Greenwood has had. Not the couple of years that Axel has had. You won’t get any return on that investment. If, on occasion, we buy the Amad’s or Bellingham’s of the game - we need to be prepared to almost do something close to what BVB do with them. If not, come back when they are 23 and 100m. Like we did with Pogba. And like we are basically doing with Sancho. But they absolutely need the bit that comes before that, that BVB and Juve gave them, and that we gave Ronaldo, Greenwood and Rashford.
Don’t get me wrong, if he were only behind Dan James on the right, I’d see the cause for alarm. But Mason Greenwood does not alarm me. And Sancho is no guarantee in the PL himself, and if he doesn’t hit the ground running, he will play as many minutes as we can find in order to get our 80m winger to hopefully look like one.
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