Honestly I think we can find midfielders that bring what Bruno G brings for half of what he would cost if we can scout well.I tend to agree with people who say we aren’t that far away in terms of squad. Attack especially is what needs to improve.
I would say four or five good additions and the squad would be very strong.
Gyokeres - has a good all round game as striker and obviously can score goals. (Unless Hojlund gets 20 plus before the end of the season.)
Tyler Dibling - attacking midfielder, great dribbler. Or another number 10/wide attacker.
Bruno Guimaraes - probably unattainable but he’d be my choice to partner Ugarte. Basically a midfielder who is great at passing but can also do the job defensively.
Alphonso Davies/Alvaro/Kerkez - someone to provide a consistent threat from the left.
Which two players do you think we can bring in for 100 to replace a LW and a CAM?I said it before in another thread, but the elephant in the room to us really being able to upgrade our squad is selling Rashford and one of Garnacho/Bruno. They are all sort of out of place in this type of system anyways, and you'd probably be looking at 100m (maybe more) brought in for selling two of those 3. That would be a huge boost to funds to actually go out and bring in real quality to the attack along with the other obvious needs at wingback/midfield. Otherwise we'll just be sitting here a year from now when they still don't fit our team and we are having to sell them for a further cut rate.
Yeah, I think so too, I just haven’t really been watching much football outside of the Prem so I’m not sure who. I’m sure there are options. I like Locatelli from Juve.Honestly I think we can find midfielders that bring what Bruno G brings for half of what he would cost if we can scout well.
I like Dibling but we need an immediate starter for that left 10 position, I don't think he's that right now. I'd rather go up a level.
No chance unless they go Saudi. Bruno is the wrong side of 30. Rashford is suffering an Owen, Rooney, Torres style early decline and Garnacho isn't that good.I said it before in another thread, but the elephant in the room to us really being able to upgrade our squad is selling Rashford and one of Garnacho/Bruno. They are all sort of out of place in this type of system anyways, and you'd probably be looking at 100m (maybe more) brought in for selling two of those 3. That would be a huge boost to funds to actually go out and bring in real quality to the attack along with the other obvious needs at wingback/midfield. Otherwise we'll just be sitting here a year from now when they still don't fit our team and we are having to sell them for a further cut rate.
Well I’d be looking at getting a striker and an inside 10. Which could be a bunch of combinations of players. Boniface, Guirassy, Gyokeres, Sesko, Openda, David, or (my dream) Isak are all striker options of different prices and level of “provenness”. Cherki, Cunha, Mbeumo, Guler (maybe), Kvara, Eze, Kudus, Dibling, etc are all fits next to Amad behind the striker (with Cunha able to do both as well).Which two players do you think we can bring in for 100 to replace a LW and a CAM?
Are his injuries really a worry? I see that he has made 40+ appearances in four of the five seasons before this one. Does he get a lot of niggles?I love Isak as well, the closest thing to a complete 9. I've followed him since his time at Real Socieded, he'll be very difficult to get, will cost a truck load and I'm a bit worried about his injuries.
Ideally I'll like to bring in another player for the left CAM too but the presence of Rashford and Garnacho wouldn't allow.
That's right but we know that's not happening. Rashford is till the poster boy of the club and has a huge contract, we are stuck with. Maybe the summer after this one.Are his injuries really a worry? I see that he has made 40+ appearances in four of the five seasons before this one. Does he get a lot of niggles?
I forgot the left CAM position. In fact, as I previously mentioned in this thread, may be we can get by having a rotation of Maguire, de Ligt, Yoro, Shaw, Martinez, Dalot and Maz plus another young CB from the youth teams for another season, but we definitely need to add to that attacking position. Both Rashford and Garnacho are counter attacking players. We need someone who is good on the ball, can work in tight spaces and is a good dribbler. Ideally, Rashford and Antony would be moved on and we'd get a player like Kvara from Napoli.
I'm wary of selling the likes of Garnacho/Dalot just because they dont apparently "fit in the system".
If history is any indication, Amorim is here for ~3 years. When he is gone, we will most likely go back to a back 4, so I dont want us to sign super specialized players, or sell players just because they dont 100% fit in the currrent system.
There's always room for a versatile player like Dalot, and a exciting winger like Garnacho.
Di Maria, Lukaku, Matic, Ibrahimovic, Pogba, Cavani, Sancho, Varane, Casemiro - those guys weren't class players? It is funny that you using the power of hindsight to evaluate our transfer business knowing everything we know now. Funny but completely useless. We are 10 years into this mess and it seems like some still haven't got the memo that a strong team isn't just 11 good players but way more. The fact that we have been underperforming is exactly down to us trying to bring in this or that player and hope that this player would somehow improve us as a team. It's bullshit. Thats why stuff like "just bring in a few class players and we are good to go" is so dangerous. It is something that Woody could and would have said. And something that would describe what he was trying to do. Where did it get us? Why would we want to repeat that?So the club as the same mindset? We haven’t signed class players though, we’ve signed Antony and Zirkzee and Mount…. I can go on.
Chelsea spent crazy amounts using a hit-and-hope approach in terms of transfers. And it only bears some fruits now that they have brought in a manager who puts the collective above individual talent. As if there is something to learn about this...but nevermind, just try and find "class players" and then we're good to go. I do just that on Ultimate Team and it works so why would Manchester United not just do the same, right?Teams like Chelsea have just brought in a new manager and yet there 2nd in the league, playing decent football.
Fair enough. That statement is something everybody can sign. With all due respect though, it is so shallow that it has next to no substance at all. Every freaking club in the world could say the exact same thing, just change the name of Amorim and you can apply it to whatever club you want - Champions League, League Two, Polish 2nd division. Such a shallow approach will not move us any further. We are not able to wait another "couple of windows" for Amorims ideas to flourish, we have just seen with ETH that this is not a possibility. We have to improve available players, bring in few, but exactly the right profiles of, players and subordinate all this "player xy could be useful" or "if player abc goes on form, he would be awesome" to whether or not the system is working or not. This is all that matters.Fair enough mate. My bad if you misunderstood. I don’t expect us to shoot straight to 2nd but I don’t think we’re miles away like some have mentioned. Another couple of windows where we can sell all the deadwood and not good enough players and sign some quality players that fit Amorim’s style and I think we’ll see massive improvements.
I'm wary of selling the likes of Garnacho/Dalot just because they dont apparently "fit in the system".
If history is any indication, Amorim is here for ~3 years. When he is gone, we will most likely go back to a back 4, so I dont want us to sign super specialized players, or sell players just because they dont 100% fit in the currrent system.
There's always room for a versatile player like Dalot, and a exciting winger like Garnacho.
You really think anyone will pay >40m for Rashford who is in decline? You think he'll accept lower wages? He is not going anywhere. Very hard for us to sell players and generate a sizeable income.I would be surprised if Rashford or Garnacho are not sold. Circumstances have changed and the board knows it - we must sell (big players) to buy and we have a manager whose system does not fit with those two players.
Either of them will command 55-70 million pounds in this market. Younger age is increasingly prized, plus Rashford is on huge wages, so Garnacho may fetch more than Rashford, but I think he's less likely to be sold for all the usual reasons we talk about (salary, potential, etc...).
Aside from the salaries/contracts ending this season (Lindelof, Eriksen, Evans, Heaton), I think we'll also see one sale that fans didn't necessarily expect (although maybe we've wanted) - someone like Antony or Mount. Those would be for small amounts because their salaries are too high, but think we'll just want to make room in the squad.
If we do all this, I think the bigger-money acquisitions this summer will be 2 of striker, #10, and LWB, with lower cost depth brought in at CM and CB. I think we'll trigger the two extensions (Maguire and Amad, of course).
You really think anyone will pay >40m for Rashford who is in decline? You think he'll accept lower wages? He is not going anywhere. Very hard for us to sell players and generate a sizeable income.
Nowhere near.Martinez getting to the top of the replace list. Absolute liability.
Lingard?!Nowhere near.
Rashford, Antony, Dalot, Hojlund, Maguire, Lingard, Shaw, Zirkzee
Bruno is top of the list if we’re trying to build a possession based teamNowhere near.
Rashford, Antony, Dalot, Hojlund, Maguire, Lingard, Shaw, Zirkzee
Give over. In the match thread you're a fecking snooze already.Bruno is top of the list if we’re trying to build a possession based team
We knew that anywayWith every game this is looking like it’s going to be a bigger and bigger rebuild. Not just replacing a couple of players.
He's too young!Lingard?!
Absolutely, but it isn’t going to happen. We just don’t have the resources and are committed to average players on very big contracts.Need 11 new players, the squad is full of average players, we’ve have multiple managers fail and Amorim is in his way too. Needs a compete clear out and start from scratch.
Watching that 3rd goal back just gets worse and worse.Martinez getting to the top of the replace list. Absolute liability.
It will take a lot of time but it’s also clear as day that so many of these players simply aren’t good enough and he’ll suffer the consequences if he doesn’t take a stand. There’s players you can improve in some way but for many their work rate, pressing, first tough and intelligence is what it is.We all knew it'd be a big job, but not quite this big a job.
3 at the back is an alien system to most players here, so it's no surprise it'll take a lot of time.
Right now it's very difficult to see us get anywhere near the top 6, let alone higher, but we all knew it wasn't going to be an instant turnaround.The team is full of players that rely on individual brilliance and not collective brilliance. We rely on bruno or rashford to produce this moment of magic, rather than good team play like city of the last four years did.
At this point i'd genuinely accept any player being moved on if the manager thinks that'll help the collective team.GK
Mazraoui - Yoro - LCB
Amad - DM - Mainoo - LWB
AM - AM
ST
Onana, de Ligt, CB, Ugarte, CM, LWB, RWB, Bruno, Garnacho, Hojlund
Big rebuild is required.
Right now it's very difficult to see us get anywhere near the top 6, let alone higher, but we all knew it wasn't going to be an instant turnaround.
We just implausibly hoped it would be!
