Andreas Granqvist

Joe.co.uk? is that the website who created Van Gaal dancing video before He got sacked?
 
I think many are massively underrating him here, but whether we should be targeting him over others is another question. From what I've seen of him playing for Sweden, he's very good at organising and leading a defence. A 6 month loan wouldn't be the worst deal.

He was good at leading a defence at the world cup because he literally was surrounded by 8-9 teammates. Their job was to defend, defend and defend. He couldn't have asked for more protection being at the heart of that defence. His job was to lead the line and hoof anything that came his way.

Not everyone is capable of leading that sort of a defence so credit to him for doing an excellent job in that system. But that system is the polar opposite of the one we should be playing. We should constantly be on the front food. Our CBs should be agile. They should have the knowhow on what to do 1v1. And they should be able to pick good passes and be calm under pressure.

The guy is 33 and plays in Sweden's fecking second division. Utter shambles that people even are entertaining this stupid idea. 6 month deal would be pretty bad. He is actually no better than the duds we have. We've already wasted enough time trying to sort out the defence, let's not waste even more by loaning a bloke who has absolutely no business being in the PL. Just overpay for a quality leader in January, or play a kid there until the summer and acknowledge that the only way we will win matches is by attacking for 90 mins.
 
Our candidate managers must be wet at the thought of such backing in the market :drool:
 
He’s not the future, obviously, but he could work short-term as there is no leader at all in United atm. If he is still at the level he was a few months ago he would be better than all other CBs, maybe with the exception of Smalling.
 
I’m not saying I wanted him
Not my point. He wouldn't agree to play for United in the first place, because we play in the same league with Chelsea and are competing with them (or trying to).
 
Well, he is better than anything we have, and he can actually lead a defense.
 
My father just reminded me that we (and by we I mean FC Nantes) were linked with him a few years ago, back when we were still in Ligue 2. But he was deemed not an upgrade and we moved on.
So a player in his prime was deemed not good enough for french Ligue 2, but in the twilight of his career is now a target for Man Utd. It's kinda nice to see my 2nd favorite club lining up its ambitions with my favorite one (even though I'd rather it be the other way around lol).
 
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Slow, aging clodder CB's are not a good fit for the PL, especially coming in half way through a season. I personally don't give a feck as our CB's are in bad form but we must be ready to ship most of them out in the summer as if their confidence wasn't already rock bottom after Mourinho has constantly banged on about wanting to buy another CB and not being able to play out from the back, bringing in a 33 year old from the Swedish second division will finish them off completely.
 
He's a good out and out defender. We've only had 1 of those this season so can only be a good thing to have him as an option
 
Slow, aging clodder CB's are not a good fit for the PL, especially coming in half way through a season. I personally don't give a feck as our CB's are in bad form but we must be ready to ship most of them out in the summer as if their confidence wasn't already rock bottom after Mourinho has constantly banged on about wanting to buy another CB and not being able to play out from the back, bringing in a 33 year old from the Swedish second division will finish them off completely.

Ah yes, we cannot look for new players into our lineup because it makes our current players anxious and they play like shit.

We should stick to a 11 men squad so our pretty flowers don't feel offended, hope they've got enough gas to make it through 50 games season.
 
Shades of Jose signing that unknown defenders for chelsea when Roman didnt approve any defenders
 
Ah yes, we cannot look for new players into our lineup because it makes our current players anxious and they play like shit.

We should stick to a 11 men squad so our pretty flowers don't feel offended, hope they've got enough gas to make it through 50 games season.
Not what I was saying, our defensive record last season and the one before was pretty good, but when it becomes obvious your manager doesn't trust or rate you, it will effect confidence, that is human nature. Bringing in a 33 year old from a minor league who will unlikely be able to play every game, will only do further damage. It makes more sense to sell them and replace them in one go, in the summer, than expect them to play well when it's clear they are not wanted.
 
Not what I was saying, our defensive record last season and the one before was pretty good, but when it becomes obvious your manager doesn't trust or rate you, it will effect confidence, that is human nature. Bringing in a 33 year old from a minor league who will unlikely be able to play every game, will only do further damage. It makes more sense to sell them and replace them in one go, in the summer, than expect them to play well when it's clear they are not wanted.

Slow, aging clodder CB's are not a good fit for the PL, especially coming in half way through a season. I personally don't give a feck as our CB's are in bad form but we must be ready to ship most of them out in the summer as if their confidence wasn't already rock bottom after Mourinho has constantly banged on about wanting to buy another CB and not being able to play out from the back, bringing in a 33 year old from the Swedish second division will finish them off completely.

It's actually exactly what you've been saying unless you don't understand what you're trying to convey, which would actually explain your infamous Lukaku quote.

I'm afraid it might not be Mourinho's badwill not to ship out some shite players we have, could do something with their contracts, their age, quality and the number of years on their contracts indeed but why even bother thinking about it.
 
It's actually exactly what you've been saying unless you don't understand what you're trying to convey, which would actually explain your infamous Lukaku quote.

I'm afraid it might not be Mourinho's badwill not to ship out some shite players we have, could do something with their contracts, their age, quality and the number of years on their contracts indeed but why even bother thinking about it.
Ah the Lukaku quote, whatever, look at his thread, most agreeing with my initial assessment of him regardless of anything else, but nevermind. When you tell someone you aren't good enough and aren't wanted, then how do you expect to get much out of them? and we are gonna need these CB's until the end of the season as a 33 year old clod from the Swedish second division isn't going to come in a change a thing. My point is you need to find a balance, get rid and replace, otherwise you have a bunch of players who you have demoralized and will be no use when you inevitably need them, it would be different if we were bringing in Alderweireld or Skrinniar because we'd likely not need to use a Lindelof or Jones again, and can bin them in the summer, but this guy will likely leave us still needing the CB's who's confidence has been destroyed.

I loathe Mourinho but I've never blamed him for us not being able to get rid of the deadwood, that's the greedy board, when Pep wanted shot of City's deadwood they took big hits and just released the players he didn't want in some cases, so the board is to blame for this aspect. .
 
Ah the Lukaku quote, whatever, look at his thread, most agreeing with my initial assessment of him regardless of anything else, but nevermind. When you tell someone you aren't good enough and aren't wanted, then how do you expect to get much out of them? and we are gonna need these CB's until the end of the season as a 33 year old clod from the Swedish second division isn't going to come in a change a thing. My point is you need to find a balance, get rid and replace, otherwise you have a bunch of players who you have demoralized and will be no use when you inevitably need them, it would be different if we were bringing in Alderweireld or Skrinniar because we'd likely not need to use a Lindelof or Jones again, and can bin them in the summer, but this guy will likely leave us still needing the CB's who's confidence has been destroyed.

I loathe Mourinho but I've never blamed him for us not being able to get rid of the deadwood, that's the greedy board, when Pep wanted shot of City's deadwood they took big hits and just released the players he didn't want in some cases, so the board is to blame for this aspect. .

Well I don't know, if I know I'm not doing my shit properly I try to actually do my shit properly instead of throwing a hissy fit like a fecking cnut and blaming everybody around me and I do it for a far lesser salary than our 'players' who are also working in one of the coolest industries you can work in. Crazy I know but their mentality is exactly why we are where we are under third different manager, it only baffles me that our fans somehow try to justify this bullshit with some absolutely moronic excuses.

If our CBs get their morale destroyed by us bringing in competition, and it doesn't really matter whether it's Boateng, Maguire or some 33 year old viking, it means that they are not fit enough to play for this club, granted we want to come back to winning ways. The player we bring in to compete, and where from we bring him, speaks volumes not only about Woodward and his shit transfer dealings but also about quality of our current lot. If my employer brought in a new employee who's an illiterate half imbecile I'd ask myself why and whether there's possibly something wrong with me.

But that's the type of mentality and thinking that's absent in our club as of recent. It's always somebody else, never our players.
 
Well I don't know, if I know I'm not doing my shit properly I try to actually do my shit properly instead of throwing a hissy fit like a fecking cnut and blaming everybody around me and I do it for a far lesser salary than our 'players' who are also working in one of the coolest industries you can work in. Crazy I know but their mentality is exactly why we are where we are under third different manager, it only baffles me that our fans somehow try to justify this bullshit with some absolutely moronic excuses.

If our CBs get their morale destroyed by us bringing in competition, and it doesn't really matter whether it's Boateng, Maguire or some 33 year old viking, it means that they are not fit enough to play for this club, granted we want to come back to winning ways. The player we bring in to compete, and where from we bring him, speaks volumes not only about Woodward and his shit transfer dealings but also about quality of our current lot. If my employer brought in a new employee who's an illiterate half imbecile I'd ask myself why and whether there's possibly something wrong with me.

But that's the type of mentality and thinking that's absent in our club as of recent. It's always somebody else, never our players.
Does your boss openly tell you that you're shit and he wants to replace you? It's pretty well established that whether you're a store manager, an office manager or a football manager that you get more out of your employees when you create a positive and productive work environment, that is the farthest thing from what Mourinho has created here, but again, feck them off and buy top new CB's, clean break, no problem, bringing in a player of this lower level I think will only create more problems because we'll still need those other CB's, and yes maybe they are mentally too weak, but if we can't get rid of them then we have to manage that aspect of them until we can, otherwise they'll be even more useless to us when we do need them.

It;s obvious we need a CB, most would say 2, my opinion is do it next summer and ship the weak ones out at the same time, that's all.
 
This will be the worst signing in United history. It’s absolutely ridicolous.
 
I can not see other big clubs in the world are doing this.
 
I can not see other big clubs in the world are doing this.

Well, Chelsea did show interest in Crouch last year. Attacking equivalent of our alleged interest in Granqvist.:)

More likely he's drumming up interest for himself. Even Jose wouldn't do this IMO.
 
Does your boss openly tell you that you're shit and he wants to replace you? It's pretty well established that whether you're a store manager, an office manager or a football manager that you get more out of your employees when you create a positive and productive work environment, that is the farthest thing from what Mourinho has created here, but again, feck them off and buy top new CB's, clean break, no problem, bringing in a player of this lower level I think will only create more problems because we'll still need those other CB's, and yes maybe they are mentally too weak, but if we can't get rid of them then we have to manage that aspect of them until we can, otherwise they'll be even more useless to us when we do need them.

It;s obvious we need a CB, most would say 2, my opinion is do it next summer and ship the weak ones out at the same time, that's all.

When was the last time Mourinho said that one of our CBs are shit to the press, as I understand that 'openly' covers it? It's not replacing either, it's competitiveness, something natural for sports' industry so if somebody's taking it to himself then again, perhaps it's high time to stop pretending they are professional footballers and find a normal, every day job. I presume that the 'positive and productive' (it's such a ridiculous 21st century coaching bullshit cliche it's beyond belief) environment was created behind the curtains but this shit only takes you so far if the players are not abusing it and actually doing their job. If constant upping and encouraging doesn't do it for them, perhaps the reversal is and was needed. They are not 10 year old kids to be constantly praised for being shit and not to accept any sort of criticism, especially given how mediocre they are.
 
If we are not signing anyone, then I guess I could live with a CB on loan. I don't think 33 means old for a CB, unless his legs have gone
 
When was the last time Mourinho said that one of our CBs are shit to the press, as I understand that 'openly' covers it? It's not replacing either, it's competitiveness, something natural for sports' industry so if somebody's taking it to himself then again, perhaps it's high time to stop pretending they are professional footballers and find a normal, every day job. I presume that the 'positive and productive' (it's such a ridiculous 21st century coaching bullshit cliche it's beyond belief) environment was created behind the curtains but this shit only takes you so far if the players are not abusing it and actually doing their job. If constant upping and encouraging doesn't do it for them, perhaps the reversal is and was needed. They are not 10 year old kids to be constantly praised for being shit and not to accept any sort of criticism, especially given how mediocre they are.
You know as well as I do that managers and often players talk through the media, there's been endless articles on how he doesn't rate his CB's and wanted new ones and how many times has he said after matches we can't play out from the back due to our CB's? I mean on Saturday he played Pogba as a CB because he said he needed someone that can distribute out of defense, it doesn't get much more open than that. As for the rest, in particular the bolded part, I'm guessing you're one of those guys that think you're not a real man if you don't get drunk out of your mind and get into a punch up every weekend, like manly men do, the fact is you think Mourinho is the right fit for this club and should stay as manager? I don't see a lot of point in continuing to go around in circles with this, and for the thread topic alone, if we are going to get a CB, lets not get a 33 year old from the Swedish second division, that's pretty stupid no matter which side of the other stuff we stand on.
 
You know as well as I do that managers and often players talk through the media, there's been endless articles on how he doesn't rate his CB's and wanted new ones and how many times has he said after matches we can't play out from the back due to our CB's? I mean on Saturday he played Pogba as a CB because he said he needed someone that can distribute out of defense, it doesn't get much more open than that. As for the rest, in particular the bolded part, I'm guessing you're one of those guys that think you're not a real man if you don't get drunk out of your mind and get into a punch up every weekend, like manly men do, the fact is you think Mourinho is the right fit for this club and should stay as manager? I don't see a lot of point in continuing to go around in circles with this, and for the thread topic alone, if we are going to get a CB, lets not get a 33 year old from the Swedish second division, that's pretty stupid no matter which side of the other stuff we stand on.

No, I'm saying, as a qualified teacher and a football coach, that the arm around the arm around shoulder works only when it works, if it doesn't and people still don't give a shit, especially when they're adults and not children, there are other psychological means to an end, I believe that with Mourinho's tenure here he'd had a fair share of the former approach and it probably hasn't worked. The modern coaching, which insists on the positive attitude and all smiles 24/7 doesn't teach anybody how to cope with with losing, pressure, criticism (which will come from the outwards such as the social media, press, fans and so forth) and ends up making your players soft. You have to delude yourself if you think that the other managers don't mix the approaches. Given that Mourinho is renowned for his psychological approach (read any of the books about him and you'll get the clue), I doubt he's only throwing everybody under the bus and I'm pretty sure what he says in the media is about 10% of the whole picture, no matter how much the media try to make you believe otherwise, in the end it's up to you what you wish to believe.

As for Mourinho he probably should walk but the next manager will only temporarily fix things just so that all can go to shit again in a year or two time, said it numerous time around here. His point about our CBs' distribution is valid though so I have no idea why anybody would feel offended by it unless you're a precious snowflake. What's next, Mata being mad if Mourinho hints that he's not there to win aerial duels? DDG crying because Mourinho questions his sprinting abilities? Our CBs cannot play the ball for shit, Lindelöf probably being the one with the biggest potential on paper, yet cannot transfer it on a consistent basis.
 
If it's a loan move the club really hasn't Got a lot to lose. The CB situation is not great and if he can contribute it's a win win situation for all parties. If not we're not worse than we were.