Angel Di Maria | £59.7M fee agreed I Maybe tomorrow...or the day after...

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Stretch said:
I read the Ducker article. It doesn't add much value. There is this idea that is being peddled by pundits and journalists alike that di Maria is a 'cherry on the cake' signing with no cake yet. It's not a well thought out argument IMO. If we have a look at the squad, we have been in need of 3 positions being addressed with quality to world class players needed, being CM, CB and Winger. If we look at CM, we needed 2 CMs, one creative ball carrying CM and a CM that can play box to box with strong defensive qualities and who is highly mobile. We've addressed the first part one by signing Herrera. Further, Herrera along with Mata as a combo can take care of creation. We need a another box to box CM which is not the easiest to obtain. Seemingly our main target here, Vidal has knee issues and there aren't others around. Going for Kroos or Cesc would not have addressed this issue either as Herrera already takes care of that dept.

Further, class CBs just aren't around and are mostly unavailable. Dortmund refused to sell Hummels regardless of what we would have offered. Looking around, there weren't that many targets available to pursue on this front. Benatia might have been an option however, if it is true that Bayern are in for him, then he was always going to prefer them due to UCL. Again, I don't see any world class CBs around. It also further assumes that Rojo, Smalling, Evans and Jones won't improve.

Di Maria then became available in an area that needs addressing. Question then is, should we have passed on the opportunity simply because we have not able to secure another CB and CM? Of course not. Thus the argument of Ducker that our transfer strategy is 'scatter gun' like is nonsense and not thought through. Our main areas of concern has seen us sign a CM, a LB, a CB (who can play LB) and now a winger. If we add a class CM and another CB to that it won't be 'scatter gun' would it?
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Who says we are not after a CM and a defender is well? the defence is not in bad shape, it just needs gelling. We are looking to sign a CM, and we are desperately short of wingers, now when everyone is fit, our weakest area ironically is the wide position. In defence and midfield we still have players there who can do the job, herrera and carrick could be one hell of a pairing, blackett looks like a stunning defender, we have signed rojo and shaw, we have jones who had an outstanding game.

Now when everyone fit, this is our backline and midfield

DDG
rafeal jones rojo shaw
carrick herrera

Our wide positions consist of valencia and young, while janazaj is still learning the game, yea for the other critics, this area really is not a priority LOL. Di Maria blows away all our current wide players

Even now we could play a back 4 of
smalling jones blackett rojo
 
Injuries are our main concern. Once we have everybody fit we will get a steady team and get some chemistry going. Last year the injuries just made defensive structure impossible to work with.

As previously mentioned at the end of last year, a LB a CM and a winger were all required. We now have acquired 3/3, but ideally we now need to weed out the dross and replace with genuine quality.
 
Fitting Mata in is hardly something to worry about. If City can find room for Silva, Navas, Nasri, Dzeko and Aguero (and that's not including some of the others) then we can fit Di Maria, Mata, RVP and Rooney. On the pitch at the same time? Not always, but as our best four players they'll get enough playing time to keep them happy, i'm sure of it.

In fact, on the attacking front (and I know we claimed this last season), our pool of RVP, Rooney, Mata, Di Maria, Januzaj, Kagawa and Welbeck probably just about on par with (and I imagine some will claim better than) that of Nasri, Silva, Navas, Aguero, Dzeko, Negredo and Jovetic. Unfortunately we happen to be light years behind in both CM and Defence.
 
Rake said:
So basically LvG, Jorge Mendes and the person translating for Di Maria are now at Carrington.
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Saw few people saying LVG was driven in the same car as Jorge Mendes.

Convince him to get Ronaldo back LVG! His midfield clients are Moutinho and Anderson only though. Also hope he doesn't sell the idea of another Bebe to LVG. :nervous:
 
Adam-Utd said:
Injuries are our main concern. Once we have everybody fit we will get a steady team and get some chemistry going. Last year the injuries just made defensive structure impossible to work with.

As previously mentioned at the end of last year, a LB a CM and a winger were all required. We now have acquired 3/3, but ideally we now need to weed out the dross and replace with genuine quality.
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We need another CM this year and were always going to with Carrick aging and coming off a poor season. I beleive he will improve again under LVG but we still need another one to compete with him. Simply cannot rely on Fletcher.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Weird isn't it? Look at the bench the other top teams have, I don't see why ours should be any different. it's like people panic as soon as we have two/three top players competing for the same positions and feel it's necessary to get the feck rid of one of them.
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It's absurd, particularly when we don't have many contributors in terms of goals. Selling van Persie would prove to be a calamitous error, that, I am certain of. Both van Persie and Rooney pick up enough injuries to rotate and offer sufficient gametime to other players too. Competition is healthy.
 
IMO, Mata has to be playing as our number 10 and ADM has to play out wide. Work around that and let RVP and Rooney fight it out for their place. I'd like to see just one of them starting as they just don't work together, but let's be honest, with our injury record then it's not often that they're all going to be fit!
 
FromTheBench said:
Saw few people saying LVG was driven in the same car as Jorge Mendes.
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Indeed SSN reported that Mendes was in the car with LvG even though he was in the back seat and the back windows were tinted black so he was not visible

SATA said:
Really?
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Yes, SSN reported that they arrived within 30 minutes of each other. On top of that meanwhile one of the official United photographers was seen entering the hotel where Di Maria is staying with his equipment and a new jersey
 
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We must and should convert to a 4-3-3 with Di Maria. I am highly sceptical of this 3-5-2 business.​


DDG

RAFAEL-----------EVANS------------ROJO-----------SHAW

CARRICK

HERRERA----------MATA

JANUZAJ---------------------------DI MARIA

RVP



I rather we sign Vidal for Mata and a new RB since Rafael can't be relied upon.
Lastly, a new DM to replace the ageing Carrick.​


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Jacob said:
We must and should convert to a 4-3-3 with Di Maria. I am highly sceptical of this 3-5-2 business.


DDG

RAFAEL-----------EVANS------------ROJO-----------SHAW

CARRICK

HERRERA----------MATA

JANUZAJ---------------------------DI MARIA

RVP



I rather we sign Vidal for Mata and a new RB since Rafael can't be relied upon.​
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Rooney is our captain, he is starting every game.
 
Oneunited26 said:
We are not in the champions league, I just think having mata in your team he makes up for the lack of 4th striker. He scores and assists, I just find it very difficult to keep 2 strikers who play in the same number 9 position, both have very little pace. I would rather see the progress of janazaj than keeping both of rooney and RVP, the signing of di maria is pretty pointless playing 352, the squad is built for a 433. It all depends on how the midfield is shaped, but I do feel mata di maria and janazaj could easily make up for the lack of a rooney or RVP, which I feel is a big problem
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It still isn't really enough though. We only have Mata, van Persie and Rooney who would be certainties to contribute a lot of goals, but across the rest of the squad it's a bit scarce. With or without Champions League football, we still need at least six capable players for four attacking positions - I don't consider Valencia and Young that - and Mata, van Persie, Rooney, di Maria, Welbeck, Januzaj and Kagawa is good quantity and incredible quality for four positions, especially with the inordinate amount of injuries we have to endure.

It just to great a risk to willingly offload RvP that could create further dilemmas when we have enough to worry about as it is with the midfield and defence. As I said, competition is healthy and I don't think anyone will deny RvP's level has dropped recently. The player himself is probably aware that he shouldn't be an automatic starter and better players could extract the absolute maximum from him.
 
dileno said:
Are we seriously dropping Mata now to accomodate Di Maria? No thanks.. Both vital to our success.
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We should drop Rooney or RVP IMO.

Only time their partnership ever worked was when Rooney played CM.
 
3-2-3-1-1

-------------de gea-------------

-------p jones--Evans--rojo---

---Valencia-----------------shaw-

---januzaj--Herrera--Di Maria---

-------------------J Mata---------

--------------Rooney--------------
 
Rake said:
Indeed SSN reported that Mendes was in the car with LvG even though he was in the back seat and the black windows were tinted black so he was not visible



Yes, SSN reported that they arrived within 30 minutes from each other. On top of that meanwhile one of the official United photographers was seen entering the hotel where Di Maria is staying with his equipment and a new jersey
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Cheers mate

This announcement can't happen soon enough :drool:
 
Woodzy said:
Fitting Mata in is hardly something to worry about. If City can find room for Silva, Navas, Nasri, Dzeko and Aguero (and that's not including some of the others) then we can fit Di Maria, Mata, RVP and Rooney. On the pitch at the same time? Not always, but as our best four players they'll get enough playing time to keep them happy, i'm sure of it.

In fact, on the attacking front (and I know we claimed this last season), our pool of RVP, Rooney, Mata, Di Maria, Januzaj, Kagawa and Welbeck probably just about on par with (and I imagine some will claim better than) that of Nasri, Silva, Navas, Aguero, Dzeko, Negredo and Jovetic. Unfortunately we happen to be light years behind in both CM and Defence.
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Yes we can and that is why I suggested that the best system for United to play is the 1-4-2-2-2. Manchester plays such beautiful football in that system and I am sure United can aswell. However, I would start to argue that having Rooney and Van Persie upfront is becoming more of a problem than a positive. Welbeck or Januzaj in that system will add to our team a much better balance.
 
Longlivekeano said:
3-2-3-1-1

-------------de gea-------------

-------p jones--Evans--rojo---

---Valencia-----------------shaw-

---januzaj--Herrera--Di Maria---

-------------------J Mata---------

--------------Rooney--------------
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Awful. No balance whatsoever.
 
feckers. I was hoping this was wrapped up before I went to bed lol. Gotta sleep now so I can get up at 5 to watch the game. Hopefully when I wake up I see a picture of home holding the number 7 jersey :D
 
Amadaeus said:
Yes we can and that is why I suggested that the best system for United to play is the 1-4-2-2-2. Manchester plays such beautiful football in that system and I am sure United can aswell. However, I would start to argue that having Rooney and Van Persie upfront is becoming more of a problem than a positive. Welbeck or Januzaj in that system will add to our team a much better balance.
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Please stop.
 
He could just about handle the pink kit, but when he heard we were going to wear this in Europe, he left.

BvvbAdbCQAA1cb2.jpg:large
 
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