He needs to find a club where he can develop. Loans here and there are doing him no good.
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He’s awful. Should have sold him by now. I imagine he will dwindle and leave on a free at some point to ‘resurrect his career’ then dwindle more. Everyone needs to get over he’s an academy graduate and accept the fact that even though we would all love him to be amazing hes poor. Fitness issues on top.
That's never going to happen in the first team of a big club. Players go on loan for a run of games as he did at Villa, when they come back they need to perform immediately in the opportunities they get. That will be the odd cup game or sub appearance.
In the first team we have to play our best players every game. That's Maguire and Lindelof. Occasionally we play Bailly because when he's fit and on it, he is as good as them. There is not room to give some kid 5 or 10 consecutive games to see if he's good enough.
I was expecting to come in here with a bunch of a praise and the worst comments being like: "it's only preseason, doesn't tell you much".
Am I the only one that saw him play really well? Especially keeping in mind the lad next to him had a stinker.
Anyway, happy to see him go out on loan. Guy has all the attributes to make it. Hopefully he'll come back as our 3rd CB, ahead of Lindelof and Bailly.
Am I the only one that saw him play really well? Especially keeping in mind the lad next to him had a stinker.
Anyway, happy to see him go out on loan. Guy has all the attributes to make it. Hopefully he'll come back as our 3rd CB, ahead of Lindelof and Bailly.
It looked like Ole’s plan, 2 years ago, was to let Axel play the easier cup matches at the start of the season to get some flow, then if he was good enough, get occasional PL games to compete with Victor for the starting CB position. However injuries got in the way and we never got to see if he was good enough.
Imo he showed against Istanbul that he is not mature enough to take on the responsibility he was given. When you play alongside Maguire you have a partner who will take care of everything in the air in front of you, but you must basically take care of everything behind the back line. That is a very difficult job as it involves difficult decisions. Should Axel push to win back the ball early? Should he back down to cover space? Bailly has played 5 seasons with us and can still not make those decisions. Axel failed that miserably against Istanbul and from what I’ve seen in other matches, he is not there (yet?).
I think this is why he has had his best matches with Lindelof, and mostly poor matches with Maguire (small sample size so it is more a qualitative analysis). He doesn’t need to take those decisions. Lindelof will almost always cover space.
Spot on. For any other position than CB or goalkeeper we can throw in a player here and there, but for a CB it is not possible.
I think he has remained an enigma because hes never been fit enough/good enough to get a run of games for everyone to see his level isn't good enough.
theres times he has been fit and unable to displace lindelof which means he isnt any good because otherwise we would partner him with HM not sign Varane etc.
he’s 24 in November. He isnt a youth prospect to develop he should already be playing at a good level. Look at the likes of Dias, Upamecano, Konate, Pau Torres who are similar age. He’s nowhere near their level and never will be. Just get shot of him while we can get a few bob for him.
The "we wouldn't sign Varane" argument is nonsense. Does us signing Sancho mean Rashford and Greenwood aren't good enough?
The players you mentioned aren't from the academy of one of the biggest clubs in the world. They were all starters at lesser teams. I think a better comparison would be someone like Ake.
I think Ole rates him quite a bit, or else he wouldn't have tried throwing him in that Sheffield game when others were fit. Taking into account all his performances, I really don't see a gap between him and Lindelof/Bailly. Just that the pair is "proven" and he's not. Axel has all the attributes for a top defender, with the exception of experience.
Sheffield aside, he did well whenever he did a get chance. Looked a bit shaky next to Bailly against Wolves. Not surprising, they don't complement each other and well, it's Bailly. He had a better performance than Lindelof against Fullham.
I think he'll surprise us a quite a bit, (on loan and after) despite his age. So let's just wait and see. There's not much to discuss when the lad barely plays, except his really good preseason performances, which everyone in this thread is failing to notice, except @Gopher Brown
I still think he’s a good player, but he needs to play every single week. He’ll be of little use as a backup centre half for us. Defenders more than any other position, need to play to build experience.
its obvious hes a player you really like but i think youve got the blinkers on because hes an academy graduate. He wont have a career here, hes not good enough.
I agree. Shouldnt be that difficult to find a PL club for him, either loan or sell with buy back clause
Not a whole lot should be read in to pre-season matches. Despite everything coaches instruct, the mentality is just different than "real" matches. We saw this under Ferguson for decades, where we rarelly played even in third gear, let alone top gear. Tuanzebe was not at all sharp yesterday but we have every reason to believe he'll be a solid prem defender for years to come. The question is whether he has it in his to become a great prem defender. We shall find out.
We should have loaned him when Villa got promoted, they were interested in taking him back. Such a good opportunity. We basically have wasted 2 years of his development, as he never really got a proper chance.
Young players make mistakes and are inconsistent, it was stupid to keep him if we were not going to play him.
Young players make mistakes and are inconsistent, it was stupid to keep him if we were not going to play him.
I thought he did okay, obviously a lot better than Mengi especially with the ball and didnt see him have any particularly concerning moments defensively. Wouldnt say he did really well, but other than Maguire I dont expect any of our other CBs would play much better than he did.
He’s not going to get a run of games on the trot. If he couldn’t get them when Maguire was partnered by Lindelof he’s not going to get them if we buy Varane.
He couldn’t even get them when Lindelöf was out of favour, he still needs to get ahead of Bailly before trying to usurp Lindelöf. He’s currently 4th choice, and by the end of this week, could well be 5th choice.
Good point. I don’t see Bailly or him wanting to stick around too long playing 2nd fiddle. Wouldn’t be surprised to see one or both sold/traded IF we bring in Varane AND Kounde
Should be a good move for Tuanzebe. He needs regular minutes and there shouldn't be too much competition for him to contend with at Newcastle. You'd imagine Bruce would do a good job of looking after him too.
Not sure what Tuanzebe's contract situation is like atm but a successful loan spell plus potential sale next year would be good for all parties.
Yeah, Bruce tends to play 3 CBs too which may suit Axel (plus more chance of starting role)
Hopefully the loan can get us a Michael Keane-like £25m+ fee next summer.
Hope this loan happens, could do wonders for him
Rinse and repeat. Family club.
He'll be 25 (in November) the season this loan deal ends.
"Just another 5 year, 100k a week contract to 'maintain his value'. It's worked out so well in the past"
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Had high hopes for this lad but he is well behind in terms of development. He should not go on a Premiership loan. My poor judgment says he needs a championship loan to just play football and loosen his body up a bit + develop a bit of leadership. CB is not only about defending ability, leadership is as important too.
Watching him play last season, half the time it looks like he is waiting for instructions from his fellow players. This is quite noticeable during this preseason.
Does Rooney not need him?
Watching him play last season, half the time it looks like he is waiting for instructions from his fellow players. This is quite noticeable during this preseason.
Does Rooney not need him?
A loan is the right move for him this season. He's a talented and intelligent lad with good leadership qualities but if Ole favours Bailly as his second backup CB, then he's just going to be treading water. Looking at him in the pre-season games, he needs regular playing time with a reasonably regular partnership.
A loan with a view to sell. He's miles away from the level required and I don't know what his mentality is like. Actual ability is one thing, but the way he jogged over to cover after Dalot got done last night doesn't strike me as a player desperate to show he means business. He's done that a couple of times this pre season.
Extra year sounds like it's more of a retaining some value type of extension, article ends with the possibility of this loan leading to a permanent move there.
Familiar surroundings for him, decent move. Hope it works out for him.
I’m not sure how he’s going to get much game time at Villa. Looks like they just want him as backup.
Pointless loan, won't get games ahead of Mings, Konsa or Cash. Would've been better off going to Newcastle.
If he was a Liverpool player they would sell him for £15-20 million. Hopefully Villa will consider buying now that they are getting bucket loads of money for Grealish. A loan is a waste of time, we should just sell.
Will he actually get regular games? They’ve got a very well-established and effective defence which seems like it wouldn’t need to rotate regularly.
I can appreciate it’s a familiar environment for Tuanzebe but it’s consistent minutes he’s in desperate need of at this point, not being another depth option. Newcastle would make more sense imo.
Hopefully he plays regularly. But he should move permanently. Need to stop with loans for him as he's too old to have so few games, and he's not going to make it at United unless he leaves, develops a lot and them we buy him back in 5 years after Varane/Maguire. Literally not happening otherwise.
The curse of badly chosen loan deals strikes again.
Just send him somewhere he's almost guaranteed to start. How hard can it be?
Just send him somewhere he's almost guaranteed to start. How hard can it be?
Newcastle wouldn't pay the loan fee apparently because I agree much bigger chance of him getting starts there
Thats where we need to think of the players development more, clubs aren't always going to pay the loan fee and give regular game time to youngsters. There has to be give and take from the club, it could very well be another year of Axels development handled very poorly by the club.
I don’t see him getting many games at Villa either. They’ve got a strong, settled defence and Axel struggles to be available as reliable back up. Never mind that he’s already played there, almost anywhere else would have been a better choice right now. No point focussing on loan fees if the value of the player goes down during the loan. United’s sales and loaning of players kind of baffles me…
Wonder if LCFC would take him on loan considering the injury to Fofana
I'd have preferred to keep him over Bailly but good luck Axel, hopefully he starts plenty of games for Villa and returns next season to replace Bailly.
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