Our first choice LB right now is Darmian. And he is average defensively and woeful going forwards.
Benjamin Mendy | Man City player
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I feel left back is more important than centre back though? We can realistically get away with Jones, Smalling, Bailly and Blind for 6 months. Shaw and Darmian left back.. no chance.
Blind isn't really good enough at all IMO, he's much too slow in a position that requires you to get box to box, he can't offer the support needed because he hasn't got the pace to get back, and with Shaw you have to remember he's not played for 2 years and wasn't the finished article when he came, he's regressed physically and hasn't played enough to be considered outright good enough, he should be the back up to a starter, and the other thing is the LB is as important as DM and certainly CB as not only are we weak there but the lack of quality in the position has the knock on effect of effecting the performance of our LW options.
Well depends what you mean by get away. I mean we got away defensively pretty good despite the fact we rotated at that position a lot. I think we should add another CB, especially if one of Jones or Smalling is leaving.
Shaw is totally unreliable even when fit and should be nothing more than a backup with Darmian at this stage. LB is our weakest position on the pitch, we have been getting ran through on that side all season and in an attacking sense it has been totally impotent. Would rather see Mitchell there than Darmian, Blind or Shaw.
Yeah, I doubt we're interested in Mendy unless Mourinho is abandoning his one defensive/one attacking fullback tactic completely.
Yes, We need more CB's and we can wait for shaw, But none of smalling and jones would be leaving and we also need numbers there. 5 is the exact number.
Fosu mensah can play lb , along with shaw.
Think that's a myth tbh. One has only attacked because apart from Shaw, who hasn't played much this season, the other options don't excel at getting forward. When Young and Valencia were playing together, both were bombing forward.
Rashford could play left back if we put him there, doesn't mean he should.
We can get along with 4 CBs.
Are you sure Smalling or Jones aren't leaving?
Fosu mensah?
No he can't, Fosu Mensah has played a few games at RB, he's right footed, he's not a LB and shouldn't be forced to play out of position, in truth he needs a loan as right now he's all brawn and nothing more.
We have too injury prone defenders to rely on 4 of them, Smalling lacks some degree of mobility and skills but he's one of the best headers of the ball and veryphysical, soi dont think Mourinho will let him go. Jones is mobile and gives 100% when fit so as a squad option can be kept still. Adding a partner to bailly will make us stronger and deeper.
flight got held up, Gaitan forgot his passport again
Yes, good idea to rely on an 18 year old, with very little experience, who's not even a LB to play there. We should be challenging for the title next season, putting faith in kids who don't even play LB isn't the way to go about doing that.
He's trained to play multiple positions at ajax. Yes more of a Rb than left But it does,nt mean we are not covered in the position.
An attacking LB can change the whole dynamics of our game. Just look at players like Marcelo, Carvajal, Dani Alves, etc and how much they contribute to their team. Even if we miss out on Mendy, we need to get some other attacking LB because none of ours are good when going forward. This includes Shaw who I think is better defensively but not that good going forward. He gets up and down the pitch but his end product and link up play is just not that good.
My sentiments exactly. Fullbacks are one of the most important positions in today's game.
We are not covered in the position, end of story. I can't wait to see people cry about the lack of depth and our inability to play several competitions and handle injuries.
He'd be exactly what we need. Evra's defending wasn't top notch either, but he still turned out alright for us. From what I've seen, Mendy looks to be even better going forward.
Sign him up.
Sign him up.
Not as a first choice ofcourse, he is trained to play multiple positions in ajax across the back line and cdm.
He's still not of the required quality though. Rooney has been an option for us this season, but when he plays the difference in quality is obvious. Essentially, any player can play anywhere, doesn't mean they should.
Our LB position has been one of our weakest positions for years now. Fullbacks are essential in today's game, especially with all wide players being forwards instead of wingers. They provide width and penetration.
Are we really going to sign 100 m euros players at defense in lb and also cb and then get the attacking talents we also need with the midfeilders? We have shaw and several players who fill in at lb's and can defend when they do not go forward. Buy CB's are not reliable even in deep defense alongside bailly.
He also needs to not get injured which seems impossible.
We need a full back we need a cb we need a cdm we need wingers and we need strikers, we have to sacrifize on one Position in the window and trust on shaw to deliver or else look them in next window. Cb is more important as of now on priority order.
Loaning as of now makes more sense than buying to wait for shaw one more season.
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Shaw - Always injured, Mourinho doesn't even trust him when he is fit
Darmian - had 2 good games this season when his only job was to defend. He's a non factor going forwards and usually gets skinned for fun when defending too.
Blind - Doesn't have the pace to be an effective up and down left back
Young - All effort no end product, he wouldn't look out of place at Watford
We can't go into another season without a first choice LB, it's our weakest position and needs addressing asap.
We still have second best defense in the league.
We aren't covered, he can barely play RB let alone LB, this Dutch nonsense of playing all positions is just that, nonsense, and not applicable to the real world of competetive football where even the best experiecned talents are usually only good enough to play 2 positions to an acceptable level, and like I said TFM needs a lone, he's raw as a meat counter. .
In my opinion it is, our attacking has been totally dead from the left all season and it took an academy lad to change that. Whenever our left winger get's the ball he has 2 options, beat 2 or 3 men or sideways pass because there's no overlap to give him some space.
We are so one dimensional and predictable because teams know that we will only attack with numbers on the right flank.
That's why he came here to develop.
We have played a very conservative, defensive style of football for the last 6 months. It would be weird if we didn't have one of the best defensive records in the league.
You develop by playing and he's not good enough to do so for us right now, and certainly not in a posiiton he has no senior experience in and is on his wrong foot, he could do with a loan to find out what he actually is and gain some football intelligence from playing.
Our chance creation has been very good this year - we've lacked a striker massively to carry the goal burden from Zlatan. I'm not going to bother entertaining the idea that LB is our weakest position on the pitch when we have the second best defence in the league and ample of creative players to contribute from other areas. Not to forget the Shaw showed a stronger attacking threat since his small run towards the end of the season, bagging a couple of assists.
No we haven't.
We are allowed to sell players you know, the problem is a problem of quality. Young, Blind, Smalling, Jones should all be sold if possible and our back line should be, we could get around 40m:
Valencia, new RB or LB, Fosuh-Mensah(CB), Tuanzebe(CB), Rojo(CB), Bailly(CB), new CB, Shaw(lb) and Darmian(FB).
2 months.
We have created the 4th most chances out of the top 6, that's not enough and it is padded by the football we played before Christmas. Zlatan has carried the goal burden because our whole system was built to feed him chance after chance, with every other player given a massive amount of defensive responsibility.
Who cares if Shaw had 2 decent games, the whole problem is that he's never fit and the alternatives are not good enough to start for Manchester United.
Yes we have, as soon as we scored it was 10 men behind the ball time.
Probably already said, but it feels like we play 1 fullback left to be more cautious and hold shape and give the other more licence to go forward, in this case Valenica for us.
Maybe i'm cracking up but it's never looked as if we've wanted our LB to overlap in the same way.
Also I have to be honest watching Monaco a little bit, I have doubts over both Mendy and Bakayoko going the other way.
Maybe i'm cracking up but it's never looked as if we've wanted our LB to overlap in the same way.
Also I have to be honest watching Monaco a little bit, I have doubts over both Mendy and Bakayoko going the other way.
One of the teams we created more chances than is Chelsea, so yeah I don't think chance creation is an issue for us. As I said, its the lack of a killer instinct in the goal and the cutting edge in the final third that rests with our attacking players. Moreover we have a 35 year old central midfielder rotating Fellaini to start in our midfield.
Yeah, LB is far from our worst problem.
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