In a world where Varane is available, then Varane.
Central Defenders - Which one do you want ?
- Thread starter Raoul
- Start date
This is largely due to having 3 injury-prone options in Smalling, Jones and Evans. Switch one of them (almost definitely Evans) with someone like Laporte who's no record of injuries whatsoever and it'll be a very different scenario I believe.
How so? Smalling and Jones had too many injuries this season. Fellaini, who had a fantastic injury record, came here and was mostly injured his first season. Shaw had a good record before he signed for us. We'll hopefully have more games next season and don't go out in the first round of the League Cup. We can do with 5 centre backs.
Smalling had only two injuries, one that kept him out for 4 games and Another which kept him our for 2 so he's actually been pretty stable this year. In fact, he only had one injury last year aswell so his proneness to injury might be overstated. Fellainis injuries were special cases, or exceptions, I'd say and Shaw's a Young player who's probably just been worked above his limits in the last couple of years. I only see the league cup as a distraction, the likes of McNair and Blackett and Thorpe should be getting opportunities in those kind of games IMO.
Edit: Then you also have Mensah and Tuanzebe who might get a tryout in the LC, although it might be a bit early.
We were linked with Antonio Rudiger of Stuttgart late last season. He's a very promising young defender. Only 22, he fits the profile as a ball playing CB with very good distribution and he's very quick. 6'3 as well and strong in the air. Reminds me of Boateng (cue the Messi jokes) in all seriousness. If we're getting rid of Evans and looking to sign an extra CB he'd be worth a punt as he'd come for cheap. Also made his German national team debut last year
What happened to our Dragovic interest?
What happened to our Dragovic interest?
Hummels - Too slow.
Godin - Not young.
Miranda - Too old.
Stefan - Who?
Garay - Midtable.
Marquinhos - Too short and expensive.
Otamendi - Too short and expensive.
Varane - Too inconsistent.
Laporte - Too young.
Stones - Midtable.
Dragovic -Shit hair.
Subotic - Average.
Godin - Not young.
Miranda - Too old.
Stefan - Who?
Garay - Midtable.
Marquinhos - Too short and expensive.
Otamendi - Too short and expensive.
Varane - Too inconsistent.
Laporte - Too young.
Stones - Midtable.
Dragovic -Shit hair.
Subotic - Average.
Fair enough, but the game here is you can only sign one. So do you prioritise the young potential (Laporte) or experience and proven quality? I think the latter is more urgent for us.
How on earth has Stones more than three times as many votes as Marquinhos? What the feck is wrong with the caf?
To everyone voting Stones;
Out of all the candy on that list, you go for fecking Stones. You should be ashamed.
To everyone voting Stones;
Out of all the candy on that list, you go for fecking Stones. You should be ashamed.
Messi - Too short and weakHummels - Too slow.
Godin - Not young.
Miranda - Too old.
Stefan - Who?
Garay - Midtable.
Marquinhos - Too short and expensive.
Otamendi - Too short and expensive.
Varane - Too inconsistent.
Laporte - Too young.
Stones - Midtable.
Dragovic -Shit hair.
Subotic - Average.
Ronaldo - Can't defend
Pogba - Too young and inexperienced
Bale - One footed
Neuer - Too attacking
Marquinhos cost PSG like £30m, we would have to pay over £45m to get him from PSG. Even Barca couldn't get him.
And Stones is a good player and very good with the ball at his feet. Everton have been awful without him this season.
looks like we are going for Otomendi..anyways...
We have no chance of signing Marquinhos.
Jesus Christ...
Where are your ambitions ffs? Stones is a good player, a tiny bit overrated in my opinion, but he's not going to become top world class in my opinion. We won't win CL with Smalling/Stones.
I'm very certain Marquinhos will become top world class if he avoids injuries. £45 million for talent like that is something we can affort. We're the richest club in the world. We must spend a shitload if we're going to reach the level of Real/Bayern/Barca over the next couple of years. And we should definitely do that.
Marquinhos £45 mill
Pogba £70 mill
Bale £70 mill
Yes please. We'd win the league. We're arguably the biggest club in the world and it's a shame that Manchester United is as poor as it is at the moment. It's a disgrace. Real Madrid would never let that happen. Ever.
Please go back and read the poll. It does not ask who you think we'll sign in the summer. It asks who you prefer.
You are very wrong on Stones. He's 20 and already a important player for Everton. Don't know why you don't think he can't be world class. Maybe because he doesn't have a fancy name or not English. You clearly haven't watched him by the looks of things. I take it you a regular viewer of the French league and watch Marquinhos every week.
Why don't you support Real Madrid, if you want muppet signings.
I assume you're English? Scouser eh? Watch Everton every week?
Yes he's 20, he turns 21 in a week, and he's an important player for Everton. He's very composed. Calm on the ball. Good on the ball. Can even play right back, wonderful.
But is his defending world class? No. Anywhere world class? No. Will it ever become world class? No. He's a player that appears to be "great" because he isn't an old fasioned English centre half. He's a modern player. But he'll never reach top world class defending.
Marquinhos' defensive awareness and positioning is world class at the age of 21. Ironically enough he turned 21 a week ago so he's two weeks older than Stones but that's irrelevant.
Marquinhos is far superior to Stones and I struggle to see why you seem to rate Stones over him.
And to suggest to me to start supporting Real is pure lack of class. I don't want "muppet signings", I want us to sign the best players.
You should be ashamed of not recognising just how much potential Stones has.
So Stones will never be world class. We got Mystic Meg on the forums. Can I have the lottery numbers for Saturday please? Your under rating of Stones suggest you haven't watched him.
Marquinhos doesn't even play centre back regularly for PSG. So how many times do you watch PSG every week? You didn't answer my question. Because you know a lot of people are going for Stones because they actually watch him every week.
In case you ain't realised, we didn't sign the best players for the past 25 years and did fine. We did develop the best players and that's what we should do.
Marquinhos is not happening anyway. He couldn't get his move to Barca and PSG ain't selling.
Marquinhos for me.
Funny. And yes I have watched him quite a lot.
Edit: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42
Are you serious? Do you expect a 21 year old to play ahead of the two centre backs who made the FIFA 2014 World XI?
You didn't ask me a question. You said "I take it you are a regular viewer of the French leage and watch Marquinhos every week." Was that a question? Maybe you should have used a question mark. Anyway, now you have changed your assumption to the question of how many times I watch PSG every week. You even added a question mark. Beautiful.
To answer that, I have never watched Marquinhos every week so the answer would be none. I do however watch him some weeks, I have maybe watched him 6-7 weeks this season. Football is however not played over a week, it's played over a game, so you should maybe have asked me how many games I have watched him. The answer to that would be 10+ this season.
In case you ain't realized, Fergie is gone and we can't continue running the club like we used to do when he was in charge. Incredible how naive you are to believe that.
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FIFA World 2014 XI
List that included David Luiz, who was apart of a defence that conceded 7 goals in a game. And a list that forgot the likes of Godin, who was the best centre back last year, Boateng and Miranda. And you expect me to take that seriously? Beautiful.
So you don't watch him every week. I think that proves my point. You know why more people voted for Stones right? Because it might have something to do with the fact that they watch the games he played in more. It's amazing isn't it. Maybe you should try doing it sometime, when you not busy playing FM.
Also btw, yes Fergie is gone. That doesn't mean we change the traditions of the club. Van Gaal is similar to Fergie as he likes to develop young talent.
List that included David Luiz, who was apart of a defence that conceded 7 goals in a game. And a list that forgot the likes of Godin, who was the best centre back last year, Boateng and Miranda. And you expect me to take that seriously? Beautiful.
So you don't watch him every week. I think that proves my point. You know why more people voted for Stones right? Because it might have something to do with the fact that they watch the games he played in more. It's amazing isn't it. Maybe you should try doing it sometime, when you not busy playing FM.
Also btw, yes Fergie is gone. That doesn't mean we change the traditions of the club. Van Gaal is similar to Fergie as he likes to develop young talent.
Laporte.
Hes left footed and a bit more of a traditional defender than Varane, who would be my other pick.
Hes left footed and a bit more of a traditional defender than Varane, who would be my other pick.
We don't need potential, we need a ready made player.
He is already one of the best defenders in the PL and he will only get better.
Rojo can move LB, Evans should be sold or scrapped or both.
Could it be that LVG will stick with what he as and invest in youth.
Unless we sign Evans to a new deal for some strange reason we are going to need a new CB just in terms of depth.
Went for Varane because I think his potential is huge.
The problem is Real Madrid more than likely think the same.
And he's British
The FIFA World XI is decided by votes from people with knowledge far superior to yours, so I expect you to take that seriously. I agree that David Luiz maybe didn't deserve the spot, but he is without a doubt a great footballer and makes up a perfect pair with Thiago Silva. No centre back around Marquinhos' and Stones' age would've outcompeded Luiz so that's just a stupid argument from you.FIFA World 2014 XI
List that included David Luiz, who was apart of a defence that conceded 7 goals in a game. And a list that forgot the likes of Godin, who was the best centre back last year, Boateng and Miranda. And you expect me to take that seriously? Beautiful.
So you don't watch him every week. I think that proves my point. You know why more people voted for Stones right? Because it might have something to do with the fact that they watch the games he played in more. It's amazing isn't it. Maybe you should try doing it sometime, when you not busy playing FM.
Also btw, yes Fergie is gone. That doesn't mean we change the traditions of the club. Van Gaal is similar to Fergie as he likes to develop young talent.
No I don't watch him every week, but does that deprive my right of having a valid opinion on him? Do you watch Stones every week? Do you watch Marquinhos every week since you seem to rate Stones over him? No one watches every player every week but one can still have an opinion on players. I'm quite sure I have watched the two of them more than you.
People voted Stones because they misinterpreted the poll I guess. The poll asks who you prefer and not who you think we'll sign. I think many are voting on the former.
And how come you use a single game as an argument on Luiz being shit or whatever your point is? But still, you expect me to watch Marquinhos every game in order to state my opinion on him. Senseless.
Yeah, let's sign every good British player instead of superior foreign players.
We're not Liverpool ffs.
TBF there's not plenty of quality defenders around and in recent years England did produce some exquisite defenders. Rio was, in my opinion, the best defender of his generation and the closest I've seen to Maldini.
I don't mind if we get Stones. However we also need a leader at the back. If it was for me I'd bring 2 CBs, move Rojo as cover for LB and sell Evans.
Sneer al you want but, Chelsea have had the best defensive record in the league these last two seasons, made to the CL semis last season and won the title this season with an English CB pair. For all of England failings they have consistently produced quality CBs. Feel free to disagree but, I think John Stones is the nest great English CB.
Nothing wrong with that.
Meh, Rojo is far too good to be a Filipe Luis of United. We need 4 quality centre backs and Rojo should definitely be one of them. He could develop into a great defender.
Stones is good but not top quality. He's nowhere near Ferdinand or Terry. One has to ask what our ambitions are? If we want to reach the level of Bayern/Barca/Madrid in the next years, Stones is not of the quality we need. We have to look at the top drawer, there are plenty of great talents such as Marquinhos, Varane and Laporte. We should look at those, or some other more unknown players like Niklas Süle, Jonathan Tah or Eder Alvarez Balanta if they are as good as they are on FM
Chelsea's great defensive record is definitely not due to them having the best centre backs. It's due to the entire team being defensively minded. 9 of the 11 players Mourinho field week in week out are working their socks off defensively.
I think Smalling and Jones/Rojo are better than Terry/Cahill, but obviously Terry/Cahill appears to be superior due to Chelsea as a team being great defensively. Azpilicueta and Ivanovic are one of the most defensive side backs I've seen in recent years.
The last thing we need is an early 20's CB still learning his trade, I would love Godin tbh
Meh, Rojo is far too good to be a Filipe Luis of United. We need 4 quality centre backs and Rojo should definitely be one of them. He could develop into a great defender.
Stones is good but not top quality. He's nowhere near Ferdinand or Terry. One has to ask what our ambitions are? If we want to reach the level of Bayern/Barca/Madrid in the next years, Stones is not of the quality we need. We have to look at the top drawer, there are plenty of great talents such as Marquinhos, Varane and Laporte. We should look at those, or some other more unknown players like Niklas Süle, Jonathan Tah or Eder Alvarez Balanta if they are as good as they are on FM
Well we do need cover for LB especially since Shaw is young and a bit injury prone. I feel uncomfortable moving Blind around especially since we need him in midfield (I have a feeling we'll see less and less from Carrick so even if we bring in his replacement, we still need Blind in CM as cover).
Rojo can do well in LB. Im not really impressed with Rojo to be honest. He's a committed player but he's a bit rash and a bit short. I think he'll be better as LB.
We need to beefen up the defense. I don't mind if our defense would be like that
RB: Clyne and Darmian
CB: Smalling, Stones, Jones, Howedes?
LB: Shaw and Rojo.
Sold: Evans and Valencia
Loaned: Mcnair, Blackett
Clyne and Darmian can play both as RB and LB and Rojo can cover LB and CB. Hopefully having so many versatile players will kind of stop us from ending into the usual sad situation were we will need wingers and midfielders to act as defenders.
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Well for a substantial amount of people in here, its seems that's all that counts.
I dont mind Stones. He's a good player and I would say the same thing irrespective if he's British, Italian, Chinese or from Mars.