Centre Back... Who do we go for?

Not only did we miss out on Virgil who would have made an immense impact on our leaky defence, he went on and signed for our arch rivals and made them title contenders.

We need a CB (Koulibaily?), a Matic replacement and a striker to challange for the title.
 
Seeing van Dijk bossing it every week for Liverpool really makes you understand that we need better defenders. We missed out big time when we didn't go for him, and instead ended up signing Lindelöf...

I find it very tricky to identify the perfect defender for us. Ideally, he should be ready to step into the starting eleven from the get go, but not so old that we need to replace him anytime soon. A defender like Alderweireld (29) is getting closer to a stop gap rather than a smart investment for the future. Kalidou Koulibaly (27) is entering his absolute prime, and I do believe he would adapt well to the Premier League, but maybe there are even smarter, long-term investments out there?

A player like Milan Škriniar (23) might be the right for us. Great positioning and strong, but also good on the ball and not prone to mistakes. He seems to be adapting well and quickly every time he steps up a level in competition, so I believe he would be a good investment.

Matthijs De Ligt (19) is the flavor of the year, an absolute wonderkid, but I am unsure if he is ready to play for United and also if his style suits us?

We've been heavily linked to Nikola Milenkovic (21) as well, but again - no idea if he is ready for us already or not.
 
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Smalling has been our best defender for the past 5 years, ever since Rio and Vidic left this squad back in 2013-14.
That speaks volumes of how long this club has been overdue of a proper 1st team quality Center Back, we've been spending on bench warmers and scrubs for way to long.
Also, shopping around in January in a very small list of available Center Backs and potentially buying yet another bench warmer or an ageing Center Back will not solve this problem.

Now that I think about it, we might need a new Goalkeeper due to our defensive crisis.

Our Board and Management needs to seriously wake the **** up. Next summer, we should be expecting our long anticipated defensive overhaul, we should be lining up two 1st team quality CBs.
Because at this moment, the only Center Back that is safe from getting sold is Smalling.
 
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I'm going to get a ton of abuse here but I've always rated Cahill. As a stop gap I wouldn't mind him as a option,especially over Lindeloo,Jones and Rojo.
 
He wasn't always shit, there was a time when he was a quality PL CB. Still that doesn't change the fact that he has been passed it for some time now and isn't good enough.
 
If José is in for Cahill he must really hold our defenders in lower esteem than I thought.

If there is any substance to it, no longer than an 18 month deal and no stupidly inflated last contract wages. That’s all I ask.
 
This will sound a little strange but I'd go for Ricardo Carvalhlo. He's worked with Jose before, knows how he likes to play, has experience in the PL and at only 40, still has a good 4-5 yrs at this level.
 
Strachans Cigar said:
If José is in for Cahill he must really hold our defenders in lower esteem than I thought.

If there is any substance to it, no longer than an 18 month deal and no stupidly inflated last contract wages. That’s all I ask.
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The talk is of a loan in January, l have no problem with that.
 
We’ve got absolutely no hope of getting De Ligt, and for his sake I hope we don’t get him, we’d ruin him anyway.

Alderweireld is the obvious choice, proven at this level, defensive leader, older but still probably has 2/3 years left in him at a good level, wouldn’t cost a fortune given his weird contract situation.

Koulibaly would be my number 1 target but he’d cost an absolute fortune, I’d be surprised to see him move for less than £80m. Napoli are bastards to deal with, and their players are always hard to pry away because they all seem to form this great bond with the club.

Škriniar would be fantastic but wouldn’t cost much less, and if you believe reports is being courted by a tonne of clubs. If he does leave Inter he’d probably have the pick of every top club in Europe, in our current sorry state why on earth would he pick us over a Barcelona?

Seen more than one shout for Cahill, I’d take him as a replacement for Jones or Rojo, as an old head to have around, to be brought in alongside a stellar CB, he cannot be the sole answer to our problems.

There was some talk Christensen was unsettled at Chelsea, but I don’t think Mourinho is the guy for him.

Maguire wouldn’t be an awful buy, but he’s just signed that new deal so his price tag would be insane.

We’d never get Varane.

There aren’t any obvious answers really.
 
ToToMarshall said:
We’ve got absolutely no hope of getting De Ligt, and for his sake I hope we don’t get him, we’d ruin him anyway.

Alderweireld is the obvious choice, proven at this level, defensive leader, older but still probably has 2/3 years left in him at a good level, wouldn’t cost a fortune given his weird contract situation.

Koulibaly would be my number 1 target but he’d cost an absolute fortune, I’d be surprised to see him move for less than £80m. Napoli are bastards to deal with, and their players are always hard to pry away because they all seem to form this great bond with the club.

Škriniar would be fantastic but wouldn’t cost much less, and if you believe reports is being courted by a tonne of clubs. If he does leave Inter he’d probably have the pick of every top club in Europe, in our current sorry state why on earth would he pick us over a Barcelona?

Seen more than one shout for Cahill, I’d take him as a replacement for Jones or Rojo, as an old head to have around, to be brought in alongside a stellar CB, he cannot be the sole answer to our problems.

There was some talk Christensen was unsettled at Chelsea, but I don’t think Mourinho is the guy for him.

Maguire wouldn’t be an awful buy, but he’s just signed that new deal so his price tag would be insane.

We’d never get Varane.

There aren’t any obvious answers really.
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that's the problem really, theres no clear stand outs that attainable, on another forum seen Lascelles from Newcastle named as a possible candidate, when actually thought about would be not a bad idea, captain there, organises there defence up there, pretty good in the air and at defending, not sure what kind of fee would be needed but certainly could be worth looking at.
 
Murray3007 said:
that's the problem really, theres no clear stand outs that attainable, on another forum seen Lascelles from Newcastle named as a possible candidate, when actually thought about would be not a bad idea, captain there, organises there defence up there, pretty good in the air and at defending, not sure what kind of fee would be needed but certainly could be worth looking at.
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As the only answer given to our issues at CB I think that’s a terrible idea, but if you told me we were going to be flogging Jones and Rojo, and we’d replace them with Lascelles and a stellar CB, I could really get behind that actually.
 
ToToMarshall said:
As the only answer given to our issues at CB I think that’s a terrible idea, but if you told me we were going to be flogging Jones and Rojo, and we’d replace them with Lascelles and a stellar CB, I could really get behind that actually.
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actually thought the same till I thought about it but actually when I look down our CB list I think he's better then what we have, would agree if we got him and a De ligt or Škriniar would be a potential great partnership for years to come. no that I expect to get any those 2 unfortunately
 
Article in the MEN advocating Cahill as a short term option. He’s out of contract in the summer and could be available on loan in Jan.

He’s only 33, personally I think it would be a good deal for 6 months.
 
Alabaster Codify7 said:
Because our manager is a busted flush who only believes in former players over a certain age.
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Jose certainly like grown men, who are very tall. Cahill fits the bill.
He needs to stop this obsession with ridiculously tall players. We got hammered by a team of footballers a few days ago, who ran rings around our team of giants.
 
I think we'll sign Milenkovic from Fiorentina in Jan. Maybe a superstar CB like Skriniar in the summer but no chance we'll be able to sign one in Jan without paying double what it would take in the summer. Fiorentina would be fine without Milenkovic and we'd be signing him for his potential/before he steps up to the next level so it'd be more like the Bailly and Lindelof deals.
 
Mourinho was in Brussels at the Belgium-Iceland game. Possibly there to watch Alderweireld?
 
King_Eric said:
Mourinho was in Brussels at the Belgium-Iceland game. Possibly there to watch Alderweireld?
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Doubt it. What is he going to find out that no one already doesn't know about Alderweireld?

Maybe these managers just want to watch a game. Not every game they're spotted at has to be a scouting trip. Especially with Belgium given most of their players are well known.
 
Ekeke said:
I think we'll sign Milenkovic from Fiorentina in Jan. Maybe a superstar CB like Skriniar in the summer but no chance we'll be able to sign one in Jan without paying double what it would take in the summer. Fiorentina would be fine without Milenkovic and we'd be signing him for his potential/before he steps up to the next level so it'd be more like the Bailly and Lindelof deals.
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And he'd probably end up like both. At least he is good on the air though.
 
Boycott said:
Doubt it. What is he going to find out that no one already doesn't know about Alderweireld?

Maybe these managers just want to watch a game. Not every game they're spotted at has to be a scouting trip. Especially with Belgium given most of their players are well known.
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Maybe. But then I'd choose Croatia - Spain over Belgium - Iceland any day. Maybe he was looking to steal some tactical ideas from Iceland :wenger:
 
Jose wants a ball playing CB but plays Smalling who basically ruins all play from the right side. Sign Alderweireld in January. Odd feeling Jose will just drop lindelof and partner him with Smalling. Ideal scenario would be Alderweireld/Koulibay in January - Jones Rojo out. Smalling out in the summer- keep Tuanzebe.
 
sam147 said:
Jose wants a ball playing CB but plays Smalling who basically ruins all play from the right side. Sign Alderweireld in January. Odd feeling Jose will just drop Lindelof and partner him with Smalling. Ideal scenario would be Alderweireld/Koulibay in January - Jones Rojo out. Smalling out in the summer- keep Tuanzebe.
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Bailly is the more likely partner for Toby. Need to compensate for pace and physicality.
 
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