That's what I am hoping for too
Centre Back... Who do we go for?
- Thread starter Macern
- Start date
That's what I am hoping for too
I think Willy Boly of Wolves would be a great acquisition, big strong defender whose comfortable on the ball and proven now in the premier league with a team that play good football.
Boly is very good yes but (scouser) Coady is the pick of the Wolves CBs IMO. I expect him to return to Liverpool at some point. The concern I would have with signing any of them is that they are used to playing in a different system as a 3.
Have heard good things about him, yeah.
Wolves look like they have all their players on lock and would only sell if it's stupid money
Honestly feel like an injection of quality at CB is necessary at this stage because I really don't see Lindelof as a starting CB on a title challenging team.
Maguire for all the stick he gets when he makes a mistake still has redeeming qualities and has had a strong first season overall, just that his mistakes get amplified due to his price tag ala Pogba. Lindelof on the other hand has more bang average to bad performances than good ones.
Hoping we can get one of those young French Leipzig CB's in or a solid PL CB even though they always go for a premium. Think it'll go a long way towards us getting back where we want to be a a club
Maguire for all the stick he gets when he makes a mistake still has redeeming qualities and has had a strong first season overall, just that his mistakes get amplified due to his price tag ala Pogba. Lindelof on the other hand has more bang average to bad performances than good ones.
Hoping we can get one of those young French Leipzig CB's in or a solid PL CB even though they always go for a premium. Think it'll go a long way towards us getting back where we want to be a a club
Need a CB with pace. Bailly has all of the qualities but seems to have bad luck with injuries. Need to be careful about the right player though as I remember when the meltdown when we didn’t sign Sakho or Mangala and we know how they turned out to be. Careful to pick the right player.
The first five words of the sentence sums up our need in this position absolutely perfectly
Unless there's anyone out there that's considerably better than Maguire and Lindelof - someone like Van Dijk, for example, then we shouldn't be going in for a centre back.
That being said, Ole might be happy with the Maguire and Lindelof partnership and may just want to add depth. If so, I think Ake would be a good addition because he can fill the centre back and left-back position.
If we look at Sir Alex's sides, he made sure that versatility was something he looked at when acquiring players.
That being said, Ole might be happy with the Maguire and Lindelof partnership and may just want to add depth. If so, I think Ake would be a good addition because he can fill the centre back and left-back position.
If we look at Sir Alex's sides, he made sure that versatility was something he looked at when acquiring players.
Well when you look at that article about Utd being open to signing a CB it does give me the impression that we are looking at more of a backup option than a starter but maybe that's just me misinterpreting things
Have you got the link to the article please, mate?
Lucas Klostermann Has looked a really solid defender the times I have seen him for RB Leipzig, can play both CB and RB.
that's been a problem for us in recent seasons, we think we have to buy the best players and then they will gel automatically , it doesn't work that way. You have to buy players that fit your structure. Maguire and Lindelof on their own are good players, but as a partnership at the top level, they don't work. Both are slow, and not positionally great. Lindelof isn't exactly comfortable on the ball yet Ole wants to play out from the back. We don't neccessarily need a better player than them, we need one that compliments whomever we go wit,h which most would assume, is Maguire. Maguire needs pace, that is evident, we also need someone comfortable on the ball. Right now on the right hand side of defence we have Lindelof and AWB who both whilst not bad per se, aren't exactly comfortable on the ball esp when pressed. During the recent tributes paid to jack charlton recently, there was quote from Ramsey referenced when Jack Charlton asked the then manager of england, how come he'd picked him for this great team and he replied "I'm not necessarily picking the best players - but the best team." That's a bit of advice given over 40 yrs ago that maybe we should apply more when targettng new players.
What article?
Apologies it was actually a tweet from Luckhurst that can be found in the transfer tweets thread
Upamecano
Konate
Badiashile
Gimenez
Any of those will do nicely
Konate
Badiashile
Gimenez
Any of those will do nicely
Any of the top three is possible but think if Giminez is to leave it will be to join Chelsea
Upamecano is a no brainer imo. He can be a bit rash, but he's only 21 and clearly has the potential to be one of the world's best CBs.
Anyone who doesn't think we need a CB are out of their minds.
We have:
Maguire - good
Lindelof - ok
Bailly - unreliable lunatic, rarely fit
Tuanzebe - Talented but a full season injured. Almost zero PL experience. Maybe back in September.
Mengi - Talented but 18 years old
Think about what would happen if Maguire had a long injury. We'd be left with Lindelof an 18 year old and whichever, if either of the other 2 managed to be/stay fit. It doesn't bear thinking about.
Ignoring the following because they are pretty obviously not in Ole's plans and most likely won't be here next season.
Smalling - Likely off to Roma
Jones - Likely sold once fit again
Rojo - Heading back to Argentina
We have:
Maguire - good
Lindelof - ok
Bailly - unreliable lunatic, rarely fit
Tuanzebe - Talented but a full season injured. Almost zero PL experience. Maybe back in September.
Mengi - Talented but 18 years old
Think about what would happen if Maguire had a long injury. We'd be left with Lindelof an 18 year old and whichever, if either of the other 2 managed to be/stay fit. It doesn't bear thinking about.
Ignoring the following because they are pretty obviously not in Ole's plans and most likely won't be here next season.
Smalling - Likely off to Roma
Jones - Likely sold once fit again
Rojo - Heading back to Argentina
Been linked to Pau Torres from Villarreal. 23 years old (dob: 16 Jan 1997). Good injury record. Quite fast. Taller than Linderof. Good long balls. Even chips in with an occasional goal.
Gabriel from Lille looks like good option, he seems to be highly rated. I haven't seen him live so it's hard to know but he ticks a lot of the boxes from the YouTube videos. Has anyone seen him in live matches that could give more insite into his performances?
Sadly, the next 6 demonstrate how poor some fans observations are. Bailly has very poor defensive qualities: His reading of the game is non existent, using his pace to cover. His heading is average for a CB, his tackling rash( red always waiting to happen), poor judgement( just look at the jump that gave the penalty away against Bournemouth). If his injury problems were the only thing prevent him from being class, I'd feel for him but he's a mid table /Championship level defender
Lets ask @JPRouve
That's a bit personal, isn't it? I thought we were only assessing his football qualities
I don't know, I barely watched Lille this season and it's his first season as a starter.
We should definitely sign young gun Malang Sarr on a free who's contract at Nice just expired. He's also a left footer!!
The only CB we have that is aerially dominant is Maguire. And if he suffers a injury then we become very vulnerable to corners/high balls.
I'd hope we sign someone that has express pace and also aerially dominant to balance things out.
I'd hope we sign someone that has express pace and also aerially dominant to balance things out.
Mike Smalling
I'm not recommending him as I've not followed him - but how good has Tyrone Mings been this season?
Smalling looks to be on the way out and would hamper us playing out from the back. But he has the pace and aerial ability for sure just not the ability on the ball hence being sent out on loan.
There s quite a gap in the transfer fees being mentioned.
Apparently Pau Torres is available for 45-50 million euros - his release clause.
Gabriel is reportedly cheaper -25 m euros
Apparently Pau Torres is available for 45-50 million euros - his release clause.
Gabriel is reportedly cheaper -25 m euros
It was just a joke. Yeah don't think he will be part of the team and for his own good he should sign for Roma where fans love him.
Agreed.
Upamecano and Salisu would do quite nicely. The former's contract is coming to an end, the latter would be cheap given he's a bit of an unknown. Both good on the ball, physically dominant and very young.
Also both quite different in how they go about their defensive work which would probably make for a good partnership. Salisu is more of a cover defender ala Rio/Van Djik while Upamecano is a good old fashioned stopper who dominated opponents.
Also both quite different in how they go about their defensive work which would probably make for a good partnership. Salisu is more of a cover defender ala Rio/Van Djik while Upamecano is a good old fashioned stopper who dominated opponents.
We would need to trust our scouts in finding the perfect fit for us. Only world class CB available is Koulibaly and even he had a bad season and also not realistic given his price. I don't think we would spend more than 30m for a CB given Sancho alone is going to cost us quite alot
Then we should wait until next season rather than fill the team up with more future deadwood.
Stone saying we want a CB. I'd like an established CB that would walk into the team like the likes of Gimenez, Diego Carlos, Romagnoli Koulibaly and Skriniar maybe. But these type of CBs are going to cost an arm and a leg. I'm sure we wouldn't be getting an expensive CB signing after 80m on Maguire previously and especially if we get Sancho.
So we would probably go for a cheap CB. Whoever we are looking at though, he has to be good enough to challenge for a starting place not just be some young up and comer or squad player on the bench
So we would probably go for a cheap CB. Whoever we are looking at though, he has to be good enough to challenge for a starting place not just be some young up and comer or squad player on the bench
Who is Diego Carlos? Honestly never heard of him. Sounds like a Brazilian FM regen haha.
27 year old defender for Sevilla. Dont really know much about him tbh but he's in La Liga's team of the year. 63m release clause