Would benching James for Sancho strengthen United?
21
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 46
- Goals
- 4
- Assists
- 6
- Yellow cards
- 4
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) look forward to a new life under Ruben Amorim. What system will we be playing? What players will impress? and how will it all go? We also say goodbye to Ruud Van Nistelrooy and review United's 3-0 win at home against Leicester City.
- Status
Love the lad, such a pure footballer in his directness. We'll see how he gets on but at the moment I couldn't be happier with him.
Right now, probably. Sancho's the better player, however we'll have to see how James gets on throughout the season and see how his chemistry with Martial and Rashford builds over time, if he continues to improve as he has been doing then I'd find it very hard to take him out of the team, his work rate and decision making really make him a fantastic team player.
We shouldn't be pushing that transfer if Sancho only available for 100m or above, with James & Rashford are playing so well now on the flanks, spending 100m for the role is unnecessary. However, having another option to rotate with James & Rashford is not a bad idea at all and strengthen the squad.
Im actually starting to love him compared to when he first started. I was under the opinion he wasnt up to standard because he seemed very basic. Fastforward 3 months later and he's one of my favorite players in the squad. He follows instruction and isnt selfish. More importantly he is improving at a rapid rate. Much better crosses than what we originally saw in preseason. He will be invaluable to us when we add more quality to other areas of the team. Right now I believe he's already won the most fouls in the league? not entirely sure but he must be top 3.
I assumed this was 02/02 (choo-choo) until I checked and now I'm confused
How hasn't Wilson pointed straight to James there after that.
I love the way he plays and he does remind me of Steve Coppell from many years ago.
When he came to the club as a young Championship player for a cheap fee (relatively speaking) I think we all thought he had a lot to learn to make the big step up to the Premier League level but I think it is the existing players who now need to look at his commitment to the team and make the step up to his level.
I can only see the young man getting better and he seems equally adept on both flanks so while I would welcome Sancho I just don’t think we will pay the fee that has been mentioned in the media for him.
When he came to the club as a young Championship player for a cheap fee (relatively speaking) I think we all thought he had a lot to learn to make the big step up to the Premier League level but I think it is the existing players who now need to look at his commitment to the team and make the step up to his level.
I can only see the young man getting better and he seems equally adept on both flanks so while I would welcome Sancho I just don’t think we will pay the fee that has been mentioned in the media for him.
He’s probably saved the club 100m pounds from going out to get Sancho.
We need squad rotation, our attack is quite thin, Rashford is inconsistent and Martial is prone to injury.
Sancho/James Martial/Greenwood Rashford/James
He's worth his weight in gold, if only because I don't have to see JLingz or mata on that right wing.
Running with ball at speed from our right wing and crosses coming in just makes me cry with happiness after so many years of slow, lethargic play on that flank.
God forbid he gets injured, then I hope we switch formations to a diamond, rather than play our other options..
It also highlights how much we need another CF and RW to cover for our injuries. Maybe we won't need a Sancho level player, but we should still have another RW player
Running with ball at speed from our right wing and crosses coming in just makes me cry with happiness after so many years of slow, lethargic play on that flank.
God forbid he gets injured, then I hope we switch formations to a diamond, rather than play our other options..
It also highlights how much we need another CF and RW to cover for our injuries. Maybe we won't need a Sancho level player, but we should still have another RW player
I think it’s more of the fact we need options.
For example supposedly James gets injured. You’re looking at Mata as cover.
Same as if Rashford gets injured and we’ve already seen the state of us when Martial was injured.
We arent spending 100m on a squad option.
We suddenly have more pressing holes in our squad than the right wing.
Last edited:
I'm trying my very best not to get too carried away; all the PL coaches have had a good chance to take a look at him at this level and James will have a big test on his hands to be as productive as he's been in the first third of the season for the rest of this year and beyond. I'm sure there'll be a run of games where he doesn't contribute goals and assists and starts to look less effective in games generally, and it will be then that we discover what he's made of.
Agreed on all points though, at present I'm delighted with him and as you say he is already a better player than he was when he first signed, so I'm hopeful he'll continue to develop and keep opposing teams guessing.
How did he play yesterday ? Their game Tuesday night will be huge , I’m looking forward to watching James.
The only way you can stop him is crowd him out and stop him getting the ball, but then that opens up rashford and martial.
with his speed and work rate you can’t ever really eliminate him. He’s a consistent 8/10 player just because he fights for every crumb.
He will have games where it doesn’t go right for him, but you can’t ever doubt his threat or commitment.
It’s no coincidence rashford plays better with James on the right.
We still need a Sancho so doubt that
He played well, should have got another assist too. Very unlucky not to score. Looking sharp as usual.
I truly believe he’s a better striker than both Martial and Rashford. Martial because of workrate and Rashford because he strikes the ball much better even at full speed. Defenders would have no chance from starting sprint against James and he would win a ton of penalties.
That's bonkers.
When you say striker, do you mean as a no.9, the leading forward?
He’s 5’6 and as light as a feather. He’ll go blasting into his own half playing with his back toward goal. He already wins tons of penalties because he plays in his ideal position: out wide with space to run forward.
Step away from the Litre Bottle.
How did he perform last night?
Sure we need extra players to compete but James proves you don't need to splash out 100 million on quality, it's about time Utd start making smart transfers again.
Ole has made 3 smart transfers.
It's a crazy ol' place is the Caf, we lose then we have to sign Haaland, Sancho, Maddison etc, we win then we don't need Sancho, Haaland and only need Maddison if Pogba doesn't come into form.
If it was me I'd sign them all, you need two for each position, we barely have one for the RW. Plus Martial has spent a good chunk of the season already injured, Pogba has been out for nearly 3 months, we 100% need quality players to try depth in our squad.
People living in these fairy tail worlds where teams have 2 expensive top players for each positions. It doesn't work like that. We don't have the money to be splashing on positions that are looking strong(especially if James and the entirety of our front 3 keep improving and remain consistent). Our limited budget ought to go to addressing more glaring holes in the squad such as midfield.
In a scenario where James keeps the level he's shown and further improve on it, splashing 100m on Sancho is beyond ridiculous. The money would be better served elsewhere. Also unlike most, I've learned my lesson with Dortmund players, they never meet the hypes whenever they leave that team and go elsewhere. We need depth in attack but that doesn't require us to splash 100m on a position that's looking to be covered for now.
People are looking to splash 100m for Sancho, another 100m for Haaland and whatever else for Maddison or any other midfielder we should be looking to bring in. People ought to start waking up and realize this is reality
In a scenario where James keeps the level he's shown and further improve on it, splashing 100m on Sancho is beyond ridiculous. The money would be better served elsewhere. Also unlike most, I've learned my lesson with Dortmund players, they never meet the hypes whenever they leave that team and go elsewhere. We need depth in attack but that doesn't require us to splash 100m on a position that's looking to be covered for now.
People are looking to splash 100m for Sancho, another 100m for Haaland and whatever else for Maddison or any other midfielder we should be looking to bring in. People ought to start waking up and realize this is reality
Good, he initiated numerous counterattacks and linked up well with Ramsey. Almost scored with one of his trademark curlers when cutting in.
So happy for Daniel that his effort and commitment on the pitch has been rewarded with qualification for Wales. Hopefully it will soon be the same with his club.
Crazy to think we paid less for this kid than it cost us to get rid of Mourinho.
Crazy to think we paid less for this kid than it cost us to get rid of Mourinho.
People living in these fairy tail worlds where teams have 2 expensive top players for each positions. It doesn't work like that. We don't have the money to be splashing on positions that are looking strong(especially if James and the entirety of our front 3 keep improving and remain consistent). Our limited budget ought to go to addressing more glaring holes in the squad such as midfield.
In a scenario where James keeps the level he's shown and further improve on it, splashing 100m on Sancho is beyond ridiculous. The money would be better served elsewhere. Also unlike most, I've learned my lesson with Dortmund players, they never meet the hypes whenever they leave that team and go elsewhere. We need depth in attack but that doesn't require us to splash 100m on a position that's looking to be covered for now.
People are looking to splash 100m for Sancho, another 100m for Haaland and whatever else for Maddison or any other midfielder we should be looking to bring in. People ought to start waking up and realize this is reality
FM legend here, true. Even in FM you can't keep star players happy with many top players in each position.
The formula is true to the real life football as well:
Note that this is for teams that mainly plays one striker, and 1 position per player.
2 top strikers - 1 big potential/squad player - 1 youngster/veteran for cover.
- (Martial/???????/Greenwood/Ramazani?)
- (Rashford/???????/James/???????/Chong)
- (Lingard/Mata/Pereira/Gomes) - We're imbalance in this department, too many players.
- (Pogba/Fred/??????/Mctominay/Matic/Garner)
- (Luke Shaw/AWB/Young/Dalot/Williams/Mensah) - We should let go of Young next season to balance it out, or replace Shaw if necessary.
- (Maguire/Lindelof/Bailly/Jones/Rojo/Tuanzebe) - We should off load either of Jones, Rojo and Bailly and recall back Smalling.
- (De Gea/Romero/Grant) - Great potential youngsters will always be on loan to develop.
- 1 striker like Jesus role at City.
- 1 top right winger.
- 1 exciting winger.
- 1 top midfielder.
- 1 good midfielder (Sell Matic)
- 1 top CAM (sell Lingard & Mata)
People living in these fairy tail worlds where teams have 2 expensive top players for each positions. It doesn't work like that. We don't have the money to be splashing on positions that are looking strong(especially if James and the entirety of our front 3 keep improving and remain consistent). Our limited budget ought to go to addressing more glaring holes in the squad such as midfield.
In a scenario where James keeps the level he's shown and further improve on it, splashing 100m on Sancho is beyond ridiculous. The money would be better served elsewhere. Also unlike most, I've learned my lesson with Dortmund players, they never meet the hypes whenever they leave that team and go elsewhere. We need depth in attack but that doesn't require us to splash 100m on a position that's looking to be covered for now.
People are looking to splash 100m for Sancho, another 100m for Haaland and whatever else for Maddison or any other midfielder we should be looking to bring in. People ought to start waking up and realize this is reality
Totally agree. We have a great little player in DJ who has improved in his short time here and may very well keep improving for us. Spending £100m on a player who himself isn't the finished article to effectively replace him is beyond insane.
Spending £100 on someone very young, very talented and who isn't the complete player to replace someone who is very young, very talented and isn't the complete player makes no sense.
Last edited:
Sheff Utd v Man Utd / 24 November
Think that was his poorest game in a United shirt, did come alive in the last 15 minutes but the rest of the game can't be excused.
My favourite player in this team by far, he’s electric, he was pretty poor for much of the match today but he just doesn’t stop and he picked up a crucial assist.
Should have absolutely taken out their left back AWB-style at the end though.
Our best player by some distance this season, consistently productive, made the first goal as well with that drop of the shoulder and flighted ball that ended up with Williams.
Yeah I guess that’ll come with experience.
Absolutely abysmal for the first 65 mins, then frightened the life out of the Sheffield defence. Understanding between him and Rashford still needs a huge amount of work. One time Rashford was free in front of goal yet James tried his standard low near post cross that inevitably got cut-out. Super play to provide the assist for Rashford's goal.
Good surge from deep then poor pass forced Greenwood wide rather than into towards goal. In the first half he wasted a good opportunity to counter with a terrible pass nowhere near Rashford.
Good surge from deep then poor pass forced Greenwood wide rather than into towards goal. In the first half he wasted a good opportunity to counter with a terrible pass nowhere near Rashford.
He was really poor today. Well especially the first 70 minutes. Really needs to take a look at what is occurring in the box sometimes before just whipping in a cross. And there was that thing early in the 2nd half where we had a break on. Martial running in to space between two defenders, Rashford pulling another away and he is facing a defender. Do anything other than what he did. Take on the defender or slip it to Martial just don’t play a crappy lofty cross to Rashford.
Even for the play in the build up to Rashfords goal, Martial is fuming at him because he didn’t play him in as he was running in to space. Worked out mind, as he eventually plays it to Martial who had just jumped in anger who played him back in.
Even for the play in the build up to Rashfords goal, Martial is fuming at him because he didn’t play him in as he was running in to space. Worked out mind, as he eventually plays it to Martial who had just jumped in anger who played him back in.
Not best performance today but was lively after 70mins.
After James performance was improved, out attack also was improved and chances were created more.
I think today's match showed us why Danny is the best key of United's attack in now.
After James performance was improved, out attack also was improved and chances were created more.
I think today's match showed us why Danny is the best key of United's attack in now.
Worst performance for us but still contributed in the end. Our best signing of the summer in my opinion.
Poor game but all the attackers were rubbish until the end. I don't single him out.
- Status