De Ligt | €45+5m agreement reached pending medical | Signed!

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Good move. It’s a myth that he flopped at Juventus. It was more that Juventus tanked after some years on the up. De Ligt will help us in possession. He’s capable of high-volume passing from the back.

Shaw-Martinez-De Ligt-Dalot

… is a very technical back four, and that's without Yoro. We’ll see Onana move out and more defenders step into midfield to cover pressing. It’s high risk because it's not a rapid back four, but it should pay off over a season if the structure and coordination are right, which is the big if, as I don't think Ten Hag has consistently got the whole team pressing right yet.
 
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Red Company said:
Agree with all of this..

I was just saying that eventually in a year or so, whenever both are healthy, Yoro will be the first choice RCB longterm, not DeLigt..
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We don't know how the squad will evolve yet, but it usually naturally evolves to the point where some key players from previous seasons will lose their importance, and they're gradually replaced. Happened with City under Pep, Liverpool under Klopp, even at Arsenal under Arteta there have been several players who aren't as important now than they used to be.

So we will see what happens. Maybe it's what you are predicting, maybe not. In any case, we'll always need more than two great centre backs, so we've put ourselves in a healthy situation by bringin in Yoro and de Ligt.
 


Who is that #10 who he ended on 0:22 in that video? Absolutely flew in.
 
OverratedOpinion said:
Not sure but angry Slavic sounding music like this is so much better for comps on defenders than the usual Drake humming into a mic with star effects.
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Just checked, that was in 2019, Angel Correa for Atletico. He had heart problems at the start of his career but has hardly ever been injured since. Walked away from that challenge, amazingly.
 
Cautiously optimistic about this one. It’s a very good price for a player who’s still young enough to reach his full potential (hopefully) but also has enough experience to help lead the defence & help Yoro settle in.

My only concerns are his suitability to the the PL (he’s doesn’t seem the fastest or most mobile) and his patchy injury record.

Hopefully he’s more Martinez then Antony.
 
We spent 35+10 m euros for Lindelof in 2017. Hardly anyone cares about his transfer fee today.

De ligt for 5m more is a fantastic deal
 
Get In Scholesy said:
Based on those reactions, Dalot and De Ligt might set the Premier League record in high fives.
If everything goes well, there is going to be De-Lot of high fives, if you will.
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Plant0x84 said:
Looks like Dalot will have a high-5 buddy at last! Going to be strange seeing our defenders defend!
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I hadn't noticed his love of a high five but now you mention it, it will be all I see!
 
pratyush_utd said:
We spent 35+10 m euros for Lindelof in 2017. Hardly anyone cares about his transfer fee today.

De ligt for 5m more is a fantastic deal
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Rivals are cribbing about 200m spent or something already (62m Yoro, 42.5 Zirkzee, 50m De Ligt, 20m Mazraoui ~= 175m). I think the only potential over-pay is Yoro but let's see. In a window where Solanke went for 75m eur and Alvarez went for close to 100m, I think we've done well.

Just hope we get Ugarte too and it'd be a perfect window.
 
Think De Ligt is an excellent, excellent player. I mean it’s easy to think he’s some sort of journey man but he has done well at all the clubs he’s been at. Granted he hasn’t hit the heights that were talked about when he was at Ajax, but he’s still 25. It’s a very young age for a centre back. Super excited for this one and quote me on this — he’ll be a fan favourite!
 
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Crimson King said:
Pretty sure I remember seeing this the other day. The headline was misleading, he hit a parked car and 'ran', supposedly.

I think in Germany you're supposed to report a car accident to the police immediately, no matter how minor.
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Nah you don't have to get the police involved in general. If you were involved in causing an accident in any way you are legally required to exchange your contact data with anyone else involved - in this case, the owner of the parked car. If you do that, you can each go your way without getting police involved. And nope, writing it on a note that you pin to the car doesn't suffice, you have to make sure to personally exchange the data so it is certain that it reaches the other person. With a parked car of course that can be an issue, you don't know where the owner is and they might not come to their car for days. So if you can't find the owner quickly, that's where you're required to call the police to file a report asap.

If you don't do that, it is "Fahrerflucht". That is a pretty broad term in German law that applies any sort of "unallowed withdrawal from the place of the accident", whether you've just intentionally t-boned the car of your fomer employer, ran over their garden gnomes and then drove away, or in this case accidentially scratched another car in the parking lot and drove off. That's why the headlines aren't technically wrong, it's all the same offense in German law.
PS: It's not "Fahrerflucht" if the driver can believably convey that they did not notice that they caused an accident.
 
I’m very curious to see what the planned centre back pairing is when everyone is fit.

Obviously Yoro is young but it was widely reported we assured him sufficient playing time, and he is a generational talent who will expect to play in the league. De Ligt is a big name defender, coming on good money and will be desperate to prove himself. And Martinez is a top 5-7 centre back in the world.

Other teams make it work just fine, so I don’t think it will be an issue, but it will be interesting to see who the manager sees as his best two.
 
The article for this story in The Times - I found it interesting they say ‘United met Bayerns demands’

Don’t mean to go all ABU conspiracy, but I always thought Bayern were adamant about getting £43m or €50m + add ons (think it was Plettenberg who kept reporting this).

Appears to me United did alright to get the fee down a little bit
 
Rojofiam said:
Good luck to him, and I hope he will become a great player for us. Was a dream target for many, including me back in 2019 after his breakout season at Ajax.

However, I think the need for Branthwaite was bigger, and signing de Ligt only makes sense if we're offloading Maguire.

Both of them are organizer type CCBs with not a lot of pace and cannot really be deployed as wide, channel defenders IMO, like your van de Vens, Konatés, etc. Both of them are high value, great players for me but I think they'd make an awful pairing, as well as switching to a back 3 in possession with one of them forced to be a wide defender would likely often end in tears. Having two very similar CBs of this level, who cannot really be paired with each other doesn't make a lot of sense IMO, hence my preference for Branthwaite (and I think he's overall better with a higher ceiling anyway).

We only really have Yoro to do what I described in the current squad, but getting Branthwaite next year should give us serious quality and depth at CB, as well as tactical flexibility. Two arguably generational pacey and physical defenders as well in Jarrad and Leny, with de Ligt and Martínez would give us 4 genuine quality CBs.

De Ligt could prove to be a great addition but it's a smaller step forward than Branthwaite or another similar CB could've been. But like I said, it could easily be a good signing in the long term, especially for £42m. A 25 year old Maguire or Dias (another similar type) would easily be worth that, so de Ligt should turn out to be a bargain. But ten Hag not salvaging Maguire and making him a key player is one of his biggest mistakes IMO. Signing de Ligt basically confirms he never really intended to do that anyways. Or maybe the club and ETH both feel like Maguire's started to decline physically. We'll know more in 12 months.
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We are offloading Maguire -- on a free transfer next June. It'd be really weird to base signing a 24 year old CB with a £40M transfer fee on a 31 year-old, 4th choice CB who'll be gone in a year.

I don't think Maguire factored into the decision at all.
 
Still buzzing about it. Can't believe we have 3 decent CBs, who are not "old", now. Hope Yoro comes back fully recovered and we won't see any significant injuries to any of them for the rest of the season
 
Think him and Yoro will work well because Leny has that pace to get him out of trouble, unfortunately that won't be possible until November. Obviously Licha isn't the quickest so not gonna lie that's a worry.
 
Rojofiam said:
Good luck to him, and I hope he will become a great player for us. Was a dream target for many, including me back in 2019 after his breakout season at Ajax.

However, I think the need for Branthwaite was bigger, and signing de Ligt only makes sense if we're offloading Maguire.

Both of them are organizer type CCBs with not a lot of pace and cannot really be deployed as wide, channel defenders IMO, like your van de Vens, Konatés, etc. Both of them are high value, great players for me but I think they'd make an awful pairing, as well as switching to a back 3 in possession with one of them forced to be a wide defender would likely often end in tears. Having two very similar CBs of this level, who cannot really be paired with each other doesn't make a lot of sense IMO, hence my preference for Branthwaite (and I think he's overall better with a higher ceiling anyway).

We only really have Yoro to do what I described in the current squad, but getting Branthwaite next year should give us serious quality and depth at CB, as well as tactical flexibility. Two arguably generational pacey and physical defenders as well in Jarrad and Leny, with de Ligt and Martínez would give us 4 genuine quality CBs.

De Ligt could prove to be a great addition but it's a smaller step forward than Branthwaite or another similar CB could've been. But like I said, it could easily be a good signing in the long term, especially for £42m. A 25 year old Maguire or Dias (another similar type) would easily be worth that, so de Ligt should turn out to be a bargain. But ten Hag not salvaging Maguire and making him a key player is one of his biggest mistakes IMO. Signing de Ligt basically confirms he never really intended to do that anyways. Or maybe the club and ETH both feel like Maguire's started to decline physically. We'll know more in 12 months.
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The notion that De Ligt has no pace is bizarre at this point. It needs to die off. Alas, it will when people actually see him play — he’s fairly rapid. He’s nowhere near prime Varane fast but he can shift and he can certainly chase down strikers into channels and make recovery runs without even as much of a hint of an issue.
 
NoLogo said:
So we again haven't fixed the midfield but have 6 CBs now?
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Martinez will probably move as LB which means we'll have De Ligt, Yoro, Maguire and possibly Hermoso as CBs with Mazraoui and Dalot as RB. Its evident that we'll end a DM before the transfer window closes
 
I wonder how Maguire will feel about his future at Manchester United once this deal goes through
 
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