Maybe bayern can be convinced to part with gravenbech if the offer was big enough.
Deep Lying Playmaker or Mobile no 8
- Thread starter croadyman
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Personally I would like to think that Hannibal, Iqbal or Mainoo could come in and stake a claim to a starting position, but realistically I'm not sure the fans would give them time to get accustomed to EPL football, so after pre season, Ten Hag will ultimately decide which academy players stay in the first team squad, and which ones go on loan.
I think one very good midfielder will come in, as well as a top striker, an up and coming CB, unless Mengi or Kambwala impress Ten Hag enough, and possibly a GK.
I think that a lot of our academy prospects could make the grade with United, but it's all about getting the opportunities to play regularly in the first team, which, unfortunately, many so called fans won't put up with if they don't impress in the first few games.
I think one very good midfielder will come in, as well as a top striker, an up and coming CB, unless Mengi or Kambwala impress Ten Hag enough, and possibly a GK.
I think that a lot of our academy prospects could make the grade with United, but it's all about getting the opportunities to play regularly in the first team, which, unfortunately, many so called fans won't put up with if they don't impress in the first few games.
I want a ball carrier from midfield in the mould of a Kante, picks it up from outside our box and drives us up tylhe pitch
I’d prioritise a DLP but I think someone like FDJ (as an example) actually does/could perform both those functions lacking in our team. Being mobile, box to box & press resistant next to Casemiro & controlling the tempo of the match from deeper. It’s probably why EtH wants him so badly. Outside of Verratti (who’s too injury prone), I’d be lying if I said I watched enough football away from United to put forward names of midfielders of a similar mould.
I'd say we need a DM back-up/rotational option or even a partner with Casemiro for the tougher games and my choice here would be Caicedo. We also need a passing maestro/playmaker that links the defense and attack and the choice here is easily Frenkie de Jong. He's extremely press resistant in addition to being a fantastic dribbler as well, so I think he'd be perfect for us.
I also think we need a more athletic attack-oriented midfielder (replacing McTominay or Sabitzer) who is a great ball carrier that can quickly take us from defense to attack and here I'd go for Seko Fofana from Lens. He reminds me of Yaya Touré with his ball carrying and dribbling, and also has a hell of a shot on him (scores some absolute worldies). Really quick feet and agile for a player of his size.
I also think we need a more athletic attack-oriented midfielder (replacing McTominay or Sabitzer) who is a great ball carrier that can quickly take us from defense to attack and here I'd go for Seko Fofana from Lens. He reminds me of Yaya Touré with his ball carrying and dribbling, and also has a hell of a shot on him (scores some absolute worldies). Really quick feet and agile for a player of his size.
Like who then?
Better progressive passers of the ball than Fred and McTominay would be a start. Generally, we're fine with our present midfielders when playing Casemiro and Erikson against lesser opposition. The problem arises against the better teams. Erikson is a fine progressive passer but not a great mover or defensively minded which leaves the defence and Casemiro exposed. A purchase of a player more defensively astute and has passing range could help in tough away games also giving stronger depth to the squad.
EtH should play with just 2 forwards in away games where it's obvious we will be under pressure (Rashford and a new striker should be adequate). He's been too bold and open against the better teams this season. Stop playing Antony and Sancho.
EtH should play with just 2 forwards in away games where it's obvious we will be under pressure (Rashford and a new striker should be adequate). He's been too bold and open against the better teams this season. Stop playing Antony and Sancho.
I prefer pizza to rice
No love for Barella ?
Caicedo would be my number 1. Outside of him, if Kroos is available on a free, definitely.
The lad Alex Scott looks talented too.
Rice is excellent but maybe lacks a bit in forward passing for the price.
The lad Alex Scott looks talented too.
Rice is excellent but maybe lacks a bit in forward passing for the price.
One of Caicedo or Rice, ideally Caicedo, with Rabiot on a free. That leaves the option to use Rabiot, Eriksen, Mainoo, Bruno or Caicedo/Rice as the 8 and one of Casemiro or Caicedo/Rice as the 6. We can go big on a top DLP next year once the striker position is sorted. The big midfield signing this summer has to be able to play as a lone 6 as well as a high energy 8.
Agreed. Been saying this for some time. Many fans get stuck on the hype of caicedo or rice without understanding that they are freaking expensive and they were brought into the league when cheap. This summer, we have the opportunity to buy players of similar ilk for really cheap. We don't need to spend 100m on Declan rice to compete. We can spend 20 or 30m on a player with all the base skills and they will have the impact of the 100m player.
Alan varela/Tijjani Reijnders (15m)
Enzo le fee/Andre (20m)
40m can sort out our midfield for the next 10 years. It's crazy that we spent 50m on Fred alone. We bought Maguire for 80m, yikes. There are hundreds of Maguires in the world but we spent 80m on that dude. Midfield is the position with the most options. Striker and GK will cost us the most
We're not going to compete by cheaping out on the midfield, I'm in agreement that there's opportunity to get good value but we also need guaranteed quality that excels in the Premier League, if we want to close the gap on Man City. Over the last decade the club's spunked too much money on gambles that haven't proven themselves at the top level, something that SAF valued greatly.
I think ETH must have noted the limitations of our midfield and how ineffective it has been atimes this season.
If he loves his jobs as I suppose he does, he will make the right decision on signings this transfer window in every department.
There are fine players out of contract like Kamada and Rabiot for starters. Kamada has formed a good partnership with Kolo Muani in Bundesliga. Caicedo has been immense for Brighton this season, I think he's ready to make the transition to a big club. I love his movement and the way he keeps things simple. He's not just for the future, he's ready to ball.
If he loves his jobs as I suppose he does, he will make the right decision on signings this transfer window in every department.
There are fine players out of contract like Kamada and Rabiot for starters. Kamada has formed a good partnership with Kolo Muani in Bundesliga. Caicedo has been immense for Brighton this season, I think he's ready to make the transition to a big club. I love his movement and the way he keeps things simple. He's not just for the future, he's ready to ball.
Playmaker but we need a box to box as well
Matheus Nunes to me is a viable alternative to FDJ.
Korku, Enzo Le Fee, Tielemans, Ruben Neves, Manuel Ugarte, Edson Alvarez, Exeqiel Palacios, Adrien Rabiot, Gabri Veiga, Sandro Tonali and Matts Wiefer are all worth looking at
Tielemans ? Ruben Neves ?
No, no ,no.
No, no ,no.
Another big myth right here that is repeated over and over again. How much we spend on a player has no bearing on whether they will be quality for us. Even if we blow that 100m on Declan rice, he could still flop for us...Incase you are doubting, consider the fact that we have already done this before. We blew 100m for Pogba and it ended up bad. We blew big money on Fred and where is he. We blew 80m on Maguire....I could go on and on.
There are cheap options who have the same probability of success at manutd as those expensive players you desire. It's better to go for the cheap options especially if the probability is roughly the same.
Besides all this, the most important thing is funds. We don't have funds to blow on a 100m midfielder...we just don't. Hate it or love it, accept it or ignore it, we don't have the funds until we get the glazers out.
That is the hard reality of manutd today. If we don't have the funds, it's a no brainer to buy the cheap options
No, the point is that we currently need quality players that have proven themselves, like Casemiro and Varane for example, if we want to compete against Man City. I love the idea of finding value we should be all over it, but when it comes to such an important position we can't be solely chancing it on players that haven't established themselves at the top level yet, and unfortunately proven, top players tend to cost a chunk of money. I agree Rice is out of question at the current price but somewhere in the £50-£80 million range is possible with the right outgoings.
I consider going big on Fred, Maguire and Antony as examples of us signing players at a high price that haven't proven themselves at the top level, so they don't fit the criteria.
I don't think we need a mobile number 8. I have a feeling at least one of Fred or McT will be retained and they're both more useful in such a role than they are in deep areas. Bruno also drops deep to help quite a lot and then pushes forward.
Where we really struggle is if Casemiro has to come out of the team, we have no defensive solidity. We also struggle when Eriksen is not available in the build up. So I think whoever we target should do their best work in the defensive and middle third of the pitch, not neccessarily moving towards the opposition box.
Where we really struggle is if Casemiro has to come out of the team, we have no defensive solidity. We also struggle when Eriksen is not available in the build up. So I think whoever we target should do their best work in the defensive and middle third of the pitch, not neccessarily moving towards the opposition box.
Agree a lot with the first paragraph. Part of the problem is our current back up options who hav ebeen regular starters until this season are so poor passing the ball an dhave been for years. We have see Casemeiro can be a play maker to a degree this season and Eriksen is supposed to be a playmaker as is Fernandes and all of them have looked decent as a unit agains lesser teams, but havent had the composure or legs especially defensively....McFred at times were ot bad at carryign the ball but it wasnt profressive of with intelligence and little end product either.
I feel its the latter two leave and we should be looking for more an all rounder, but its a mobile box to box number 8, the type of midfielder we had of top quality from the 90s up until 12 years ago. A lot of talk of the likes of DeJOng beig good under pressure and not losing tha ball, but if we are againsta tough press, does he solve the problem as he is still passing to another player that is also pressed. Someone that can carry the ball can open far more up for me going past somoene....Pogba was good at that but lacked so much in other areas.
Caqueret is very much the profile for me, he ca play deep as a playmaker, he can get forward, he is tenacious for his size, good techique, can carry the ball. I think he is exactly thte profile of player we should be looking to fit into our midfield
There were like 4 Croations near the Brazilian box, with Case was all the way even behind the ref. I don't think he was there as a DM when his team was leading with a few minutes to go.
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Yeah. I don't know the deal. I don't think we're the only Club in the world that could offer him that, if true.
Our press resistance and dribbling in midfield might be the worst I can think of in Europe top-ish teams, even fecking Spurs have Bentancur. You can't be a possession team without it which is why both CMs we buy hopefully will have this ability.
City are flooded with CMs and AMs that are extremely difficult to dispossess. Ours give the ball away at the slightest bit of pressure.
We need both.
A player in the mould of Michael Carrick is exactly what we need. Problem is they’re quite hard to come by.
Any player will do, just get him make it cheap as after 3 months he will be cannon fodder on here for some of the fan base. As least the price tag wont be rolled out in every sentence.
Honestly, Even that 60m to 80m you speak about is very high and is money we don't have. If the rumours are true, of us having roughly 100m to spend, it means we will only buy one or two players at such costs.
Even if we sale players...if we are buying new players at those prices, we will buy 2 or 3 players tops. This reckless spending is exactly what has got us here. Furthermore, there is zero correlation between price of the player and their success at manutd. Given the lack of guarantees, it's a no brainer that we ought to spend wisely on the cheap high potential players. Being cheap doesn't mean they are not quality.
We keep blowing huge money on relatively average players or old players. If we are properly run, we need to go all in on the buy cheap make superstar strategy.
Crazy enough, We used to do that alot with Ferguson. Majority of the squad was cheap and then the sprinkle on top would be pricey. Evra, vidic, van DER sar were all cheap. Ferdinand was pricey. Ronaldo, nani, Anderson were cheap. Rooney was pricey etc. This isn't new to us. We just stopped practicing it and went into some crazy galactico mindset which has never been the soul of manutd
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How much do you think an 18 year old Rooney would go for in today's market? About 80 million at the very least. If Rooney was ripping it up for Everton and England right now, with us in need for a striker and Man City dominating the league, by your logic you would deem that opportunity too expensive and go for a cheaper alternative instead?
We need carriers of the ball. It's the clearest weakness in the entire midfield. None of them can dribble for more than 2 seconds and are all crap when under pressure on the ball if they don't have a passing option.
For me his question looks like Kroos or Modric for us. Honestly I'd take either.
Not sure who the targets should be.
I'd be happy enough with Caicedo.
Not sure who the targets should be.
I'd be happy enough with Caicedo.
A ball carrier can definitely enhance the play style as long as he also has the craft and guile on the ball to create plays or openings. But United's biggest problem in the last 10 years is that we can't play the game in the opponent's half. And if you can't sustain attacks in the opponent's half, you won't score a lot of goals in a EPL that is littered with teams in the top half who are adept at pressing high.
The reason the likes of Arsenal, City, Liverpool and Brighton have scored the most goals is due to those teams being able to play the game in the opponent's half, with the high press as a fail safe to keep the opponent pinned in their own half. And when you can play like that you will score a lot of goals due to the high volume of players that are committed to attack with the goalkeeper being adept in possession aswell as sweeping up behind the high defensive line.
And some of these teams don't have great ball carrying skills in a deeper midfield area, but what they have is the ability to progress play from the back, whilst being under pressure. Hence they can play the game in the opponent's half with 8 or 9 players committed to the final third, which floods the opponent's defensive third and opens up the possibility of overloads in possession as well as a aggressive high press. So adding a ball carrier with a view to playing the game in the opponent's half will be the key to unlocking the attack which begins from the back. And hence why it's extremely important for ten Hag to develop the first phase which will allow us to potentially play the game in the opponent's half. And that can only happen via the transfer window.
Did you understand the whole comment or you read it half way. We used to buy a lot of players cheap and would only splash on one or two player. I gave you examples of how we did it for our defense and our attack then. Somehow, you chose to focus on the expensive players without understanding the underlying principle.
Why are you using Rooney as the example and not Ronaldo. Because Ronaldo shows that you can buy quality players cheaply as long as they fit the profile.
We can not afford to buy all our players at those high prices of 80m. In a summer where we are super broke, and we probably need 2 midfielders, a CB, a GK and 2 strikers, we cannot buy all of them at 60m or 80m. Do you understand the underlying principle or you are just talking of imaginary money on FIFA. How hard is this to understand
You're completely missing the point I'm trying to make.
This is what I'm disagreeing with, if you want proven quality, which is what we need to compete against Man City, you have to heavily invest in top players alongside buying the cheaper but more riskier purchases. I used Rooney as an example of us having to pay heavily for guaranteed Premier League quality. I could list all the relatively cheap transfers in the last decade that have flopped to counter your point and support mine.
I'd also give up trying to guess how much we have to spend this summer, if we have £100 million to spend and then potential outgoings of £60 million+, then going big on one quality midfielder that covers 6 and 8 is not out of the question.
Zubimendi is a mobile player who can carry the ball and also has good defensive attributes. Could be a very good partner for Casemiro but is strongly linked with Barcelona for around 50 million pounds. The best players don't have to hundreds of millions worth. We just have to look in the right areas like we did with Bruno.
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Have a feeling he'll stay at La Real if they qualify for champions league. I think Arsenal are strongly linked as well.
He's one of the best in the world but is he realistic?
Yeah would be great to sign Rabiot,Caicedo/Rice and someone with a similar profile to Le Fee
Yeah you wouldn't think it's too much to ask but we don't seem to have found one yet
Must be full of energy, press resistent, eye for a good pass from deep or in advanced areas, good in defence as well as offence being able to progress the ball up the pitch and have a strong fighters mentality.
Who this person is I have no idea.
Who this person is I have no idea.