McT is a good backup for Casemiro, that doesn‘t mean we can‘t improve on it. I‘d say sell McT and get someone like Lavia.
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
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This myth is just refusing to die. Even among United fans who watch every single United game.
McT is not dmc. And never will be. We tried him there and he flopped every single time. Player who hides from the ball and has pretty much awful ball control and technique, can't play dmc.
Erik saw that on time luckily and rather played Bruno on dmc and McT on no10 than opposite.
McTominay is an excellent defensive midfielder who has great passing range.
Meanwhile on planet Earth...
Are you on you on planet Uranus? Because IMO you're talking out of it
Excuse me, what?
Yeah, I don't know how I'd live with myself if WHU paid us 40m for him. It'll weaken us beyond belief and improve them, since he's miles better than Rice.
Thank you for quoting NL. I was being sarcastic ffs. Good substitute for Casameiro my a$$
40M? that's laughable. We'd get maybe 20m but only cause Moyes is a scot.
Apologies in that case.
In that case you get a talented youngster no? Like Garnacho is to Antony and Rashford. The dropoff from Casemiro to Fred or McTominay is too immense to just do nothing right.
I‘m well aware he is not a dlp or dm. He is a destroyer and ball carrier.
When he plays instead of Casemiro we play differently. Eriksen will handle the playmaking.
My point is he can do a good job as backup in the event Casemiro is not there. We don‘t have the luxury yet of having two players for every position.
If he can make a good move we should sell him and upgrade, but I‘m fine if he stays.
You must have developed him well on FM
This kids, is why you should not take drugs
He's not a DM but fills the ball winning role decently and provides the physicality we otherwise lack. Positionally we struggle more as neither Eriksen or McTominay are sound, but it's a decent backup midfield pair. Ideally we get a better fit, but for now it's not a big deal.
Rice and caicedo were never options to be backups... Casemiro will play when fit, so behind him realistically you only get a younger DM who is ok with infrequent minutes. What we have is McTominay next to Eriksen where ten hag plays them a bit differently but it provides a decent level, so I'm ok with it. A problem last season was McTominay had a ton of injuries so we couldn't even have any physicality at all if Case was out, but generally McTominay can do a job when needed (and TBF, he did a decent job next to Eriksen on multiple occasions). You don't want him playing regular minutes, but rotation minutes and assuming no major injuries then it's fine.
We absolutely have to either sign a DM or move Martinez up like Stones and sign a CB or we will continue to get flattened in midfield.
I had high expectations that he had great plans for our midfield and I am bitterly disappointed that he saw Mason Mount as sufficient improvement and wanted him badly enough to drop 60m on him. I am worried that out of all the top six sides we will emerge with the weakest midfield and, with Kane looking unlikely as the days go by, the weakest attack too.
I pray to God that his gamble on Mount pays of because it will cost him his job if it doesn't and set us back a few years if we will have to replace him next season. We are not as powerful in the market as we used to be, especially if them greedy parasites price us out of a sale, so we no longer have a big margin for error.
I pray to God that his gamble on Mount pays of because it will cost him his job if it doesn't and set us back a few years if we will have to replace him next season. We are not as powerful in the market as we used to be, especially if them greedy parasites price us out of a sale, so we no longer have a big margin for error.
This seems a bit melodramatic. 60 mill isn't THAT crazy for Mount. I agree that it's not the most inspiring signing but it's absolutely one that will improve us.
If there is an argument I'd like to be proven wrong on is this one because this is an important signing, it is one we all expected to balance out our midfield. If it doesn't work, with how everyone has improved their midfields, we could be in for a very tough season.
I am backing the Mount signing, does bring some good qualities to our midfield but still think we need a back up DM.
We will be still talking about our midfield need upgrading during season if not done in this window.
We will be still talking about our midfield need upgrading during season if not done in this window.
Once we get a striker in (Assuming Mount and Onana go through as expected) I will be properly excited for next season.
ETH with a year of experience in the PL and with these players to build on the positive steps we already saw last season. An aggressive, forward thinking GK. A CM alongside Cas who can play more than one half. An actual striker. There's a lot to look forward to.
ETH with a year of experience in the PL and with these players to build on the positive steps we already saw last season. An aggressive, forward thinking GK. A CM alongside Cas who can play more than one half. An actual striker. There's a lot to look forward to.
I fail to see how its a gamble. We needed someone to replace Erikson and we have done that.
Main priorities remaining for me are ST and GK (which granted are bigger than this signing)
Secondary priorities are DC and young DM under study in my opinion.
We were never going to bring in a high profile DM like Caicedo or Rice this window when we already have Casemiro. But we definitely should be looking at a promising, less established player to deputise Case with the view of taking his spot in a couple of years. And if this player doesn't develop into the replacement, while sign a new DM when we get to that juncture.
The ones who might one day replace Case would have to think twice before moving here or any top club. One thing about young players is they absolutely need to play regularly to develop. Then I'd doubt we would have the money for that. We have a limited budget and have to fix our XI first before thinking about backups imo.
I don't know about that. Becoming an excellent defensive midfielder and having a great passing range sounds pretty good.
This is probably the one thing that ETH needs to improve, his ability to rotate and give young players real and planned opportunities. Many modern managers seem to struggle with it, ETH included and it's one of those things that SAF or Wenger excelled at, they would give opportunities out of nowhere which was good for everyone involved. If your manager has a reputation for rotating and giving young players actual chances then young players and good midtable players will be more likely to join your club even if it's clearly not as a starter.
Choosing to sign him for 60 million this summer instead of next for free is a huge gamble. Waiting until next summer would’ve been a gamble too, but a much, much better value one.
We could’ve signed a midfielder that plays as a 6 and 8 to replace Fred, McTominay and cover Casemiro short and long term with that money instead. It was an urgent need last season, it’s going to be an even bigger one now they’re on their way out and Casemiro is a year older.
We get a new 9 and get closer our goals closer to our xG and use a new keeper and style of play changes to improve our xG...
... then we can close games out at 60-70 mins. That creates the space for better rotation.
We get rid of our deadwood on the bench giving space for these prospects to get minutes. McT is never going to work in this system no matter how many minutes you give him.
None of these changes occur in isolation. ETH has a plan but it can't all happen at once. He's going in the right direction.
Of course we can get a talented youngster but then again the drop in quality between a 5 time CL winner and a talented youngster is huge so I don't see how that solves the problem. Our record in the 8 games Casemiro was suspended for was 5 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats away from home to 2nd and 4th in the league. I don't see how a talented youngster would improve on that record alone. It's good to get one to prepare them for the future but it's not the answer to the question in the present time.
The point is that ETH has an history of not rotating, unless he actually does it there is zero reason to believe that he has planned to rotate and integrate fringe players.
Agree.
Imo one great thing about Casemiro is he rarely got injured. But he'd need to perfect the act of fouling without getting a yellow or red. Like Fabinho, Fernandinho and Rodri. I swear those guys are absolutely master of such art.
Then imo at City and Liverpool the other players also are ready to take part in this dirty work. I mean they're all willing to take a yellow so Fabinho, Fernandinho, Rodri wouldn't have to take one. The number of their yellows is actually spread out in the whole squad instead of focused on Casemiro like us.
Yeah to be fair he was good at that at Real when he was barely ever suspended. I really think this past season is an anomaly because his two reds were really just stupid and completely avoidable. I also think he will get even better this coming season. He won't start every game but will definitely start most.
I'm pretty sure he also had the most goal involvements (goals + assists) last season after Rashford and Bruno.
That side of his game was very underrated before he came to England. He contributes a lot in attack, not just defence, which isn't something any of the young prospects people want us to sign as cover have shown they are capable of.
Mount wanted to leave, Chelsea need to sell and other clubs would have been in for him. He's a good player, strengthens our midfield and Ten Hag knows what he is looking for in the context of the team. I'm OK with it.
Still curious to see what eth wants to do for the cf position next season. Not a whole lot of rumors on who we want to bring in.
See above.Play Benny Mccarthy
He’ll sign someone.
I still think Kane could happen if the Glazers could just feck off and Jassim came in.
When asked late in the season what's the area we need to improve on most or something within those lines, his reply was how we progress the ball from back. I think EtH wants a striker but I think he also sees us improving our chance creation stats and ability to put our forwards in better scoring positions by improving the goalkeeping and midfield options. For that to happen, Antony, Sancho and Garnacho will need to have similar goalscoring contributions to Saka, Martinelli and Ødegaard which is no guarantee of course but I reckon EtH will be hoping if we don't get a 20+ goals striker, we can make up some of the deficit by being able to play higher up the pitch and having more numbers in the final third which necessitates a more modern goalkeeper and energetic midfield.
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