Erling Haaland / signs for Dortmund

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eltigreFalcao said:
If Haaland comes in and he actually hits the ground running, is James who should see more time on the bench rather than Martial (while fit) or Rashford. Perhaps Martial should start to consider being more of a second striker slightly to the right wing and so Haaland can be the marksman. Maybe?

Re: James, he can bring a lot to the team coming from the bench, that kind of addition in a difficult match is something we lack off the bench and he is one who can surely bring it in.
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I don't see James, with his ability to get to the by-line and put crosses across the face of goal, missing out. Haaland would score tonnes with James.

It's almost certain to be -
Pogba
James Haaland Rashford

With Martial fighting for the no9 or Rashfords spot.
 
How many posters here actually watch him on weekly basis? Can someone please tell me what his first touch is like compared to, say, Lukaku?
 
MetoTTT said:
Even PSG can't adapt a front 4 of:
Mbappé
Neymar
Di Maria
Icardi/Cavani
with a better midfield than ours. One will sit on the bench but I have no problem with this if this lad worth it. Martial as a 10...I just can't see it with his work rate and a midfield 2.
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I don't think Martial necessarily has to be a 10, they can work as a front two with Fred and Mctominay behind them. That would work for most games and if we need some extra help in midfield for the bigger games you worry about it then. Martial is certainly a better option than Periera/Mata/Lingard even if his workrate won't be quite as high.
 
MetoTTT said:
Even PSG can't adapt a front 4 of:
Mbappé
Neymar
Di Maria
Icardi/Cavani
with a better midfield than ours. One will sit on the bench but I have no problem with this if this lad worth it. Martial as a 10...I just can't see it with his work rate and a midfield 2.
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I don't care what PSG do or don't do, my point is we have options with another forward coming in.

Martial can play left and he is certainly more creative than any of Periera/Lingard & Mata. He can rotate or play in a 2 with Haaland.

We need quality squad depth, and Halland would give us that.
 
Offside said:
Jimmy Saville has a better touch than Lukaku. I've never seen him play and can already tell you just by looking at him that he has a better first touch.
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That's pretty sick........ Considering what Jimmy was touching
 
We should be going all-out to sign this guy. He's 19 so I am sure despite his apparent quality, he would be content with having to fight for a place or be on the bench on occasion at a big team in a better league. We also should worry about fitting multiple quality players into a starting line-up after we actually have them! Too much quality is something we haven't had for a long time, it's a good problem to have. If it gets to a stage when one of them is barely playing and isn't happy, then you let them go. All that means is they weren't better than the other players in your squad and thus aren't needed any longer if we want to be challenging for major honours.
 
Craig Ward said:
I don't care what PSG do or don't do, my point is we have options with another forward coming in.

Martial can play left and he is certainly more creative than any of Periera/Lingard & Mata. He can rotate or play in a 2 with Haaland.

We need quality squad depth, and Halland would give us that.
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I said it too. I hope Martial wouldn't be the only option as CF in the team.
 
RedCurry said:
How many posters here actually watch him on weekly basis? Can someone please tell me what his first touch is like compared to, say, Lukaku?
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He has a very good first touch. He often uses a directional first touch to lose his defender and loves to flick, link up and do 1-2s with his first touch. Miles better than Lukaku.
 
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Alternatives available with Haaland in the squad:

He is frequently used in 4-2-2-2 and 4-3-3 so possible lineup could be:

Fred/Pogba - McTom/Pogba
James/Greenwood - Rashford/Martial
Haaland - Martial/Greenwood

or:

Fred/Pogba - McTom/Pogba
James/Greenwood - Pogba/Martial - Rashford/Martial
Haaland/Martial/Greenwood

Plenty of room for rotation and sharing minutes for all.
 
gza the genius said:
This. No reason why we can't play a front 2, especially with Pogba being out for so long. Martial also doesn't exactly have a great injury record either.
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Exactly, we fit them all in before with Lukaku and Sanchez, there's plenty of room for Haaland.

Injuries happen too as you say.
 
bsCallout said:
I don't see James, with his ability to get to the by-line and put crosses across the face of goal, missing out. Haaland would score tonnes with James.

It's almost certain to be -
Pogba
James Haaland Rashford

With Martial fighting for the no9 or Rashfords spot.
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Its potentially a very good line up if Haaland can settle seamlessly into the side and translate his form in Austria to the PL. He doesn't necessarily need to match his numbers there but just deliver goals consistently.
 
troylocker said:
He has a very good first touch. He often uses a directional first touch to lose his defender and loves to flick, link up and do 1-2s with his first touch. Miles better than Lukaku.
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That's good to know. Thanks!
 
westmeath said:
I refuse to believe that we’ll have a bid ready in January. Won’t it take weeks to “prepare the bid” first?
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The fee is pretty much known, regarding Haaland.

As is the fact he's probably available.

But here's a sneak preview of our January timeline regarding Haaland, approximate dates of course:

January 1st/2nd - "United preparing bid for Haaland"
January 10th/15th - "United ready to bid for Haaland"
January 20th - "Salzburg President: No contact with United"
January 20/25th - "Woodward: Happy with strikers' performances, but Haaland remains an option"
February 1st - "Ole: More than happy with options"
 
Eriku said:
By the time January comes around it’ll have been well over a month since that headline :confused:
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If history and EW has taught us anything, another two months will go by and our esteemed CEO will be telling us how difficult it is to get business done in January, like January just arrived without warning.

I really hope I’m wrong but I’d be absolutely amazed if we pull this off in January. I don’t know much about his all-round game but he clearly has a special talent for scoring goals (Haaland, not EW) ;) and we’ve been pretty patchy, to be kind, in converting chances. Let’s hope.
 
Craig Ward said:
We need an additional forward. There are enough games to go around and we have 4 forwards (Martial/Rashford/James/Greenwood).

Every time I've seen Haaland he has been nothing but impressive, looks a real goalscoring talent.

I don't think we should look at it as simply as "Haaland takes martials spot", what we lack is quality squad depth and Haaland would give us another option. Simply put, he makes us better.

We could adapt a front 4 of:
LW = Rashford
RW = James
CF = Haaland
#10 = Martial

Martial could be the deeper creator, as we know Lingard/Periera/Mata are average options there at best.

All of Rashford/James/Martial/Greenwood can play in different positions along the front line.

Gives us another dimension to an attack which is somewhat lacking a killer instinct in front of goal.

For me though, we sign one of Sancho/Haaland - I don't think we get both. Pro's and con's to each but for me, a top ruthless goalscorer like Haaland is very hard to find....
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Martial as a 10 seriously, a 10 needs to put a lot of effort into his game. I don’t see Martial ever working anywhere near hard enough for that role. He’s a wide forward or a striker.
 
Denis' cuff said:
If history and EW has taught us anything, another two months will go by and our esteemed CEO will be telling us how difficult it is to get business done in January, like January just arrived without warning.

I really hope I’m wrong but I’d be absolutely amazed if we pull this off in January. I don’t know much about his all-round game but he clearly has a special talent for scoring goals (Haaland, not EW) ;) and we’ve been pretty patchy, to be kind, in converting chances. Let’s hope.
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Yeah, I’m not holding my breath, I was merely being pedantic about the few weeks point. :)

As for Haaland, he’s got a decent touch, despite not looking fancy, and he certainly knows how to do a lay-off or one-two, and he’s at low drilled crosses. A fairly complete package, for a 19 year old.
 
Eriku said:
Yeah, I’m not holding my breath, I was merely being pedantic about the few weeks point. :)

As for Haaland, he’s got a decent touch, despite not looking fancy, and he certainly knows how to do a lay-off or one-two, and he’s at low drilled crosses. A fairly complete package, for a 19 year old.
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Aye, desperately need a real striker. Uncanny, that despite Ole being such an great, instinctive striker, he doesn’t seem able to pass this on to our current front men. Maybe because it is instinctive?
 
I do think a striker like him would complement our team well, physical but with good touch to be a focal point, hungry for goals, will be in the box for us to cross. Whether he himself is that striker I do not know, would leave that to people who have watched him.
 
Denis' cuff said:
Aye, desperately need a real striker. Uncanny, that despite Ole being such an great, instinctive striker, he doesn’t seem able to pass this on to our current front men. Maybe because it is instinctive?
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I don’t think it’s quite as easy as coaching someone. instinct, determination, mentality are all important, and some players have it, some don’t, and some don’t want to work on those areas. Don’t know what Martial fits - but injuries are not helping him progress.
 
do.ob said:
Does it? They already have four strikers on their books (Werner, Poulsen, Cunha and Schick). Okay, Schick is loaned, maybe they would just discard him? Cunha hasn't played that much, though he is seriously talented. But Poulsen is like the heart and soul of their game, he does so much work for the team, drags defenders around, plays Werner into space, acts as an outlet for long balls and last season he started scoring as well. And of course there is Werner.

On the other hand Dortmund's boss recently admitted that it was a mistake not to buy a second out and out striker last summer. They only have Alcacer, who - while being great as a goal scorer - doesn't offer any physical/aerial presence at all and suffers a constant struggle with injuries/fitness. Out of roughly 1800 minutes of football this season Alcacer only played 800, if Haaland was there he would've picked up 1000 minutes without even having to really fight for his place.

Since Lewandowski will dominate Bayern's attack for quite some time still, I think Dortmund is the logical destination for Haaland, should he prefer a move to Germany.
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I'd expect Werner to move on come the end of the season so yeah there'd still be space for him. And with the obvious red bull connection it'd expose him to a tougher league were he could continue his progression without taking a jump to a huge club.
 
Wait, I see a few posters saying fee is known

Is there any release clause? Something that has been put out by a decent journalist?
 
Denis' cuff said:
Aye, desperately need a real striker. Uncanny, that despite Ole being such an great, instinctive striker, he doesn’t seem able to pass this on to our current front men. Maybe because it is instinctive?
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Or maybe it's because Ole played in front of Scholes / Keane, and was receiving crosses from the likes of Beckham / Giggs et al.

Our current lot are playing in front of the likes of Fred / Lingard / Perreira etc..
 
Brophs said:
Has he been Phil Jones-proofed? Rough first few weeks in training if not.
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Problems with these vaccines is that you take them for one issue and it works for a bit, protects you for a few months against a Phil Jones boot, but then after a while you get all these side effects and you start to lose your touch, your ability to pass quickly and communicate with your team mates. I heard that both Falcao and Schneiderlin had particularly full shots of the Phil Protection Fluid Vaccine. PPF did them dirty.
 
If this rumoured 20 million release clause in January has any truth to it, we should be all over this deal!

An absolute bargain in this day and age for a good, young quality goalscorer like this guy. The sort of player that fits our profile.

Get it done!
 
Sky1981 said:
That's what we says on depay, rashford, martial, and many others.

We're not guaranteed with potentials. Best to just go for tried and tested for a few years until we're more stable.
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Easier said than done. Top strikers who will accept non-CL football and a rebuilding project.... hmmm... that chalks every top striker off the list.

I think that people underestimate how difficult it is to actually complete a transfer. Sometimes players aren’t available, or the player doesn’t want to play for us, or demands outrageous wages, doesn’t like our system of play, doesn’t like the manager, doesn’t want to live in Manchester, or has other, more attractive options for a move.
 
Alabaster Codify7 said:
The fee is pretty much known, regarding Haaland.

As is the fact he's probably available.

But here's a sneak preview of our January timeline regarding Haaland, approximate dates of course:

January 1st/2nd - "United preparing bid for Haaland"
January 10th/15th - "United ready to bid for Haaland"
January 20th - "Salzburg President: No contact with United"
January 20/25th - "Woodward: Happy with strikers' performances, but Haaland remains an option"
February 1st - "Ole: More than happy with options"
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I don't think I've ever been as sick of someone's posts in all my time on the cafe. Just pack it in mate.
 
Lynty said:
I don't think release clauses have any impact on a bidding war - which is what it would be at that price.

I'd say he's ours, reliant on one factor...Ole is given assurances on his future at the club
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Bidding war for signing on fees and wages yes, but if there is a clause for 20m then there wont be a bidding war, unless a stupid club offer 15m.
 
If it’s true I don’t even see why we’d debate paying it.
 
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