Ethan Laird

NYAS said:
It’s funny how Dalot is basically being dismissed in this thread as some sort of perennial back-up or flop. The kid is one of the most talented RB prospects in the world.

We should enjoy having both. This Wan-Bissaka talk is laughable.
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You know what you are right. I think it is part of the stench from Mourinho leaving, but Dalot is definitely up there and his future smells bright. That is why we should try to get an older guy like Azpilicueta to replace Valencia. Him, Shaw, Dalot, Laird and Young should be alright.

Has Laird ever played on the left before?
 
The reason people want to buy a right back, including me, is because our entire right side has been dire for a few years. Putting faith in someone who hasn't played first team football is a massive gamble. Our left back isn't great either, I don't think Luke Shaw is progressing as we hoped and our CB situation is poor. It's a cumulative effect. We can't just keep putting off making important signings and hope that the youngsters we have come good in a few years. Ferguson only relied on young players when he thought they were ready to replace great players who were already at the club, not because our current options were so crap that 'they can't be any worse than Young...'

Having two young players fighting for the right back position is ideal because the reality is less than half of young players will make it at United.
 
deadrevelz said:
The reason people want to buy a right back, including me, is because our entire right side has been dire for a few years. Putting faith in someone who hasn't played first team football is a massive gamble. Our left back isn't great either, I don't think Luke Shaw is progressing as we hoped and our CB situation is poor. It's a cumulative effect. We can't just keep putting off making important signings and hope that the youngsters we have come good in a few years. Ferguson only relied on young players when he thought they were ready to replace great players who were already at the club, not because our current options were so crap that 'they can't be any worse than Young...'

Having two young players fighting for the right back position is ideal because the reality is less than half of young players will make it at United.
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Yes, then buy someone like Meunier, an experienced RB who is extremely good at attacking and providing an outlet on the right. There’s no sense in spunking £50m on Wan-Bissaka when you already have prospects who have shown more than he has when he was their age. He’s a terrific player but you can’t just go and spend tens of millions of pounds on every good young player there is particularly when you have a very similar profile of player already in your squad who has the potential to reach his level or even higher. We need quality and experience at RB, someone who can be consistent now, not a 3rd young talent who will leave you about £50m out of pocket for your efforts.
 
NYAS said:
Yes, then buy someone like Meunier, an experienced RB who is extremely good at attacking and providing an outlet on the right. There’s no sense in spunking £50m on Wan-Bissaka when you already have prospects who have shown more than he has when he was their age. He’s a terrific player but you can’t just go and spend tens of millions of pounds on every good young player there is particularly when you have a very similar profile of player already in your squad who has the potential to reach his level or even higher. We need quality and experience at RB, someone who can be consistent now, not a 3rd young talent who will leave you about £50m out of pocket for your efforts.
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I don't know anything about Meunier but if he's good enough I would be happy with this, as long as we're not relying on Young or an unproven youngster.
 
Why noone mentioned TFM? I know that he's dramatically lacking game time right now at Fulham but some time ago he was reckoned as one of the most promising right FBs of the league. Don't see any sense in buying Wan-Bissaka either.
 
Winger11 said:
Why noone mentioned TFM? I know that he's dramatically lacking game time right now at Fulham but some time ago he was reckoned as one of the most promising right FBs of the league. Don't see any sense in buying Wan-Bissaka either.
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Fosu-Mensah's a talented player but I think his ship at United has sailed, two loans that both haven't gone to plan and he's missed a lot of football in those two years, in hindsight it would've made more sense for him to perhaps go for a Championship loan. I don't think he'll end up at RB in the long term anyway, he'll end up back in CB sooner or later.

Also I agree, Wan-Bissaka makes no sense.
 
AltiUn said:
Fosu-Mensah's a talented player but I think his ship at United has sailed, two loans that both haven't gone to plan and he's missed a lot of football in those two years, in hindsight it would've made more sense for him to perhaps go for a Championship loan. I don't think he'll end up at RB in the long term anyway, he'll end up back in CB sooner or later.

Also I agree, Wan-Bissaka makes no sense.
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Thanks for the praise mate. Agree on Fosu-Mens. Talented, but gets injured and got the same issues with decisionmaking as Bailly does. Sometimes you look at him and think he is world class, the next moment he does a Lovren.
 
AltiUn said:
Fosu-Mensah's a talented player but I think his ship at United has sailed, two loans that both haven't gone to plan and he's missed a lot of football in those two years, in hindsight it would've made more sense for him to perhaps go for a Championship loan. I don't think he'll end up at RB in the long term anyway, he'll end up back in CB sooner or later.

Also I agree, Wan-Bissaka makes no sense.
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I think his loan at Palace was a success. He played a lot of football, and was also very impressive in many games.

Fulham has been a disaster though.
 
Rozay said:
I think his loan at Palace was a success. He played a lot of football, and was also very impressive in many games.

Fulham has been a disaster though.
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It was actually going quite well until our match against them, then Wan-Bissaka came in and replaced him for that match and was their best player, after that Fosu-Mensah sadly didn't get much of a chance.
 
AltiUn said:
It was actually going quite well until our match against them, then Wan-Bissaka came in and replaced him for that match and was their best player, after that Fosu-Mensah sadly didn't get much of a chance.
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Which is fine. A PL loan doesn’t need to guarantee you 38 lotsnof 90mins as a teen. Not how it works really. He played a lot of football. Wan Bissaka replaces him in the second half of the season, due to the fact TFM was not allowed to play against us, and he was excellent, which made it sensible for Palace to invest in him.

He got a few MOTM awards there though andnimpressed at this level I think. One of the big issues with Tim is that of his position. He likely won’t end up a RB, but his formative years as a senior pro are solely judged on how he plays as a RB.
 
MikeKing said:
Chong: Right. He is 19 years old though. Ask Ronaldo if being fast and direct helped him. Shit, even look at Zaha now, the only time he looks like a world beater is when he gets to be fast and direct. He has a good shot on him, decent passing, dribbling and much more to his game he can develop along with his directness. I'm not even a "fan" of him, its just what it is.

Gomes: Right. He is 18 years old though. Ask Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Silva, Mata and countless other players if their technical prowess and brain wasn't enough to take them far in senior football.
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Agree with the latter. Partially agree with the former: I think Zaha's level is what Chong can aspire to realistically. Which obviously is a good level, the dangerman for a Premier League side. But it won't be enough to keep him at United, especially given that these days home grown talents are at such a disadvantage to ready-made purchases from elsewhere. Ronaldo had that pace and directness but also massively better close control, trickery and finishing than Chong has now.

Bear in mind here I wasn't saying either won't make it or isn't good, just offering an answer to a post about why another poster has a feeling neither will end up making it. Gomes' technical skills are preternatural and I definitely wouldn't bet against him overcoming his physical limitations and becoming a great player. Mata is proof that if you're that good, technically, you can be really, really poor physically. And Gomes is already probably faster and stronger than Mata. But I do think he's got an uphill battle ahead of him.
 
RedSky said:
He looks the real deal to me going forward, hard to assess his defensive work though. Whats his crossing like?
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He's a good crosser in general, his strength is low crosses and cut backs more so than whipped balls (that's not to say he isn't decent at them though).

Like you said, defensively he's a little harder to judge because of his top notch physicality which means he can very easily recover if he were to make a mistake, that said, he's rarely ever beaten because he's got good anticipation and patience.
 
Is it likely he'll get a call up to the senior squad with Shaw and Young suspended for two games? We're short on FB options now.
 
FootyGirl88 said:
Is it likely he'll get a call up to the senior squad with Shaw and Young suspended for two games? We're short on FB options now.
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He’s not really had enough game time since his injury for him to be match sharp, at least not match sharp enough for the PL.
 
He's not being held back, he's barely played in 2019. He got injured at the tail end of last year, came back briefly and seems to have re-injured himself.
 
limerickcitykid said:
He is good but that is a shocking article. He hasn't played a single game for the u23s this season so he definitely isn't impressing and he has played 135 minutes in the past 5 months so van Gaal wouldn't have been playing an injured youth player either.

Whoever Dan Coombs is, he needs to learn how to google and do some basic research.
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Why do people write this stuff? :confused::wenger:
 
Has anyone paid attention to Dalot as a fullback? He's good on the ball, but a horrendous defender. Players blow right past him. He simply doesn't have good enough hips to play outside back. Perhaps wing back, but if he gets isolated on the outside its over, the player is past him. He compensate by laying way off the player giving the player way to much space. The coaches have figured it out, but most of the fans only seem to pay attention to him when he's in the offensive end of the pitch.

A RB is a must get this summer. That should be the number one priority. Bissaka is the best RB defender in the PL. I'm not saying he's the best fullback, but his 1 v 1 defense is unparrelled. Not sure how good offensively he is. When I've watched him the crossing was weak and I'm not sure how well he plays out of the back under pressure. From a purely defensive perspective he's top notch.
 
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Varunie1208 said:
Has anyone paid attention to Dalot as a fullback? He's good on the ball, but a horrendous defender. Players blow right past him. He simply doesn't have good enough hips to play outside back. Perhaps wing back, but if he gets isolated on the outside its over, the player is past him. He compensate by laying way off the player giving the player way to much space. The coaches have figured it out, but most of the fans only seem to pay attention to him when he's in the offensive end of the pitch.

A RB is a must get this summer. That should be the number one priority. Bissaka is the best RB defender in the PL. I'm not saying he's the best fullback, but his 1 v 1 defense is unparrelled. Not sure how good offensively he is. When I've watched him the crossing was weak and I'm not sure how well he plays out of the back under pressure. From a purely defensive perspective he's top notch.
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I agree, to me Wan Bissaka is a player I would want in my team, definitely a very good defender, but not seen much in the way of attacking, that could be because Roy is not keen to let him move forward too much, and relies on Van Anholt on the left to provide width, and both Townsend and Zaha very often start on the RHS of the pitch, so opportunities for him are limited. If you had a terrific defender in your team, you would want him where he is best, and that is in defence. The couple of times I've seen Dalot at left back, he has looked better as a defender to me, than he does on the right, but I would need to see him at LB a few more times before I could form an opinion.
 
This is the Ethan Laird thread, take it to the Dalot or Wan-Bissaka thread.
 
Hopefully he stays injury free because I can see him staking a claim for the RB slot before long. I remember as a u-16 he scored 18 goals from the fullback position only finishing 2nd to Mason. Big potential...
 
AltiUn said:
This is the Ethan Laird thread, take it to the Dalot or Wan-Bissaka thread.
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Apologies, you are right, wrong thread, but I hope Laird is injury free for the rest of this season, and can get some minutes on the pitch, then Ole can have a good look at him, and all the other lads in the pre season. He does look a good player, on both sides of the pitch, let's hope he does develop over the next year or so, and become an integral part of the squad.
 
Varunie1208 said:
Has anyone paid attention to Dalot as a fullback? He's good on the ball, but a horrendous defender. Players blow right past him. He simply doesn't have good enough hips to play outside back. Perhaps wing back, but if he gets isolated on the outside its over, the player is past him. He compensate by laying way off the player giving the player way to much space. The coaches have figured it out, but most of the fans only seem to pay attention to him when he's in the offensive end of the pitch.

A RB is a must get this summer. That should be the number one priority. Bissaka is the best RB defender in the PL. I'm not saying he's the best fullback, but his 1 v 1 defense is unparrelled. Not sure how good offensively he is. When I've watched him the crossing was weak and I'm not sure how well he plays out of the back under pressure. From a purely defensive perspective he's top notch.
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This is a new one for the caf.

His hips aren’t good enough :confused::lol:
 
Brightonian said:
Chong: never quite as special as his fans claimed. Very fast and direct, which youth defences always struggle to handle but which doesn't get you far in senior football.

Gomes: just doesn't have the physical assets to match his technical prowess and brain.
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All this physical stuff is nonsense now city are battering the league with midgets and are playing sensational football we need to leave this obsession of physique and height in the past and give people a chance.
 
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