Fabinho

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Maradona10 said:
We need to sign him, he is the most important signing we will make, if we do. I think it would be stupid not to sign him at 30 million euros only.
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Not sure where you get 30M from.

Regardless, I always felt our highest priority to compete with the better teams should be completing the midfield.

Then at the tail end of last season three things worried me: Pogba getting injured and our midfield being too lightweight, Ibra gone and relying entirely on Rashford, and Valencia's key role and having no Plan B (particularly once Young got injured).

This guy addresses two issues. We get him and the right #9, Pereira returns, and all there's left to do is getting an actual left winger and ball-playing CB to completely balance the team.

I'm a bit concerned we seem more active/advanced in the balance department and not the critical issues.
 
Can't let Juve just nick him on the cheap, the cnuts.

Missing out on Griezmann and him would be a bit shit and it still only June lol.
 
If we miss out on Fabinho and Fellaini get's more than 5 starts next season someone needs firing out of a cannon into the sea.
 
Goes to show how far we are away from top teams, Juventus' midfield is already very strong and they're still buying players like Fabinho.

Meanwhile we have an aging carrick and Fellaini in our first team.... depressing.
 
This guy will take our midfield up a level, we need him to get the best out of Pogba. Wasn't too fussed about missing out on Griezmann but if we let this one slip and sign Dier I'll be very disappointed.
 
The perfect midfield partner for Pogba in a two, and the ideal defensive midfielder in a 3 as well.

Excellent defensive work, tall, mobile, good passing and also chips in with goals.. Can't see us not wanting him desperately, but it all depends if he wants us.
 
If we are not in for him, it will be very surprising. He is exact kind of player we need in midfield along with Pogba and Herrera.
 
ilovethisgameahahah said:
If we miss out on Fabinho and Fellaini get's more than 5 starts next season someone needs firing out of a cannon into the sea.
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I fully expect Fellaini to get more than 5 starts regardless.

In fact, an advantage with a settled 4-3-3 is José could choose to use Fellaini when his specific attributes are most useful. Could be useful in not needing a lumbering beast of a striker but leaving that with Fellaini and getting someone like Lacazette.
 
An Irish Red said:
I agree that we should sign him but I don't think he's our highest priority by any means. We'll control the game against most teams with what we have; it's finishing it that's the issue.
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A defensive midfielder who can truly protect the defence allows the rest of the team to be more attacking. Right now all our midfielders and both wingers need to defend for us to be solid.

Look at Casemiro at Madrid, the rest of the team have so much freedom because of the work he does. Fernandinho similar at City. A guy like that would help our goal scoring a lot simply by giving more freedom to players like Pogba and Mikhi and allowing them to play their game more
 
Saf94 said:
A defensive midfielder who can truly protect the defence allows the rest of the team to be more attacking. Right now all our midfielders and both wingers need to defend for us to be solid.

Look at Casemiro at Madrid, the rest of the team have so much freedom because of the work he does. Fernandinho similar at City. A guy like that would help our goal scoring a lot simply by giving more freedom to players like Pogba and Mikhi and allowing them to play their game more
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I think the more important factor is that those teams have players like Ronaldo, Bale and Isco; De Bruyne, Silva and Aguero to be fair.

Give Rashford and Lingard all the freedom in the world and they still wont be good enough for our ambitions. I'm all for signing Fabinho but it isn't going to fix our attack.
 
An Irish Red said:
I think the more important factor is that those teams have players like Ronaldo, Bale and Isco; De Bruyne, Silva and Aguero to be fair.

Give Rashford and Lingard all the freedom in the world and they still wont be good enough for our ambitions. I'm all for signing Fabinho but it isn't going to fix our attack.
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Neither of Rashford or Lingard will start next season so why are you mentioning them?
 
It's disheartening reading we're not in for him, from what i've seen he'd look perfect here, i'm struggling to think of other DM's right now, Matic maybe, Dier... and even I, as a fan of Dier don't think he'd be worth the fee we'd have to cough up.
 
BennyBlanco said:
It's disheartening reading we're not in for him, from what i've seen he'd look perfect here, i'm struggling to think of other DM's right now, Matic maybe, Dier... and even I, as a fan of Dier don't think he'd be worth the fee we'd have to cough up.
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Where have you read we're not in for him?
 
antohan said:
Not sure where you get 30M from.

Regardless, I always felt our highest priority to compete with the better teams should be completing the midfield.

Then at the tail end of last season three things worried me: Pogba getting injured and our midfield being too lightweight, Ibra gone and relying entirely on Rashford, and Valencia's key role and having no Plan B (particularly once Young got injured).

This guy addresses two issues. We get him and the right #9, Pereira returns, and all there's left to do is getting an actual left winger and ball-playing CB to completely balance the team.

I'm a bit concerned we seem more active/advanced in the balance department and not the critical issues.
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I would not be surprised if some EPL club sign him for $30/35 millions tbh.
He probably will be cheaper than any other target with the same level for a simple reason: he doesn't has a European passport.
Then his agent can not really pick a team among a lot of options.

Juventus for example, is linked with Fabinho and Douglas Costa. None of them have E.U passport. So they can only sign one of those players.
This situation tend to avoid the inflation in transfers.

He will be cheaper than Bakayoko, Carvalho, etc.

The only league that in theory Fabinho could "choose" a team to play is the EPL.
The EPL clubs know it, so they can put Monaco under pressure to sell him for a low fee.

I bet he is gonna stay in Monaco this window, or they will sell him very cheap.
 
An Irish Red said:
Because we're talking about whether Fabinho would improve our attack from last season; where they were both first choice players...
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They only became first choice once it was clear our other attackers were underperforming or were injured. All of them in form, Martial, Mkhitaryan and Ibra with Pogba behind them would've been a pretty dangerous attack as well.
 
He should be our priority. Have him anchor a three man midfield with Herrera and watch Pogba fly and look every bit like a 89 million player.
 
Arthur Friedenreich said:
I would not be surprised if some EPL club sign him for $30/35 millions tbh.
He probably will be cheaper than any other target with the same level for a simple reason: he doesn't has a European passport.
Then his agent can not really pick a team among a lot of options.

Juventus for example, is linked with Fabinho and Douglas Costa. None of them have E.U passport. So they can only sign one of those players.
This situation tend to avoid the inflation in transfers.

He will be cheaper than Bakayoko, Carvalho, etc.

The only league that in theory Fabinho could "choose" a team to play is the EPL.
The EPL clubs know it, so they can put Monaco under pressure to sell him for a low fee.

I bet he is gonna stay in Monaco this window, or they will sell him very cheap.
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That's handy, although I wonder whether the work permit isn't an issue for us as well, not quota but permit-wise. He has hardly played for the NT so that may be a sticking point for us?
 
Arthur Friedenreich said:
Juventus for example, is linked with Fabinho and Douglas Costa. None of them have E.U passport. So they can only sign one of those players.
This situation tend to avoid the inflation in transfers.
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antohan said:
That's handy, although I wonder whether the work permit isn't an issue for us as well, not quota but permit-wise. He has hardly played for the NT so that may be a sticking point for us?
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This is true, but Costa is not our top priority, just one of the options. Considering we're bringing in Schick and possibly Keita Balde (on a free transfer next year or for 10/15 million this summer) I can easily see us going all in for Fabinho.

We really need another top midfielder, and it seems we've dropped Tolisso as he became too costly.
But no worries, we don't participate into auctions and bid wars, we'll get Fabinho only if he really wants us and rejects other offers.
 
pensionator said:
This is true, but Costa is not our top priority, just one of the options. Considering we're bringing in Schick and possibly Keita Balde (on a free transfer next year or for 10/15 million this summer) I can easily see us going all in for Fabinho.

We really need another top midfielder, and it seems we've dropped Tolisso as he became too costly.
But no worries, we don't participate into auctions and bid wars, we'll get Fabinho only if he really wants us and rejects other offers.
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You would think Fabinho would be more expensive.
 
Missing out on him would be shame - especially after not going all out for Kanté last year. He could be the piece which enables Pog to release his full potential due to not having so many defensive responsibilities anymore
 
That's two targets that I thought were nailed on, that now appear to have slipped through our fingers.
 
Completely normal for players to be linked with multiple clubs. Helps drive the price up. Agents and selling clubs leak this just to make the buying club nervous.
 
Makes me wonder why we didn't go for him when we were linked to him during the LVG era. Though I do doubt that because we've not been linked in a while that it means we're not getting him.
 
pensionator said:
Lyon wants 60 millions (euro) for Tolisso, I doubt Fabinho will be more expensive.
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Aulas always has a big mouth, demands a lot and then sells the player for less. I doubt Tolisso is going to cost as much.
 
If we want Fabinho and are going to miss him, I would say the Mendes/Mourinho connection might be broken, to say the least.
 
izec said:
What happened?
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I suspect their relationship isn't the same since the Madrid disaster, with Mendes' players having a go at Mourinho, like Pepe and Ronaldo, of course. The fact that we didn't sign any of his players in the first season is a sign. Let's see what happens now. But several of Mendes' players which we might want are passing right through us.
 
Having watched that CL Final, you can see how important it is to have a good DM. At times, you can see Kroos and/or Modric were up front pressing up Juve's defence; safely knowing that they have a DM to cover their asses if the pressing wouldn't work.
 
Isotope said:
Having watched that CL Final, you can see how important it is to have a good DM. At times, you can see Kroos and/or Modric were up front pressing up Juve's defence; safely knowing that they have a DM to cover their asses if the pressing wouldn't work.
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Yep we need him and he's a must have.
 
prtk0811 said:
Yep we need him and he's a must have.
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Yeh. And (the now) Casemiro is not even in the class of great DM, like Masch or Schweni; but his importance to Madrid system is not much less that Modric or Kroos.

And I think Fabinho has potential to be a better DM than Casemiro.
 
Isotope said:
Having watched that CL Final, you can see how important it is to have a good DM. At times, you can see Kroos and/or Modric were up front pressing up Juve's defence; safely knowing that they have a DM to cover their asses if the pressing wouldn't work.
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Yeah having a reliable DM can elevate every single player on the pitch. Casemiro allows both fullbacks to foray forwards and stretch the opposition as wide as possible creating spaces for Ronaldo, Benzema, Isco, Modric and Kroos to press and overload the opposition without having to worry about turnovers in possession, Even Varane found himself bursting through into Juve's box tonight. Zidane has revolutionised Real Madrid in a similar fashion to Pep at Barcelona and Casemiro has been the engine to that process.

I think Mourinho's defensive 4231 is extremely outdated and predictable in an attacking sense and adding just a player like Fabinho and an attacking left back like Mendy could elevate and balance our team more than any Galactico style signing could. At the moment teams know that if they shut down our right flank and pin down our 2 man midfield we don't score and that has to change, ironically i think that change starts at 2 defensive
positions.

I hope Mourinho has some good signings like this lined up and he takes some time out over Summer and allows himself to catch up because our system was broken for the majority of the season and it doesn't look like he's grown form a tactical standpoint since his first stint at Chelsea. It's like he found his winning formula and stopped but football doesn't allow pauses and there is no constant winning formula when the teams around you continue to adapt and grow, just look at Wenger.

Or maybe our lack of depth in midfield and Carricks ageing legs gave him no choice but to switch from the attacking 433 to the 4231 and i'm reading too much into it, but if that's the case then why did he sell Schweii and Schneiderlin and refuse to play Blind at DM??. I guess our signings will tell us a lot about the football we will play next season. Fabinho or even Dier would undoubtedly improve us a lot though as long as we exploit the attacking freedom a defensive midfielder like them brings and we buy a left back who can do more than stand around in our own box. If we're served up the same defensive tosh and it doesn't come with a league title or CL then we need to start looking for a fresher manager.
 
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ilovethisgameahahah said:
Yeah having a reliable DM can elevate every single player on the pitch. Casemiro allows both fullbacks to foray forwards and stretch the opposition as wide as possible creating spaces for Ronaldo, Benzema, Isco, Modric and Kroos to press and overload the opposition without having to worry about turnovers in possession, Even Varane found himself bursting through into Juve's box tonight. Zidane has revolutionised Real Madrid in a similar fashion to Pep at Barcelona and Casemiro has been the engine to that process.

I think Mourinho's defensive 4231 is extremely outdated and predictable in an attacking sense and adding just a player like Fabinho and an attacking left back like Mendy could elevate and balance our team more than any Galactico style signing could. At the moment teams know that if they shut down our right flank and pin down our 2 man midfield we don't score and that has to change, ironically i think that change starts at 2 defensive
positions.

I hope Mourinho has some good signings like this lined up and he takes some time out over Summer and allows himself to catch up because our system was broken for the majority of the season and it doesn't look like he's grown form a tactical standpoint since his first stint at Chelsea. It's like he found his winning formula and stopped but football doesn't allow pauses and there is no constant winning formula when the teams around you continue to adapt and grow, just look at Wenger.

Or maybe our lack of depth in midfield and Carricks ageing legs gave him no choice but to switch from the attacking 433 to the 4231 and i'm reading too much into it, but if that's the case then why did he sell Schweii and Schneiderlin and refuse to play Blind at DM??. I guess our signings will tell us a lot about the football we will play next season. Fabinho or even Dier would undoubtedly improve us a lot though as long as we exploit the attacking freedom a defensive midfielder like them brings and we buy a left back who can do more than stand around in our own box. If we're served up the same defensive tosh and it doesn't come with a league title or CL then we need to start looking for a fresher manager.
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There is really no such thing as an outdated or predictable formation. It all depends on the players available and the schemes applied. Monaco and Atletico both play a narrow 4-4-2 with totally different schemes and outcomes
 
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