Fabio Coentrao

Revan said:
Because Baines is a bit old, costs way too much and becuse a lot of people think that Baines isn't that good and his sometime poor performances in defense are masked by his good crossing, which isn't something that we need that much. Personally I think that Coentrao is better than Baines in pretty much all aspects of the game, is 4 years younger and likely will cost less than him.
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Other than that though, Baines all the way!
 
Castia said:
Good signing if it goes through, much better than Leighton Baines.
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I think Baines is significantly better. 3 years younger, granted, but I'm not sure Coentrao is a long term option either seeing as he seems eternally injured. I'm aware it's a loan but surely there'll be an option to make it permanent.
 
Portuguese paper Diario de Noticias reporting the same - we're close to a deal for Coentrao. Don't know how reliable they are though.
 
mufcwarm92 said:
I think Baines is significantly better. 3 years younger, granted, but I'm not sure Coentrao is a long term option either seeing as he seems eternally injured. I'm aware it's a loan but surely there'll be an option to make it permanent.
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He is. Only just turned 29, not sure why fans get hung up on the price of footballers when it comes to their age.
 
There's doubts about his injury record but he's a much better player than Baines, set pieces aside he beats him in almost every other attribute, he's better at going forward and is more solid defensively imo. A loan will be good, check out his fitness and how he settles in.
 
Goooose said:
He is. Only just turned 29, not sure why fans get hung up on the price of footballers when it comes to their age.
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Because it affects how much can be spent, and it would only give us 2-3 years of peace before looking for a new replacement again, and Baines wouldn't move to us for 20 million pounds to be on a 3 year contract.

Baines would be great if he came, but we all want a player like De Gea or Rafael who will have their spots nailed for years to come.
Baines can offer a lot but not that.
I can get why some don't care about that sort of stuff, but it's quite easy to grasp why someone would.
 
Revan said:
Because Baines is a bit old, costs way too much and becuse a lot of people think that Baines isn't that good and his sometime poor performances in defense are masked by his good crossing, which isn't something that we need that much. Personally I think that Coentrao is better than Baines in pretty much all aspects of the game, is 4 years younger and likely will cost less than him.
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Disagree with that. I think if both players were a similar age, and could be purchased for similar prices, Baines would comfortably be the better option. Proven in the PL, has been consistently good for a while now, solid in defense and brillaint delivery, Coentrao has had his fair share of injury problems...

But with Baines' age and probable cost taken into account, it's got to be Coentrao all the way.
 
Hopefully there would be an option to buy. How annoying would it be if he comes here and sets the world alight for 6 months only for Madrid to reap the rewards next season?
 
Kevin said:
So people are still very much against signing Baines after Evra's been shown up so often this season? Why? He is quute good and still the whole of caf are saying Coentrao, a winger converted to an LB who has hardly played for a while now, is a better signing...
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Untested at the top level of European and international football, unlike Coentrao. Not a good age. Overpriced.
 
Goooose said:
So we don't spend the money, on a player that we need, because they're might be another player available at some point?
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Buy Coentrao for let's say 15 million and you have a player for 8 years at the top level that can be used on both wings, in midfield and have his base as a left-back or buy Baines for 20 million and have a quality player for 3 years and then having to uses more money to get a replacement - I sure know that I wouldn't get Baines looking at it from a economical perspective.

And this "premier league proven" thing has got to end, it's insanely stupid, especially as an argument for not wanting to buy a top player from Germany or Spain.
 
MrEriksen said:
Buy Coentrao for let's say 15 million and you have a player for 8 years at the top level that can be used on both wings, in midfield and have his base as a left-back or buy Baines for 20 million and have a quality player for 3 years and then having to uses more money to get a replacement - I sure know that I wouldn't get Baines looking at it from a economical perspective.

And this "premier league proven" thing has got to end, it's insanely stupid, especially as an argument for not wanting to buy a top player from Germany or Spain.
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So Coentrao can play until he's 34, but Baines can only play until he's 32?
 
Definitely worth of testing on loan. If he'll adapt to United's life it could be even a dramatic improvement of squad. Rafael with Valencia on right and Coentrao with Nani on the left would be a great combos indeed.
 
If we do sign him, then I can see him play on the wing or even in the middle a few times. I can't see us completely dropping Evra, he'll still get games at left back while Coentrao is playing as a midfielder or something.
 
Talented player but he's got a pretty suspect injury record, does he not? A loan with option to buy sounds like a clever move.
 
Is this all dependant on Madrid tying up a replacement then? Or are they happy enough to carry on without him seeing as he's not exactly been available to back up Marcelo?
 
MrEriksen said:
Is that all you can come up with?
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It was a stupid point to make. "PL proven" isn't though. Baines would take no time settling in, and while he's not played in the CL, we don't need players with CL experience right now, so that's irrelevant. Same goes for international experience, it has nothing to do with the premier league. As for spending money on a Baines replacement, you do realise we'd have to spend money to buy a Coentrao replacement?
 
Loan deal is probably best. It gives us cover right now and gives us an option in the summer to see how he plays and what the situation is with Luke Shaw/Alex Sandro before making it permanent.
 
Premiership proven or not - as for January's market potential it would be a serious gain.
 
Coentrao would be a brilliant signing for us. Evra needs time out of the team anyway, and Coentrao would add quality to the left side.
 
Also, we could play Coentrao on the left wing which would give the team some width, therefore meaning Valencia could be rotated/dropped and Januzaj could replace him on the right? Currently, Valencia is the only "proper" winger we have that doesn't cut inside constantly.
 
Goooose said:
It was a stupid point to make. "PL proven" isn't though. Baines would take no time settling in, and while he's not played in the CL, we don't need players with CL experience right now, so that's irrelevant. Same goes for international experience, it has nothing to do with the premier league. As for spending money on a Baines replacement, you do realise we'd have to spend money to buy a Coentrao replacement?
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Yes, we'd have to buy a replacement for Coentrao further down the line. But he would last longer - given that he'd settle and take his place.
Which ultimately was my point as to why someone would want to chose Coentrao over Baines, if given the choice. And that's before you take into account that some people don't rate Baines way ahead of Coentrao.

When it comes to the Premier League proven part i think we simply disagree.
In this case i would say that it could matter that Coentrao already struggled to settle in Madrid and so might struggle with the same in England, but the top quality players in the Bundesliga and in La Liga are not behind the Premier League, and so the "PL proven" part simply falls away for me.
I would love to have Modric, Busquets, Lewandowski, Gotze, Diego Costa or the likes at the club at least as much as I'd like to have Hazard, Cazorla, Ozil or the other top players from the Premier League.

Do we not need champions league experience?
I kinda agree. But we need champions league class.
Both Coentrao and Baines would fall into that category in my opinion.

Edit to make myself clear:
I wouldn't mind someone else other than Coentrao or Baines either.
The options don't need to be just between the two.
 
I've always been a Baines fan tbf. Seems like a lot of people get hung up on players turning 30, but you can still get 2/3/4 years out of some of them.
 
If Coentrao comes, and he settles, he'll be a great addition.

He is a good defender, especially when that's what he's asked to do. He was a significant part of why Portugal got past Sweden in the play-offs for example. Both Swedish goals came after he went off injured.

As a partner for a winger, he's got experience of playing with people like Ronaldo and Nani - he knows how attackers think. I think he'd be great with Januzaj, and I reckon he could help in a passing game with players like Cleverley, Kagawa, Rooney etc.

To me, the key is the phrase, if he settles, which is why we're probably looking for a loan to buy deal.
 
I'd take him over Baines in a heartbeat.

Loan with the option to buy? Yes please!

Is this actually likely to happen?
 
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