We are fine as long as Carrick is playing, but....
Fellaini
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We are fine as long as Carrick is playing, but....
We need at least 2 if not 3 good midfielders, at least one of them has to be defensively minded.
Yeah, looks like this one is definitely off.
More like, we were never really interested. We've hardly been seriously linked with Fellaini this summer. Its mainly been lazy journalism because of Moyes' Everton connection.
More like, we were never really interested. We've hardly been seriously linked with Fellaini this summer. Its mainly been lazy journalism because of Moyes' Everton connection.
On the Fellaini release clause thingy. I think it is feasible that we had an agreement with Everton not to use Moyes' knowledge of players contract situations, to sign their players. Especially likely given that we didn't have to pay any compensation for taking their manager. United do their business in a very up and up way and a gentleman's agreement like this wouldn't surprise me at all.
It also wouldn't surprise me if we had a pre agreed fee with them for around 23M + add-ons, arranged much earlier in the summer. And we are just waiting to see if we close on it or not.
It also wouldn't surprise me if we had a pre agreed fee with them for around 23M + add-ons, arranged much earlier in the summer. And we are just waiting to see if we close on it or not.
We didn't have to pay anything for taking their manager because he was out of contract, no need to make any additional arrangements. We took him on July 1st and he was unemployed at that point.
True - but Moyes may still be in an awkward position regarding what he knows about contract details, release clauses and whatnot. So, the fact that he ran down his contract doesn't preclude the existence of gentlemen's agreements of some kind. I don't know exactly how this works, but it's not unusual that you have a "quarantine" period of sorts depending on the exact nature of the business.
Whether this is the case - and whether it would actually influence the Fellaini situation - I have no idea. Perhaps there is no Fellaini situation. Perhaps the big old microphone has never been in Moyes' plans at all.
Maybe we want to pay less than the release clause?
Why would we want to sell for less than that? We have had no reason to sell anyone this year so far, and i doubt that we would let a player go for less than a release clause that we put in place for him. If we did let him go cheaper it would just be the initial fee, installments would take it over the £22 million.
Yes, we are all aware of that. That's why I said we didn't have to pay compensation. Irrelevant ot the point I was making though.
Think he's playing "CM" today, with Barkley further forward, for those interested in "scouting" him 
He has been playing very well so far today, sitting in the dm spot most of the time. If you want irrefutable proof he is worth signing then all you have to do is note that peterstorey doesnt rate him.....Think he's playing "CM" today, with Barkley further forward, for those interested in "scouting" him
Think he's playing "CM" today, with Barkley further forward, for those interested in "scouting" him
Both have been good so far. It might only be Norwich but they have both been involved in pretty much everything good, with Fellaini great in both defence and attack.
Yeah, I've just replied to Stack saying just that. Barkley has a great maturity about him.
So he did indeed play as a sitting CM yesterday with Osman. And Barkley was in front of them. Got mugged off a few times by Norwich players going past him like with the goal and another 3 times to make up the 4 times total, but won plenty of headers and his passing was decent. He was okay but didnt bring solidarity defensively.
Yeah, did ok, was a bit meh overall. He caused them problems in their box though, which is his biggest attribute IMO. Not sure he's worth over £20m as a CM though. Was more impressed with Barkley, but the seasons jut started.
To be honest I was dissappointed by his headed efforts, you expect better from him. But he did win the ball 8 times, some in midfield and some from set pieces. Barkley was definitely more impressive
Using your own fascination with stats, i'm finding that he made joint top tackles, the highest number of clearances by anyone apart from Distin/Turner who are CBs, he made the most amount of passes in the game with 89% accuracy, and double the amount of aerial duels of the next closest player to him. He had a very good game apart from the goal which he was wrong footed on due to the ball bobbling about although should have done better, but he wasn't helped by a number of mistakes running up to that.
No, we need 1 or maybe 2 at a push. Signing 3 would be stupid.
I've never really criticized him before & he did a decent enough job yesterday, my only reservation is that he seemed a little immobile. And based on that, I'm not sure how he'd play next to Carrick. It's decent enough in Evertons midfield because you have Osman & now Barkley in there with him - 2players who are fairly mobile. But I think we're looking at more of a playmaker in CM, think Modric/Fabregas, even someone like Witsel or the role Barkley played at times yesterday etc. (though i don't want o mention Barkley too much, it's ill early days).
For the price mentioned, I'm not sure I'm too keen, even though he'd definitely improve our squad & give us something different. The question is, if its a option of Fellaini or no-one, then we'd be better off trying to sign him.
Not the worst theory in the world! Though I don't think I agree with the last bit either - united aren't exactly always the beacon of morality & integrity!
I don't understand the immobile stigma attached to him. He was driving at times when needed be but for the most part, he didn't. He was just needed to spray it around to the other players.
He did make tackles, he was also beaten too easily. Gotta judge him at the level his price tag suggests he should be and as a defensive midfielder there was a lot to improve on. If we were talking about P. Neville then fair enough
Not the worst theory in the world! Though I don't think I agree with the last bit either - united aren't exactly always the beacon of morality & integrity!
It's certainly up there! Why would Moyes not be allowed to "take advantage" of a clause that the whole World knows about? None of it makes sense.
He wasn't used as a traditional DM though, he was a CM beside Osman although because the defensive side of the game is one of his stronger points, he obviously had the stronger stats and such. I don't think Martinez will ever use him as solely a defensive midfielder, it's not part of his style at all.
I see what you mean, but it wouldn't surprise me if Moyes did agree with Bates that if he came in for a Everton player, he'd deal directly with the club & not by activating a clause etc. Moyes might see it as a sign of respect to Everton.
But anyway, totally irrelevant anyway
If Everton is willing to sell him below the release clause it's not like they have to wait for the thing to expire. Could have sold him any time in the window.
He was clearly the one with the task of holding and giving defensive stability unlike for example, the friendly a week ago against Valencia where he was clearly allowed to get forward.
He made the most amount of successful passes in the final third against Norwich, 26/30 or something.
He had the most touches and passes, its hardly surprising.
http://espnfc.com/uk/en/gamecast/367473/gamecast.html?soccernet=true&cc=5739
Check Fellaini's heatmap and you'll see his orange and red spots of repeated positions are in general 3 or 4 yards deeper than Osman, with Barkley's in front of both. You could see him holding during the match
I am really confused by that heat map and don't really understand what i am looking at. He wasn't a predominantly holding player during the match. He was a CM with a bit more defensive responsibility than Osman.
Agreed. Thought you were saying they were playing the same role, but Fellaini was a few yards deeper and more involved defensively than Osman. He wasnt exactly playing the Makelele role - but if you look at his heat map it shows that he appeared on the edge of his own box a fair bit looking to see out danger. The yellow spots show where he appeared, orange where he appeared a bunch of times and red where he was even more often. I do think he held his position most.
Yeah, i understand what you mean now, i thought you were meaning he was playing a Makelele role.
He will get better when Gibson is beside him rather than Osman though, as the latter is declining quite badly it seems.
He will get better when Gibson is beside him rather than Osman though, as the latter is declining quite badly it seems.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/spor...ws/everton-fc-exclusive-blues-angrily-5749316
Bidding deliberately low to unsettle the players and to make them force through the move is a cnutish tactic IMO. All clubs do it but still it's cnutish.
If it is true, that is bad offer especially so late in transfer window. Combined, 40m should be fair value. If club wants to start bit lower, then can start with something like 21+15 and see how Everton take it. A derisory offer will make Everton holding out for more than the fair value and at the same time making the negotiation and deal difficult for United.
Why can't we bid for Barkley instead? Woodward has had a complete mare this transfer window.
Not really. We're going to play with 3 in midfield at times and we need a defensive midfielder as a Carrick cover and someone to partner him. Letting Anderson to and replacing him with someone more promising wouldn't be a tragedy either. For me out of our current selection of midfielders only Carrick and Cleverley are good enough to be here and a team like United should have 5 midfielders.
All these low bids is awful and not doing out reputation any good. Where is all this money they were saying we have? Just put a proper bid in and get it sorted Ed. Carry on like this an clubs won't want to do business with us in the future.
16m is not a deliberately low bid for Fellaini. The Echo is just hysterical with calling it derisory. They can't seriously expect 25-30m, can they?
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