Nope the most important thing we need is a passer and playmaker in deep midfield. You defend with the ball in a top team.
Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap
- Thread starter davidmichael
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On like donkey Jong!
I see we are going down our usual approach of "just let the manager sign whoever he wants and don't bother to actually use our scouting department properly or try build from the top"
Worked out well in the past.
Worked out well in the past.
Pau Torres? Our striker’s?
I’m sure De Jong was an option before we got Ten Hag and what will normally happen is our scouts will provide a report in our managers targets.
Adding onto that ETH is a system manager which is abit different to previous except for LVG, where we both F’d up. Schneiderlin and Bastian was the club scouts and LVG.
Not sure that’s the same case here? Frenkie De Jong excels at a lot of things our midfield currently lacks. He’s a short passing master who averages an amount of passes per 90 minutes that nobody else in our midfield does; and he can actually dribble and progressively carry the ball in the middle of the field.
We have a midfield filled with either off the ball runners (hiders in McTominay’s case), and/or long ball passers who struggle with the short pass game.
They've been together since they were at school. Your SO's views matter too.
I swear down at this stage some United fans will moan about absolutely anything. For years now this team has been crying our for a press-resistant central midfielder who is capable of progressing the ball. We're now presented with a genuine opportunity to sign perhaps one of the best players in world football for fulfilling this role, with the added bonus of complete familiarity with our incoming manager, and some fans are unhappy that we're even bothering to pursue it.
It’s crazy isn’t it. Is our ego so fragile that we’re afraid to even try to convince players!? He would be absolutely perfect for us and we should be making every effort imo.
You are honestly crying about the fact we might be able to take advantage of Barcelona's financial woes and pinch one of the best midfielders in the world at only age 25, who knows our new managers system extremely well, at what could be a really good price? I don't get it there's just no pleasing some folks, if he was the same exact player but from some obscure club in Division 2 of the Dutch league that would make it better for you? Our midfield is diabolical and one of the worst in the league, if we can aim high and try to get FDJ then we'd be absolute fools not to explore the possibility
Can't she just go to Barbados 74 times a year like Colleen Rooney?
When was the last time we had a centre midfield player not afraid of carrying the ball forwards more than 1 metre.
I entirely agree with you mate. The other thing worth mentioning is that the players we've signed in recent years who might not have been so reluctant to join us (Dan James, Aaron Wan-Bissaka etc.) haven't exactly worked out brilliantly either.
Essentially, I'm of the belief that if we can offer a successful footballing project where De Jong is allowed to flourish, he will end up happy here even if he initially had reservations. If we're still shite with him in the side, he'll probably look to move elsewhere. I'd rather we went into this confident that we can deliver the former rather than backing out because we're worried about the latter.
Wait till she sees the Arndale
He's also a former Ten Hag player who will eat up most of our transfer budget and a big bunk of the wages we'll make back off departing players. Not doubting his quality as a player at all but I guess I was hoping we'd moved away from high profile transfers for now and were going to focus on strengthening the squad with
I mean, wouldn't it be nice if we could do what Liverpool do and find players like Jota and Diaz who fit the system they built and don't cost a fortune, for once? Almost everyone we've been seriously linked to is a really obvious target or used to play for Ten Hag.
I love him as a player but if this is even remotely true then we should avoid like the plague.
You're right, when has it ever worked out badly for us before when we've signed a player for a huge fee from another big club who would've preferred to stay there instead of coming here?
On the contrary. We’re shite mate, if he was chomping at the bit to join us then I’d think something is wrong with his motivation. The fact he needs a bit of convincing suggest he’s a winner and doesn’t see us as that currently. Hopefully we can get him to buy into ETH’s vision.
To be fair we found that in Bruno? For me the problem is we haven't invested enough in our attack and midfield. There was a time we could put out a first choice front 3 last season that literally cost us nothing. Of the entire front 6 only two would have cost us money since Pogba barely played and even that it was a bizarre situation of 86m for an academy graduate. After all that we finished second!
Pogba wasn't afraid....Just terrible at it by inviting all the pressure in the world then not releasing it
.We're not in the same position Liverpool were when they signed Jota and Diaz though. Liverpool already had a front three of Salah, Mane and Firmino to play with before adding those two. If things hadn't worked out with one of them (say, had Diaz been unable to cope with the jump from the Primeira Liga to the Premier League), they'd still have at least three good options to fall back on. We don't have that luxury with the midfield. We have nobody who has proven that they can offer what De Jong does at the top level, so for me it makes sense to push hard for a player with proven quality here if we can make it happen.
And we will continue being shite if we continue buying big name players who feel like they are doing us a favour by being here.
That was the benefit of RR...the only benefit...move away from overpaid prima donnas and get some talented hungry players on board. ETH has other plans. Let’s hope the new gaffer is right. DE Jong will eat up a fair bit of our budget regardless. Is he worth it? I think he might be.
Pogba? Except he carrying the ball too much and losing it back in our own half.
Not every big signing is ADM. very different situation.
I know where you're coming from.
But whereas in the past we've tempted the like of AdM and Sanchez with massive wages, this time it's EtH tempting him with the fatherly relationship they used to have when he was a youth prospect.
De Jong might go to somewhere like PSG for money. But at United, he'd come to fight for his manager.
I'm actually quite hopeful that we're still in the race alongside a bunch of rich CL sides. It means that neither riches nor CL participation is the be all and end all for FdJ.
“but there’s now a suggestion he’s not quite as against the move as he was to begin with”
Is this……what success looks like?
Is this……what success looks like?
While I agree with most of the point, FDJ is ab exception. If you have an opportunity to sign FDJ to play under ETH you take it.
This is not like Pogba signing for Jose or ADM for LVG or Sancho for Ole.
It's like saying, any signing that we make that doesn't work out means that we shouldn't ever sign any players just incase they don't work out.
I understand your point to a degree, but not every player is absolutely giddy to join our club, we need to accept the reality of the massive damage the last 10 or so odd years has done to this clubs reputation around the globe for people who are actually into the football of the sport, not the business side, it's natural that we may need to convince some players that they won't be wasting their careers here.
Why? We have done the hard work, you have to sell a project if you want the good players.
World class players will initially be reluctant to join a club in EL with the worst season in decades.
Equally, we've signed plenty of players who weren't all that well-known (Marcos Rojo, Matteo Darmian, Dan James etc.) who went on to be a bit shite.
In an ideal world you'd be able to sign players who are chomping at the bit to join us and also proven at the top level. But we're not in that position right now; we've just finished sixth in what was one of our worst seasons in a very long time. Players at the top level are going to need convincing to come here.
Sure, it doesn't always work out, but simply being "hungry to play for the club" is not enough either. I don't want us to end up with a team of McTominays just because they were desperate to play for us.
Lets not delude ourselves he'd be coming here for the money too, especially in our current state.
So you'd rather we get players who would kill to join Utd like Maguire and AWB?
If he didn't need convincing to come here in our current state then he'd be an idiot. There's nothing wrong with having to actually put effort in to sell your club to a player and we shouldn't think we're above it.
If you convince him you convince him, if you don't you move on.
If you convince him you convince him, if you don't you move on.
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