Fullbacks for the summer

We're gonna go with the same rubbish back four that isn't good enough. Weak full-backs. Smalling-Jones at CB. This season is going to be a struggle. I hope I'm wrong but I can't see our football improving with these CB's and full backs.
 
So there we have it. Valencia and Young go into the season as our first choice fullbacks.
I feel like I'm grieving to be honest. I'm somewhere between anger and complete apathy or acceptance.
 
Adisa said:
So there we have it. Valencia and Young go into the season as our first choice fullbacks.
I feel like I'm grieving to be honest. I'm somewhere between anger and complete apathy or acceptance.
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Watch out, they will call you a drama queen and start convincing how they arent that bad.
 
Adisa said:
So there we have it. Valencia and Young go into the season as our first choice fullbacks.
I feel like I'm grieving to be honest. I'm somewhere between anger and complete apathy or acceptance.
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We can only hope Dalot and Shaw have a good season to keep them out the team.
 
Adisa said:
So there we have it. Valencia and Young go into the season as our first choice fullbacks.
I feel like I'm grieving to be honest. I'm somewhere between anger and complete apathy or acceptance.
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this. what a disgrace for a club of our size to continue with failed wingers as full backs
 
Adisa said:
So there we have it. Valencia and Young go into the season as our first choice fullbacks.
I feel like I'm grieving to be honest. I'm somewhere between anger and complete apathy or acceptance.
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Not enough change just feels like it's going to be another season of painful football and grinding out results.
If it seems that way when the season kicks off I don't know if I'll put as much effort into watching every game. And I already don't bother wasting my time going to OT anymore. I'm no glory supporter, but can't face spending 50+ hours of my life on the off chance there'll be something entertaining in there.
 
mitchmouse said:
this. what a disgrace for a club of our size to continue with failed wingers as full backs
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It really is. We don't have to have Marcelo and Walker, bog standard fullbacks would be an improvement.

I hope he gives Shaw and Dalot a proper run of games, I can only assume this is why he's not bought.
 
We will be horribly exposed this season if we don't provide an overwhelming force going forward to overcome massed defences. Young and Valencia will be tiring just as we should be exerting dominance over teams and our attacks will dissolve into route one upto Fellaini and Lukaku.

I'm hoping this is last minute brinkmanship to try and get the price down. if it's not then I can see a suite becoming available at the Lowry Hotel in time for the Christmas Festivities. I hear they do a cracking xmas lunch - would be a shame to miss it Jose / Ed!
 
buchansleftleg said:
We will be horribly exposed this season if we don't provide an overwhelming force going forward to overcome massed defences. Young and Valencia will be tiring just as we should be exerting dominance over teams and our attacks will dissolve into route one upto Fellaini and Lukaku.

I'm hoping this is last minute brinkmanship to try and get the price down. if it's not then I can see a suite becoming available at the Lowry Hotel in time for the Christmas Festivities. I hear they do a cracking xmas lunch - would be a shame to miss it Jose / Ed!
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meanwhile, the fans will be trussed up like turkeys - enduring the "humour" of City fans (and prrobably Chelsea and Liverpool as well. Hell maybe even Hull!)
 
Isn't Alonso's place at Chelsea at risk? They might not want to sell but he could be up for a move
 
If Sandro is too expensive, why not Tierney or Telles?

I hope we don't start with 2 fullbacks with 33 years old. They aren't bad, in fact they are decent but we need better players who can cross in order to compete for the league and Champions league.
 
Strange that Young gets piled in with Valencia as a problem player to upgrade on. Young has regularly bailed us out with his wing play, and our left side was fantastic in the first half of 17/18. He also had some defensive masterpieces in 17/18.

Valencia on the other hand has scored a few worldies and broken countless leg bones with his crossing. He also misses the offside trap time and time again. Mata spends most of the game on the left stepping on other people's toes.

One side is obviously a bigger problem than the other. I'd wager that a Young-Sanchez partnership on the left side will be the best left side in the league.
 
Young is crap, has a good right foot cross and is good with set pieces and that's it for attack contribution. Has Valencia ever taken a set piece for us by the way? Wing players usually take set pieces in most clubs because good crossers are usually good set piece takers but in all his years here I can't seem to remember him taking many set pieces
 
Young is a good professional and has done a job for us at LB. The problem is he's right footed and playing ahead of him is Pogba (who likes drifting left from midfield) and Sanchez (who looks to cut inside from the left flank). With Young also looking to cut in rather than round his opposing fullback, we have a serious case of congestion on the left.

The solution is a left footed left back who will get forward, stay wide and stretch the play. It would work wonders, for Sanchez in particular.
 
We really should have invested in 2 excellent FBs. I dont know Dalot but I hope he will be as great as Jose said.

It is clear that the offensive quality and the energy with Valencia and Young is just not there anymore and we paid for it. IMO, Valencia is way past it and Young, despite having a very good world cup, is a big question mark over the whole season.
 
Do we need a RB more now that both Dalot and Valencia are injured and Darmian wants out? Is Sidibe available?
 
At current state it's got to be Mensah. His backtracking pace will satisfy most fussy caftards.
 
Infra-red said:
That's only a short-term issue. Both players will be fit by September.
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That may be the case. Even when fully fit, we need to have a viable alternative to Valencia (getting up there in age); I don't think you should drop a teenager and expect him to perform at that level. Loan Dalot out to Monaco and let him develop as a professional and split the duties between Valencia and Sidibe (giving Sidibe more playing time than Toni).
 
Escobar said:
We really should have invested in 2 excellent FBs. I dont know Dalot but I hope he will be as great as Jose said.

It is clear that the offensive quality and the energy with Valencia and Young is just not there anymore and we paid for it. IMO, Valencia is way past it and Young, despite having a very good world cup, is a big question mark over the whole season.
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yeah, starting without reinforcement in the full back positions (both) is what I fear as well. That's where we are most lacking and what makes our attack predictable.
 
VanHaal'sRedArmy said:
That may be the case. Even when fully fit, we need to have a viable alternative to Valencia (getting up there in age); I don't think you should drop a teenager and expect him to perform at that level. Loan Dalot out to Monaco and let him develop as a professional and split the duties between Valencia and Sidibe (giving Sidibe more playing time than Toni).
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In an ideal world, we'd have signed senior players for both fullback positions, and dumped Shaw, Blind and Darmian.

I think LB is a more pressing concern than RB because the lack of width on the right will likely be solved with the addition of a RW. We'll be playing Sanchez/Rashford on the LW, so desperately need a decent overlapping fullback on that side.
 
Infra-red said:
I think LB is a more pressing concern than RB because the lack of width on the right will likely be solved with the addition of a RW. We'll be playing Sanchez/Rashford on the LW, so desperately need a decent overlapping fullback on that side.
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Couldn't agree more. With Sandro on the left back, the conditions for Sanches/Rashford would be much better. They would have much more space because Sandro's contributions would have streched the opponent.
Mourinho must have seen this last season. So, the only reason he'll not buying Sandro (or any other LB) is because he believe Shaw can deliever this season. I must admit that I no longer see Shaw becoming a top modern wingback. Hope I'm wrong.

Just like we can't play Jones-Smalling against any top teams ever again.
 
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Van Piorsing said:
At current state it's got to be Mensah. His backtracking pace will satisfy most fussy caftards.
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I personally think that fullback is the best role to easily promote young players from within the system. Fergie played Smalling and Jones there for a while. TFM is far more capable fullback than both of them. If he can cross and put in a decent shift, I am all for it.
 
If we are going to play 352, Sessegnon could be a good option as a wingback to rotate with Young.

It seems that we could play with a midfield of 3 with Sanchez and Lukaku up front. So we need to improve our width.
 
Fer said:
If we are going to play 352, Sessegnon could be a good option as a wingback to rotate with Young.

It seems that we could play with a midfield of 3 with Sanchez and Lukaku up front. So we need to improve our width.
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Agreed.

I'm sure we're watching Sessegnon, but I think he'll stay at Fulham for at least 1 more year.

Same with Neves at Wolves.

But they are two players we should be after in the near future IMO.
 
Fer said:
If we are going to play 352, Sessegnon could be a good option as a wingback to rotate with Young.

It seems that we could play with a midfield of 3 with Sanchez and Lukaku up front. So we need to improve our width.
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Don't think we're signing FBs this window now. We'll go with what we have in Valencia, Young, Shaw and if Darmian is still here, then there's Dalot and TFM.

It's not ideal, but we'll be fine.
 
I'm gonna take a gamble and say by Christmas, Dalot will make the RB position his own.

We desperately need a LB and RW though.
 
Trizy said:
I'm gonna take a gamble and say by Christmas, Dalot will make the RB position his own.

We desperately need a LB and RW though.
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Agreed about Dalot, but we're gonna be starting the season with Young and an unwanted, underperforming Shaw unfortunately which is ridiculous.
 
kthanksbye said:
Don't think we're signing FBs this window now. We'll go with what we have in Valencia, Young, Shaw and if Darmian is still here, then there's Dalot and TFM.

It's not ideal, but we'll be fine.
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No it wont it will be the same old shit
 
Doesn't look like we have the money for fullbacks and a CB. We'll have to make do with poor transitions and a lack of width for at least another year.
 
Fer said:
If we are going to play 352, Sessegnon could be a good option as a wingback to rotate with Young.

It seems that we could play with a midfield of 3 with Sanchez and Lukaku up front. So we need to improve our width.
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Well Mourinho has played 3-5-2 the whole tour so it seems he wants to play that formation, if we only had signed a LWB i would feel much more positive about next season. Why we havent signed Sandro is a fecking mystery.
 
Infra-red said:
Doesn't look like we have the money for fullbacks and a CB. We'll have to make do with poor transitions and a lack of width for at least another year.
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I'd ship out out Shaw, Valencia, Darmian, Jones & Rojo and sign Thomas Meunière, Sandro and a new CB, (not bothered about the cost), we need quality wing backs if we are going to play 3 at the back.
 
I suppose it's not the worst of predictions when you think how average Valencia has been, just not sure how Dalot gets the game time to "make the RB position his own" unless of course Valencia misses even more time through injury.
 
Are United possibly transitioning to a 3-5-1-1? I've seen that you've played it in most of the pre-season games, but wasn't sure if this was just down to available personnel (lack of attackers).

If so - then yeah, they really need much greater creativity from the wide areas. I think the right-hand side could be OK, you have Valencia and Dalot as options, the latter looks a really good prospect but may take a while to develop, and if Valencia isn't cutting it from a crossing perspective, you could move Young over.

But LWB really needs addressing. Young is a decent stop-gap, he's worked hard to develop the defensive side of his game similar to Valencia and is a better crosser, but being naturally right-footed makes him easier to defend against, you know he's going to cut inside and when you're aiming in-swinging crosses, really the only place you're going to put it to create any danger is the far post and teams know that and can defend that zone.

I think you need a natural left-footer there. Whether that's Sandro who would be ideal, or Alex Telles instead, somebody good who can get to the byline and put balls in to the box and own that left-hand side.
 
Trizy said:
His ability, Valencias decline and a lot of hope!
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Which you're judging by?

The lad's played 6 first team games, I'm not even sure most regular watchers of Porto (who surely we can count on one hand on this forum) really have a good idea of how good Dalot currently is!

I do worry that Dalot is having ridiculously unfair expectations lumbered on him out of desperation at United's failure to sign other full back options. If by some miracle he reaches them happy days, but if (and perhaps more realistically when) he doesn't I hope people realise that it was their expectations that were too high and dial them back rather than shit on Dalot for not reaching them.

Not having a go at you, just observing what I see as a bit of a trend.
 
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We should just sign Alex Telles or Tierney which would cost us 40m max. Another 60m on Zaha for our RW and we are good enough for a title challenge.
 
Seems Fosu is going out on loan again this season, so Most probably be the same full backs as last season= Young and Valencia.

We have Shaw and Dalot as back up. We could play a 3-5-2 this season which may suit us better. That is if we bring in Alderweireld.
 
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