It seems all over for Shaw if Mourinho is still here in the summer. Hopefully we go for Kieran Tierney if we are looking for a left back. Solid in defense and attack and won't cost us our entire transfer budget. Not sure who we go for right back, but would love to give TFM a chance to establish himself there.
Fullbacks for the summer
- Thread starter Hellboy
- Start date
There are quite a few options for LB but no idea who we are going to be in for in terms of RB. Realistically it will be difficult to get Meunier from PSG as much as he is a United fan.
Are we really going to go from buying and shipping of one teenager with fantastic potential to another. Tierney might go on and be great who knows but Mitchell is doing great in a weaker side in that league. What we need is instant quality not more potential. Alex Sandro is the best option and he wouldnt cost more than 50-60million. I wouldn't call that all of our budget.
If you're talking about Shaw, good luck watching him become a starter on the team while Mourinho is in charge. He is Mourinho's prey for turning him down at Chelsea. As for Tierney, have you watched him play in Europe? He is a solid player right now and can be our starter, while having the potential to reach greater heights. Not saying we will sign him, but I would like him at United. Mitchell played a couple of good games before he got injured, it's pure fantasy to compare him to Tierney right now. As for Sandro, good luck on trying to get him for 50-60 million.
No world beater but void do worse than Bertrand? Not sure how he’s done this season but he knows the league homegrown and especially if Saints drop down would come for a good fee. Could even send shaw back on loan for a year?
You seriously think that that is why Mourinho isn't choosing him? Nothing to do with every single manager (and at least one youth coach) who has ever worked with him all commenting on him not being a great trainer, and having to be pushed harder that he should be to get the most out of him? Not the fact that he's never played particularly well when Mourinho has given him games? Sure, I would have liked to have seen him get more chances than what he has, and a couple of months ago I thought he was doing well enough to get a longer run of games (but even then he was hardly 'great'), but I highly doubt that it's anything to do with him choosing us over Chelsea.
Weakest area of our squad by some distance.
Painful watching ours every week.
We have a LB who's useless on the outside and a RB who dances on the ball then has to pass back because the defence has regained organisation.
Painful watching ours every week.
We have a LB who's useless on the outside and a RB who dances on the ball then has to pass back because the defence has regained organisation.
Sandro for LB and Fabinho for RB. Fabinho can also act as CM cover.
Lets just buy an actual right back and not Fabinho to primarily play there. He's a defensive midfielder first and foremost.
He's on record saying he prefers to play RB.
The names we seem strongest linked to are Sandro and Tierney for LB but not seen much at all linking us to a RB, not sure I can put up with another season of Valencia/Mata on that right hand side.
Fabinho, really? he hasn’t played rb in years and people think he’s just going to slot back in there and be just fine. It’s up there with people thinking Sanchez is a rw. Sibide, I can get agree with. fabinho, nah pass and he’s psg bound anyways.
David Alaba wants to play central midfield. But at the end of the day he's better at left-back, and Fabinho is better as a defensive midfielder so I don't think it matters what he prefers.
Also for the record I wouldn't necessarily be against aigning Fabinho, but if we do he should be in our plans as a midfielder and not as a right-back.
Are our fullbacks really that horrible?
City are flying all season cause Walker and Delph are among the best fullbacks of their generation? Miles ahead of Valencia and Young? Personally don’t believe thats the case.
City are flying all season cause Walker and Delph are among the best fullbacks of their generation? Miles ahead of Valencia and Young? Personally don’t believe thats the case.
Our full backs aren't bad. In fact, they're very decent. But the problem is that they provide little to no width in our play and this becomes problematic against teams that set out defensively and cramp the space in the centre of the pitch. Given that our wingers almost exclusively like cutting in centrally, we could really do with some full backs that provide width and create space for our attacking players in more dangerous areas.
Not Delph but Walker is without doubt the best full back in the country and he’s helped transform that City side this season.
Can't really compare City and United if you ask me.
City have more true wingers than we have. We play with two of Mata, Martial, Sanchez, Rashford and sometimes Lingard as our wingers. But all of them prefer to roam or drift in centrally which means there is no real width.Martial and Mata rarely does overlapping runs with the FBs.
But City in the other hand have Sane and Sterling along with Bernardo who are more traditional wingers, especially Sane.
So although Delph doesn't provide much in an attacking sense, Sane makes up for it by providing width. On the other side Sterling and Walker provide width.
Because we play very narrow, we need better FBs.
Also all our wingers except maybe Mata are not very good crossers.Which increases the need for better FBs who can cross or stretch the opposition.
No but they're old.
A.Sandro on the left and Kimmich on the right would be epic!
Both very capable of creating loads of good crosses but also able to score.
Both very capable of creating loads of good crosses but also able to score.
Valencia has his limitations, but I think we should focus on LB and RW this coming summer and make due with Valencia. He's not great going forward, but he's great defensively, and I think a legitimate RW with pace could make up for his deficiencies.
Last edited:
Alex Sandro playing in left midfield tonight vs Madrid.
That's a fair point. We do lack a RW in this squad, but a way around that is by having an overlapping RB. For example, Spurs also don't really have wingers that utilise the full width of the pitch. But they do have 2 marauding full backs that can deliver fairly accurate crosses into the box for Kane to score. The full backs also create more space for the wingers in more central areas. Also, this presses opposition full backs further back and prevents them from attacking.
Wishful thinking. Can't buy from Bayern unless they are looking to sell themselves. Enough proof of that with Ribery to Real move that failed and this summer's impending futile chase of Lewandowski.
Yes, I seriously think that is why he is picking on Shaw. Being picked for the team or not is not the issue, many players are left out, but it's the sniping and publicly humiliating the player which is the issue. Players like Blind, Darmian and other have been left out like Shaw, but you don't hear Mourinho talking shite about them.
I would guess that Blind and Darmian are good professionals, hard trainers and not addicted to pizza.
Or maybe those players have been professional about it and Mourinho simply doesn't rate them, so never mentions them. While he does rate Shaw's ability but doesn't seem to like his mentality. Alternatively the reason he talks about Shaw may be because Shaw is the only one the fans and the media are really asking about.
I mean, there's a chance you are right. It's just an unlikely possibility, made more unlikely by the fact that Mourinho is far from the first manager to make comments along those lines.
Picking on him? Fecking snowflakes
Jose is publically criticising him because he wants a reaction simple as.
OK snowflakes, I am sorry if I offended you by pointing out the obvious.
Has Mourinho mentioned anything recently about Shaw's fitness or him being unprofessional?
Our full-backs are good defensively, not many of our goals conceded are due to individual mistakes or by them switching off which is a credit to them considering they were/are wingers. Mourinho's set up helps with that but in attack, we need to be better. In the modern game, the full-backs are vitally important for attacking and at the top level, ours are not good enough. Young stifles our attacking play, not due to his quality but the fact he is right footed playing at LB, his first instinct is to always take a touch inside rather than open up down the flank. This makes us very predictable down that side and also makes it difficult for our LM.
Valencia opens up the game well, but his delivery and final execution can be quite poor. I don't think we need an upgrade on him just yet but we should be monitoring the market and making sure we are ready for when he does decline but the LB issue must be addressed this summer, keep Young as back-up, sell Blind and bring in a proper LB who can attack down that side. It's a shame Shaw hasn't made the most of his chances really.
Valencia opens up the game well, but his delivery and final execution can be quite poor. I don't think we need an upgrade on him just yet but we should be monitoring the market and making sure we are ready for when he does decline but the LB issue must be addressed this summer, keep Young as back-up, sell Blind and bring in a proper LB who can attack down that side. It's a shame Shaw hasn't made the most of his chances really.
Agree with this.
Also Mourinho’s teams have never really had two attacking fullbacks so Valencia should be just fine for another season as he is good defensively.
I think the problem many are highlighting is the lack of width at RW that an attacking RB can help solve. As much as I agree with this getting a proper RW will be the best solution for this in terms of team balance and personnel
After watching CL games, it just highlighted the advantages of natural fast fullbacks, against the best teams in the world.
Shaw's weight gain from his previous appearance didn't go unnoticed, when Shaw recently made an appearance against Crystal Palace.
My Palace supporting mate made the comment "That Shaw is a lazy fat cnut"...!!
How about Jose gaya or Juan bernat or Jonas Hector for the left back slot?
There's nothing wrong with the speed of our fullbacks. However, our right side seems utterly devoid of attacking intent, from wingers, midfield to fullback. Our leftback situation is strange as we have Shaw who have, on paper, all the attributes, and then there is Young, who is not bad in attack, but he prefers to cut back and hasn't quite mastered the overlapping thingy.
If you look at Walker yesterday, he was terrible for their first goal and was all over the shop in that first half. You don't see Valencia making many similar feck ups.
Seriously why do people think we can buy Sandro, Kimmich or Meunier? If their clubs won't sell then we have no chance of buying of them. This is why Van Gaal couldn't sign any of his first targets because he was trying to negotiate with clubs who just say no and then any half decent player who is actually available we miss out on.
This is where City are very good in the transfer market. They realise this and buy the best from the rest and hope they can be coached into top bracket players.
I would go for Jonas Hector at LB. He is excellent every time he plays for Germany and wouldn't cost a fortune.
This is where City are very good in the transfer market. They realise this and buy the best from the rest and hope they can be coached into top bracket players.
I would go for Jonas Hector at LB. He is excellent every time he plays for Germany and wouldn't cost a fortune.
Also very good chance Koln will be relegated, so he will be available.
Not sure how good he is though, remember Liverpool were linked with him few seasons back.
Watching Robertson bomb on against City, we don't have anyone who can do that here, not with his pace and acceleration.
We really need a left and right back. Tierney gets my shout at left back.
We really need a left and right back. Tierney gets my shout at left back.
Tierney Tierney Tierney. Only real problem is persuading him to join us since Celtic is his boyhood club.