How do we solve our midfield problem?

Sign actual specialist midfielders, ideally a DM and a DLP, and stop stockpiling b2b midfielders and shoehorning them into roles they're not suited for.
 
How do we solve our midfield problem?

A. By polishing turds and hoping gems, rubies and diamonds emerge.
 
I'd be very surprised if we don't sign two midfielders this summer

what chance does ETH have of implementing his system without it?
 
Tarrou said:
I'd be very surprised if we don't sign two midfielders this summer

what chance does ETH have of implementing his system without it?
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There’s other areas too that need attention. He’s not going to solve all the problems in one transfer window. You’ll be hugely disappointed if you think he will.
 
Trigg said:
There’s other areas too that need attention. He’s not going to solve all the problems in one transfer window. You’ll be hugely disappointed if you think he will.
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Yeah I don't think he'll solve everything I just think we'll get two midfielders. We're losing Pogba, Matic, Mata and Jesse; and McT are shite so it was needed anyway.

We're left with what? McTominay, Fred, Donny and Garner? We need two more. A proper DM and then either a B2B or 8.
 
Get 2 of De Jong, Rice, Tchouaméni as a priority or Bissouma, Fabian Ruiz as back ups. I dont care if we need to spend 150 doing it, buy no one else and sell McTominay and Fred to do it. At least its sorted and I dont have to watch our midfield being over run by Fulham and Bournemouth next season.
 
UpWithRivers said:
Get 2 of De Jong, Rice, Tchouaméni as a priority or Bissouma, Fabian Ruiz as back ups. I dont care if we need to spend 150 doing it, buy no one else and sell McTominay and Fred to do it. At least its sorted and I dont have to watch our midfield being over run by Fulham and Bournemouth next season.
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This for me too. Get these non-league performers off our midfield space for good. Midfield is some sort of fulcrum for every team. You fail in midfield, you fail in everywhere else.
 
Just think this club for some reason doesn't think midfield is an area to spend money. Ever since Scholes started getting older all the clamour was getting top class midfielders in and we've never really done it.
 
Get De Jong and Neves that will completely sort out the biggest weakness in this team.
 
VidaRed said:
How do we solve our midfield problem?

A. By polishing turds and hoping gems, rubies and diamonds emerge.
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That's what we've been doing thus far and will likely continue using this failing strategy.
ETH's first transfer window this summer will give us a very good indication of whether he will actually steer away from a losing strategy or not.
 
Sign two new starters minimum.

If we only sign one Midfielder of note next season is over before it begins
 
Sign a DM plus 1 X reputable AMC. Bench McTominay , with a long term view of off loading him somehow, possibly to Rangers.
 
Get a quality and cheap CDM like Sangare, Edson Alvarez or Palhinha. Plus a very good Playmaker in the mould of Modric, If we can't get FDJ, then we should move for Koopmeiners.
 
UpWithRivers said:
Get 2 of De Jong, Rice, Tchouaméni as a priority or Bissouma, Fabian Ruiz as back ups. I dont care if we need to spend 150 doing it, buy no one else and sell McTominay and Fred to do it. At least its sorted and I dont have to watch our midfield being over run by Fulham and Bournemouth next season.
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I'm with that. I really don't want to watch McT and Fred anymore.
 
Buy a good CDM, buy a good CM, get Bruno to actually display skills of a number 10.

I think its as simple as that.
 
If we sign 2 CM's, that would leave SMT, Fred, DVB, Hannibal on bench fighting for 2 positions as Bruno starts in No-10, so you guys ok to move on
Fred for around 20M or he can come good playing next to a proper DM?
 
If it were as easy as buying players then it would great. It would be so simple. It's not, though.

I mean, we bought Varane to shore up our defence, and yet we conceded 14 more league goals.

Just goes to show how nuanced football is.

To answer the question: Dunno.

Ten Hag will work with what he's got, initially. He'll try to get more of out the current players than Ole and Ralf has. Which, let's be fair, isn't going to be difficult. And then take it from there.
 
Tarrou said:
Yeah I don't think he'll solve everything I just think we'll get two midfielders. We're losing Pogba, Matic, Mata and Jesse; and McT are shite so it was needed anyway.

We're left with what? McTominay, Fred, Donny and Garner? We need two more. A proper DM and then either a B2B or 8.
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Only 2 more? Garner will be loaned out to a Brighton or Palace type club next season most likely, he is absolutely not ready for you guys yet. MCT is shite, Donny could thrive under ETH but still a question mark and Fred is passable but not great.
 
SirReginald said:
Only 2 more? Garner will be loaned out to a Brighton or Palace type club next season most likely, he is absolutely not ready for you guys yet. MCT is shite, Donny could thrive under ETH but still a question mark and Fred is passable but not great.
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I agree we need more but we have so many other issues to fix I doubt we can do it
 
We are fecked if we don't sign two midfielders who actually cherish the ball, another season of Mcfred would be a huge disaster.
 
We need to sign two specialists to give us any hope of doing so - A positionally aware #6 and an #8 who can dictate play, while being well-rounded enough to contribute in both directions. Outside of the obvious but likely unobtainable Tchouameni types, we could go with two Caqueret, Palhinha, Ugarte type 2nd tier midfielders and immediately improve, given how shite our current options are.

McT is never good enough, needs to go eventually. Who knows how Mejbri & Garner will turn out. Fred will be useful in a functioning system I feel and DVB looks likely to feature heavily under ETH.
 
I think we’ll possibly only sign one, with DvB coming back. Probably a De Jong, Fred, Bruno midfield with McTominay, DvB and Hannibal as back up/rotation. If we don’t get De Jong I could see is going a different route and splitting the funds between 2. Personally I’d prefer one high quality player. I think Bruno will be class again, and Fred or DvB will work in the right system.
 
Personally would sell Scott and keep Fred, VDB, Hannibal and Garner as backup. Bruno, De Jong and New DM as starting in midfield.
 
It feels like a contradiction to hype up our new manager as the potential to be as good as klop/pep but then act like we need major surgery on our midfield.

If ten hag is as good as we believe then only the defensive midfield position would need serious attention paid to it, if ten hag has vdb playing like his ajax days then that is potentially one midfield spot resolved and if he can coach Fernandes with his tactical discipline, positioning and decision making with his passing then he could resolve another midfield spot as an 8 and then you have fred who looked a different player at shaktar and if ten hag can coach him to produce those performances and develop hannibal then they could be our back up options for the midfield.
 
A playmaking cdm is priority. Next a young talented full back and a striker if possible.
 
We have to get the best of the best and build one that will last for years to come.

I think midfield should be out first and last priority this season.
If we end up the transfer window with no defenders and attacking players but manage to fill the midfield with world class players i will be happy.
 
Lee565 said:
It feels like a contradiction to hype up our new manager as the potential to be as good as klop/pep but then act like we need major surgery on our midfield.

If ten hag is as good as we believe then only the defensive midfield position would need serious attention paid to it, if ten hag has vdb playing like his ajax days then that is potentially one midfield spot resolved and if he can coach Fernandes with his tactical discipline, positioning and decision making with his passing then he could resolve another midfield spot as an 8 and then you have fred who looked a different player at shaktar and if ten hag can coach him to produce those performances and develop hannibal then they could be our back up options for the midfield.
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Lunacy like this is exactly why we’ve never truly addressed issues in the squad properly in recent years. The fact people still think we are ‘a player away’ in any department [bar the GK position obviously] is astounding.

Make-do United FC needs to die a death. Fred’s been at United how long & you’re looking for a Shaktar resurgence. Hannibal has how many senior appearances. He hasn’t worked with DvB for a few years & doesn’t have the 10 other Ajax players around him but you expect Ajax performances why exactly.

Let the man work before chastising him for a transfer strategy we don’t even know is true.
 
Cafer007 said:
If we sign 2 CM's, that would leave SMT, Fred, DVB, Hannibal on bench fighting for 2 positions as Bruno starts in No-10, so you guys ok to move on
Fred for around 20M or he can come good playing next to a proper DM?
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You mention these 4 midfielders as if they are world class. All of them wouldn't get near any of the current top 4's teams. If we sign 2 midfielders I would still be worried we are 2 short.
Maybe DVB can fit into the ETH system as previously with Ajax but McFred has shown consistently to be way short and Hannibal is at least a year away if ever.
 
giggs-beckham said:
Just think this club for some reason doesn't think midfield is an area to spend money. Ever since Scholes started getting older all the clamour was getting top class midfielders in and we've never really done it.
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It's stupid. It is the root of all our problems, doesn't protect the defence properly and doesn't initiate attacks properly.
 
AFC NimbleThumb said:
Lunacy like this is exactly why we’ve never truly addressed issues in the squad properly in recent years. The fact people still think we are ‘a player away’ in any department [bar the GK position obviously] is astounding.

Make-do United FC needs to die a death. Fred’s been at United how long & you’re looking for a Shaktar resurgence. Hannibal has how many senior appearances. He hasn’t worked with DvB for a few years & doesn’t have the 10 other Ajax players around him but you expect Ajax performances why exactly.

Let the man work before chastising him for a transfer strategy we don’t even know is true.
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It's not making do, we definitely need at least two midfielders but a defensive midfielder and a back up defensive midfield are really important as we literally have 0 options there at the moment and don't want to see mctominay anywhere near our first team anymore.

Plus we have to still also sort out a right back, central defender and possibly two new attackers due to the lack of options available. If we go into the new season with a new dm, attacker, rb and cb then I can look on the positive side that ten hag can transform a number of our players back to the same previous good standards that they have shown they can perform to over a whole season
 
Improve on McTominay, get a ball playing DM with some physical qualities, use Fred higher with his energy in the press, force Bruno to play with more tactical discipline, get some workrate into the attacking group so that the midfield is not constantly out numbered and forced to cover huge gaps. Sancho/Ronaldo/Greenwood was never going to be sustainable even before the incident, 3 players who were unwilling to work back, Rashford coming in didn't improve that. Elanga was getting games on the basis of his willingness to work, definitely wasn't on his ability on the ball.
 
Bobski said:
Improve on McTominay, get a ball playing DM with some physical qualities, use Fred higher with his energy in the press, force Bruno to play with more tactical discipline, get some workrate into the attacking group so that the midfield is not constantly out numbered and forced to cover huge gaps. Sancho/Ronaldo/Greenwood was never going to be sustainable even before the incident, 3 players who were unwilling to work back, Rashford coming in didn't improve that. Elanga was getting games on the basis of his willingness to work, definitely wasn't on his ability on the ball.
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I don't think there's any manager out there that can improve McFred so if that's our midfield's problem solution we are surely doomed for another season.
 
Get one of FDJ or Neves and one Bissouma/ Sangare or Kone
 
Cafer007 said:
If we sign 2 CM's, that would leave SMT, Fred, DVB, Hannibal on bench fighting for 2 positions as Bruno starts in No-10, so you guys ok to move on
Fred for around 20M or he can come good playing next to a proper DM?
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Sell Fred. Hannibal isn’t ready for the premier league but should feature in cups. Bring in Garner. McTominay as a bench workhorse option. We still need 2 quality midfielders.
 
Whether Erik coaches the current lot to be better or he identifies the right players to bring in, the midfield will be a 'make or break' for his coaching tenure at United. I hope, though, there is not the usual 'clean slate' nonsense. He and the club need to be brave and bring in a new set of midfielders. If available, our lot wouldn't interest even Arteta or Conte. Would Potter like any of ours? Probably not.
 
The way I see it, we're set at no 10 with Bruno and Donny (who will surely be given a chance, and who has been mostly played at that position by ETH). But we need primarily a new starter to handle the more defensive of the two slots in the pivot. For the other, more B2B role I think it's more how the overall priorities work out. Obviously it would be great to have a top ball-mover in that role (such as de Jong), but I think Fred is basically viable in that sort of role if we can't squeeze in a purchase. McTominay and Garner as squad options. If we do get a second MC, I thikn Garner would need to leave on loan (and conversely, if Garner isn't ready, we'll probably need to get another MC).

A question mark is where - and if - Mejbri fits into all this.
 
On the contrary to a lot of opinion here, I think with just better coaching we will see a lot of improvement from our current crop of midfielders.

Especially coached to play in a system that utilises positional play. We've never really had a manager that focuses on this aspect since since LVG.
 
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