If we signed a 5th player...

abhayselvan said:
We should sign either Koulibaly or Mustafi. Both of them are on the market. Mustafi would be the cheaper option.
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Are they? I'd be especially surprised if Koulibaly is available since Napoli have no financial need to sell after the huge fee they received for Higuain. If they wish to be competitive at all, selling Koulibaly would be a terrible decision. Just because a player has been linked with a club (I'm guessing you're considering the Chelsea links) doesn't mean he's actually for sale. A club may be interested but it doesn't mean Napoli has to sell him and I'd be very surprised if they did. I'm not that big of a fan of Mustafi tbh. Not sure how well he suits the Premier League either. Assuming both were available, which I doubt, Koulibaly would be the only option I would consider. We could certainly use his extra height to our advantage too. That being said, I think I'd rather go for Manolas, assuming someone like Bonucci, Godin, Miranda (probably the most likely to be available), or Varane isn't available.
 
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Coxy said:
Why didn't you guys go in for Kante I wonder?
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Reason might be the same as that stated for Guardiola's lack of interest. Perhaps Mourinho wants someone with better positional awareness. In terms of box to box midfielders who work hard and cover large amounts of ground I think Kante is probably among the best in the world currently, but perhaps that's not what Mourinho is looking for. Rather, he might prefer a tactically intelligent deeper midfielder like Carrick who allows the other cm to be more involved in the attacking aspect of the game (Pogba/Herrera). I think we already have Schneiderlin who is a similar type of player, though admittedly nowhere near as effective in the role if we want that energetic cm who can tackle.
 
Dazzmondo said:
Are they? I'd be especially surprised if Koulibaly is available since Napoli have no financial need to sell after the huge fee they received for Higuain. If they wish to be competitive at all, selling Koulibaly would be a terrible decision. Just because a player has been linked with a club (I'm guessing you're considering the Chelsea links) doesn't mean he's actually for sale. A club may be interested but it doesn't mean Napoli has to sell him and I'd be very surprised if they did. I'm not that big of a fan of Mustafi tbh. Not sure how well he suits the Premier League either. Assuming both were available, which I doubt, Koulibaly would be the only option I would consider. We could certainly use his extra height to our advantage too. That being said, I think I'd rather go for Manolas, assuming someone like Bonucci, Godin, Miranda (probably the most likely to be available), or Varane isn't available.
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Koulibaly's agent has said that the player wants to leave and he's not going to renew his contract. It looks like Chelsea and Everton have already made bids.
 
A dominant CB would strengthen our spine further with Zlatan and Pogba and I think it would add a calmness to the defence and more freedom to our midfield

Who that CB is I do not know
 
abhayselvan said:
Koulibaly's agent has said that the player wants to leave and he's not going to renew his contract. It looks like Chelsea and Everton have already made bids.
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Hmm, fair enough. Yeah, he'd be a good signing in that case. He should help us on set pieces too which have been one of our weakest areas for years now.
 
Theonas said:
Why don't we just sign a whole new first 11 and get it over with? I mean clearly the team we had last year was worse than Aston Villa and has absolutely no use being anywhere near a PL game. I seriously sometimes wonder if its just the inherent muppetry of fans that drives them to this non-stop search of new signings and faces or if people genuinely think that every disappointing season means the entire team is unusable.
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I agree with you mate. We haven't even signed the fourth player and people are already trying to pick the fifth? Let us see what we already have, they can't all be bad. A good manager can improve player performances. People forget for instance how good Schneiderlin was at Southampton.

A lot of players will improve under Mourinho, and those who don't will be shipped out and replaced.
 
Don't be greedy now lol we have had a fantastic window already.
 
If we play midfield of 3 with Pogba, my 5th player would be a young CDM. Mainly because Carrick is 35 and it seems that Schweinsteiger will go.
 
I don't want us to bring in a CB since it'll limit TFM opportunities. He should be given a chance or we could end up with another Pogba situation.
 
We need another defender, there's no debate to be had about that. Whether it's Fabinho at RB or a new CB with some experience or some promise I don't know but we're bound to have injuries and all the rest and we're nowhere near solid enough with the likes of Rojo and Jones. Smalling isn't all that amazing either and Bailly is young and learnin'.
 
As is, I don't see us signing a 5th player.

However, if Schweinsteiger, another central midfielder, and a defender leave, I could see us signing a versatile central player.

Fabinho is a decent shout, but Valencia has been fantastic under Jose so far.
 
goin4glory said:
I don't want us to bring in a CB since it'll limit TFM opportunities. He should be given a chance or we could end up with another Pogba situation.
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Ah don't worry. We'd sign him back for 200 million ;)
 
matherto said:
We need another defender, there's no debate to be had about that. Whether it's Fabinho at RB or a new CB with some experience or some promise I don't know but we're bound to have injuries and all the rest and we're nowhere near solid enough with the likes of Rojo and Jones. Smalling isn't all that amazing either and Bailly is young and learnin'.
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Numbers wise, this squad is bigger than most former PL champions. It has two senior players in every position. Quality wise, if we can't compete for the title with what we have now, we might as well pursue some other sport. Plenty have competed and won with far, far less quality.
 
De Gea
Valencia Smalling Bailly Shaw
Pogba ????
Mkhitaryan ???? Martial
Ibrahimovic
​
What I feel we have that is starting quality this season. Rooney will start at the 10 and Carrick next to Pogba. Problem with Rooney is he isn't very good, while Carrick is old and can't be relied upon at his age to play every game and every minute. So ideally a holding midfielder would be great I think, while for the Rooney replacement we can put Mata in, herrera, lingard, or Rasford and change the formation. So we have good quality there just not sure what we'll end up doing. Valencia will need replacing next season I think, but he's still class for this season at least, provided he stays fit.
 
United could try to sell Rooney, Mata, Januzaj, Jones. It'd give Lingard a chance, Rashford, TFM whilst allowing one more addition. (Selling those players wont be easy mind you).
 
We shoulda signed Kante so Pogba has all the freedom to attack!
 
Trizy said:
We shoulda signed Kante so Pogba has all the freedom to attack!
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exactly this.

At Juve, he was often part of midfield trio consisting of him, a workhorse (khedira, marchisio, pereyra, vidal) and a "quarterback" (pirlo, hernanes), with an impeccable back line.

With us playing a double pivot in Mourinho's typical 4231, he will pair up with a dm (carrick, schneiderlin who aren't know for the engine) in front of a relatively weak back line compared to Juve's.

We've seen how limited Pogba was when he played deeper for France, and I'm afraid having missed out on a workhorse like Kante, Pogba will not have as much freedom as he had with Juve; he will have to help out a lot defensively.

Since Schweinsteiger doesn't seem to be part of Mourinho's plan, Fellaini being useless as usual aside for his elbows, Rojo being quality-less and Darmian being out-of-favour, I would sell those four (Januzaj too, if he really wants to go), and get these 3:

1. Fonte (experienced CB who can hold his game; if Bailly or Smalling gets injured, we have... Blind and Jones... really?)

2. Fabinho (versatile RB, to compete with Valencia)

3. Lassana Diarra (pure DM, still have some mileage short term. I doubt we will spend big for another midfielder this summer. He will allow Pogba to move more forward and take a bigger chunk of his defensive duties, compared to Carrick. Against a team like Leicester, we will be run over if we play one of Carrick, Blind, Fellaini and Schneiderlin)
 
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We need to do what Fergie did in 1999 with the likes of Keane and Scholes. Sissoko? Matic? At least someone who can do the defending for real
 
I dont think we need anyone now. TFM or Blind can play as DM. Jose, in general, should also start playing our youngsters. I'd like him to keep (and of course play) Pereira
 
If? Pogba was so last week, who's next? :devil:

I'm happy with the team now. There are no longer any glaring weaknesses. Mourinho will work wonders with our defensive shape and i think we will see a very different Schneiderlin and Herrera to last year, both supporting Pogba as Carrick goes off into the sunset, and we now have the pace in attack we sorely lacked last year.

We just need Darmian to recover his early form and we're strong in every position.
 
We should go for Verratti now and assert our authority on world football. Pay a new world record. It would be worth it just for the crying fits on Bluemoon and RAWK
 
A centre back like Varane could be great. But thinking that a reserve team will play in Europa League, this squad should do.

This is probably our strongest and deepest squad since... 2009?
 
I think we will buy an experienced defender but may wait until a few clubs have shot their load and are perhaps in a bigger need to move on players.
 
A defensive midfielder is needed I think. We can't hamper Pogba by putting him there or ask Carrick to carry us again.
 
Would quite like to see Matic come in, don't think it will happen though.
 
2 Man Midfield said:
A defensive midfielder is needed I think. We can't hamper Pogba by putting him there or ask Carrick to carry us again.
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They won't sign a DM just for the sake of it. Jose might think he can manage this year then go all out for a top world class DM next season to replace Michael. The player he has in mind might not be available at the moment.
 
RB Seamus Coleman to allow Valencia to play RW.

We have enough cover at CB.
 
I think we should look to buy someone in Mid Season... I see no point buying now... By december, Jose will have clear idea about what position he needs to get better player (if needed)... IMO, jan should be the window we should look for a player even if it is CB/Rb/Cdm...
 
A world class CB. Think Bailly, Smalling and Blind are all at a sort of similar level and could do with someone to lead them.

Apart from that, assuming we don't waste Pogba deep we are sorted imo.

De Gea
Valencia - Bailly - Blind - Shaw
Carrick - xxx
Mkhitaryan - Pogba - Martial
Zlatan​



xxx to be filled by whoever depending on opposition (Herrera or Schneiderlin).

Next season we'd need to assess probably Valencia, Carrick and Zlatans situations (due to age etc). I'd be happy enough to go into the season with this as our side though.
 
A centre half and we're good. A player like Mahrez for our right flank would also be desirable.
 
Escobar said:
Blind? TFM? Schneiderlin? We have players in the squad, I dont understand the constant need for new players
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Blind is not a specialist per say(what Jose wants) and I'm not sure he has all the attributes to make the position his own. I'm not sure TFM is set to be DM as he's too young and might develop in other position. Schneiderlin is crap.

We need a quality DM to bring balance to what is possibly Pogba/Rooney midfield.
 
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