Having De Gea here, actually gives me some hope of signing more Spanish players.
Iker Muniain
- Thread starter KM
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) are here to discuss Amad saving our blushes in a win against Southampton as well as our now annual loss at home to Brighton. They discuss Amorim's post-match comments, revisit how mid-table we may or may not be, and discuss some transfer news.
Not too many Basque players I suspect though
The funny thing is Dortmund actually used Hummels as their playmaker for most of the season.
After Sahin went to Real Dortmund was missing a number 6 that could give the game direction and were sitting so deep that Hummels had so much space in front of him that he was able to push fairly far into the opponents half.
Eventually I think they gave it up when opponent forwards started to man mark Hummels to prevent that.
The overall trend whatsoever seams to be that teams start favoring CBs that are also good at distributing the ball and are technically quite good.
Jonny Evans is a prime example of a defender that has a very good eye for a pass as well as being good in the more traditional defensive abilities I guess for Barca that would probably be Piqué.
Hummels or even Rakitskiy, represent the modern evolution of the centerback for me...I think we'll see more of them going forward and perhaps even Javi Martinez making a living there as well
Indeed it looks like Bielsa will keep playing him in defense and Martinez certainly is the type of player who could fill that role as a playmaker from defense.
It's kind of interesting that this roles seams to get pushed deeper and deeper over time.
While in the 80s and 90s the playmaker usually was playing behind two strikers it then went over to a defensive midfielder and now it looks like it could be one of the CBs who has to fulfill that role as well.
Naturally a team that could field playmakers on all 3 positions would probably have the best options available for any opponent they meet.
Or your Barca and can afford to put out half a team of these players. :P
I have a man crush on Hummels, would love to see him wearing Blaugrana but either way I intend to watch every match of Dortmund next season
Strange game from him tonight. One superb goal assists and one great goal but two mistakes that lead to goals. Weird game that.
Hes been immense this season. Ive watched Dortmund a number of times and hes really stood out. Was fantastic vs Arsenal when they came to Dortmund in the CL.
Think his form warrants a look at CB with Mertesacker/Bastuber for the national team aswell.
Well seeing as you lot can buy any cnut you want I am sure he would show up in your poxy shirt sometime.
BTW Why the feck did Milan have to wear their away shirts at home to those bastards? I hate them and their blue and red concoction bastard shirts!
But how do you really feel?
feel like a Madrid league and european cup double would cheer me up actually.
Javi Martinez is the one I want. He'd fit in our midfield like a glove
Good as odds as any I suppose. They're mainly in Real Sociedad outside of Athletic aren't they?
To answer the question...pretty sure it was Milan's choice, they have a history of wearing white in big European matches instead of their traditional red/black.
Well, it's obvious we don't want "that" modric.
They are but it does depend, I believe, on which clubs they came through to begin with - very different philosophies ultimately
Yeah, their mental owner wanted to because they beat Milan in 1994 wearing white.
Forget Hazard!!
Muniain is the one!
Muniain is the one!
Di Maria part 2. Sans the diving
Agreed, I think it's always been part of Ajax's philosophy among others. Blind was extremely comfortable on the ball, still bringing it out from the back at the end of his career while playing alongside defensively suspect players like Reiziger and Bogarde. Barca unsuccessfully tried to play a similar way with a lot of the same guys around the turn of the last millennium.
It's Muniain, not Munain, could we get a title change so this thread can be found?
Regarding attack midfielders/winger types. We probably have a top 5 or 10 type list based availability and cost.
1. Hazard
2. Gotze
3. Kagawa
4. Erikkson
5. Munain
6. Gaitan
etc.
Not necessarily in that order but based on aggregate factors like football ability, , availability, transfer fees, age, character/temperament, etc.
Given age, ability, and availability, I would venture to guest that Hazard is quite comfortably at the top, which not coincidentally - is precisely why Fergie magically appeared at one of his matches.
1. Hazard
2. Gotze
3. Kagawa
4. Erikkson
5. Munain
6. Gaitan
etc.
Not necessarily in that order but based on aggregate factors like football ability, , availability, transfer fees, age, character/temperament, etc.
Given age, ability, and availability, I would venture to guest that Hazard is quite comfortably at the top, which not coincidentally - is precisely why Fergie magically appeared at one of his matches.
Let's not forget Muniain is only 19 while Gaitan is 24, the latter is probably as fast as he's going to get while the former seems likely to be much better by the time he gets to 24. And there's always the sell-on value.
Now that we have De Gea, Valencia and a few other Spanish speakers at the club, I think it's much more likely we could bring in a top Spanish prospect, which a few years ago seems as likely as signing a Germany International.
If I'm not mistaken we've never had a German player, there may have been some on the fringe but I couldn't find one when I searched, so I don't hold out much hope for Goetze. Especially after they signed Reus, they're sitting pretty at the top of the league for probably the most vocal audience in Europe, and one of the very largest.
If we do get Muniain, let's take a few more Athletic Club players with him.
Now that we have De Gea, Valencia and a few other Spanish speakers at the club, I think it's much more likely we could bring in a top Spanish prospect, which a few years ago seems as likely as signing a Germany International.
If I'm not mistaken we've never had a German player, there may have been some on the fringe but I couldn't find one when I searched, so I don't hold out much hope for Goetze. Especially after they signed Reus, they're sitting pretty at the top of the league for probably the most vocal audience in Europe, and one of the very largest.
If we do get Muniain, let's take a few more Athletic Club players with him.
Zieler who is now at Hanover but, not any that made the first team.
Thanks, it's pretty hard to find a complete list of all players ever signed by United. He's probably not the only one.
We also had Markus Neumayer briefly in 2005. He never made it out of the reserves.
Considering how your prototypical big strong German footballer would be perfect for the EPL, I'm surprised we've not made more of an effort to make inroads there. Though Germans seem to like being in Germany more than your average member of a country, like how few English players go abroad.
Yeah, I think most Germans get snapped up by Bayern or play in their own country. A few obviously slip through but Ballack is the only one I remember us going for.
Its just that. If you're German and you're very good, chances are you play for Bayern, or else in certain exceptions in La Liga or Serie-A.
I was 100% sure we were getting Ballack before he went to Chelsea. Perfect at the time for us, class player.
I like the idea of Muniain, but let's be honest - it's not like us to go for a small Spanish-type player. We could have had both Silva and Mata, but passed on them despite their obvious class.
How is Eriksson doing this season? He was amazing last year, but I've not heard as glowing reports so far this year. Wasn't that impressive against us either tbh.
We passed on Silva and Mata?
We certainly were heavily linked with him for a good year or two before he moved. So i'd say it was likely as generally persistant speculation usually has some basis of fact.
Never really heard us being that interested in Mata though.
His buyout is £29.5m according to Metro. 
His buyout is £29.5m according to Metro.
Why the sadface? I would hope we would be willing to pay that and it ain't my money.
It'll be a fair bit more than that when he signs a new contract
If he does have a buyout clause of that figure surely someone will activate it this summer. Not a bad price for that potential these days
It's common practice in Spain to insert a buy out clause, which almost always far exceeds the actual value of the player. It's pretty much a useless way to gauge how much they would want for him
That was a pretty shit YouTube vid. I thought people were going overboard on his performance against us and watching that again just proves it for me. He's a scabby bastard to get away with the ball a few times and he givesit away quite a bit. There a much better players out there. He wouldn't even start for us if he came here.