Is there a Vidic clone/replacement anywhere?

Brophs said:
Personally I don't think you want an exact clone because he always had the weakness of lacking pace, though he more than made up for it in other ways. So a Vidic with pace (what's Richard Dunne up to these days) would be the job. That's not asking much, is it?
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Not sure if you are being sarcastic (you probably are), but at one point Richard Dunne was really, really good. Shut out some class strikers in the PL and was a rock. Similar to the way Carragher was really good for a season or two at CB.
 
Might be worth mentioning Bob Cass reported Ajax's Joel Veltman was our centre back target for the summer. This was under Moyes mind. Doesn't seem to get many games for Netherlands under Van Gaal so guess he doesn't rate him that highly.
 
wonnie said:
Not sure if you are being sarcastic (you probably are), but at one point Richard Dunne was really, really good. Shut out some class strikers in the PL and was a rock. Similar to the way Carragher was really good for a season or two at CB.
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If my memory serves me right, Pogue posted whilst heavily intoxicated that Dunne was "like Vidic was pace" and got mocked a little.

He was very good though. Carragher was good for years to be fair, as a regular in the Champions League latter stages as well, very underrated on here.
 
Not a Vidic clone, but Alexander Milosevic would be a great signing for United. Great in the air, comfortable on the ball and a good distributor from the back. Some club will snap him up soon and will get a great defender at a bargain price. First noticed him when United played AIK in pre-season and had a great game against United. Here is a sample of his play.

He also scores goals as well.

 
Garay knows what it's like to keep clean sheets and to win at home constantly. He is the leader back there and we might need one of those with Rio also playing less. He would be a good signing and wouldn't cost as much as other candidates.
 
Big names for other positions, like left back (Shaw, sort of big), midfield, winger. I'm sure we can find another one like Vidic, there are lots of gems out there that we either don't know about or they don't appear as impressive playing for smaller clubs but could thrive under the proper guidance.
 
paceme said:
Probably something o do with the fact that he is was 20 years old.
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There are some 20 year old defenders who act very composed. Papadopoulos however at times seemed clumsy, he also gets a lot of yellow cards.
I'm not saying he isn't/wasn't going to be a decent defender, but to me he never was among the best talents.
 
not sure about elsewhere but at the club jones is the closest in terms of bravery and hardness. however he needs to think before going into unnecessary challenges because it happen too often and he will end up injuring himself.

hope we'll find a great replacement this summer, doesn't have to be a vidic clone but someone top class would be great for sure.
 
do.ob said:
There are some 20 year old defenders who act very composed. Papadopoulos however at times seemed clumsy, he also gets a lot of yellow cards.
I'm not saying he isn't/wasn't going to be a decent defender, but to me he never was among the best talents.
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Being composed at 20 isn't the be all and end all for a defender IMO when other talents are clear to see. Looking clumsy can simply be down to not being fully developed physically yet and for someone his size that wouldn't be surprising, he's a fantastic tackler and probably most importantly to use an old cliche 'he looks like he loves defending' too many young defenders think they are mini midfielders these days.
 
To be honest, I doubt many of us had ever heard of Vidic before we signed him. I expect there are plenty of similar defenders out there, all we need to do is take a chance.
 
I have no idea why we didn't go after Kurt Zouma. He is really talented and is only 18-19. If he reaches his potential, he is going to be some defender.
 
Not a Vidic clone but I think Varane will be a top defender. Has the potential to be as complete as Thiago Silva IMO. (And that's saying something)
 
Vertonghen for me. He is a great defender and one of the best central defenders in the world with the ball at his feet. His composure and ability to distribute from the back would make him great with Jones.
 
Is this about similar players like Vidic or about what players we should go after to replace him with ?

-> Similar style is Semih from Galatasaray and Mangala (both would be worth pursuing imo)

-> Players we should go after imo are Benatia (one of the best around atm) but he is going to be very expensive, Rami would be a cheaper alternative, very good player and apparantly Milan don't want to pay any money for their defence and prefer to go after Alex who'll be transferfree this summer, while Rami is available from Valencia for just under £6m (absolute steal for this player). Other targets would ofcourse be Hummels or Silva who are extremly good, but unachievable. Miranda and Godin are also both pretty good CB, and ofcourse Subotic could be a natural replacement to Vidic (good no-nonsense player and also from Serbia)

Some other smaller names: Van Dijk (from Chelsea), Lovren, Fazio (Sevilla) and Ignazio Martinez (although the latter is nothing like Vidic and I don't think he would do well in the PL)
 
NoArroJusBeta said:
Is this about similar players like Vidic or about what players we should go after to replace him with ?

-> Similar style is Semih from Galatasaray and Mangala (both would be worth pursuing imo)

-> Players we should go after imo are Benatia (one of the best around atm) but he is going to be very expensive, Rami would be a cheaper alternative, very good player and apparantly Milan don't want to pay any money for their defence and prefer to go after Alex who'll be transferfree this summer, while Rami is available from Valencia for just under £6m (absolute steal for this player). Other targets would ofcourse be Hummels or Silva who are extremly good, but unachievable. Miranda and Godin are also both pretty good CB, and ofcourse Subotic could be a natural replacement to Vidic (good no-nonsense player and also from Serbia)

Some other smaller names: Van Dijk (from Chelsea), Lovren, Fazio (Sevilla) and Ignazio Martinez (although the latter is nothing like Vidic and I don't think he would do well in the PL)
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He looks very similar, but with added athleticism. Whether he's actually potentially at (or close to) the level of Vidic - who knows?
But he looks the type who'd love the Premier League.

Would probably be much cheaper than Mangala, who I haven't seen much of myself.
 
Martin Hinteregger reminds me of Vidic a bit the few times Ive seen him. Fabian Schar looks decent if were looking for more of a ball playing centre half.
 
wonnie said:
Not a Vidic clone but I think Varane will be a top defender. Has the potential to be as complete as Thiago Silva IMO. (And that's saying something)
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He could very well become one, but with the way a lot of Madrid fans I've talked to overrate him, it's hard to not to dislike him. At least for me.
Giggsforever said:
Vertonghen for me. He is a great defender and one of the best central defenders in the world with the ball at his feet. His composure and ability to distribute from the back would make him great with Jones.
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Agree. He's too good for Spurs.
 
Take your pick from Juve's defenders. All but Barzagli(?) are coming into their prime or in their prime, and all are excellent. Chiellini obviously, Bonnuci (I may have got him and Barzagli mixed up), Ogbonna, Caceres even at an outside shout. Other than that, Abdennour, Benatia, Lovren, Subotic, Hummels.
 
how about that celtic defender? virgil van dijk. anyone who watched him before?

linked with us recently and dutch as well, although he is still uncapped and yet to be called by van gaal for holland.
 
We never do direct replacements but I think the really interesting thing will be to see if Van Gaal adds a squad CB or an expensive top level CB to partner one of our young CB's.
 
vidic in his prime was the best CB i have seen. only one who can remotely compare to that is thiago silva
 
Twigg said:
Thiago Silva is a completely different type of player to Vidic, not in any way a clone.
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the OP mentions the word clone, not me. i dont think theres a clone of vidic, so im merely stating whos the closest to being in the same class as him.
 
i dont think you can replace a player with another one just like him..it never works like that. we just need to replace vidic with a quality player like silva. vincent komany would be a player lik vidic but i didnt mention him because transfer wise it wouldnt even make sense
 
thejtrain said:
He could very well become one, but with the way a lot of Madrid fans I've talked to overrate him, it's hard to not to dislike him. At least for me.

Agree. He's too good for Spurs.
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I agree too. Vertonghen is a brilliant player, can't wait to see him at the World Cup. Next to Kompany I hope for Belgium, not as a left back. He is almost the opposite of Vidic though, literally no parallel except that they're both defenders and they have roughly the same height. But Van Gaal seems to like a pairing of right and left footed centre-halves.

In that regard, I consider Bruno Martins Indi a very likely option too. Just got a feeling Van Gaal is going to want him. Left-footed, strong, calm and composed on the ball, not the fastest but not slow either. Was the left centre-half of choice in most of Hollands matches under Van Gaal. Young and available for max 10 million pounds too, I've seen him a lot and I like him, although his form dropped a bit the last months.
 
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