Our summer transfer business was not good enough.
Disagree with you on some points and agree on others.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled with Lukaku, but signing him didn’t make the team stronger, it simply replaced one 25-30 goal a season striker with another.
I think Lukaku does make us stronger it gives us more variety in our attacking play, no doubt Zlatan is a great player who had a great season last year, but his lack of mobility did cause issues at times last, Lukaku has that mobility, he also still has strength and height, so we can play in a larger variety of ways with Lukaku up front rather then Zlatan, plus we still have Zlatan to come back.
With Jones, Smalling, Rojo, Bailly and Tuanzebe already at the club, was the purchase of Lindeloff really a priority?
I see where your coming from with Lindelof, but i also see why Mourinho wanted another centre back, I mean Bailly looks great, but beyond that their are questions about every other one of our centre backs:
- Jones who had a great season last year, but lets not forget a year ago people where writing him off, he also has serious issues staying fit, can he really be relied upon for a full season?
- Smalling's form over the past 18 months has dipped massivly, his game is also incredibly reliant on shirt pulling and when he gets pulled up on that he looks totally lost on how to defend set pieces. Plus he has also has problems staying fit.
- Rojo surprised everyone last season, while Bailly was out best centre back last season the partnership between Rojo and Jones actually looked our most solid last season, he showed form that we havn't seen from him since he joined united. but lets not forget that it was only year ago where Rojo was been talked about as one of the worse players in united history( which even then seemed ridiculous) but he looked like a player who would be out the door pretty soon and certainly wasn't a player we could rely on. Add to that he is coming back from an injury that some players never fully recover from (ask Vidic)
- Tuanzebe, i would love Tuanzebe to come through and be a starter, but lets face it he is a complete unknown at this level and Mourinho has never been the sort to rely on players from an academy.
So i totally understand why Mourinho wanted another centre back. The problem is we bought Lindelof, who at the moment looks weaker then everyone on the above list, He also looks worse then Blind when he has played in that position or even Carrick, which at £30+million is ridiculous.
Matic for me is the only player that has come in and truly strengthened the starting 11 from last season.
Agree with you Matic has been a great buy, and ive got to say i was bit worried by that by that by, i mean it had been two years since he has shown this kind of form, he was ok last year but was one of chelsea's weaker players and was utterly dreadful the year before that. But its great to be proved wrong and he has turned out to be a great buy!
It was as clear day that a new left back and right back
I dont really agree hear, i think Valencia has looked like one of the best right backs in the league for a couple of years now, and Darmain is a fine back up.
left back i can sort of see where your coming from, but we do still have Shaw, who started off last season great before been used as a scapegoat by Mourinho in a game that he got his tactics wrong and needed some one to blame. since then Shaws form has dipped he also hasn't helped himself with injurys, but i still feel that Mourinho should be doing better developing a player of his obvious talent.
Plus we also have Blind, Darmian, Rojo and Young who can play there and it isnt and endless of of money so think we had other priorities this summer.
In addition to Lukaku we needed to sign a top class replacement in the 10 role for Rooney and a quick and skilful right sided player that would be a difference maker in tight games.
yes and no with this one.
I go back he summer Mourinhos first Summer in charge where it was obvious to everyone and their mums our main priority needed to be a right sided attacker, and Mkhitaryan was obviously brought into be that player as that is where had played for Dorutmund and where he started playing for us. But with Rooney form dropping of to oblivion and Mkhitaryan looking more effective through the middle he ended up moving to a number 10 position. This has left us with 2 problems one while Mkhitaryan on form looks great as a number 10, he hasn't shown the consistency we saw from him at Dourtmund. Also we still have the original problem of the right side of the attack. Now in fairness Mata has done a lot better job on that side then we have seen from in a wide role since he joined united, but he still doesn't look as natural in that position as we would like.
So while I agree that we could of done with another attacker i would probably argue we needed a player more suited to playing on the right, but who could also fill in at number 10 and probably as a false 9.
But the problem comes down to money, to buy a quality attacker this summer who would improve our forward line you where looking at around at least 80 million. add that to the 90 million we spent on Lukaku who was arguably must buy) and that off Matic(we desperately needed a defensive midfielder was a major weak point last season) so in order to buy two attackers and a defesnive midfielder your re easily looking at 200+ million and united where never gonna spend that amount of money, the only club ever to have done so is PSG and they are financed by a country! fans expecting us too do that this summer where just kidding themselves and setting themselves up for disappointment!
I suppose the way Mourinho could of done it is buy a world class player like Griezmann and use Rashford as the main striker (which is to be honest what i wanted to see at the start of the summer) but when it becuase clear that Griezmann was staying at Madrid, plus Mourinho's reluctance to rely on youth then it became obvious Lukaku was the obvious and best target.
So when you realise you havn't got the money to buy a starting attacker, (plus you look t our attack Lukaku, Rashford, Martial Mkhitaryan Mata, with Zlatan to come back and Lingard and young as back ups, then its easily the second best in the league) then another centre back was the obvious way to go. It just turns out the centre back we bought (at the moment at least) seems to be shit.
But over all i think Mourinho and woodward have done excellent in the transfer market over the past two seasons, and even if Lindelof turns out to be the flop he looks like so far, then 7 out of 8 buys over the past two seasons is pretty awesome going!
