I don't see us getting two in January. Then we'd have 7 centre backs on our books. The next one will be in the summer, if we (hopefully) sign a top one next month. Then we can shift 2-3 of the ones we have out.
Kalidou Koulibaly | Signs new contract.
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I don't see us getting two in January. Then we'd have 7 centre backs on our books. The next one will be in the summer, if we (hopefully) sign a top one next month. Then we can shift 2-3 of the ones we have out.
Glazers are going to have their share weather we like it or not, if they give 90m now they are going to tighten the purse in the summer. I'd like to see that kind of money spent in the midfield than defense since we are way too dependent on pogba and matic to perform and without them on top form we struggle to beat even small teams with conviction.
Neither City nor PSG have spent close to 100m for a CB. Being a bit more reasonable with our spending isn't really the worst idea. The only attainable CB that we should be willing to pay more than what Liverpool payed for van Dijk, should be de Ligt in my eyes. Other than that we can probably find players, who cost half as much as Koulibaly and with a bit of better coaching could be just as good.
I think if we offered more money than the other clubs in those days we could have got them too, just like if Madrid or Barcelona wanted Koulibaly but we were offering more money now
You'd spend 75 million quid plus on a 19 year old defender? why?
Because I think the talent is obvious and he's already showing to be mature enough to handle the biggest stage. Recently, I thought he was very good against France and Munich. Paying that much for him would make more sense, since we would probably hope to have him for quite a while or because we could probably demand a very high fee should he move on eventually.
Exactly. Some of our fans have lost sense of reality. No club in the world buys CB for a 100 million, even the oil clubs which are backed by states.
People go on and on about VVD and how paying 75 million is the only way to go but also ignore Liverpool's other CB cost them less than 5 million and their LB cost around 7-10 million, None of the top teams even paid more than 50 million for CBs except VVD and Laporte.
Defenders from some of the top teams.
Last years CL semi finalists/top teams
Liverpool
Van Dijk - 75 million
Gomez - 3-5 million
Lovren - 20 million
Robertson - 7 Million
TAA - Academy player
Roma
Juan Jesus - 10 million euros
Kolarov -5 million Euros
Fazio - 3.2 million Euros
Manolas - 15 million Euros
Florenzi - Academy
Madrid
Ramos - 27 million Euros
Varane - 10 million Euros
Marcelo - 5-6 million
Carvajal - 6 million
Bayern
Hummels - 38 million
Sule - 18 million
Kimmich - 7 million
Alaba - Academy
Barcelona (everyone signed after we signed Bailly)
Semedo - 35 million
Umtiti - 25 million euros
Lenglet - 35 million Euros
Van Dijk - 75 million
Gomez - 3-5 million
Lovren - 20 million
Robertson - 7 Million
TAA - Academy player
Roma
Juan Jesus - 10 million euros
Kolarov -5 million Euros
Fazio - 3.2 million Euros
Manolas - 15 million Euros
Florenzi - Academy
Madrid
Ramos - 27 million Euros
Varane - 10 million Euros
Marcelo - 5-6 million
Carvajal - 6 million
Bayern
Hummels - 38 million
Sule - 18 million
Kimmich - 7 million
Alaba - Academy
Barcelona (everyone signed after we signed Bailly)
Semedo - 35 million
Umtiti - 25 million euros
Lenglet - 35 million Euros
This is excluding teams like Inter who signed Skriniar for around 15 million plus some players in exchange
What matters the most is... his impressive injury history! (transfermarkt)
16/17
--- Sideband strain in the knee | 15 days out | miss 3 games
14/15 --- Knock | 7 days out | miss 2 games
11/12
--- Metatarsal Fracture | 44 days out | miss 7 games
Just that.
Nice replacement to one of RoJones.
27 years old too, so we may get 2-3 good seasons out of him, enough time for Bailly and Lindelof (+Tuanzebe) to mature and compete replacing him and Smalling down the pecking order. Those younger trio can also cover RB for extra game times (+LB for Tuanzebe). Next is to make sure we get a positive manager who won't ever play CMs as CBs.
Get him! KK!
16/17
--- Sideband strain in the knee | 15 days out | miss 3 games14/15
--- Knock | 7 days out | miss 2 games11/12
Just that.
Nice replacement to one of RoJones.
27 years old too, so we may get 2-3 good seasons out of him, enough time for Bailly and Lindelof (+Tuanzebe) to mature and compete replacing him and Smalling down the pecking order. Those younger trio can also cover RB for extra game times (+LB for Tuanzebe). Next is to make sure we get a positive manager who won't ever play CMs as CBs.
Get him! KK!About 40M + Rojo ?
Alternative is just safe money, risk-play Bailly and Lindelof (once he's back), let them make mistakes and iron out those part of their games, eventually they'll improve.
Alternative is just safe money, risk-play Bailly and Lindelof (once he's back), let them make mistakes and iron out those part of their games, eventually they'll improve.
Its fine when our current defenders are given the same lack of scrutiny, but it doesnt ever happen. Jones makes a mistake against Chelsea and most of the posters on the forum want him gone. Koulibaly makes a mistake against Liverpool and the same people want us to spend the best part of £100 million on him.
Makes no sense
Imo Napoli's best player on the night. Dealt with Salah as well as any CB would. Top class defender with few weaknesses, his aerial ability being the biggest onen.
He got torched in one instance by one of the top 5 players in the world and that's a mistake?
Yes. It doesnt matter who did it
you okay top red Mick?
That Salah moment can happen to the best of defenders against quick tricky players. Look what Eto did to Vidic in 2009 who was the best defender in the world at that time. But he dealt with Salah well for majority of the game.
Koulibaly is good, but that goal is something Jones or Smalling would be castigated for. The mere fact that few are talking about the goal tells you everything you need know - the bias and the double standards towards our players compared to ones that doesn't play for us. If Jones or Smalling had dropped that performance, I'm convinced that every good defending that was done the whole game will be ignored and the goal will be entirely focused on.
Many have managed to convince themselves that top defenders don't make mistakes.
He didn’t.
Some of you guys want a CB that doesn't exist
What matters the most is... his impressive injury history! (transfermarkt)
16/17
14/15
11/12--- Metatarsal Fracture | 44 days out | miss 7 games
Just that.
Nice replacement to one of RoJones.
27 years old too, so we may get 2-3 good seasons out of him, enough time for Bailly and Lindelof (+Tuanzebe) to mature and compete replacing him and Smalling down the pecking order. Those younger trio can also cover RB for extra game times (+LB for Tuanzebe). Next is to make sure we get a positive manager who won't ever play CMs as CBs.
You just know what will happen as soon as he steps on the pitch for us
Well said.
I've seen de Ligt play against some of the best teams around this year and i've not seen him look out of his depth once. Truly exceptional talent and i wouldn't bat an eyelid if we offered +100m for him. Unfortunately our chances are slim at best.
How do you know he is horseshit at football knowledge anyway? Because he wasn’t a pro footballer? Do you consider yourself to know horseshit about football too?
Anyway, according to most on this forum, Jose Mourinho seemingly knows nothing about football either, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
You don’t think he’s good In the air?
I realise that there are many factors involved eg It is a risk coming to a new league, will the player adapt , how long will it take to acclimatise etc, will player X be able to handle such a hefty fee around their round their neck, will the burden of coming to United while we are in this mess be too much for them etc. And there is the risk factor financially and I wouldnt like to see us get stung like we did with Lukaku and Sanchez.
I can understand that Jose was supposed to be this superb defensive coach when he came here, although for whatever reason we are not doing as good in this area as we should. I thought he would have coached our defenders to improve but some of them have stagnated at best. Maybe instead of writing them off get in a coach that can improve them and build from there and then assess what he needs to bring in.
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What's the mistake? a mistake if I'm not wrong is an error, tell me what he should have done instead? by your definition every defender makes mistakes every game when these superstars pitch cause they average big numbers in dribbles per game. I've seen every superstar defender get done in that sort of situation.
His actual mistake was letting Mane slip away from him in the 75 minute. Also not noting that all of this happened in a match where the left back had a mare and he spent virtually the whole match covering him and doing so brilliantly is backward thinking.
You even had the gall to claim Albiol had a better game which is nothing short of crazy talk.
We can't agree on anything, can we?
It was accurate enough, but it was slow and lofty - not unlike Smalling's, imo. From what others tell me, it's normally a strength of his.Played well last night. Showed his pace and power against Salah a few times. I wouldn't fault him for the goal either. He has to cover the inside because showing Salah inside onto his left would be moronic. He showed him down the right side as he should and frankly the keeper has had a mare. You have to accept that over 5 yards Salah is one of the quickest players on the planet.
He'd be an obvious upgrade on what we have now, but god knows what price Napoli would put on him. He might not even want to join as Napoli will probably get into the CL again next season and we won't.
He'd be an obvious upgrade on what we have now, but god knows what price Napoli would put on him. He might not even want to join as Napoli will probably get into the CL again next season and we won't.
Baffling Isn't it.
Rather than talking about his obvious quality, lets nitpick a performance and even more bizarrely compare his level of criticism to Jones
Understand people don't want Jones gone because he made a mistake against Chelsea. People want Jones to go because he's poor technically, too rash, cannot stay on his feet and is always injured etc . It's bizzare to compare the level of criticism
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People want Jones gone because he's not good enough to be a starter for us and he's missed 40% of matches in his career at United due to injury which makes him a shit squad player as you can't rely on him to fill in when the chips are down and he's really needed.
I don't know why we never land these guys before they become hot commodity. Watched him for the first time yesterday and was really impressed, but he can get fecked if Napoli want 100m. I don't get the criticism for the goal, he was beaten and so? Happens to every bloody defender every once in a while
Thought he was fantastic last night.
He’d be the perfect left sided defender we need.
Aggressive, fast, good on the ball and great in the air.
Sure Salah got past him once, but as a world class attacker that’ll happen. He didn’t technically do anything wrong apart from not moving his feet fast enough when salah decided to go on the outside.
Salah should never have scored from there though, that’s on the keeper.
playing a defender like him allows the rest of the team to push higher, in the safety of knowing he can beat any attacker 1v1.
He’d be the perfect left sided defender we need.
Aggressive, fast, good on the ball and great in the air.
Sure Salah got past him once, but as a world class attacker that’ll happen. He didn’t technically do anything wrong apart from not moving his feet fast enough when salah decided to go on the outside.
Salah should never have scored from there though, that’s on the keeper.
playing a defender like him allows the rest of the team to push higher, in the safety of knowing he can beat any attacker 1v1.
People see a defender make a mistake and suddenly he's not what we need. There are no defenders on planet earth that never make mistakes, don't occasionally get made to look utterly foolish.
I do think paying anything above 70m for him would be madness though.
I do think paying anything above 70m for him would be madness though.
I think £70m for Koulibaly would be very good business. Seeing as Lecicester supposedly wanted £60m for Harry Maguire last summer which could have raised to £80m by now.
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If we sign him, we can play Lindelof alongside him. Like how Lovren improved after VvD was bought, I'm sure he would have a calming effect on our defenders.
How is his ball-playing ability? Saw him come out with the ball a few times in the Liverpool game, but does anyone know what he's like on the ball in general?
How is his ball-playing ability? Saw him come out with the ball a few times in the Liverpool game, but does anyone know what he's like on the ball in general?
He's older than I thought, still only 27 mind
Same. If he keeps progressing he will be the standout centre back for years to come.
Koulibaly looked good all game but he was terrible for Salah's goal. It's not like he did everything right and it was Salah's brilliance that got him, he got his feet completely wrong and looked like he wasn't expecting someone to run at him. I hope it was a one off because defenders will go at him like that all day if he comes to the PL.
Paying 100M for this guy would be insane especially when we have a boy who can become as good. Koulibaly was prone to mistakes like Bailly before Sarri got an hand on him and improved him to the player he's today. We don't need another expensive defender, we need a manager who'll improve the talents we have; a good coaching will improve players like Smalling, Bailly and Lindelof; remember how good Smalling was under LVG coaching. Mourinho doesn't improve players that is the reason we seem to always need an improvement on all positions; I'm ready to bet that Koulibaly will come here, play good for 3 or 4 months and turn to shit like every Mourinho's signings.
Out of curiosity which defender do you think could become as good as him please?
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