Hardworking physical beast. Mourinho will love Tony V.
Kostas Manolas
- Thread starter MyOnlySolskjaer
- Start date
If Di Marzio's reporting our interest in a Serie A player, it has to be genuine. Haven't seen much of him but I liked the youtube clip. He has excellent pace for a CB.
He seems like he would make a pretty terrific partner to Smalling, we could afford to play such a high line.
Agreed...but I hope Mou goes full muppet and signs another. I don't want our season to hinge on a injury to Manolas/Smalling...Blind/Jones/Rojo can't be trusted
Blind has proven he's more than capable to step in when needed, I don't necessarily think we need another, although it certainly wouldn't hurt!
Mourinho will love Jonesy too
If he can get him to stay fit, well, yes.
Blind has been an ever present in the team this season and we finished joint with Spurs as having the best defence in the league and you think he hasn't done a good job and should only be considered a stand in at times? If he was to come in for a CB who has been injured then I would be more than happy with him playing.
Serious question, how many people played dream team last season? How many of you had Smalling and Blind as defenders? I had them both, put Blind in the team a few months later but Smalling was there from the beginning. I trust him for my dream team so hes good enough for United.
That was mostly because we played very safe football and have the best goalkeeper in the world arguable the league. Once we actually start attacking teams, we will be caught way more and that is when you see a good defender vs a bad one.
Letting in the fewest goals and being the best defense isn't necessarily the same thing.
We've been shaky in defense when we've been attacked, and whilst Blind hasn't been the major issue here (i feel it's more down to the injuries and to some extent quality of our squad/coaching), I feel that the fact that he gets targeted by the opponents so often to be an obvious sign that he is a weakness. He is smart, and he plays well enough to make up for his lack of physical capabilities most of the time, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't look for a better player to remove that weakness in our optimal starting-lineup.
I'm not trying to say that any player that gets targeted is a weakness, but with Blind it's an obvious case.
Love his style, and I'd be content with him as backup CB/LB and rotation for a role in a midfield trio.
I remember being very excited about Jones' potential, he just can't stay fit.
We need two centre backs.
I can't say I've seen much of Manolas, but from everything you read about him he sounds like the ideal CB for us.
I can't say I've seen much of Manolas, but from everything you read about him he sounds like the ideal CB for us.
And also 35 goals lost is not a good result at all. People say its joint best but its an average number for 4/5th finish
Certainly seems the type who would fit English football. Good to see he's comfortable with the ball too. We definitely need another CB, sign him and Koulibaly 
Similar to Vidic in the sense that he doesn't feck about and just hits it out when tackling a player.
Smalling's position as a starter is in doubt if this goes through, I feel. Marquinhos and Varane are on our radar for LCB, and I think we'll try for them all summer if there's a possibility we can get either one of them.
It looks like whichever one we could get would be paired with Manolas in a new CB pairing.
It looks like whichever one we could get would be paired with Manolas in a new CB pairing.
Then Smalling has to win his place back, competition is great. The sort of stuff he pulls off at times is absolutely dumb, like Matic last season. Mourinho will throw him under the bus if he does stupid things next season
Exactly. We have all presumed that Chris is a shoo-in, but Jose might not have been as impressed with our defence as LvG was. LvG was supposedly going to start the season with Phil Jones, but injury put paid to that. He could easily bring two new CB's in. Jose always builds his teams from a solid base at the back.
For me personally they are exactly the same thing. If you concede the fewest then your defence is the best
I really like the idea of signing this guy. But here's an obvious question, if he seems to have every attribute in abundance, why isn't he regards as world class? Anyone who follows him be able to tell me?
For me, personally, it's more to it than just those numbers. But it's okay if you don't think so.
Didn't a Jose side concede something like 15 when they won a title? I would imagine he would think our total goals conceded as not great.
Or how about you watch our games and decide that. Also keep in mind we had the best GK in the league.
Our defence when needing to defend like against Wolfsburg, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and West Ham were shocking. Even the semi final against Everton, Lukaku could have scored 5.
You have to account for the way team plays. I mean who does have a better defence a team that won 5-2 with as much as 7 players constantly atttacking, both full backs being active and spending more time in their opposition half or the one that lost 1-0 with 7 players defending the entire match and hardly created a chance on goal. On the face of it, the second team let in only one goal, so they are better. That is what you imply. I think and many would agree that the second defence is much better. They have managed to stop most of counter-attacking threats while being outnumbered and their quality allowed their partners particularly in midfield to go forward much more to win the game rather comfortably.
Can he play right back? Could be an Ivanovic, evidently by the fact that he loves to run forward. Bonus in set piece having physical beast at right back. Imagine we can lure Varane too.
DDG
Manolas Smalling Varane Shaw
Muppet defense. Pace & and power.
DDG
Manolas Smalling Varane Shaw
Muppet defense.
Pace & and power.
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Oh I never considered watching our games as an option. Cheers for that recommendation! Keep in mind the GK is a part of our defence so you saying his the best in the league actually enhances my argument. Lukaku wasn't ever going to score 5
he can't stay fit because he goes into tackles like an absolute moron and hasn't figured this out after 5 years...we've had enough crocks in this team of ours lately so really hoping whoever we sign plays 40+ matches for us every season
Yeah I agree with your argument for sure. I guess it's personnel vs system. And system wide we are the best defence which is why I say we are the best defence in the league. Because the fact is we were this season
Spurs were much better for example. As so were Leicester. First of all even judging by your criteria, United can't be the best defence, since we are tied in goals conceded with Spurs at 35 and Leicester is at 36 which is hardly any difference, but the've won the title. So at the very least, we are one of the best, not the best one.
As for Spurs, well in my post i only gave one example. There are dozens more. For example this years Spurs. Two games ago Spurs were mile ahead of us in terms of goals conceded and they only tied because they've stopped playing after 2-2 with Chelsea. Because they were already in top-3 so they had nothing to play for and with title slipping away, first time for god knows how many years, it's only natural they suffered a meltdown. United on the other hand could not even get into top-4 on the finish because of the defence. That loss against WH which effectively ended our fight for top-4 was the result of our terrible defending.
Again it's obvious who has better defence if you have to chose from two teams that conceded the same number of goals, but one team done it with just throwing away useless game and the other by failing to concede less than two in a game that mattered most.
Sorry yes equal best with Spurs. I'm just looking at this purely statistical. We are (equal) best defence in the league. I'm not bothered by who looked steadier or who had better attitude. A defensive purely goes into the season thinking 'lets concede as minimal goals as possible' - nothing else.
It's more of "simplistically" rather than statistically.
If we talk about statistics, it never includes one parameter. Just never. If you want to analyze best defence from "purely statistical" points of view, you need analyze actual stats, so look at clean sheets, shots conceded etc. Then when you consider 4-5 different criteria you can say that this teams defence is best "statistically".
But anyway, what your point ultimately? You say that United is best (tied with Spurs, okay) defensive record in the league. And? I mean we are in Manolas thread, so what, United should not strengthen the defence? Or signing a defender should not be a priority? Or we need to sign a decent back-up, cover rather than a starter?
Oh no I think we should definitely sign this guy or another centreback. It's not our absolute priority but we need one I think for sure. That'll allow blind to get some game time in our midfield too. This guy looks quality for sure, do you know much about him?
How good is he?
Not sure he is top class.
Also not sure we are really in for him - might just be a story someone concocted because Mourinho tried to buy him before.
Also not sure we are really in for him - might just be a story someone concocted because Mourinho tried to buy him before.
I'm definitely the wrong person to ask, better to check up stats online. My memory has gone to hell lately because of the long-term drugs.
But yes, he was always great at making a tight defense (regardless of stats) that actually looked solid and as a unit. That's not how I'd describe United under LvG, regardless if we have the best stats in the league in terms of goals against.
If Mourinho really rates him as CB, then he can not be too bad. This someone we're talking about is Di Marzio who is recently very credible & trustworthy. Also Manolas is playing in Italy, that adds weight to Di Marzio's statement, since Di Marzio's well connected in Italy.
Mourinho bought Khalid Bouhlarouz. He was pretty bad.
That was way back when PL teams knew how to defend. Even Chelsea conceded 32 when they won the league last.
Actually if you look at statistics, United are the team that register the least defensive actions, we are the team that defends the least in the league, so our defensive unit isn't the best in the league, it's the least exposed.
I used the goal/defensive actions variable and it gives you that: Leicester conceded 0.017 goals per defensive actions, Spurs 0.018 goals, Southampton 0.020 goals, Arsenal 0.020 goals and United 0.023 goals.
To put it in perspective if we defended exactly as we did but had to defend as much as Leicester we would have conceded 50 goals, obviously that's a fantasist usage of stats.
With hindsight. He was very good at Hamburger. At the start of his Chelsea career, he was fecking beast. He was top class vs Liverpool and Barcelona (dominated Ronaldinho when Ronaldinho was still performing at top level). Injuries and later daughter death messed up his career. He is in the mould of Jones' failure (if it's fully materialized). He was as talented as a young defender as it gets. Not saying Bouhlarouz was top class and flawless. What I meant he was well rated on the back of his 2 years at Hamburger and WC2006. He showed great promise few times at his Chelsea in the beginning before turned shit. The talent is there, not like Mourinho bought a well known tumescent and try to coach him, just to prove his genius.
Anyways, as I said "not too bad". There is no absolute in judging talent.
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