Leander Dendoncker

That's better, but a lot of money to spend on a DM that won't play regular games. It has to be one or the other. I think Dendoncker has the potential to be a real powerhouse. He dragged Anderlecht back into the game against us, he works hard to defend, and his passing was immaculate in both games.

The league campaign is outrageously long and DM need more rest then the run in the mill player for the obvious region. If Leander cost us 30m and we sell Fellaini for 15m then he won't cost that much

I suspect that you don't like signing old players but think about it. With Matic in the team we'll have the perfect EPL proven tutor for the 22 year old. By the time the former is on steady decline Dendoncker will be ready to take his place as a first teamer. Ideally the tutor role would be taken by Carrick. However, at age 36 that fantastic ship is already more sunk then the Titanic
 
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The league campaign is outrageously long and DM need more rest then the run in the mill player for the obvious region. If Leander cost us 30m and we sell Fellaini for 15m then he won't cost that much
It's hard to argue with this, I was thinking if we only get 1 DM, we can keep options open for another one next season.
 
The league campaign is outrageously long and DM need more rest then the run in the mill player for the obvious region. If Leander cost us 30m and we sell Fellaini for 15m then he won't cost that much

That's nuts. If we sold Fellaini tomorrow we'd get £30-40m for him.
 
I've always been against signing old players. Ever since I was a kid I've never brought myself to see the sense in it. And that's not to say that old guys can't play, there's been lots of awesome ones. But mostly it's a young man's game.
Absolutely. Except when you need an experienced leader. Not that I think Matic would be one of those.
 
Absolutely. Except when you need an experienced leader. Not that I think Matic would be one of those.

If we're going for a 2 men per role rule then we need them both. Matic can provide experience and act as a tutor for Dendoncker. Leander on the other hand can either play as the only DM in the 'easier' games or else as Matic's partner in tougher ones. After all even the great Roy Keane had Nicky Butt as cover and Nicky in his prime was far better then both present Carrick and Fellaini.

As said before we need 2 DMs, 2 box to box and 2 no 10s.

DM: Leander and Matic
Box to box: Herrera and Pogba
No 10: Mata, Mkhitaryan and Periera.
 
If we can pick up an experienced head like Matic for this season we should buy Leander and loan him back to Anderlecht for another season to complete his development. That way even players like Pereira and TFM can get more games and we can make a judge whether they're good enough to make it here long term.
 
If we can pick up an experienced head like Matic for this season we should buy Leander and loan him back to Anderlecht for another season to complete his development. That way even players like Pereira and TFM can get more games and we can make a judge whether they're good enough to make it here long term.
He would need a bigger challenge and would be better off with regular minutes in a mid-table team in PL, La Liga or Bundesliga
 
I've always been against signing old players. Ever since I was a kid I've never brought myself to see the sense in it. And that's not to say that old guys can't play, there's been lots of awesome ones. But mostly it's a young man's game.
You sign Matic over Dendoncker because he's experienced in the PL and Mourinho knows him well. We are in a position where we need success now, we can ill afford the potential time it would take the kid to settle and develop to fulfil the role Jose requires.
 
I quite like what I have seen of him, did a lot of the dirty work for Anderlecht behind Tielmans. Think he is ready for a move, just not to a huge club like ourselves. When you see all this summers fees though Tielmans, why was no premiership side in for him?.....I wouldnt be at all surprised to see clubs bidding twice the fee and more Monaco paid for him next summer.

Still not at all convinced Matic or Dier would bring us anything footballing wise apart from a tactical sense though. If they are the options I would still rather stick with Carrick and the option of Herrera in the holding role for another season personally and go for more of a box to box type instead. There really doesnt seem to be many attainable central midfielders for the holding role at all this summer of real genuine quality, the likes of Dier, Matic, Bakayoko, Fabinho for example are light years away in quality form the Busquets and Vidals of the world
 
Not seen him play - apparently plays CB too, is that true?

That's the perfect type of CDM for the 352 :drool:
 
It wouldn't surprise me if we leaked fake interest in this guy to panic Chelsea over Matic.
 
It wouldn't surprise me if we leaked fake interest in this guy to panic Chelsea over Matic.
Well we weren't the ones who leaked the news. We are simply going on a scouting mission, like we do for presumably hundreds of players. Some Belgian source said that he was on Mourinho's list of options and they're probably not wrong as it was also written earlier by some fairly reliable English journo a while back. But, Dendoncker was probably something like a 4th option behind say Dier, Matic and Fabinho.
 
Signing Matic doesn't mean we can't sign him too. Having both him and Matic as options would significantly bolster our midfield options. We can prevent overkill by selling Fellaini, and also partially fund the Dendoncker transfer too in the process.

Let's not forget that Carrick also only has a bit left in the tank.
 
Well we weren't the ones who leaked the news. We are simply going on a scouting mission, like we do for presumably hundreds of players. Some Belgian source said that he was on Mourinho's list of options and they're probably not wrong as it was also written earlier by some fairly reliable English journo a while back. But, Dendoncker was probably something like a 4th option behind say Dier, Matic and Fabinho.

True

There again we've sold Schneiderlin, we also released Bastian and Carrick is 1 year older. If we sell Fellaini too then we might be a person light even though we sign Matic
 
Signing Matic doesn't mean we can't sign him too. Having both him and Matic as options would significantly bolster our midfield options. We can prevent overkill by selling Fellaini, and also partially fund the Dendoncker transfer too in the process.

Yep.

Of course we may wait till next summer for Weigl next summer to replace Carrick.
 
Signing Matic doesn't mean we can't sign him too. Having both him and Matic as options would significantly bolster our midfield options. We can prevent overkill by selling Fellaini, and also partially fund the Dendoncker transfer too in the process.

Yep and considering the Carrick experience it might be best to have a successor to Matic ready while he is still here and approaching his 30.
 
Seems like a decent passer, and he's good with both feet. Woody sign him up :drool:

Is this the guy they call RoboCop?
 
Signing Matic doesn't mean we can't sign him too. Having both him and Matic as options would significantly bolster our midfield options. We can prevent overkill by selling Fellaini, and also partially fund the Dendoncker transfer too in the process.

Let's not forget that Carrick also only has a bit left in the tank.

Yeah I would love to get this kid.
 
Is this the chap that scored the header against us in the first game last season?
 
Let's get Matic done, ship Fellaini off to Turkey, and throw £30m at Anderlecht for Dendoncker. We would suddenly have a very competitive midfield.
If we're lining up as 4-3-3 we'd have plenty of cover for the holding role with Matic, Carrick, and Dendoncker. But we would only have Pogba, Herrera, and Pereira for the remaining two spots.
 
Yep and considering the Carrick experience it might be best to have a successor to Matic ready while he is still here and approaching his 30.

We move fast at the Caf. The big question today is who will replace Matic? Next up, who do we think should be Gareth Bale's successor in the United attack?
 
If we're lining up as 4-3-3 we'd have plenty of cover for the holding role with Matic, Carrick, and Dendoncker. But we would only have Pogba, Herrera, and Pereira for the remaining two spots.

That's a pretty massive IF, considering that we played a lot of games with 4-2-3-1 both during last season and during this preseason. 5 midfielders sounds about fine, 6 is overkill, 7 is selection headache. And Matic has been playing in a midfield 2 for awhile now, he's more than capable. As is Carrick.
 
So we've got Matic. I'm guessing we're not getting this fella.