Left full back 2020

Why would a player who has consistently played at left back suddenly have to be switched to right back just because he is right footed?

A loan might be a good idea but only if we have other cover for Shaw. TFM is a tactical option for selected matches only. Dalot doesn't seem to be fancied. I guess Lewis is interesting but might be pricey.

I still wonder if Leicester would do a cash plus Shaw deal for Chilwell. We need a better attacker in our 4-3-3. Or maybe we should look at Gosens or Max or someone.
 
Think Williams is better on the right. Dont necessarily need to upgrade on Shaw IMHO but it would be good to provide him with some competition. Same goes for a lot of areas though. CB, CDM, CAM, ST...
 
Williams has been excellent at LB for the youth teams and AFAIK has not had enough minutes at RB to be judged better in that position. I guess it would be interesting to know which side he prefers. But we do have more options at RB.
 
Estupian for me - if we are going to buy. Looks like he really can cross a ball. Watford potentially going down, probably won't cost that much.
 
Quietly waits for Williams Grandad to show up.

I’m fine with Williams being back up for now, I’m sure he’ll get better and probably just needs time, but he will always be a squad player unless there is vast improvement.

If we did bring a LB in would it be the traditional bomb down the line kind or a more modern fullback like Shaw that can go in midfield and play?

Clearly Shaw going in to midfield is a tactic we use as well as when Rashford pins himself on the wing Shaw going inside of him between Fullback and CB.
Do we get a different option or someone that can do the same and if so who. Alaba?
 
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We need at least 1 fullback that can contribute greatly to our attack. That is how the modern game has evolved with wide attacking players taking inside roles and fullbacks providing the attacking play classic wingers used to provide in the traditional game. Shaw and Wan Bissaka are good players but their attacking contribution is very limited.

Football keeps evolving towards being more technical and tactical as a sport and not having the option of dangerous fullbacks on the attack will just leave our opponents with less things to worry about when defending against our attacks.
 
freeurmind said:
Alex Telles.
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Quite like this player, and it's weird that despite frequent rumors no major clubs have made concrete offers for him till now — close to his peak and just 1 year remaining on his current contract. Could be an astute transfer as he is experienced and has reached his ceiling at Porto for a while now (a bit like Bruno at Sporting CP). You could even argue that he has been the league's outstanding fullback since Pereira...who has given a very good account of himself at Leicester, with only Grimaldo challenging him (but being rather injury prone). Don't think the leftback position will be a priority, though — according to reports we're going to focus more on the right flank and central midfield/defense.
Mark Pawelek said:
Surely a player to divide opinion. This season: 11 goals and 8 assists. Also 7 yellow and 2 red cards. Only 1 year left on his contract.
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Telles' goal and assist stats are impressive but there's more to the numbers than meets the eye!

• 9 penalty conversions from a total of 13 goals in all competitions (vs. Gil Vicente, Portimonense, Belenenses x 2, Moreirense x 2, Benfica, Académico Viseu, Boavista).
• 6 set-piece assists from a total of 10 assists in all competitions (vs. Vitória Setúbal x 2, Rio Ave, Paços de Ferreira, Sporting CP, Tondela).

Suffice to say that his open-play goal impact isn't as eye-catching as the totals would suggests, and replicating those numbers at United would be very hard as he is unlikely to cement himself as the primary penalty or set-piece taker.
 
Ole will probably get Ake and play him as a full back and centre back like Sir Alex often used to do with his players. Silvestre, O'Shea, Brown, Smalling, Jones, etc.
 
Is Alex Grimaldo really that injury prone?
Besides his current injury, his last serious injury that lasted longer than 2 weeks was 3 years ago, so I'm wondering if it's just a reputation issue at this point.
Other than that, he's had a few niggles here and there but nothing that could seem him as "prone to injury" in the last few years.
 
Mark Pawelek said:
Surely a player to divide opinion. This season: 11 goals and 8 assists. Also 7 yellow and 2 red cards. Only 1 year left on his contract.
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Invictus said:
Quite like this player, and it's weird that despite frequent rumors no major clubs have made concrete offers for him till now — close to his peak and just 1 year remaining on his current contract. Could be an astute transfer as he is experienced and has reached his ceiling at Porto for a while now (a bit like Bruno at Sporting CP). You could even argue that he has been the league's outstanding fullback since Pereira...who has given a very good account of himself at Leicester, with only Grimaldo challenging him (but being rather injury prone). Don't think the leftback position will be a priority, though — according to reports we're going to focus more on the right flank and central midfield/defense.

Telles' goal and assist stats are impressive but there's more to the numbers than meets the eye!

• 9 penalty conversions from a total of 13 goals in all competitions (vs. Gil Vicente, Portimonense, Belenenses x 2, Moreirense x 2, Benfica, Académico Viseu, Boavista).
• 6 set-piece assists from a total of 10 assists in all competitions (vs. Vitória Setúbal x 2, Rio Ave, Paços de Ferreira, Sporting CP, Tondela).

Suffice to say that his open-play goal impact isn't as eye-catching as the totals would suggests, and replicating those numbers at United would be very hard as he is unlikely to cement himself as the primary penalty or set-piece taker.
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I think it's more than just his statistical contribution. To be honest there are few fullbacks who you'll find with great goal contribution stats unless they are set-piece takers. To me he's just an all around good footballer, decent going forward and is good enough technically to help us retain possession.
 
Renan Lodi. Won't be cheap, but if signed, should be a mainstay for years to come. Him and Wan-Bissaka should provide plenty of pace going up and down the sidelines.
 
I’ve always liked what I saw when watching Digne at Everton and find him very underrated but with that said I’m happy with Williams as Shaw’s back up and then there’s Devine coming through too so we’re well stocked at both full back positions.
 
Let us contact Gareth Bale and see if he fancies a return to his starting position of LB and then we can hope he will be fit when Luke is injured and vice versa.
 
Kill 'em all said:
We need at least 1 fullback that can contribute greatly to our attack. That is how the modern game has evolved with wide attacking players taking inside roles and fullbacks providing the attacking play classic wingers used to provide in the traditional game. Shaw and Wan Bissaka are good players but their attacking contribution is very limited.

Football keeps evolving towards being more technical and tactical as a sport and not having the option of dangerous fullbacks on the attack will just leave our opponents with less things to worry about when defending against our attacks.
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I know this is the general view now but I don’t actually see why we should copy a few successful teams.

If you look at Liverpool then yes a lot of their attacking play is through their full backs but this is offset by very defensively minded central midfielders. Henderson and Wijnaldum cover those attacking runs which gives freedom to TAA and Robertson. Contrast that with Utd where Bruno and Pogba are our creative outlets and one of whom is particularly prone to defensive lapses. With out current team I’m happy for the full backs to play more conservatively to cover our creative midfield players. I’d say if we were playing McTominay and Fred then you’d ask them to push forward more.

Besides I’m hopeful Williams will fill out more and Laird should start getting some rotation if we sell Dalot.
 
sun_tzu said:
Irwin was OK on the left for a right footer as well
Williams has had a great season and him and Shaw are just fine as our left back options next year I think
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Irwin was never ok . He was brilliant on either side
 
sparx99 said:
I know this is the general view now but I don’t actually see why we should copy a few successful teams.

If you look at Liverpool then yes a lot of their attacking play is through their full backs but this is offset by very defensively minded central midfielders. Henderson and Wijnaldum cover those attacking runs which gives freedom to TAA and Robertson. Contrast that with Utd where Bruno and Pogba are our creative outlets and one of whom is particularly prone to defensive lapses. With out current team I’m happy for the full backs to play more conservatively to cover our creative midfield players. I’d say if we were playing McTominay and Fred then you’d ask them to push forward more.

Besides I’m hopeful Williams will fill out more and Laird should start getting some rotation if we sell Dalot.
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Williams can best contribute to the attack playing as a right back because he is naturally right-footed. He doesn't really have a great left peg. I'm not anti-Williams. I am against playing right-footers at left-back. I know we have to do that now because Shaw is our only left-footed full-back. AWB, TFM, Dalot, Laird, Williams - none of them are better on the left than the right.

Buy a left-footer please.
 
sparx99 said:
I know this is the general view now but I don’t actually see why we should copy a few successful teams.

If you look at Liverpool then yes a lot of their attacking play is through their full backs but this is offset by very defensively minded central midfielders. Henderson and Wijnaldum cover those attacking runs which gives freedom to TAA and Robertson. Contrast that with Utd where Bruno and Pogba are our creative outlets and one of whom is particularly prone to defensive lapses. With out current team I’m happy for the full backs to play more conservatively to cover our creative midfield players. I’d say if we were playing McTominay and Fred then you’d ask them to push forward more.

Besides I’m hopeful Williams will fill out more and Laird should start getting some rotation if we sell Dalot.
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It's not really a few... All the best and successful teams have a big threat from at least one of the fullback positions. It's not even about their delivery, but more their mentality and movement. Think back to Sir Alex sides, we had Evra bombing up and down the wing who was brilliant with his movement and link up play and getting in dangerous positions. Wes Brown as a right back in 2008 was brilliant, though he was more adventurous due to the system rather than his personal style. Irwin was brilliant for years. Madrid had Marcelo, Roberto Carlos. Barca had Dani Alves, Jordi Alba. Lahm at Bayern was always quality on the ball. You very rarely get fullbacks who are limited on the ball and going forward on big teams, and if you do, you usually have to balance it out by going pretty attacking on the other side.

I just think a big hindrance for us right now is having 2 defensive minded full backs. Shaw and Wan Bissaka are both very solid players, but going forward they do very little. Shaw at least is very good in terms of progression through the first third going into the final third, but his movement and interplay and delivery in the final third is where his play lets him down. Wan Bissaka on the other hand is definitely very lacking in an attacking sense, while being quality defensively. So it's hard to say what the right path is. Hopefully we just get lucky and Laird just turns quality all around, especially going forward and kinda sorts it out for us as I don't think we buy anyone to be the starter in those positions, but yeah it's definitely something that will be a hindrance until it's sorted.
 
VanHaal'sRedArmy said:
Renan Lodi. Won't be cheap, but if signed, should be a mainstay for years to come. Him and Wan-Bissaka should provide plenty of pace going up and down the sidelines.
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I have a hard time seeing us having the budget to make a move on Lodi his summer. Atletico just bought him a year ago, and he has 5 years left on his contract. Signing him would likely cost us either Sancho or whatever we have budgeted for either Grealish or VDB. I have a hard time seeing us spending more than 25m at LB if we address it at all this window. I feel Atletico would ask for a fortune. It appears we've decided to allocate most of our budget to RW (Sancho), and an #8/#10 CM. If we have another top 4 season with some CL money, I could see us allocating a lot to bring in a long-term replacement for Shaw, but I can't see that being how we allocate out budget this year.

It will be interesting to see how Bayern handles the Lucas Hernandez/Alphonso Davies situation. I can't see Bayern selling Hernandez at a massive loss after only one season, and no way are they going to move on from Davies with his potential and form at the end of this season. But, in a year, one of them could be on the market.
 
Alaba or Telles. We have that Madrid fella as a backup. Brandon could be shifted to the right.
 
See Jamal Lewis getting a few mentions here. He had a very poor season, even in the context of Norwich players. Dropped for Sam Byram and only got his place back due to a season ending injury to Byram. Would not make any sense for a club like United to go after a player like that, with so much improvement needed and who is already 22 years old.
 
bosnian_red said:
It's not really a few... All the best and successful teams have a big threat from at least one of the fullback positions. It's not even about their delivery, but more their mentality and movement. Think back to Sir Alex sides, we had Evra bombing up and down the wing who was brilliant with his movement and link up play and getting in dangerous positions. Wes Brown as a right back in 2008 was brilliant, though he was more adventurous due to the system rather than his personal style. Irwin was brilliant for years. Madrid had Marcelo, Roberto Carlos. Barca had Dani Alves, Jordi Alba. Lahm at Bayern was always quality on the ball. You very rarely get fullbacks who are limited on the ball and going forward on big teams, and if you do, you usually have to balance it out by going pretty attacking on the other side.

I just think a big hindrance for us right now is having 2 defensive minded full backs. Shaw and Wan Bissaka are both very solid players, but going forward they do very little. Shaw at least is very good in terms of progression through the first third going into the final third, but his movement and interplay and delivery in the final third is where his play lets him down. Wan Bissaka on the other hand is definitely very lacking in an attacking sense, while being quality defensively. So it's hard to say what the right path is. Hopefully we just get lucky and Laird just turns quality all around, especially going forward and kinda sorts it out for us as I don't think we buy anyone to be the starter in those positions, but yeah it's definitely something that will be a hindrance until it's sorted.
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I understand the benefits it would bring but AWB is a young player and he did have 3 assists in the league. I fee we saw improvement in his game from Jan-Mar before lockdown. He’s obviously not going to a Dani Alves or TAA but I think he offers as much as Wes Brown or Gary Neville ever did at right back. I think the last few weeks he hasn’t been getting forward due to instructions perhaps.
 
Unlike the ongoing majority opinion, I don't actually rate Shaw. I think he is just a solid 5-6/10 option , who could be improved upon. I would actually make signing a new LB (or a RB) a priority, not just as backup but to actually compete and potentially displace. Williams can continue to improve and be a deputy to whoever wins the race.
 
bosnian_red said:
It's not really a few... All the best and successful teams have a big threat from at least one of the fullback positions. It's not even about their delivery, but more their mentality and movement. Think back to Sir Alex sides, we had Evra bombing up and down the wing who was brilliant with his movement and link up play and getting in dangerous positions. Wes Brown as a right back in 2008 was brilliant, though he was more adventurous due to the system rather than his personal style. Irwin was brilliant for years. Madrid had Marcelo, Roberto Carlos. Barca had Dani Alves, Jordi Alba. Lahm at Bayern was always quality on the ball. You very rarely get fullbacks who are limited on the ball and going forward on big teams, and if you do, you usually have to balance it out by going pretty attacking on the other side.

I just think a big hindrance for us right now is having 2 defensive minded full backs. Shaw and Wan Bissaka are both very solid players, but going forward they do very little. Shaw at least is very good in terms of progression through the first third going into the final third, but his movement and interplay and delivery in the final third is where his play lets him down. Wan Bissaka on the other hand is definitely very lacking in an attacking sense, while being quality defensively. So it's hard to say what the right path is. Hopefully we just get lucky and Laird just turns quality all around, especially going forward and kinda sorts it out for us as I don't think we buy anyone to be the starter in those positions, but yeah it's definitely something that will be a hindrance until it's sorted.
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Completely agree with you. Attacking full backs are even more important for us than other teams because Ole wants us to play the "United way" and dominating the wide areas is absolutely essential for it. Now the modern game has moved away from wide wingers and even we play with Rashford, Greenwood and co, who are all better as inside forwards occupying the half spaces. So we need atleast one full back to be an attacking threat, constantly going behind enemy lines, and supply good balls.
 
What we've seen in the last few games is teams working out how to play against United. They crowd the middle, knowing that the wide forwards and full backs cut inside a lot. It doesn't work against Liverpool because Robertson and Alexander-Arnold effectively become wingers when Liverpool attack and overlap. Wan-Bissaka can do it to a lesser extent but having a left back that can overlap and cross a ball is essential. It adds a new dimension to attacking play in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.
 
This definitely needs addressing this window. Shaw is good but we've seen year in year out he's an injury prone player and can't be relied on. Our second choice Williams is right footed and watching us attack, it's clear how much his right foot hurts us. We don't even need a marquee signing in this position since Shaw is a solid starter, just a cheap solid rotational option that wouldn't affect our budget on other positions. Maybe that Mendes guy? Or Lewis from Norwich? Or we could get Ake and kill two birds with one stone playing as our rotational CB and LB
 
If we ever decide to get a left back or any full back, pray to God they have a good technique and good going forward because am tired with players looking awkward with the ball at their feet.
 
diarm said:
Who is this Nuno Mendes fella the press are linking us with this morning? Can't say I've ever heard of him.
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For me Shaw though not the player we hoped has done ok and certainly not in any form for me one of the areas we need to upgrade. Also WIlliams people complainign about after a coupel of poor games. He is a teen in his first season and has done well in it, dont get it? Also pretty sure Laird dcan play both full back positions.

However, not long enough to judge but I watched Mendes the other day after the links with us and its only one game....but oh my he looks a fantastic prospect, never stopped running, pace, power, technique............so even regardless of all I have said, I wouldnt mind signing him if it was a reasonable price if that game was anything to go by
 
Estupian for me, nice crosses and passes along with good defending, could be our next Evra.
Can be had at a really good price but a lot of big clubs are after him.
 
SamoyedSam said:
What we've seen in the last few games is teams working out how to play against United. They crowd the middle, knowing that the wide forwards and full backs cut inside a lot. It doesn't work against Liverpool because Robertson and Alexander-Arnold effectively become wingers when Liverpool attack and overlap. Wan-Bissaka can do it to a lesser extent but having a left back that can overlap and cross a ball is essential. It adds a new dimension to attacking play in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.
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So why doesn't the same strategy work against City?
 
CG1010 said:
Unlike the ongoing majority opinion, I don't actually rate Shaw. I think he is just a solid 5-6/10 option , who could be improved upon.
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You need to also take into account that Shaw is very good defensively. This is important.
 
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