Disagree with a lot of that. He's quick and is a good striker of the ball. He's worth the £30m fee. The issue is that he's coming in as a bonafide starter.
Liam Delap | £30m release clause?
- Thread starter BuzzKillington
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Am ok with Delap, 22, relatively cheap, hopefully average wages, also not top class so won't get in the way of Chido if he develops into a top striker. But I don't understand the Cunha transfer and I'd rather not have him at United.
His fbref report is....concerning.
Ranks horrendously on number of passes/game etc.
Ranks horrendously on number of passes/game etc.
Add Brian Mbeumo and you have the perfect solution. Let Liam De Lap be a blunt battering ram and Mbeumo and Cunha be the finesse and the goals.
Amad at right wing back with Mbeumo as R10/RW would cook.
Him and Cunha's combined 26 goals this season comes from a combined 16 xG. And both had been net underperformers up until this point.
I sure as shit hope our recruitment team knows what it's doing. Because on face value, there's an obvious risk of both their goals dropping-off simply through hot finishing streaks ending.
With Delap in particular, you're really depending on him becoming a better player in a better team.
I sure as shit hope our recruitment team knows what it's doing. Because on face value, there's an obvious risk of both their goals dropping-off simply through hot finishing streaks ending.
With Delap in particular, you're really depending on him becoming a better player in a better team.
This sort of mirrors where I’m at, albeit without any sort of research. Other than this season, there’s very little in Delap’s career at this point to suggest he becomes a world class no 9, or even close to it. A lot of moves, very few of which have been successful.
For comparison, Harry Kane had 56 on loan appearances in the lower leagues and netted 14. Something to think about.
But it does concern me that we again, target a player based on one senior season, "one for the future".....and what if we don't get a deal completed for Delap?
Then where do we go?
While that's true, I don't imagine he has a lot to work with in terms of passing opportunities at Ipswich. If we want more of a playmaking #9 for certain games we've got Zirkzee for that, who I think is really good at bringing others into play. He feels like he's on the cusp of something, whereas Rasmus seems like he's going backwards and needs a new/different challenge..
£30m price means he is worth a punt, considering we are blowing massive chunk of our transfer budget on Cunha, we cannot spend big elsewhere. Even if this signing doesn't turn out well, we can sell him for a small loss compared to massive amounts of money we'll eat on likes of Antony, Sancho and Hojlund.
Having said that, I'd try and push Villa for Watkins. He's terrific and recently seems to be rotating with Rashford so it's an opportunity for us. £20m on top of agreed Rashford transfer fee should be enough.
Having said that, I'd try and push Villa for Watkins. He's terrific and recently seems to be rotating with Rashford so it's an opportunity for us. £20m on top of agreed Rashford transfer fee should be enough.
We all know how loans go surely, some work some don’t. You may get games, you may not, you may be sub you may not. Manager may prefer the men he’s got in the trenches, may be a different playing style. Loads of reasons. Why I don’t read anything into loan goslscoring. What’s more important is did the loanee get any game time and has it helped develop them in the man’s game. Finally, we all know that young players develop at a different pace
i think if we’re going for him and Cunha, we’d still need an additional goal threat in the front three. I’d feel more comfortable getting Delap if we have Cunha and Mbeumo next to him
This makes me doubt you've actually watched him properly. He's quick as hell. I think he's likely to become England's next starting striker post Harry Kane.
Tired of limited players, who can do one half of a job.
Agree with the concerns of both overperforming their xGs, but what we need first at this current stage we are in (being a shit team filled with low quality players) is a player with the right fundamentals, and for attackers like Cunha or Delap, the question should be do they have the necessary technical base and physical profile? We got Hojlund who's is probably quick but is technically limited, while Zee is great technically but slow af.
If they have the necessary fundamentals and the right profile, then that in of itself means the team improves the bottom floor is raise, once we improve the team with better personnel, then we can worry about a player being able to sustain a high xG
Exactly what I was thinking if we could get all three of these Cunha L10/SS, L Delap CFW, B Mbeumo R10/RWP for a combined outlay £145m then that’s the best business we would have done in decades.
If you get those three PL proven attackers in and they cost approximately £450,000 per week in wages, then the club sell Rashford, Antony and Sancho for only £80m but save their £750,000 per week in wages.
The club over the next 4 years would save £300,000 per week and £60m over that 4 year period which would mean the club would have upgraded their attacking options at a neutral cost, that is how a big club should operate, we need Brian Mbeumo as he’s a guaranteed 15PL goals a season as a left footed RWS and having him as R10/SS next to Amad or Dalot at RWB will vastly improve those two players as well.
Liam Delap could then alternate with Zirkzee who can come deep and allow Cunha and Mbeumo to be slight advanced in certain transitions.
I'm 35 and haven't played so much as a game of 5-a-side in about 5 years on doctors orders after a third knee dislocation / ACL rupture / fractured patella...but yeah, I imagine you're absolutely right
Its hard to actually be much worse, since he doesn't score and hardly manages to touch the ball most games
There would be a good number of options that I would prefer over Delap, not because I don't think he can be a good player, but because I would prefer a more established and experienced centre forward for a few years who isn't a project.
Delap has a release clause and is the easiest of the striker deals to do though, so they will go with that.
Delap has a release clause and is the easiest of the striker deals to do though, so they will go with that.
Most fans agree with you but we have so much work to do in fixing this squad, we won’t be able to fix all the issues this summer however we do need to start by improving the attack. It’s clear we are looking for 3 or 4 attacking signings dependent on who we sell.
The first two make total sense as we can complete them very quickly by paying out their buy out values. I would suggest that the following players have all already been told they are leaving and they need to find a new club;
A Bayinder(10m),V Lindelof, T Heaton,
J Evan’s, C Eriksen, J Sancho(25m),
M Rashford(40m), Antony(30m),
R Hojlund(loan/30m), T Malacia(5m), (10 players)
The following players have been told that they have a few months to prove themselves or they need to find a new club permanent or a loan deal;
A Onana, L Shaw, M Mount, A Garnaucho, Casemiro(5 Players)
I fully expect to see 12 players leave this summer on loan or through permanent transfers and we should bring in anything from £100-150m from player sales subject to a player like Garnaucho going as well.
Getting in Cunha and Delap early just forces players like Hojlund and Garnaucho’s hands as they know they are no longer starting 11 players, sell one you go get Mbeumo, sell two you buy Mbeumo and another CF like Mateta whose perfect for a squad role.
We would still need another GK, RWB, CM and potentially another CB after we have bought 3/4 attacking players. I actually like the idea of recruiting PL proven players this Summer.
Can't be worse than Hojlund...surely?
Diallo? Bruno?
What do you class as a proven striker?
There's a dearth of top strikers out there, as seen by the fact that there are multiple top clubs looking to sign one this season while there seem to be only two remotely available. One of them seems likely to be going to Saudi so is off the table (unless you want to beat the ridiculous money they'll be paying him). The other will have a bunch of top clubs after him, so the chances of him choosing us are quite remote (and basically rely entirely on him loving Amorim so much he will forgo titles over the next couple of years to play for him again). I presume we did get in touch with Gyokeres and he let us know he wasn't interested, so we moved on. Which is the right thing to do unless you want another De Jong situation.
Once you move past those two everyone is going to be a risk. Hell, even those two would be to some extent. I have no idea if Delap is the right one, but we're going to see other top clubs also having to buy unproven options because that is all that will be available.
If the striker market was strong with a lot of options available I also wouldn't be happy with relying on Delap either. But that's not the market we're in, so we've just got to hope that the club gets the 'right' risky option.
Not going to lie, from what I’ve seen on YouTube; I wouldn’t label his fundamentals “excellent”, at all. But you guys likely have watched more than I have, so I’ll defer. But yeah, I was not too impressed with what I’ve seen - strength and work rate aside
Always wary of strikers who we've only seen for 1 season. Remember the big Brighton kid? Disappeared after they were quoting astronomical fees. It's not too dissimilar a situation to Højlund.
Attackers are difference makers in football. Even in our heyday, there were many games where on the balance of play we were on par with the opposition, but the belief was always that our quality upfront would tell, and for the most part, it did.
I'd rather we went for the most established top class striker that we could possibly get (who knows what that is these days!)
I hope you are right and that this is the plan in the market, I just don't have that faith in the club as an operation. I would rather see us get more established and proven options in key positions to build from - namely Goalkeeper and centre forward. We need to improve so much in both boxes and get the foundations right, so I don't think it is wise to be going for 'projects' in either of those positions this summer. There is no way that Delap could be worse than Hojlund, but I still wouldn't want to be thrusting him in as United's main centre forward for the next couple of years.
I think the club will just be targetting players with release clauses because they don't want to have to do the hard yards this summer of negotiating a good price for players.
I want Rory Delap to chuck his son on the pitch the first game of the season like he did his throws.
I would be very nervous going into next season with him as our main strike option. We need as guaranteed a goals scorer as we can get. Delap may be Greta in 3 years time but we don't have that time
I feel like when you sign these young strikers, the purpose is for them to learn from and grow with the help of a more experienced striker. We already have a young striker in Hojlund and were not able to provide him with such a teacher, hence his struggles this season. Not sure why we think it'll be any different with Delap - we can't provide him with the necessary conditions to grow.
We should sign a more experienced striker imo.
We should sign a more experienced striker imo.
We will have 3 strikers who’ve never hit double digit goals twice? Bring back Woodward 
I quite like that he's a shithouse and he's very comfortable carrying the ball, working the channels and bringing others into play. Osimhen I don't think does this.
The striker market is pretty horseshit these days. There aren’t that many blue chip ones (so to speak) out there and even when we bought Hojlund, there was a notable deficit of them.
I think every team has just got to take a chance of developing a new one. Gyokeres is likely to go elsewhere and is too expensive for us. Osimhen is reportedly in talks with Saudi.
I think every team has just got to take a chance of developing a new one. Gyokeres is likely to go elsewhere and is too expensive for us. Osimhen is reportedly in talks with Saudi.
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Hoping we don't fall into this trap. Him failing will set us back a couple of years or more. He will keep riding on potential while we struggle for goals every season until everyone gives up. We should move like a big club for once and get Osimhen.
At the very least, he's a pain in the arse, a handful. He knocks people over, rattles them, makes stuff happen. And he seems super confident. God knows we need a bit of arrogance around the place.
It will be nice to have a player who is good in transitions at least
Hojlund for 70mil was a big gamble. This guy Delap for less than a half the price has all the strikers tools at a decent to very good standards already and will only get better.
Its much easier for a coach to work with player with decent overall skill-set. If you, for example, cant trap a bag of cement back to goal at 22 years of age, or scared to head the ball, there is very little for any coach to help and vastly improve it.
(Surprised Delap has such a poor heading stats, remember him destroying Konaté in the air. Pretty sure he will improve this part of his game in no time).
Liam Delap vs Premier League Strikers
◎ Duels won – 1st
◎ Dribbles per 100 touches – 1st
◎ Ball carrying frequency – 1st
◎ Progressive action rate – 1st
https://datamb.football/L_Delap_Striker_stats/
◎ Duels won – 1st
◎ Dribbles per 100 touches – 1st
◎ Ball carrying frequency – 1st
◎ Progressive action rate – 1st
https://datamb.football/L_Delap_Striker_stats/
10 non penalty goals in the PL and we are ready to make him our starting striker? He's decent running with the ball and good physicality but that's about it, he's got a history for the last few years where he couldn't reach double figures for goals in the championship.
We do know Hojlund hit 10 goals last year for us in less appearances? Most of Delap's goals come from counter attacks, a few keeper mistakes etc and only a few are decent box movement. He would be an absolute mistake.
We do know Hojlund hit 10 goals last year for us in less appearances? Most of Delap's goals come from counter attacks, a few keeper mistakes etc and only a few are decent box movement. He would be an absolute mistake.
This forum man, picking flaws out of every potential striker signing bloody hell, what do we actually want?
Gyokeres: Dont want because not proven at a big league and “too old”
Osimhen: Dont want because apparently no big team wants him and not proven
Delap: Proven at PL level but too young
Sesko: don’t want because too inconsistent and not at a big league
Ekitike: Too young not proven.
Isak: want but that’s an impossible signing. Typical CAF.
David: not proven
I get the apprehension but bloody hell lads, can’t turn everyone down and still expect results.
You are looking at it as a collective. These are options from different people - that’s always going to be the case.
It would of course be better to focus on the positives of a player, than the negatives for a change.
Happy signing him as Hoijlund replacement IF its as a back up striker....and if we sign Cunha I actually think he could be our first choice striker.....but as our number one striker, decent price, lack of options in the market......but not overly confident in that
Not true, Isak, Osmihen & Gyokeres the majority would all take as they are top players.
Ekitike will cost a lot given his experience, that's a fair comment but would be better than Sesko or Delap who are NOT "PL Proven" unless you count Hojlund as "PL Proven", David for the price looks a great buy too.