I'm getting the feeling that you're defo a half empty kind of guy
Luckhurst: United prepared to move for a holding midfielder in January
- Thread starter Valar Morghulis
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I'm getting the feeling that you're defo a half empty kind of guy
Total bullshit, we have 4 options at a push, it's impossible to count Van de Beek as he never plays, and Pogba is better off on the left. Of the 3 who remain we have an average box to box in McTominay, a dog chasing a car in Fred and a walking corpse in Matic. The frustration is we have a short window of opportunity to get the most out of Ronaldo and we've wasted a season straight away.
I can see both Cavani and Ronaldo, especially at home, starting games with Cavani up front and Ronaldo on the left with a free role (which is how he plays now anyway, he doesnt just stop upfront like some poeple are saying).
Of course that will expose our left side a lot but we will bulldoze a lot of teams goals wise.
All 4 transfers (those and sale of James) are excellent. But without a midfielder we don’t have a complete side, so it’s about 8/10 transfer window. A strong 8/10, maybe 8.5/10 (with Lingard or Jones sold, it would be 9/10).
I'm not sure he'll be desperate to play 90mins away getting kicked to pieces by Burnely after a champions league game. I thought Juventus had been using him more sparingly in recent years?
He played 44 games for Juve last season, and i believe 42 of them were starts.
I mean sure taking him off at the 60-70 mark when we are a couple of goals up in a game, but he will be STARTING most games for us, make no mistake about that.
Remembering a time where we were that fecked in midfield we had to play Rooney there. At least we have "options"
The good old times of Gibson and O'Shea or Rafael and Park in midfield
Why would it be wise to wait till next year?
Seems like such a wasted opportunity - we've signed 3 incredible players - but still not sorted out the middle of the park.
Seems like such a wasted opportunity - we've signed 3 incredible players - but still not sorted out the middle of the park.
Is that any worse than now to be fair?. In fact i'd probably take Gibson over Matic and Fred right now.
Good thing you're not our manager then
Well i would of bought a CM this window if i were manager so.
I totally agree. Still over the moon we have Ronaldo back. But it is a massive mistake not signing a class central midfielder like Camavinga or Bissouma in the window. We are a top heavy side. How can anyone say it is okay to be relying on Fred, McT and Matic this season. Seriously. We are soft in the middle. And have been for years
Then we probably wouldn't have Varane. Who is actually available, who wants to come here and is a tier above what we have currently?Well i would of bought a CM this window if i were manager so.
You can't just shoehorn a shithouse in. We've been there before.
I regret to inform you that Ronaldo, Bruno and Pogba are undroppable. Don't get me wrong, if Bruno has been worked into the ground Ole will eventually give him a day off. But what I'm talking about is the ordinary matchday when everyone is fit and in form. Ole is not going to drop any of those three absent a serious decline in form or obvious need for rest.
As for the future, of course Cavani will leave after this season. Perhaps Pogba as well. I'm talking about this season.
As for this season, I'm not not whinging. Having outstanding performers on the bench is part of what make a great squad a great squad. All I'm getting at is that for now we'll very likely go with one of Matic, Fred or McTominay as Pogba's "partner" in the double pivot, the obvious hope being that any of those three when called upon can manage a decent performance and that our attacking five can score enough goals to overcome the overrun in midfield that will come our way.
Fingers crossed that Varane's experience can compensate for the absence of a top CDM.
Yep, and also this was the best time to get him because we could have knocked 20M off the price by throwing Lingard the other way.
Well, if we desperately need a DM, David Luiz is a free agent.. 
I know its been mentioned before but can Lindelof be used as a DM as his LCB position seems to have been taken?
When talking about Center Midfield, the gold standard is Keane and Scholes.
Steel and Silk. In Pogba we have a player who is close to what Scholes was.
But there is no one close to Keane's level when you think of the players we have been linked with. And honestly we cannot expect anyone to come close for some time.
All we can do is improve the options we have, either by bringing in a player or converting someone who has not played there.
Lindeloff has his weaknesses but he is another option.
McT, Fred and Matic are not even going to get us Top 4 if we compare to the other top contenders.
Chelsea have the best midfielder in Jorginho.
Going into the rest of the season with the 3 we use is going to get us many lost points especially as Ole cannot think on his feet and is clueless against low block teams.
Even up front we have two ageing strikers and Rashford who blows hot and cold. Greenwood is just establishing himself and will be burnt out if overused.
Sancho is settling in and will improve.
The one area we are solid in is defence.
Varane is the best signing we have made bar none this season. Maguire should be learning from the master.
De Gea has had the kick up his backside he deserved and may be the goalkeeper he was again.
Not every team is going to play open football like Leeds.
Don't understand why if it is well apparent we need a midfielder then why not bring him in now that sold James but at the same time you are going to block a loan move to Everton for DvB? If you don't want to loan him out, which keeps you from bringing in a starting XI CM, then fuking play the lad.
Pogba needs to be more forward than Scholes ever did. Yes, Scholes had runs as a 10, but you could always trust him to drop back stay deep, and reliably bring the ball from the back 4. The issue with Pogba is that he can be lackadaisical in defence, which you can't be in a 2 man midfield, and he can take unneccssary risks trying to take it out of the defensive 3rd. Pogba is an incredibly talented player but has obvious faults. Scholes while not great defensively read the play much better and always put in a shift. If Pogba could read the game like Scholes and put as much effort in, he could play in a midfield 2 with anyone. Scholes could excel playing with someone like Fletcher who did similar things to Fred well, like press higher up the pitch to win balls, something Pogba isn't comfortable doing with Fred.
and hopefully untrue
I can understand us not bringing in a DM. For me, it was the highest-priority position what with Greenwood lessening the urgency at RW. But Sancho was a 'get him while he's going or regret it forever' kind of signing, and there just wasn't one of those available at DM. Lots of half-appropriate options, lots of 'future star' and 'slight improvement' types. A few pie-in-the-sky names floated on here who were never really available.
I'm sure if we could have got a really good square peg for that square hole, we would have.
We cannot use not getting one as an excuse not to expect a major trophy. Most teams who win major trophies do it without a perfect world-class option in every single position. Many have done it with worse attacking options than we now boast. Next year we'll get our DM but the trophy needs to come this season anyway.
I'm sure if we could have got a really good square peg for that square hole, we would have.
We cannot use not getting one as an excuse not to expect a major trophy. Most teams who win major trophies do it without a perfect world-class option in every single position. Many have done it with worse attacking options than we now boast. Next year we'll get our DM but the trophy needs to come this season anyway.
So the only player we managed to sell was James...
why the feck cant we let go of players we dont need...
Also.. where the feck is Bailly? Injured again?
why the feck cant we let go of players we dont need...
Also.. where the feck is Bailly? Injured again?
If you include the sale of James we just picked up Ronaldo, Sancho and Varane for a net spend of £90 Million pounds, that isn't too shoddy eh! Up there with the best windows we have ever had.
Being coached to play in midfield.
Him, Jones, and Mata will stay at the club until they die
This will cost a lot of points
van de beek is not even considered for the bench
matic old, mct a bit too much injury prone, fred
van de beek is not even considered for the bench
matic old, mct a bit too much injury prone, fred
That is demonstrably false. He is still a #6.
Can you Imagine how many Red cards he would get playing DM
Yeah I've checked it seems a bad idea. What a waste he was rated quite high back then.
Hopefully a CDM is looked at again in the January window but I suspect Ole is set on Declan Rice.
On the whole, we are stronger than last season with three absolute quality additions yet still a work in progress, however, we are getting there, slowly but surely.
On the whole, we are stronger than last season with three absolute quality additions yet still a work in progress, however, we are getting there, slowly but surely.
I find it hard to be disappointed by a window where we've made 3 big name signings. But I have, for a long time, had a disappointment in our sheer neglect for the need for playmaking/passing/possesion play from the midfield. The fact that Ole has signed two midfielders in his time here and both are goalscoring midfielders says it all. Before that, Mourinho's additions were Fred, an energetic midfielder who excels only in hounding opponents and Pogba, a creative midfielder who has nothing to do with the real engine. So as a football club I don't think we care for it really and it's not just about this summer. Had we truly cared about this as something crucial we'd have gotten our own Jorginho and Kovacic by now.This will cost a lot of points
van de beek is not even considered for the bench
matic old, mct a bit too much injury prone, fred
Also going by the comment of us deferring the signing of a DM, to me it seems as though we will be targetting a pure DM rather than focusing on someone who can run the and excels in starting moves. Thoughts @Adnan as like me I think you want someone to dictate the game, provide the class from the middle.
Will be interesting to see how much Ole can get out of VDB, Matic and Pogba from central midfield as that will be his biggest challenge. We all know what McFred bring - solid functional but lacking in quality. Matic could have a run where he regains his former level for a bit, Pogba could play great games from midfield if he/the manager can provide him enough cover or support and VDB, you never know, may actually play well in midfield at some point, but I am skeptical of all three of those. Like I said Ole's job to make it work well.
I think the bolded section pretty much sums it up. Some sensational players have moved in this window but the midfielders who were available all had question marks of some kind against them. I suspect we may be taking longer to monitor Neves before making a decision.
Let's ride it out still January at least, surprised we didn't even go for Franck Kessié, he's at a good age and suits the double Pivot system we usually deploy.
I don't see it the same way especially after a bad game or performance. McTominay does get a fair amount of criticism but he's usually lumped in with Fred. McFred is more the point of focus than the player himself. McTominay is a fan favorite
Right now the media, and this includes several former players, are pummeling Fred with criticism for his Wolves performance, a game where he was pretty much left for dead in the first half by the imbalance of Solskjaer's set up. There are threads dedicated to criticizing Fred here. It's the same across the web. McTominay is more protected at United to be fair
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I don't know how people can't be happy with this window.
Maybe Ole's waiting for the perfect long term solution to become available, rather than the instant gratification that we have seen work so well for us in recent years.
Maybe Ole's waiting for the perfect long term solution to become available, rather than the instant gratification that we have seen work so well for us in recent years.
Probably the only reason I can think of. Pogba might be leaving next summer so we might see two midfielder coming in (assuming vdb is also sold).
From what I have observed on caf, people who pick sides on player vs player, they tend to feel one player is getting lot of criticism and usually that player is the player they picked vs others.
Also I agree with you on the point that Fred gets lot of shit from media, I think that's because he was signed for big money and Mctominay was a surprise inclusion in the squad and the expectations was very low, so relative to those expectations he did well.
Overall I feel both are at around same level with different strengths and weakness.