Marc Cucurella - World Class Hairdo

Revan said:
Absolutely. We would have been better with pretty much anyone else up top. Weghorst is comfortably the worst regular player I have ever seen play for United.

Just for context, Bebe who is a meme, scored as many goals as him while playing 7 matches instead of 31.
Click to expand...
We were terrible with Ronaldo up top. We had to play Rashford through the middle, out of position, for any sort of decent standard opposition with Sancho out wide only for Sancho to fall apart and be sent away to Holland due to some personal issue and he wasn’t sent there because he was playing well.
So that’s Sancho and Ronaldo out of the picture. I’m flabbergasted this is even a discussion to be honest. In one hand you’re criticising Weghorst for having to play Rashford as a 9 while forgetting that’s what we had to do pre World Cup when Ronaldo was being dropped.
 
Yagami said:
He was crap at Brighton, too. People justifying this transfer by referencing his time there probably didn't watch him.

Brighton have had many fantastic talents in recent years that warranted going to a top club. Cucurella wasn't one of them.
Click to expand...
That coming from you is good enough for me :)
 
Gordon Godot said:
Faced with a deep block and no forward options he retains possession. This is stupid video. Says more about Chelsea failings
Click to expand...
The thing about a club and coaching failing is that it's not so easy to recover from. Our players (and ex-players) became shit at passing after Maureen and they haven't fully recovered from it. Alexis Sanchez the ex Barca player could only manage to play the same kind of shit football with Inter after Maureen. I feel like some managers can really ruin a player. For 3 mil he's a good addition, just hope we wont see people moaning when the level gap between Shaw and him is so huge and he brought the same scaredy cat kind of football in his first several games.
 
Last edited:
I think he fits our tactical puzzle quite nicely. I know the Caf has been whining about Mount (and specifically the Mount, Casemiro, Bruno midfield) but this is what we're going to do this season so live with it. He will likely play as an inverted fullback. As an attacking, right footed player at left full back - Dalot's performance against Norwich is a good template for what to expect from Cucurella. I think it fits his strengths well (good workrate, runs around a bit, good progressive passing)

Shaw has been asked to perform that role but he hasn't been able to pull that off just yet, so Cucurella might rotate with Shaw even when Shaw's fit while he adapts to the role. In a typical 3-2 build up, the roles by my reading are:

------- Cucurella --- Casemiro --------
--- Martinez --- Varane -- AwB ------

Martinez / AWB: A role typical of the outside CBs in a back three. Expected to move forward with the ball and provide ball carrying.
Varane: Sweeper, plays an interesting role in build up by stepping up and providing a passing angle but doesn't carry the ball into the offensive 3rd.
Cucurella: Inverted fullback.

This is a slight switch from last season where Martinez was in the middle and Shaw/ Varane were the outside CBs with Dalot was the attacking fullback. The switch somewhat makes sense because AWB is better than Shaw at 1v1 defence. Varane wasn't exactly spectacular at ball carrying, he'd just run forward and pass the ball backwards / make a simple pass. This role fits both Varane / Lindelof, Martinez and AwB better. Shaw loses out but let's see, maybe he'll adapt.
 
Teja said:
I think he fits our tactical puzzle quite nicely. I know the Caf has been whining about Mount (and specifically the Mount, Casemiro, Bruno midfield) but this is what we're going to do this season so live with it. He will likely play as an inverted fullback. As an attacking, right footed player at left full back - Dalot's performance against Norwich is a good template for what to expect from Cucurella. I think it fits his strengths well (good workrate, runs around a bit, good progressive passing)

Shaw has been asked to perform that role but he hasn't been able to pull that off just yet, so Cucurella might rotate with Shaw even when Shaw's fit while he adapts to the role. In a typical 3-2 build up, the roles by my reading are:

------- Cucurella --- Casemiro --------
--- Martinez --- Varane -- AwB ------

Martinez / AWB: A role typical of the outside CBs in a back three. Expected to move forward with the ball and provide ball carrying.
Varane: Sweeper, plays an interesting role in build up by stepping up and providing a passing angle but doesn't carry the ball into the offensive 3rd.
Cucurella: Inverted fullback.

This is a slight switch from last season where Martinez was in the middle and Shaw/ Varane were the outside CBs with Dalot was the attacking fullback. The switch somewhat makes sense because AWB is better than Shaw at 1v1 defence. Varane wasn't exactly spectacular at ball carrying, he'd just run forward and pass the ball backwards / make a simple pass. This role fits both Varane / Lindelof, Martinez and AwB better. Shaw loses out but let's see, maybe he'll adapt.
Click to expand...

I think ETH is using some of these injuries to get in players he also actually wants. It's one way round our stingy board that's for sure.
 
If we pay a loan fee plus his entire salary, we are beyond hopeless. It would be the equivalent of some club paying us a loan fee plus the entire salary on VdB or Sanchez back then.
 
Teja said:
I think he fits our tactical puzzle quite nicely. I know the Caf has been whining about Mount (and specifically the Mount, Casemiro, Bruno midfield) but this is what we're going to do this season so live with it. He will likely play as an inverted fullback. As an attacking, right footed player at left full back - Dalot's performance against Norwich is a good template for what to expect from Cucurella. I think it fits his strengths well (good workrate, runs around a bit, good progressive passing)

Shaw has been asked to perform that role but he hasn't been able to pull that off just yet, so Cucurella might rotate with Shaw even when Shaw's fit while he adapts to the role. In a typical 3-2 build up, the roles by my reading are:

------- Cucurella --- Casemiro --------
--- Martinez --- Varane -- AwB ------

Martinez / AWB: A role typical of the outside CBs in a back three. Expected to move forward with the ball and provide ball carrying.
Varane: Sweeper, plays an interesting role in build up by stepping up and providing a passing angle but doesn't carry the ball into the offensive 3rd.
Cucurella: Inverted fullback.

This is a slight switch from last season where Martinez was in the middle and Shaw/ Varane were the outside CBs with Dalot was the attacking fullback. The switch somewhat makes sense because AWB is better than Shaw at 1v1 defence. Varane wasn't exactly spectacular at ball carrying, he'd just run forward and pass the ball backwards / make a simple pass. This role fits both Varane / Lindelof, Martinez and AwB better. Shaw loses out but let's see, maybe he'll adapt.
Click to expand...

Looks good in theory but more often than not in the build up AWB will be up alongside Antony and Cucurella on the outside of Rashford.

We need be be much more disciplined in ensuring we have midfield coverage for the pass option and the counter cover.
 
Revan said:
Cause he is shit. I thought he was bad last season but Chelsea fans who have watched him more think that he is horrible.

It is a loan but we will still spend over 10m in him when we have almost no money to spend. Spending money in horrible players just cause they are loans does not make much sense, as we saw from another horrible loan last season when we were effectively playing with 10 men in position cause Woug was appalling.
Click to expand...

I can see why you clipped out the rest of the quote. His success at Brighton and the personal accolades won there simply pale in comparison to the opinion of Chelsea from the Internet.

Gotcha.
 
Revan said:
If we pay a loan fee plus his entire salary, we are beyond hopeless. It would be the equivalent of some club paying us a loan fee plus the entire salary on VdB or Sanchez back then.
Click to expand...
That’s how loans work….
 
Herman Toothrot said:
I can see why you clipped out the rest of the quote. His success at Brighton and the personal accolades won there simply pale in comparison to the opinion of Chelsea from the Internet.

Gotcha.
Click to expand...
I am happier with this signing than some of the others we are linked with. He may have stunk at Chelsea but that club is a mess and lots of players floundered, and football is a confidence game. He is premier league proven at Brighton who play good football. Little to lose from this
 
Revan said:
If we pay a loan fee plus his entire salary, we are beyond hopeless. It would be the equivalent of some club paying us a loan fee plus the entire salary on VdB or Sanchez back then.
Click to expand...

If those teams desperately needed DVB or Sanchez? Which would then make them doing that make sense?
 
Yagami said:
He was crap at Brighton, too. People justifying this transfer by referencing his time there probably didn't watch him.

Brighton have had many fantastic talents in recent years that warranted going to a top club. Cucurella wasn't one of them.
Click to expand...
Wasn't he POTY for Brighton in his first season and Pep wanted to bring him to City?
Bizarre!
 
Revan said:
Absolutely. We would have been better with pretty much anyone else up top. Weghorst is comfortably the worst regular player I have ever seen play for United.

Just for context, Bebe who is a meme, scored as many goals as him while playing 7 matches instead of 31.
Click to expand...
No we were not, Ronaldo was useless x2! :lol: At least Weghorst was trying more and was a team player, Ronaldo was waste of space.
 
Gordon Godot said:
I am happier with this signing than some of the others we are linked with. He may have stunk at Chelsea but that club is a mess and lots of players floundered, and football is a confidence game. He is premier league proven at Brighton who play good football. Little to lose from this
Click to expand...

Exactly. I'm not sure what people want us to do here, build a time machine and sign Robert Carlos? Plenty of sticks to beat the club with, but this isn't one of them.
 
Revan said:
Absolutely. We would have been better with pretty much anyone else up top. Weghorst is comfortably the worst regular player I have ever seen play for United.

Just for context, Bebe who is a meme, scored as many goals as him while playing 7 matches instead of 31.
Click to expand...
Not a chance. If we're rating them based on their performances for us last season, Wout was better than Ronaldo.

Wout was up and down for his first dozen matches. Certainly some bad, but he also did have some good. That already puts him ahead of Ronaldo. After that he was consistently bad but even then he was at least moving around to create space and was working hard defensively. Whereas Ronaldo was terrible the entire time, couldn't be bothered trying, and was obviously causing huge issues in the squad.
 
evil_geko said:
No we were not, Ronaldo was useless x2! :lol: At least Weghorst was trying more and was a team player, Ronaldo was waste of space.
Click to expand...
Does he forget Ronaldo literally struggle playing against farmers from Eastern Europe ? Weghorst was bad but Ronaldo was worse (this didnt even account the toxicity Ronaldo brought to the dressing room). Ronaldo also is not free scoring in very weak Arab league either so its not like he was misused here.
 
I think people are being a little bit harsh saying he's shit, or a bad signing. It hasn't worked for him over there - so be it.
He clearly needs a change of scene - and hopefully he can rediscover his Brighton form with us.

Shaw's injury is clearly a bad one, and I'm not overly fussed with Malacia from what I've seen so far.
As an emergency loan goes, this is leaps and bounds better than anything like a Weghorst sort of hail-mary.
 
It's pretty good for what it is. Imagine you're tasked with signing a LB for absolute buttons at the very end of the transfer window. That's not an enviable task. Most of those left backs that are affordable and available will also not be good enough so do you really want to sign them on a long term deal?

To get a player that was good enough for Brighton to get Chelsea and City (supposedly) interested in his services is decent.

There's no doubt he has been appalling for Chelsea though. That's why we're able to get him in this situation.
 
Smores said:
Looks good in theory but more often than not in the build up AWB will be up alongside Antony and Cucurella on the outside of Rashford.

We need be be much more disciplined in ensuring we have midfield coverage for the pass option and the counter cover.
Click to expand...

I think it's expected that they underlap / overlap in later phases of the attack but I think the first phase it's a pretty standard 3-2. If one of the 3 goes forward then yeah others have to be disciplined covering to prevent the counter. We haven't been great at dealing with the counter threat but I feel the problems lie elsewhere there.
 
I don't think anyone at the club should be abscribed blame for this emergency, likely underwhelming loan signing.

It's just one of those freak situations and he is the best available fit for what ETH wants offensively from our LB.

It's a win-win for Chelsea and us.
 
Revan said:
If we pay a loan fee plus his entire salary, we are beyond hopeless. It would be the equivalent of some club paying us a loan fee plus the entire salary on VdB or Sanchez back then.
Click to expand...

difference is we want the player, and in those other cases were just begging someone to take the player and help offload the wages for a year.
 
Teja said:
Shaw has been asked to perform that role but he hasn't been able to pull that off just yet, so Cucurella might rotate with Shaw even when Shaw's fit while he adapts to the role. In a typical 3-2 build up, the roles by my reading are:
Click to expand...

Sorry to pick out one detail from a broader argument, but there's just no way in hell. Whatever the strategic niceties, Shaw is one of the better LBs in world football. Cucurella is a guy who was decent at Brighton and has been a laughing stock at Chelsea. The gulf in quality outweighs any period of adjustment to playing a more inverted role.
 
Brightonian said:
Sorry to pick out one detail from a broader argument, but there's just no way in hell. Whatever the strategic niceties, Shaw is one of the better LBs in world football. Cucurella is a guy who was decent at Brighton and has been a laughing stock at Chelsea. The gulf in quality outweighs any period of adjustment to playing a more inverted role.
Click to expand...

I agree and really hope so. We had a bad game against Wolves when they had the new manager bounce / new season intensity and one poor half against Spurs. Neither of these were Shaw's fault, so it's possible that he'll be good in that role and these were just random one offs that were out of his control.

During the dark days of McFred, people were arguing for turning Shaw into a midfielder, so the talent is there.
 
This club is fast becoming a joke. We are absolutely skint and can't do anything really to challenge for honours. At least this player is of a higher calibre than Butland, Weghorst and co. B-Tier Loans FC
 
This is an awful signing and a waste of money. He may have been decent at Brighton but he’s been terrible since. We have little to no money so why waste some on a terrible player. So what if City wanted him they got lucky. They also wanted Harry and Sanchez look how they turned out. Plus city have hidden / not used loads of poor signings as they have the squad depth we don’t. this chap weakens the team.
 
Seems we could be switching attention to signing Reguilon on loan instead. Cucurella "still in play but complicated by Chelsea appearance last night".

 
Haha banter club. Bit stupid of Chelsea to play him though
 
Infra-red said:
Seems we could be switching attention to signing Reguilon on loan instead. Cucurella "still in play but complicated by Chelsea appearance last night".

Click to expand...


Jesus fecking Christ. Is he even registered in Spurs' EPL squad? He's so shite.
 
Reguilon is the worst defensive fullback I've seen in the PL in the last few years.
 
If we sign Cucurella on a permanent/obligation to buy, I'd want the club to sell Malacia next summer.
 
How does Cucurella being cup tied for the League Cup impact us? If we are buying him to be our starter LB, there's no way we should be playing our starter LB in that competition anyway.
 
Sarni said:
How does Cucurella being cup tied for the League Cup impact us? If we are buying him to be our starter LB, there's no way we should be playing our starter LB in that competition anyway.
Click to expand...
We have few LBs fit so it would be nice to have him available.
 
While I can get behind a move for Cucurella in hopes he can get back to his level at Brighton, we’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel with Reguilon.
 
horsechoker said:
We have few LBs fit so it would be nice to have him available.
Click to expand...
But that's even more of a reason to not play him in the League Cup, you don't want your first choice LB to deplete his energy playing there, or worst case scenario get injured in one of the games. We can't possibly play our strongest team available in every single League Cup game again like we did last season QFs (or even earlier) onwards.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.