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Halaand won’t affect Greenwood it’d be Martial who’s affected by him.
Greenwoods mostly going to play off the right this season I’d imagine and that’s fine.
Tell me another top team that avoids buying talent to avoid stagnating their academy players? Greenwood is good enough to thrive under any conditions. It is Martial who is at risk of losing his spot not Greenwood. Martial just isn’t good enough to be a 9.
Genuine question, if we are happy with Fred mctominay midfield and unhappy with Lingard can’t we drop him and go with a 4-4-2 with greenwood? 4-4-2 used to be great at breaking down low blocks? Seriously don’t need Lingard running around with no final product.
That's really not feasible as someone's development is going to hugely suffer. It only works if your 6th/7th choice are players like Mata or Fellaini who know they're either past it or not really that good. Nearly every one of those would want to start every game, and can't. And I'd argue that Greenwood is soon going to reach the level where even if he doesn't expect to start every game his talent alone deserves that he isn't 6th at any football club. Personally I think 5 players who want to develop and improve for 3 positions is just about right. Anything above and I feel you need lesser/older players happy to be bit part forming part of the composition.I don't get the worry about signing Haaland and the idea that it could stymie Greenwood's development. So many people have been crying out for more depth to the squad after Sanchez and Lukaku left. There are plenty of games and injuries and chances for people to rotate.
If I were you I'd be massively excited over a possible front three of Rashford, Haaland and Greenwood, or James, Martial and Greenwood etc plenty of options is what you want. Ole (love him or hate him) is very open about playing academy youngsters he's not going to suddenly drop Greenwood and as you've crying out for a RW for years suddenly this 18 year old pops up who terrifies defences from the right and scores.
Also remember their ages, you dont want them starting every game, Haaland no doubt will need to ease in (if he comes) to a new country, club and league. Greenwood is only 18, James and Rashford are young as well. It will only benefit all of them to have good competition without the responsibility of being the match winner week in week out.
Imagine if you end up getting Sancho as well in the summer. Suddenly the choices up front are enough to make any Utd fan cum in their pants!
Rashford/James ---- Haaland/Martial/Greenwood ---- Greenwood/Sancho
That's an attacking line up to terrify defences for years ..... now onto the midfield!!
If anything, I think we need more midfield and less attack (philosophically speaking -LVG!). Our issue with the low block as far as I can see tends to be more to do with players who can pass and move and control in tight spaces and eventually create chances. So more from the CMs/AMs/playmakers of the team and hence a higher emphasis on midfield play. 442 would just isolate the forwards and the midfield unless out of the two widemen and two strikers, you have a couple who can offer those midfield traits (for eg Bernardo Silva or Messi who can control and create as well)Genuine question, if we are happy with Fred mctominay midfield and unhappy with Lingard can’t we drop him and go with a 4-4-2 with greenwood? 4-4-2 used to be great at breaking down low blocks? Seriously don’t need Lingard running around with no final product.
The problem with using an AM for us is that our selection of AMs (Lingard, Pereira Mata) is, to put it very politely, uninspiring?If anything, I think we need more midfield and less attack (philosophically speaking -LVG!). Our issue with the low block as far as I can see tends to be more to do with players who can pass and move and control in tight spaces and eventually create chances. So more from the CMs/AMs/playmakers of the team and hence a higher emphasis on midfield play. 442 would just isolate the forwards and the midfield unless out of the two widemen and two strikers, you have a couple who can offer those midfield traits (for eg Bernardo Silva or Messi who can control and create as well)
Tell me another top team that avoids buying talent to avoid stagnating their academy players? Greenwood is good enough to thrive under any conditions. It is Martial who is at risk of losing his spot not Greenwood. Martial just isn’t good enough to be a 9.
I just can't get enough of this guy. I want to tune in and watch him every week. The only times I can recently remember feeling like this is when we had Ronaldo, when we had 18-22 year old rooney, and van nistelrooy.
That's really not feasible as someone's development is going to hugely suffer. It only works if your 6th/7th choice are players like Mata or Fellaini who know they're either past it or not really that good. Nearly every one of those would want to start every game, and can't. And I'd argue that Greenwood is soon going to reach the level where even if he doesn't expect to start every game his talent alone deserves that he isn't 6th at any football club. Personally I think 5 players who want to develop and improve for 3 positions is just about right. Anything above and I feel you need lesser/older players happy to be bit part forming part of the composition.
Given I do believe we need Sancho, I can only really think of Haaland being evaded given Greenwood looks a wonderful talent. Ideal situation where we have the pick of these players of course.
Agreed. But we need playmakers regardless of whether they play as an AM or CM or second striker which is my point. Very few teams can do without a quality midfield and I'd rather us not use them as a refefence point. So I'd focus on strengthening our creative machinery - internally and externally - rather than reducing the emphasis on it.The problem with using an AM for us is that our selection of AMs (Lingard, Pereira Mata) is, to put it very politely, uninspiring?
That's just silly. What if it's Greenwood who struggles to find game time among that lot because, naturally, he needs more gametime to catch up go the rest. Do we bin our 18 year mega talent as he 'hasnt got the balls to fight ' or something like that? There IS such a thing as too many attackers. I'd send Greenwood out on loan if we sign Haaland and Sancho.. They'll all get game time and if they haven't got the balls to fight for their place then they can sod off because they're not United material anyway.
No one has James blistering pace or Rashford's inventiveness in front of goal either. The difference being the two aforementioned players actually work for the team. Like it or lump it Martial will be the one at risk, and rightly so. Until he shows he can produce more than the odd moment of brilliance he'll be eminently expendable.Haaland doesn't have Martial's skill set which is quite essential for us moving the ball up the field. No one at the club right now can do what Martial does, and bringing Haaland in won't change that. Thus, Martial will most likely keep his place, and Haaland will rotate with him/ compete with Greenwood if we get him.
Either that or Ole changes the system to include both Martial and Haaland/ Greenwood.
31 is perfect, and he’s not finished. He’s still played well since rejoining Atletico, and would make sense as a rotation senior striker, more so than Mandzukic, because he’s better.
Haaland doesn't have Martial's skill set which is quite essential for us moving the ball up the field. No one at the club right now can do what Martial does, and bringing Haaland in won't change that. Thus, Martial will most likely keep his place, and Haaland will rotate with him/ compete with Greenwood if we get him.
Either that or Ole changes the system to include both Martial and Haaland/ Greenwood.
The return of Pogba, playing further up the field, would replace the benefits of Martial and mean we can actually play a no.9 to get on the end of things.
No one has James blistering pace or Rashford's inventiveness in front of goal either. The difference being the two aforementioned players actually work for the team. Like it or lump it Martial will be the one at risk, and rightly so. Until he shows he can produce more than the odd moment of brilliance he'll be eminently expendable.
The return of Pogba, playing further up the field, would replace the benefits of Martial and mean we can actually play a no.9 to get on the end of things.
I'm sorry, the irony of describing anything Martial does as 'team-base' is too strong to ignore.Martial's skill-set is almost entirely team-based, dropping deep and holding it up, laying it on to others and creating space for Rashford, so I don't understand why you say he doesn't work for the team or only shows the odd moment of brilliance.
And besides, Rashford has James pace, and Martial and Greenwood have Rashford's inventiveness. So we wouldn't be totally lacking there, whereas Martial's hold-up play isn't replicable by anyone bar Pogba at the moment.
Look, I like Martial, but I genuinely can't see how anyone can make the case that Martial is the player we can't see dropped, I just can't.
What we see when he’s injured is a complete lack of depth. We were playing Rashford up top, and as we’ve seen for a while now, he just isn’t very good leading the line. Having Haaland mitigates that. I think you’re drastically overstating his importance in our build up play. Simply having a player who knows the role is, of course, going to make a world of difference.Problem is, we've seen how we play when he's injured and it's not great because no one else is able to bring others into play from striker. We were scoring at most one goal per game when he was out, and then improved on that when he came back. That's the reality I'm basing my assessment from.
If Pogba is able to bring others into play from no. 10 position, then maybe we won't need to play Martial, but right now I think his skill-set is very valuable to the team.
He is not quite ready to start games week in week out.Needs to start over Dan James.
He's left-footed, can come inside, link up, make passes, and score goals which will get the best out of Martial and Rashford. James should be a super-sub for one of the front three after about 60 minutes.
He is not quite ready to start games week in week out.
I think he will be better as an impact sub right now where he can grab goals.
Yeah you could flip it the other way and say that the opposition defenders will be knackered after dealing with James running at them for 60 minutes, which would leave Greenwood a few more gaps when he's subbed on.He is not quite ready to start games week in week out.
I think he will be better as an impact sub right now where he can grab goals.
That's what, he is a natural goalscorer, the defenders being a bit tired when is he on will come to his aid. He still has development left when it comes to physicality.Yeah you could flip it the other way and say that the opposition defenders will be knackered after dealing with James running at them for 60 minutes, which would leave Greenwood a few more gaps when he's subbed on.
Which I think will be good for him in a way, impact sub against tired defenders, He will get handful of goals, also, it's not a given that we will sign players in January, from the looks of it, I am doubtful we will sign any.He’ll be in a battle for ‘impact sub’ role come January if reports are true.
This kid is a star and I reckon he has every chance to be our first choice striker by the time he’s 20.
Showed everything other than that goalscoring today. He is quite well rounded.Really liked that showing.
Showed everything other than that goalscoring today. He is quite well rounded.
Think it's more a case of him already being this complete. So if he's got all this as a foundation to build on, we could have a very good player on our hands.Yep that's what I thought as well. He's becoming more and more complete.
Funny how the defender wanted to show him to his right foot, but he easily adjusted and crossed for the own goal. I suspected that would happen eventually with all the talk of him being 2-footed.
We just need to keep playing him. He is a complete forward, and in this instance, we need to ensure there is a pathway for him to grow in to the national team.
Was saying to my friends in the summer that if given games, he’ll be going to the Euros next summer. I stand by that.
