Given that Neuer´s most important game as sweeper was the one game without Hummels, it is very unlikely. The only time Hummels pace looked actually suspect was the final, when he his light knee injury clearly affected his movement. It actually said a lot about his standing inside the team that he was picked over the fit Mertesacker regardless.
Mehdi Benatia | Signed for Bayern Munich
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Given that Neuer´s most important game as sweeper was the one game without Hummels, it is very unlikely. The only time Hummels pace looked actually suspect was the final, when he his light knee injury clearly affected his movement. It actually said a lot about his standing inside the team that he was picked over the fit Mertesacker regardless.
Not really, right footed unfortunately. Evans could continue to play on the left though. He may not be naturally left footed, but he's well able to use both feet.
Yeah, I agree RE: Evans, just generally wondering.
i remember him being caught a few times - how do you rate his pace when not injured?
Benatia linking pops a bit from nowhere... it has a small but significant sign that this could be legit thing but my spider senses tells me to shut the feck up and turn off twitter feed for the sake of what's left from sanity.
Heheh. The current situation really begs for resurrection of smokescreen theory. There's gonna be a lot of rage on this forum I feel.The Herrera and Shaw transfers progressed in the same fashion
Heheh. The current situation really begs for resurrection of smokescreen theory. There's gonna be a lot of rage on this forum I feel.
Actually now that you mention it, perhaps the whole Vermaelen thing was a smokescreen for Benatia all along...then at least the link to Vermaelen would make sense
The Express started it all off and every other article on it has been referencing them so I wouldn't get your hopes up.
I'm just wondering how LVG and Woody can see through all the smoke. Whole different types of media are falling into United trap over and over again.Actually now that you mention it, perhaps the whole Vermaelen thing was a smokescreen for Benatia all along...then at least the link to Vermaelen would make sense
We're trolling on the market big time, right now.
I would love to say that sanity shall win on this forum but we all know it's a transfer window.
Therefore it's ON... simply because the lack of transfer targets is a closing reality with each day. If not Benatia then it's the best secret kept in football.
Your original claim was that Benatia was better than Hummels in everything bar contribution. I admit that I did not see your next post with the slight change in opinion.
With technique I meant things like close control, dribbling and first touch, where Hummels belongs to the best on the planet. This is not the same as distribution to me (this comes more down to passing and vision IMO), which is why I included it.
I never said that, although it was between him and Boateng the last season. Naldo was not consistently on that level, while still being good.
Sokratis was important and played a great season, but he simply did not outperform Hummels in the games the latter played. Hummels was in the top bracket of pretty much every relevant statistic in the Bundesliga until he picked up an injury in November. He returned even stronger in the second season half and the difference he made for their play was plain to see. He was on top of that their MotM in half of the remaining fixtures including the QF vs. Madrid (both games put together) and the cup final vs. Bayern.
I´m not gonna deny that the EPL is a very fast paced and physical league, but the pace argument simply holds little ground when it comes to Dortmund players, because of the extreme high focus they put on speed and aggressive defending. If he can excell in such a system, I don´t see any reason why he can´t survive in the EPL. He is used to play on an extremely fast level. Not to mention, that players like Mertesacker do just fine other there despite being even slower than Hummels.
Were there instances when he struggled because of his slower pace? Sure. Were there actually enough of these to make a general claim? Not in my book. Since you are unwilling to back your argument up here, we just have to agree to disagree here.
The same Terry that struggled pretty heavily when Villas-Boas tried him in a high defense line? No argument on Vidic, though. Guy was a monster in defense at his peak.
And again, your initial post was about more than just pure defensive attributes and I have not even mentioned things like presence, leadership or organizing yet.
I don´t get it. Hummels has been around for a while now, has proven himself against players of the calibre like Ronaldo, Bale, Robben, Ribery or Reus, but these guys would make you worry?
I actually think, that Benatia and Hummels are pretty close to each other in purely defensive attributes. Benatia is faster, Hummels is better in the air. Both are around the same level on the ground.
As the complete package and modern CBs are way more than just pure defenders, Hummels has the edge here.
I see the papers are now saying he's our top centre half target.
Ya, looking back I did make it sound like that. Originally I was going to say he was better in every other way, but then I thought about the two in the air, and so I added "almost", but I forgot to change the sentence before it.
I thought Hummels was better with the ball at his feet. I just said distribution originally, but I meant to imply he was better when controlling the ball also.
Yes, I misread that in truth. Still, there have been other standouts in defence over the last 3/4 years. Hummels has perhaps been the most consistent in that regard, but I don't agree that he was better than Naldo last season.
I'd say they were pretty similar honestly, with Sokratis playing more games in the season. The defence definitely looked better with them both present however (kinda to be expected though).
I understand why you'd disagree, but it would still concern me somewhat.
That was down to his pace or lackthereof. In terms of his tackling and marking ability Terry's a fantastic defender.
I don't agree here at all. On the ground Benatia is far superior imo. His tackling and marking are definitely better than Hummels' as far as I'm concerned. Both players have a presence as they are both tall, leadership, Hummels probably edges it slightly, both are good organisers.
Benatia is not better than Hummels on the ball, but he's not poor in this respect either. He's still well able to pass the ball out to start an attack and his touch isn't comparable to Smalling's or anything like that. It depends which is more important, a ball player or a top tackler. Both are well able to do both, but one clearly has the advantage in each. We already have Evans to pass the ball out from the back and Smalling to provide the covering role, we could use a great tackler more than a great ball player right now imo, keeping in mind Benatia can still perform the basic passes very well.
Jesus what the hell does it matter you two would split hairs over the colour of piss. They are both quality. End of debate and move on!
Where did I say they were unknown? I had seen Evra in CL multiple times, and Vidic for Serbia&M. Benatia was quite hyped at Udinese, Strootman and Park where top players in Eredivisie.
I was just wondering why we don't sign players who've already shown their potential, but whose market value hasn't yet gone up. Vidal from Leverkusen etc.
I never called any of those unknowns, I never said I'd want us to sign "Bebe" or "Buttner" type (players who hadn't shown anything to suggest they're good enough prior to their signings.)
On Wikipedia it says he scored 15 goals last season. Is that correct? Is he their penalty taker?
5 goals
no he scored 5. 15 probably in his career so far.
Quoting the op. He'd be an excellent buy, might cost twice as much as Vermaelen but he's worth it!
There's something in his career that I don't understand. If he's that good, why did he play for that many teams over the years? Why did he not get his chance with a bigger team in Italy by now at age 27, no disrespect to Roma? Something doesn't feel right about him, so I'm not that convinced about how good he would be at United. We talk about finding someone who can fill the boots for Rio and/or Vidic with leadership qualities of his own. There's only one CB out there who matches that profile for sure, and that someone is not the subject of this thread.
http://www.gazzetta.it/Calciomercat...mourinho-c-contatto-sabatini-9085796411.shtml
What exactly is he angry at? Roma have apparently failed to comply with his demands, what were they?
What exactly is he angry at? Roma have apparently failed to comply with his demands, what were they?
Got confused for a second, thought that was a recent article. He's 27 now.
If i remember correctly, he wanted a raise.
That was my guess but the way the article also talks about Totti, De Rossi and Pjanic trying to persuade him made me think he wanted a move in the first place.
He scored 15 goals for Roma last season and was their joint top goal scorer .
.Benatia would be a better signing than Hummels.
Why?
There's that clip of LvG going through a shooting exercise with the side. When Jones scored, you could hear LvG saying he likes defenders who can score. Benatia sounds right up the manager's street.He scored 15 goals for Roma last season and was their joint top goal scorer
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...nchester-united-pre-season-tour-louis-7483183
He scored 15 goals for Roma last season and was their joint top goal scorer
Where did you get that from because I highly doubt if it's true.
Whoscored says he scored five league goals last season.
He scored 15 goals for Roma last season and was their joint top goal scorer
No he didn't, he scored 5.
He scored 5 goals in 32 appearences last season.15 is his total career figure, I'd imagine.He scored 15 goals for Roma last season and was their joint top goal scorer
Benatia would be the perfect Vidic replacement. Hummels for me is just unrealistic.
That doesn't tell any of us why Benatia played for that many clubs and wasn't a target for a bigger club until now; he played a solid number of years in Italy by now. With all due respect to Roma, he would have gone anywhere else by now if he is as good as some people say.
You're quite right my apologies. That'll teach me for looking on tut statistics sites.
Does anyone else have the feeling LVG doesn't want to sign a star defender to slip straight into the first team? I just feel that Vermaelen was the perfect player to come in and be an excellent deputy/competition for Jones, Evans and Smalling.
I think he has plans for that three and buying someone like Benatia for £30m would see one of them get hurt again on the progress front. I think he's in for experience that he won't feel uncomfortable benching.
I think he has plans for that three and buying someone like Benatia for £30m would see one of them get hurt again on the progress front. I think he's in for experience that he won't feel uncomfortable benching.
The benatia links make sense to me.
What doesn't make sense is how his name only popped into the frame when Vermaelaen went to barca.
If we were in for a marquee defender, would he be the primary target and why wait till city bid for him and deemed him too expensive before we made our interest known?
He was always rated in Italy when at Udinese.
Who would have thought an unknown player in Russia named Vidic would turn out to be one of Europe's most dominant CB's at United.
Then the same problem remains: who is the new general? You can't expect us to make miracles unless we have a genuinely intelligent leader at the back. Whenever I think of our back line, I can't help but think that Jones still is the weak link among our 3 current CBs who have some amount of experience because of rash challenges that cost us penalties.
There's no links to him aside from what started in the Express. It's just paper talk.
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