Mourinho not happy with transfer window - Exclusive interview with Ogden

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Kapardin said:
Quite true. The attack will determine our season. But there is no guarantee that Mkhi, Martial and Pogba will be more prolific this season, though you can count on Pogba to put in class performances in midfield, in general. So without new signings, it is certainly a leap of faith for now.

Though I do not judge players by preseason performances, have to say that if Lindelof is not even at Rojo's level, then our CB situation would be dire as usual if Blind, Smalling or Jones start regularly. Terrible window so far, but there is still time.
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There's no guarantee that Lacazette, Morata, Silva etc will perform particularly well. There's no guarantee Kane/Alli will maintain their form. There's no guarantee an entire first XI bought in 12 months for City will gel.

Whoever we sign who'll take minutes away from Martial is similarly not guaranteed to outperform his contribution. They could be counter productive and not signing them and watching Martial have a breakthrough season without being regularly benched is a possibility also.

I agree we need another person for strength in depth, but our signings between now and the end of August are unlikely to play more than a supporting role in our achievements.

If we win the league the likes of Lukaku, Pogba, De Gea, Bailly, Valencia, Martial, Rashford, Mkhitaryan & Mata are the ones most likely to be the largest contributors.

I also look at our CB options and see them amongst the best in the league so hugely disagree with you in that sense.
 
Phil Jones 79 said:
Sanchez from Bayern would change that. Very quick and powerful running with the ball
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Maybe. Think we need someone like Modric - a player who can turn defence into attack by turning in tight spaces. We need someone elusive and elegant.
 
Not a great transfer window so far. I'm happy that we signed Lukaku, he is more mobile than Zlatan but he is not a better player. Lindelöf is one for the future and I doubt that he will be an improvement over Jones or Smalling in the near future.

It is quite obvious that we need a mobile DM and a creative winger and if we do sign Matic and Perisic then a lot of the improvement to our team will have to come from within. Step forward Martial, Shaw, Mikhi, Rashford and Pogba.
 
We're not addressing our problems and it's really disappointing.
 
Lukaku has been a quality signing and Edward did a great job to snap him up before Chelsea landed him. Other than that, I feel that we are looking at the wrong player signings in terms of wingers and holding midfielder.
 
It's depressing looking at our business & who we seemingly linked with, then there's City just buying top players & paying whatever it takes.. next season we are going to be in exact same situation as last season, especially after an injury or 2.. while City, Chelsea etc who have signed top players in positions that need strengthening will play great attacking football while we languish in 6th again..
 
I think we should give credit where its due - Woodward played a blinder in getting Lukaku. a very good player, proven in the EPL. good job. Lindelof- well hard to say, i think it was a pretty standard deal to make. Other than that- we have not strengthen at all, we lack bodies and quality here an there. Disappointing so far.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
I disagree. We got outscored by Bournemouth last season. Let that sink in.

I think there's validity in the concerns.
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more to do with mourinho not doing a very good job as manager, in an attacking sense.

Incredible that people don't see anything wrong with saying van gaal didn't do well with our attacking play but mourinho just needs better players (while he had far better players than van gaal). Honestly incredible
 
Crashoutcassius said:
more to do with mourinho not doing a very good job as manager, in an attacking sense.

Incredible that people don't see anything wrong with saying van gaal didn't do well with our attacking play but mourinho just needs better players (while he had far better players than van gaal). Honestly incredible
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We created feck all during LVG tenure. With Jose we created enough to win most of our draws. Weren't we the woodwork champions last year?
 
Sunny Jim said:
I think we should give credit where its due - Woodward played a blinder in getting Lukaku. a very good player, proven in the EPL. good job. Lindelof- well hard to say, i think it was a pretty standard deal to make. Other than that- we have not strengthen at all, we lack bodies and quality here an there. Disappointing so far.
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Completely agree with everything you say
 
Eckers99 said:
Maybe. Think we need someone like Modric - a player who can turn defence into attack by turning in tight spaces. We need someone elusive and elegant.
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Pogba.
What we need is a DM that can play in a two and 3 so we can rotate Pogba and Herrera without losing all control in midfield, and so we won't fall apart if one gets injured.
 
finneh said:
There's no guarantee that Lacazette, Morata, Silva etc will perform particularly well. There's no guarantee Kane/Alli will maintain their form. There's no guarantee an entire first XI bought in 12 months for City will gel.

Whoever we sign who'll take minutes away from Martial is similarly not guaranteed to outperform his contribution. They could be counter productive and not signing them and watching Martial have a breakthrough season without being regularly benched is a possibility also.

I agree we need another person for strength in depth, but our signings between now and the end of August are unlikely to play more than a supporting role in our achievements.

If we win the league the likes of Lukaku, Pogba, De Gea, Bailly, Valencia, Martial, Rashford, Mkhitaryan & Mata are the ones most likely to be the largest contributors.

I also look at our CB options and see them amongst the best in the league so hugely disagree with you in that sense.
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Completely agree with you.

I hope we sign another player or two but getting the most out of what we already have is more important in terms of how we do this season. We have a good squad and I expect a couple of players to really up their games this season. If they do, we're in good shape. If they dont we have a problem and signing a new winger isnt going to change that. Mourinho needs to get more out of what he has this season, no excuses.

As an aside, Ive read (not in this post) a few times people criticising Woodward, saying we arent willing to pay the going rate for players etc. I think Im right in saying the Lukaku deal is still the most expensive on that's happened in England this summer? Its certainly up there. We clearly are willing to put our hands in our pockets. True, City are buying a lot more in terms of quantity, but we have had a few summers doing that and honestly I think its going to cause as many problems as it solves for them in the short term. If Guardiola can get them playing as a unit quickly enough to win the league this year he'll have done really, really well. I think theyre going to have the same kinds of problems we've had the last couple of years bedding in half a new team over one summer. Conversely, the upside of doing limited business for us is we can build on what we did last year without the same level of disruption we've experienced in previous summers.
 
Kapardin said:
Quite true. The attack will determine our season. But there is no guarantee that Mkhi, Martial and Pogba will be more prolific this season, though you can count on Pogba to put in class performances in midfield, in general. So without new signings, it is certainly a leap of faith for now.

Though I do not judge players by preseason performances, have to say that if Lindelof is not even at Rojo's level, then our CB situation would be dire as usual if Blind, Smalling or Jones start regularly. Terrible window so far, but there is still time.
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The players we are linked with do not guarantee that either but the past performances of Rashford, Mata, Martial and Mkhi tell a different story and there is better chance of these players recovering their form than that of a 50m pound rated Perisic suddenly becoming our Messier.
 
Ødegaard said:
Pogba.
What we need is a DM that can play in a two and 3 so we can rotate Pogba and Herrera without losing all control in midfield, and so we won't fall apart if one gets injured.
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Yeah, he's the closest we've got but doesn't to it enough. And I don't think it's about control, I think it's about turning defence into attack. None of them do it quickly enough. Another DM won't change that.
 
Last year 6th was disappointing for the amount of talent we had available. We had a horendous first few months of the season that pegged us back, playing catch up for the remainder.
As much as we still need the odd player, we need better seasons/consistency from Rashford/Martial/Mhiki/Pogba and god knows even Shaw if he can ever manage to get himself back onto the field.
 
dolfen_essence said:
It's depressing looking at our business & who we seemingly linked with, then there's City just buying top players & paying whatever it takes.. next season we are going to be in exact same situation as last season, especially after an injury or 2.. while City, Chelsea etc who have signed top players in positions that need strengthening will play great attacking football while we languish in 6th again..
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Yeah but City aren't playing by the same rules as everyone else, are they? United's spending is limited by their revenue. City's clearly isn't.
 
finneh said:
There's no guarantee that Lacazette, Morata, Silva etc will perform particularly well. There's no guarantee Kane/Alli will maintain their form. There's no guarantee an entire first XI bought in 12 months for City will gel.

Whoever we sign who'll take minutes away from Martial is similarly not guaranteed to outperform his contribution. They could be counter productive and not signing them and watching Martial have a breakthrough season without being regularly benched is a possibility also.

I agree we need another person for strength in depth, but our signings between now and the end of August are unlikely to play more than a supporting role in our achievements.

If we win the league the likes of Lukaku, Pogba, De Gea, Bailly, Valencia, Martial, Rashford, Mkhitaryan & Mata are the ones most likely to be the largest contributors.

I also look at our CB options and see them amongst the best in the league so hugely disagree with you in that sense.
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Adebesi said:
Completely agree with you.

I hope we sign another player or two but getting the most out of what we already have is more important in terms of how we do this season. We have a good squad and I expect a couple of players to really up their games this season. If they do, we're in good shape. If they dont we have a problem and signing a new winger isnt going to change that. Mourinho needs to get more out of what he has this season, no excuses.

As an aside, Ive read (not in this post) a few times people criticising Woodward, saying we arent willing to pay the going rate for players etc. I think Im right in saying the Lukaku deal is still the most expensive on that's happened in England this summer? Its certainly up there. We clearly are willing to put our hands in our pockets. True, City are buying a lot more in terms of quantity, but we have had a few summers doing that and honestly I think its going to cause as many problems as it solves for them in the short term. If Guardiola can get them playing as a unit quickly enough to win the league this year he'll have done really, really well. I think theyre going to have the same kinds of problems we've had the last couple of years bedding in half a new team over one summer. Conversely, the upside of doing limited business for us is we can build on what we did last year without the same level of disruption we've experienced in previous summers.
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Good posts, gents. More or less where I'm at too. We've had far too much churn in recent years, a relatively quiet window has more upsides than downsides IMO.

My one nagging concern is our captain. He's looked miles off the pace in pre-season and finished last season in fairly wretched form. Time waits for no man and if Carrick's number is up then we might be in a bit of bother.

I guess it's possible that young Pereira could be the missing piece in the jigsaw but if he's really gained the defensive nous to play Carrick's role the he's come back a completely different player to the one I watched for our reserves. All of which would explain why Jose is getting antsy about needing one more player (although it does make his choice of captain seem more than a little strange)
 
GBBQ said:
Explain Lukaku then? Everyone assumed he was a done deal to Chelsea and we were struggling to finalise a deal with Morata. Suddenly out of the blue it turns out we've been working on a deal with Everton for months that virtually no paper had picked up on. Transfer gossip is far from the be all and end all.
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Some reports were actually saying that we were in for him. And that was all before we started the tour. But that is about to end and the season starts in less then a month. Jose was clear that he wanted all deals to be done quickly. On top, deals like Lukaku are very rare - not many deals happen out of the blue and right now, that's all we can hope for
 
Expecting action after this American leg of preseason.
 
I still think there's room for a couple more signings, but I don't want to sign players for the sake of signing them. If for example Jose feels there's no one as good as Griezmann, I'd rather he just waited till Jan or next summer and have another go then.

The one position I think we desperately need filling is CDM. We need a holding midfielder to roam just ahead of the back four, shielding and screening them from play higher up. That player can also give Pogba the license to roam forward and operate in a more advanced role which is where excels. Tbh, I'd take Dier or Matic right about now, although my first choice was always Fabinho.

After that I don't think Perisic is the right player for us, and I don't want him personally. I think attacking wise we have plenty of cover with Lingard, and Young. Rather I'd want us to sign someone who's actually an improvement over what we already have as hopefully Martial will cement his place on the left, and Mkhitaryan will too whether on the right or centrally. That could potentially leave us with a role for another winger, but I'd want us to be in for a Lemar, or pushing it - Dembele.
 
I feel like what's most likely next season is a continuation of last year, where it feels like there's a spark missing unless we sign someone with a genuine creativity. I suppose Perisic would be very direct if he comes so that's something, but for three years now we just don't seem to have a cutting edge. Matic won't help it, while he might free Pogba up a bit.

I know we create chances now but it always feels like we're not likely to finish them off. Hopefully another year together under Jose will mean Rashford and Martial and Mhiki start to gel more in an attacking sense but I still think if we finish fourth, or god forbid outside the top four, it'll be because we weren't adventurous enough this summer in terms of signings.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Good posts, gents. More or less where I'm at too. We've had far too much churn in recent years, a relatively quiet window has more upsides than downsides IMO.

My one nagging concern is our captain. He's looked miles off the pace in pre-season and finished last season in fairly wretched form. Time waits for no man and if Carrick's number is up then we might be in a bit of bother.

I guess it's possible that young Pereira could be the missing piece in the jigsaw but if he's really gained the defensive nous to play Carrick's role the he's come back a completely different player to the one I watched for our reserves. All of which would explain why Jose is getting antsy about needing one more player (although it does make his choice of captain seem more than a little strange)
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I really think these posts are the ones that make the most sense here.
There are a lot of posters on this board who are saying that the signings of Lukaku and Lindelof don't really make any improvement on what we had last year. I can see why you would argue that, in many respects Lukaku is a straight swap for Ibra and Lindelof (as of yet looks underwhelming, although anyone writing him off now is deluded. If there's a position I would trust Mourinho to have an eye for its a CB).

Those posting that we need to make more signings tend to point to the CDM position and the winger/attacker.

The CDM I can understand. Carrick needs replacing as a deeplying playmaker type. However, it is possible that Jose sees Pereira as his replacement. From what I have seen of the 3 options named (Dier, Matic, Fabinho) I would prefer the latter as I think he fits what we need best.

With regard to the winger/attacker. The only options I would really be interested in us buying would be someone along the lines of Bale, Neymar, Dembele etc. I'm not sure theres really anyone else out there who is markedly better than what we've got and who is available. People are saying we need more options. We currently have the following players who can be considered attackers:
Lukaku
Rashford
Martial
Mkhitaryan
Mata
Lingard

That's quite a lot of options.

I think you also have to expect an improvement on what we already have based on the fact that Mourinho will have had a whole season to implement his plans on the team. Mourinho tends to have a strong second season. Mourinho's signings from last year will improve because they have had a year to bed in.
 
finneh said:
Or our players not missing by far the most clear cut chances in the league, most in games that finished as a draw, along with our young players improving as you'd expect.

I've said numerous times - the performances of Pogba, Martial, Lukaku and Rashford will have a far greater bearing on our season than who we sign.
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What will cause them to drastically improve their finishing over the summer? If what they're doing in training is the same as last year, I'm not sure it's going to happen. It wasn't sheer bad luck that caused our players to fire straight at the goalkeeper and hit the frame of the goal again and again.

It's also a bit of a logical fallacy to expect players to get better simply because they become a bit older. I mean, you'd hope and believe that Martial and Rashford improve, but there's no guarantees, no linear relation between going from age 21 to 22 and learning to play significantly better. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.
 
Escobar said:
Some reports were actually saying that we were in for him. And that was all before we started the tour. But that is about to end and the season starts in less then a month. Jose was clear that he wanted all deals to be done quickly. On top, deals like Lukaku are very rare - not many deals happen out of the blue and right now, that's all we can hope for
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My point is it was out of the blue from a fan perspective but a lot of work was going on behind the scenes.
 
whatwha said:
What will cause them to drastically improve their finishing over the summer? If what they're doing in training is the same as last year, I'm not sure it's going to happen. It wasn't sheer bad luck that caused our players to fire straight at the goalkeeper and hit the frame of the goal again and again.

It's also a bit of a logical fallacy to expect players to get better simply because they become a bit older. I mean, you'd hope and believe that Martial and Rashford improve, but there's no guarantees, no linear relation between going from age 21 to 22 and learning to play significantly better. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.
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Errrrm. Whilst it might not always be the case categorically that players improve from 21-22, it is almost always the case that between 16-~26 players improve year on year until they hit their peak. Peak tends to be roughly 26-30 (although as we've seen with some players this can be earlier or later).

I would fully expect that Rashford, Pogba, Martial, Bailly etc will have a better season than last year.
 
Dont get me wrong, I would definitely like to have a new CDM and/or a winger. Both are areas of weakness. If we signed a Fabinho, say, or a Dier, that is going to improve us. That would be my priority. And a winger providing natural width is also going to improve us. Im just saying I dont think its end of days if we dont make those signings. I dont think Woodward should "pay whatever it takes" to sign someone, anyone, just to strengthen in those areas. I think we have options, Herrera can do the defensive job if needed, he has shown that. I just think we have a bit more quality in the squad than a lot of other people seem to, basically.
 
whatwha said:
What will cause them to drastically improve their finishing over the summer? If what they're doing in training is the same as last year, I'm not sure it's going to happen. It wasn't sheer bad luck that caused our players to fire straight at the goalkeeper and hit the frame of the goal again and again.

It's also a bit of a logical fallacy to expect players to get better simply because they become a bit older. I mean, you'd hope and believe that Martial and Rashford improve, but there's no guarantees, no linear relation between going from age 21 to 22 and learning to play significantly better. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.
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If Lukaku has as many shots per 90 minutes as Ibrahimovich, whilst maintaining his fitness and his conversion ratio he'd score 35 goals in the Premier League compared with Ibrahimovich's 17.

Obviously it isn't as straight forward as that but on balance do you believe Martial will score more or less than 4 Premier League goals? On balance to you believe that Pogba will score more or less than 5? Likewise Rashford with 5?

My view is if managed correctly those 4 will score 60 goals next season compared with 31 last season.

Is that ridiculously hopeful? Possibly. But if I believed Martial, Pogba and Rashford (as well as Bailly, Pereira, TFM etc) at their age and with their increased experience and with a year under Mourinhos pupilage were only ever going to stand still then we require major surgery - I'm talking a new team and a new manager levels of surgery.
 
All of our attackers will improve this season for the simple reason that lukaku is a different player to zlatan.
People might m think he is a 1 for 1 replacement but his game is completely different. He looks to get in behind much more than zlatan and has pace to threaten there.
Zlatan dropped off so much and occupied space that mata miki etc would operate in and left no alternate threat behind making it easy to sit deep and defend against us. I don't think that will be the case this year and extra space will help rest of our players.
I also think rashford will get 15+ goals this year which will be huge if lukaku can also get 20+

It is not all about buying more players. Changing one player changes our threat IMO and that will make the team better going forward overall.
 
GBBQ said:
My point is it was out of the blue from a fan perspective but a lot of work was going on behind the scenes.
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Is that the hope you have right now?
My point is that we badly need another midfielder, at least, and are already behind Jose's timeline
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Good posts, gents. More or less where I'm at too. We've had far too much churn in recent years, a relatively quiet window has more upsides than downsides IMO.

My one nagging concern is our captain. He's looked miles off the pace in pre-season and finished last season in fairly wretched form. Time waits for no man and if Carrick's number is up then we might be in a bit of bother.

I guess it's possible that young Pereira could be the missing piece in the jigsaw but if he's really gained the defensive nous to play Carrick's role the he's come back a completely different player to the one I watched for our reserves. All of which would explain why Jose is getting antsy about needing one more player (although it does make his choice of captain seem more than a little strange)
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Too much on Pereira's shoulders now, ain't it? I am all for giving the young lad a chance - but I could easily see Jose going for Fellaini in the bigger games this season instead of Pereira . He did have a fairly good settling in at Granada where he was exposed to a variety of positions, including CM. Yes, you could say that comparing starting for Granada to United is like chalk and cheese; but I would be hard pressed to see how Jose trusts a 21 year-old (completely out of character for him).

That being said, I do genuinely believe it is not hard for Pereira to stake a claim by impressing in the early season games - he could come up trumps at the beginning and build on it. Pereira could then go and have a blinder of a season and become a vital cog in the three man mid that Jose so craves; here's to hope!
 
Announce something....anything.

I'll take a new tie supplier at this stage.
 
Escobar said:
Is that the hope you have right now?
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No its an understanding of how transfers work. They're not played out through the media and only active when we see it in the gossip columns, there is regular work being done and to think otherwise would be naive.
 
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