Nathan Ake (Close to signing for Man City, £40m fee)

Not saying Ake is the man. But having one weakness is not an issue. Maguire's weakness is only about his pace, other than that he's still a good defender who can sense danger, very good in the air, physically strong & very good and composed on the ball. Lindelof on the other hand has too many weaknesses, physically he's not strong, not good in the air and tends to miss the ball when heading & he's not a quick one either. He's regular right now because the other aspects he has is less shite than the others we have. It's not a good idea if our regular centre back has too many weaknesses which gives opposition team enough option to exploit us.

I'm not going to talk about how good Ake defensively as I'm struggling to judge him in that aspect since I often watch Bournemouth is being so bad defensively as a team rather than individual. However, I know he's much better than Lindelof on the ball, he's not as quick as Bailly but he's quicker than Lindelof & I often heard that his attitude is very positive. If his issue is only his height, then surely that's still enough to be an upgrade of Lindelof and shouldn't be a big issue since his partner Maguire is very good in the air.
 
Globule said:
What's he like on the ball? I haven't seen much of him so I can't say I have a solid opinion, but he has always struck me as a player who is way too prone to mistakes. I don't know if that's because I've seen him make a lot of stupid passes or because the ones he has made have left more of an impression.
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He's good. Remember he'll be surrounded by better players as well, so playing out from the back should be easier for him.
 
I'd sign him. You hear 'good footballer - bad defender' a lot about but he looks OK when I've seen him. Hard to judge him for Bournemouth. I think we have to accept that if we want to play a certain way we may have to give up some solidity at the back.
 
He's Bournemouth's best player but that's like saying I'm the best player in my house. Not Utd quality.
 
YAMS49 said:
He's Bournemouth's best player but that's like saying I'm the best player in my house. Not Utd quality.
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People said the same about Maguire at Sheffield.

Just because somebody plays in a bad team doesn't mean individually they aren't good.

What we need to ask is will he better than Lindelof, or is he happy being on the bench?
 
Inigo Montoya said:
He can head the ball for one...so yes he's head and shoulders above Lindelhof. He's also a shed load faster
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Statistically Lindelof is actually quite a bit better. Ake only wins half of his aerial duels, Lindelof (and Bailly for that matter) win almost two thirds of his.

I think Ake might be quite good at getting on the end of attacking corners which makes people (including myself before I looked at the stats) think he's better in the air than he really is.
 
Adam-Utd said:
People said the same about Maguire at Sheffield.

Just because somebody plays in a bad team doesn't mean individually they aren't good.

What we need to ask is will he better than Lindelof, or is he happy being on the bench?
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You're spot on. My only reservation is that he's the same height as Gary Neville who SAF said that if he'd been taller would have made a great CB.
Ake does a superb job there but I do feel he's a few cms short of being ideal. Not sure where he could fit in at Utd;LB,DM?
 
MadDogg said:
Statistically Lindelof is actually quite a bit better. Ake only wins half of his aerial duels, Lindelof (and Bailly for that matter) win almost two thirds of his.

I think Ake might be quite good at getting on the end of attacking corners which makes people (including myself before I looked at the stats) think he's better in the air than he really is.
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Statistically, Utd do far more attacking than Bournemouth and have far more quality cover. Bournemouth surely have had to defend a hell of lot more.

Lindelhof is a liability at CB. He's partially got away with it because we've had a decent run in and have good attacking and midfield options
 
Inigo Montoya said:
Statistically, Utd do far more attacking than Bournemouth and have far more quality cover. Bournemouth surely have had to defend a hell of lot more.

Lindelhof is a liability at CB. He's partially got away with it because we've had a decent run in and have good attacking and midfield options
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Magure also wins the aerial duels of two players.
 
Adam-Utd said:
People said the same about Maguire at Sheffield.

Just because somebody plays in a bad team doesn't mean individually they aren't good.

What we need to ask is will he better than Lindelof, or is he happy being on the bench?
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Robertson at Hull could be another good, recent example.

That being said, I'm not 100% sure on Ake simply because I don't watch him/Bournemouth closely enough (and even then, it's tough to judge a defender in Howe's setup), but if we're selling Smalling & Jones, he'd be - at the very least, a good squad addition. Always seems to be rated as their best player - give or take Wilson/King going through a scoring spree.
 
Adam-Utd said:
People said the same about Maguire at Sheffield.

Just because somebody plays in a bad team doesn't mean individually they aren't good.

What we need to ask is will he better than Lindelof, or is he happy being on the bench?
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Is he better than Lindelof? Hard to say. I think if you put Lindelof in Bournemouth's team he would be standout. I'm not saying he's a bad player, we just need better.
 
meamth said:
I think he is, always performed so well against the top sides, and is a punditry darling.

Always got some praise whenever he performed well against the top side.

EDIT:
Oh and Rio recently said we need a pacy CB, and he epitomizes that description.
Left footed, quick and agile. Being an englishmen is a bonus too.

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Dutch
 
I'd definitely take him. Would be good in rotation with Lindelof, and is better than Phil Jones and Chris Smalling. He's got the attributes to develop into a top CB as well. He's rapid and would complement Maguire well.
 
He can play at left back as well right? Assuming Dalot has no future here and Williams can play on the right then it gives us some good cover across the defence.
 
United should be targeting a tier 1 central defender don't ask me who that is, because the club employs scouts for that. Buying a second rate defender like Ake to play alongside our second rate central defence is the definition of insanity and it won't take the team forward. Buying a central defender is more important than buying Sancho in my opinion. It would be stupid to spend 120 million on Sancho anyway. He is good but massively overrated on here
 
Man this would br-Ake my heart

someone else said it earlier, I think Dunk would be interesting but not sure how quick he is
 
Inigo Montoya said:
You're spot on. My only reservation is that he's the same height as Gary Neville who SAF said that if he'd been taller would have made a great CB.
Ake does a superb job there but I do feel he's a few cms short of being ideal. Not sure where he could fit in at Utd;LB,DM?
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Yeah, i'm not really a fan of your CB's being smaller/weaker than some strikers.

I think he's a good modern CB that can pass well, is athletic and seems to defend well on the floor but it's hard to know whether he would improve the first team. if he was coming in as a squad player I wouldn't mind. A bit too similar to lindelof in that sense, i'd rather somebody more imposing but perhaps Maguire is that already.
 
Inigo Montoya said:
Statistically, Utd do far more attacking than Bournemouth and have far more quality cover. Bournemouth surely have had to defend a hell of lot more.

Lindelhof is a liability at CB. He's partially got away with it because we've had a decent run in and have good attacking and midfield options
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Lindelof isn't as good as we would hope for, but he's not a liability. Overall he's been just as good as Maguire this season, although Maguire's best games are better.

Stats this season for aerial duels in the league:

Maguire - 157 out of 219 won (71%)
Lindelof - 82 out of 130 won (63%)

Cook - 100 out of 156 won (64%)
Ake - 60 out of 118 won (50%)

Our pair have played an extra 11 games between them.

It is important to note that more of ours will be winning long balls that our opposition are booting up to the attackers, whereas Bournemouth probably have to defend more crosses which might be a bit more difficult. As such I'd expect Ake to win a higher percentage if he did come here. But still, he's obviously the weaker link at Bournemouth and it looks unlikely he'd be any better (if not worse) than Lindelof if he came here.
 
It makes sense we are after a left footed centre back. Rojo and maybe Jones would be sold, if he isn't he would be in the hospital. Those are the only two left footed centre backs in our team and they won't be here anymore so we actually need one.

I dont really know the plan for the left footed centre back though. But my thinking is as a squad option. Maguire already plays LCB, the position of the left footed centre back. I don't see us shifting Maguire to RCB when he's already doing well in his current position.

I think we are more focused on just getting a left footed centre back because we don't have one and it's not to partner with Maguire. We've also been linked by strong sources with Salisu, Pau Torres, Badiashile(all left footed) and Rodon(right footed but plays LCB). All these are basically squad players. So my point is we might not be looking for a starter to compliment Maguire but a solid cheap left footed CB that's a squad player. Ake fits that role

Everybody knows we need a quick CB to partner but if we sign any of these players above they would likely be on the bench so maybe Ole thinks he has that quick CB in Tuanzebe or even Bailly and all we need is a solid left footed CB that we don't have to balance the team
 
Stretender said:
United should be targeting a tier 1 central defender don't ask me who that is, because the club employs scouts for that. Buying a second rate defender like Ake to play alongside our second rate central defence is the definition of insanity and it won't take the team forward. Buying a central defender is more important than buying Sancho in my opinion. It would be stupid to spend 120 million on Sancho anyway. He is good but massively overrated on here
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Tier 1 centre back is top class or world class. Should be someone who is known and surely you should know who that is. Don't need scouts to know if they are tier 1 or no.
 
I wouldn't be against this for around £20-25m and i think he started out as a left back didn't he which means he can also cover that side if required?

He is playing in a poor team but that shouldn't always be a barometer of whether someone is good enough. There are loads of examples of players leaving lesser teams (some when relegated) for not much money and then excelling.

Realistically, we are not going to be buying three or four £50-100m players in the current financial climate and assuming we go all out for Sancho as expected, it doesn't leave us a lot to play with.
 
Rojo, Jones, and possibly Bailly are surplus to requirements. Maguire, an additional classy centre half who can also play on the ground with Lindelof and Tuanzebe would be sufficient going into the next season. If injuries really got bad I would think Matic would be a good deputy in that position. If Bournemouth got relegated Ake would be available for a reasonable price. However, Chelsea would be in front of the queue.
 
He’s like Laporte, isn’t he? Cultured left footed defender who is good on the ball, except maybe not as good as Laporte himself. But for 30-35M, it will be a very good buy without affecting most of our transfer budget. He’s a first choice Dutch international as well. And we will probably shift out Rojo and Jones too
 
He is the right profile for sure. Bonus if we can nab him from under Frank's nose.
 
Ake as a first choice rotation option wouldn’t be a bad shout if we ship out some deadwood. He’d get plenty of games no doubt.
 
SATA said:
He’s like Laporte, isn’t he? Cultured left footed defender who is good on the ball, except maybe not as good as Laporte himself. But for 30-35M, it will be a very good buy without affecting most of our transfer budget. He’s a first choice Dutch international as well. And we will probably shift out Rojo and Jones too
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More John Stones than Laporte.
 
The only issue with him is his areal lack of dominance. To some degree, his numbers are made worse by most of them being from crosses. It is more difficult to win these duels compared to long balls from deep where his mobility and ability to predict the path of the ball would give him an advantage. And since we are attempting(and somewhat successful) at pressing high, long balls from deep would be the ones he would need to handle the most. If the long balls are behind or inaccurate, his mobility would help him here as well. 1v1 he is solid, even against the heavier opponents like Deeney.

His long balls would also give us some needed ranged passing ability from the back, something Maguire and Lindelof are not good at.

Purely based on his perceived abilities as a player, a Maguire - Ake partnership seems stronger than a Lindelof - Maguire partnership.
 
How is he in the air? I’m wary of another short CB, the issue I have with our current set is they can all only play with Maguire. If we went away to a Burnley or Everton with Maguire missing we’d get absolutely battered in the air. Lindelöf, Tuanzebe and Bailly are all ‘covering’ centre backs, this lad seems similar.
 
I’m pretty sure he says “you need abit of luck sometimes. Just keep going”
 
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