Will only sign one FB
New season optimism
- Thread starter Pughnichi
- Start date
Will only sign one FB
we replaced Varane with an 18 years old, Martial with Zirkzee and as always can't seem to shift deadwood which means there's no money for more transfers. Unless we add two more midfielders, we will struggle again.
If we get at least one midfielder, another CB and a LB, then I will be more optimistic. Cautiously so since ETH also spent most of last season making weird decisions.
I can't see that happening though, and I'm not even sure the two signings we have made leave us any better off than before in the immediate term. Varane probably offered more than any 18 year old defender realistically could. Yoro might turn out to be a great long term signing but immediate term we need more experience. Zirkzee I will have to actually see him play to judge.
Midfielder I do think we can get away with one signing for the time being, but that's dependent on not losing what we have. Fullback...I mean we're going into the season with just Luke Shaw, who has been fit to start 1 game in 7 months, and then immediately been off for a month and missed the pre-season...what can possibly go wrong?
There's quite a few players, Shaw being one, where its not unrealistic to at least hope they'll offer more this season and make a positive impact, either through playing better or not being injured. Martinez, Rashford, Diallo, Sancho, Mount, Shaw...even Mainoo missed nearly half the last campaign. So there is that to base some optimism on.
I can't see that happening though, and I'm not even sure the two signings we have made leave us any better off than before in the immediate term. Varane probably offered more than any 18 year old defender realistically could. Yoro might turn out to be a great long term signing but immediate term we need more experience. Zirkzee I will have to actually see him play to judge.
Midfielder I do think we can get away with one signing for the time being, but that's dependent on not losing what we have. Fullback...I mean we're going into the season with just Luke Shaw, who has been fit to start 1 game in 7 months, and then immediately been off for a month and missed the pre-season...what can possibly go wrong?
There's quite a few players, Shaw being one, where its not unrealistic to at least hope they'll offer more this season and make a positive impact, either through playing better or not being injured. Martinez, Rashford, Diallo, Sancho, Mount, Shaw...even Mainoo missed nearly half the last campaign. So there is that to base some optimism on.
Yes, you're probably right. Think the plan is for Dalot to cover LB when needed with Mazraoui on the right.
Even so, I'd be more relaxed and optimistic once we get an adequate DM in.
Normally I am pretty optimistic, but we are running this back with Yoro and Zirkzee when we clearly need midfield and defensive additions, so currently we will be fighting for 4th place.
I have none, I'll let the team earn my respect this season.
It's been a quiet window for most clubs.
Probably a mix of extended Euros breaks and less money around the game this summer.
Probably a mix of extended Euros breaks and less money around the game this summer.
Fighting for 4th place would be a blessing.
As I said earlier in the thread, we could finish anywhere between 3rd and 8th.
There's a lot of uncertainty around all top half clubs, apart from Arsenal and city.
Injuries and ETHs tactics keep me from being genuinely optimistic.
Zero optimism yet.
If we go into the season with the likes of AWB, Casemiro, Eriksen, Lindelof etc. we are on the wrong path still
If we go into the season with the likes of AWB, Casemiro, Eriksen, Lindelof etc. we are on the wrong path still
We've bought a 18yr old, who looks good, a striker again who young.. Still need some experience in the team.. I'd love another striker in... I can't see Hojlund scoring enough goals .. unless others chip in .. Garnacho Rashford etc will have to get double figures as well high ones .. 17 to 18 .. 20 would be great .. doubt it
Disappointing that we still seem incapable of getting rid of a lot of the deadwood that is in the squad.
That's fully on the old regime for stupid contracts
Yea, doesn't feel like we will be able to break free of so many of those mistakes for another few years. Really don't understand why INEOS decided to trigger the extra years for Wan Bissaka and Lindelof though.
I've relatively little optimism, I think we'll finish a place lower than last season. I still struggle with the fact we kept EtH but he has my support and I hope he proves me wrong.
No massive optimism from me. Main things I’m excited for are seeing Amad play consistently (which is not really a given) and Zirkzee hopefully offering a skillset similar to Martial. A few players who can actually ball, you know.
The deadwood you refer to, be honest if you were a club manager would you actually pay a fee plus pay their excessive salaries ? Lindelof, AWB, Maguire et al will not be bought by ANY decent club, and their salaries could see them sit out the contracts, we saw ALL the offers come in for Martial....Zero. The merry go round keeps spinning and we see almost nothing changing.
That’s the optimism in me!
No, I wouldn't be in a rush to have any of them in my squad - which makes it even more strange that we added a year on to AWB and Lindelof's contracts instead of just getting their excessive wages off the books and moving on.
Zero optimist
Waning ever so slightly here.
I think yoro and zirkzee are excellent and welcome additions but its very clear, and has been very clear, for over a year that we desperately and urgently need a defensive midfielder. Yoros injury scare highlights how brittle our squad is in terms of replacements, even assuming martinez can stay fit, without yoro we're back to Dalot - Maguire- Martinez- whatever left back is fit. We're just over 2 weeks from start of season and really need 2-3 new bodies in.
De Ligt would go a long way to calming fears about defensive depth, and a DM is a non negotiable. Pull these off and then things look positive again
I think yoro and zirkzee are excellent and welcome additions but its very clear, and has been very clear, for over a year that we desperately and urgently need a defensive midfielder. Yoros injury scare highlights how brittle our squad is in terms of replacements, even assuming martinez can stay fit, without yoro we're back to Dalot - Maguire- Martinez- whatever left back is fit. We're just over 2 weeks from start of season and really need 2-3 new bodies in.
De Ligt would go a long way to calming fears about defensive depth, and a DM is a non negotiable. Pull these off and then things look positive again
Perfect summary. I created this post few weeks back and a lot of the original ‘things’ listed obviously remain.
But regarding the squad, De Ligt are Ugarte are both needed.
Whilst 2 weeks is still a long time for transfers to happen there’s the real possibility that we start the season with no new signings in the team. And that saddens me
Well especially if we start the season without Yoro, then thats just zirkzee added to a squad that was simply able to compete. There's no space to start poorly in the league now, by october we were in an unphill battle to even get top 4, which we got nowhere near.
Hopefully this is all unnecesary concern, and that de ligt (i think this will happen) and above all else, a DM are added.
I always feel optimistic until the season starts 
In all seriousness, I think it would be understandable to have low expectations about this season, but still be optimistic about the longer term with the massive overhaul to the football structure. It's not going to be all fixed in one summer and people are going to have to be patient. They won't be though. United could win the first 10 games of the season, but then lose the 11th and the Ten Hag out stuff would instantly be back. Same if we have any games where the opposition get any attempts at our goal "sure we won 3-0 but the y had 11 attempts at our goal... it's worrying"
In all seriousness, I think it would be understandable to have low expectations about this season, but still be optimistic about the longer term with the massive overhaul to the football structure. It's not going to be all fixed in one summer and people are going to have to be patient. They won't be though. United could win the first 10 games of the season, but then lose the 11th and the Ten Hag out stuff would instantly be back. Same if we have any games where the opposition get any attempts at our goal "sure we won 3-0 but the y had 11 attempts at our goal... it's worrying"
That's very optimistic.
Realistically, I expect us to struggle early in the season, though we might get some lucky wins.
But as the season wears on, I think we'll be grinding out draws.
I just don't think ETH is capable of having us play entertaining football.
I'm banking on us surely not having the same level of injuries meaning more minutes from martinez, shaw, mount, mainoo, and consistent line ups as well as hopefully further development from garnacho, hojlund and lastly rashford can't be worse than last season surely.
There’s good argument to be made that the starting 11 is weaker without any more additions. We’ll do better over the whole season because having a back up striker and less injuries will help significantly, but I’m not sure we will be able to compete any better with the top teams.
I hope our plan is not to start this season with only one new and fit addition to this squad
I'd be happy if we get De Ligt and Mazraoui in for the defence. I'm okay with the attack.
I'm devastated about how we approached our midfield situation. Its not looking good. We will struggle if we sign just Ugarte, and even that's looking like a pipedream at the moment, with Rabiot/Amrabat being the more likely options right now.
I'm devastated about how we approached our midfield situation. Its not looking good. We will struggle if we sign just Ugarte, and even that's looking like a pipedream at the moment, with Rabiot/Amrabat being the more likely options right now.
I'm not optimistic about this new season. I'd say the right word is tentative or cautious. I'm waiting to be impressed or disappointed. Not massively blown away by our signings yet, especially as one is already injured. Not overly pleased that we've got ETH-style football for another season - or however long he lasts. Think it's going to be more of the same, which doesn't excite me. I do think it's an opportunity missed as there was chance for a change and we didn't do what was necessary for that change. I imagine ETH will be stubborn and stick to what he did last season, which will mean we look decent in some areas, and awful in others.
Slightly annoyed we haven't made any serious headway with improving our midfield. Obviously there is still time, but would've liked more progress or least some sort of clear sign that we're improving there. The issue last season was goalscoring and especially chance creation. I'm not really seeing or hearing anything that tells me that we've progressed in this area either. We'll see how we start the season and how we perform, but that's a huge concern of mine.
Slightly annoyed we haven't made any serious headway with improving our midfield. Obviously there is still time, but would've liked more progress or least some sort of clear sign that we're improving there. The issue last season was goalscoring and especially chance creation. I'm not really seeing or hearing anything that tells me that we've progressed in this area either. We'll see how we start the season and how we perform, but that's a huge concern of mine.
I'm much more optimistic about the club nowadays. It feels like we've finally got people in charge who are focusing on running it right off the field in order to prioritise improvements on the field.
However, with the time it took to get all that assembled, and with the expensive wages of the players they inherited, then it's obviously going to be much more than a one window fix.
So my 'optimism' for the new season isn't so high as regards seeing a marked improvement in the short term. Results wise, I'm not expecting much more than recent years - hopefully back to competing around top 4 and winning a domestic trophy (or the EL) as we did 2 seasons ago. That would be perfectly fine for me, while the squad changes slowly take place.
So long as I can see the long term view, and feel that we are (slowly) heading in the right direction, then I feel a lot less panicked and despairing than I did for much of the last decade. It'll take time, but the fact that we at least seem to be trying to do the right things nowadays gives me a lot more optimism for the long term.
However, with the time it took to get all that assembled, and with the expensive wages of the players they inherited, then it's obviously going to be much more than a one window fix.
So my 'optimism' for the new season isn't so high as regards seeing a marked improvement in the short term. Results wise, I'm not expecting much more than recent years - hopefully back to competing around top 4 and winning a domestic trophy (or the EL) as we did 2 seasons ago. That would be perfectly fine for me, while the squad changes slowly take place.
So long as I can see the long term view, and feel that we are (slowly) heading in the right direction, then I feel a lot less panicked and despairing than I did for much of the last decade. It'll take time, but the fact that we at least seem to be trying to do the right things nowadays gives me a lot more optimism for the long term.
Yeah we really needed two midfield signings, however lack of sales means it looks unlikely
I might just sit this one out tbh, you just know the way it's heading, between the managers tactics and the injuries recurring. Grim.
At the moment, I have zero expectation this season will be an improvement on last.
Season after season somehow the likes of lindelof mctominay maguire awb manage to get back into the starting line up. And then you also see rashford as number 9 and sancho somehow back in fray. Don't want to be pessimistic but doesn't look great
I was feeling optimistic when we go the two deals done quickly, thinking that we could be improving the side.
However, now looking at it I'm not sure we have done enough to challenge much more than last year. Yoro is one of the future (and unfortunately now injured) and Zirkzee provides some depth in attack but I don't feel that we've added more to the starting lineup that will be enough to change outcomes.
Biggest thing will be staying healthy, and Amad having a big impact, as the two main areas of improvement. If we can keep some of the main players healthy than it should provide more stability, particularly at the back.
Hoping for some further business to be done to increase the optimism.
However, now looking at it I'm not sure we have done enough to challenge much more than last year. Yoro is one of the future (and unfortunately now injured) and Zirkzee provides some depth in attack but I don't feel that we've added more to the starting lineup that will be enough to change outcomes.
Biggest thing will be staying healthy, and Amad having a big impact, as the two main areas of improvement. If we can keep some of the main players healthy than it should provide more stability, particularly at the back.
Hoping for some further business to be done to increase the optimism.
Looking forward to our young players developing:
Martin - 16
Amass - 17
Yoro - 18
Mainoo - 19
Garnacho, Collyer - 20
Hojlund - 21
Amad - 22
Zirkzee - 23
All relatively new and exciting additions to the squad.
There are others but these seem to be next in line.
Martin - 16
Amass - 17
Yoro - 18
Mainoo - 19
Garnacho, Collyer - 20
Hojlund - 21
Amad - 22
Zirkzee - 23
All relatively new and exciting additions to the squad.
There are others but these seem to be next in line.
My optimism wasn't high to begin with, and it has done nothing but go down lately.
-Zirkzee is very underwhelming signing
-Yoro has massive potential but he's just a kid and he'll wind up missing a big chunk of the season anyway
-Even if we sign de Ligt, if we're being honest he's a player who wasn't even good enough to get into Holland's first team at the Euros
-Even if we sign Ugarte, again, he's a player that PSG will have no problem letting go because they'll have brought in another midfielder who is much better than him
Even at full strength this is a squad that was going to have the same old problems (not scoring enough goals) and it's written in the stars that we're gonna experience another injury crisis this season anyway. We'll be lucky to get 6th or 7th at the rate we're going.
-Zirkzee is very underwhelming signing
-Yoro has massive potential but he's just a kid and he'll wind up missing a big chunk of the season anyway
-Even if we sign de Ligt, if we're being honest he's a player who wasn't even good enough to get into Holland's first team at the Euros
-Even if we sign Ugarte, again, he's a player that PSG will have no problem letting go because they'll have brought in another midfielder who is much better than him
Even at full strength this is a squad that was going to have the same old problems (not scoring enough goals) and it's written in the stars that we're gonna experience another injury crisis this season anyway. We'll be lucky to get 6th or 7th at the rate we're going.
Gone