Now that the front line is sorted...

Sanada

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And the backline is in good enough shape with Vidic, Ferdinand, Evans, Smalling, with Brown and JOS as back ups at CB. Evra, Rafael, De Laet, JOS, Fabio, and Nev for a year or two as fullbacks, we can assume defensively we're okay.

Attackers are all fine. That leaves midfield....

Wings with Park Nani and Valencia, with Cleverley and Obertan coming through, and Giggs still rolling that's still fine.

Central Midfield....Scholes is getting passed it, Carrick is off form and Hargreaves is unlikely to come back. Anderson may still prove something. Fletcher is doing well enough in his given role. We're still missing one creative ability player. Amongst those we can count Kaka, Sneijder, Rodwell, Fabregas, Xavi, Iniesta, Lampard, Alonso, Ozil, and a few others.

Of those who do we have any hope of signing? I'd say Kaka first and foremost with the rise of Ozil tied with the chance of getting Rodwell, and to a much lesser degree Sneijder.

How well would Kaka fit in though? Given Mourinho's inclinations to United he might be willing to give a hand there too. Despite his age (we did sign Berb fairly late on too tbf)
And how likely would we be to realistically get Rodwell? And can he produce what we need?
 
Sneijder. Will cost less, will last longer and will play better. Also has the Scholesey passing trait. Also a free kick taker. Also posesses a trait that alludes Nani, he has the ability to kick a dead ball over the head of the man in front of him rather than hitting his torso. This trait haunts Nani in his dreams.
 
Im pretty much certain what with imminent retirements of key personnel and such like come next summer the midfields going to be ripped up and rebuilt, now we dont have to worry about finding a replacement for Rooney (spit) our energy can solely be placed on sorting out an area of the team thats gone to shit frankly, 2 new top class midfielders and a keeper is what we need, the rest of the team is more than fine, world class defenders and world class attackers, if we can sort the midfield out we have a very strong team.
 
Sneijder is the player I want the most. Would be the closest thing to a Scholes replacement that isn't called Fabregas, Xavi or Iniesta.

Now before you guys go off on one, I know that he is not the same player as Scholes, but we never replace like for like.
 
Yeah Keeper goes without saying....

Sneijder does have the most intrinsic value in those Zarlak, but I'd say of the 3 he's the least likely to sign. Benitez there is a double edge sword too, he hates fergie, but by January Sneijder may hate Benitez.
 
Sanchez, Sneijder and possibly a goalkeeper if Edwin goes.

I suspect Bale to be a strong rumour next season as well.
 
Sanada said:
Yeah Keeper goes without saying....

Sneijder does have the most intrinsic value in those Zarlak, but I'd say of the 3 he's the least likely to sign. Benitez there is a double edge sword too, he hates fergie, but by January Sneijder may hate Benitez.
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True but he has already said he would come to United if he came to England.
 
I'm not a massive fan of Luka Modric but i think he could be the sort of player we'll be after. Would add a bit of creativity to the centre of midfield, but also gives us an option out wide or behind a striker. A proven premiership player, wouldn't be as costly as the likes of Sneijder, and Spurs might do business as i'm not sure how he and Van Der vaart would fit into the same team.

Aside from that, i think there could be a few midfield casualties in the summer with Parks squad place going to Cleverley and Carrick being replaced with either Rodwell or Defour.

Edit: Forgot about Gibson. Could certainly see him being moved on aswell.
 
Holding midfielder. We have already seen that Fletcher is not best as this role. We only have Carrick to do this role and we must keep him. I would sign a young holding player, to be a future Carrick replacement and also capable of filling in when Carrick is out.

Someone who can defend and attack. We have Fletcher, Gibson and Anderson. Scholes too. I think this position will be contested by Fletcher and Cleverley. No signing needed.

An attacking midfielder. The position Fergie has delayed for years now. I don't know how many times I have wished for an attacking midfielder. Park has played this role, so has Anderson. I would still give Obertan a chance in this role. But someone like Silva would have been perfect. Buy 2nd midfielder.
 
Scholesy said:
Holding midfielder. We have already seen that Fletcher is not best as this role. We only have Carrick to do this role and we must keep him. I would sign a young holding player, to be a future Carrick replacement and also capable of filling in when Carrick is out.

Someone who can defend and attack. We have Fletcher, Gibson and Anderson. Scholes too. I think this position will be contested by Fletcher and Cleverley. No signing needed.

An attacking midfielder. The position Fergie has delayed for years now. I don't know how many times I have wished for an attacking midfielder. Park has played this role, so has Anderson. I would still give Obertan a chance in this role. But someone like Silva would have been perfect. Buy 2nd midfielder.
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Rodwell will be the man.

Don't know if we need the attacking midfielder, hopefully Cleverley can step up. If not, then Pastore would be great.
 
Because Rooney stayed we now have to stick to our promise and match his ambition. Therefore a muppet Summer is beckoning! :drool:
 
I'm sure this question has been asked a million times, but how comfortable is Sneijder playing in a 4-4-2?
 
Doevle said:
I'm sure this question has been asked a million times, but how comfortable is Sneijder playing in a 4-4-2?
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Not very I'd imagine, unless we maybe play a diamond 4 with either Fletch, Andy, or Carrick playing in front of the back 4 and SNeijder ahead of him.

How do Holland usually play?
 
Doevle said:
I'm sure this question has been asked a million times, but how comfortable is Sneijder playing in a 4-4-2?
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I'd be somewhat disappointed if we were to sign Sneijder and still maintain this 4-4-2 nonsense.

Its hard to work out why we’re doing it at the moment, it would be even harder to understand with a player of Sneijder’s ability added to the ranks

You'd severely hamstring his potential in our team. A player like that should be encouraged to do what he does best; create and attack.

Reckon we'd probably play with two deep lying midfielders and then give Sneijder the free role in front of them. Doing this would also get the best out of our current centre mids. A bit like Brazil's shape with Gilberto and Melo,

.........Fletcher......Anderson.......

.................Sneijder.................

or

.........Fletcher......Carrick.........

.................Sneijder.................

or

.......Hargreaves......Carrick.........

..................Sneijder.................

Doubt Sneijder is a realistic target though, irrespective of the assurances Big Malc/Lil Jo gave to Rooney et al.
 
Schweisteiger actually wouldn't be a bad shout. But the 442 thing is a real issue, can any of them thrive in those roles? Would a diamond work or would we need to revert to a 3 man midfield? And by doing doing of course we'll marginalize our strike force by only using one forward. And with Hernandez and Berbatov unable to play wide, and Rooney being a bit of a waste out wide, how is this problem circumvented?
 
Sanada said:
Schweisteiger actually wouldn't be a bad shout. But the 442 thing is a real issue, can any of them thrive in those roles? Would a diamond work or would we need to revert to a 3 man midfield? And by doing doing of course we'll marginalize our strike force by only using one forward. And with Hernandez and Berbatov unable to play wide, and Rooney being a bit of a waste out wide, how is this problem circumvented?
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I think any player we sign needs to be able to operate in a 442, because we aren't likely to make a permanent switch to a 433 any time soon. Even if we signed a player of Sneijder's ability they'd have to settle for playing as a wide man in a 442 quite often.
 
I think if we adopted a diamond midfield with fletch/carrick or Anderson at the bottom and Sneujder at the top it'd be workable. Playing him wide might be a bit of a waste given the lack of pace in comparison to Nani and Valencia.
 
We'll sign all the top scorers of each league, the Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and the Dutch league, play with a formation 2-3-5, Rooney behind the attacking 5, Rio-Vidic at the back, covert Evra into a defensive midfield player and have somebody partnering him there. Trust me, it's fool proof!
 
Sanada said:
I think if we adopted a diamond midfield with fletch/carrick or Anderson at the bottom and Sneujder at the top it'd be workable. Playing him wide might be a bit of a waste given the lack of pace in comparison to Nani and Valencia.
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He'd be a good option as a wide midfielder with a free role, like Modric at Spurs. A diamond would mean dropping our wingers altogether which I can not foresee United doing so long as SAF is here. But yeah, basically I don't think we'd be interested in Sneijder for those reasons.
 
The muppet in me thinks that within the next couple of transfer windows we'll sign Bale and Rodwell, fit the profile in terms of age and potential. We'll also see Rafael and Anderson firmly cement their places in the first team and Nani push on to regular big match winning performances giving us a CL challenging first team without scholes and giggs.
 
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