Our transfer strategy under ole looks as directionless as it did under the previous manager

[Lentwood]

The transfer business has been fine, no team get it right every time, if you're operating at 50%+ success rate you are probably doing quite well.

What this team needs now is for some tough decisions to be made to benefit the group. Feels like Ole seems to be struggling to make the big calls

 

[Greck]

Notifcation said you quoted me...which you haven't..weird

Anyways, yes if you are just looking at the squad, most of our woes comes from the fact that we cant put out a functioning midfield in our current set-up. Matic lacks legs, Pogba lacks the discipline and tactical awareness, McFred lacks the ability on the ball to make us tick and VdB is just a dutch ghost

Our problems run much deeper than that of course, but if we were to sign one more player a good CM/DM would have made about 10x more difference than any other position

It was an earlier draft. I only realised after and removed it so you wouldn't think the strong words in that post was specifically about you.

 

[JB7]

Too late now. He has to let Sancho do his own stuff. He thinks everybody should be Ryan Giggs. Wingers are not all cut out of the same cloth. Except now Rashford is back so the left side might not be available. So does he now drop Greenwood who has been one of the bright spots in the team. That might be a lot of money for another bench warmer. He could move Greenwood up front and not play Ronaldo if he dares. We have a talented squad, but full of quandries. Where do you put Pogba, where do you put Bruno? Who partners Pogba? Why did he buy Donny if we weren't selling Pogba? More money wasted.

Look the club were committed to Sancho. That deal was put in place last year, I think that's pretty much public knowledge at this point and the deal was done with last years money so I'm not going to offer any criticism on the signing. I think it was the right thing to do and in the long term Sancho/Greenwood/Rashford is going to be ridiculous for us. Sancho will come good, it has been an underwhelming start from him but that's not unusual for him. He will be a good signing for us I have no doubts whatsoever.

Put simply if we are sticking to the shape we have been playing for the last two or three years, Pogba is either a left side attacker or he doesn't play. All his best work comes from the that position and he is a liability further back. I'm sick to death of shoehorning him into a midfield two when it see's us overran every single time. People slate Fred/McTominay but frankly when they don't play together we are a shadow of the team unfortunately - I agree we badly needed a midfielder but I expect the reason we didn't go in for one was financial - they were surely expecting offers for Lingard/DVB/Martial etc (proper offers I mean, not loans) which didn't come and as such the finance wasn't there.

 

[Suedesi]

He has been okay, but not great. I would say:

Maguire - decent player but probably overpriced for 40m. At best, marginally better than Lindelof, so should be second/third choice.

AWB - no business being at United.

James - had no business being here

Bruno - great signing.

VDB - why did he sign him in the first place?

Diallo and Pellestri - what was the point on signing them and never playing them, especially with other talented kids coming from the academy.

Cavani - very good signing.

Telles - possibly ok backup.

Varane - should be a great signing, although I don’t think there would have been a single manager who needed a CB, and had the opportunity to sign him who would not have done so.

Sancho - what was the point on signing a system player if you don’t have a system in the first place. We also have Rashford and Greenwood who are better than him, in addition to Martial, Lingard, Diallo, Pellestri and Mata who play in the same positions as him. All players signed, promoted or given a contract by Ole.

Ronaldo - should be a great signing if you manage to feed him.

So in general, I think that except Bruno and Varane (I think Varane would be great under any manager), all others have questions marked. A bunch of player he has no intention to play (VDB, Diallo, Pellestri), system players who he has no idea how to use (VDB, Sancho, Ronaldo), ok player but get Beckenbauer treatment and cost the moon (Maguire), okay backups (Cavani, Telles), and bad signings (AWB, James). It is probably not terrible like Van Gaal’s signings were, but nothing special too.

He also was not happy to sell players we didn’t need. Henderson should have been sold cause he could have fetched good money, while clearly not being good enough for us. No one can explain why Jones, Bailly and Mata got new contracts, and no one knows why Lingard got offered a new one. All players that should have binned with immediate effect when we had the chance.

Nail on the head

 

[Suedesi]

Bollocks on Sancho, he wasn’t bought “cause City” at all, he was bought because he’s a top player, the problem is that the manager decides after buying top players on what to actually do with them.

Ronaldo I’ll give you, but that wasn’t “getting one over City”, it was ensuring a United legend didn’t go there. Sanchez seemed like a no brainer for everyone so you’re playing captain hindsight on that. In fact it’s so much captain hindsight that you yourself posted the following after his signing:

Boom!!!

 

[Ixion]

His contribution to central midfield in 3 years is selling Herrera and signing VDB. Transfer genius, at least Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho tried to sign central midfielders to fix the problem.

 

[Suedesi]

Look the club were committed to Sancho. That deal was put in place last year, I think that's pretty much public knowledge at this point and the deal was done with last years money so I'm not going to offer any criticism on the signing. I think it was the right thing to do and in the long term Sancho/Greenwood/Rashford is going to be ridiculous for us. Sancho will come good, it has been an underwhelming start from him but that's not unusual for him. He will be a good signing for us I have no doubts whatsoever.

Put simply if we are sticking to the shape we have been playing for the last two or three years, Pogba is either a left side attacker or he doesn't play. All his best work comes from the that position and he is a liability further back. I'm sick to death of shoehorning him into a midfield two when it see's us overran every single time. People slate Fred/McTominay but frankly when they don't play together we are a shadow of the team unfortunately - I agree we badly needed a midfielder but I expect the reason we didn't go in for one was financial - they were surely expecting offers for Lingard/DVB/Martial etc (proper offers I mean, not loans) which didn't come and as such the finance wasn't there.

I don't agree with that, he seems to be a super midfielder whenever he plays for France - whether it's with Kante or Tchouameni or even Rabiot. He's not shit midfielder when he stands out against Spain or Belgium or Portugal or Germany for France

 

[Suedesi]

His contribution to central midfield in 3 years is selling Herrera and signing VDB. Transfer genius, at least Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho tried to sign central midfielders to fix the problem.

But all seem to extend Mata so it's all not that bad

 

[Charles Miller]

Problem is, its not clear which style of football Ole is trying to implement. So the transfers activities look similar to Real Madrid: sign expensive players, then see if they fit in the team. It would be better and probably cheaper to hire a manager with a known style and sign players for positions you really need them, according to a plan and a style.

 

[glazed]

most of our woes comes from the fact that we cant put out a functioning midfield in our current set-up. Matic lacks legs, Pogba lacks the discipline and tactical awareness, McFred lacks the ability on the ball to make us tick and VdB is just a dutch ghost

Our problems run much deeper than that of course, but if we were to sign one more player a good CM/DM would have made about 10x more difference than any other position

Wow spot on. Why is this so hard to get?

 

[Bobcat]

The transfer business has been fine, no team get it right every time, if you're operating at 50%+ success rate you are probably doing quite well.

What this team needs now is for some tough decisions to be made to benefit the group. Feels like Ole seems to be struggling to make the big calls

Absoloutely.

Our signings have been great, what i dont understand is why we havent tried to move anyone on. With Varane coming we should have sold Baily, Sancho means Lindgard should have left and Ronaldo means Martial should have been sold.

Is it that Ole is unwilling to part with them? The board? Did we drag our feet again and failed to find potential buyers? Martial might be hard to move, but Lindgard and Baily should not be impossible

 

[glazed]

It would be better and probably cheaper to hire a manager with a known style and sign players for positions you really need them, according to a plan and a style.

It would be better but not cheaper. Which is why we don't do that. And why we have Ronaldo selling shirts instead of Declan Rice winning games.

 

[Sandikan]

I've always said his transfer activity is overrated.

I keep seeing a narrative that he's going to leave our next manager with a much better squad. Well, in some ways maybe, but he's leaving him with an awful midfield and a totally bloated attack, 5 CBs, 2 keepers on big wages, one half functional right back, no long term striker. It's stunning that we've spent over £300m net, have the biggest wage bill in the PL and are still so unbalanced. Not only that but he let Pogba's contract wind down without trying to replace him long term so that's another big problem. It's still a top squad but I'd have expected much more in six windows with so much money spent.

How exactly is that building a great squad?

How have we got a "bloated" attack, out of interest?
Bearing in mind Martial dropped off a cliff, and Cavani couldn't play every game last season, let alone a year on.
Plus Rashford is a winger, Greenwood isn't ready for the centre, and Sancho is finding his feet.

Looks ideal depth to me.

 

[ThatsGreat]

Bollocks on Sancho, he wasn’t bought “cause City” at all, he was bought because he’s a top player, the problem is that the manager decides after buying top players on what to actually do with them.

Ronaldo I’ll give you, but that wasn’t “getting one over City”, it was ensuring a United legend didn’t go there. Sanchez seemed like a no brainer for everyone so you’re playing captain hindsight on that. In fact it’s so much captain hindsight that you yourself posted the following after his signing:

Read my post again, I'm not pointing fingers at the Sanchez transfer at all, no one could've predicted his decline. But you did get burnt on that, and then went and repeated that again with Ronaldo. And Sancho is a good player no doubt, but that transfer should've been after getting someone like Rice not instead of.

 

[Flytan]

How have we got a "bloated" attack, out of interest?
Bearing in mind Martial dropped off a cliff, and Cavani couldn't play every game last season, let alone a year on.
Plus Rashford is a winger, Greenwood isn't ready for the centre, and Sancho is finding his feet.

Looks ideal depth to me.

There's like 10 players for 3 or 4 positions.

Ronaldo, rashford, greenwood, pogba, Bruno, lingard, martial, dvb, cavani, Mata, Sancho.

Not to mention amad and pellestri on loan.

Then our midfield has like 3 or 4 players. It's bloated in the sense that there are too many of them and it's hurting other parts of the field.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Read my post again, I'm not pointing fingers at the Sanchez transfer at all, no one could've predicted his decline. But you did get burnt on that, and then went and repeated that again with Ronaldo. And Sancho is a good player no doubt, but that transfer should've been after getting someone like Rice not instead of.

You’re saying we signed Sancho and Sanchez to get one up on City, which is clearly as much bollocks as was signing RVP to do the same. City and United are often interested in the same players, because they are top players.
We signed them because they were top players, that everyone, yourself included were certain would do great for United. Now you’re saying part of United’s problem isn’t buying players you were certain were going to be great, it’s signing them just to get one over City.
It’s all a nonsense.

The idea we signed Sancho cause he was a City youth product and we’d be getting one over them, is utterly stark raving mental. How does that get one over them?

 

[Bobcat]

There's like 10 players for 3 or 4 positions.

Ronaldo, rashford, greenwood, pogba, Bruno, lingard, martial, dvb, cavani, Mata, Sancho.

Not to mention amad and pellestri on loan.

Then our midfield has like 3 or 4 players. It's bloated in the sense that there are too many of them and it's hurting other parts of the field.

Mata never plays and VdB is a CM, same with Pogba arguably. I agree though, Lindgard could have fetched a nice fee from WH and with the arrival of Ronaldo we should have shipped off Martial, that would have freed up some wages and funds which we could have used on a midfielder

Still though, last season we were sort of forced to play Rashford through injury and play Bruno to the ground because we had zero viable options. Around Christmas when the injuries start to plie up we might be glad we have so many attackers

 

[Enigma_87]

OP is correct if you look beyond top reds and those with red tinted specs on.

We are buying players without general idea of how they fit in or what exactly our playing style is:

AWB is clearly not a possession type of full back as he's useless going forward - something pretty much everyone saw at Palace
Maguire - again is more useful in deep line, and makes sense why Jose was in for him.
Varane - contrary to both - can play in high line, very good on the ball.
Telles - not sure even if Ole knows what's the plan for him or why we bought him

Moving up field - we buy stop gap strikers and sell one in his peak (already noted in the thread).
We buy DvB who suits our supposed style of play not to play him at all.
James who was a bust and was a speed merchant that is actually appropriate signing for the hit and run style Ole has.
Sancho - big name, quality player, not sure again what's the plan for him or where he's intended to be played.
Tom Heaton - after we extended Grant's contract.

Bruno - an undoubted success, yet it's pretty clear him and Pogba playing together is an issue.

In short we don't have a particular profile of signings. We still overlook certain positions - in this case CM. Last year was RW.
We stockpile players in same positions and same profile (Cavani, Ronaldo).
Extended contracts for players like Mata (160k per week) to never use them.
Our wage structure is through the roof with stop gap players like Cavani and Ronaldo. Like it was with Alexis and Ibra before.
We still overpay for certain players like AWB and Maguire both in transfer fee and wages.

It's pretty much the same approach regardless of the manager since 8 years. We buy names that are fashionable and coveted by most of the top teams, some we succeed, some we miss on(naturally), but that approach hasn't really changed.

Some will be a success, some will be a miss.

 

[Flytan]

Mata never plays and VdB is a CM, same with Pogba arguably. I agree though, Lindgard could have fetched a nice fee from WH and with the arrival of Ronaldo we should have shipped off Martial, that would have freed up some wages and funds which we could have used on a midfielder

Still though, last season we were sort of forced to play Rashford through injury and play Bruno to the ground because we had zero viable options. Around Christmas when the injuries start to plie up we might be glad we have so many attackers

We just played maguire clearly not match fit because the manager is too much of a coward to play a CB that he just gave a new deal. I don't think rashford playing injured is because we didn't have options. We did. Ole just has his favorites that he feels like he can't play without.

Dvb situation is completely bizarre and it's actually pathetic we are wasting a career of a young player without giving him and chances. I do disagree that pogba isn't an attacker. I mentioned 3 or 4 in the first place because I was giving the benefit of the doubt of including our attacking mid position as an attacker. Take that out and it's 8 players for 3 positions not counting youth, just as bad of a ratio.

I mean I get we need depth at attack but there's no reason 2 or 3 of these players weren't moved on and we use the opening in the squad for a midfielder. If we hit a crisis then we deal with it then. I'd argue if we have an injury crisis and it's the midfield we'd be even more screwed anyways

 

[GBBQ]

Nah I’m not buying that. I think we’ve bought some seriously talented players and some world class leaders. I think the issue is that Ole doesn’t know how to get the best out of them.

There are some duds (but don’t even mention James since we bought him cheap and sold him at a profit) but overall our squad is the most stacked it’s been in a long time. I refuse to believe that we’re any different to Lampard with Chelsea right now, the right manager will get a tune out of that squad for sure.

 

[Foxbatt]

We just played maguire clearly not match fit because the manager is too much of a coward to play a CB that he just gave a new deal. I don't think rashford playing injured is because we didn't have options. We did. Ole just has his favorites that he feels like he can't play without.

Dvb situation is completely bizarre and it's actually pathetic we are wasting a career of a young player without giving him and chances. I do disagree that pogba isn't an attacker. I mentioned 3 or 4 in the first place because I was giving the benefit of the doubt of including our attacking mid position as an attacker. Take that out and it's 8 players for 3 positions not counting youth, just as bad of a ratio.

I mean I get we need depth at attack but there's no reason 2 or 3 of these players weren't moved on and we use the opening in the squad for a midfielder. If we hit a crisis then we deal with it then. I'd argue if we have an injury crisis and it's the midfield we'd be even more screwed anyways

It is absolutely crazy as you say. We have so many forwards that we cannot even give them game time. We have three midfield players and one of them is a geriatric and and the other two combine to get one player. Then we have Pogba who cannot play in a two man midfield and Bruno who cannot play with Pogba playing in a two man midfield.Then we pay a lot of money for a midfield player who never plays. We have so many wingers and two CFs who Ole cannot get them to play in the same team because our midfield is so weak.
I honestly do not think he has any ideas as to what he is doing apart from get the ball to Rashy and he runs like hell and beat the opposing CBs for pace and score. Or an individual players pulls something out of ordinary and score.
I think our transfer strategy is as directionless as our playing.

 

[JB7]

I don't agree with that, he seems to be a super midfielder whenever he plays for France - whether it's with Kante or Tchouameni or even Rabiot. He's not shit midfielder when he stands out against Spain or Belgium or Portugal or Germany for France

I don’t honestly care what he does for France. In our team, he’s a left sided player or he doesn’t deserve to be in the team.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

I don't agree with that, he seems to be a super midfielder whenever he plays for France - whether it's with Kante or Tchouameni or even Rabiot. He's not shit midfielder when he stands out against Spain or Belgium or Portugal or Germany for France

He’s not as bad for us as people would like to believe. The idea that he leaves & midfielders the like of McFred suddenly take us to new heights is one of the stupidest out there.

 

[red4ever 79]

Ole has been given a lot of plaudits for his transfers but its not as good as it seems
RW
James - Been and gone
Diallo 37m
Pellestri 10m
Sancho 70m
Doesnt play any of them there

DVB - Needs no comment.

Sold Lukaku because he doesn't press and work hard enough. Just signed Ronaldo and has the same issue

Contract renewals
Jones
Bailly
Mata
Lingard been offered

 

[Foxbatt]

Ole has been given a lot of plaudits for his transfers but its not as good as it seems
RW
James - Been and gone
Diallo 37m
Pellestri 10m
Sancho 70m
Doesnt play any of them there

DVB - Needs no comment.

Sold Lukaku because he doesn't press and work hard enough. Just signed Ronaldo and has the same issue

Contract renewals
Jones
Bailly
Mata
Lingard been offered

Don't forget the three wisemen who has been offered new contracts.

 

[Champ]

He’s not as bad for us as people would like to believe. The idea that he leaves & midfielders the like of McFred suddenly take us to new heights is one of the stupidest out there.

This place is full of stupid opinions.

Pogba leaves, we may as well give up, there's no one like him available, he is integral to a lot of what United do.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

This place is full of stupid opinions.

Pogba leaves, we may as well give up, there's no one like him available, he is integral to a lot of what United do.

Acting as if removing Pogba & replacing with ‘Player X’ allows for a sense of security instead of accepting that whilst he may be a problem he is not the only one. Pashun FC.

 

[skc_18]

If you are looking only at the results, then yes these signings are not great but at that time most the signings made perfect sense.

Attack:
----------
Ighalo---
Was not the ideal optional striker but I doubt there were many options available at that time.

Cavani ----
he is still a great signing. He was perfect stop/gap striker we could sign for. When he is available, he should be in the lineup. Works hard, scores goals whatelse do we need.

Ronaldo--
He is a great signing but we all knew what he will not offer , Pressing when opposition has ball.You are playing with 10 men when opposition has ball. We all knew that. Ronaldo at this age was always icing on cake, a guy who can guarantee trophies if we have 10 other good players.

Amad and Pellestri -
Amad is still rated by everyone. Pellestri is another signing similar to Dan James. He was a small investment with potential no loss/high gain. Big clubs need to take these bets when possible. Look at Chelsea for eg., they loan and sell players for good profit, most of them wont even play for Chelsea. Big clubs need to do this to sustain. Somehow people in here always want players to play in the first team. Sure, you could argue that the 8/10 m for pellestri could have been used to fund DM or Sancho last season, but if the club makes 12-16 m out of that 8m it would be considered very good deal. 12-16m does not seem much but from 8m investment it is 50-100 % gain from business point of view its really good and we have to make these investments.

To give some perspective, imagine we did not buy Amad and pellestri and used that money to fund Sancho last season and imagine he is playing as he is playing now. People would called for Ole's head for bad signing. I think Club made right decision regarding those transfers.

Sancho - Too early to call.

Defence:
-------------
Maguire-
Everyone , literally every one wanted this signing. Price was may be 20-30 millionhigher but look at how much Ben white/ Stones went for. Considering how many matches he was fit (and importantly considering how fit our central defenders are in past seasons), it is definitely not a bad signing.
AWB --
Again everyone wanted this signing at that time and first season people here argued he is better than TAA even though TAA was banging assists for fun. He needs to adjust his defensive placements but otherwise he is fine.
Telles -
Good backup.
Varane -
Top signing


Midfield:
--------------
Bruno --
Probably one of the best signings at this club.
VDB --
This signing is tricky one and I dont think people are right to criticize Ole on this.
Ole, along with a messy squad, also inherited a messy pogba transfer situation. I think no one at Club is not sure what is gonna happen with Pogba. I dont think they expected Pogba would even think about extending the contract and probably would ( rightly should) have been sold in last 1-2 years. If Pogba signed the extension before VDB signed I dont think we would have signed VDB.
Ole cant play 3 of Bruno,Pogba and VDB. He thinks that midfield does not have balance which I dont completely disagree. And if there is any chance Pogba would sign the extension Ole has to play him even if it means he plays in left midfield etc.
If Pogba was sold, money would have used to by another CM/DM and VDB would have played more.


I think the most major blow Ole got in last 2 seasons is Martial's form. It deteriorated drastically last 2 seasons and there is no hope it will be come back. If Martial was in good form last season, we would have been in much better situation.

Only situation Ole messed up is probably not selling Lingard. Not sure whats going on in the background, but for some reason Ole wants him even though we have lot of options in the area Lingard operates.
Bailly extension is criticized but he would have probably gone for free so it was a call between losing for free or making some money.

At the end of the day results matter which Ole is not getting but he really made our squad good. Most of the signings are very good and always had long-term view in the approach especially when spending big.

 

[Jackal981]

The problem is there is no responsibility in this club. Ole wasted 100m by buying Amad, VdB and Diallo which dont contribute at all at the moment. That money can be used to buy CDM or whatever position we need. But apparently the board seems okay with Ole burning money that.

 

[YeahYeah]

As I said before he doesnt get enough stick for selling Lukaku now the best CF in world football to accommodate Martial.
Let me repeat that one more time. He sold Lukaku to play Martial more. He chose Martial over Lukaku. Yes that Martial. Yes that Lukaku.
He did that, he really did.