Potential Matic Replacements

Matic's last few performances have highlighted how crucial it is to sign a top-class replacement this summer, and have Matic / McTominay as backup options to actually be able to rotate. What's more likely is extending Matic's contract, and Matic will be the Matic replacement with some melt like Sean Longstaff as his backup/rotation.
 
billybee99 said:
Yeah, that midfield is "fine"... if we want to finish 6th again.
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Not at all. We're 6th because up until now, our midfield has been Mctominay, matic, Fred and Pereira.
Bring Bruno Fernandes in all season instead of Pereira and it would be much better. Not to mention that Ole at first only saw McTominay as an option (plus Matic was injured for a fair bit), leading to overusing McTominay leading to his injury. Pogba being fit this season would have been a massive difference. But hes been injured all year so hes a non factor. Fred has to play every game because of that. Get Pogba and McTominay fit to add to Bruno, Fred and Matic, and our midfield would look excellent on paper, both starting and depth.
 
Depends on who the manager wants. If he wants a pure dm, then Kalvin Phillips should be good, if he wants a player like Fred to play a double pivot, then Soumare looks decent too.
 
Would be happy with Soumare as have a feeling Utd will end up being priced out for Ndidi
 
How are people down on McTominay? He has the best record in the team against big teams.
 
ReallyUSA said:
How are people down on McTominay? He has the best record in the team against big teams.
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I think he's done enough to be a backup #6/#8 here but no more. That's pretty good though! If Matic gets another year that would look like this:

Fred (McTominay)----Bruno(#10)
-----------------DM(Matic)-----------------

then Matic leaves, McTominay takes his spot and we get a better on the ball CM to challenge Fred.
 
What do people think about Doucoure,Ole does seem to like players who have some Premier League experience
 
croadyman said:
What do people think about Doucoure,Ole does seem to like players who have some Premier League experience
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Not good enough on the ball, to me. Best quality is his mobility and desire going forward and Capoue is their #6 (and Chalobah when he's out). Basically he'd be another Fred or McTominay providing energy and running, though he's a far better finisher.

I think he'd be a nice signing for Wolves if they'd consider going to 4 at the back at times, they could use legs in midfield to preserve and help Moutinho (and Neves isn't exactly Kante out there) and Traore holds the ball long enough for a late-arriving midfielder to score a good number of goals.
 
NoPace said:
I think he's done enough to be a backup #6/#8 here but no more. That's pretty good though! If Matic gets another year that would look like this:

Fred (McTominay)----Bruno(#10)
-----------------DM(Matic)-----------------

then Matic leaves, McTominay takes his spot and we get a better on the ball CM to challenge Fred.
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I think we should sign Grealish and a DM to use in a 4-3-3 alongside Bruno in the easy games then bring on Fred when we play the tougher games. The midfield you posted is too workman and would only work if we have three world class attackers in front of them which is very expensive to have given that we'd need two attackers to upgrade our front line as Martial hasn't taken his chance so will need to be upgraded on and we still have a void on the right side. Fred, McTominay and Matic have no creative bone in them which means we will rely too heavily on Bruno for central creativity, we need Grealish to help in that regard.
 
AneRu said:
I think we should sign Grealish and a DM to use in a 4-3-3 alongside Bruno in the easy games then bring on Fred when we play the tougher games. The midfield you posted is too workman and would only work if we have three world class attackers in front of them which is very expensive to have given that we'd need two attackers to upgrade our front line as Martial hasn't taken his chance so will need to be upgraded on and we still have a void on the right side. Fred, McTominay and Matic have no creative bone in them which means we will rely too heavily on Bruno for central creativity, we need Grealish to help in that regard.
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I completely agree.
 
Fabian Ruiz. We should be able to convince him to leave Napoli to join us in the summer since Napoli has been very poor this season, but, we will struggle to convince him to chose us over Barcelona or Real.
 
UNITED ACADEMY said:
Fabian Ruiz. We should be able to convince him to leave Napoli to join us in the summer since Napoli has been very poor this season, but, we will struggle to convince him to chose us over Barcelona or Real.
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Fabian Ruiz looks more like a box to box player. Allan is more of a DM sort like Matic and he's old too. Matic replacements would be Partey, Ndidi or possibly Neves.
 
beingshe7don said:
Fabian Ruiz looks more like a box to box player. Allan is more of a DM sort like Matic and he's old too. Matic replacements would be Partey, Ndidi or possibly Neves.
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To be honest, not exactly Matic's replacement. But Pogba's replacement if he leaves.

Fred - Ruiz
--- Bruno ---
 
Like what I see of Kalvin Phillips. But getting Leeds to sell their best player to us if they get promoted will not be easy.
 
Rozay said:
Like what I see of Kalvin Phillips. But getting Leeds to sell their best player to us if they get promoted will not be easy.
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If they do get promoted I can't see it happening. However they have dropped a lot of points lately and are at real risk of throwing it away again, and if that happens I would think there's a real chance he'd push for a move if we did make a serious offer.
 
Rozay said:
Like what I see of Kalvin Phillips. But getting Leeds to sell their best player to us if they get promoted will not be easy.
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Is he out injured? I haven't seen him in their starting 11 lately.
 
NoPace said:
Not good enough on the ball, to me. Best quality is his mobility and desire going forward and Capoue is their #6 (and Chalobah when he's out). Basically he'd be another Fred or McTominay providing energy and running, though he's a far better finisher.

I think he'd be a nice signing for Wolves if they'd consider going to 4 at the back at times, they could use legs in midfield to preserve and help Moutinho (and Neves isn't exactly Kante out there) and Traore holds the ball long enough for a late-arriving midfielder to score a good number of goals.
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Ran the game against Brighton on Sat and scored a great goal,however apparently he said on french TV in Jan that he wants to join PSG.
 
Toni Roncoroni said:
Konrad Laimer from RB Leipzig after seeing him play yesterday against Bayern. He was everywhere.
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He's an excellent player, seemed very passionate also. Bit similar to Mctominay though in the sense he's more box to box I think.
 
Ramshock said:
Doucoure seems like a worthy addition to me
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Agreed. I think he has the ability to play as the sitting, more defensive CM, even if he hasn't played there much. Maybe that is just wishful thinking though.
 
Adam-Utd said:
He's an excellent player, seemed very passionate also. Bit similar to Mctominay though in the sense he's more box to box I think.
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Agreed. We have McTominay and Fred to do the high-energy, box-to-box stuff; Matic's replacement should be someone positionally disciplined with a good passing range.
 
Ramshock said:
Doucoure seems like a worthy addition to me
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Been saying that for a couple of years. Surely he would be around £30-35m tops? That's good for a productive squad player that can make a difference. Signing Doucoure, Grealish and a specialised CDM would be a good summer (selling Pogba, of course).
 
Ideally a stablished player like Ndidi or Partey but also we could look out to promising players like Florentino from benficia or Zakaria from Monchengladbach.
 
Does anyone know - watch much of Koopmeiners from AZ?

I just want a CDM who can cover between the CB like Dier did when he was fit & since we may be getting Pochettino we may be looking at this type of player again.
 
Absolutely beggars belief that Utd don't seem to think that signing a CDM this summer is a high priority at all, yes I agree that Grealish and a proper RW are higher up the list but surely it should be the next thing along with a striker of course.
 
Bebestation said:
Does anyone know - watch much of Koopmeiners from AZ?

I just want a CDM who can cover between the CB like Dier did when he was fit & since we may be getting Pochettino we may be looking at this type of player again.
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Only from when we played them. Very forgettable for me, not saying that he should be judged solely on that though.
 
I've been watching Gladbach a fair bit this season and I'm sold on Denis Zakaria and hope we sign him as our DM. He turned 23 a few months back and has been brilliant for Marco Rose's Gladbach this season in the Bundesliga. I honestly hope he's our #1 target for the DM role.
 
Zakaria is my pick, personally. Zakaria, Soumare and Grealish (in my opinion) would be a solid summer to replace Pogba and relegate Matic to a permanent substitute / rotation option.
 
Bebestation said:
Does anyone know - watch much of Koopmeiners from AZ?

I just want a CDM who can cover between the CB like Dier did when he was fit & since we may be getting Pochettino we may be looking at this type of player again.
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Koopmeiners isn't there yet, he needs more experience to be of value to us
 
Why wouldn't you spend the money and buy Saul.

Perfect age (25), knows United have wanted him for a very long time, decent chance Atletico may not qualify for CL (same for United as well), has big game temperament and success both in la liga and in europe and doesn't go hiding.
 
SinNombre said:
Why wouldn't you spend the money and buy Saul.

Perfect age (25), knows United have wanted him for a very long time, decent chance Atletico may not qualify for CL (same for United as well), has big game temperament and success both in la liga and in europe and doesn't go hiding.
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Agreed, but would he come to United? Great talent, experienced and with perfect age.
 
Adnan said:
I've been watching Gladbach a fair bit this season and I'm sold on Denis Zakaria and hope we sign him as our DM. He turned 23 a few months back and has been brilliant for Marco Rose's Gladbach this season in the Bundesliga. I honestly hope he's our #1 target for the DM role.
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Ideally I'd like to go for Saul Niguez but he is likely to be expensive and I don't think we're going to be spending something like 300m in the upcoming window, considering our RW, Striker & AM needs. Starting to come around to Zakaria as the no 1 option for DM, with Partey a close second choice. However we still don't know if Ole is looking for a defensive playmaker or a more robust CDM. If he wants a playmaker, then go get Fabian Ruiz. Another option would be to extend Matic's contract for another year, get Camavinga (who's really come on this year and is going to be world class) and then can ease him into the team where he will take over once Matic goes. We then can rotate between McTominay and Camavinga, saving Matic only for the games where his experience is needed.
 
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