Ralf Rangnick calls on Manchester United to sign two ‘modern strikers’

Walters_19_MuFc

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Manchester United must sign two “modern” strikers who will bring real quality to the attacking positions when the new manager, Erik ten Hag, begins his squad rebuild, Ralf Rangnick has said.

Rangnick will step down as interim manager at the end of the season and the new Austria manager, who will remain at Old Trafford in a consultancy role, said finding someone to share the scoring burden with Cristiano Ronaldo will be one of Ten Hag’s top tasks.

United are sixth in the Premier League and have scored 57 goals in the campaign, 27 fewer than the leaders, Manchester City. Ronaldo has scored 24 times in 38 games in all competitions, including 18 in the league.

“Cristiano isn’t a central striker or does not want to play in that position,” Rangnick said. “It’s obvious the club needs at least two new strikers who give this team more quality and more options. I wouldn’t even call it wingers.

“Two strikers and modern strikers, that do not necessarily have to be wingers. If you look into international football, there aren’t many top teams who still play with two strikers. Most play with either three strikers or a false nine.”

Rangnick pointed to the depth of talent at the title contenders Manchester City and Liverpool. “If you look at Liverpool and Manchester City … they have in their squad five or six top-class strikers,” Rangnick said.


“Gabriel Jesus, until four weeks ago, hardly played [for City]. Now he’s playing again regularly. You look at the number of players they have and if you ask me is he playing as central striker or winger? Is Jack Grealish a winger or striker?


“They’re all strikers and can play in different positions. They can also switch, they can rotate. Those kinds of players, we don’t have that many.”
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I personally think we will sign two attacking players, because at the moment, other than Ronaldo, we lack goalscoring forwards.

I think this would explain why Rangnick is such a big fan of NKunku, who is your modern day striker, in that he can play across the whole line and would add a much needed quality to our attack.

At the moment, we have:

Ronaldo
Rashford
Sancho
Elanga

As I said, I believe we will sign another two to add to the four above. My question is, who do you think it'll be?



https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...manchester-united-to-sign-two-modern-strikers
 
His use of the term Striker seems quite liberal. Given that's the case I don't think what he's saying is that out-there.
 
Nkunku and Scamacca would be my guesses. I'd be pretty happy with that assuming Ronaldo stays.

If Ronaldo does leave us, I think we'll go bigger - Nunez or perhaps even Harry Kane.
 
I think he means forwards right?
Like the set up pool use i imagine.
 
He has been struck by one of our not modern strikers and now he makes no sense.
 
All who play 4-3-3 variations use kind of 3 strikers who roam from position to position during different stages of game play, if we mainly build us for a 4-3-3 who we need strikers or whatever you name the front 3 to fit into that mould.
 
Red the Bear said:
I think he means forwards right?
Like the set up pool use i imagine.
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Yes! Someone didn't read the article :p

He did reference Liverpool and Man City, saying they have "5 or 6 top class strikers", but as you said, he means forwards.

At the moment, we probably have two in Ronaldo and Sancho, with the latter never really being a prolific goalscorer. Rashford of a couple years ago would have been perfect and Elanga is still learning.

NKunku and Raphinha would probably be nice. The latter obviously plays in the EPL and would give us that much needed balance being left footed.

Options of the players below would be a step in the right direction, in my opinion.

Ronaldo
NKunku
Sancho
Raphinha
Rashford
Elanga
 
Walters_19_MuFc said:
Yes! Someone didn't read the article :p

He did reference Liverpool and Man City, saying they have "5 or 6 top class strikers", but as you said, he means forwards.

At the moment, we probably have two in Ronaldo and Sancho, with the latter never really being a prolific goalscorer. Rashford of a couple years ago would have been perfect and Elanga is still learning.

NKunku and Raphinha would probably be nice. The latter obviously plays in the EPL and would give us that much needed balance being left footed.

Options of the players below would be a step in the right direction, in my opinion.

Ronaldo
NKunku
Sancho
Raphinha
Rashford
Elanga
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Thanks for the clarification as other have said he uses the terms very liberally which leads to confusion at times.
I find it hard that we could get two forwards this summer though, especially with the state of our midfield.
 
Sounds like one could be Nkunku who can play in different positions, has great technique and knows how to assist/score
 
Red the Bear said:
Thanks for the clarification as other have said he uses the terms very liberally which leads to confusion at times.
I find it hard that we could get two forwards this summer though, especially with the state of our midfield.
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Two midfielders and two forwards are more than doable, in my opinion. That would obviously rule out the blockbuster signings such as Kane, Rice, etc, but we don't need to spend big to find quality. There's players out there who wouldn't cost that much and would improve our first XI.
 
Walters_19_MuFc said:
Two midfielders and two forwards are more than doable, in my opinion. That would obviously rule out the blockbuster signings such as Kane, Rice, etc, but we don't need to spend big to find quality. There's players out there who wouldn't cost that much and would improve our first XI.
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It depends on if we're willing to completely give up on defense or not, we'll see.
 
Another player who would suit the modern striker tag is Richarlison.

I'm not a massive fan, but again, he's versatile and could really excel in a team that creates more chances.
 
Walters_19_MuFc said:
Another player who would suit the modern striker tag is Richarlison.

I'm not a massive fan, but again, he's versatile and could really excel in a team that creates more chances.
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If Everton do end up getting relegated he would probably be a good pick-up.

It'd be the type of signing that in theory makes a lot of sense in our current situation. Cheap (you would think), a workhorse, versatile over a few positions (although once again more a striker or left side rather than the right), experienced in the league, good enough to be on that borderline of starter/squad player for now, with a decent amount of skill that could see him take the step up in the future, and still young enough to be able to sell for a decent price in a few years if he doesn't.

If they stay up they'll probably want too much for him though.
 
MadDogg said:
If Everton do end up getting relegated he would probably be a good pick-up.

It'd be the type of signing that in theory makes a lot of sense in our current situation. Cheap (you would think), a workhorse, versatile over a few positions (although once again more a striker or left side rather than the right), experienced in the league, good enough to be on that borderline of starter/squad player for now, with a decent amount of skill that could see him take the step up in the future, and still young enough to be able to sell for a decent price in a few years if he doesn't.

If they stay up they'll probably want too much for him though.
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won't improve us enough, in my opinion. we need to find someone who will score 20 PL goals a season if we are to challenge for top four. I'd love it to be Kane but that's about as likely as me signing!
 
Given he speaks superb English and he works in football, the fact that he's confused 'striker' with 'forward' seems a little odd right?
 
Two of Raphina, Nkunku and Richarlison for 70 and we're set.
 
JohnnyKills said:
Given he speaks superb English and he works in football, the fact that he's confused 'striker' with 'forward' seems a little odd right?
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He just is a little odd period. He really comes across as a know it all, but in reality he hasn’t proved shit at the highest level. And our new manager hasn’t either by the way, so at least they will have something in common.
 
JohnnyKills said:
Given he speaks superb English and he works in football, the fact that he's confused 'striker' with 'forward' seems a little odd right?
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Not really. Hes talking about modern strikers and we all know what that means.
 
JohnnyKills said:
Given he speaks superb English and he works in football, the fact that he's confused 'striker' with 'forward' seems a little odd right?
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What do strikers do? Score goals. What does Salah, for example, do? Score goals.
 
mitchmouse said:
won't improve us enough, in my opinion. we need to find someone who will score 20 PL goals a season if we are to challenge for top four. I'd love it to be Kane but that's about as likely as me signing!
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Isn't that going to be Ronaldo, assuming he's going to be here next season?
 
We don't have enough players who can put the ball in the net. Think that's fairly obvious.
 
mitchmouse said:
won't improve us enough, in my opinion. we need to find someone who will score 20 PL goals a season if we are to challenge for top four. I'd love it to be Kane but that's about as likely as me signing!
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Richarlison wouldn't be enough all by himself, but as long as he's available for a relatively cheap amount he'd significantly improve the squad and would probably suit the way ETH will want us to play. Whether he actually ends up in our strongest 11 would depend on his performances and the performances of our other options, but he has the ability to do so (at least for a year or two anyway).

He's another of those players like Neves and Phillips who by themselves aren't absolute stand-outs, but in our current position I do think the team as a whole would be stronger with 5 or 6 players at that solid level (as long as they suit the playstyle we are moving towards) rather than focus on 2 expensive top players. That only works if they are available for cheap though, so one of Richarlison or Phillips might be if their team gets relegated. Then when we have the basics right we can start getting pickier in a season or two and focusing on the players that might make the bigger difference.

Of course, in a perfect world the scouts and management team will be able to pick up actual top players (or players who will reach that level) for quite cheap, but that is a fair bit harder.
 
Fergie 7ime said:
He just is a little odd period. He really comes across as a know it all, but in reality he hasn’t proved shit at the highest level. And our new manager hasn’t either by the way, so at least they will have something in common.
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Hes one of those 'I told you so' uncles.
 
Fergie 7ime said:
He just is a little odd period. He really comes across as a know it all, but in reality he hasn’t proved shit at the highest level. And our new manager hasn’t either by the way, so at least they will have something in common.
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Actually, Ralf has a history of building clubs from low down and taking them to the top. He does this very well and identifies players while they are still unheard of. He wanted to do the same for MUFC in the Jan transfer window, but our club said, "no". Our club have a policy of signing big name signings, as opposed to unearthing gems for low prices.

You are correct about ETH though - the expectation on an unproven manager (at a top level club) is unreal. IMO, the structure of the club needs to change - the manager makes no difference (as we've seen over the last few years) - and Ralf R is all about changing and creating a new structure. That's what he specialises in.
 
MadDogg said:
Richarlison wouldn't be enough all by himself, but as long as he's available for a relatively cheap amount he'd significantly improve the squad and would probably suit the way ETH will want us to play
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I agree, he would improve us, and he is only 24, turning 25 in in 3 days, played 5 seasons in the PL, he works extremely hard off the ball, and he is very good technically on the ball, and he can operate across the frontline, Everton paid close to 35m pounds for him, that might have risen to 50m, so they would demand a huge fee (80m-100m) if they stay in the PL, but if Everton relegate, he could be a great option for us if the price is anything below 40m.
 
Benzema and Lewandowski are pretty trendy. If they were cars they would be orange.
 
Our priority should be press resistant players first and foremost.
 
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