He was there before Alves and they still felt the need to upgrade and before that he was in and out of the team with a terrible Aurier. Really terrible.
Sean Longstaff
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This signing will not be a risk if we keep Pogba. If we lose him then we also need a top quality midfielder as well.
I doubt those extolling the virtues of those players had watched more than a handful of their games. Fans got giddy about Darmian for two games because he wasn’t Valencia. He was out of his depth from day one. The less said about Schneiderlin the better. One of the biggest cowards I’ve ever seen play for Utd.
It's ok to admit you were wrong. It's no big deal Adnan. I've been burned in the past by some players as well, I thought Josip Drmic was going to be quality after his breakthrough season.
Whatever about Darmian I'm sure people had seen plenty of Schneiderlin considering he was playing in a very talented Southampton side
Don’t forget Baba Rahman.
Tbf, I thought Schneiderlin was going to solve our midfield issues. What a letdown he was.
I'm not demeaning anyones opinion. I want to know which platform they use to watch teams like Cagliari and Real Betis. I've followed Inter and Fiorentina in the past but have found it very difficult to follow the Viola in Serie A.
I've based my opinions on Longstaff over 5 games and what regular observers of the player have said. My opinion of Longstaff is secondary to a Newcastle fan who has followed the player longer than I have.
I think the massive importance of the psychological side of things: Confidence, perceived pressure, how comfortable somebody is in their environment etc often gets forgotten.
I agree Schneiderlin looked perfect for our midfield, a battler who could bring some much needed edge. Turned out he just hid everytime he stepped out onto the pitch for us.
Darmian again, I thought looked great on youtube (I wasn't watching much Torino TV at the time), just what we needed. Again after a bright start it seems he just crumbled under the pressure. Not sure I ever saw him impose himself on a game, just looked like somebody who hoped to get through the 90 without making a mistake.
I think that's it really, we're a huge club which exerts a huge amount of pressure on its players. Since Fergie I think this is a big reason for our failings - Either we're not identifying people with the right mentalities Or we're not helping them to acclimatise once they get here, likely a bit of both.
Frustrating though ey.
My man Baba got burned with a bad move to Chelsea. The numpty, never should have left Augsburg at that age. Pretty funny he's still a Chelsea player though. Been on loan 3 seasons in a row!
You can usually find streams on the internet to watch almost any team, certainly within Serie A
You could that's true. But the poster in question never responded to my quesrion and I had Robbie telling me I was demeaning him instead.
I swear he was absolutely dog when he came on in the nations league against us, even had a little belly. Thought, no ones getting that lad this summer. Next week Norwich go and get him! Shows how much I know!
I know Darmain is really good on balls, probably better than most fullback on balls in the league except TAA, his confidence is so low, not adapting to the pace and physical of the league, he is weak mentally. If he had Walker body, he'd be probably best fullback in the world.
Well I was obviously hopeful he'd step up but he never looked that good to me. I think we were just so short of midfielders at the time we were happy with anybody. And I don't remember him exactly banging goals and assists at the time either so not sure what numbers you mean?
On paper Schneiderlin was the perfect signing, looked good at Southampton and looked to be just what the doctor ordered. Turned out he was a bit useless. Hadn't heard of Darmian before we signed him, barely heard of him since, general theory was probably he was Italian and therefore could defend and therefore would be a good signing - alas.
As for Longstaff, seems a bit like the James signing. Low cost, low risk.
The reaction on here is, I imagine, similar to what it would have been had we signed Maguire when he went to Leicester...why we spending so much on him etc etc...whereas now we're talking about making Maguire the most expensive defender ever. Why not get in early with Longstaff? If he's the answer long-term great, we've got him in on the cheap and saved ourselves some money for elsewhere and if not, for a club of United's stature £20m is hardly the end of the world.
As for Longstaff, seems a bit like the James signing. Low cost, low risk.
The reaction on here is, I imagine, similar to what it would have been had we signed Maguire when he went to Leicester...why we spending so much on him etc etc...whereas now we're talking about making Maguire the most expensive defender ever. Why not get in early with Longstaff? If he's the answer long-term great, we've got him in on the cheap and saved ourselves some money for elsewhere and if not, for a club of United's stature £20m is hardly the end of the world.
He had some of the highest tackling stats in Europe at the time. He was a box-to-box midfielder not an attacking midfielder. His job was never to score goals and provide assists, it was to provide energy, work-rate, interceptions and tackles so we could win the ball back and quickly transition to the forwards.
Depends on how often they tuned in for Southampton v West Brom and the like.
‘Tis the Chelsea way.
Don't get me wrong, I love a good box to box midfielder but I think they should contribute with a few goals or at the very least keep the ball moving well in the midfield and I can't say I ever saw that in Schneiderlin myself.
Even though little I've seen of him nothing stands out but for quoted £25m fee we should take a punt. I mean market is completely fecked, you have Matt Targett going for £17m and Danny Ings for £18m. Just hope he isn't the only midfielder we are buying because our midfield is rank average as of now and Longstaff won't immediately improve it.
We should be all over Tielemans but supposedly he's way down on our targets, watch his price treble from €40m in an year or two.
We should be all over Tielemans but supposedly he's way down on our targets, watch his price treble from €40m in an year or two.
Fair enough but that wasn't really what we were buying him for, he wasn't an attacking box-to-box mid that scored goals he was more like Herrera (though a lot less talented on the ball and a better tackler, maybe a bit more like Kante but slightly more advanced like last season)
Kante is actually pretty good on the ball though, can dribble, has a good shot on him, hard to dispossess...that's what I mean, you can't just be a DM who isn't very good positionally so just goes forward and presses a lot, you have to actually do something with the ball wherever you win it.
He isn't. He can do the basics, but that's about it.
Well I very much disagree.
Julian Weigl would have been it, if he had continued developing under Tuchel. 15/16 Weigl was the most blatant Carrick clone I've ever seen.
He's fallen out of favour a bit at Dortmund and is still young, I won't be surprised to see another club pick him up and make him shine again.
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When we sign him, I'll support him. Seems a good kid.
But let's be honest. If we zoomed in on those few games Cleverly had with Anderson during that season in CM, other fans would have been raving about him too. And look how that turned out. If we're putting all our eggs in this ginger basket, we're screwed. For a start, he's recvering from a serious injury. Secondly, he'd have to displace Matic and despite being washed up and clearly done, Nemanja seems untouchable at present. So our big midfield signing would be a young ginger lad with 9 league games under his belt who won't actualy get a proper chance until next season, unless Matic completely keels over.
If we start next season with a midfield of Matic-Scott-Pogba (if PP leaves, fck knows, maybe Fernandes) with Longstaff as our backup option (forget Fred, Ole seems to not rate him)…….we're heading for midtable like a rocket. Longstaff would need to a) recover incredibly quickly from injury and b) suddenly become Carrick in a different body to allow us to actually progress.
Our midfield has been horribly mismanaged since 2008 and still continues to be that way.
But let's be honest. If we zoomed in on those few games Cleverly had with Anderson during that season in CM, other fans would have been raving about him too. And look how that turned out. If we're putting all our eggs in this ginger basket, we're screwed. For a start, he's recvering from a serious injury. Secondly, he'd have to displace Matic and despite being washed up and clearly done, Nemanja seems untouchable at present. So our big midfield signing would be a young ginger lad with 9 league games under his belt who won't actualy get a proper chance until next season, unless Matic completely keels over.
If we start next season with a midfield of Matic-Scott-Pogba (if PP leaves, fck knows, maybe Fernandes) with Longstaff as our backup option (forget Fred, Ole seems to not rate him)…….we're heading for midtable like a rocket. Longstaff would need to a) recover incredibly quickly from injury and b) suddenly become Carrick in a different body to allow us to actually progress.
Our midfield has been horribly mismanaged since 2008 and still continues to be that way.
These are the kind of depressed assets united could take on for cheap and develop under lesser pressure while the likes of Matic are still serviceable.
I am getting a bit worried that we have forgotten how to develop any player properly.
Exactly, this is the exact position on the field we're lacking, and I'm sure he's available for a reasonable price. These are the sorts of punts I would love us to make. A team of Man Utd's history surely should be confident of bringing out the potential in a player like that.
Has there been any credible news linking us to him?
I'd think with the big bets on young and English players, they don't cut corners on spending money to hire the best player development staff to work behind the scenes.
If we are in for him why is this taking so long, we have been poor in dragging out what should be easy transfers this summer.
Have we even put in a bid? It just seems a lot of paper talk about Ole wanting him in before we go on pre-season.
He’s right though.
Simon Stone said we were interested about a week ago which is about month ago in cafe transfer forum time. Not sure if any others since.
Have to disagree on Bissaka his breakout season was the one before. I started a thread last summer with who I would buy and named him and got panned with many other names I mentioned people didnt even know. He has been excellent for 1.5seasons now......
But I totally agree on your point regarding James and Longstaff and havent seem a huge amount of either, but am I alone in thinking they both seem pretty average, decent young players and yes, good we are targeting young British players but they dont seem anywhere near the likes of Rice and Sancho we were heavily linked with and of course Bissaka to me who are all genuine young talents with huge potential, I just havent seen it from James who seems another Walcott for me and Longstaff who just looks tidy? When SPurs are signing NDombele and City Rodri, I dont see the likes of Longstaff closign any gap this coming season or in two years time to be honest
Screw Longstaff, we got Hamilton.
But he hasn't burst onto the seen. People are literally only talking post injury because of the United links. Was there a thread about him when he was actually playing? Was he even being name dropped?
So if we aren't in for him or tielemans or Fernandes then what are we doing in the market to bolster our midfield?
I am just hoping we are not judging players on the fact James had a good game against City and same with Longstaff. That happens. It does not mean they are potential world beaters. It might just have meant City had a couple of off games. This is the team that won the domestic treble. It just seems a bit lazy and I sincerely hope we are actually or have done some proper scouting.
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