Sergej Milinković-Savić

bosskeano said:
ffs....no thanks. He's just going to end up being another Fellaini
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I think that's a misrepresentation. He's certainly a lump, but is a far better footballer than Fellaini ever was.

Would pose problems with Bruno mind you, who I still think is a great player himself (if a little lost at the mo).
 
izec said:
I think he is a actually more conservative than Bruno's gung ho style. SMS and Eriksen with a proper 6 would be a great midfield. Eriksen can playmake from deep, and SMS would be our box to box with license to go into the box.
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Of course he is - Fernandes is almost unique in how forceful and speculative he can be. Milinkovic-Savic certainly falls into the same category of risk-taking moments player, but takes chances to a completely normal degree.

Eriksen would be the best partner for him in our current squad - ahead of a no.6 - and would closely recreate the dynamic created with Luis Alberto for Lazio.

He's certainly not a no.6 though, and playing him in a deeper pair - even as the more advanced player/ one with most license to get forward - would seem suboptimal.
 
RDCR07 said:
He is wayyyyy better at everything expect prolly chest control and heading to a certain extent.
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AdNani said:
is that because he's a completely different player, but also tall?
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OleGunnar20 said:
I think that's a misrepresentation. He's certainly a lump, but is a far better footballer than Fellaini ever was.

Would pose problems with Bruno mind you, who I still think is a great player himself (if a little lost at the mo).
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He's definitely a lump and he's tall....i personally don't think he's very technically gifted, he's certainly not very mobile and on top of that he's not even remotely close to what we need in our midfield right now
 
bosskeano said:
He's definitely a lump and he's tall....i personally don't think he's very technically gifted, he's certainly not very mobile and on top of that he's not even remotely close to what we need in our midfield right now
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He isn’t a lump. Yes he is tall. He is technically gifted. He is a very good link between the defense and offense. He doesn’t buckle under pressure. He keeps good control of the ball. He is more mobile than Fellaini and Matic. He is around 6’4” I think. You can’t expect him to be rapid. He can play in a deeper CM role. He can definitely run with the ball and has an eye for a pass. Like I said all better than Fellaini. Other than height being a common denominator nothing else is the same between SMS and Fellaini. It’s evident you haven’t seen him play. At least watch a few YT videos first.
 
dubplate warrior said:
Yeah I've heard, however he wants to play as a box to box. Hopefully he plays for the team if he comes here.
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It might have been me that brought up the stuff about Rabiot wanting to play further up the pitch (in this thread, if that's what you're referring to?), as it was something I remembered when discussing him in the past.

However, posters that know more about him/Serie A etc have said that it got sorted a long time ago and I don't know if it is therefore still the case.
 
Nicoseth said:
Lump? Seriously?
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I think that ones my bad. He quoted me calling him a 'Lump', in response to his Fellaini comparison.

All I mean is that he's tall, well built and able to use his strength and size to his advantage in the little I've seen of him.

I think he'd be a nice addition for us, a massive improvement over what we currently have / some of the dross we're being linked with.
 
I don't hate the idea of SMS, he's a good player. But he's a very left-field target leading on from the failed FDJ approach. He plays further up the pitch and probably offers more competition to Bruno and Eriksen, if anything.

Rabiot makes more sense as he shares more in common with FDJ in terms of playing deeper, ability to carry the ball etc. If we want to replace Fred and Mctominay then I don't see where SMS fits in? From players we've been linked with, Rodriguez and Neves make more sense. Which of those two would depend on how we want to play Rabiot (6 or 8).
 
pocco said:
I don't hate the idea of SMS, he's a good player. But he's a very left-field target leading on from the failed FDJ approach. He plays further up the pitch and probably offers more competition to Bruno and Eriksen, if anything.

Rabiot makes more sense as he shares more in common with FDJ in terms of playing deeper, ability to carry the ball etc. If we want to replace Fred and Mctominay then I don't see where SMS fits in? From players we've been linked with, Rodriguez and Neves make more sense. Such of those two would depend on how we want to play Rabiot (6 or 8).
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SMS can play as an #8. Eriksen can’t play every game. Bruno shouldn’t play every game. SMS is the perfect replacement for the box to box midfielder we need.
 
RDCR07 said:
SMS can play as an #8. Eriksen can’t play every game. Bruno shouldn’t play every game. SMS is the perfect replacement for the box to box midfielder we need.
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This we agree on. In an ideal world, a midfielder two of FDJ and SMS would be orgasmic.
 
RDCR07 said:
He isn’t a lump. Yes he is tall. He is technically gifted. He is a very good link between the defense and offense. He doesn’t buckle under pressure. He keeps good control of the ball. He is more mobile than Fellaini and Matic. He is around 6’4” I think. You can’t expect him to be rapid. He can play in a deeper CM role. He can definitely run with the ball and has an eye for a pass. Like I said all better than Fellaini. Other than height being a common denominator nothing else is the same between SMS and Fellaini. It’s evident you haven’t seen him play. At least watch a few YT videos first.
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i've watched him several times for Lazio, and while he's great in the air, that's about the only really impressive part to his game. Seems like really, United are the only ones that are ever linked with this guy on a regular basis which probably says something.

The way they swap players between clubs in Italy, if this guy was that good one of the other italian clubs would have bought him by now
 
OleGunnar20 said:
I think that ones my bad. He quoted me calling him a 'Lump', in response to his Fellaini comparison.

All I mean is that he's tall, well built and able to use his strength and size to his advantage in the little I've seen of him.

I think he'd be a nice addition for us, a massive improvement over what we currently have / some of the dross we're being linked with.
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Cool. He is a big dude - well suited to the prem in my opinion.
 
bosskeano said:
i've watched him several times for Lazio, and while he's great in the air, that's about the only really impressive part to his game. Seems like really, United are the only ones that are ever linked with this guy on a regular basis which probably says something.

The way they swap players between clubs in Italy, if this guy was that good one of the other italian clubs would have bought him by now
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What was your view of Koulibaly?
 
bosskeano said:
i've watched him several times for Lazio, and while he's great in the air, that's about the only really impressive part to his game. Seems like really, United are the only ones that are ever linked with this guy on a regular basis which probably says something.

The way they swap players between clubs in Italy, if this guy was that good one of the other italian clubs would have bought him by now
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Doubt.
 
pocco said:
I thought the consensus, based on his time at Ajax and Barca, is that FDJ can only operate in a double pivot?
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I think he'd be brilliant in a double pivot with SMS. Him the playmaker and SMS the physical hard-working box-to-box player.
 
RDCR07 said:
SMS can play as an #8. Eriksen can’t play every game. Bruno shouldn’t play every game. SMS is the perfect replacement for the box to box midfielder we need.
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Are we going to play with an 8 or a double pivot? As we would have if we landed FDJ. And where does Rabiot fit in if Bruno is at 10, SMS at 8? That's what I'm not sure of, how we view Rabiot.
 
pocco said:
Are we going to play with an 8 or a double pivot? As we would have if we landed FDJ. And where does Rabiot fit in if Bruno is at 10, SMS at 8? That's what I'm not sure of, how we view Rabiot.
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Ronaldo
Rashford - Bruno - Sancho
Eriksen/SMS - CM

I hope we don’t get Rabiot.
 
Berbaclass said:
I think he'd be brilliant in a double pivot with SMS. Him the playmaker and SMS the physical hard-working box-to-box player.
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I'm just not convinced SMS has the defensive nous to hold whilst FDJ bombs forward. A problem ETH has discussed publicly with regards to fitting FDJ into midfield. I expect Rabiot could do it, which is why we were probably pushing ahead with Rabiot regardless.

If I'm being honest, I feel like we actually need more athleticism in midfield aswell, which neither Rabiot or SMS really bring. In my opinion a player like Caicedo would make a huge difference for us. I like the look of Caqueret too, a Modric/Veratti type of player that can carry the ball (if we don't get FDJ). Rabiot and SMS would be nowhere near the top of my list.
 
pocco said:
I've not seen SMS play for a while now, since we were first linked a few years ago. Has he been deployed in that deeper role for Lazio? How does he fare defensively?
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We obviously won’t get both FDJ and SMS.
 
If we can get SMS, Rabiot and get rid of Mctominay than our midfield will be leveled up so much
 
hobbers said:
Replacing Bruno with SMS would be good if it could be done cheaply, like if it meant selling Bruno to offset the fee.

No club would be stupid enough to sign him now though, alas.
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So your answer to our problems is to sell Bruno? A player that despite being out of form and playing with a crowd of jokers around him was still our most productive player last season. Brilliant plan.
 
hobbers said:
Replacing Bruno with SMS would be good if it could be done cheaply, like if it meant selling Bruno to offset the fee.

No club would be stupid enough to sign him now though, alas.
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I haven't been the biggest fan of Bruno in the last 12-18 months either but I don't think selling him is the right answer. If we have a proper team around him I feel like he won't try too hard to make something happen. He will keep things simple which means he turns over the ball less and is more effective going forward.
 
bosskeano said:
i've watched him several times for Lazio, and while he's great in the air, that's about the only really impressive part to his game. Seems like really, United are the only ones that are ever linked with this guy on a regular basis which probably says something.

The way they swap players between clubs in Italy, if this guy was that good one of the other italian clubs would have bought him by now
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Yeah thats not true at all. Under Sarri they play almost everything on the floor and he has looked very very good playing basically an advanced RCM role.

Only issue is the price may be on the higher side here. If he were available around 40-45M, that would be a great deal.
 
We should be all over this. Would replace Mctom and we instantly get better…
 
I take it this will only happen if frenkie is definitely off the table? I think SMS could be underappreciated just as yaya toure was when he left Barcelona as a DM. Abit of a meh signing from Barcelona and he turned out to be a monster midfielder who played and excelled in AMC and CM roles for city.

I'd be happy if we got SMS and Rabiot. Slightly more happy if we got frenkie and Rabiot.
 
Is there actually any truth in this? He’s a player that we’re linked with nearly every year. That’s how bad our midfield as been. We get linked with every midfielder in the world because they know that’s our weakest position.
 
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