I thought he was decent and held his position well. He's a lot more careful with the ball than Casemiro is. I agree the setup did him no favours as he was expected to progress the ball on his own a lot of the time in the first half. He's better than the Sabitzer and Weghorst loans in my opinion.
Sofyan Amrabat | 2023/24 Performances
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All loans were made non permanent and given a break clause. Greenwood included as the potential new investors weren’t happy with our transfer decisions.
I thought that was the worst I've ever seen him play. A lot of uncharacteristic errors in and out of possession and an inability to offer his defenders a route through the middle.
Ten Hag seems desperate to get a single pivot system working so we can attack in greater numbers, but you need either way better ball progression from the back or a top class first receiver for that. Ideally both.
Still got plenty of time for Amrabat though - he hasn't exactly had the best conditions coming into the team and I think there's more to come from him.
He was not good in the first half, but I still would have liked to see him next to Eriksen after the break.
Looks ponderous to me, like he's always on the verge of getting tackled because he can't get the ball out from under his feet quick enough.
He wasn't great tonight, but im not sure how you sub him off and keep McT on. He's a short term fix, but i don't think we should be signing him.
Well at least he doesn't give away a penalty every fecking game
The contents match the label - A mediocre mid-table Serie A plodder with no upside or stand out qualities. Speed, speed of thought, vision, passing are all inferior to what you would want in a central midfield singing for a top club. Another one of Ten Hag's masterstroke signings. Let's hope we don't meet the milestones that'll make this signing permanent.
Single divot doesn’t work when you don’t have players in front of him to make it work.
I have sympathy for him
I have sympathy for him
This.
We could have prime Keane in that position and he'd struggle. I also noticed that he didn't drop between the 2 CBs in the build-up phase like he did against Sheffield which I found odd.
What was you watching. He did it on a couple of occasions.
Also Keane would have been fine as he would have refused to play with Bruno Fernandes.
Option to buy for £21.4m.
I am sure there were some on here that were saying he was better than Declan Rice before he came here 
The internet is saying there is no obligation, so you're probably right. We shall see though, it has 'obligation to buy' written all over it (like our deal for Kuszczak back in the day).
Illogical by Fiorentina if no obligation, because if he goes back at the end of the season he'll only have 1 year left on his contract. If he has a poor season and Man Utd don't keep him, they won't get the £20m or so we have agreed with Fiorentina from any other club. Maybe they know he's a limited player and wanted to take anything they could get.
Cant see us signing him, looks very average and i'd rather have McT and i see it as a transition year to get Mainoo and Hannibal fully in the squad/team, both of which would have done as good a job as him last night.
I thought he had a pretty decent first half, was surprised when he was taken off.
Should really be our DM this season, he's not amazing but he can play the role, plays sensible passes and seems less of a liability than this season's Case. Sit him at the base and accept he's not perfect but is serviceable.
No I meant he didn't do it often. Our build-up play improved a lot in the 2nd half vs Sheffield when he did that (also having Eriksen there) so I was surprised that it didn't happen more often against Copenhagen.
He was bad in the first half. And I blame the setup. Our midfield is not balanced. Thats why Casemiro has looked bad as well. Bruno is all over the place and McT goes in to hiding. Its an insurmountable job to be a DM in our current setup.
He was decent with passing and going forward, but defensive postioning and marking are way off for him to be effective as sole DMC.
This is something Rangnick identified as a key issue for us and it’s only become worse under ETH. I’d be reluctant to allow him to continue to spend if he doesn’t address this in the upcoming transfer windows.
I hope we don't sign him. Never saw the point in us being in for him in the first place.
Yep. This is THE problem with this setup. As a result, whoever plays single pivot is set up to fail. Casemiro is still better DLP/DM but they both need help.
But they are not getting it as the plan as you say is to throw in more attackers or push whoever is playing attacking midfielder high up the pitch.
McTominay's normal style of play would be a much better fit than what we've seen these last two matches where he's been playing as a #10 (almost as a striker against Sheffield United). It's just a terrible midfield set-up that anybody is going to fail in, whether it's Casemiro, Amrabat or whoever. It wasn't just Eriksen coming on that improved us in the second half, it was that Scott dropped deeper so we had a two man midfield to play through.
Playing with two midfielders getting far forward like we have this season can only work if at least one of the defenders is constantly stepping into midfield and basically giving us the extra person in there. Even then there are huge question marks over that system and really needs the entire team to be built around it. Arguably Shaw and/or Martinez could play that role, although the former has strangely always been the fullback who sits wider while Dalot and AWB are more likely to come into the centre. But both Shaw and Martinez are injured, so it's pretty much a certainty to not work.
Pretty much. An okay-ish loan level player, even though we paid a crazy fee for it.
He's solid but he needs a bit of help in there, he's not mobile or dynamic enough to hold the midfield by himself. Ten Hag needs to go back to a double pivot for the sake of the team.
From what I've seen from Amrabat so far, I don't think he's somebody who should be starting for us long-term but he would hopefully be a good squad player.
In saying that, I'm not going to pass any hard judgement on him (either positively or negatively) until we see him play more often in a proper midfield set-up. This mess of a team we've had does nobody any favours.
In saying that, I'm not going to pass any hard judgement on him (either positively or negatively) until we see him play more often in a proper midfield set-up. This mess of a team we've had does nobody any favours.
He's also not played against any decent teams so far, so he may get shown up even further in the next couple of months.
is it too much to ask to see a midfield of
Casemiro Amrabat
Bruno (or Mount)
Bruno (or Mount)
They got 10m for a loan (which is audacious) for a player who had basically refused to train or play all summer. He didn't have any pre-season and didn't play or show up for any of their initial matches.
He kicked up a real fuss, and I think they knew it was let him go on loan now or have a wasted season with him. He supposedly turned down some other PL sides to join us.
And defend the middle, I was wondering where Bruno was.
TBF he’s coming back from an injury another who has injury issues, he’s physically a beast with a good strike on him, I’m Not sure he’s got enough pace for the EPL but then I remember him matching Mbappe in the World Cup and wiping him out in the Semi Final so let’s judge him when he’s had a few more games.
We did v Brentford. Mount, Amrabat and Case all got hooked.
He is really limited, which explains why no one bought him despite the amazing world cup performances.
I would say Conor Gallagher offers more.
Don't think he deserved to be subbed at half time. Made no sense bringing off your number 6 and putting McTominay there.
I would say Conor Gallagher offers more.
Don't think he deserved to be subbed at half time. Made no sense bringing off your number 6 and putting McTominay there.
He is painfully average. City game will be a big test for him and I hope he can perform as good as Fred did against City in previous seasons. Not holding my breath though.
It was a very expensive loan like Falcao, but I hope we don't further waste 20m on him. The deal shouldn't be made permanent.
It was a very expensive loan like Falcao, but I hope we don't further waste 20m on him. The deal shouldn't be made permanent.
Yeah pretty much: clue is there really. He’s 27 and still at Fiorentina. I know footballers can bloom late but certainly not this late. Usually quality players in Italy are snapped up by juve, inter or ac Milan. By hook or by crook and by that I mean by some dodgy loan deal or some dodgy transfer.
Think a few got carried away after that palace cup game but in truth he’s extremely average. He’s a player you bring on with 20-25 mins left of a game and you want someone to put themselves about.
There's a clear issue with anyone who plays DM the way we're set up, they get isolated on counters all the time. Even some of the best DMs in the world would struggle (in fact you could argue Casemiro was one of the best DMs until a few months ago).
Agreed. I would also add that Copenhagen yesterday were not half as bad as some would expect. Great intensity, and organization (outside of one or two breakaways that they allowed). Also held their own against Bayern, got the lead and in the end lost by just 1 goal difference scored late in the game..
He and Jorghino are cut from the same cloth. Just two assists and 3.86 expected in 117 Serie A matches. He’s there to receive the ball, give it to a more talented player and make himself available again for a safe pass. He’s as limited as his FBref scouting report suggested, and very poor proactively defensively.
I can see how he might be useful, but he’s one of the weaker members of the squad and someone we should otherwise be looking to upgrade if he hadn’t just arrived.
I can see how he might be useful, but he’s one of the weaker members of the squad and someone we should otherwise be looking to upgrade if he hadn’t just arrived.
So taking yesterday's performance in isolation he had some heavy/loose touches which led to losing the ball. He was a bit unlucky to be hooked at half time because it could have just as easily have been Fletcher, but with Fletcher's recent goalscoring you can also see why ETH wouldnt want to take him off in case we still need a goal in the last 10 mins and he can be among the players we throw forward hoping for some luck.
On the ball he was dissappointing. The CBs would have the ball and he'd be moving about in front of them, marked by opponents and the CBs would have to play their own way out. He did get on the ball occasionally in the first half and was okay in one or two moves. Just keeping the ball moving.
Eriksen came on and his first touch stuck like glue and he immediately knew how to quickly change the tempo and get our front players the ball in dangerous areas with one or two quick touches. It was night and day from what McTom and Amrabat were able to do in the first half.
On the ball he was dissappointing. The CBs would have the ball and he'd be moving about in front of them, marked by opponents and the CBs would have to play their own way out. He did get on the ball occasionally in the first half and was okay in one or two moves. Just keeping the ball moving.
Eriksen came on and his first touch stuck like glue and he immediately knew how to quickly change the tempo and get our front players the ball in dangerous areas with one or two quick touches. It was night and day from what McTom and Amrabat were able to do in the first half.
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