€15m is with the add-ons that we may or may not get. The base is €9.74m.
Sofyan Amrabat | 2023/24 Performances
- Thread starter MyOnlySolskjaer
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Should have said yes when Barcelona made contact in January asking us to break his loan so they could sign him.
Good fee for a 30 year old with one year left on a contract that we were never going to renew - and returning to my previous post- a completely separate decision to Amrabat
Bad take, how about present an alternate reasonable argument.
They never did that.
Barca and Amrabat????
I've never once heard that from any source.
I've never once heard that from any source.
The rest of the defence is garbage, may be him and Dalot are the two useful players for now, but definitely will look to improve on them.
Shaw is one player whom the idea of him is better than the reality. Dude gets done 1v1, recovery pace seems to have worsened this season no thanks to injuries and dude is hardly available for a consistent period to build a stable defence.
Surely as it stands it may appear so but don't be surprised. We have so many players that we can't count on to win their battles either pace wise, duels or aerially.
I would agree with this. Amrabat was already a very flawed player
Yeah he also wasn't a player that went under the radar for whatever reason. People knew Amrabat (due to international games at the very least). He just wasn't highly rated by anyone apart from us. Actually, I'm not even sure if he was that highly rated by us. We ended paying peanuts for him.
I don't mind having Amrabat as a stop gap midfielder for this season, I do have a problem how we're spending the money though because the position he plays in should be far more important than our budget would suggest.
Fabrizio Romano mentioned it a couple of days ago, Juventus were also interested. From the way he phrased it, Fiorentina weren't keen on allowing him to go there but were okay with Barca if we agreed.
It sounds like Romano pitching Amrabat across Europe, knowing well that he is unlikely to be bought out by United. There's no way a quality team looks at his performances here and wants him, also he was available all of last Summer and the best offer he got at the time was Nottingham. He's not moving to a top club.
100% true. Yet this guy ETH wanted all summer by all accounts. Another ex ten Haag player, anyone see a pattern here?
I turned off the game after the 2nd goal.
It's clear he isn't good enough but how bad was he to warrant 5 pages after his cameo against City?
It's clear he isn't good enough but how bad was he to warrant 5 pages after his cameo against City?
Third goal was at least 90% his fault
A typical ETH choice,a below average player
He received the ball and tried to dribble towards his own goal only for Rodri to nick it off him and play Haaland in for the 3rd
So yeah pretty much as bad as you can be as a sub coming on
I've seen it now and agree that it was a big mistake. He doesn't have the agility to dwell on the ball much in this league.
A late era Glazer signing more like.
Can it not be both?
So its over £17.5 million to keep Amrabat past this summer. We should instead use that to sign Vinicius Souza from Sheffield United. He's one of the best physical ball winners in midfield this season and would be a good option next to Mainoo for when Casemiro is out with injury or playing poorly. Sheffield signed him for just under £10.7 million last summer... Not a large amount more than we paid for Amrabat's loan for a season
He'll be playing against Arsenal tonight so given I've just mentioned him expect him to have a great game and the papers will link him to clubs for more than £17.5 million or to have a poor game and for this post to age like milk. At least till the next game. Besides it'd be hard for him to outdo Amrabat this week
He'll be playing against Arsenal tonight so given I've just mentioned him expect him to have a great game and the papers will link him to clubs for more than £17.5 million or to have a poor game and for this post to age like milk. At least till the next game. Besides it'd be hard for him to outdo Amrabat this week
Whilst he’s never had a sustained run in the side, he’s been absolutely woeful when he’s been given a shot. Thank the lord he’s only here on loan. Shame we didn’t get Mount and Antony on loan too.
think even he knows he isnt good enough. Not the first time ive noticed him just getting the ball under any sort of pressure and having a panicked run backwards towards our own goal. Completely overwhelmed at times with the league.
Not really. It implied ETH wanted this player rather than it was the best he was allowed. Like Weghorst. Like Mount. Like Casemiro. Like Erikson. ETH led signings I would say are Hojlund, Onana, Antony, Martinez.
Souza and Dominguez are just some of the players who moved in the summer for a fee close to Amrabat's loan fee and for much less than the loan + permanent fee
Amrabat isnt the player he was "allowed". He was an expensive player on loan who has done worse than players in his position who moved for around the £10 million mark to premier league clubs. He was just a poor choice. If we had made money from selling the likes of McTominnay and the other players apparently for sale then we'd have signed Amrabat permanently.
Edit - What on earth makes you think that Ten Hag didnt want Mount and Casemiro? When fit they've played.
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In hindsight, I'm glad we only loaned him.
If we panicked and then gave in to the price tag, we'd have spaffed even more money up the wall.
Considering we were apparently desperate for his signaturr, he hasn't really playedat all.
But, from his performances, he's not exactly giving this impression of our midfield maestro, so maybe we simply weren't confident in his ability and chose to loan him instead of making a 3-4 year commitment?
Thank god we saved our money and can get rid in the summer.
If we panicked and then gave in to the price tag, we'd have spaffed even more money up the wall.
Considering we were apparently desperate for his signaturr, he hasn't really playedat all.
But, from his performances, he's not exactly giving this impression of our midfield maestro, so maybe we simply weren't confident in his ability and chose to loan him instead of making a 3-4 year commitment?
Thank god we saved our money and can get rid in the summer.
Sadly this did age like milk, but you were right about Amrabaat in the first place
.I think we can do better than Souza, although I do think he's a decent player.
Sadly this did age like milk, but you were right about Amrabaat in the first place
I think we can do better than Souza, although I do think he's a decent player.
Yeah he won a the ball a bunch but other than that he barely got a kick like the other players on his team. Not sure we'd do much better with £17.5 million but then again he and Dominguez moved for around £10 million last summer so there must be similar deals that happen this summer so maybe
Weren't Liverpool after him too?
Maybe we just make players look bad
Maybe we just make players look bad
He has been good for one thing anyway - the number of supposed experts who were telling us he was this and that when we were linked to him have been shown to be total spoofers.
So many people were telling us that he would be a great addition to the midfield, it is clear now that they either didn't watch much of him before or they just don't know what they were talking about.
These same people will be back this summer to tell us everything we need to know about the next batch of players we are linked to. Probably while never seeing them play for more than 3 full games.
So many people were telling us that he would be a great addition to the midfield, it is clear now that they either didn't watch much of him before or they just don't know what they were talking about.
These same people will be back this summer to tell us everything we need to know about the next batch of players we are linked to. Probably while never seeing them play for more than 3 full games.
I hope with the move to Berrada, Ashworth and Head of recruitment means we're likely to see better deals like that and in a way FFP is a blessing as it is insistent we do deals like that. The links we're seeing at the moment are far more positive with the likes of Keita, several south american players and even Barkley!
Liverpool, Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid, The Netherlands team of 1974, Brazil 1982, Chicago Bulls of the nineties, and I hear Mercedes are interested as a replacement for Lewis Hamilton.
Or maybe ultimately, behind the smokescreen, it was mostly us.
Really feel all the hype and how he would perform were all off the back of 4-5 games at the last World Cup. Being a limited player isn't the end of the world, just look at how well Endo is doing for £16m. Amrabat just isn't a very good midfielder sadly. Hindsight is great though hey?
I was one who was positive about him. In fairness, when the squad is so lacking in midfield, as a fan, it’s only natural to want to be optimistic about an incoming player. You look at YouTube compilations and stats if you can’t see full matches, and his passing stats were good. The devil was in the detail though, they were because he always came so deep to take the ball off the centre backs and keeper in a league where half the teams play a low block.
The pace and intensity of the Prem have clearly found out his lack of mobility.
I still think he could be a decent squad option if used correctly but we could definitely improve on him, and better to send him back.
And we won't know for sure that Jim and Co are truly in control of the football side of things until signings like that stop.
The first few pages in this thread make for hilarious reading looking back.
He would have been decent if used rightly and in the right system. I think no one now understands why we signed him for the way we play this season.
Is that fair? Amrabat in last season's system is going to look a lot more comfortable than in the joke we switched to which leaves the whole 'midfield' high and dry game after game after game with whoever we put out there. People actually think Casemiro is totally washed up because of what we've got him out there trying to do. In a proper midfield with a marginalised role, I doubt he's anything like as poor as he's been made to look here (Case) this season. Can't speak on Amrabat with any such certainty, but him facing toward the play with a marginalised role himself would mean his weaknesses are less exposed and he could attempt to play to his own strengths more often.
He is slow with terrible acceleration, agility and lateral movement... so we do we go and do? We have him out there trying to cover acres of space and exacerbating his clear failings, which makes him even more panicked with a faster game than he probably would be if he was facing the play and working toward the opposition then ever trying to track them - any open race, and Amrabat is fecked. Knowing this, why aren't we ensuring that happens as little as possible?
I don't think it's unreasonable to think if Amrabat was bought with this system in mind, it's a massive failing of anyone green lighting it, but if it was with the old system, he might well be seen through a different lens now than the joke he's become.
I really don't see how a midfielder with his lack of dynamism physically and overall slowness of play could be a success in the English game in any system. He is physically limited, but it's not as if he has a quick brain, close touch and great passing vision to make up for that. He has so many weaknesses to his game that once you start trying to mitigate against some then others will become more prominent. I am yet to see many strengths of his we could play to as well.
I am being scathing on him, and I don't blame him for his shortcomings really. My point was more around how so many signings get touted as being the answer to so many questions by "football experts", then when these signings actually land we get to see them for what they really are and the cycle continues.
I absolutely get being positive about an incoming player, and have no problem with that whatsoever - I would be the same on most incoming players. My problem is more the football influencer types who pretend that they have been watching all these players for the last few years and were telling us that Amrabat was the exact opposite of what he is. He isn't the first player to get this treatment, definitely won't be the last.
We are collectively a slow, unathletic team trying to play the most demanding and ill-suited football in the entire league - the reality, contrasted to our components is making a mug of the vast majority of the squad, particularly the midfielders tasked with covering the acres of space you need prime Kante, Davids and Keane (or any other indefatigable collective) for. Eriksen, Casemiro, Mainoo, Bruno and yes, Amrabat are all struggling badly taking on the task. Mitigating when your entire midfield is unathletic is no longer mitigating, it’s literally adjusting to what is at your disposal. It’s like we’d try and make a player like Jorginho run around when the entire league knows he is even less athletic than the worst of our bunch, yet, put him in a system that caters for that, and he can be a crucial cog constantly firing quick releases between the lines and making the ball do all the work for him.
If you have Amrabat bumbling his slow, laborious self around the pitch with the frequency that you notice it, questions have to be asked as to why that is happening. Sure, the first few times, until confirmation he is as slow as molasses, you test out your theories vis-a-vis the practicalities, but after that, it shouldn’t be happening, so unless Amrabat has gone rogue, questions should be asked of how those predicaments and scenarios come about where he (or X, Y Z) are so exposed and panicked.
If Amrabat was an outlier and the rest of our midfield were zooming about looking seamlessly at ease with what they’re being tasked to do, the perspective and takes on him would be more reasonable, and the forecasting some may have done, more off base, but as we are set up, I very much doubt any posts were envisioning this shit show and would probably not have the same opinions of him and his worth to us.
With the game he has presented here, surely he would look more at ease in Eriksen’s role last season than he does trying to be something he clearly is not and has no hope of ever being, as an example.
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