Sofyan Amrabat | 2023/24 Performances

Status
Not open for further replies.
Amrabat was a serious contender for MOTM yesterday.

Anyone who doesn't see that doesn't understand football IMO. Only YouTube complications.

Sorry not sorry!
Not even all United fans would subscribe to that. But what do I know, I only watch Youtube-compilations while you "understand football".

I'm sorry? What's wrong with my original post? It's my analysis and view on two footballers with different skillsets.
You said Casemiro is not a DM.
You said Amrabat is a DM.

That shoud sink in for every reader. Pretty sure they'll keep it in mind when you "analyse" stuff in the future.


I certainly learned something in the last 24 hours. I've never been able to comprehend, how our decision makers could be as dumb as they apparently were when looking at some decisions in the past. Now I understand it. Because obviously many many fans would make such decisions. Probably I was too harsh towards Woody and Murtough. Probably they weren't just clueless - probably there were just average.
 
Last edited:
Surely we can talk them down from £21m, to 15M or so
It's the kind of money, well like Sabitzer last season, that you just press the GO button on.
What do you get for that in the PL to make up the numbers in 4 competitions?
 
Not even all United fans would subscribe to that. But what do I know, I only watch Youtube-compilations while you "understand football".


You said Casemiro is not a DM.
You said Amrabat is a DM.

That shoud sink in for every reader. Pretty sure they'll keep it in mind when "analyse" stuff in the future.


I certainly learned something in the last 24 hours. I've never been able to comprehend, how our decision could be as dumb as they apparently were when looking at some decisions in the past. Now I understand it. Because obviously many many fans would make such decisions. Probably I was too harsh towards Woody and Murtough. Probably they weren't just clueless - probably there were just average.

I think you misunderstand me. I don't understand why you feel so irate. No need for personal insults. My original remakes weren't a dig. I said and I will try to elaborate that I view Amrabat as a pure DM who stays behind to protect the back four, who breaks up the opponents' attacks and doesn't go forward. Hence no goals and no assists and the majority are sideways and backwards passing.

Whereas I don't see Casemiro as purely a DM. He has alot more in his locker. He's more of a hybrid midfielder, recycling the ball, attacking as well as defending. To me he plays a similar role as Mainoo, but a bit more defensively. Casemiro has more progressive passes and likes to go forward. He's like the glue between attack and defense.
 
Last edited:
Surely there's a more mobile young DM out there for us for 15-20m.
 
Assuming Casemiro leaves, which I suppose is no guarantee, we will need two DM's. A starter and a backup. Amrabat is definitely not a starter, but I'm torn on whether he can be the deputy. I'm more in the 'No' camp, but not fully there.
I think he would have looked a lot better this season if he actually had a stable CB partnership behind him. Must get extremely difficult as a DM to try and build a partnership with your defenders when they are consistently changing.

I just think it's a very important point that hardly gets a mention.

I do agree he's not a starter but I think for 20m he's a very good DM in that price range and struggle to think of anyone better.
 
Surely there's a more mobile young DM out there for us for 15-20m.
This really is what it boils down to. He’s got a great aggressive style to him and attitude wise is as good as you’ll get but he’s not that fast, his first touch gives me the willies and he’s ok but not amazing on the ball. If Fiorentina just want to offload him for peanuts, like £5-10m, we should do it but otherwise let’s make the scouting team earn their keep and find a young player with potential for the role.
 
I think he would have looked a lot better this season if he actually had a stable CB partnership behind him. Must get extremely difficult as a DM to try and build a partnership with your defenders when they are consistently changing.

I just think it's a very important point that hardly gets a mention.

I do agree he's not a starter but I think for 20m he's a very good DM in that price range and struggle to think of anyone better.

Only a year earlier Villa got Kamara on a free and Fulham got Palhinha for £17m. Both comfortably better. Leicester's Soumaré for example is someone I wouldn't mind a punt on in the £10-20m range. Looked good when I saw him for Sevilla. His teammates were fecking clueless by comparison.
 
We need solid squad players and if we get anywhere near the injuries we had last season then we need cover. Sign him.
 
Confirmed defensive midfielders in the PL get sold for 60+ … And a bunch of nobodies go for 20+..

Who do we take if we don’t sign him?

IMG-1479.jpg
 
Last edited:
Confirmed defensive midfielders in the PL get sold for 60+ M… And a bunch of nobodies go for 20+..

Who do we take if we don’t sign him?

IMG-1479.jpg

Probably not someone from the Prem...
 
I think you misunderstand me. I don't understand why you feel so irate. No need for personal insults. My original remakes weren't a dig. I said and I will try to elaborate that I view Amrabat as a pure DM who stays behind to protect the back four, who breaks up the opponents' attacks and doesn't go forward. Hence no goals and no assists and the majority are sideways and backwards passing.

Whereas I don't see Casemiro as purely a DM. He has alot more in his locker. He's more of a hybrid midfielder, recycling the ball, attacking as well as defending. To me he plays a similar role as Mainoo, but a bit more defensively. Casemiro has more progressive passes and likes to go forward. He's like the glue between attack and defense.
I am sorry that I crossed the line in terms of personal stuff. That shouldn't happen.

Apart from that, I think you are as wrong as it gets - or you have completely different understandings of the term DM than me and 99% of people I know. Which, if thats the case, is totally fine. I have no clue why Amrabat gets listed as DM. He shouldn't be. He is a CM who isn't extremely shit against the ball. Which yes - in comparison to Bruno, Eriksen and McTominay - may look as if he would be DM. But he isn't. He wasn't even for Fiorentina. He never was a ballwinner at all. Look at his stats on fbref, if you want look at his stats even from the season before which elevated him to the point that bigger clubs were thinking of him. Still nothing indicated that he would a DM.

This really is what it boils down to. He’s got a great aggressive style to him and attitude wise is as good as you’ll get but he’s not that fast, his first touch gives me the willies and he’s ok but not amazing on the ball. If Fiorentina just want to offload him for peanuts, like £5-10m, we should do it but otherwise let’s make the scouting team earn their keep and find a young player with potential for the role.
He is also not at all great in the air. It is a bit of a bummer for me too, as I said, I thought he was the ideal player to take over the Eriksen role from last season from Eriksen. But unfortunately we changed system and in that system, Amrabat simply lacks the relevant skillset. He has a few parts of it but surely not enough. It is weird to call for him not getting a permanent transfer while also saying that him and Mainoo are more or less the only players in our club who really have the skillset to play as an actual CM - not masquerading AMs to play them deeper or asking Casemiro to experiment with new roles while the role we bought him for is so fecking crucial to us.
 
His performance was “Prime Gattuso” according to Paul Scholes.

What happened yesterday? I’m baffled with that performance, obviously overjoyed and still buzzing today.

Why couldn’t we produce that type of performance throughout the season.

Was it down to injuries, or did the players just step up the occasion?
 
Key words being 'a year earlier'. Who would you recommend then in a similar price range ?
Johnny Cardoso from Real Betis, signed for 6m eur in January so should be available if we say triple their money already. Solid defensively, good technique and very tidy on the ball as well as having the necessary physicality to survive in the PL - imo he looks destined for bigger things and as he's only 22 he's a sgning for both present and future.
 
His performance was “Prime Gattuso” according to Paul Scholes.

What happened yesterday? I’m baffled with that performance, obviously overjoyed and still buzzing today.

Why couldn’t we produce that type of performance throughout the season.

Was it down to injuries, or did the players just step up the occasion?
Have you seen the game? Have you noticed that we kept it very deep and very compact? Noticed a difference to other matches?
 
He was fantastic on Saturday. Wish he could play like that every game. I still think his mobility and footballing ability are below that needed to be a top quality midfielder.

The questions the club need to ask themselves is, can we get someone better for similar money, and is it worth keeping him on as a useful squad player?

Even the successful teams under Fergie had players who weren't superstars and were happy enough to be squad players and do a solid 7/10 job when called upon (O'Shea, Park, Fletcher etc). Maybe that's a role we can keep Amrabat for if he's happy to do that.
 
Last two performances were great but not enough to make his loan permanent, too big a of a risk as she was extremely disappointing for 90% of his loan spell.
 
He’s not the one to carry the team like a Keano or Carrick. But obviously there’s a very good player in there. His physicality is an advantage if the other parts of the team are working properly.
 
He gave a great game in the FA cup final but I hope that doesn't fool anyone into thinking we should actually sign him.

Thanks for that performance but good bye not even close to good enough, we need way better.
 
Seems to be a bit of a scarce market. If I were to make a list up of possible targets - Fofana, Onana...??

Has anyone seen much of Man Utd Kone?

But anyway, back to Amrabat. Don't think he's shown enough to justify being signed permanently but its either him or Casemiro. I'd prefer Casemiro to stay to be honest.
 
Seems to be a bit of a scarce market. If I were to make a list up of possible targets - Fofana, Onana...??

Has anyone seen much of Man Utd Kone?

But anyway, back to Amrabat. Don't think he's shown enough to justify being signed permanently but its either him or Casemiro. I'd prefer Casemiro to stay to be honest.
Casemiro could barely run this season. But still has good value if we sell to Saudi’s. Rather sell him to increase our transfer budget.

If Amrabat can be bought for less than 10mil, I’d go for him, Barkley on the free and a younger starting dm.

Eriksen can leave, Casemiro and McTominay should be sold.
 
Have you seen the game? Have you noticed that we kept it very deep and very compact? Noticed a difference to other matches?
Yes I did, it was a joy to watch. I also noticed that we kept it compact and tidy. Baffles me that we didn’t play like this all season.
I wonder if was Martinez being available that enabled us to play that way.
 
I've seen a lot of people saying we should sign him permanently. That's where we go wrong, we let euphoria of a game cover for a poor season. I think Amrabat is a great character, he is always at 100%, but he is very limited. And we need a big DM player, who can give us freedom to play the way we want.

So, I really hope we've learned our lessons and let him go.
 
Just a more robust version of Fred....and maybe thats being disrespectful to Fred!!!
 
He definitely benefitted from the rest of the team sticking to the plan and the fact Martinez was playing and snuffing out many chances helped his cause. He didn’t have to cover as much space as in previous matches so he was much more effective when having to make interceptions.

I also thought that his passing back brought out the best qualities of Onana; being able to take the ball under pressure and pass it out.

If he’s to stay he’d need to be in a team with energetic midfielders who would leave him to screen the defence. Which makes him a bit of a luxury player (especially considering PSR rules) who we might only need for big games.

I’d say on the balance of his performance he’s probably not the right fit and hopefully our new set up will find some lesser known talents to perform his role.
 
I've seen a lot of people saying we should sign him permanently. That's where we go wrong, we let euphoria of a game cover for a poor season. I think Amrabat is a great character, he is always at 100%, but he is very limited. And we need a big DM player, who can give us freedom to play the way we want.

So, I really hope we've learned our lessons and let him go.

I don't think anyone is expecting Amrabat to be the main midfielder though, the point is that he's a good squad option potentially. That's what his price and wages would suggest. The job of the big midfielder in the squad currently is Casemiro who cost a lot on massive wages. If Casemiro leaves then he will be replaced, but Amrabat could still be useful as a rotation player.
 
Yes I did, it was a joy to watch. I also noticed that we kept it compact and tidy. Baffles me that we didn’t play like this all season.
I wonder if was Martinez being available that enabled us to play that way.
If you ignore that the opponent was City. If you ignore it was a cup final. If you ignore that the result was deserved and that it came in the last game of very disappointing season, I highly doubt, you would praise the performance. The team and manager did really really well, picked a plan, executed it very well but it reduced us to 26% of the ball. I don't know how anybody can think of that as a template for the future or the "should have done that all season.

I've seen a lot of people saying we should sign him permanently. That's where we go wrong, we let euphoria of a game cover for a poor season. I think Amrabat is a great character, he is always at 100%, but he is very limited. And we need a big DM player, who can give us freedom to play the way we want.

So, I really hope we've learned our lessons and let him go.
100%. But as this thread shows, people are prone to let emotion overwhelm them to lead to bad decisions. In yesterdays setup, with all the compactness and the fantastic discipline even Eriksen would have looked like a capable player. And that after one season that showed that he is past it. The tighter it gets, the more the space is congested, the easier the defending becomes. It was exactly the same with Amrabat for Morocco in the WC. Its as if people having seen him struggle in more open games. The man isn't a DM. I really does my head in - as if people have forgotten, what the D in DM stands for and what an effect finally having a capable one in Casemiro had last season. It is a shame that he he doesn't seem to be able to carry on like that but the solution shouldn't be to simply get the next best thing available just because the player looks more capable defensively than Bruno, Eriksen and McTominay. That simply can't be the benchmark. We paid 10 million to have that thing as a loan - to not spend the cash without checking him out. We checked it out, he didn't look comfortable at all and yet people are still ready to splash even more money on the guy. Because of a potential one-off fa cup final game. Those are the decisions that make sure the deadwood counter stays high and healthy.
 
He likely would have looked better this season if he'd had an actual partner in midfield, instead of playing this ridiculous system where one midfielder is supposed to cover half the pitch. Casemiro would also have looked better, and Mainoo probably would have looked even better. We set up all season in a way that made it incredibly difficult on that player. I don't think it's any coincidence that three of Amrabat's best games came in the last four, when ETH finally came to his senses and played a more normal system. Of course, the fourth of those games (Brighton) he was terrible, but three out of four good was still better than we've had the rest of the season.

I'm not too bothered either way. If we can get him back for cheap as a backup, and use that money saved elsewhere that go for it. Alternatively if the money spent on him could be used better elsewhere, then don't.
 
Decline the option. Try and secure him for far cheaper or another loan deal.

Good squad player.
 
Would be a horrendous decision to make it permanent.

was great yesterday - shocking the week before against Brighton.
Surely we can do better than this?
 
If you ignore that the opponent was City. If you ignore it was a cup final. If you ignore that the result was deserved and that it came in the last game of very disappointing season, I highly doubt, you would praise the performance. The team and manager did really really well, picked a plan, executed it very well but it reduced us to 26% of the ball. I don't know how anybody can think of that as a template for the future or the "should have done that all season.
Oh no I’m certainly not saying this a template for the future, far from it. But It was a refreshing change and as many people, both friends and family have said. Why didn’t we play like this all season. I don’t see anything wrong in saying that, or maybe we’re all idiots.
Also, I don’t want Amrabat at the club, we need a proper DM. Like first season Casimero
 
Confirmed defensive midfielders in the PL get sold for 60+ … And a bunch of nobodies go for 20+..

Who do we take if we don’t sign him?

IMG-1479.jpg

That line of thought is exactly how we landed up Donny VDB and exactly why it must be avoided.
 
That line of thought is exactly how we landed up Donny VDB and exactly why it must be avoided.
Not exactly. We tested Amrabatt for a year, he can do a job as a squad player and he is available for half the price we paid for VDB when he was still an unkown entity…
 
For those who think we should keep him as a back up midfielder, what about young Daniel Gore for that role. He had a great few years with Kobbie at at youth level. He was unlucky with injuries at his loan, but he is highly thought of. He was very good alongside Kobbie
 
Oh no I’m certainly not saying this a template for the future, far from it. But It was a refreshing change and as many people, both friends and family have said. Why didn’t we play like this all season. I don’t see anything wrong in saying that, or maybe we’re all idiots.
Also, I don’t want Amrabat at the club, we need a proper DM. Like first season Casimero
Because it isn't what is moving us further. We played a bit like that last season. But it is not the way forward. Look at teams around us, they play differently, more collective plays, way better organisation and synchronisations, advanced pressing systems that involve half the team, counter pressing and so on. We can't go back because "at least that didn't hurt" - it is exactly what Ole did. And when teams adapted, the long night of 0:0 and not scoring started. And when he tried to open up, it all broke apart.

Also if you are known to just sit deep, opponents will be prepared for it. Some teams will just be fine trying to go for goalless draws, others will find ways to break the deadlock. Not like City had no chance in 2nd half. Saturdays match was one game. A game where ETH outcoach Pep because he gambled correctly with how City would try to approach us. That and a very disciplined performance from the whole team. But play that match 10 times, I'd bet my money on City to win more than us.

For those who think we should keep him as a back up midfielder, what about young Daniel Gore for that role. He had a great few years with Kobbie at at youth level. He was unlucky with injuries at his loan, but he is highly thought of. He was very good alongside Kobbie
I agree. Obviously, we also have to make sure not to burn out young players and to make sure, that they are protected. Not everybody is a Mainoo after all. But the idea is still the right one. There is no point loading your squad with players you even initially plan for the bench. The bench should consist of players who try to claim a place in the starting lineup. Or from players who lost such spot a short while ago. And with youngster you think have the potential to become starters in the future. After that, when the season approaches and you see squad area thinner than necessary, by no means, go for it - bring in a veteran, bring in a free transfer. But don't spend 20 million on one that already showed to have struggles with the league while not even the 1st team is fully loaded.
 
I’ll sign him for temporary starter plus sign a young one who has top class talent then integrate the young one into starting XI. He had great game vs City, did good vs arsenal and Newcastle. I think he started to understand or get used to with the high level intensity of PL style.

£17m is a good value for a punt after his recent performance. £50m-£60m on two midfielders (£17m of Amrabat plus £33m or £43m of top class talent young DM) will be much more ideal than just splashing £60m to £100m on a single deep-midfielder.
 
He has done well in some games, not well in others. I am not convinced we should sign him permanently.
 
This club has some stupid fans, it's got to be said.

Spend a decade wondering why City are a million miles ahead of us, but then you'll see crazy opinions being thrown out about keeping mediocre players and managers as soon as we have one decent result. (the entire squad is shite and needs to be replaced as soon as we lose, of course)

I truly hope Ineos are ruthless in their ambitions to take this club back to the top, and don't entertain ideas of keeping staff around who are rubbish for the majority of the season.
 
This club has some stupid fans, it's got to be said.

Spend a decade wondering why City are a million miles ahead of us, but then you'll see crazy opinions being thrown out about keeping mediocre players and managers as soon as we have one decent result. (the entire squad is shite and needs to be replaced as soon as we lose, of course)

I truly hope Ineos are ruthless in their ambitions to take this club back to the top, and don't entertain ideas of keeping staff around who are rubbish for the majority of the season.
Not sure anyone has spent more than 2 seconds wondering why City win a lot...and then you add in some of their charges are about hiding this info so the number might be much higher.
18001.jpeg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.