Stefan de Vrij

devilish said:
We currently have 3 CBs who can barely remain fit (Smalling, Evans and Jones) and an EPL untested CB (Keane). On top of that we expect our CBs to act as cover/competition for Rafael whose hardly renowned for remaining fit either.

We need at least 1 CB. Hopefully we would add also a right back cover
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That is probably reason why signing a RB and CB has high on the list as signings another CM and a wide player. First we got to move on the likes of unfort for fletcher, along with Anderson, either cleverly or fellaini, along with Bebe Nani and young, to get some money back on the dead wood that is blocking the positions we need strengthening
 
ricky-romeo said:
£7m plus add-ons for de vrij is a much better deal than £12m for vermaelen.
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Can't see United paying that for Vermaelen - not with his injury record. The talk was they won't pay over £6 million, hence why it hasn't been done.
 
Oneunited26 said:
That is probably reason why signing a RB and CB has high on the list as signings another CM and a wide player. First we got to move on the likes of unfort for fletcher, along with Anderson, either cleverly or fellaini, along with Bebe Nani and young, to get some money back on the dead wood that is blocking the positions we need strengthening
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I doubt that we could shift such a number of players even if we wanted to. The truth, however, is that we need to move on a lot of the dead wood so as to create space on the wage bill . I suspect that Nani, Young, Anderson and Hernandez could be the first batch out, obviously with other insignificant, no disrespect intended, players like Bebe. Obviously in January some will follow and I'd think that by next summer the process would be complete .
 
Is this guy really that good? I mean, to me, he hasn't really stood out amongst the three Dutch CBs. Is he better than Vlaar or is it just that De Vrij doesn't play for Aston Villa?
 
itso 7 said:
I doubt that we could shift such a number of players even if we wanted to. The truth, however, is that we need to move on a lot of the dead wood so as to create space on the wage bill . I suspect that Nani, Young, Anderson and Hernandez could be the first batch out, obviously with other insignificant, no disrespect intended, players like Bebe. Obviously in January some will follow and I'd think that by next summer the process would be complete .
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Oh yes over a 2 to 3 summer period, I can see the club moving on all of carrick cleverly fletcher anderson fellaini young nani BEBE kagwa zaha and hernandez. I do not think there will be hardly any of the midfield survivors of the disastrous david Moyes era, and rapid decline of the latter fergie era team. As LVG tries to rebuild from ground zero
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
Is this guy really that good? I mean, to me, he hasn't really stood out amongst the three Dutch CBs. Is he better than Vlaar or is it just that De Vrij doesn't play for Aston Villa?
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I think he is really good and for me he has really stood out of the back three. Vlaar has been really poor, BMI has been good and De Vrij has been the best if you consider all the games they have played this WC. LVG opted for De Vrij over BMI yesterday, that tells you something.

He is a lot better than Vlaar, but that does not say much.
 
Giggsforever said:
I think he is really good and for me he has really stood out of the back three. Vlaar has been really poor, BMI has been good and De Vrij has been the best if you consider all the games they have played this WC. LVG opted for De Vrij over BMI yesterday, that tells you something.

He is a lot better than Vlaar, but that does not say much.
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Must admit I've not really noticed any of them being better that the others but I'll bow to your judgement.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
Is this guy really that good? I mean, to me, he hasn't really stood out amongst the three Dutch CBs. Is he better than Vlaar or is it just that De Vrij doesn't play for Aston Villa?
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Not really, he's pretty average. Wouldn't look out of place at somewhere like Villa.
 
No one is suggesting he's the next Vidic.

But it's worth mentioning that Vidic wasn't supposed to be the next big thing either.

I don't think anyone is this thread has said that he's the solution to losing Rio and Vidic and will step into the first XI.
 
I thought Vlaar stood out in a negative way yesterday. De Vrij has played well this tournament. No idea about him apart from the WC, though.

Doesn't seem like a hugely high-upside type, though. If we sign him it will be because we only have 3 CB's (or 3 and a possibly crocked Vermaelen) and Van Gaal will want someone he trusts right away.
 
We need defenders, not only one. De Vrij could be a good and cheap addition, rather than Vermaelen who is as injury prone as the one's we have.

Of course Vidic isn't replaced by signing him!
 
Santos J said:
Not really, he's pretty average. Wouldn't look out of place at somewhere like Villa.
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You make it sound like playing at Villa means you can't go on to play at a top club.

Most top players start at clubs that aren't top clubs, I think that's a bit unfair to Villa and teams like them.
 
gooDevil said:
You make it sound like playing at Villa means you can't go on to play at a top club.

Most top players start at clubs that aren't top clubs, I think that's a bit unfair to Villa and teams like them.
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Not really, just that people who are expecting him to come and be something special would be disappointed as he's no better than Smalling, Evans or Jones.

We don't need a centre back with the potential to go on and be alright, we need someone who will come in and be a guaranteed starter so we can sort out a consistent back line for once.
 
mabe I missed it but I haven't read anything that he is "special". Nobody expects him to be the leader of our back. For what is availble on the market he seems to be cheap and young enough to learn under LvG. He really didn't look bad this WC. He is amongst the best player for LvG's side with RVP, Robben and Depay.

That we also need some leader at the back is a different story for me.

We currently have 3 CB's + Keane which means little cover especially with the injury record those 3 have and that they also have to cover RB atm.
 
Looks as though the Vermaelen deal will happen so unlikely we'll go for De Vrij too. No entirely convinced on either to be honest.
 
We need experience in CB not another youngster in my opinion. We already have Jones and Smalling who need someone to learn off
 
NMF said:
So are we after both De Vrij and Vermaelen?
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Who knows, were we ever really after Garay? Cavanni? Gaitan?

I'm sure LvG will bring in the best CB he can get a hold of, but they're not in great supply these days.

Dortmund isn't going to sell Hummels when they're already losing Lewandowski.

So who are the CBs people think we can get that are clearly better than Vermaelen?
 
gooDevil said:
Who knows, were we ever really after Garay? Cavanni? Gaitan?

I'm sure LvG will bring in the best CB he can get a hold of, but they're not in great supply these days.

Dortmund isn't going to sell Hummels when they're already losing Lewandowski.

So who are the CBs people think we can get that are clearly better than Vermaelen?
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I see that too. Only Benatia comes to mind. If we can't get a world-class defender and still have to cover RB with CB's i would like us to go into the season with 5 CB's and even that wasn't enough last year to prevent midfielders from playing in the back four.
 
red_7 said:
I see that too. Only Benatia comes to mind. If we can't get a world-class defender and still have to cover RB with CB's i would like us to go into the season with 5 CB's and even that wasn't enough last year to prevent midfielders from playing in the back four.
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We had 11 games more than we'll have this season though (10 in UCL and one in Supercup). 5CB for this season will be too much.
 
De Vrij would be better than Vermelean in the sense that he is younger, cheaper, will be on lesser wages, is less injury prone and hasn't been already proven to be crap in the premier league.

If it was a choice between the two I'd go for De Vrij but I remain unconvinced by him as a player.
 
You don't know if our domestic cup runs last longer, than it could be only mariginally less games and the player and if they all are injured at the same time it doesn't matter how long the season lasts
 
Ole's_toe_poke said:
De Vrij would be better than Vermelean in the sense that he is younger, cheaper, will be on lesser wages, is less injury prone and hasn't been already proven to be crap in the premier league.

If it was a choice between the two I'd go for De Vrij but I remain unconvinced by him as a player.
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100% agree
 
red_7 said:
I see that too. Only Benatia comes to mind. If we can't get a world-class defender and still have to cover RB with CB's i would like us to go into the season with 5 CB's and even that wasn't enough last year to prevent midfielders from playing in the back four.
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Personally I'd rather see us spend 30m on Miranda, it would be worth it in the short term imho because we're rebuilding, the more quality players we have the easier it is to bring in more of them.
 
red_7 said:
We need defenders, not only one. De Vrij could be a good and cheap addition, rather than Vermaelen who is as injury prone as the one's we have.

Of course Vidic isn't replaced by signing him!
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We only need 1 CB.
 
He reminds me of a more aggressive Smalling but without the high pace for a CB and he's a couple of inches shorter too.

Good positioning, likes a tackle, leaves the ball playing to the rest, he's made the most tackles and interceptions of the Dutch backline in their games so far. Against Spain he was pretty remarkable making 7 tackles and 4 interceptions. Mascherano has the most tackles in the competition and his biggest performance was 7 tackles 6 interceptions against Nigeria. Other than that De Vrij's performance was one of the best so far in terms of recovering the ball for his team. Obviously giving away the penalty is a big black mark on the performance, hence I think the rest of the performance went a bit unnoticed

As I said before it would be a bit surprising if we sign one of the Netherlands defenders since LVG felt defence was a weakeness so he went to 3 at the back. However, if we were going to sign one of them I'd be happy that it was De Vrij as he's shown me more defensive qualities than Indi and Vlaar is older and is suspect to pace.
 
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Not convinced by this guy from the 4 matches I've seen of him. Not sure why - can't put my finger on it.

Will gladly be proven wrong though.
 
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