The left flank looks quite weak defensively. Mendy is not that great when it comes to defending. You can't expect Belotti to track back as it will ruin the whole purpose of playing him. Pogba needs to cover for Belotti but he himself is not that great defending the flanks.
That's what I think we should be looking at. Pogba with more freedom to roam on down the left, more width from our fullbacks and positions 1 and 2 are rotated between Morata, Belotti and Rashford. In a 60 game season with no injuries they could have 40 starts and 20 sub appearances each which they would all be happy with imo. That's a team with goals in it.
Morata and Belotti are both hard workers, Belotti doing dirty work and carrying forward from deep with Morata working the channels pulling centrebacks around and creating space in the middle. That midfield would be hard to beat but most importantly, the front line can break down defence with physical play, technical dribbling and in the air with two tall, strong and good in the air strikers.
The most important thing though Is that we are buying two proven goal scorers and goal scorers win league titles.
Summer Transfer Window 2017
- Thread starter AgentP
- Start date
Bit much? Rashford most likely won't be a starter next year.
I think you're worry a bit too much over the specific placement of the players. It's a 3 man midfield with Herrera playing alongside Fabinho freeing up Pogba to do his thing. Herrera isn't a 5th attacking man.
We have a DM in Fabinho who can provide some cover and a free midfielder in Pogba with responsibility to support Mendy deep. No issue.
One of the great strengths of Belotti is his work rate from deep.
Darmain off? Thought he played well towards the end of the season?! How many more chances is Shaw going to get?
That's what I think we should be looking at. Pogba with more freedom to roam on down the left, more width from our fullbacks and positions 1 and 2 are rotated between Morata, Belotti and Rashford. In a 60 game season with no injuries they could have 40 starts and 20 sub appearances each which they would all be happy with imo. That's a team with goals in it.
Morata and Belotti are both hard workers, Belotti doing dirty work and carrying forward from deep with Morata working the channels pulling centrebacks around and creating space in the middle. That midfield would be hard to beat but most importantly, the front line can break down defence with physical play, technical dribbling and in the air with two tall, strong and good in the air strikers.
The most important thing though Is that we are buying two proven goal scorers and goal scorers win league titles.
It's obviously better than the team I laid out but that forward line is unbalanced, it's essentially a 4-4-2 diamond that would rely 100% on the fullbacks for width, it's really lacking a wide forward to vary things up and add some dynamic creativity, it's 2 #9's and a #10, very narrow in terms of the skillsets these players possess.
I have never been impressed with Darmian, also not at the end of the season. Been largely underwhelming ever since he has come. I had hoped he would have been able to bring some attacking flair to our fullback position but he never has. Imo a large problem of us not scoring enough goals is due to our fullbacks not pitching in offensively, Darmian is probably the worst one in that respect. So I understand why he is off.
I get that but we'll need to bring in someone else if he leaves. Can't depend on just Shaw and Blind.
Agreed if he leaves, he should be replaced.
What exactly has Shaw done wrong other than get injured?
What exactly has he done in general other than get injured?
Was our best player before he got injured in Van Gaals last year. Hasn't really had a fair crack under Mourinho.
'How many more chances is he going to have' is a ridiculous question.
Same as Jones. If he cannot be consistently relied upon, all his talent and potential are for very little. The last couple of seasons are when he really should have been shifting through the gears, establishing himself as the mainstay LB for this club for the next 10 years and one of the best in Europe.
I would give him another season as I think he can be fantastic. If he has another season dogged by injuries then it will be time for us to cut our losses on him.
I always thought Darmian was a RB. Shows how much I know then.
Adrien Silva
Mateo Musacchio
Francka Kessie
Ricardo Rodrigueza
AC Milan having comfortably best 'window' so far
Mateo Musacchio
Francka Kessie
Ricardo Rodrigueza
AC Milan having comfortably best 'window' so far
It's Andre Silva from Porto that they bought, Adrien Silva plays for Sporting Lisbon.
Right. Probably even better for them
He can play both RB and LB
Well, a few weeks before the squad jets off for the summer tour - Jose wants his business concluded by then. How are we feeling about this window?
Happy with Lindelof, disappointed about missing out on Griezmann and seeing Bernardo Silva sign for City.
Curious to sign who we will sign next, I'am excited about Morata and personally I would really like to see Perisic sign on aswell but those deals seem to be difficult as hell to complete.
The Ronaldo situation is also interesting to follow. I don't think anything will come off it but if he would leave, we are I think his most likley destination and that is a very exciting idea.
Looking like the Morata deal is on hold now with the Ronaldo situation. They won't sell both.
Starting to feel less optimistic now with the Ronaldo situation possibly scuppering our chance to get Morata, or at least delaying the deal while that stuff plays out. This coupled with missing out on Griezmann has the potential to make this a difficult window for us, through no fault of our own.
I can't see how we'll have our main business done before the tour given the Ronaldo tantrum potentially affecting the Morata deal, but I can see Inter finally selling Perisic to us this month so we'll at least have him and Lindelof ready for the tour.
No idea what we're doing beyond that - hopefully a DM, but if Fabinho is off our radar then feck knows what we're doing there.
He got injured just a few weeks into the season, so that's not saying much.
For me, this is starting to feel like the Moyes window where we get led down various dead ends (Griezeman, Morata, Ronaldo) and then end up buying Fellaini (Matic / Perisic) on deadline day
As long as we buy the players Mourinho wants then everything will be ok.
Think that horse has bolted with Griezeman who I reckon was the centrepiece of his plans. And now Morata looking doubtful. Hopefully it'll all come good.
I'm sure he has a list of several players at each position that he wants, which of course could change if big players suddenly become available.
The transfer window has not even opened and yet drivel like this is being spouted. Nuts.
Bebeto's son joins Sporting Club Lissabon. @Peyroteo, what an interesting signing! What are the expectations on Mattheus?
It's a cheap gamble. He's been good for Estoril but I'm not sure he's the caliber of player we need. Hopefully he's good enough to at least be an important part of the squad.
Buy some worldies already ya fecks
It's a cheap gamble. He's been good for Estoril but I'm not sure he's the caliber of player we need. Hopefully he's good enough to at least be an important part of the squad.
Cool, let's hope so!
What an epic clip from an epic wc-game
, when Bebeto creates a great tribute to Mattheus. I am happy that you found it Even though I feel bad for the dutch, especially after that comeback, yet that game remains as one of my favourites from wc 94, especially the goals from Romario and Branco.Has this summer suddenly seemed to go all topsy turvy with the Ronaldo rumors kicking off? I mean summer is always crazy but now is it totally off the deep end?
Apart from Lindelof. What other transfers are looking concrete.
Nothing concrete it seems. Apparently we're still trying to sign Morata but Madrid are being the usual cnuts so it will drag on until the end. I heard they still haven't replaced the fax machine so it'll probably die in the last minutes of the transfer window and we'll be stuck with Rooney and Rashford up front. Rooney is starting training two weeks early though so he will be like a new signing. Everything else you may see in the twitter thread is all speculation from fake ITKs.
Hey, don't be that harsh to him.
Morata and Perisic are the only links that're strong, the rest are BS.
Its June 20th.
i know we are only 20 days in but its been very boring so far, not just us but nothing really has happened yet which has made me sit up and take note. Hope we get our business done early this year
Thanks for that. Giving a list of players to sign is one thing , but getting those players could prove difficult.
Jose has said he wants his business done before we go on our summer tour. That leaves us 3 weeks to buy 3 or 4 players and offload a similar amount I guess. Factor in the time it takes to finalise personal terms and do the medical and other formalities and that leaves us around 2 weeks. We are in for a roller coaster couple of weeks then.