Terminating The Reguilón Loan Deal

Thought it was a silly decision at the time considering Shaw and Malacia had been out all season

Looks worse now

For a different thread but I really wouldn't be bothered if the manager decided to move Shaw on. Good player when he's playing. But United will never get 6 months straight out of him ever again. And his injuries and niggles will only get worse over the coming seasons.
 
I too thought we were terminating his loan to free up space for a forward at the time, but honestly it was more weird that we signed Reguilon in the first place. If you want to sign cover for your two injured left backs, it would seem a decent idea to get someone who didn't spend most of last season injured. The fact that he was only fit (undoubtedly only half fit, mostly) for around 600 or so minutes was something we should have seen coming.

I recall that Cucurella was the first choice, but Chelsea playing him in the Carabao made him less attractive. So we basically got 90 extra minutes out of Reguilon on that side, but had to do without a lefty at the back for long stretches in the league and in Europe on the other.
 
What I find more stupid is the idea that Lindelof is the best suited player at the club to fill in there. He clearly isn't. He's hopeless there and has absolutely none of the attributes required to play there. It'd be like putting Juan Mata at centreback. This is making the situation much worse than it needs to be.

We have players in our U21s who play at fullback. Any other team would use one of those. Or if they did decide to bring someone in on loan instead due to injuries, maybe get someone who wasn't highly likely to be injured nearly all the time.

We literally can't function as a team with Lindelof there because he isn't an option on the ball and is a liability defensively and positionally.
 
noodlehair said:
What I find more stupid is the idea that Lindelof is the best suited player at the club to fill in there. He clearly isn't. He's hopeless there and has absolutely none of the attributes required to play there. It'd be like putting Juan Mata at centreback. This is making the situation much worse than it needs to be.

We have players in our U21s who play at fullback. Any other team would use one of those. Or if they did decide to bring someone in on loan instead due to injuries, maybe get someone who wasn't highly likely to be injured nearly all the time.

We literally can't function as a team with Lindelof there because he isn't an option on the ball and is a liability defensively and positionally.
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Yep, agreed. I'd much rather see a youngster in there, mistakes and all, than Lindelof giving you exactly as little as can be expected.
 
noodlehair said:
What I find more stupid is the idea that Lindelof is the best suited player at the club to fill in there. He clearly isn't. He's hopeless there and has absolutely none of the attributes required to play there. It'd be like putting Juan Mata at centreback. This is making the situation much worse than it needs to be.

We have players in our U21s who play at fullback. Any other team would use one of those. Or if they did decide to bring someone in on loan instead due to injuries, maybe get someone who wasn't highly likely to be injured nearly all the time.

We literally can't function as a team with Lindelof there because he isn't an option on the ball and is a liability defensively and positionally.
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Thing is that any of our half decent young fullbacks have been sold/loaned - Fernandez, Williams, Laird, Jurado all went in summer. Which is exactly why we needed Reguilon in the first place.

I wonder who is next in line if Lindelof gets injured, I suppose Amrabat played there already
 
noodlehair said:
We have players in our U21s who play at fullback. Any other team would use one of those. Or if they did decide to bring someone in on loan instead due to injuries, maybe get someone who wasn't highly likely to be injured nearly all the time.
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We kind of don't, really. Sam Murray was starting for the U21s mostly, and he's now on a part time loan at non-league Rochdale.

I thought we should be giving Alvaro a shot when Shaw went down in August, but given he couldn't get games in Spain and now can't get them in Portugal, maybe that was a complete non-starter too.

Harry Amass is talked about a lot, but he's only 16. As of last week, however, he has been training with the first team. But he wasn't really an option before that, and even now would be a pretty risky one. He was probably only with the seniors to mimic the opposition left back in the 11v11 drills.
 
Rood said:
No point comparing to last season, it's a totally different scenario that lead to Reguilon being here in the first place.

Since Malacia has been out the entire season and not yet back when the decision was made, it was a big gamble on the fitness of players who have shown no sign of being fit this season.

Are you happy with Lindelof at LB?
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Malacia and AWB will be back soon and this problem goes away. Either that or we promote a youngster. I wasn’t a big fan of the decision to get Reguilon in in the first place. But it did make sense when Malacia was definitely out for several months. Makes no sense when he is (allegedly) already back in training.

And yeah, Lindelof can do a job at LB if we’re really stuck. He was up against one of the quickest right wingers in the league for 45 minutes yesterday and I don’t remember Ogbene getting to the byline once. I’ve seen much more highly rated LBs look a lot more vulnerable than he did against Luton, that’s for sure.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Malacia and AWB will be back soon and this problem goes away. Either that or we promote a youngster. I wasn’t a big fan of the decision to get Reguilon in in the first place. But it did make sense when Malacia was definitely out for several months. Makes no sense when he is (allegedly) already back in training.
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See above regards promoting a youngster - there are none anywhere near ready, which again is exactly why we got Reguilon in the first place

Malacia has been 'back soon' for ages already, obviously going to take a while to get match fit after that too

Not clear on why AWB has missed so many matches this season either
 
It’s a shame because I really highly rated Malacia. Just don’t know what the feck has happened to him. Hope it’s just recovering from injury and not a Sancho-like situation
 
Rood said:
See above regards promoting a youngster - there are none anywhere near ready, which again is exactly why we got Reguilon in the first place

Malacia has been 'back soon' for ages already, obviously going to take a while to get match fit after that too
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See above edit re Lindelof. His incompetence as a stand in fullback is being wildly exaggerated. Probably fuelled by Neville’s hysterical commentary in the Villa match. And, once again, you all need to remember how hopeless Reguilon was in his last few outings for us. He’s good fun going forwards but he’s a bad defender.
 
I'd rather move AWB to the LB and keep Dalot as RB, that right side seems to be the best thing that happened to us this season. AWB can still do the defensive work on the left and it's not like we're getting much from him offensively. Plus, playing behind Rashford he will be pretty busy anyway.
 
LawCharltonBest said:
Thought it was a silly decision at the time considering Shaw and Malacia had been out all season

Looks worse now

For a different thread but I really wouldn't be bothered if the manager decided to move Shaw on. Good player when he's playing. But United will never get 6 months straight out of him ever again. And his injuries and niggles will only get worse over the coming seasons.
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Weirdly I think his injury problems might help us with Amass breaking through, as he will get plenty of game time without the pressure of being first choice. That's if the club are confident he will be ready to play a part next season. If not, yeah we need someone who can be available, be it Malacia or someone else, but got to be careful re blocking Amass route to first team.
 
Probably the worst decision we’ve made this season. I don’t rate Reguilon at all at all but fecking hell who thought terminating the loan was a good idea??
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Malacia and AWB will be back soon and this problem goes away. Either that or we promote a youngster. I wasn’t a big fan of the decision to get Reguilon in in the first place. But it did make sense when Malacia was definitely out for several months. Makes no sense when he is (allegedly) already back in training.

And yeah, Lindelof can do a job at LB if we’re really stuck. He was up against one of the quickest right wingers in the league for 45 minutes yesterday and I don’t remember Ogbene getting to the byline once. I’ve seen much more highly rated LBs look a lot more vulnerable than he did against Luton, that’s for sure.
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The Aston Villa game we were a shambles on that side the entire second half where Lindelof was all over the place both on and off the ball. It was only their inept finishing that stopped it costing us the game on about 6 different occasions. Its not his fault he isn't a left back, but just about being ok against Luton and being torn to shreds by Villa deliberately targetting our left doesn't inspire me with confidence, and nor does the level of our performance whenever we've played Lindelof or Amrabat there previously. At best we get away with it, although from memory only yesterday and a league cup game against an apologetically pointless Palace side where that has happened. I wouldn't even count the Villa game as getting away with it as there were too many "how the f*ck didn't they score that" moments to put in under anything other than "opposition made god angry before game"
 
Get In Scholesy said:
I may be in the minority that really don’t care we sent him back. Why is this even worth having a moan about?
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Classicinternet fans.
We're in a decent run of form so they have to find something to moan about.

We barely trusted him to play when Shaw was out anyway.
 
We should have been well stocked at left back with Shaw, Malacia, Regulion, Fernández and Amass yet somehow it’s ended up with us playing Dalot or Lindelof there for a lot of the season.

I said on a United page on Facebook yesterday that the problem with Shaw is we keep bringing him back from injury early because of how important he is, I have zero idea what the feck is going on with Malacia but it’s weirder than when Varane was suddenly out of favour.

I felt at the time we shouldn’t have loaned out Fernandez as I personally think he’s better than Malacia and is certainly far more likely to be available, I’d honestly rather we play Amass than Lindelof.
 
Is Malacia doing time or something? Been so long now, you wonder if he'll ever come back
 
What I have seen from Reguilon’s loan he’s been quite good going forward but not good defensively.
I dont think we should keep players just in case 3 other options get injured. Better to get rid of the players who get injured all the time and if needed fill up with players from other positions, like we’ve done now with Lindelof at LB. Sure Lindelof is not great as LB but at the same time it hasn’t influenced us at all result wise. We have won all games Lindelof played LB except the one against City and I doubt that would have been a 3 pointer just because of Reg playing instead. In other words, we wouldn’t have a single point more if Reguilon had played instead.
 
I see the point in the question. But even when he was here he was barely getting in the team, and we did play a RB at LB over him and even Amrabat too. When he did play he was great going forward but a liability at the back.

It was wasted from both of our POV. Seems silly in hindsight as injuries we thought we had cleared are back
 
noodlehair said:
The Aston Villa game we were a shambles on that side the entire second half where Lindelof was all over the place both on and off the ball. It was only their inept finishing that stopped it costing us the game on about 6 different occasions. Its not his fault he isn't a left back, but just about being ok against Luton and being torn to shreds by Villa deliberately targetting our left doesn't inspire me with confidence, and nor does the level of our performance whenever we've played Lindelof or Amrabat there previously. At best we get away with it, although from memory only yesterday and a league cup game against an apologetically pointless Palace side where that has happened. I wouldn't even count the Villa game as getting away with it as there were too many "how the f*ck didn't they score that" moments to put in under anything other than "opposition made god angry before game"
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It's more than Lindelof's defending as well. In addition to being out of position and too slow to get back, he contributes nothing in attack. His ability to play out from the back is also almost non-existent from the left back position. We suffered dramatically in that aspect of the game when Martinez went out injured. With Shaw out injured, we only have Dalot who is capable playing out from the back four. This is a major concern. Also, with Dalot, Shaw, Martinez and Varane, we can keep a high line because we have decent to good pace at the back. With Lindelof, Maguire, Varane and Dalot, only two of four players can actually cover distance.
 
It only takes a few minutes to come up with some pretty reasonable reasons for Reguilon not being at the clubs...financial/FFP, loan conditions, players returning from injury, other players in the squad able to cover at LB.

Turning everything the club does into a negative is so 2023! Get onboard the Sir Jim train and be positive for 2024!
 
His contract was always for 6 months, I suppose just cover for the injuries. So it was just concluded rather than terminated early. He didn't really add value and since malacia was not yet back probably a replacement would have been the best option.
 
I think we were seriously exploring loan options as cover for Hojlund but nothing materialised. A bad decision with hindsight.
 
Rossa said:
It's more than Lindelof's defending as well. In addition to being out of position and too slow to get back, he contributes nothing in attack. His ability to play out from the back is also almost non-existent from the left back position. We suffered dramatically in that aspect of the game when Martinez went out injured. With Shaw out injured, we only have Dalot who is capable playing out from the back four. This is a major concern. Also, with Dalot, Shaw, Martinez and Varane, we can keep a high line because we have decent to good pace at the back. With Lindelof, Maguire, Varane and Dalot, only two of four players can actually cover distance.
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Don't really disagree with any of that.

Also, maybe I'm being harsh on Lindelof, but I'm uncomfortable when he has to do anything. He is vulnerable when players run at him, he is bullied in the box or doesn't pick players up. When we are boxed in he panics (this is a team thing tbf). Going forwards he just visibly look like someone you don't want to end up with the ball at any point in the build up. I wouldn't pick someone who I find questionable in their own position to play in someone else's, unless they actually had some of the attributes required to possibly do ok there. If you had a checkbox of all the attributes you do want and all the attributes you don't want in a left back, Lindelof's ticks would all be on the "don't want" section.
 
It's not hindsight. At the time most of us knew this was a huge mistake. Shaw is a great player but we can never count on him as a starter again and need another LB option. Sadly we have other huge needs in the squad.
 
Redlyn said:
His contract was always for 6 months, I suppose just cover for the injuries. So it was just concluded rather than terminated early. He didn't really add value and since malacia was not yet back probably a replacement would have been the best option.
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I'm sure we could have spoken to Spurs and asked for him till the end of the season. After all, he's at Brentford on loan now.

Makes no sense to overlook something like this.
 
Just bad luck i think - they were under the impression Malacia, Shaw and Bissaka would all be back after X-mas and all 3 have suffered setbacks.

Not sure why we don't play Amrabat there, anyone is better than Lidelof at LB.
 
Malone_Post said:
Who’s bright idea was this then?

Once again we’re left with Lindelof playing left back because we have no fit left backs available. Malacia has been out all season & Shaw has always had injury problems. And yet we decide to get rid of the only natural alternative we had in the squad.

Just another genius decision from the club.
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Whose bright idea was it?

He’s no good, but neither is Shaw and Malacia is hardly any good either. I remember when people would moan about Silvestre. He was a good player and would be about the best player in the squad these days.
 
Danny said:
I'm sure we could have spoken to Spurs and asked for him till the end of the season. After all, he's at Brentford on loan now.

Makes no sense to overlook something like this.
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Yeah I'm not saying nothing could have been done to keep him. But the issue wasnt letting him go, it was not replacing him in that case because tbh he was really underwhelming.
 
I think that becauae of FFP, we didn't have money for another 6 months. ETH said that we couldn't even afford to loan a striker.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Malacia and AWB will be back soon and this problem goes away. Either that or we promote a youngster. I wasn’t a big fan of the decision to get Reguilon in in the first place. But it did make sense when Malacia was definitely out for several months. Makes no sense when he is (allegedly) already back in training.

And yeah, Lindelof can do a job at LB if we’re really stuck. He was up against one of the quickest right wingers in the league for 45 minutes yesterday and I don’t remember Ogbene getting to the byline once. I’ve seen much more highly rated LBs look a lot more vulnerable than he did against Luton, that’s for sure.
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I don't think Malacia will be back "soon" though. Going off of the last update he still isn't in team training, and by the decently reliable ITK's there's still not specific time frame for him.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Malacia and AWB will be back soon and this problem goes away.
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I think Ten Hag said in his last press conference that Malacia and AWB both had set backs and are still out for "weeks". Could be wrong though.
 
We need chips ahoy. Now more than ever. I reckon he can be a good backup... should we ever look for a backup maybe we can try to sign him seeing how happy he was here and he was alright, with a few standout performances.
 
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