The centre-forward market...

Bosnian_fan said:
But Lautaro is not playing as a lone center forward either. He is also shadow striker for Lukaku/Džeko. This is fourth season that he is exclusively playing as a part of top two rather than lone forward.
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I'm aware of that. But he plays CF in a 4-3-3 in the NT quite often and successfully. I think the difference is that Lautaro is a SS who can easily play as a CF too, while Nkunku is an offensive allrounder who scores lots of goals, but ultimately would be better used as a wing forward or CAM (where his roots are) in our system. Lautaro is the only CF that I would be happy to spend 100m for.
 
Id like us to sign a hard-running, horrible b**tard of a CF who bites, claws, pinches, chases, elbows, kicks...and hopefully scores a few goals too! :D
 
pocco said:
Nkunku at €60m buyout clause next summer is a good bet. Felix would be amazing, particularly a good foil for our inverted type wingers who should score plenty. He's never going to be available though.
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I'll take him instead of Martial who can't stay fit for 2 seconds
 
How highly do people rate Charlie Mcneil?

Does the caf think he could be a potential option for us a year from now?
 
Whoever utd do sign next summer, they have to be able to hold up the ball, play others in and be good in the air. ETH does like his fair share of crosses put in by his inverted wingers.

A striker for the system is more important than a talented individual.
 
Idxomer said:
Can he keep his scoring up though? The most he scored before last season was 11 goals back in 16/17.
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This season is make or break. He was incredible last season. If he can do it again this season we should go for him
 
The team is crying out for a striker who:

1) Actually spends his time occupying the CF position.
2) Has the physicality to act as a target man for both crosses and the long balls we use to bypass the opposition press.
3) Also has the physicality to press and harry the opposition defenders effectively.
4) Is a goalscorer.

We don't need someone who is going to vacate the CF position to try and get involved in general play a lot, or who is particularly adept at creating opportunities for others, or who has particularly outstanding technique. I prefer that sort of striker, but that's not what the team needs given the profile of players we already have and the way both this team and ETH's Ajax tended to play.

So rather than focusing on which striker is the best generally, the question should be which striker best fits the profile we need.
 
United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich will all be going after the next big striker. The competition for his signature next summer will be insane!
 
sullydnl said:
The team is crying out for a striker who:

1) Actually spends his time occupying the CF position.
2) Has the physicality to act as a target man for both crosses and the long balls we use to bypass the opposition press.
3) Also has the physicality to press and harry the opposition defenders effectively.
4) Is a goalscorer.

We don't need someone who is going to vacate the CF position to try and get involved in general play a lot, or who is particularly adept at creating opportunities for others, or who has particularly outstanding technique. I prefer that sort of striker, but that's not what the team needs given the profile of players we already have and the way both this team and ETH's Ajax tended to play.

So rather than focusing on which striker is the best generally, the question should be which striker best fits the profile we need.
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I think you’re right, and it’s clearly the profile ten Hag wanted to add to the side - all links were to Morata, Arnautovic, and Kalajzdic — bigger strikers who can put themselves about a bit. The Athletic had a quote from ten Hag where he referred to Arnautovic as a “nasty bastard”, I think that’s the type profile he wants leading the line to complement our technically gifted but physically softer players like Sancho, Fernandes, Rashford, Antony etc.

The likes of Ivan Toney and Mitrovic fit that profile well, but the question is really one of — is the juice worth the squeeze for their actual ability? Are these strikers going to elevate their game to match the costs associated and the position of being starting no.9 for a side that wants CL football?

It’s an interesting one, and I’m still not convinced there’s anything close to a sure answer out there in the market. Liverpool went huge on a striker this summer and even before he arrived there was massive question marks about his technical ability.

Tricky job being a scout/the manager recommending a no.9 to go all in for next summer, eh?
 
Toney definitely making a name for himself second season in the league. Looks quite the player and brings in others in a way that would be great for ETH.
 
Ted Lasso said:
Toney definitely making a name for himself second season in the league. Looks quite the player and brings in others in a way that would be great for ETH.
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For 50m pounds that Brentford will want for him we could bring a better striker
 
TheLord said:
United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich will all be going after the next big striker. The competition for his signature next summer will be insane!
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Arsenal have Jesus
Barcelona have Lewandowski
Liverpool just signed Nunez
Madrid have Benzema. If he declines they'll go for Mbappe (maybe either way)

Chelsea, us and Bayern (unless they want to play Mane there) are the ones looking.
 
I believe, from of our current strikers (Martial, Rashford, Ronaldo), ten Hag prefers Martial because his back to goal play is superior to the others, and if we look at his previous strikers, most, if not all, have excelled in this area, whether it be a false 9 in Tadic (tried Eriksen there first game) or a target man like Haller.

Having said that, ten Hag has played Rashford in Martial's absence, and I think it's fair to say Rashford struggles with his back to goal. I think where he gets the nod over Ronaldo is due to his dynamism and work rate.

For me, whoever we do get needs to be good at holding up the ball, especially as we have a player like Bruno as our attacking midfielder. I personally find it no coincidence that we see a better Bruno when Martial is in the team, as the two dovetail superbly. Its kind of like the partnership we saw from Kane and Alli under Poch.

If you look at the strikers ten Hag was apparently in for, i.e. Arnautovic, Kalajdzic, Sesko, etc, they are all big, strong, target men type strikers, and I believe that's the profile of striker we'll be perusing next season, or even in January depending on what happens with Ronaldo.

Alexander Mitrovic
Ivan Toney
Benjamin Sesko
Patrik Schick
Dusan Vlahovic
Tammy Abraham
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (wildcard)

May not be fancy names but the players above will give us a different option to what we currently have. Well, they'd give us similar to what Ronaldo gave us last season with better work rate and perhaps better hold and link play.

An option of Martial, Rashford and one of the players above would be a perfect blend, in my opinion, with the aforementioned two more than capable of playing with them if we were to go with two up top late on in games.
 
Mitrovic is killing it. Keep this up, won't be long before other club coming for him.
 
Ollie watkins as a slightly leftfield choice. Seems to tick all the boxes, good physicality, good in the air, holds the ball up well, quick, works hard for the team, decent technique, good finisher.

Could deffo do alot worse, Villa would probably want a ridiculous price for him though.
 
Osimhen is the man IMO. I don't know if he fits a 'profile' for Ten Hag but he's a good player, better than the likes of Schick, Mitrovic, Toney etc.
 
Got to be Toney. Great hold up and link up play, fantastic in the air and looks to be improving his finishing.

Would be a great fit.
 
RobbieBerns said:
Rafael Leao at Milan looks a talent
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Serie A MVP last season and played a huge part in breaking Milans decade long title drought. He's been picking up where he left off this season.

He's a top talent but he's also extremely valuable to Milan so he'd take a record fee to pry him away from them most likely. They rejected 100m from Chelsea a few weeks ago and his clause is at 150m.

He's also represented by Mendes so not sure if that would make things easier or harder for us after how things went down with Ronaldo this summer.
 
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