The centre-forward market...

I wonder if Rashford being so dangerous against a high line will enter into Ten Hag's thoughts, or he just wants us to be good enough to play 4-3-3 with Bruno/Eriksen as a #10, Rashford out left and a striker who can link play (Ramos, Kane) AND get in behind (Osimhen) at times, though there aren't a lot of those around. The guys available seem to either have the mobility or the technical quality.

Would have been a good game for Ivan Toney in the role that Weghorst played tonight.
 
NoPace said:
I wonder if Rashford being so dangerous against a high line will enter into Ten Hag's thoughts, or he just wants us to be good enough to play 4-3-3 with Bruno/Eriksen as a #10, Rashford out left and a striker who can link play (Ramos, Kane) AND get in behind (Osimhen) at times, though there aren't a lot of those around. The guys available seem to either have the mobility or the technical quality.

Would have been a good game for Ivan Toney in the role that Weghorst played tonight.
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Think it really depends what kind of striker Erik wants,any links to Toney will be quiet until he manages to clear his name
 
I am not trying to start a big debate on the rights, wrongs or anything else about it, but whether we buy a new CF and how much we spend may be impacted on whether or not Greenwood makes a return to the team, Utd and ETH need to make a decision on this ASAP
 
Zed 101 said:
I am not trying to start a big debate on the rights, wrongs or anything else about it, but whether we buy a new CF and how much we spend may be impacted on whether or not Greenwood makes a return to the team, Utd and ETH need to make a decision on this ASAP
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It was reported that the club will do it's own investigation regarding the matter, gauge the opinion of people inside and outside the club, and make a decision no earlier than summer, because Ten Hag doesn't want to disrupt the current campaign. Sound reasoning, so no point in discussing any further it until that day. The ownership issue also takes precedence over all else for obvious reasons.
 
Telsim said:
It was reported that the club will do it's own investigation regarding the matter, gauge the opinion of people inside and outside the club, and make a decision no earlier than summer, because Ten Hag doesn't want to disrupt the current campaign. Sound reasoning, so no point in discussing any further it until that day. The ownership issue also takes precedence over all else for obvious reasons.
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Yeah wasn't starting a discussion per se just saying it is pertinent to CF discussion
 
Zed 101 said:
I am not trying to start a big debate on the rights, wrongs or anything else about it, but whether we buy a new CF and how much we spend may be impacted on whether or not Greenwood makes a return to the team, Utd and ETH need to make a decision on this ASAP
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No point debating it, but even if the club decide to keep him on, we would still need a first choice striker. This guy will have not played football for almost 2 years, he isn't walking straight in as first choice striker. I wouldn't be surprised to see him loaned out for a year to see how he is performing, and what kind of reaction there is to him. The only thing that may be impacted is that we might rely on Martial as a back up option for another year. Trust me, we are buying a striker in the summer.
 
If we're looking for someone who can score 25-30 goals a season that is a threat in the air, in behind, can link up play, and can stretch defences, then you could argue we already have that in Rashford.

I still think we need a CF, but maybe we don't have to break the bank for a world beater if we potentially already have one. There'll be question marks about whether Rashford can sustain this, but he looks a threat from all situations at the moment.

Maybe we might look bring in a different profile than what was originally needed, like Muani or Sesko. If Rashford was backed as the main man, we should have plenty of firepower in the wings with Sancho, Garnacho, Antony and Bruno in behind chipping in with goals.

EtH might focus on how to get those scoring more, and look to strengthen other areas such as CM and a GK? Hard to know really, but my opinion on the severity of the CF situation has changed drastically watching Rashford for the past 6 weeks or so.

We still need one, but maybe it's a Weghorst upgrade we're looking for instead. A young striker with the potential to maybe get double figures and offer something different to Rashford.

Kane would fit us so well, I could see a Kane/Son type relationship with Rashford. But is it worth it to break the bank for him at 30? Can EtH get Sancho performing at his Dortmund levels, and Bruno scoring well into double figures again?

I don't think the need is as strong as it was at the start of the season. I think Rashford fits the bill for most of what we'd actually be buying, and I do think Garnacho can cement that LW and become a really special player if given the time to develop. It's risky to not strengthen in an area because of a young player with potential, but I think he has everything to be a modern day winger that can score 15-20 goals a season in a couple years.
 
Watched all 4 CL games. Some quick hot takes:

Havertz - I have a soft spot for him but he just never looks like scoring. Sort of think Ten Hag would like him as a false 9 option with a pure goalscoring option competing with him, but it won't happen anyways.
Joao Felix - He's annoying, doesn't like doing lone striker stuff but is talented. Might work for him alongside Nkunku next year in the 4-4-2 they played against Dortmund, but they probably need a proper assist machine on the right and those are tough to find.
Adeyemi - Best player on the pitch outside of maybe the seemingly always good Enzo Fernandez. Quick and decisive, but he's a small wide forward. Similar to...
Noa Lang - His team looked terrible but he's a quality LW in a 4-3-3. Speedy, good delivery and agile. Ten Hag demanded he be sold if I remember right, but there's a player in there. I'd be looking hard at him if I needed a wide left attacker like say Villa or Forest if he'd deign to go there over the inevitable Bundesliga and Serie A offers. Not a #9 so no sense for us.
Goncalo Ramos - Came off after 65 minutes annoyingly. Won the pen with a clever run across his man. Makes better decisions overall than most 30 year old strikers. No real pace. Didn't have a particularly good game but he's engaged defensively and a threat in the air. Basically similar to what Weghorst has given us but would score an adequate (though probably not great) amount of goals. I like him for 45M. Less so for 70M. But I do think he fits a lot of what we need in a 9 now. Not sure a frontline of Garnacho/Sancho-Ramos-Antony has quite enough goals in it with Rashford out, would be the big worry, unless we just have a 300M budget then sure, buy him, a #9 with pace, the best RB we can find, a keeper, a replacement for Maguire and a proper backup for Casemiro.
Choupo-Moting - Nah, and I don't see why they'd let him go, even if they buy a proper #9 they still need a backup who can score goals in the league or grab one off the bench when he's in form.
Kane - His team is terrible. He's slowed down, but he's still comfortably the most logical #9 to play in this team, as Ten Hag seems to prize quality play in the build up over the pace and power of an Osimhen.
 
The bid for Arnautovic, the interest shown in Kalajdzic, and the loan of Weghorst, tells you exactly the type of forward ten Hag wants.

Back to goal play is crucial. Therefore, I can imagine ten Hag will be targeting the following during the summer:

1. Kane
2. Toney
3. Vlahovic

Assuming we keep Martial, that will give us the options of:

- One of the above strikers
- Martial
- Rashford

To me, this is a nice blend of attributes, and it also gives us the option of playing two up top, as the three strikers mentioned excel with their back to goal. It would be similar to what ten Hag did against Weghorst and Rashford against Leeds and Barcelona.

Option 1:

LW ST RW
CAM
CM CM

Option 2:

ST
CF
LW CM CM RW​
 
Tbh I'm pretty split now between Osimhen or Kvara and moving Rashford centrally. Kvara is just so good, and Rashford gas shown loads of very encouraging signs through the middle. No reason why Ten Hag wouldn't be able to build around that. Both Antony and Kvara have excellent control and can slow the game down to balance Rashford and Bruno IMO. Both are class, in one scenario we have fewer runners in behind but more control, trickery, ability to slow the game down and build pressure, in the others you have more runners in behind, more power up top, better aerial presence but less control.

Rashford
Kvara Bruno Antony
Eriksen Casemiro
Shaw Martinez Varane Dalot
New GK​
 
Kolo Muani, who has just scored again, is becoming increasingly interesting.
 
Rozay said:
Kolo Muani, who has just scored again, is becoming increasingly interesting.
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Muani's a nice player but the only thing I'd say is that we've seen a number of players come from Germany recently with strong goals and assist records that have failed badly once they've arrived in England.

While it isn't to say that no player can ever make that conversion again, I'm not sure the one I'd be taking a punt on is the guy who's underlying numbers are way behind his actual goal contributions (about half). Havertz, Werner and Sancho all had elite underying metrics in Germany and none have yet convinced.
 
After I've seen the Weghorst Rashford dynamic through the middle, I'm more in favour of bringing Kane. He's going in the last year of his contract, so we have a good bargaining position and he'll be able to slot in perfectly in the position Wout is playing. I think he still has 4/5 years at the very top.
 
Imagine how fluid it can be when we have Rashy (11/9), Bruno(10/7), Sancho(7/11/10) + KANE(9/10) our line up, oppo's deffend must be wondering who play where
 
Hide_&_Seek said:
Imagine how fluid it can be when we have Rashy (11/9), Bruno(10/7), Sancho(7/11/10) + KANE(9/10) our line up, oppo's deffend must be wondering who play where
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Exactly. I can't help but look at Weghorst during today's game and see his inability to slip in Garnacho or his misses last two games. Imagine if kane was there
 
I could see Ten Hag either letting Martial go or considering him a luxury as a 3rd #9 and signing 2 of them, and if we do, signing a player whose primary value is his pressing, then a young player like Sesko, Brobbey, Okafor who Ten Hag thinks can be a 100M type player in 2-3 years.

Kane and Osimhen are still fairly long-shots and it really feels like only Ramos and maybe Kolo Muani are names that make sense and their teams might want 100M for them and Ten Hag might think they're worth half that.

Some guys who seem to be great pressers according to stats at least:
-David (good goalscoring record, doesn't always look the part but scores goals every year for club and country and just turned 23).
-Nmecha (7 caps for Germany at 24 so not insane)
-Embolo (cost Monaco 13M only, most pressures in all of Ligue 1, finally scoring goals and looked good for the Swiss with his back to goal at the World Cup)
-Havertz (won't happen but he does everything Weghorst did today and against Barca quite well and he's just a higher class of player)
 
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Bojan Djordjic said:
Muani's a nice player but the only thing I'd say is that we've seen a number of players come from Germany recently with strong goals and assist records that have failed badly once they've arrived in England.
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If you want to take a punt on a forward from Germany, Marcus Thuram has been doing as well if not better than Muani (11 goals to Muani's 10, despite playing for a worse team) and he's free in the summer. Pretty much same age too, Thuram is 25 to Muani's 24.

Muani will cost an absolute bomb, he's currently in the first year of a 5-year contract. Expect upwards of 50m. Which, unless we get bought out by Qataris and given unlimited funds to spend, will likely be too much for a second striker signing this summer.

Thuram is a better version of Wout Weghorst. Tall, strong with good hold up play, but also younger, faster and with more of a goal threat. His pressing is good, but perhaps not as intense as Weggie's. He's a bit less agile and fast compared to Muani but couple inches taller and stronger, with better hold up play. Worst case, if he doesn't do very well, you sell him in a couple of years at 27/28 and turn a profit on him too. If Martial is to be moved on due to his fitness issues and we're in the market for 2 forwards, he's my preference for a second fiddle striker.
 
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MadMike said:
If you want to take a punt on a forward from Germany, Marcus Thuram has been doing as well if not better than Muani (11 goals to Muani's 10, despite playing for a worse team) and he's free in the summer. Pretty much same age too, Thuram is 25 to Muani's 24.

Muani will cost an absolute bomb, he's currently in the first year of a 5-year contract. Expect upwards of 50m. Which, unless we get bought out by Qataris and given unlimited funds to spend, will likely be too much for a second striker signing this summer.

Thuram is a better version of Wout Weghorst. Tall, strong with good hold up play, but also younger, faster and with more of a goal threat. His pressing is good, but perhaps not as intense as Weggie's. He's a bit less agile and fast compared to Muani but couple inches taller and stronger, with better hold up play. Worst case, if he doesn't do very well, you sell him in a couple of years at 27/28 and turn a profit on him too. If Martial is to be moved on due to his fitness issues and we're in the market for 2 forwards, he's my preference for a second fiddle striker.
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Kolo Muani definitely has the better season considering that he is much more involved in attacks that he doesn't finish (resulting in most assists in the league currently), but yes Thuram also has a good season and is closer to a "classic" No 9 than Kolo Muani. And considering the price one would have to pay he makes much more sense, 100m€ vs 0 is a massive difference
 
stefan92 said:
Kolo Muani definitely has the better season considering that he is much more involved in attacks that he doesn't finish (resulting in most assists in the league currently), but yes Thuram also has a good season and is closer to a "classic" No 9 than Kolo Muani. And considering the price one would have to pay he makes much more sense, 100m€ vs 0 is a massive difference
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Especially if you're merely adding depth as opposed to signing someone for the starting XI. But yes, I agree completely. Muani is more involved in the build up but less of a target man.
 
If Rashford and Sancho can offer a consistent goal threat, then I’m starting to think a good option for us would be to go down the project route. Most important thing is to get the right attributes. So if that is a Ben Sesko or Evan Ferguson type of player then we might as well if we are a team that is happy for Weghorst to play every week.
 
bosnian_red said:
Tbh I'm pretty split now between Osimhen or Kvara and moving Rashford centrally. Kvara is just so good, and Rashford gas shown loads of very encouraging signs through the middle. No reason why Ten Hag wouldn't be able to build around that. Both Antony and Kvara have excellent control and can slow the game down to balance Rashford and Bruno IMO. Both are class, in one scenario we have fewer runners in behind but more control, trickery, ability to slow the game down and build pressure, in the others you have more runners in behind, more power up top, better aerial presence but less control.

Rashford
Kvara Bruno Antony
Eriksen Casemiro
Shaw Martinez Varane Dalot
New GK​
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Ohh boy imagine Kvara Rashford Antony would be really really scary :devil:

But we can only dream for this :(
 
Here's my wish list:

1. Osimhen
2. Nkunku
3. Vlahovic/Muani/Toney

I'd say, lets break the bank for Osimhen. He looks like the striker we need most.
 
RedRonaldo said:
Here's my wish list:

1. Osimhen
2. Nkunku
3. Vlahovic/Muani/Toney

I'd say, lets break the bank for Osimhen. He looks like the striker we need most.
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Yeah,he brings three major attributes to the team.
Pressing
Aerial threat
Physicality
 
Ned UNITED said:
Ohh boy imagine Kvara Rashford Antony would be really really scary :devil:

But we can only dream for this :(
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Tbh I think there's multiple players out there who we can get that would turn us into title challengers. We have an excellent level this season and we are getting a pitiful amount out of our attackers. Just get someone else there so we aren't reliant on Rashford and we'd be fine. We need a 2nd player to be a real goal threat more than anything. 2 of Rashford, Osimhen, Garnacho to be goal threats every game and 2 of Sancho, Antony and Bruno to be creators is a perfect group IMO.
 
A CF like Kolo Muani, who likes to dribble and create opportunities for others while being a threat on the counter would be a brilliant option imo. Could easily rotate into position with Rashford, scoring and assisting. Just think Eintracht would charge a substantial fee like 80-100m.

Looking at a bit cheaper technical players like David or Toney, both would be very useful offering different strengths and allow us to spend on a ball playing CM as priority. We need better players to play out from the back, it's a huge liability at the moment

Højlund as one of the younger CF options but just feel if we are going for the league it could be a bit soon for him. Though he looks like he could thrive in the league
 
Signing Kane as main striker and Thuram as back up on a free then letting Martial go would be the ideal situation, Kane and Thuram are completely different strikers so offer diversity but both are consistently fit which is something Martial simply can’t do.

This would allow Rashford to stay out left with Garnacho from the bench then Antony, Sancho and Fernandes rotating between the right side and 10 now ETH has started using Fernandes occasionally from the right or unless he who shall not be named returns next season.
 
Rasmus Højlund from Atalanta. Could he be a surprise option.?
Several top clubs looking at him.
He is strong, fast and scores goals in the Serie A.
 
We need 6 quality attqcking players if we want to compete for all trophies next season. Our wings are very strong with Rashy, Garnacho, Antony amd Sancho, but we need to buy 2 strikers imo. A decent back up and a top striker who scores our goals. No idea who but we cannot rely another season on Martial
 
davidmichael said:
Signing Kane as main striker and Thuram as back up on a free then letting Martial go would be the ideal situation, Kane and Thuram are completely different strikers so offer diversity but both are consistently fit which is something Martial simply can’t do.

This would allow Rashford to stay out left with Garnacho from the bench then Antony, Sancho and Fernandes rotating between the right side and 10 now ETH has started using Fernandes occasionally from the right or unless he who shall not be named returns next season.
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Tbf if Mr. Voldemort returns imo we wouldn't need to buy a backup #9. Btw just read on the news he'd be a father soon.
 
Telsim said:
What is Osimhen's injury history?
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This season he has been out for 2 weeks with muscle injuries. Last season he has been out for 1.5 months with cheekbone fracture. The season before he has been out for nearly 2 months with shoulder injury.

So clearly not perfect, but maybe similar to Haaland.
 
Strelok said:
Tbf if Mr. Voldemort returns imo we wouldn't need to buy a backup #9. Btw just read on the news he'd be a father soon.
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I saw that too mate and I’ve said a few times that I do see him back with us next season but I’m thinking more worst case scenario with Thuram coming in as back up.
 
Escobar said:
We need 6 quality attqcking players if we want to compete for all trophies next season. Our wings are very strong with Rashy, Garnacho, Antony amd Sancho, but we need to buy 2 strikers imo. A decent back up and a top striker who scores our goals. No idea who but we cannot rely another season on Martial
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We easily could if we had "top striker", Martial, Rashford and Elanga as options. Unless Martial is genuinely permanently broken, but if he were fit for say half our games then that would be good enough.
 
RedRonaldo said:
This season he has been out for 2 weeks with muscle injuries. Last season he has been out for 1.5 months with cheekbone fracture. The season before he has been out for nearly 2 months with shoulder injury.

So clearly not perfect, but maybe similar to Haaland.
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That's great to be fair.
Cheekbone fractures are rare and there's nothing you can do to prevent them.

Same goes for the shoulder.

It's the ankle sprains, knee ligaments and leg muscles that get players fecked up for longer periods...
 
No way that we’re getting two new strikers this summer. A top striker, and we’ll use Rashford as the backup.
In addition to a new striker next season we will probably have Rashford, Garnacho, Sancho, Antony and Amad for the wingers and on top of that we’re likely not able to sell Martial so he will still be around.
 
I am sure Rashford's change in form will affect the type of forward we go after. With the way he plays you probably don't want to pair him with a out and out finisher, like Osimhen, but instead a link-up type of striker. In an ideal world it would be a target man who can bring others to play. Whether that player is out there is yet to be seen. Goncalo Ramos would be the most ideal candidate, you also would be able to rotate him without too many issues compared to a more accomplished player. With the emergence of Garnacho and even Amad, there is going to be so many options next season and so Rashford will still need to get games up top.
 
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