Is Thiago Alacantara out of favour at Bayern? I'd have him over Fred.
The Search for a Midfielder
- Thread starter MyOnlySolskjaer
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What really confuses me about this, is that not long ago he said that midfield is an area where we need to improve and extending Fellaini isn't going to achieve that.
Fellaini is the squad player along with herrera, we need a 3rd player who can start (hence why we might sign Fred). Pogba, matic and 1 more starters, herrera and fellaini as squad players is fine tbh.
I know what kind of player he is for Mourinho or what role he has in our squad. That doesn't mean I have to agree that we should only sign one player to improve there, or that we can't improve on Fellaini.
So by your theory we're just going to let Carrick retire and not replace him?
Show me where I mention Carrick.
Aside from Neves, I'd like us to probe around Mateo Kovacic's situation. Madrid may not sell to us at a reasonable price, but if a new shiny toy catches their eye at the WC, they might be forced to negotiate with us.
Saul is the dream but the man is in love with Atletico and he'll probably become their captain eventually. What I wouldn't give for a 27 year old Carrick though.
Saul is the dream but the man is in love with Atletico and he'll probably become their captain eventually. What I wouldn't give for a 27 year old Carrick though.
Pogba(Fellaini)---Fancy New CM(Pereira)
------------Matic(Herrera)-------------------
with Herrera actually coming into the team when Pogba or the new CM aren't starting, and let McTominay go on loan and we can see if he can broaden his game enough to make it here as a squad player in time, perhaps replacing Fellaini in the squad.
I just don't get it. What do the rest of the top teams do when they need a plan B and don't have a Fellaini?
The "old" Pirlo had more to his game than long diagonal passes out to the wings. Yes it's just a highlights video, and Neves isn't a bad player, but I'd need to watch him more often to see what his passing range is really like.
They do nothing. You don’t notice the lack of plan B for poch Wenger and klopp?
Hard to disagree with any that @Lentwood (good points). Left back highlights this, if we had a 31 year old Evra playing then we should buy Sessignon or Tierney and give them time to adapt and eventually naturally take over from Evra. But as we are that poor at left back (Young has been brilliant but we need more still) we really should sign someone more experienced so less of a gamble say like Sandro or even Bertrand as we cannot keep playing without our fullbacks on full throttle.
Mate great post, I've been saying the same thing for the longest.
Agree he definitely has ability in the video but his choice of passing and how it develops will be the thing that separates him from top class and being a Charlie Adam type (unbelievable left foot but lacks brain and legs in premier league although Nevus is not as nasty). Definitely worth a punt though as he’s been brilliant in the championship and it’s getting to the stage now if someone else takes a punt for him and he has a half good season he’s suddenly a £50m +. Market has gone mental.
You implied that extending Fellaini ends any hope of the midfield being improved.
Yet replacing a midfielder who can barely contribute anymore (Carrick) with a new signing will blatantly improve our midfield choices.
I didn't come to the conclusion that not extending Fellaini would mean that we won't replace Carrick, you did. I am very much in favour of signing a replacement for Carrick, a player who should be replaced, unlike Fellaini, a player we can afford to let go.
You came to the conclusion that extending Fellaini would mean that we don't improve our midfield. It's possible to improve the midfield whilst keeping Fellaini as a squad player, by signing a replacement for Carrick.
Fellaini is 1 of about 10-12 squad players that are not good enough to be first team players for United, but we simply cannot turn over and replace 10 players a summer. It's got to be gradual and Fellaini is an experienced PL player that can do a job from time to time.
Again, that's not what I said. I don't agree that extending Fellaini is going to help our midfield, replacing him with someone better is going to help IMO. Darmian, Blind, Shaw and Fellaini are the only ones I want us to let go. 4 out and 4 in would be a good summer IMO. Specifically a LB, RB and 2 CMs.
I don't get it either, Mourinho has Beer goggles on when it comes to Fellaini. I thought this summer we'd buy a top CM and add another quality younger CM option to the squad to understudy Matic, but there wont be the squad space now.
Its not supposed to, replacing Carrick with someone who can actually play a few games will.
Extending Fellainis contract doesn't weaken us compared to this season.
Its not rocket science.
In an ideal world I would agree that replacing both Carrick and Fellaini would drastically improve our current midfield, but if we signed a world class midfielder this summer in place of just Carrick, who managed 50 games for us, I wouldn't see much point in upgrading Fellaini this summer too. Why upgrade an experienced squad player when we can simply extend his contract by a further year or two? We all know Fellaini isn't going to start more than 15-20 games all season, so it's a good temporary solution in my book.
Exactly. You put it much better than I did in my response.
So with:
1 - Pogba
2 - *New world class CM signing*
3 - Matic
4 - Hererra
5- McTomminay
.... to occupy 2/3 positions, what would the point be with swapping and experienced reliable Premier League player in Fellaini as the 6th member of midfield with an inexperienced one?
The player in this slot will get 20 games a season and usually an option when we need an urgent goal - would a young inexperienced CM be able to provide that with 10 mins to go? Because Fellaini will.
This is what Mourinho has spent 2 years trying to move away from, inexperienced unreliable players. As a result we're playing more consistently and progressing up the table.
Our midfield needs a lot of work to compete with Europe's elite. Watching Real - Bayern and the level of the midfields on display and then watching us is very depressing. The speed of play, the movement, the technical quality. We are light years away from competing with them. Only midfielder we have that can reach that level and compete with these teams is Pogba. Everyone else can and should be upgraded. We need more control in our midfield. Our success solely depends on the quality of the players we have. We don't have a manager like Klopp who can coach average players like Milner/ Henderson to a probable CL final so the best route is to buy the best players whilst we have Mourinho in charge.
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The point is to add a young understudy to a pretty slow and immobile DM who will be 30 at the start of next season, so we can rotate and prepare beyond the current, rather than resorting to garbage football with a huge lump in depseration constantly, because the manager is incapable of getting this team playing coherent, attacking football most of the time.
Looking at the numbers we have and knowing what the manager thinks of certain players, I’m starting to question whether we’re going to sign a midfielder.
1. Pogba (going nowhere)
2. Matic (manager favourite)
3. Herrera (not a starter but comes in to do a job)
4. Fellaini (manager begged to stay and likely will)
5. McTominay (manager went out of his way to give an award to. He clearly rates him)
1. Pogba (going nowhere)
2. Matic (manager favourite)
3. Herrera (not a starter but comes in to do a job)
4. Fellaini (manager begged to stay and likely will)
5. McTominay (manager went out of his way to give an award to. He clearly rates him)
How about the player Mourinho just named his Managers Player of the Season? Or don't you support the promotion of our academy players?
Slighty exaggeration there. We play bland football, but we still score plenty of goals, and concede very few. It's a very astute way of creating a winning machine, and we're firmly the 2nd best PL side right now. Such a huge jump compared to the broken team he took over.
People are still sick of Fellaini? Come on give him a break - he is not going to be a starter but still could be useful in lot of games where we need some physicality.
I'm guessing there was some awards thing tonight and he named McTominay his player of the year? I've never heard of that category before and If people can't see that for the bullshit pandering it is, well....McTominay doesn't look anything special.
It's not an exagerration to say we are garbage to watch most of the time, even moreso when Fellaini is in the team. We have ground our way to 2nd but at a great cost IMO, we don't even resemble a Manchester United team at this point.
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I support it when they're ready and we have a space for them. McTominay is not right now. At the moment all he does is keep the ball with safe sideways passes and we have Matic starting who already does that for us. Cleverley wasnt good enough either and he did the same thing but got on the ball more. The only real difference and probably why he's a Mourinho project, is he's tall. Hopefully he's being groomed to learn from and take over from Matic in a few years, not play next to him week after week
I was thinking Jose did that last season with our lot to be fair. Feck me credit Liverpool and Klopp fair enough but they had Basel, then City (in a premier league shoot out I think both personally would have gone out to a Bayern Real or Barca). They then had a CL semi v Roma so as much as they have done well and they have, I’d imagine they’ll be nowhere near competitive next season for the champs League as the draw has been very kind. The league is the best marker and any team can have a successful cup run (and even win it) so judging Liverpool on cup run is good for the season (getting to CL final is a brilliant achievement) but not always a great marker imo how they are overall. In saying that Liverpool have a great chance to win this and if he does that he will get legendary status at Anfield and rightly so but don’t think they’ll be anywhere near the finals again next season.
If we want to get the best out of Pogba then we need to play with a 3 men CM. If that occurs then 5 midfielders one of which a kid is not enough. Matic need cover/competition and none of the options in that list can do that.
Id say
DM- Matic and new player
B2B - Herrera and Mctominay
AMC: Pogba, Fellaini
Also Fellaini tackles a consequence ie we tackle our lack of creativity in CM by bypassing the midfield completely through hoof ball. He's not the cure. You wouldn't have a Fellaini in the treble side/3rd CL side
I am not a big fan of Fellaini. However there's a reason why he is still here and that is that sometimes our midfield go bonkers. Unlike previous CMs our midfield is inconsistent. Pogba is world class at times and shite in other times. Herrera drifts in and out of the game and while Matic is good he's certainly no Carrick/Keane. Not to forget our flank men which apart from Sanchez is hardly world class. Fellaini allows Mou to bypass the midfield completely when he needs to. Its an ugly thing that we need to sort but its a temporary fix.
Thiago hands down if possible. Threat going forward but seems to like playing a little deeper and is actually quite responsible defensively. Watched a good bit of him this season and still think he can get better in the role, and his ceiling is higher than the other midfielders. Even last night he looked like the perfect player to act as a go between for Matic and Pogba.
Funny that, because you are disregarding McTomminay at the age of 21, 1 year into his Manchester United senior career, yet you're harping away on here that we don't resemble Manchester United, a side who are famous for promoting youth. We're also in our 3rd cup final in barely 2 seasons, as side famous for being in cup finals.
I thought Manchester United promoted youth, scored late goals and won trophies? Sure the football isn't as attacking as many would like, but Mourinho is getting the results and winning trophies. We haven't won the Premier League yet, but if you can't see the re-building and progress he has made in the Premier League then you need to take a much closer look. We're going to break the 80 points barrier, are you ignorant to that? The way you described us in your last post you make us sound like a 15th place Pulis side. We're firmly in 2nd place, have recently beaten every side around us and are in yet another cup final. Yet you're throwing your toys out of the pram because we haven't scored 100 goals and got 95 points.
United fans that 'expect' us to play scintillating football, winning the Premier League every year 'because we're Manchester United' and 'because we once had Fergie' are simply spoilt. Born in 1987, all I've ever seen is United dominate, but I'm also a realist and know that we have no divine right to win anything. You're comparing Mourinho's United to Fergies finest and you should be comparing it to the one he took over, LVG's which had Rooney as a central midfielder, Depay on the wing, Schneiderlin and Schweinsteiger as our central midfielders, Darmian and Rojo as our wingbacks and ask yourself why we are 'only 2nd' in the Premier League. See the progress.
But he would certainly be good enough to be our 6th choice central midfielder behind Pogba, Herrera, Matic, (New signing), Fellaini?
I gave an opinion on McTominay, to me he looks like Cleverley or Gibson, a solid, run of the mill player that will have a decent career, promoting youth is fine but they have to actually be good enough, I don't see anything from McTominay that seperates him from the players I mentioned, most youth players that pop up in our side end up moving on to have a lower level career than being main players for United, that's just reality.
As for the rest, I don't give a shit about 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, cups or points, it's progress at the expense of turning our club over to this poisonous man and his ugly footballing methods. I don't complain about the results, whether we win or lose it's the same soul destroying experience under Mourinho, the man is toxic and it's not worth selling the clubs soul to him in the desperate hope he can bludgeon his way to a PL title IMO, it would be hollow done his way.
Best post I’ve saw in a long time.
If Chelsea don’t get Champions League football next season then would a move for Kante be a good idea ? Been seeing reports for a few days about clubs being interested in him especially PSG.
No Champions League football I think will see Hazard and Courtois both leave but I think if it’s possible to get Kante then surely we should go all out for him ? Can you imagine a trio of Kante, Matic and Pogba starting for us ?.
No Champions League football I think will see Hazard and Courtois both leave but I think if it’s possible to get Kante then surely we should go all out for him ? Can you imagine a trio of Kante, Matic and Pogba starting for us ?.
No chance of that happening.