Not being interested in Thiago because we have Pereira, imagine that. Can jettison McTominay out in a heartbeat. If young players are good enough, they’ll
find a way in.
find a way in.
Thiago Alcantara
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Matic, Pogba, Fred, Herrera, Pereira, Thiago would be a quality group of midfielders
Agree with everything here. Even Mctominay on loan!
Mourinho would not give up on trying to playing Modric as a no 10 either. Question is if this is a good or bad thing. I tend to lean towards bad.
Loads of quality, but only one proper holding midfielder - another long, long season ahead for Matic.
Both Herrera and Pereira have played a bit there. I'd argue they would do it better than either Fellaini or Mctomminay.
In which case he wouldn't play as a #10 seeing as Mata never did.
He's been mostly shit for Bayern, except for one good half season. I'd still like to keep him now, even though i was strongly in favour of selling him some months ago. We have too many players in midfield so we need to get rid of at least two, but he offers something different to the others. Rather sell Vidal + Rudy.
I think Herrera's contract has come to its end and the club won't renew it.
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Periera is being trained as a holding midfielder in this pre season. I'm sure he will get games at 6 as well as 8.
Probably, but that would be most likely be because Mourinho doesn't like to rotate too much. As @SteveW said, both Herrera and Pereira have put their best performances for us from that position. There're options there.
Pereira looks like he can play the holding midfield role very well. You don't need to be the absolute best defensively to do so. You have to be capable of course, which he's shown, but you don't have to be a focused destroyer.
PSG are playing Veratti in that position. Real are playing Kroos. Barca Busquets. Juventus used to play Pirlo. All these are first and foremost playmakers rather than destroyers. They all play/played in a midfield 3 flanked by players that can mark and also chase the ball. If Pereira plays that position he will most likely be flanked by Pogba and one of Fred/Herrera, so he should be fine.
Not sure I agree with all of those examples (eg neither Verratti nor Kroos currently play as the deepest midfielders for their clubs - although that could change next season), but as you say, there's no particular problem in selecting a creative, ball-playing midfilder as a #6 (Pjanic at Juve).
I would just normally associate Mourinho's sides with someone a little more physical/disciplined in that role. Perhaps he wants more creativity from deep, which would be welcomed!
we need all the creativity we can get, so sign him up pls
Without wanting to divert the discussion too much, Kroos in my eyes is definitely the deepest MF for Real because Casemiro and Modric usually press up and chase the ball higher up the pitch, while Kroos sits deeper. On Verratti you're right, because more often than not he played with T.Motta or L.Diarra playing the shielding role.
But yeah, as you said it's doable. It depends on the coach. Maybe Carrick can influence Mourinho towards using a more creative playmaker in the deeper role rather than a strict anchoring/defensive midfielder. God knows we really benefited from having Carrick in that position for a decade, who wasn't just a player focused on disrupting play and playing sideways passes, but also dictated play and orchestrated a lot of the attacks.
I like Matic, he's very disciplined, defensively astute and moves the ball about well enough. But on the flip-side he's quite risk averse with his forward passing and fairly slow in his movement. He's not really a patch on Carrick during the latter's peak. It's evident that with Pereira in his place the team would have more "zip" and directness about it, arguably at the expense of the superior defensive cover of Matic. Here's hoping!
Feel like this should have happened 5 years ago! Still only 27 though so still a good option. Just wonder if now is the right time though.
If we continue with a midfield 3, is Pogba, Fred and Thiago a good mix? It could be I don't really know! I'd need to see more of Fred in particular to judge how this 3 would work together. And is Mourinho ready to drop Matic to the bench?
The more I think of this I can't see this one happening. He's just renewed Fellainis contract, I wonder if he promised him ample playing time.
Not sure here.
If we continue with a midfield 3, is Pogba, Fred and Thiago a good mix? It could be I don't really know! I'd need to see more of Fred in particular to judge how this 3 would work together. And is Mourinho ready to drop Matic to the bench?
The more I think of this I can't see this one happening. He's just renewed Fellainis contract, I wonder if he promised him ample playing time.
Not sure here.
OF course they will...protecting their investment at least...
In these times of Richarlison being worth £50m, he's easily a £25-£30m player...
Ideally we'd need a playmaking CM who excels at passing and running the game but you can't turn down the chance to sign Thiago and get the best out of him given the upside involved. Unless his commitment is lacking and sacrificing other relevant improvements is necessary.
We have Andreas so forget it. Rather we do the right thing and give him the minutes and bench time instead of it being used by Thiago. Even if Mctomminay went on loan still don’t need him.
‘The right thing’...interesting.
I'm concerned about his injury record. He missed 21 games last season due to injury
If Bayern are even considering letting him go, then alarm bells are starting to ring in my head. The only time they do that with their star players, is they're spotting signs of decline or injury proneness.
I would approach with caution.
I would love for him to play the #10 position for us, in the same mould as Isco does for Real Madrid, with Sanchez and Lukaku ahead of him and Pogba-Matic-Fred behind him.
If Bayern are even considering letting him go, then alarm bells are starting to ring in my head. The only time they do that with their star players, is they're spotting signs of decline or injury proneness.
I would approach with caution.
I would love for him to play the #10 position for us, in the same mould as Isco does for Real Madrid, with Sanchez and Lukaku ahead of him and Pogba-Matic-Fred behind him.
An actual bayern fan just posted that he's been shit for bayern over years and nobody bothered to even reply to the only real contribution to a thread of people that watch him 3 times a year and say mourinho is out of his mind not signing this world class centre mid
If he doesn't like Pereira why would he like Thiago. Their playstyle feels very similar to me.
Yep, flew right under the radar.
An actual Bayern fan also said earlier that Germans don’t rate players like him so he goes under appreciated in the squad. Which one should we believe?
Maybe go by our own opinions having watched him for what 10+ years and seeing the things he can do and bring to the team.
This.
If you watched him consistently for 10+ years, like Anderson was by his dietitian, then yes go by that. As @Crashoutcassius said though, if you only watch him 3 times a season on the CL and only go by that, maybe that's not a good enough sample for a proper assessment and you should listen to that Bayern fan a bit more carefully.
And both Bayern fans actually indicated that it's the board who think he's not that important to the team. Which is more damning then a simple fan verdict, considering how astute the Bayern board have proven to be time and again.
Ando was a physical specimen and much like Shaw had over the top know it alls going on about how his fat percentage was not that of a proffesional footballer blah blah blah. It’s just a shame Ando was like mr Glass tho. Weirdly never the same after the broken leg he also suffered at a young age.
On Thiago, I’m a fan but I just don’t see where he fits unless it’s replacing Pogba, demoting Fred, sitting on the bench or we shift to a diamond. There would be a lot of bodies in our midfield with Fellaini, Herrera, Matic, Pogba, McT, Fred,Ander am I missing anyone?
Actual Bayern fans can still be nuts. I have seen quite a few of our fans say players like Lingard and Rashford are shite and would be lucky to get a decent career in the championship. Even top players like Lukaku and Pogba have their share of people that don’t rate them.
Even if Thiago have been struggling somewhat with injuries and consistency at Bayern, i’m pretty sure he’s a massive upgrade on Herrera, Fellaini, Mctominay and Pereira. And we haven’t got much of a clue how succesful Fred will be here either.
Herrera is so good he can be two different players depend whether you call him by his family name or given name.
Yes. You missed to name Agüera
I’ll just up this name here to provide some clarity Pereira, misspelled his first name as it is Andreas not anders my bad.
His injury record is a concern. But I reckon this would be far from the worst waste of money we've gone for.
Fair point fans tend to underrated their own players. Still something we should take note of though - tbh if i hadnt seen lots of bayern fans expressing frustration with him I would have just assumed he was a massive success there
Nope. You got that backwards
I have two words to say to you: Toni. Kroos.
I was just playing with you.
Same on Thiago. Can't understand how he would fits, as however we try, the fullbacks positions is still problem, and Thiago as no 10 is big gamble
Toni Kroos ran down his contract to the final year and rejected Bayern's contract renewal mate. Bayern had no option but to sell really. He wasn't "allowed to go for the right offer" with 3 years left on his contract. Which is Thiago's reported situation.
Also, no one has said that they get everything right all the time. But they do get it right more often than not. You giving me one example (that doesn't even apply) to the contrary doesn't change that.
Would gladly take him in exchange for Martial
Kroos run down his contract because bayern didn't rate him enough to give him a raise. They made plenty of mistakes. Look at Douglas Costa, Renato Sanches, Gotze, Hummels(was originally theirs)...
Point is they're good, but very far from infallible. Thiago's biggest issue, is his injury record
He is no #10. For me he is the best #8 when he is fit. I think that he is best when he has some room and some players ahead of him. At Bayern he was always better behind 4 than behind 3.
I know it is an article in German - but maybe you can use google translator. It is from the leader of the data analyst department of the sports university in Cologne. He tells that data like amounts of shots or tackling in today's football are just not of any importance for who wins a match but space control is - and names Thiago as the best in that area.
https://www.t-online.de/sport/fussb...ler-sieht-raeume-die-sonst-keiner-sieht-.html
Regarding Bayern fans - they are like your fans. Some like this player - some others.
That’s a fairer swap that Alderweireld.
Out for 4 days with a pubis bone contusion. Interesting.I'm concerned about his injury record. He missed 21 games last season due to injury
If Bayern are even considering letting him go, then alarm bells are starting to ring in my head. The only time they do that with their star players, is they're spotting signs of decline or injury proneness.
I would approach with caution.
I would love for him to play the #10 position for us, in the same mould as Isco does for Real Madrid, with Sanchez and Lukaku ahead of him and Pogba-Matic-Fred behind him.
He bruised his dick, basically.
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