We don't have proper forwards

Jericholyte2 said:
What part of the summer window where we spent about £150m on signings and then resorted to two cheap loans makes you think we could have spent £150m on Kane and done ANY other business???

And it’s not about whether those signings shone or not, it’s about fixing a single issue in the team when there are several, just as significant issues remaining in the team.
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I think a strong argument can be made that we'd probably look better as a side if we'd just signed Kane and not went for anyone else.

Assuming de Gea still leaves due to his contract and wages, we'd of likely kept Henderson in this scenario.

Henderson
Dalot - Varane - Martinez - Shaw
Casemiro - McTominay
Antony - Bruno - Rashford
Kane​

vs

Onana
Dalot - Varane - Martinez - Shaw
Casemiro - Mount
Antony - Bruno - Rashford
Hojlund​

I think the top side is stronger, and you'd be able to supplement it with youth.
 
We're one of the few clubs in the world that is in the fortunate position to be able to go out and, if required, buy the finished article.

Although preferable, we don't really need there to be a sell-on value if said player is going to make enough of a contribution to win us trophies.

I know the Kane situation wasn't straight forward, and getting Levy to sell to us was always going to be a problem, but Kane would simply guarantee us 30+ goals for the next 3 years. Job done in that department.

As much I like Hojlund, I'm yet to be convinced that he's going to turn out any better than a Danny Ings type player who always gives his all, looks dangerous, but doesn't quite get the volume of goals required. And we've spent £70m on him.

I'm all for us buying prospects, but when we need a player for the here and now, with our financial stature, we have to ask "who is the best player in the world in that position" and go out and get him. Hojlund would probably not feature in the top 50.

The money we spent on Anthony simply can't be gambled on a player who has only looked good in the dutch league. It's simply no benchmark for us to make our major purchases - and thats not to say that we can't get top drawer players from there, but it's always a gamble until they're proven in a top league. I know we've had success doing this with RVN and Stam, but the difference is that was Fergie doing the scouting.

We have to go to the top leagues, find the best players for those positions, and go out and do everything we can to buy them. It's what Real Madrid do. And we're one of the few clubs able to compete with them financially.

Under Fergie, he identified a top striker and a top central defender in Cantona and Rio. Who in their right mind would have thought we'd have ever prized those two players from Leeds? But the stature and financial muscle of our club got the deals done.

I didn't see this same desire to get Kane. Maybe if he thought we really wanted him he'd have done more to make it happen and we'd have a world class striker on our books.
 
Bwuk said:
I think a strong argument can be made that we'd probably look better as a side if we'd just signed Kane and not went for anyone else.

Assuming de Gea still leaves due to his contract and wages, we'd of likely kept Henderson in this scenario.

Henderson
Dalot - Varane - Martinez - Shaw
Casemiro - McTominay
Antony - Bruno - Rashford
Kane​

vs

Onana
Dalot - Varane - Martinez - Shaw
Casemiro - Mount
Antony - Bruno - Rashford
Hojlund​

I think the top side is stronger, and you'd be able to supplement it with youth.
Click to expand...

Parts of the caf would have rioted if we’d gone in to the season with Henderson as our No.1
 
Others have said this here and many said so over the summer — far and away our biggest hole in the squad was the absence of a proven striker. But what did we do instead? Bring in a midfielder and a keeper first and second, and unproven striker. Not exactly genius work.

I blame the Grifters above all else, but it wasn’t the Grifters who told ETH what our transfer priorities were this summer. It’s only October 3 and we’re already looking at another lost season with no reason for any of us to believe we’ll be in a position to put in a proper challenge for the title next season or the season thereafter.
 
Amadaeus said:
Most top team will bite our hands for rashford and Bruno.

I m surprised people are already condemning and making a final verdict on Holjund. Even though he wasn't my cup of tea, I rather we went for muani or sesko, but I m pretty sure majority of our fans wanted holjund. So, you can't be complaining now about him.

Garnacho is also one of our brightest prospect. So, I do not see any issue with our forward beside the right attacking area (mainly due to Sancho and Antony absence). However, i dont see why ETH doesnt try mount in that inverted role. Regardless, With better coaching our attacking should be flying. Rashford and Bruno are capable of carrying our attack themselves, but our gameplan isn't as effective in making them perform at their peak.
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I think a lot of the big teams wouldn't take Bruno or Rashford to be honest. Both on massive wages and both with a very, very low floor.
 
After 11 games, only Hojlund from our forwards scored more than 1 goal. He still hasn't scored in the PL.

Hojlund - 3 goals / 0 assists.
Rashford - 1 goal / 3 assists.
Martial - 1 goal / 1 assist
Garnacho - 1 goal / 0 assists
Antony & Pellistri - No goals or assists.

Someone like Neto has more assists than all of our forwards combined.
 
Having a proper dedicated winger on the right would help a lot in my opinion and work to balance out having Rashford providing little in terms of chances for other players from the left flank. Having two inverted wide players or however they would be described isn't the best plan to provide service to the striker.
 
The conclusion that apart from Hojlund and Garnacho that our front line players have underperformed relative to reasonable expectations is supported by the evidence that we are all witness to. We could say the same about our midfield. And our back line, although injuries largely explain that. And above all, our new keeper.
 
I can't believe the club are even considering extending Martial's stay...
 
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