What do we still need? Aka The never ending story

bosnian_red said:
Thing is, you don't need a perfect side to challenge. Right back and midfield is quite good, right back especially lots of potential while midfield is a bit older. But it wouldn't hold us back from a challenge. Get us a top striker and we would challenge properly. Maybe not win, you need luck, but we'd challenge for sure. We aren't far off this season despite getting so so little out of our attackers outside of Rashford for example.
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Yeah, I suppose that is true! You don't need that perfect side. I'd say we have won a few with less than a perfect side.

I think that top class goal scorer would have certainly changed the dynamic, and if that was from the start of the season shit could have gotten a bit more real.

I still feel that we let games wander a bit, again that perhaps is just my perception. I think we need that additional man in midfield, the kind that is Casimeiro quality to assist in really controlling games (the way Arsenal, City do and Liverpool of a few years ago did).

The right back would be a really interesting addition. One that really motors. Given that we don't tend to play with anything you would call a traditional winger, it would just add so much more threat.

Things are looking better, no doubt
 
Main things we need are a top quality CM to rotate with Eriksen and a striker. I think we could make a title push with just that if we don't have many injury issues to key players. In an ideal world we get CM, Striker, backup/understudy for Casemiro and another forward so we can get rid of Martial.
 
What we need seems to be clear for once. A top CF and a specialist CM to partner Casemiro. Unfortunately, the profile of player we need are not in abundance in the market.

Osimhen and FDJ is the obvious dream scenario. I'm not sure we can get either. FDJ wants to stay at Barca it seems, and Napoli will likely be coming off the back of a title winning campaign and could have a really strong CL run as well. They will not be pressured to sell, and it will take a mammoth fee to price Osimhen from them.

I genuinely can't name many alternatives who I think may be available that fit the requirement of what we're looking for. I think if we sign Sabitzer permanently, maybe we can take a punt on a player that's younger and not a guaranteed success.

Every time I've watched Villa, I think Jacob Ramsey could develop into a really quality player. He ticks a lot of the boxes in terms of ball carrying from the middle and a goal threat, but I'm not sure if he can play that metronome role that FDJ can play, while also being a strong ball carrier. Defensively, he could be a bit of a worry too, and we can't hide from the fact that we'd likely have to pay way over the odds for any young English player. But overall, the point is that I think we have more scope to be creative if we can't get FDJ.

Bellingham would be another 100m+ player and I just can't see it happening. I'd rather pay 150m for Osimhen and gamble on a young midfielder than pay 100m + for a midfielder. Chelsea is the real-time example. Enzo is a great signing, but he hasn't changed their fortunes because he's not a match winner. A top striker is a match winner, and it's the only position I'd blow that type of money for.

Striker is the big issue really. Only Osimhen fits the bill for me. Kane would be amazing too, but it just seems so unlikely that it will happen. I think if you have a top CF, that can compensate for a lot of things. We can get by with Casemiro, Fred, Sabitzer and Eriksen if we have another forward who can score 20+ goals. The requirement to have the "ideal" midfield is lower. But I struggle to name a single alternative to either Osihmen or Kane that can give us what we need.

I liked the look Schick for a couple years. Good finisher, very good technically and capable of linking play and playing with his back to goal. But I'm sceptical of signing strikers from the Bundesliga, and he seems to be struggling this season. Kolo Muani and Ramos are the other two obvious young "breakout" options post WC, but leading the line at United is a whole other animal for a young player.

Such a crucial summer coming up.
 
eire-red said:
What we need seems to be clear for once. A top CF and a specialist CM to partner Casemiro. Unfortunately, the profile of player we need are not in abundance in the market.

Osimhen and FDJ is the obvious dream scenario. I'm not sure we can get either. FDJ wants to stay at Barca it seems, and Napoli will likely be coming off the back of a title winning campaign and could have a really strong CL run as well. They will not be pressured to sell, and it will take a mammoth fee to price Osimhen from them.

I genuinely can't name many alternatives who I think may be available that fit the requirement of what we're looking for. I think if we sign Sabitzer permanently, maybe we can take a punt on a player that's younger and not a guaranteed success.

Every time I've watched Villa, I think Jacob Ramsey could develop into a really quality player. He ticks a lot of the boxes in terms of ball carrying from the middle and a goal threat, but I'm not sure if he can play that metronome role that FDJ can play, while also being a strong ball carrier. Defensively, he could be a bit of a worry too, and we can't hide from the fact that we'd likely have to pay way over the odds for any young English player. But overall, the point is that I think we have more scope to be creative if we can't get FDJ.

Bellingham would be another 100m+ player and I just can't see it happening. I'd rather pay 150m for Osimhen and gamble on a young midfielder than pay 100m + for a midfielder. Chelsea is the real-time example. Enzo is a great signing, but he hasn't changed their fortunes because he's not a match winner. A top striker is a match winner, and it's the only position I'd blow that type of money for.

Striker is the big issue really. Only Osimhen fits the bill for me. Kane would be amazing too, but it just seems so unlikely that it will happen. I think if you have a top CF, that can compensate for a lot of things. We can get by with Casemiro, Fred, Sabitzer and Eriksen if we have another forward who can score 20+ goals. The requirement to have the "ideal" midfield is lower. But I struggle to name a single alternative to either Osihmen or Kane that can give us what we need.

I liked the look Schick for a couple years. Good finisher, very good technically and capable of linking play and playing with his back to goal. But I'm sceptical of signing strikers from the Bundesliga, and he seems to be struggling this season. Kolo Muani and Ramos are the other two obvious young "breakout" options post WC, but leading the line at United is a whole other animal for a young player.

Such a crucial summer coming up.
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Great post but your forgetting one thing if we are taken over by the most likely scenario they will want to make statement signings and heavens forbid that certain parties are already talking to certain agents

I wouldn’t be surprised some of these deals are already being worked on without a single journalist knowing anything !
 
In reality the club needs ;
1. New Owners
2. Glaziers completely vacating the premises
3. ETH completely backed in transfer window
4. Reduction of wage bill
5. Sell The obvious 7 or 8 players for £100m Give this to ETH with £200m war chest
6. Buy a True CF, A back up number 10, A new CB, sign the best Free Transfer suited for the club, a true Midfield maestro
7. ETH wants the following ; Osimhen, FDJ, Mohamed Kudas, Best Free this summer a 32 year old Ngolo Kante and Kim Min Jae probably costs £250-275m
 
Jaae said:
According to many caf ITKs we only need a CF and a CM to be winning the title.
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A CF and a CM and yeah we should be competing for the title. We still need a GK and to sort out some depth (DM and CB) more suited to Ten Hag, but yeah.

Getting battered in 1 game doesn't mean that overall we don't have 1 win and 1 loss against each of City, Arsenal and Liverpool this season. Points are what matters.
 
We really need a midfielder who can control the tempo. Even this season, there are periods where our play is quite chaotic. Mostly, we've managed to be good enough to avoid getting punished for it. Today we were punished for it in the most humiliating way imaginable.
 
Mmm-Qatarian said:
We really need a midfielder who can control the tempo. Even this season, there are periods where our play is quite chaotic. Mostly, we've managed to be good enough to avoid getting punished for it. Today we were punished for it in the most humiliating way imaginable.
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A better passer for sure. Bruno and Fred undo the work of Casemiro.

31 year old Modric??
 
Jaae said:
According to many caf ITKs we only need a CF and a CM to be winning the title.
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Well that's probably accurate. Put Osimhen and FDJ on this team and we are most likely very close to Arsenal and City. Is that all we need? Of course not, but it's the two clear positions to upgrade and get elite quality into that will take us up a level.
 
Fred is our second highest scorer. Not acceptable.
 
A couple of midfielders who aren’t allergic to the ball would be nice. We will never move to the next level unless we start dominating play week in week out like the real teams. So so so sick of being transition FC.
 
We need a top CF and a back up one as well that isn't WW.
We need a top CM to partner Cas, and a decent back up to Cas as well.
Don't want to overreact to the RB position. Last week I was happy with Dalot and AWB, not so much today.
Question marks over Antony and Sancho owning the right side. Think ETH will give them next season but this is currently a problem.
 
CF - I trust ETH to make the right call on who to go for depending on how he wants us to play. The obvious targets Kane/Osimhen/Ramos all offer something quite different from one another.

CM - De Jong still being linked but I just can’t see him leaving Barca. Although a different style of CM, but I do like Caicedo at Brighton and can’t help but feel he’ll be quality at Liverpool if they were to get him. Not as fussed if he went to Chelsea, as I just don’t see their current project working out (not so) sadly. He might not have the creativity of De Jong, but is passing is actually very good and he’s very press resistant. Caicedo and Casemiro would be very solid.

CB - can see Maguire or Lindelof going this summer so we’ll need more reinforcements. Given our need to upgrade other areas, I can see this being a cheap young back up, similar to Malacia. Wouldn’t mind us paying up for Kim-Min Jae though if we have the budget.

RB - obviously this only happens if Dalot or AWB see the door. I’m 50:50 on who that should be as I think Dalot is better overall but AWB has improved since coming back in and provides a useful ability to shutdown the opposition LW against top teams. Frimpong has been linked but I haven’t seen much of him.

GK - if he stays then a young understudy should be signed. If ETH decides we need to make a change here to advance our ability to play out from the back, then going in for Raya seems logical.


My one worry is that apart Kane none of the above fill the needed Home Grown quota. With potentially Maguire, McTominay, Greenwood, AWB all out of the picture next year…
 
GK,CB,DM, CM and 2 strikers.

What good is signing 1 striker if your backup is still Martial? Thuram on a free wouldn't be a bad option to replace Martial.

Sabitzer could be 1 of the CM signings.

This is what needs to be done in the summer as a minimum. RB and RW are still up in the air.
 
We need some speed. It's sometimes looked down on by self proclaimed purists, but Liverpool's front three frightened our midfield and backline with their speed and work-ethic. They pressed high and hard, and they broke away quick and sharp.

We've shown capability to play high quality counter attacking football with better transitions that previous years, but bar Rashford we don't have an athlete in the team who you can rely on to cause problems regularly.

2 wingers purchased over two summers;
1) €95m euros on 3 goals, no assists and an inability to get past players is becoming irritating.

2) €85m on the Dortmund Starboy with less consistency than Fred is also a bit irritating.

That's €180m on two 'wingers' which has yielded 10 goals and 4 assists over 1.5 seasons. It's got to improve, or they have to be moved on.
 
We need someone to rotate with Bruno. Someone with quality that can provide a genuine goal threat.

For me it would be:

CF

AM

CM

CDM

RB

GK


Also realize Maguire has to go so we need a CB as well. Feck, we're 2 or even 3 windows away from a completely overhauled squad.
 
We still have so many problem areas.

- We need to 2 strikers as Martial is never fit and Weghorst should go back to Burnley.
- We need a midfield partner for Casemiro and another one who can deputise for Casemiro when he's not playing
- Right back is still an issue but leaves the question of which one of AWB/Dalot do you keep?
- Maguire will need replacing when he's sold
- De Gea needs replacing.

It would take another £200m + sales to complete this squad which we're not getting this summer.


RW is also still an issue but may just have to bring Amad back and hope one of Antony/Amad deliver the goods next season.
 
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Waynne said:
We need someone to rotate with Bruno. Someone with quality that can provide a genuine goal threat.
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I don't disgaree but I think on the list of priorities that doesn't even crack the top 5, which speaks to how many problem areas we have.

When we sign a new CM we can experiment with Eriksen further up the pitch, Casemiro-CM-Eriksen and we could try experiment with Sancho and Amad in number 10.
 
I'd like to see us go after Enzo Le Fee. He looks like he'll be a sensational player. Or De Jong, obviously. We need to take more control over possession in games.
 
Dominos said:
I don't disgaree but I think on the list of priorities that doesn't even crack the top 5, which speaks to how many problem areas we have.

When we sign a new CM we can experiment with Eriksen further up the pitch, Casemiro-CM-Eriksen and we could try experiment with Sancho and Amad in number 10.
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Nah, it just speaks to how every squad can use some improvement somewhere.

The question is what do we need to challenge. The answer to that is definitely striker and probably goalkeeper, but maybe we can challenge anyway.

Nobody addresses every little issue in their team. Backup for Bruno isn't an issue because as you say, we have Sancho, we have amad, we have eriksen, we even have Donny if we really want. Actual problem positions worth addressing are GK, ST and DM depth to start with. Then a CM starter and better suited CB depth.
 
croadyman said:
Apparently he is past it when I threw his name into the hat about possible free agents
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On a free, I don't know how you could go wrong. Would be like seeing a Scholes-Keane 2.0 with him and Casemiro.
 
We need quality and quantity this summer to continue the rebuild.

Mohammed Kudus (CAM) - Ajax
Min-Jae Kim (CD) - Napoli
David Raya (GK) - Brentford
Jeremie Frimpong (RB) - Leverkusen

We need to move on from the likes of Maguire, Dalot, and Fred.

Obviously, IF Kane or FDJ are available you go for it, but the minimum should be those four targets.
Don't spend the majority of our summer window wasting time on the grand prize(s) and get those guys in through the door.
 
VanHaal'sRedArmy said:
We need quality and quantity this summer to continue the rebuild.

Mohammed Kudus (CAM) - Ajax
Min-Jae Kim (CD) - Napoli
David Raya (GK) - Brentford
Jeremie Frimpong (RB) - Leverkusen

We need to move on from the likes of Maguire, Dalot, and Fred.

Obviously, IF Kane or FDJ are available you go for it, but the minimum should be those four targets.
Don't spend the majority of our summer window wasting time on the grand prize(s) and get those guys in through the door.
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So you would go Kane over Osimhen then,in regards to De Jong we need to stop wasting our time with trying to sign him
 
croadyman said:
So you would go Kane over Osimhen then,in regards to De Jong we need to stop wasting our time with trying to sign him
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No, you misunderstand. I'm saying the likes of Kane, Osimhen or De Jong are dream signings - if available work the agents, clubs - but don't wait like the previous summer and get no one in while easier deals are to be had.
 
I think Dusan Vlahovic is the one considering we can take advantage of Juventus’ woes
 
BenitoSTARR said:
I stand by that. Kane and FDJ would be enough to do it.
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No chance we don’t score enough goals, we need more, another top quality CB, a keeper whose great with his feet, a Young mobile CDM, number 10 who can compete with a Bruno.
 
NotoriousISSY said:
We need some speed. It's sometimes looked down on by self proclaimed purists, but Liverpool's front three frightened our midfield and backline with their speed and work-ethic. They pressed high and hard, and they broke away quick and sharp.

We've shown capability to play high quality counter attacking football with better transitions that previous years, but bar Rashford we don't have an athlete in the team who you can rely on to cause problems regularly.

2 wingers purchased over two summers;
1) €95m euros on 3 goals, no assists and an inability to get past players is becoming irritating.

2) €85m on the Dortmund Starboy with less consistency than Fred is also a bit irritating.

That's €180m on two 'wingers' which has yielded 10 goals and 4 assists over 1.5 seasons. It's got to improve, or they have to be moved on.
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That’s the thing with Qatari ownership they just won’t get that sort of time. They demand instant results or you get sacked simple and they can replace you!
 
Crazy that this guy's name isn't thrown more around.
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He'll be 28 and available on a free this summer.

I know it's the French league, but still.
 
It’s clear that aside from a CF (and id day an attacking RB) a playmaking CM and ball playing GK are vital. Really hope ETH sees it this way too.

Keeper was a key change made by Pep, Klopp and Arteta too. I just hope ETH take the safe option a DDG is much harder to shift than the keepers at those clubs due to his wage and high status at United. Would not be an easy call but a necessity one imo
 
amolbhatia50k said:
It’s clear that aside from a CF (and id day an attacking RB) a playmaking CM and ball playing GK are vital. Really hope ETH sees it this way too.

Keeper was a key change made by Pep, Klopp and Arteta too. I just hope ETH take the safe option a DDG is much harder to shift than the keepers at those clubs due to his wage and high status at United. Would not be an easy call but a necessity one imo
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It is quite easy decision to make fortunately with his Contract ending in Summer so don't have to worry about shifting him at all .
 
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