Agreed. I don't get the peculiar and sudden Varane animosity. When both are healthy, Varane and Martinez have been very effective.
What do we still need? Aka The never ending story
- Thread starter Devil may care
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Agreed. I don't get the peculiar and sudden Varane animosity. When both are healthy, Varane and Martinez have been very effective.
Yeah well, same thing could be said about Martial.
I ain't hating on Raphael, just saying, his fitness levels haven't been satisfying.
still think at BARE minimum we need a starting CF, a starting CM next to case, and a top notch starting GK. Then next tier is at least another CM for the squad (and honestly prob 2 once we get rid of our deadwood), a CB to rotate in once we sell maguire, a RB who can contribute offensively, and a backup CF. Really in an ideal world we could easily add all that in one window if the club was ambitious enough and used their scouting system properly.
Varane is quality, but he's injured too much, he will most likely miss 17 games this season in the PL alone, last year he missed 16. As he gets older, it's hard to see him suddenly stay injury free. It's a worry, because we have to pull Shaw in and we lose his effectiveness from left back as a consequence. He's played 59 games over 2 seasons for us, to put that in context, Fernades has played 100 games and we still have games remaining
We need a striker above all else. If we faff around worrying about keeper and midfield when the glaring issue is chance conversion then we deserve to be perennial top 6.
I'd rather we spaffed our load on a top striker. Then we can worry about replacing others in the years following. If the FFP reports are true and we only have 100 mill to play with then do whatever you need to get the striker the manager wants.
I'd rather we spaffed our load on a top striker. Then we can worry about replacing others in the years following. If the FFP reports are true and we only have 100 mill to play with then do whatever you need to get the striker the manager wants.
Can't disagree with that, which is one of the reasons the guy from Napoli seems to be gaining a bit of traction. If there's one thing most can agree on, its that Maguire and Lindelof aren't suitable options.
The posts for this thread will continue to change based on which player makes a mistake after each game, this weeks it’s De Gea and Antony, Next week Eriksen and AWB so without being too knee Jerk!
The main issues are ; Centre Forward, Elite DM/CM, Sweeper Keeper, RCB, Back up Striker, RB, RWS in that Oder. We simply can’t do everything but the three most important transfers are these;
CFW - V Osimhen or I Toney
Back Up Striker - M Thuram or R Hojlund
We don’t need one striker we need two as Weghorst, Martial, Ronaldo and Greenwood will all have left or be leaving the club this year. Our policy should be simply, no point chasing Kane, Levy won’t sell him, Ivan Toney and R Hojlund as a package probably £100-120m and V Osimhen and M Thuram as a package £120m as one is on a free. Midfield needs just as much attention we need to go get anyone of these 4 midfield players ;
Defensive / Centre Midfield - M Caciedo, D Rice, A Onana or R Lavia, J Paulinha
Attacking Midfielder/N10 - James Maddison/ M Kudas, Neymar
I would take any two these options but due to cost we might have to take Adrian Rabiot(Free) and J Maddison. Add K Min Jae for £50m and a competent Sweeper Keeper like Raya and that would fix us a permanent top 3 side.
I hope we sign ; Mike Maignan, KMJ, M Caciedo, Neymar, V Osimhen and R Hojlund but we won’t spend £400m so I’ll happily take ; D Raya, KMJ, A Rabiot, J Maddison, I Toney and M Thuram and spend £150m gross or £70m net after we let go of at least 8 players.
The main issues are ; Centre Forward, Elite DM/CM, Sweeper Keeper, RCB, Back up Striker, RB, RWS in that Oder. We simply can’t do everything but the three most important transfers are these;
CFW - V Osimhen or I Toney
Back Up Striker - M Thuram or R Hojlund
We don’t need one striker we need two as Weghorst, Martial, Ronaldo and Greenwood will all have left or be leaving the club this year. Our policy should be simply, no point chasing Kane, Levy won’t sell him, Ivan Toney and R Hojlund as a package probably £100-120m and V Osimhen and M Thuram as a package £120m as one is on a free. Midfield needs just as much attention we need to go get anyone of these 4 midfield players ;
Defensive / Centre Midfield - M Caciedo, D Rice, A Onana or R Lavia, J Paulinha
Attacking Midfielder/N10 - James Maddison/ M Kudas, Neymar
I would take any two these options but due to cost we might have to take Adrian Rabiot(Free) and J Maddison. Add K Min Jae for £50m and a competent Sweeper Keeper like Raya and that would fix us a permanent top 3 side.
I hope we sign ; Mike Maignan, KMJ, M Caciedo, Neymar, V Osimhen and R Hojlund but we won’t spend £400m so I’ll happily take ; D Raya, KMJ, A Rabiot, J Maddison, I Toney and M Thuram and spend £150m gross or £70m net after we let go of at least 8 players.
You're not taking into consideration his salary. If he was on league average wage, there'd be some chance of spending £20-30mn. Not when he's earning £190k per week. Newcastle have one of the best defences around, why would they buy Maguire.
CDM
how could you possibly think we dont need to revamp the midfield this season? Doesnt matter who the striker is we constantly get dominated in the midfield because we cant pass and retain any possession under pressure. Next year Case will be a year older, as will Eriksen. Neither are getting younger or stronger. Mctominay and Fred gonna play huge amounts of games next year for a successful top team? Hell no. Who is gonna step up and be a starter from our youth options who have received pretty much no meaningful minutes this year? If we dont add a starting CM then doesnt matter who we put up top we will struggle again next season.
I dont disagree that our midfield is aging but its not a pressing need. We have scored the least amount of goals amongst our rivals and even worse our chance conversion.
Right now we sit at 4th in the league for shots taken and 15th in the league for chance conversion percentage. Thats absolutely nuts. We are creating the 4th best amount of chances in the league and converting them at relegation level standard. If you cannot see this is the highest issue then I dont know what to tell you
highest issue perhaps, but to say dont touch the midfield this season is madness. Ive said bare minimum is 3 positions, CF/CM/GK. The order can be argued but to say dont touch midfield for me would be absolutely crazy. If you want to say spend the majority of funds on CF i can understand that. The club should be able to find good value in midfield somewhere in the world (really for any position)
Mate Meslier has been dropped by Leeds as his form has taken a wild tumble
We need a ST desperately, but I would also say we need a keeper just as badly.
We cannot play football with DDG in goal, every goal kick is lost possession because he cannot pass a football which means we are under the cosh.
We cannot play football with DDG in goal, every goal kick is lost possession because he cannot pass a football which means we are under the cosh.
My argument is we have a glaringly obvious need up front that needs fixed immediately. The stats back it up. Our chance conversion is outrageous and we are lucky to be in 4th. If the manager decides he wants x striker, then go get him. Secondary need is midfield, then defence/keeper.
I would love nothing more than replacing DDG but we can't replace every position this summer. With 15 clean sheets his replacement is less important than a goal scorer.
Ok then £29m ffs jeezo
id agree as long as we fix the midfield as well in the same window. No way to go into next season with case and eriksen as our starting CMs and having only fred and mctominay again behind them.
Well, if we want to improve as a football team, improving the goalkeeper is almost as important as the striker.
So 120 for Rice, 80 for Ramos, 60 for Costa and all set, right? :Copium:
It's a critical need for us. We're getting constantly countered because Eriksen is basically a traffic cone in defensive transitions and Bruno and Casemiro are operating off a basketball style shot-clock where they feel they have to pass or shoot within a second of gaining possession and because of this we are conceding possession back to our opponents constantly and therefore never building midfield pressure.
Also, while De Gea deserves a huge amount of blame for how bad we are building from the back, how many times have we seen one of our midfielders receive the ball from him, get pressed and lead to a goal or chance. None of our midfielders can receive the ball back to goal, evade pressure and move the ball forward in those circumstances. Casemiro has always been terrible at this even at Madrid, Fred is diabolical at it and even Eriksen who is probably the best on the turn is not great. This is something we really need all our midfielders to be able to do. Our defenders (Licha, Shaw and Dalot) are much better at it than our midfielders which is worrying.
well put. Feel like as well eriksen hasnt come back strong from his pretty serious injury. Expecting him next season to be back at his best from this season would be a huge mistake.
You've ignored my entire argument. Let's go get the midfielder of your dreams. Sure we might create more chances, currently 4th in the league. Maybe we will get to 1st in the league in chances created, which would be lovely. Now, how do we get from 15th in the league from chances converted with the same forward line?
I'm absolutely not arguing with your contention that we need a striker, I'm disputing your argument that midfield isn't a "pressing need".
And yet you continue to ignore the obvious in that it is entirely possible, and downright expected, that the club address BOTH the CF AND CM positions. Why do you keep acting like it is an either/or situation? Add a starting CF and CM, not that hard.
I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence here but come on, the money required to get a top level CF is going to eat the best part of any budget, especially one where we are struggling to stay within FFP due to the laughable amount of money we are still liable to pay for past transfer fees and wages owed. Ducker and many others have covered this lately. We had the head of FFP regulations visit the club in January.
Couple that with owners who might sell/might not sell the club before the window begins.
I would love us to go out and replace the multiple weak points of the team, but striker is by far the weakest. Stats back that up. Therefore I want us to concentrate on striker first and foremost and then try to get after the midfield and other areas where possible. Striker is the pressing need.
My argument is striker is the pressing need.
even that i disagree with. If option 1 is we start with Rashford as our CF next year with martial backing him up, relying on garnacho and sancho to take the LW spots vs starting the season with Case and eriksen as our starting CMs with only Mcfred behind them again id honestly chose option 1 vs option 2. You can talk about "chance creation" all you want, but i can easily point out the shit stats our midfield has (and that includes eriksen playing well pre injury and case's purple patch). You control the midfield and i think you can create even more chances.
And i seriously am getting tired of people acting like we only can bring in 100 plus million CF's. There are options that can be starters for us. Who even are the "world class strikers" out there? To think we cant compete for a title without overspending on the big names that literally any average joe can throw out there is ridiculous. What, Arsenal lead the league for most of the season with a man city cast off leading the line? fecking use the scouting network we have and identify a player who has good qualities that can slot in and hopefully produce. If it doesnt work out ok, but to piss and piddle around with just the big names is ridiculous. Find the osimhen type guy a year before he becomes the 100 million signing.
Our scouting networks have been rather poor. We have turned down good deals a multitude of times, Caicedo a very recent example. Garnacho has been our only good youth purchase in a long time. Amad might eventually work out. Alvaro Fernandez played well for Preston this year too, but so many of them have struggled to kick on.
I think we can only bring in a 100 mill CF because under this current regime thats all they know. Until the regime changes, this is our way sadly. The stats prove we are at the very poorest at converting our chances. Having the exact same forward line won't fix that.
My preferred (realistic) CM signings who can also cover Casemiro are Caicedo, Ugarte and Lavia.
Based on what each of them would cost I think Ugarte at 50m presents the best value. Would love it if we started seeing more serious links to him as my Liverpool seems convinced they’ll get him.
You’re being too optimistic.. they know he’s not in favor here and they know we need to sell him. It’s the worst position to be in.
either way, it is what is. He doesn’t fit here, we need his wages off the books. Hell have to take less money elsewhere. He isn’t going to move to one of those and be one of their highest earners.
Would you say Steve did a good job on the video?
what do you think caicedo would cost and lavia?
Reports are suggesting Caicedo could be anything between £75-100m. He’s a lovely player and would be great for us but we probably need to be looking to balance quality and value with our signings this summer (apart from at CF where we need top class and there seems to be a lack of good value options)
Lavia looks like he could be much cheaper at between £35-45m and is young enough to probably accept a more rotational role for a club of our level. For his age he seems pretty mature but has all the attributes to be a top DM in a few years.
As for Steve’s analysis of Ugarte, he’s pretty spot on to be fair. The stats don’t lie. From what I’ve seen of Ugarte in Europa and admittedly YT, he seems like bit of animal, freakishly tenacious without the ball and keeps it calm and simple with the ball, and has the power to drive the ball with his take ons. Imagine a cross between Kante and Hojberg with a South American twist haha.
From what I can see his main/only weakness is he’s not as technically gifted as an Eriksen or De Jong but I think he’s good enough in that department given we have the best in the business at creating chances in Bruno ahead of him, and he more than makes up for it with his other attributes.
He’s quite similar in profile in a way to Caicedo and Caicedo obviously has the advantage of being “prem proven”, but at £50m compared to £85-90m, I’d take Ugarte for sure.
This is why we need Qatar ownership as we’ll settle the difference to leave like most clubs do who we ain’t rid of players on high wages.
Qatar ownership has been proven to inflate wages and make a team full of stars who don’t work together. Talking about adding Neymar to this team, a guy whose ankles are made of glass. It’s idiotic. It’s Woodward level stuff
What’s this gas lighting that got to do with what I said.
My point was they can afford to pay him off and get rid. I don’t care if they want to get the best players in the world. That’s what we need. Our players are crap.
Have you actually watched how PSG do their business? They haven't got a clue. Buy the shiniest most expensive toys but don't know how to integrate them all while a conveyor belt of future stars leave their academy to do the business for other big clubs.
It’s crazy enit. But we are a well established English team who haven’t got an inferiority complex.
Not a shiny fashion club who have never been known for nothing in Europe and had two league titles before the takeover. Now they are a regular UCL team and win their league every year.
So who’s really the clowns? Sounds like they’ve done alright from their humble beginnings and poor surroundings. But maybe they should of done it ‘organically’
Watching the Madrid City match, feel like we need to buy atleast another 8 first team quality players to be at their level.
Realistically, need a quality CF (Kane/ Osimhen), a ball playing CM, and a quality GK, and an attacking RB. Plus continuous progress of Garnacho & a break through season for Pellistri / Amad.
Sell Maguire, Sancho, Fred, DVB, Martial, Henderson, one of Dalot / AWB to bridge the fund gap.
Realistically, need a quality CF (Kane/ Osimhen), a ball playing CM, and a quality GK, and an attacking RB. Plus continuous progress of Garnacho & a break through season for Pellistri / Amad.
Sell Maguire, Sancho, Fred, DVB, Martial, Henderson, one of Dalot / AWB to bridge the fund gap.
Cracking window but can't see us Mac Allister choosing us over the scousers