I think it will be more like two systems, one vs Top 6 and CL and one vs non-Top 6 teams.
4-4-2 diamond and 433.
You can't play the same vs City and vs Cristal Palace.
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What do we still need? Aka The never ending story
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4-4-2 diamond and 433.
You can't play the same vs City and vs Cristal Palace.
I'm still going off the feeling we'll stick with the 4-4-2 diamond no matter how many fans want a RW, now in this formation I still feel we are lacking a RB and you want 4 strikers for it, we only have 3 as surely Sanchez has to bounce, however if Ole is really only going to do minimal business I guess it'll be more Young week in and week out but I hope we play Dalot and just let him work his way through his mistakes, and even though I'd like to bring in Werner or Jovic to complete the striker quartet I imagine Greenwood will get the 4th spot.
So cutting corners with 2 big gambles being taken I hope it's a quality over quantity summer in 3 key positions.
Rodri: £85m clause.
de Ligt: £60m+++
Eriksen: £75m+ (And now Zidane is after him).
I think we could do without Eriksen since we could get Sarabia for £15m and he could do a similar job/role and also play on the right side. If Rodri wants to join he certainly should be a target. And de Ligt is a player we can not afford to miss if he becomes as good as people think he will become.
The theory that we should only sign one or two players makes no sense. Getting rid of players isn't going to hurt the morale of players that stay... if anything it will improve it.
We are miles away from the top clubs in terms of first 11 and squad depth. Waiting another summer just delays the improvement yet again. And other teams WILL improve over the summer. City, Liverpool, Real, Barca, Juve, Bayern, PSG will all make big signings. If we don't we will drop further behind instead of making up ground.
Under Jose, the squad was underperforming. Under Ole it has overperformed. We can't expect him to keep working miracles.
Out: Valencia, Darmian, Rojo, Jones, Sanchez, Pereira, Lukaku
Options:
CB - Koulibaly
RW - Sancho / Pepe
DM - Kante / Rice / Neves
CM - Eriksson /
ST - Vardy / Werner
RB - AWB / Meunier
Promote: Greenwood, Gomes, Garner, Laird and Chong for League Cup / FA Cup games
This would give us an excellent first team and depth. Some will kick off about replacing Lukaku with Vardy, but the latter is a more consistent finisher, superb at finding space, can play counter, good link up play and should be fairly cheap. Being older he won't stop the progress of Rashford, Martial, Greenwood. He is a Ferguson signing. Mean, lean, like a flea bitten stray dog.
We need cover at fullback. If Dalot or Shaw get injured, we only have Young. If our right winger gets injured, we can play Dalot there. He will get plenty of games.
De Ligt is going to Barca, so we have to get Koulibaly, preferably before Real come calling.
Sancho ideal, Pepe would still be a big improvement. Chong can be understudy.
Getting Kante would be amazing, though unlikely. Rice may be too expensive. Neves + McTominay are good options.
CM is the hardest spot, can't think of many attainable signings who would fit in. Eriksson if Zidane says no? Hopefully Fred will step up.
If we could get CB, RW, RB and CM I would be happy, but don't think it's enough to win the league. Anything less and it's a tough year ahead - wouldn't be surprised to see people start turning on Ole, out of stupidity.
We are miles away from the top clubs in terms of first 11 and squad depth. Waiting another summer just delays the improvement yet again. And other teams WILL improve over the summer. City, Liverpool, Real, Barca, Juve, Bayern, PSG will all make big signings. If we don't we will drop further behind instead of making up ground.
Under Jose, the squad was underperforming. Under Ole it has overperformed. We can't expect him to keep working miracles.
Out: Valencia, Darmian, Rojo, Jones, Sanchez, Pereira, Lukaku
Options:
CB - Koulibaly
RW - Sancho / Pepe
DM - Kante / Rice / Neves
CM - Eriksson /
ST - Vardy / Werner
RB - AWB / Meunier
Promote: Greenwood, Gomes, Garner, Laird and Chong for League Cup / FA Cup games
This would give us an excellent first team and depth. Some will kick off about replacing Lukaku with Vardy, but the latter is a more consistent finisher, superb at finding space, can play counter, good link up play and should be fairly cheap. Being older he won't stop the progress of Rashford, Martial, Greenwood. He is a Ferguson signing. Mean, lean, like a flea bitten stray dog.
We need cover at fullback. If Dalot or Shaw get injured, we only have Young. If our right winger gets injured, we can play Dalot there. He will get plenty of games.
De Ligt is going to Barca, so we have to get Koulibaly, preferably before Real come calling.
Sancho ideal, Pepe would still be a big improvement. Chong can be understudy.
Getting Kante would be amazing, though unlikely. Rice may be too expensive. Neves + McTominay are good options.
CM is the hardest spot, can't think of many attainable signings who would fit in. Eriksson if Zidane says no? Hopefully Fred will step up.
If we could get CB, RW, RB and CM I would be happy, but don't think it's enough to win the league. Anything less and it's a tough year ahead - wouldn't be surprised to see people start turning on Ole, out of stupidity.
City play their same system vs everyone and we don't have the striker to play 4-3-3 as none of them can hold the ball up, it's why we've ditched it for a while now, Ole has realized it, this set of strikers function better in a partnership than having to be the attacking pivot in a front 3.
Sarabia is levels below Eriksen, I'd rather just keep starting Jesse in the hole and give Pereira another season as the back-up to be honest. Looks lik de Ligt is off to Barca so we can just use that extra money to try and secure Eriksen or maybe Dybala.
Eriksen is the main creator for Tottenham, and Pogba is our main (and only) creator (as in the one that runs the attack and initiates).
Sarabia might not be as good as Eriksen, but he is not levels below. I would rather have Sarabia for £15m than Eriksen for £75m.
Fair enough, I personally wouldn't want more second level options, we have enough, Eriksen is world class and has done it repeatedly in the PL as well as CL, Sarabia is nearly the same age and hasn't proven anything.
Sarabia in La Liga this season:
9 assist
9 goals
26 games.
Total:
20 goals
13 assist
44 games.
Not that stats is everything, but he is a really productive player.
If the rumors of Bruno Fernandes Joao Felix and Coutinho have any truth to it then Ole is definitely going for a 4-4-2 diamond next season
If it's 4-4-2 formation we are going for then my transfer targets would be:
AM: Joao Felix/Bruno Fernandes/Eriksen
RB:Meunier/Any other right back that is aging and good enough in attack and defense
DM:Kante/Rice
CB:Koulibaly/Alderweild
We'd be neglecting the right wing again with this formation but apart from Sancgo(who is realistically unlikely to leave after one season) there isn't anyone that would bring that quality we need on the wing
If it's 4-4-2 formation we are going for then my transfer targets would be:
AM: Joao Felix/Bruno Fernandes/Eriksen
RB:Meunier/Any other right back that is aging and good enough in attack and defense
DM:Kante/Rice
CB:Koulibaly/Alderweild
We'd be neglecting the right wing again with this formation but apart from Sancgo(who is realistically unlikely to leave after one season) there isn't anyone that would bring that quality we need on the wing
Where do you get such prices from? De Ligt for 60m is laughable - Ajax won’t even return an email after such an offer
I wasn't saying he was a bad player but he's levels below Eriksen who is world class, I'd wager now that if we don't get Eriksen Real or PSG or Bayern will, while no really elite side will go near Sarabia unless Barca have one of their Arada Turan moments where they buy a guy just for the sake of it. Eriksen has been world class for a few seasons now and doing it in a consistent top 4 CL side, we need that, not a player who's around the same level as Jesse just because he's cheap, if we are only buying 2 as Ole said then we don't need to scrimp as we spent very little last summer and nothing in January and hopefully we'll have 3 or 4 off the wage bill and a few quid in as well to add to the kitty this summer.
I agree with you regarding the morale; healthy competition shouldn’t harm it too much. However I disagree on signing only two players not making sense.
For me, we have lots of 7/10 players and only two elite players (De Gea and Pogba). We do have some exciting youngsters and I agree that they should be trusted to pad out the squad.
I love us signing hidden gem players but less are available for cheap due to the increased strength of scouting and analytics globally.
Budget has to be considered though. We won’t spend more than 250m. Probably won’t even pass the 200m mark. Your names above are all very expensive. I doubt we’d be able to sign more than 3 of them.
Koulibaly - 80-100m easy. 28 so not great value.
Sancho - Over 100m, a can’t miss prospect.
Pepe - 50m plus, wanted by most of Europe. Some doubts.
Kante - 80m plus. Owned by one of the world’s richest clubs.
Rice - 60m plus. Long term contract, West Ham are loaded like most PL clubs.
Neves - 80m+. See Rice.
Eriksen - 100m+. It’s Spurs. Even though he has a year left on his contract, Levy would still hold out for an insane fee just to prove a point.
Vardy - 30m plus for a player over 30 who relies on pace. Won’t improve us at all.
Werner - 40m plus. Not good enough, I believe.
AWB - 50m at least. We have Laird and Dalot in his position. Some have said Sancho blocks Greenwood but both can play all across a front 3.
Meunier - 30m plus. It’s PSG.
De Ligt and Sancho would cost over £200m alone. They appear to be two players destined for the very top. I would definitely go all in on them rather than risking it with lots of second tier players or players we aren’t basically certain will be elite.
Also, Brexit will almost certainly further inflate prices for PL clubs; especially for home grown players. This Summer will be fairly static IMHO.
Everything you say is correct, but it's not going to change in the future, so I'm not sure how it is relevant. The cost this summer will increase next summer. The other big clubs will improve over summer, so if we only buy two top players we will - at best - simply maintain the gap between us. What are you suggesting as an alternative? Waiting just postpones the inevitable doesn't it?
De Ligt it seems is going to Barca, I would prefer him over anyone though.
Vardy is an excellent finisher too, unlike Rashford and Lukaku, maybe the ship has sailed in terms of age but for a bargain price I would take him over Lukaku because he would have a useful and defined role in the squad.
Sancho is probably staying at Dortmund this summer, but yes we should try everything to get him.
I don't expect us to get anything close to what I said in my 'wish list', but this thread is about what we need rather than what we will likely get. My big worry is that we have lucked into getting Ole and if we don't back him and suffer a dip in form, he might get the sack then we're back to square one, trying to find a new manager, waiting for funds to appear and rebuilding for another few years. We have a similar revenue to Real Madrid, Ed and co refer to us as the biggest club in the world, yet we can't afford to buy as many players as Real this summer (rumoured 300MIL kitty) despite Real winning the last 3 CLs in a row.
Who is in need of the biggest rebuild?!Everything you say is correct, but it's not going to change in the future, so I'm not sure how it is relevant. The cost this summer will increase next summer. The other big clubs will improve over summer, so if we only buy two top players we will - at best - simply maintain the gap between us. What are you suggesting as an alternative? Waiting just postpones the inevitable doesn't it?
De Ligt it seems is going to Barca, I would prefer him over anyone though.
Vardy is an excellent finisher too, unlike Rashford and Lukaku, maybe the ship has sailed in terms of age but for a bargain price I would take him over Lukaku because he would have a useful and defined role in the squad.
Sancho is probably staying at Dortmund this summer, but yes we should try everything to get him.
I don't expect us to get anything close to what I said in my 'wish list', but this thread is about what we need rather than what we will likely get. My big worry is that we have lucked into getting Ole and if we don't back him and suffer a dip in form, he might get the sack then we're back to square one, trying to find a new manager, waiting for funds to appear and rebuilding for another few years. We have a similar revenue to Real Madrid, Ed and co refer to us as the biggest club in the world, yet we can't afford to buy as many players as Real this summer (rumoured 300MIL kitty) despite Real winning the last 3 CLs in a row.
We seem to be agreeing on way more than we are disagreeing on. We both want us to be aggressive in the market, though both perhaps have different senses of the restrictions on this pursuit.
For me, we have lots of good players but few elite players. Only elite players will really close the gap on City and Liverpool. I don't count many players under 21 in that elite category; not Pellegrini, nor Pepe, nor Berge. They are very good prospects but I classify elite as either 1) world class or 2) damn near certainties to become world class. Sancho and De Ligt are two of a very small number of elite prospects (perhaps there's only 6 in the world and the other 4 are probably at Barca, Madrid, PSG and City; i.e. Dembele, Vinicius, Mbappe and Foden IMHO).
My restriction is price. I just don't see us going over £250m. It would defy historical precedent. We might be the second richest club in the world but we spent £58.05m last Summer, £178.52m the season before, £121.95m the year before and £128.07m the year before that. I don't see us jumping too high above those figures.
Your 'reality restriction' seems to be on competition. Why should De Ligt go to Barca? Yes, noises are strong but nothing's official. They aren't anywhere near as cash rich as us. He might want them but we have the ability to blow their offer out the water. They can go to 60m? feck it, we'll go up to 100m. Therefore it never goes past Ajax. If it does, we'll destroy them on wages.
Why should Sancho stay at Dortmund? Yes, they might want to wait to the Euros in the well founded hope he shines and all the English fans clamour for his signing; pushing the rich PL clubs to react. Maybe they want the Brexit effect to make Sancho even more valuable. Fine. But if we offer them £140m this Summer, you think they won't be tempted?
This is what I'm saying. Go all in for the elite players. Don't faff around getting a few very good players who could be good but could flop. We need the (basically) definites. We have enough good players. Get the game changers that make the likes of Real, City and Barca shudder.
Here's an example -
In 2017/2018 Summer, we signed Lukaku, Matic and Lindelöf for 147.96 and sold Januzaj for 7.65 while loaning out Pereira, Tuanzebe and Fosu Mensah. PSG signed Neymar for 199.80m (and got Mbappe on a loan to buy with a 40.50m initial fee with an extra 121.50m). I'd much rather us to have signed Neymar/Mbappe for £199.80m/£162m respectively and kept the loanees in and around the squad. Pereira and Fosu Mensah could've competed for Matic's place (and arguably developed their talent far better than they have) and Tuanzebe could have had a better season than Lindelöf's first with us (and potentially developed into a top class defender). Then the elite talent of Neymar or Mbappe would make everyone better and affirm a sense that 'we are Manchester United and we sign the very best in the world so feck you!'
We don't need lots more good players, we need a few greats and sure-fire potential greats. That's where I perceive we are at as a club. I also feel we've been too timid with youngsters in recent years; letting them atrophy in the U23s and poorly chosen loans where their motivation dies rather than putting them in sink or swim scenarios. Also, we haven't had enough world class players or strong leaders in recent years to take those around them to new heights. We've had too many Valencias and Freds as opposed to Cantonas, Keanes and Ronaldos. Nice players, good pros; don't get me wrong, but not true leaders or elite players.
I am coming round to agreeing with you. The poster Fosu-Mens is excellent at identifying good value players. He/she seems to have a great knowledge of release clauses, stats and the like. If we needed to pad out the squad with talent, F-M might be the poster here I'd most look to for interesting options.
I am coming to see that we're not in that place now, though. Ole is getting an extra 10% out of most of our players. They're a decent, solid squad and we have a superb academy (albeit we've been cautious and antiquated with our developmental pathways). What we need is more class and that's not cheap.
It's false economy to get lots of cheaper 'good' players IMHO. The real hidden gems are so few and far between now as most top division clubs are aware of every 18 year old playing in Belgium's top flight etc. Most of these hidden gems are now bought at academy level. Of course, players develop at different rates but, more often than not, the absolute top drawer players are spotted early doors. There are variables in position, physical growth, attitude, injuries and so on, of course, but I feel those generally aren't hidden attributes anymore. There's a lot of reliable science on growth rate and so on.
I actually believe the 'Zidanes y Pavons' transfer model that Real Madrid adopted in the early 2000s is the best policy for most big clubs now. Focus on developing academy players and signing global talents at youth level (i.e. us with Pogba) and then any signings made should be the real top players/prospects. The good but not great players are mostly so expensive these days. Eyebrows were raised when Madrid signed Vinicius for nearly 60m. We signed Fred for like 50m. Despite his excellent performance against PSG, for me there's absolutely no question who will long term be the better value signing and it isn't our Fred.
'A rising tide lifts all boats' - The rising tide in my analogy refers to game changer signings. The boats are our squad players and young prospects. Top players make those around them better.
For what it's worth, my take on Sarabia is he's a very good La Liga player but doesn't seem like he'd fit in the PL quite so snugly. Not sure why. Perhaps it's that he has lots of space and time in Spain and it's within those gaps he most thrives. I can see him being another Aspas or Sandro Rodriguez type (perhaps a lazy viewpoint).
Can Anthony Martial play as a ten?
https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/13/ole-...ourinhos-plan-sign-kalidou-koulibaly-8893940/
It's the Metro, but if on the off chance it is true, I think it's a wise decision.
A CB is not really a pressing need with Lindelof and Smalling doing a good job and having back-ups for the cups in Jones and Bailly. Whatever weaknesses they exhibit can be compensated if we upgrade our FB and RW positions, and maybe even get in an additional winger to give Martial competition. In any case, a better attack at the moment is more important for us than defensive upgrades.
It's the Metro, but if on the off chance it is true, I think it's a wise decision.
A CB is not really a pressing need with Lindelof and Smalling doing a good job and having back-ups for the cups in Jones and Bailly. Whatever weaknesses they exhibit can be compensated if we upgrade our FB and RW positions, and maybe even get in an additional winger to give Martial competition. In any case, a better attack at the moment is more important for us than defensive upgrades.
I would have the priority as
RW
FB
CM
CB
I think we have adequate defensive cover and should probably aim to outscore teams rather than bolster the defence for this season.
I disagree, I think a top quality CB should be top of our priority list. Particularly a ball playing one. I'd rather bring in say Koulibaly or de Ligt, sell Rojo and Jones and then move either Smalling or Lindelof as a back up.
City have built their squad using the mid-value model and it's been very successful.
Real Madrid's Galactico era failed to deliver trophies and the policy of mixing superstars with young players on low wages was in hindsight seen as a reason behind the failure.
We do need squad depth. Having 'good' players isn't a problem if they're only on 'good' wages. There aren't enough elite players to fill all the positions we need, certainly not for the budget we will have. Our midfield is an issue unless McTominay and Fred step up next season.
Re: Sancho - my belief is that he will choose to stay, because it will benefit him when playing for England in 2020. If it was my choice, yes, I would buy him now.
Out of interest what do you think will happen in the summer?
You have put it far more detailed and eloquently than I did and the bolded point is key IMO, we need to lift the starting 11 quality to improve as a whole and move good squads players from starting roles into the roles they are suited for at a club that supposedly has the ambitions we do.
I think this has more to do with the fact de Ligt is going to Barca and the board don't want to spend the world record fee for a 28 year old CB in Koulibaly, I mean I don't like any of the other options out there myself but I can't for a second believe Ole trusts Jones and Bailly, one is never fit and the other is so rash and error prone. They can hope to coach the mess out of Bailly but Jones injury record speaks for itself, he's the most unreliable player in the squad and has been for years. Smalling and Lindelof are a solid starting partnership but I think Neville is spot on that you can't win a PL with them, Lindelof with someone else? Quite possibly, but not the two of them as the main partnership, however that's ok as I think it's going to take more than a single summer to get this team competing with City and Liverpool.
This summer will show the ambition of the glazers and the club. We need to spend big and with a exciting new manager and the feel good factor around the club this will be the time to spend on top players to close the gap. We also havent spent much in the last couple windows so no excuses this summer. I fear we are heading for more excuses and soundbites about value in the market and going all out for unobtainable targets so woody can say we tried our best though. Time will tell.
I would do it slightly different to the Galactico policy in that I'd go more for the elite 18-23 year olds rather than the 25-28 year old bracket that Real, at the time, focused on. Sometimes there's lower profile, speciality signings that might be needed though, i.e. Makelele signed for less fanfare but gave the likes of Zidane and Figo freedom and there wasn't an anywhere near good enough DM in the academy to take a risk on.
I just feel we've gone for too many squad players over the years. I also feel our squad has been too bloated generally. Most of this is a failing of our scouting and the lack of footballing philosophy post Fergie.
Much of my thoughts here are in rapid flux, honestly. A few weeks back, I was advocating at least 5 signings. Now I think I'm more in the Solskjaer mindset of getting a little bit more out of what we've got, giving the youngsters more chances and going for definite quality over quantity. It might not lead to title contention next season but for me it's a better strategy than what we've been doing in recent years (i.e. 4 or 5 good signings a year). Partly this is me not trusting our scouts to identify cheaper players that have the ability to close the gap between us and City.
Speaking of City, they signed several elite potential players in 2017/2018 - i.e. Ederson, Mendy and Laporte. Obviously high upside. Potentially World 11 standard. They already had a far stronger squad than us at that point too. Now they have several top tier players so signing second tier players like Mahrez last year to add depth makes sense. We don't have the same luxury IMHO. We just need certainties, or as near to as possible.
As for what I think will happen, good question. Again, we won't exceed £250m. I'm fairly certain of that. I guess we'll sign Bergwijn/Pepe for RW (40m), Skiriniar/Koulibaly for CD (80m), Bruno Fernandes/Fekir for AM (60m) and Semedo/Trippier/Meunier for RB (40m). I could also see us taking a ~20m gamble at LB, i.e. Lloyd Kelly, Robin Gosens etc. Those types of players. Very decent but not earth shattering. I wouldn't hate these signings by any means but IMHO they don't take us forward hugely on as a team, albeit they do as a squad.
What about you? Solskjaer seemed to let slip last week that he'd been involved in a couple of transfer negotiations already but perhaps I misread what he was saying.
I'm pretty much in agreement with what you think will happen. I'm still holding out some hope about Sancho and I think the rumours about Joao Felix probably have some truth, though I'm not sure if he's the best fit for us. I won't predict which players but I think we will get two young players (18-21), one established player (mid 20s) and a youth prospect (16-19).
I think galactico signings would work well, if you buy them with a strategy and not just big names.
IN:
Sancho 100mio
Dybala/Joao Felix (depends if Juventus sells Dybala) 120/80mio
Ndombele 60mio
DeLigt 70mio
Thierney 25mio
OUT:
Lukaku 70mio
Sanchez 30mio
Pereira 20mio
Fred 40mio
Rojo 10mio
Bailly 30mio
Valencia 0mio
Darmian 10mio
Should be a possible net spending and our starting XI not change that lot. Therefore all the new players habe time for integration. Would give as a lot more flexibility in our squad and more place for young players in our squad. (In 5 players out 8 players)
IN:
Sancho 100mio
Dybala/Joao Felix (depends if Juventus sells Dybala) 120/80mio
Ndombele 60mio
DeLigt 70mio
Thierney 25mio
OUT:
Lukaku 70mio
Sanchez 30mio
Pereira 20mio
Fred 40mio
Rojo 10mio
Bailly 30mio
Valencia 0mio
Darmian 10mio
Should be a possible net spending and our starting XI not change that lot. Therefore all the new players habe time for integration. Would give as a lot more flexibility in our squad and more place for young players in our squad. (In 5 players out 8 players)
If I could choose only one realistic player to develop our squad, I would actually go for Christian Eriksen. With one year left on his contract, he should be attainable for less than 100 mill, which is a bargain in todays market. We currently have one world-class midfielder in Pogba. Matic is very strong defensively but is lacking mobility, while Herrera has mobility and passion but contributes little in terms of goals and assists. As we saw in the first leg against PSG, our midfield contributes little going forwards if Pogba is taken out of the game, and this must be solved if we are to compete in the later stages of CL. If we are to use 433 as our main formation we need to have two attacking outlets in midfield, and I think Eriksen would be the perfect fit. Defensively he is of course weaker than Herrera, but he always ranks extremely high in terms of distance covered per game, and he has great discipline in terms of tracking back. This would also allow us to utilize Herrera as a holding midfielder instead of Matic, especially in games where we are expected to dominate and play with a high line.
Levy would not sell Eriksen to us, he will would sell him to Spain for a lesser fee like what he did with Bale.
A CB should be our #1 priority this summer, then a RW/RF. Smalling can be a backup CB and Jones should be sold. Our backline has looked shaky for a very long time.
As for our right side, we havent had a proper RW/RF in years , this really has to be addressed.
Mates, the needs we need to address this summer are straightforward:
A CB. The top priority for me. There are great candidates for the job but for me this is the order: De Ligt, Koulibaly and Alderwiereld
A RW. Break the bank for Sancho.
A RB. I'm tempted to give Dalot a proper chance and I'm even tempted to give Tuanzebe a chance, but neither are ready for regular first team football next season and both can come on and do different jobs in different situations. Go for Wan-Bassaka.
But if media reports are to be believed, Ole will focus on adding attacking players, Sancho being the top target and accepts what he has right now on the back line. I can see the logic of that but we're missing a world class defender and that's a hole I would address.
Yes, Lindelof and Smalling have done well but I can't imagine even a single caf poster arguing either are at the standard required of a CL-winning side, which surely we aspire to next season. Forget Neville's absurd argument that we need to bring in 2 CB's but we should definitely consider bringing in 1 that's at a higher level than Lindelof. Smalling, Bailly and even Jones bring decent depth, and I actually like Tuanzebe as one to develop for additional depth at either CB or RB. Not sure what's happening with Fosu-Mensah but there was a time when he looked a real prospect as well, but it appears Ajax are going to replace De Ligt with Fosu-Mensah.
A CB. The top priority for me. There are great candidates for the job but for me this is the order: De Ligt, Koulibaly and Alderwiereld
A RW. Break the bank for Sancho.
A RB. I'm tempted to give Dalot a proper chance and I'm even tempted to give Tuanzebe a chance, but neither are ready for regular first team football next season and both can come on and do different jobs in different situations. Go for Wan-Bassaka.
But if media reports are to be believed, Ole will focus on adding attacking players, Sancho being the top target and accepts what he has right now on the back line. I can see the logic of that but we're missing a world class defender and that's a hole I would address.
Yes, Lindelof and Smalling have done well but I can't imagine even a single caf poster arguing either are at the standard required of a CL-winning side, which surely we aspire to next season. Forget Neville's absurd argument that we need to bring in 2 CB's but we should definitely consider bringing in 1 that's at a higher level than Lindelof. Smalling, Bailly and even Jones bring decent depth, and I actually like Tuanzebe as one to develop for additional depth at either CB or RB. Not sure what's happening with Fosu-Mensah but there was a time when he looked a real prospect as well, but it appears Ajax are going to replace De Ligt with Fosu-Mensah.
Tony Kroos from Real should be attainable for 40-50m. He's what 28? I think he'd be a good signing for us.
Pogba------ Kroos
-------Herrera--------
Pogba------ Kroos
-------Herrera--------
Real Madrid are Levy's only option for that though as Barca have no need of him.
RIP Ander.
Sorry did not get you? You think it'd be too attacking? I feel against 75% of teams where we are expected to create something, this setup would be ideal.
I think the amount of work that set up would put on Ander would be too much against half the teams in the PL, Pogba tries to get back but it takes him time to get motoring and Kroos is fairly slow and not the most agile either, I think it would be similar to what we have now but with obviously Kroos adding more quality passing. Ideally we need a player that can add to us on the ball but who is also quick across the ground and can work with Ander rather than Ander doing all of the running himself.
Pretty much agree with this, De Ligt would be a no brainer for me, must try to get him. Wan Bissaka looks an excellent full back defensively, but a lot of posters point to the fact that he doesn't get forward much. This is his first full season, so the lad is learning all the time, and perhaps he is not encouraged to get forward to often, but I did see him pop a great pass into Batshuayi (whatever) who scored. If he did come, I'm sure our coaching staff would be able to get more out of him. With a lot of our players getting contract extensions I think Ole will give everyone a chance next summer, also he has not seen much of Henderson, Tuanzebe, TFM, Mitchell etc, so I don't see too many players leaving, Valencia, Darmian, Grant, Sanchez (if we're lucky) perhaps, with just two or three new additions coming in. I can see Chong getting a season long loan, and depending on how Garner, Gomes, Greenwood, Laird etc perform in the pre season, some of those may also go on loan, so I think a RW type of player could come in. Sancho, Felix, Pepe appear to be the front runners. I've always thought that Tuanzebe and TFM could be excellent in a DM position, but whether either of those players get the chance is debatable. I think that the 2020 January, and summer windows will be the ones where we see a few players moving on, Young, Mata, Matic, a couple of CB's, and those who can't perform in the way Ole want's them to perform.
We'd also need someone controlling the pace of play from the middle. We know Pogba is not that guy , so need to keep that in mind too. Currently we don't have a tempo to our game and that's a big problem.
I'll have some of what you are having right now if it gets you so high you think we can get 30million for Sanchez and 20million for Pereira.
I agree, Verratti would be a good fit in that regard but obviously hard to get, the midfield conundrum is a difficult one, we have lots of bodies but too many samey type players and not enough composure in there.
Sounds kinda like the Bale situation, we outbid Real for Bale but Levy didnt accept the offer and Bale ended up in Madrid.
Even that isnt as crazy as suggesting we can still get 70m for Lukaku or 40M for Fred.
Yes. I was so impressed with Verratti. Sadly we have 0% chance of getting him. Lots of names like Ndomble are being thrown around. Not sure if any of them fits the description that we're looking for.
He looked very composed against Barca.