What do we still need? Aka The never ending story

Mainoldo said:
Two CMs. Pavard would have been nice to help us contain posse but Fat head ruined that.
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No chance we are getting two CM's,can live with no Pavard if we get a Diomande/Silva next summer when more options on the table
 
Another striker - Gift Orban 35 mill
Another midfielder - Arambat - 30 mill
Another Defender - Pavard - 35 mill
 
Another striker was an absolute must. Last season we were heavily outscored by rivals and the only player who got a respectable total was Rashford, a left forward. He's never a striker. Martial...Keano was right you may as well be bringing Whiteside on. He cannot be relied upon to even be fit for 20 games a season, how can a player like that be considered a serious contender for the strikers role? We already needed a 9 for the medium and log term, but it's painful how obvious it is we needed another for an immediate and short term impact.
 
it's fecking clear we need to add another forward and another CM....we need an athletic, aggressive CM that can cover ground.

we badly need someone in the attack simply b/c antony, sancho and garnacho...may get you 10 goals between all three of them this season. Martial can't stay fit.

that leaves us with Rashford and a new kid in Hojlund.

Hell with the defense....they aren't the issue. The issue is the midfield and attack being basically impotent right now.
 
Hakimi would make your right side a lot better, allowing Antony to have more 1v1 (ala Salah/TAA).
De Jong, he brings both legs and pressure resistance.
Leao, to add some goals to your front line, I rate Garnacho, but he needs time.
 
I want to believe we will at least sign one more midfield even if there are no additional departures.
 
Striker, 2 CM, RW and RB. If the team continues to play like this by end of the season, a new manager.
 
We need to get rid of the deadwood, Maguire at the top of that list. He needs to just go. We need to wring every centavo out of the players we aren't going to us
, and pool the money. I think Mainoo is going to be the midfielder we want to sign, so it might be a panic buy/waste of money to buy a DM only for Mainoo to be fit in a month.

It used to be obvious what positions we needed players for, now not so much. AWB had been good defensively but he and Antony don't create a damn thing together in attack. We still don't have a RW who can go on the outside. I don't think we have a bunch of inept players anymore, just a bunch of average players when we might have thought they would

I think we sorted our GK and CB issues for awhile. We can function with Shaw and AWB fullbacks. Once Mainoo is back we have a solid midfield. Once Hojland can play we have two players for CF, and we have ton of players who can play LW or RW. The fact is that none of them are really burning up the league.

Is Garnacho generational talent or a speed merchant? Is Pellistri going to kick on? What about Amad Diallo? Hannibal?
 
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Since Greenwood is on the way out, I hope we can go for someone like Felix or Kudus. The striker market is really weak even before buying Hojlund and there was no chance we were getting Kane even for a reasonable price. We were linked with Sesko last year whose in the same boat as Hojlund.

I‘m interested to see how Mainoo plays out since ETH seems to really rate him, and from memory on reading articles, ETH isn’t someone who gives youth too many chances so Mainoo must have something good to work with.
 
Glazer's or future owners if you want to hire me, I can fix this team pretty easily:

1. Identify and target top DOF talent that can fit well with ETH's and United's philosophy. Pay this talent whatever is necessary and give them full freedom to bring in their own staff. They would have the ultimate say in player decisions related to buying, selling, and renewing contracts.

2. Sell, renegotiate contracts, or loan underperforming talent to clear wage bill.
- Get Rid At Any Value [ £80M transfer fee] - DVB, Bailly, Greenwood, Henderson, Maguire [£ 30M salary + £6M bonuses saved]
-Sell for half value [ £120M transfer fee] - Sancho, Martial, Antony, Williams [£45M + £9M bonuses saved]
-Replace in 2 yrs [£50M transfer fee] - Varane, Casemiro, Eriksen [£41M + £10M bonuses saved]

3. Purchase RW, ST, CB in 2023

4. Purchase CM, DM, LB, GK in 2024

5. Purchase DM, RW, CB in 2025

Overall 10 new players with transfer budget of £550M (sales plus £100M budget annually) with salary per week of £1.4M.
Averages to £55M per player and £140K/week salary which is very doable. Any misses in the transfer business is offset by upside from youth developments.
 
Personally glad we have for whatever reason maybe choice missed out on Disasi and Pavard, both are pretty average in my opinion.....BUT we do need to sign a cb.

We also need a CM box to box though I am starting to be concerned as to whether that is to pla alongside Casemeiro or compete with him.

That is the bare minimum, realistically we need a second choice keeper and a second striker signed now Greenwood is leaving.
 
zaafi said:
City about to sign Jeremy Doku. We will regret not trying to sign him.
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I know nothing about him but seeing his youtube video tells me he is going to be a problem.



everything we dont see from Antony, pace and taking players on.
 
Thought I had finally been able to retire this response but sadly, the answer is still that we need a clue. First and foremost before we even think of personnel, we need an idea of what we are trying to do, what sort of team we want to be and what sort of profile makes sense for that from 1-11.
 
zaafi said:
City about to sign Jeremy Doku. We will regret not trying to sign him.
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Is he fully over his injuries and back in form? COnfess didnt see any of him last season, but before his injury problems he looked some player pace and dribbling ability to be one of the best around....though he doesnt strike me as a system player for Guardiola.

As Sulemana looked on a very similar level and suffered injuries and until the last couple of games last season, just didnt look anything like the same player at SOUthampton, maybe confidence issues but I thought he would take the league by storm
 
RedStarUnited said:
I know nothing about him but seeing his youtube video tells me he is going to be a problem.



everything we dont see from Antony, pace and taking players on.
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Doku is one of the best dribblers in the game, goes past players with ease, however - he currently doesn’t do much after that. I’m sure that will change at City.
 
1. Another right winger. Preferable one with pace and a decent shot on him.

2. we do not need a CB IMO. Maguire is okay.

3. another striker.

4. Above all, couple of actual midfielders.
 
Ye are all deluded if ye think we are singing anyone at this stage. Unless we sell Henderson & McTom for about 120m.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
Not a big fee either. People can bitch about how they are cheats but there’s another reason they are where they are and it’s because they are exceptionally well run.
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Exactly. They lose a player, and they will immediately look to replace him as they've already done with Kovacic -> Gundogan and now Doku -> Mahrez. Meanwhile we're struggling to get rid of mediocre players, rewarding them with even more play time despite playing shit, and signing a lot of average players. City have a very competent DoF in Txiki Begiristain, someone who actually knows football and it's doing them a massive favour.
 
zaafi said:
Exactly. They lose a player, and they will immediately look to replace him as they've already done with Kovacic -> Gundogan and now Doku -> Mahrez. Meanwhile we're struggling to get rid of mediocre players, rewarding them with even more play time despite playing shit, and signing a lot of average players. City have a very competent DoF in Txiki Begiristain, someone who actually knows football and it's doing them a massive favour.
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Yep. Pep Guardiola is probably the second best manager of all time, yet even he doesn't have the control over transfers that we gave Ten Hag. People think the managers or Glazers are the reason we've fallen down a few pegs since Fergie retired (both still play a part), but the real truth is that we've never had any sort of solid modern structure in how the club operates in the market apart from just having our managers or Woodward wing it. It's why we don't sell when we should, why we overpay not only on fees but in salary, and why we tend to just go full bore for whoever the manager at the time wants without any regard for longer term planning. People think what Brighton do is nothing short of a magic trick in how they manage to replace players and managers without missing a beat in their general style, but the truth is they are one of the most forward thinking teams in terms of analytics/scouting/planning.

I like Ten Hag, and think he's an excellent manager. But in this era of football it's impossible to be a DOF and manager at the same time, and I worry that trying to do both might lead to his downfall here. The single thing that makes me most excited for a potential takeover is that a new owner will most likely overhaul the structure in our club and get us on the right track.
 
RedStarUnited said:
I know nothing about him but seeing his youtube video tells me he is going to be a problem.



everything we dont see from Antony, pace and taking players on.
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God I wish Antony would have the balls to do more of that. He has the feet to do it and enough pace, just lacks either the intelligence or confidence or both.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
Yep. Pep Guardiola is probably the second best manager of all time, yet even he doesn't have the control over transfers that we gave Ten Hag. People think the managers or Glazers are the reason we've fallen down a few pegs since Fergie retired (both still play a part), but the real truth is that we've never had any sort of solid modern structure in how the club operates in the market apart from just having our managers or Woodward wing it. It's why we don't sell when we should, why we overpay not only on fees but in salary, and why we tend to just go full bore for whoever the manager at the time wants without any regard for longer term planning. People think what Brighton do is nothing short of a magic trick in how they manage to replace players and managers without missing a beat in their general style, but the truth is they are one of the most forward thinking teams in terms of analytics/scouting/planning.

I like Ten Hag, and think he's an excellent manager. But in this era of football it's impossible to be a DOF and manager at the same time, and I worry that trying to do both might lead to his downfall here. The single thing that makes me most excited for a potential takeover is that a new owner will most likely overhaul the structure in our club and get us on the right track.
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Yeah there is no doubt in my mind we need a recruitment team overhaul,however no chance of that happening unless Jassim offers £6bn
 
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