I really like Zirkzee, but I don't think he was what we needed. I also agree that we won't be replacing him or Hojlund anytime soon though.
I think what we need, and what we needed in the summer, is competent wingers who can beat their man, be a genuine threat and put in killer passes/crosses. I think that between Amad and Garnacho we have a reasonable rotation but we could do with replacing the twin nightmares of Antony and Rashford, with someone who can provide a real threat in every match.
A winger like Olise who can consistently create danger and get near enough double figures in goals and assists.
At the moment I would suggest Nico Williams or Kvaratskhelia.
Hopefully Hojlund can keep improving.
Also, a technically good passing midfielder.
Plus a new coach.
Good question. I suppose we’ll have to see how players do over this season in different leagues.Who should we bring in as that technical midfielder
This is the million dollar question for me, although I think we need more than 1 midfielder but honestly I don’t know who would be good and who is even gettable.Who should we bring in as that technical midfielder
Every transfer window is always a 10/10 perfect transfer window on the Caf in late August / early September, until reality sets in.I applaud the optimists who thought we'd had a "brilliant" summer window.
But unfortunately as always the proof is in the actual games.
And I defy anyone to say we're at all improved from last year. Probably needs a manager change to see some of these players' true level though.
I still think that we have improved the squad but that the job is far from over. They did tell us that it would take a few windows. Some fans got carried away in the summer and thought it would equate to seeing results on the pitch.I applaud the optimists who thought we'd had a "brilliant" summer window.
But unfortunately as always the proof is in the actual games.
And I defy anyone to say we're at all improved from last year. Probably needs a manager change to see some of these players' true level though.
The big worry is who was behind these transfers. De Ligt and Zirkzee seem likely to be Ten Hag calls, along with all the old Ajax boys.I still think that we have improved the squad but that the job is far from over. They did tell us that it would take a few windows. Some fans got carried away in the summer and thought it would equate to seeing results on the pitch.
But the reality is that we probably won’t see the full results of these changes until the head coach is changed. He doesn’t appear to be able to get a tune out of them
See I look at the squad and I think that there is a nucleus there that most managers can work with without having to go back to the start againThe big worry is who was behind these transfers. De Ligt and Zirkzee seem likely to be Ten Hag calls, along with all the old Ajax boys.
So a new coach would come in and probably want their own players meaning we're back to square 1.
I hope you're right.See I look at the squad and I think that there is a nucleus there that most managers can work with without having to go back to the start again
I 100% agree, plenty there, great experience with Casemiro and Eriksen as well as shaw maguire de ligt etc…See I look at the squad and I think that there is a nucleus there that most managers can work with without having to go back to the start again
It is a weird squad in the sense that I agree that there's a lot of talent there but i'm not really sure what the new manager does in terms of playing style. The centre backs are very good but all apart from Yoro are not exactly quick, you have players suited for quick transitions (Hojlund, Bruno, Rashford) and then there are players I think would do far better in a team that values possession (Mainoo, Martinez, Dalot, Amad etc.)See I look at the squad and I think that there is a nucleus there that most managers can work with without having to go back to the start again
We need a new coach who will improve the tactics and give everyone a better platform to play. We are beyond shit at creating chances as a team. There are enough players in our team where we should be a better attacking side than we are. Hell even a good old 442 can look extremely well balance for us with what we have now, especially with the front 2. Either pair Rashford with Zirkzee, or Hojlund with Zirkzee.Everyone watching us regularly knew we needed a goalscorer - Then we went and bought a striker who's not clinical, which halted the development of what should be our goalscorer (Højlund).
I like Zirkzee, but either he or our wingers better start being better goalscorers if he's to play there.
Couldnt agree more. The issue is that there’s also just a lack of continuity and constant changing of the type of players we put in each position. Garnacho should basically play every game on the left wing imo. If I was in charge I’d be looking to sell Rashford, Casemiro and maybe even Bruno, and Højlund too just to find players that’ll play a certain style of football week in and week out. Players like a young Eriksen who just play in a stable manner with lots of quality on the ball.We need a new coach who will improve the tactics and give everyone a better platform to play. We are beyond shit at creating chances as a team. There are enough players in our team where we should be a better attacking side than we are. Hell even a good old 442 can look extremely well balance for us with what we have now, especially with the front 2. Either pair Rashford with Zirkzee, or Hojlund with Zirkzee.
I don't have a problem with Rashford (beyond him being paid too much relative to his quality). But whether we get a coach who wants a 433 or we do a 442, he has a very useful place in both. Picking 2 of amad, garnacho and Rashford for the wings in a front 3 is very good to have IMO. Lacking star power, but has the potential for it. Up top Zirkzee suits some, Hojlund suits others. That's all fine. It's just coached horribly, combined with the players definitely just having 0 belief left in him.Couldnt agree more. The issue is that there’s also just a lack of continuity and constant changing of the type of players we put in each position. Garnacho should basically play every game on the left wing imo. If I was in charge I’d be looking to sell Rashford, Casemiro and maybe even Bruno, and Højlund too just to find players that’ll play a certain style of football week in and week out. Players like a young Eriksen who just play in a stable manner with lots of quality on the ball.
I don't have a problem with Rashford (beyond him being paid too much relative to his quality). But whether we get a coach who wants a 433 or we do a 442, he has a very useful place in both. Picking 2 of amad, garnacho and Rashford for the wings in a front 3 is very good to have IMO. Lacking star power, but has the potential for it. Up top Zirkzee suits some, Hojlund suits others. That's all fine. It's just coached horribly, combined with the players definitely just having 0 belief left in him.
Whilst I agree with a lot of what your saying, the sample size this season is still small and tbf I’ve been relatively impressed by Garnaucho, Amad and Marcus however none of them currently are at at top form or have elite status, but before spurs game you’d chose our wingers over there’s 9 times out 10.None of these players are starting at any other top 4 club.
Our forward line and specifically how poor most of them are on the ball, namely Rashford/Garnacho are major contributors to our inability to control games. Neither of them can beat a FB 1v1. Look at the dribblers per game of Rashford and compare it to elite wide forwards at other teams, he's not even close.
I have more sympathy for Garnacho because he's very young but based on his current output he'd barely start at teams in the bottom half of the league. City had Savio on the books and sent him to Girona were he performed at an elite level for a season with creative output close to Vini, it's no shock he's come in for them and been an instant success. Garnacho should have been/should be loaned out to develop elsewhere and if he can perform to a high level brought back, otherwise it's just another Adnan/Lingard.
Our priority for January/next summer has to be wingers on both sides along with a LB.
Whilst I agree with a lot of what your saying, the sample size this season is still small and tbf I’ve been relatively impressed by Garnaucho, Amad and Marcus however none of them currently are at at top form or have elite status, but before spurs game you’d chose our wingers over there’s 9 times out 10.
The real issue is ETH, he got Rashford playing out of skin in the first season where he spent a lot of his time playing centrally, even if he started on the left wing because he used Weghorst and Sabitzer to do his defensive work, Marcus just concentrated on scoring goals, they fell out when Luke shaw who also did all Marcus work was injured and Rashford was asked to track back, tuck in be compact and play more like a wide left midfield player. Passing on Sabitzer for £15m now that we’ve sold Mctominay was insane.
Amad should have played 20 games last season but ETH stubbornly chose Antony and we all know how that worked out?
Rasmus looked in good form pre season, then got injured. We have 6 players and a list of young strikers like Wheatley, Biancheri and C obi Martin who all should get game time.
However they do not work like other teams as an attacking unit, they concentrate on being individuals which is to the detriment of the team. The club needs to sell Antony and go buy Tyler Dibbling who looks like he could be a great option on the right and probably at the moment he’s still just about affordable.
That’s the real issue what’s affordable, we’d all love Gyrokes but we simply don’t have the cash right now?
The only way to fix this is get RVN drilling those 8 or 9 players in 11 against 11 and then ETH and his coaching staff constantly moving the attackers around in training games until he finds the right chemistry.
Yep those options are fantastic but completely unavailable as United are Flat Broke, mortgaging this seasons transfers on a whim and a cash injection from SJR for another 2.78% of the club.We have a perfectly good sample size to draw some conclusions from actually. Data analytics are that you need around 35 games of top flight play before you can start to judge a players level. Garnacho has over 80 appearances with around 50 starts, Savio has less for City as did Doku when they signed him, and we have hundreds on Rashford.
Rashford's creative numbers are simply not even close to elite and never have been. I could write for days about take ons, key passes/chances created and how he compares vs the actual elite wide forwards in almost every metric but the fact is he's just mediocre. He's actually so far off the truly elite creative talents it's laughable.
I'm not concerned about the striker position as we have Ras and Zirkzee whom I like. Too have the type of resources available to us and not have high quality wingers is appalling, we effectively wasted £150m on Sancho/Anthony.
We should most certainly not be signing Dibbling unless he's got a great release clause or little to no time on his deal.
We should sign someone like Kudus or Edon Zhegrova for the RW and sell Anthony asap. Khvicha Kvarat would be my choice for the LW.
Go look up Edon vs PSG and you'll see the winger we thought we'd be getting with Anthony.
Hypothetically that’s a net investment of £200-250m where’s the money coming from ?My dream scenario;
IN
Nico Williams
Alphonso Davies
Adam Wharton
Jamal Musiala
Jarrad Branthwaite
OUT
Maguire
Lindelof
Rashford
Antony
Casemiro
Boy, what I'd give to have a player like him now at 21-22 years, so that you can build the team around him.Players like a young Eriksen who just play in a stable manner with lots of quality on the ball.
Yep those options are fantastic but completely unavailable as United are Flat Broke, mortgaging this seasons transfers on a whim and a cash injection from SJR for another 2.78% of the club.
Both Krava or Mohamed Kudas who I raved about two years ago before he went to West Ham, only to be told he’s rubbish, he’s not United class would cost £70-100m just like Nico Williams who would also be a great option, we should have bough M Elise and broke the bank, as he wanted to come, is a huge United fan and we messed about.
I don’t think Current United fans truly understand how INEOS or SJR are going to operate whilst they only own 27.8% of the club, I’ll try my best to explain ;
1. Stop Haemorrhaging cash instantly, cut obvious over employment with payee staff, and cut costs maybe £20m per year from employment expenses and then another £30m from the playing Staff.
2. Invest just enough money to keep the club working on a day to day basis, pay the bills, try and stay on the right side of PSR and FSP for UEFA.
3. Invest £50-60m in infrastructire and updating the training ground, lots of nice PMA slogans plastered all over the stadium and training ground to promote the idea of change.
4. Not Over Spend on Transfer Fees or Wages for any Player, the Board do not want to entertain any bid of over 60-70m on any one player and simply look at the squad like this, we need two players for every position and the budget should be no more than £200,000 per week for a squad position.
Example Goalkeeper- Buget 200k,
A Onana(140k), A Bayinder(40k),
T Heaton(20k). The budget probably gets increased to (250k per week for midfield/2 players and £300k for strikers so we have 6 strikers and therefore have a current budget of £900,000 per week or £45m per year to create and score Goals.
M Rashford(325k)
A Garnaucho (100k)
A Diallo (50k)
Antony (200k)
R Hojlund(120k)
J Zirkzee (105k)
These are all rough ideas based on what’s been reported and you have a total number as close to £900k as you can get plus we are probably still paying some of Sancho’s Wages and let’s be honest here which club is taking Rashford or Antony on a combined 1/2 a million pounds per week?
My point the players you mention want £250-300k per week and we can’t afford those wages under this new regime, because SJR will preach Austerity throughout his tenure, like he has done at Nice, he’s not spent any of his own real money on players, that’s not how he operates, he wants the club to make the right decisions that generate income through success on the pitch then they can spend the profit they generate on star players, right now he wants to create a lean economic football club and this will mean we will have at least 2/3 seasons in mediocrity with positions from 8th to 14th because these players leading our attack are simply too inexperienced, not good enough, operating in the wrong system or role and more importantly they are not enjoying playing for a drab robotic, lifeless coach that simply spurts the same nonsense every time he opens his mouth!
He’s not 1:1 but the closest is probably Wirtz. We should really go all in to get him and build for the future.Boy, what I'd give to have a player like him now at 21-22 years, so that you can build the team around him.
It's such a drop off when he leaves the pitch.
Ok all of the player sales this summer have been purchased on 2-4 year terms, not one player has been paid up front that means in real terms the club probably paid out no more than £80-100m in actual transfer and Agent Fees.United are certainly not flat broke. Swiss ramble has done a breakdown on our finances and we have plenty of money to spend, SJR specifically said that he thought it would be summer 2025 before we were out of the current PSR issues but I expect the club will continue to push the "we have no money" narrative since the more opposition clubs believe this the more the club saves in "United tax".
The club already spent 60m on Yoro whose a very good prospect but still a prospect. If you seriously think a player like Musiala was available for 100m and we wouldn't do it then I think you're delusional.
What evidence do you have that the players I mentioned want 250k-300k per week? Krava currently earns around 100k a week, Kudus a little less. VVD and Salah are barely betting 250k week at Liverpool, the idea we'd have to almsot 3x their current wages to entice them is fanciful at best.
Manchester United do not need an owner who invests huge amounts of his own money into the club, we need owners who aren't taking huge amounts out.
We generate more than enough money to compete with the hughest spenders in world football. If you look at spending over the past 10 years we're even with or above clubs like Madrid/Bayern etc, it's just the recruitment policy has been a shambles. Simply hiring very good people instead of Ed Woodward playing football manager would make us highly competitive.
Also Edon Zhregrova just got MOTM vs Real Madrid for Lille, thats PSG and Real Madrid MOTM awards within a few weeks. Should be the priority signing in January.
Ok all of the player sales this summer have been purchased on 2-4 year terms, not one player has been paid up front that means in real terms the club probably paid out no more than £80-100m in actual transfer and Agent Fees.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5340986/2024/03/14/man-united-debt-jim-ratcliffe/
Detailed is what the initial $200m(£154m) cash injection was used for, to pay for the existing credit card debt of the revolving overdraft facility, all documentation in the media on this subject clearly state this was paid to facilitate the ability to move in the transfer window this summer. Without doing serious mathematical equations, the club received circa £85m and spent without add one £187m so £100m net. Not one of these transfers was reported as being paid in one single instalment and vice versa it’s highly doubtful we received more than £30m of that £85m fees for sold players, Agent Fees have to be paid up front and we’re like 15% of £187m, so probably £25-30m.
The club owed approximately £600m in interest debt leveraged by the Glazers £292 m in player instalments that are still due and they have just posted a loss of £70m for last years accounts where the club used money which they did not have to pay the Raines Group commission of £25m for SJR minority buy out.
All this without the mounting interest charges to service the debt leveraged by the Glazers when they saddled the club with monumental debt.
We can not do a £100m transfer for Krava and yes any £100m player wants £300k per week because of his agent is not getting him that he’s not doing his job properly.
Over the last 10 years? The club generated actual profit from 2005-2014, actually made a profit and put it in their cash reserves, this allowed them to renegotiate the leveraged debt and pay some of this off with a bond scheme that matured just before they floated the club on the stock market.
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/manchester-united-glazers-debt-explained-b2145746.html
Ed Woodward was like a kid in a candy shop he immediately assumed that United were the richest football club in the world and at the time they were, so he thought he could bid £100-150m for players, pay ridiculous wages like Sanchez (400k/pw) and he made mistake after mistake that eroded the clubs cash reserves, which allowed them to do deal like Pogba where they were able to pay the full cost with the agent of £135m while Madrid wanted to pay in instalments.
INEOS are very smart operators, we sailed perilously close to PSR this summer and had to sell £85m of mostly home grown talents and get special dispensation on special financial costs this year to not be charged.
Without CL football next season, the revenue reduces from £700m to £600m and that affects what we can do in the transfer market in a huge way. Yes we could sign Edon Zhregrova, he would be a like for like replacement for Jason Sancho as the fee incoming in Summer 25 and the huge difference in wages would make that deal very feasible.
Sancho currently costs £15m per year in amortised transfer value and £13m in wages so that’s £28m per year. If you bought Edon for £30m on a 5 year contract at £6m per year and £120k per week or £6m per year this deal makes total sense but ask yourself this question?
How many players have we bought without PL experience that have been an absolute success in the last 12 years, personally I’d rather buy Brian Mbeumo, E Eze and T Dibbling, we are so far short in this area we need two wide attackers not one, one experienced and one just coming through and both must have PL experience, we don’t have the luxury of time to let players settle in for 2-3 years!
I add the caveat that SJR/Ineos are very wealthy and not flat broke but Manchester United financially are barely off of life support machine!
I know they gave up 4 goals but he was amazing against Chelsea. I would love having him our midfield.This is the million dollar question for me, although I think we need more than 1 midfielder but honestly I don’t know who would be good and who is even gettable.
Realistically there is no future with Eriksen, Bruno, Casemiro and to be honest Bruno doesn’t fit what we are trying to do, so for me that’s 3 midfielders of varying types that we need to get.
I like the looks of,
Ederson ,Atalanta
Joao Gomes, Wolves
Andre ,Wolves
Beleba
Maybe worth keeping an eye on this season but as for a really good tempo setter/ controller there aren’t many I can think of.
Wharton
Zubimendi
DeJong
Would love the likes of Wirtz/Musiala but pipe dream and not sure they would really fit in the tactical structure
Whatever happens midfield is an area we seriously need to look at next summer but still a lot to do with this team.
I’d imagine Maguire, Lindelof Evans will be going so I’d imagine there will be an attempt for Branthwaite again plus another for back up.
There was talk of needing a winger and Inaki would be fantastic but highly unlikely.
Try for the likes of Nypan, Riggs, Junior Kroupi as if you can get them in for a decent price even if they don’t get to the levels expected you can then hopefully sell at a profit still but probably best to loan them straight back out.
