What do we still need? Aka The never ending story

Obviously we need midfielders, but I’m curious as to whether people believe we need a RW or a Striker.

Obviously our current front three is: Rashford, Martial, Greenwood/James. That’s 4 players for the front three.

I think we need 1 more player to add to the mix. Both the RW and Striker adds something different to our game. If we get Haaland, then it’ll be probably him and Martial fighting it out for the striker position. With Martial capable of playing on the left if needed. Haaland appears to be that player who will get on the end of those crosses that we need. That’ll mean Greenwood/James will Continue to fight it out for the RW position.

Alternatively, we could go for a Sancho for the RW position, meaning Greenwood comes centrally and will try to compete with Martial. Sancho is quite a creative player and could add another dimension to our play.

I think going for both a striker and RW is overkill, given that it’ll be 6 players for 3 positions. I know people will point to City, but they have Mahrez, Aguero, Jesus, Bernardo, Sterling, and Sane. There was noise of Sane wanting to leave in the summer and hes currently injured so essentially it’s 5 players (unless I forgot about someone). I think it’d be hard to keep all those players hungry and competitive. That’s why I feel 5 is perfect and 6 becomes too much.

I’m curious as to whether people feel we need one over the other or whether you disagree and think we need both.
 
Striker and/or a ball playing DM would be nice in Jan. Then a RW, CAM, and LB in the summer and the team looks much better.
 
ovoxo said:
Obviously we need midfielders, but I’m curious as to whether people believe we need a RW or a Striker.

Obviously our current front three is: Rashford, Martial, Greenwood/James. That’s 4 players for the front three.

I think we need 1 more player to add to the mix. Both the RW and Striker adds something different to our game. If we get Haaland, then it’ll be probably him and Martial fighting it out for the striker position. With Martial capable of playing on the left if needed. Haaland appears to be that player who will get on the end of those crosses that we need. That’ll mean Greenwood/James will Continue to fight it out for the RW position.

Alternatively, we could go for a Sancho for the RW position, meaning Greenwood comes centrally and will try to compete with Martial. Sancho is quite a creative player and could add another dimension to our play.

I think going for both a striker and RW is overkill, given that it’ll be 6 players for 3 positions. I know people will point to City, but they have Mahrez, Aguero, Jesus, Bernardo, Sterling, and Sane. There was noise of Sane wanting to leave in the summer and hes currently injured so essentially it’s 5 players (unless I forgot about someone). I think it’d be hard to keep all those players hungry and competitive. That’s why I feel 5 is perfect and 6 becomes too much.

I’m curious as to whether people feel we need one over the other or whether you disagree and think we need both.
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A right winger is an absolute necessity. James is a left winger who isn't good enough to start and Greenwood should be a back up right winger for now. But I wouldn't use a right footed right winger like James or Sancho if Martial is our striker. A left footed winger suits Martial's style of play more. If we see Martial as our future no.9 then we should sign a decent back up instead of someone to compete with him and then an inverted right winger that's first team quality.

If we don't see Martial as our long term no.9 then Haaland is a necessity along with a right winger
 
ovoxo said:
Obviously we need midfielders, but I’m curious as to whether people believe we need a RW or a Striker.

Obviously our current front three is: Rashford, Martial, Greenwood/James. That’s 4 players for the front three.

I think we need 1 more player to add to the mix. Both the RW and Striker adds something different to our game. If we get Haaland, then it’ll be probably him and Martial fighting it out for the striker position. With Martial capable of playing on the left if needed. Haaland appears to be that player who will get on the end of those crosses that we need. That’ll mean Greenwood/James will Continue to fight it out for the RW position.

Alternatively, we could go for a Sancho for the RW position, meaning Greenwood comes centrally and will try to compete with Martial. Sancho is quite a creative player and could add another dimension to our play.

I think going for both a striker and RW is overkill, given that it’ll be 6 players for 3 positions. I know people will point to City, but they have Mahrez, Aguero, Jesus, Bernardo, Sterling, and Sane. There was noise of Sane wanting to leave in the summer and hes currently injured so essentially it’s 5 players (unless I forgot about someone). I think it’d be hard to keep all those players hungry and competitive. That’s why I feel 5 is perfect and 6 becomes too much.

I’m curious as to whether people feel we need one over the other or whether you disagree and think we need both.
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My opinion is that Sancho is the perfect signing for his versatility. Would leave us with James and Sancho who can play on either wing, Rashford and martial who can play on the left or through the middle, and Greenwood who can play on the right or centrally. 5 players who can all play two positions very well and each position across the front three would have three players for the role.

Haaland would be a great signing but he’s got one position he can play. This could unsettle martial and leave us with only James (good, but should be a squad player imo) or Greenwood (who’s... green, and who should long term be playing centrally) on the right.

For these reasons, I think Sancho would add more balance to the side than Haaland and is the preferred signing. Now if we sold Martial and bought both, that could be a master stroke, if Haaland lives up to his potential. The best option may be to sign both, see how Haaland does in his first year and cash in on Martial in 2021 if Haaland’s a hit and once he and Greenwood are 21/19 respectively and ready for major roles, but that may not be very realistic.

watch us end up with neither.
 
I know he’s been inconsistent throughout his career and it’s only this season, he’s showing signs of using his head...Adama Traore any one?

Bit of a kneejerk proposal but imagine the pace :drool:

He’s not kick and rush like James and Rashford, so his trickery might help us break down right defences.
 
We need 2 top class midfielders so Pogba can have a free role as a 10 . Or we need a creative player and another striker and a left back
 
SoCross said:
I know he’s been inconsistent throughout his career and it’s only this season, he’s showing signs of using his head...Adama Traore any one?

Bit of a kneejerk proposal but imagine the pace :drool:

He’s not kick and rush like James and Rashford, so his trickery might help us break down right defences.
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Everytime I've seen him I thought he was exactly kick and rush ?
 
ATXRedDevil said:
My opinion is that Sancho is the perfect signing for his versatility. Would leave us with James and Sancho who can play on either wing, Rashford and martial who can play on the left or through the middle, and Greenwood who can play on the right or centrally. 5 players who can all play two positions very well and each position across the front three would have three players for the role.

Haaland would be a great signing but he’s got one position he can play. This could unsettle martial and leave us with only James (good, but should be a squad player imo) or Greenwood (who’s... green, and who should long term be playing centrally) on the right.

For these reasons, I think Sancho would add more balance to the side than Haaland and is the preferred signing. Now if we sold Martial and bought both, that could be a master stroke, if Haaland lives up to his potential. The best option may be to sign both, see how Haaland does in his first year and cash in on Martial in 2021 if Haaland’s a hit and once he and Greenwood are 21/19 respectively and ready for major roles, but that may not be very realistic.

watch us end up with neither.
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Martial needs unsettling because it might unsettle him into become a prolific striker
 
I think in the long run we need a centre back and a left back, depth at centre mid at a new starting 7 and 10. All depends what pogba does too. The one we urgently need is depth at cm I think given that pogba can play 10. Singing a new 7 or 10 it's likely to be a big summer signing
 
Mark Pawelek said:
I don't any of our players get a free role. It's a team. Every player has defensive and positional duties.
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I never said he doesn't have to defend I was referring to the fact when attacking he is free to roam wherever to influence play
 
It's really obvious that we need a good attacking midfielder, I don't think anyone could argue that Lingard and Perriera haven't been given a good chance now and overall, they've proved they aren't going to take us any further than were we are.

Im genuinely concerned about this 'buying British' policy because I just think you end up paying alot more than what the players are actually worth for a reason that has literally nothing to do with their footballing ability.

On this note, I think someone like Donny Van de Beek would be perfect.
He was a real unsung hero in that Ajax team last year with De Jong and De Ligt getting most of the credit (two really good players also, don't get me wrong).

Plus, we could probably pick him up for half the price of the 'British' equivalents like James Maddison and Jack Grealish.

Thats what I would do, but based on our recent transfer dealings it's probably more likely we will end up paying over the odds for someone or other.
 
I’d like us to go for Werner and Havertz, 2 attacking players that could offer quality and competition at the right age. Both realistic signings, and if we’re prepared to spunk 80m on Maguire, these 2 are surely worth the money.

In addition to that, midfield. We probably need 2 as it is, 3 if Pogba leaves. Who is anyone’s guess, depends how Ole wants to play I suppose since none of us are any the wiser.
 
Kerry Donaghy said:
It's really obvious that we need a good attacking midfielder, I don't think anyone could argue that Lingard and Perriera haven't been given a good chance now and overall, they've proved they aren't going to take us any further than were we are.

Im genuinely concerned about this 'buying British' policy because I just think you end up paying alot more than what the players are actually worth for a reason that has literally nothing to do with their footballing ability.

On this note, I think someone like Donny Van de Beek would be perfect.
He was a real unsung hero in that Ajax team last year with De Jong and De Ligt getting most of the credit (two really good players also, don't get me wrong).

Plus, we could probably pick him up for half the price of the 'British' equivalents like James Maddison and Jack Grealish.

Thats what I would do, but based on our recent transfer dealings it's probably more likely we will end up paying over the odds for someone or other.
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I don't think it's the 'British' part that's the problem. It's buying from premier League clubs where it becomes expensive. You can buy good players from the championship for a decent price. Maddison was £25m when Leicester bought him and we got Dan James for a good price. Look at Jamie Vardy, something like 28 when he got into the top flight. We could have picked him up for an absolute pittance a few years back when he was still in the championship and he's absolutely prolific.
 
Kerry Donaghy said:
It's really obvious that we need a good attacking midfielder, I don't think anyone could argue that Lingard and Perriera haven't been given a good chance now and overall, they've proved they aren't going to take us any further than were we are.

Im genuinely concerned about this 'buying British' policy because I just think you end up paying alot more than what the players are actually worth for a reason that has literally nothing to do with their footballing ability.

On this note, I think someone like Donny Van de Beek would be perfect.
He was a real unsung hero in that Ajax team last year with De Jong and De Ligt getting most of the credit (two really good players also, don't get me wrong).

Plus, we could probably pick him up for half the price of the 'British' equivalents like James Maddison and Jack Grealish.

Thats what I would do, but based on our recent transfer dealings it's probably more likely we will end up paying over the odds for someone or other.
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Yeah you are spot on and just looks like Utd are happy to wait until the summer whilst still paying through the neck for british players. Just feels to me that we are too scared to sign any players from europe and prefer to wait for the PL proven option rather than take a risk.

Personally I think it's very negligent to just go into the second half of the season with a paper thin squad just because you don't know the market nor want to rock the boat with the existing squad.
 
Scholsey2004 said:
I don't think it's the 'British' part that's the problem. It's buying from premier League clubs where it becomes expensive. You can buy good players from the championship for a decent price. Maddison was £25m when Leicester bought him and we got Dan James for a good price. Look at Jamie Vardy, something like 28 when he got into the top flight. We could have picked him up for an absolute pittance a few years back when he was still in the championship and he's absolutely prolific.
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If Wan Bissaka wasn't British/English there is not a chance we would have paid £50 million for him.

Same goes for Maguire at £80 million.

We're shooting ourselves in the foot with a transfer policy that became obsolete about 30 years ago when they scrapped the limit on foreign players playing in Europe.
 
RW with end product (Ziyech/Sancho)
CAM (Grealish/Maddison)
LB (No clue)

Lesser extent
ST and DM
 
A midfielder and a right winger.. we have needed them for a while.. we really need them now. as soon as possible.. Should have been done before the window opened.. Woodward has no urgency.
 
The squad is utterly thread bare. All this crap about January being difficult and value and all that crap needs to go out the window this month. If we want the players we’ve identified then break the bank and go get them cos we desperately need them. 2 Centre mids, a Striker, bring smalling back if we can and a right winger
 
Kerry Donaghy said:
If Wan Bissaka wasn't British/English there is not a chance we would have paid £50 million for him.

Same goes for Maguire at £80 million.

We're shooting ourselves in the foot with a transfer policy that became obsolete about 30 years ago when they scrapped the limit on foreign players playing in Europe.
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Both of those players were 'premier league proven' as well as being English. Maguire cost about £10m when Hull bought him from the championship.
 
I can see us signing only 3 players again in the summer just like last summer unless if Pogba leaves. Without a doubt two position are the main priority. That right side of our front 3 (RF) and the no 10 role (if we stick with 4231). What we have at the moment is not good enough to start us at the moment.

I like Daniel James but in his current ability, his status should be someone who can challenge Rashford and whoever plays on the right. We need someone better than James on the right. The same goes with our no 10 role. Lingard's time is up imo. He will not get any better and right now he's on declined, 0 output in the league in 2019, what does it tell you? Not good enough and need an upgrade. Mata is ageing and not good enough to start for us, while similar to James, Pereira's role should be someone to challenge whoever we have in that no 10 role.

The 3rd position that I would like us to upgrade is either centre back or left back. I don't know which one is available, Lindelof & Shaw are not good enough. Tuanzebe & Bailly just can't stay fit to challenge Lindelof's spot while Williams imo is still a raw & Young is getting too old. I think there are good quality left back out there are available more than centre back at the moment.

People might say we need midfielder. Look, we got Pogba, Fred & McTominay. 3 position for 2 spots plus Garner, right now two of them hit injuries which is unfortunate for us, but if they are fit we should be fine. While our No 10 & RF need to be upgraded because the options that we got right now are just not good enough.

This is probably going to be my ideal realistic signing. Not sure if Sancho is realistic but I can't think any other more realistic RW/RF who can produce good amount of goals & assists than him.

Cheap/Mid price signing: Digne - £35m
Expensive signing: Grealish - £55m
Mega signing: Sancho - £120m
 
No idea where to put this but...if you picked the best player from each team outside the biggest clubs in the PL would you have a team that could win it?
 
VeevaVee said:
No idea where to put this but...if you picked the best player from each team outside the biggest clubs in the PL would you have a team that could win it?
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Why not make a new thread? Do you mean PL teams only or from around Europe? Don't think players from Barcelona, Madrid or Munich are any more realistic than our competition domestically. My answer would still be yes, though.
 
Realistically I think we are okay in defense for this season, have enough "decent" players there.

I think the front three should be all right as well, but would like a striker.

What I really really want is two midfielders, an AM and a DM whether on loan or permanent I don't care.

A double swoop of NDidi and Maddison would be epic along with Grealish but never going to happen. Imagine the intent with that. I can dream. Get rid of Andreas, Matic and Lingard. I can't stand them. Probably get three for 160 million but will be the summer

Probably be Emre Can and Sean Longstaff though we will end up with in January.

Imagine the intent with those three players but will have to wait till the summer unfortunately.
 
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This Pogba issue has really messed things up for our season tbh. Given he's our only creative midfielder, most of us were waiting on his much needed come back and even Ole said it would be like a new signing. Even when Pogba came back we were all still hammering on the need for another creative midfielder and how it will be necessary for top 4.

Now Pogba is 'presumably' injured along with Mcctominay so we need two creative midfielders in JANUARY if top 4 is the aim. TWO!! How the hell is Woodward going to do that.

We also need a back up striker because after Martial we really don't have anybody. Greenwood so far has been better on the right and looks a bit overwhelmed as a striker so he and James can play RW for now.

So we need two creative midfielders in January and a back up striker. But that's definitely not possible under Woodward. I believe at best we will get two players. Given that hopefully this whole Pogba situation won't last till the end of the season and he'll actually be back soon then I'd sign one creative midfielder and a back up striker.

My choices will be Buendia and Mertens. But based on Ole's transfer choices so far I think we will go for Cantwell and some unknown striker like Sobolev
 
James Ward said:
Realistically I think we are okay in defense for this season, have enough "decent" players there.

I think the front three should be all right as well, but would like a striker.

What I really really want is two midfielders, an AM and a DM whether on loan or permanent I don't care.

A double swoop of NDidi and Maddison would be epic along with Grealish but never going to happen. Imagine the intent with that. I can dream. Get rid of Andreas, Matic and Lingard. I can't stand them. Probably get three for 160 million but will be the summer

Probably be Emre Can and Sean Longstaff though we will end up with in January.

Imagine the intent with those three players but will have to wait till the summer unfortunately.
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I would keep Andreas, he's starting to protect the ball better and he does try to link up, and has always been good with positioning. It's starting to come for him. We need to replace Lingard, Matic can be a sub until he leaves.

I don't get this fascination for Maddison (who is extra expensive) and Grealish, I mean, how good are those guys according to the caf? They score a goal here and there, and do some passes, but I don't know if they are really what we need + they cost a fortune because they are EPL players. We should just be buying cheaper, we cannot bully any EPL club financially right now, despite the turnover and everything, because we have so much financial issues to handle right now obviously.

I mean Longstaff, even if he scores against us, I think he's just a functional 6/8 that might have some energy and tenacity but nothing more, another Scott before he became more critical to our team. And Can, I just cannot rate him...
 
I refuse to believe that since Herrera and Fellaini left, this clubs scouting amd recruitment department havnt compiled detailed dossiers on attainable targets that are better than what we have............

My question .........if they dont act and sign two midfielders then why?
 
Gasolin said:
I would keep Andreas, he's starting to protect the ball better and he does try to link up, and has always been good with positioning. It's starting to come for him. We need to replace Lingard, Matic can be a sub until he leaves.

I don't get this fascination for Maddison (who is extra expensive) and Grealish, I mean, how good are those guys according to the caf? They score a goal here and there, and do some passes, but I don't know if they are really what we need + they cost a fortune because they are EPL players. We should just be buying cheaper, we cannot bully any EPL club financially right now, despite the turnover and everything, because we have so much financial issues to handle right now obviously.

I mean Longstaff, even if he scores against us, I think he's just a functional 6/8 that might have some energy and tenacity but nothing more, another Scott before he became more critical to our team. And Can, I just cannot rate him...
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Id suggest you join squawka or even google it and put Grealish's name in, he doesnt just "do some passes" his creative stats are up there amongst the best in the league, people need to be open to changing their opinions based on facts.

Another one to research for you is Buendia
 
Gasolin said:
I would keep Andreas, he's starting to protect the ball better and he does try to link up, and has always been good with positioning. It's starting to come for him. We need to replace Lingard, Matic can be a sub until he leaves.

I don't get this fascination for Maddison (who is extra expensive) and Grealish, I mean, how good are those guys according to the caf? They score a goal here and there, and do some passes, but I don't know if they are really what we need + they cost a fortune because they are EPL players. We should just be buying cheaper, we cannot bully any EPL club financially right now, despite the turnover and everything, because we have so much financial issues to handle right now obviously.

I mean Longstaff, even if he scores against us, I think he's just a functional 6/8 that might have some energy and tenacity but nothing more, another Scott before he became more critical to our team. And Can, I just cannot rate him...
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It was his brother who scored against us twice,
Sean Longstaff is a 10-15mil player at best and he is lucky to play a full game for his own club so I cannot see what Ole sees in him.
 
Rocknrolla69er said:
Id suggest you join squawka or even google it and put Grealish's name in, he doesnt just "do some passes" his creative stats are up there amongst the best in the league, people need to be open to changing their opinions based on facts.

Another one to research for you is Buendia
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I get the stats view but the problem for me is that those teams are usually designed in a way to favor a couple of players very heavily so it's hard to tell much from that. If you're the focal point of the team, you will get more numbers, and yes, while it's better than getting nothing out of it, it doesn't say if the lad will be consistent when he has less the ball sometimes compared to the Villa team who probably always look for him to link up.

Listen I am happy to be proven wrong and if he does bring that much on the table, sure, why not. Someone needs to help us go through that period that has both Scott and Paul heavily injured because it's hurting badly the team.
 
Rocknrolla69er said:
I refuse to believe that since Herrera and Fellaini left, this clubs scouting amd recruitment department havnt compiled detailed dossiers on attainable targets that are better than what we have............

My question .........if they dont act and sign two midfielders then why?
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Because they think that if they are not getting the two or three top/best targets they are better off without. «We dont want to buy just to buy». But sometimes, like NOW, you have to do that or risk loosing alot of points because of a thin squad. And they dont understand that a 4th or 5th target is still good compared to whats already here.
 
Gasolin said:
I get the stats view but the problem for me is that those teams are usually designed in a way to favor a couple of players very heavily so it's hard to tell much from that. If you're the focal point of the team, you will get more numbers, and yes, while it's better than getting nothing out of it, it doesn't say if the lad will be consistent when he has less the ball sometimes compared to the Villa team who probably always look for him to link up.
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Sounds alot like how Bruno Fernandes got his insane stats...
 
theklr said:
Because they think that if they are not getting the two or three top/best targets they are better off without. «We dont want to buy just to buy». But sometimes, like NOW, you have to do that or risk loosing alot of points because of a thin squad. And they dont understand that a 4th or 5th target is still good compared to whats already here.
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Some posters seem to want or expect us to bring in a fourth or fifth choice signing merely to see us through to the next window, where they then expect us to try again for the preferred targets. That’s unreasonable really. If you are going to ‘settle’ on a lesser option you better be happy to move forward with said option - not simply viewing them as a stop-gap (unless they truly are, in fact, a stop-gap - a loanee or player on a short-term contract). Otherwise, the club would be right to avoid such players.
 
If Pogba goes in the summer, along with Matic, we need 3 midfielders. Two CMs and an AM. Maybe something like this:

CM -McTominay, Fred, Soumare, Phillips, Garner
AM- Grealish, Pereira
 
We need to continue the rebuild and bring more players in this January window. A creative midfielder and a box to box midfielder.
 
ovoxo said:
If Pogba goes in the summer, along with Matic, we need 3 midfielders. Two CMs and an AM. Maybe something like this:

CM -McTominay, Fred, Soumare, Phillips, Garner
AM- Grealish, Pereira
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I don't know about the identity of the midfielders (2-3 for sure) we really need but Pereira isn't good enough even as a back up imo.
 
Apparently we're bidding 20 mill Euros for Vidal now. :)

Wouldnt mind that on a short term contract. Probably false since it is coming from DirecTV in Chile :P
 
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