I just don't see it as a regular starter, he'll be 32 at the start of next season and IMO will more likely take up the role Carrick has had this season or that latter day Scholes had, we need a younger CM like Gundogan to be our box to box link between the midfield and attack.
What do we still need? Post Summer 2015 edition.
- Thread starter Yorkeontop
- Start date
I just don't see it as a regular starter, he'll be 32 at the start of next season and IMO will more likely take up the role Carrick has had this season or that latter day Scholes had, we need a younger CM like Gundogan to be our box to box link between the midfield and attack.
Your lineup has 12 players in it.
Funny how all lineups and discussions from the last two pages have conveniently left Wayne Rooney out of the team and out of the backups.
I agree he doesn't deserve to be here based on this season's performances, but you're kidding yourselves if you think it'll be easy to get rid of him.
He will stay, and he will play, and therein lies our problem.
I agree he doesn't deserve to be here based on this season's performances, but you're kidding yourselves if you think it'll be easy to get rid of him.
He will stay, and he will play, and therein lies our problem.
I disagree. Mata is being hurt just as much as anyone else in terms of our ridiculously slow build up play. It means defenders have time to get in position and cutting passes are near impossible to find.
I watched him against Bournemouth and it became apparent that nine times out of ten that unless he played the "Rooney pass" to the wing, or played an overly powerful pass into Martials feet which would have ended up either being played backwards by the latter or possession lost, then he'd either lose possession himself or have to play it safe.
It's no coincidence that his best form comes when Herrera is in the team; a player who has openly said that hes been told to be more cautious positionally, but also a player that tends to make himself available for the pass.
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I´d probably agree, that Herrera should be a starter, if we play with three midfielders. That said with him it is a bit like with Liverpool players. The longer he doesn´t play, the better he gets.
I don´t know Memphis from his time in the Dutch league, but for United he has shown nothing. He doesn´t seem to be able to beat his man, which limits him to a wide-forward role and there are plenty of them out there. Don´t get me wrong, he is young and could come good. I wouldn´t sell him, but he also can´t be a nailed on starter. He simply doesn´t have the quality for that.
About the likes of Blind, Mata, Young , Lingard, Rojo, Valencia, Fellaini (probably missing 2-3): We need squad players and I am perfectly fine to have them as options. I wouldn´t sell them unless we get very good offers (unlikely), they are unhappy with that role or unless we find better alternatives. We can´t have another summer, where we turn over the whole squad. It is already pretty thin. I just listed them because I am not too fussed about them.
Although I do tend to agree, I'm starting to get a bit of a hunch he will go in Summer, possibly back to Everton. Suppose it will depend on the manager situation to, As he would get the 'fresh start' opportunity perhaps if we change manager.
Two winger types and a centre back away from being a title contenders. Add a midfielder and a centre forward and we'd be the top team again. But these players all have to fit in and that's the hard part! See Di Maria Falcao and Depay for reference!
Impressive list and one that ought to be affordable. Shame Fekir has a long term injury but was class last season
I don't want us to buy everyone from that list!
It should just showcase there are players to improve us or help us.I think we need another keeper, I don't think 7 backup keepers we have in our first team aren't enough.
I just hope we don't do our usual summer bullocks and spend 2 months trying to sign Bale, Messi, Muller, Neymar etc only for them to sign a new contract
Plenty of good players out there - I just don't trust Van Gaal to bring in the right ones
Griezeman would be priority 1 and I'd do whatever it takes - Pogba, Stones and a couple of others might be available if the funds are right
Plenty of good players out there - I just don't trust Van Gaal to bring in the right ones
Griezeman would be priority 1 and I'd do whatever it takes - Pogba, Stones and a couple of others might be available if the funds are right
There's no way they could afford him unless he took a huge paycut and he'd be a right gom to do that when he can get his big wage here.
An air traffic control tower it appears.
LvG had brought in some good players, in his first summer transfer window we got Shaw, Herrera, and Blind, ADM was a disaster but not because he's a bad player, Falcao and Rojo were the bad eggs for me, then this summer they are all good signings imo.
The issue is as has been said many times how many of the old squad LvG decided to sell, and how he has all these good players playing this awful football.
Personally i'd happily see us been far more restrained in the transfer market this summer, say Fellaini sold, then bring in just a CB and a RW, plus bring Januzaj and Wilson back, just as long as we also get a manager who is going to let them all play. I'd far rather see this than us giving LvG another £150 million to shuffle the pack once more.
CB, RW, Striker, maybe a no.10 and a keeper if Madrid buyout DeGea this summer. Which they probably will do.
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Whats going on with lacazette this year? I see he has 6 in 18 french league games has he been injured? Seems like he was one of the best in europe last season at bagging goals, decent all round game too
I know this is idiocy because he would never say yes, but Messi's buyout clause is 180M Pounds. He's 28 and so probably has 3-5 year of top level football left. We could spend our entire summer budget, buy out the clause, give him a raise, let him pick/be the manager and it might work out better than continuing to build the squad normally.
Memphis-Martial-Mata
----------Messi--------
--Herrera--Schneiderlin
Shaw-------------Darmian
----Blind---Smalling---
--------De Gea---------
We'd get bullied at times but would score enough goals to win the prem, and could always drop Mata for Schweinsteiger or whoever to harden up a bit in tougher games.
Yup. My solution is to sign Messi. Get this post the Pulitzer.
Memphis-Martial-Mata
----------Messi--------
--Herrera--Schneiderlin
Shaw-------------Darmian
----Blind---Smalling---
--------De Gea---------
We'd get bullied at times but would score enough goals to win the prem, and could always drop Mata for Schweinsteiger or whoever to harden up a bit in tougher games.
Yup. My solution is to sign Messi. Get this post the Pulitzer.
Barkley, Stones, Xhaka, Mahrez
What is the your take on Shaqiri? Is he injury prone?
Reason I ask is I think he will be gettable in January..
Reason I ask is I think he will be gettable in January..
He only signed this summer so he won't be gettable and he is inconsistent.
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He seems like someone who should be playing for a top 4 club. I think Stoke will sell if we offered a decent price.
I thought his inconsistency was because of his injuries, no?
No, he is just inconsistent. Stoke won't sell because they don't need the money, they have a bigger need of the player and United shouldn't pay over the odds for Shaqiri, he isn't worth it. For example Arnautovic has been better and even he isn't worth much.
I think pretty much everyone would agree that we need a winger.
The one I'm still insure about is the striker and number 10 position.
Striker - We do need a striker but do we need a top striker or someone who can rotate with Martial?
Number 10 - We have a lot of number 10's but do we really have a great playmaker in our squad? Mata, Rooney, Herrera, none of them is a top class number 10 like Ozil, Silva or De Bruyne. My preference is Herrera from those three despite him really being a central midfielder.
The one I'm still insure about is the striker and number 10 position.
Striker - We do need a striker but do we need a top striker or someone who can rotate with Martial?
Number 10 - We have a lot of number 10's but do we really have a great playmaker in our squad? Mata, Rooney, Herrera, none of them is a top class number 10 like Ozil, Silva or De Bruyne. My preference is Herrera from those three despite him really being a central midfielder.
We should get a top striker if we can, problem is availability. Martial shouldn't be carrying all that weight on his shoulders, plus he can play as part of the attacking 3 too.
We should certainly sign a no10 who can carry the ball, my preference would be Coutinho, although those punks wouldn't sell to us.
Pep before we spend another pound.
I wonder how this would change if Mourinho comes in, I imagine he'd look for different type of players to LvG, for starters I imagine he'd want another destructive midfield player in.
Well that's at the lowest value £150M right there and we'd still need a striker. I still think he'd want another ball winner as well, I can't see him being any more keen on playing Herrera as a CM than LvG is.
I'd imagine Stones, Griezmann, and then a few like Higuain (?), Mane and a physical midfielder would be on the cards.
With quite a few going out.
I'm sure the same poster will blame the current manager for allowing all those players to leave and persistently post vines of Memphis scoring goals for fun where ever he may be.
Based on this season, what the team need is a matured goal scoring striker to take pressure off the young lads and a right winger with pace and technique. I will continue to hope Jones will do a Smalling. Am always for the idea of young academy players getting their chance which is the only soft spot I have for LVG. Young academy players should continue to be our backup.
I'd certainly hope he'd still want Stones and Griezmann, don't really rate Mane and Higuain is too old and too limited IMO, we need a striker with more in their game and their peak in view.
I think Cavani is close to Mourinho's type of striker, but I don't see that happening.
I can't think of who else really. There's always a chance he backs himself to sort out Rooney, which would mean signing a back up.
I don't think Mourinho is hugely bothered about their build up play being incredible, beyond the basics.
I like Mane. I think he's be right down Mourinho's street. He can score goals, while also being athletic, wins the ball well, and a huge threat on the counter. Not miles away from Saloman Kalou, who Mourinho used plenty before. looking at his Chelsea squad, Mane's not as refined as Willian, technically, but he's as much of an energetic player. Good for 5-10 league goals a season, too.
Edit: Kane fits the bill, of course.
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You couldn´t be more wrong.
I predicted in one of those silly prediction discussions, that Memphis would score less than 5 league goals this season. I think that Chicha is a great guy (huge fan), but I also think that he isn´t good enough for us despite his current scoring form. I don´t even start with the likes of Nani&Co.The one good thing that LvG did was to get rid of all the dross; well at least a lot of it.I would've loved for us to have signed Barkley in the summer, how's he been playing this season?
I just think we need someone for the right, preferably an x-factor player, and maybe a defender for depth, someone who can play LB and CB maybe.
I'm worried van Gaal will 'philosophize' whichever attacking players we get into, simply put, being shite, or leaving the club as Di Maria did. Could just be pure delusion/anxiety on my part though.
Van Gaal won't be around much longer. It will crazy to give the clown more money too.
New manager, new centre back, new right winger, new left winger, new striker.
Sell Jones, Fellaini and Mata.
Sell Jones, Fellaini and Mata.
You know what - one of the benefits if we appoint Mourinho will be access to his stash of ex-players, a lot of whom swear allegiance to him even now. One particular player will see his contract expire at the end of the season, and despite turning 34 quite recently, his overall level of play (average of ~1 goal per match) still puts him among the Top 5 strikers in Europe (was league top scorer and POTY under José too). One might argue that we need young players, but building a team takes a bit of time, and it's always wise to surround youngsters with world class players they can learn from - instead of having zero leaders (especially on offense) and too many spring chickens that are hella inconsistent. We could always get younger players, but in terms of where we are right now - this particular player's presence might allow Martial to develop slowly at wider positions (Mourinho has experience playing Eto'o wide too even though he was a natural striker), and then Martial can take over at #9 in a couple of seasons.
Bit of a short term deal, but it just might be perfect for the club in terms of timing, and we'll get a very productive, experienced striker whose overall link-up play, and holdup ability is still very good; and I'm pretty sure the fans would absolutely love him. It'll be a Bosman transfer so no transfer fee, but we might have to part with a decent chunk of wages on top of a minor sign-on bonus. Would make a lot of sense, Barcelona signed his international team-mate at 33 too - and he was quite important for them for a couple of seasons (won 2 La Liga titles, and helped change the complexion of the 2006 European Cup final after coming on as a substitute), after which he joined United on a short term loan deal and helped with the progression of Ronaldo and Rooney (who were about Martial's age then), and he helped us win the league after a gap of 3 seasons.
We would do well with a couple of players of his stature because our team lacks character aside from Fußballgott, and characters don't come much grander than Ibrahimović. You put him in a Mourinho team, and he'll be ready to take on the world because he genuinely believes there's no one better than him (said so himself), which is what we need for a squad that gives up too easily. Really think he could be a catalyst for something substantial, even towards the end of his career. Comparisons will be made with Falcao in terms of not signing a world class striker from Ligue 1 because we've been burnt before, but Zlatan isn't recovering from a major injury right now, and for the past 3-4 seasons people have been waiting for him to become poor with age - but he just keeps going. Even this season he was supposed to regress heavily, but he's been arguably the best player for a Top 4 team in Europe. We could do much worse in fairness, atleast for a 2-3 year deal.
Bit of a short term deal, but it just might be perfect for the club in terms of timing, and we'll get a very productive, experienced striker whose overall link-up play, and holdup ability is still very good; and I'm pretty sure the fans would absolutely love him. It'll be a Bosman transfer so no transfer fee, but we might have to part with a decent chunk of wages on top of a minor sign-on bonus. Would make a lot of sense, Barcelona signed his international team-mate at 33 too - and he was quite important for them for a couple of seasons (won 2 La Liga titles, and helped change the complexion of the 2006 European Cup final after coming on as a substitute), after which he joined United on a short term loan deal and helped with the progression of Ronaldo and Rooney (who were about Martial's age then), and he helped us win the league after a gap of 3 seasons.
We would do well with a couple of players of his stature because our team lacks character aside from Fußballgott, and characters don't come much grander than Ibrahimović. You put him in a Mourinho team, and he'll be ready to take on the world because he genuinely believes there's no one better than him (said so himself), which is what we need for a squad that gives up too easily. Really think he could be a catalyst for something substantial, even towards the end of his career. Comparisons will be made with Falcao in terms of not signing a world class striker from Ligue 1 because we've been burnt before, but Zlatan isn't recovering from a major injury right now, and for the past 3-4 seasons people have been waiting for him to become poor with age - but he just keeps going. Even this season he was supposed to regress heavily, but he's been arguably the best player for a Top 4 team in Europe. We could do much worse in fairness, atleast for a 2-3 year deal.
I don't really want Mourinho as manager to begin with, if he kept Rooney around it would seal the deal, there is no fixing Rooney as it's not a football issue, he's just completely and utterly shot physically, can't run, has no power and can barely control a ball most of the time. I agree that Mourinho won't crave a striker like Suarez or Aguero, but he likes a physically strong one that can hold the ball up and link play, and I'd say you're right that Kane would be ideal for him.
I just don't see it with Mane, he's fast and his footwork is decent, but when I watch him I just don't see a player that gives us the kind of top wide forward we desperately need.