What two positions should we prioritise in the upcoming window?

I'd say a RW and a backup midfielder is necessary.

Regular starting XI:
De Gea
AWB Maguire Lindelöf Shaw
Matic Pogba
Bruno
Sancho/Greenwood Martial Rashford

2nd XI:
Romero
AWB Bailly Maguire Williams
Mctominay Fred
New midfielder
Greenwood Ighalo James

Sell Lingard, Pereira, Jones, Mata. I think we have decent backup of defensive midfielders, we should look for someone able to keep the bench warm for Bruno. We also have Laird, Levitt and Garner coming through the ranks and maybe it's time to introduce them next season.
 
SiRed said:
Like everyone else, I think we need to get Sancho for the Right Wing ASAP.

After that I think we need to add depth to our attacking areas. If Grealish can be brought in for under 50 mil, he offers cover for about 4 positions so would certainly get games.

Against Brighton for example we needed to rest some key players and you just knew that at 3 the scoring was done as the quality coming on was not great. I think that's the difference between us winning 3-0 in that game and City who may have gone on the score 5 or 6.

If there's any money left in the pot I would like us to sign a CB to replace Lindelof but I have no idea who, quite like Nathan Ake to be fair.
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Yeah that is how I expect the priorities to go in this window but could change if top CB suddenly becomes available
 
Priority 1: RW
Priority 2: Cover for Bruno and Pogba
Priority 3: CB. If money ain't available, I'll be happy with Smalling back in the squad

Hopefully, we can raise money by selling Lingard, Mata, Jones, and Pereira
 
Darshan Mody said:
RW- Jadon Sancho
CB - Dayot Upamecano
CAM - Jack Grealish
CDM - ???

With 5 ( Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, Sancho and Ighalo) attackers we will be cover for absentee.
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RW Sancho
CB Salisu/Rodon (provided we sell 2)
AM Grealish,if not attainable get Thiago
 
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CB
RW

I would say CM but I don’t see us having Fred, Matic, McTominay, hopefully Garner (but even if he is loaned out there’s a lot of options) AND a new CM in the squad next season. Bruno and Pogba obviously speak for themselves as lock starters.
 
Mr Smith said:
Come on, how many of those actually exist? The only other one in the league is Eric Dier, and he's rubbish.
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Ake has played in both positions to be fair
 
Mr Smith said:
Come on, how many of those actually exist? The only other one in the league is Eric Dier, and he's rubbish.
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Declan Rice, although debatable if he's top quality.

Plus, Fernandinho is hardly a fantastic CB - he's done ok but he'd never be considered a top level CB.
 
Nickelodeon said:
Priority 1: RW
Priority 2: Cover for Bruno and Pogba
Priority 3: CB. If money ain't available, I'll be happy with Smalling back in the squad

Hopefully, we can raise money by selling Lingard, Mata, Jones, and Pereira
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No Midfield addition to cover DM?

For me, we need both an attacking and a defensive midfielder. Both higher priority than a CB
 
croadyman said:
RW Sancho
CB Salisu/Rodon (provided we sell 2)
AM Grealish,if not attainable get Thiago
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Rodon is not good enough and never will be. Why his name is mentioned is beyond me. There's a ton of better options.

If you want Grealish before Thiago i suggest you head to the nearest Wetherspoons and never leave. You've clearly lost the plot
 
Let's just look at our options for each position:

LWF - Rashford, Martial, James - (good)
FW - Martial, Greenwood, Igahlo, Rashford - (very good)
RWF - Greenwood, James - (our weakest spot, we don't have quality right winger, Greenwood is striker)
AM - Bruno, Pogba - (excellent, we have 2 of there best 3 creative midfielder in the league)
CM - Pogba, Fred, Mctominay - (very good)
DM - Matic, Fred - (not bad, but Matic not young and Fred not DM)
LB - Shaw, Williams - (should be ok, but not ideal)
RB - AWB, Williams, Dalot - (good first choice, not sure about the backup)
CB - Maguire, Jones, Rojo - (a little worrying)
CB - Lindelof, Bailey, Tuanzebe - (a little more worrying)
GK - De Gea, Henderson, Romero - (good, only issue is De Gea form)

So the clear answer is:
1. RW
2. CB
 
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RW - Sancho / Torres / Chisea / Traore
CM - Saul / Carmavinga / Soumare / Zakaria /Partey /Grealish / Vanbeek
CD - Skriniar / Koulibali / Ake / Upamecano
CF - Haaland / Oshimen / Jimenez

3 players from above pool looks good to me considering we have few other youth options on table like Hannibal Mejbri in CM who can become a star for us like Mason.
Get rid of Alexis, Jesse, Perrera, Rojo, Jones and Smalling.
 
Right-wing and one of DM or CB.
I don't think we can expect 2 first 11 quality players this summer, so I'm hoping for Sancho.

We'll struggle a bit defensively when Matic is tired or if Maguire gets injured, but hopefully the attack will keep us in top 4 next season and the summer after we can sort our defense and then challenge properly.
 
Craig Ward said:
Rodon is not good enough and never will be. Why his name is mentioned is beyond me. There's a ton of better options.

If you want Grealish before Thiago i suggest you head to the nearest Wetherspoons and never leave. You've clearly lost the plot
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More a case of I suspect that he is Liverpool bound that is why I put Grealish ahead of him but maybe I should have made that a bit clearer so apologies for that. Rodon wouldn't be my first choice either but it's more a case of I see us looking at cheaper CB options rather than the likes of Koulibaly.
 
Ødegaard said:
Right-wing and one of DM or CB.
I don't think we can expect 2 first 11 quality players this summer, so I'm hoping for Sancho.

We'll struggle a bit defensively when Matic is tired or if Maguire gets injured, but hopefully the attack will keep us in top 4 next season and the summer after we can sort our defense and then challenge properly.
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Has become quite clear that Ole just doesn't see an issue with DM situation right now, the only trouble with thinking that way is what happens when Matic has a bad run of form or worse picks up a long term injury
 
croadyman said:
More a case of I suspect that he is Liverpool bound that is why I put Grealish ahead of him but maybe I should have made that a bit clearer so apologies for that. Rodon wouldn't be my first choice either but it's more a case of I see us looking at cheaper CB options rather than the likes of Koulibaly.
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Ye makes sense, i read it as: 1st choice Grealish. 2nd Choice Thiago. Like if we cant get Grealish we may as well sign him, he'll do.

Even if we are looking at cheap CB options, we need to look at good one's. Rodon might turn out to be a decent player - but he's nowhere near what we need to be looking to sign. I'd rather keep what we have than sign him in truth
 
Craig Ward said:
Ye makes sense, i read it as: 1st choice Grealish. 2nd Choice Thiago. Like if we cant get Grealish we may as well sign him, he'll do.

Even if we are looking at cheap CB options, we need to look at good one's. Rodon might turn out to be a decent player - but he's nowhere near what we need to be looking to sign. I'd rather keep what we have than sign him in truth
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Who should be looking at in the cheap CB options do you reckon?
 
MikeUpNorth said:
RW - Sancho
Defender - Alaba
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second to this, 2 WC player, plus each can play in various position with first XI quality

Sancho : RW, LW , AM
Alaba : CB, LB, DM, CM

its like kill 2 bird with one stone
shame cant see woodward pull it though
 
Hide_&_Seek said:
second to this, 2 WC player, plus each can play in various position with first XI quality

Sancho : RW, LW , AM
Alaba : CB, LB, DM, CM

its like kill 2 bird with one stone
shame cant see woodward pull it though
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Didn't realise that Alaba could play so many different positions, does feel if he did leave then Bayern then would expect him to join City as he already knows Guardiola and probably has that connection with him too
 
Hide_&_Seek said:
second to this, 2 WC player, plus each can play in various position with first XI quality

Sancho : RW, LW , AM
Alaba : CB, LB, DM, CM

its like kill 2 bird with one stone
shame cant see woodward pull it though
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I can actually see us competing for the title with these two players. Not only will they complete our team but they would also provide quality depth for rotation and injuries

LW - Rashford Sancho James Martial
ST - Martial Ighalo Greenwood Rashford
RW - Sancho Greenwood James
AM - Bruno Sancho Mata
Double Pivot - Matic Pogba Alaba Fred Mctominay
RB - AWB Williams Dalot
LB - Shaw Alaba Williams
CBs - Maguire Alaba Lindelof Bailly Tuanzebe

I think we should be going for the title with this team. There's enough quality and depth (due to versatility of certain players)
 
Number one priority for us to sort out this window is centre back, that is transfers in and out. We have possible centre backs:

Maguire, Lindelof, Bailly, Jones, Tuanzabe, Smalling, Rojo, Menghi, Fosuh Mensah

That is NINE centre backs! How many are world class - zero. How many are star players - zero. How many have proved worthy starters Maguire and thats about it.

Would happily sell/release five of those nine to buy a quality centre back.

Number two priority is certainly right wing. Again this is also for improving the quality by moving players out, current options:

Mata, James, Greenwood, Lingard, Chong, Perreira, Dalot

That is seven possible options. Perreira/Lingard I expect to move on, Mata in my opnion also should be, Chong doesnt look ready and personally I dont see a player there at all anyway and Dalot is an attackign right back who I wouldnt be adversed to moving on to bring in cash and free up a space for Laird.

That only leaves two and can we expect Greenwood to play every game and shouldnt we be looking fro him more as a striker next season? James I am sure people will say is a decent squad player, I dont agree but that is irrelevant. We still need quality there improving. Sign a right winger and all our front three positions have competition from Greenwood.

SO that is my two most important areas, however it isnt enough, we certainly need a third signing. I know many would say a defensive midfielder. Though Fred/McTominay are more box to box, I think for next season at least, unless we were able to sign someone of supreme quality like TonaliCamavinga we should wait.

My third option would simply be Jack Grealish. If we get a cb of quality our defence will be pretty good. Add Sancho and Grealish and the options/competition/cover we have for the front five positions is superb. Altough of course its the same players, you could literally choose from 3 to5 players for most of those spots whilst at the same time clearing out all of what I would consider the deadwood players in those positions.
 
Forward (preferably right wing) and a central defender.
 
RedRonaldo said:
Let's just look at our options for each position:

LWF - Rashford, Martial, James - (good)
FW - Martial, Greenwood, Igahlo, Rashford - (very good)
RWF - Greenwood, James - (our weakest spot, we don't have quality right winger, Greenwood is striker)
AM - Bruno, Pogba - (excellent, we have 2 of there best 3 creative midfielder in the league)
CM - Pogba, Fred, Mctominay - (very good)
DM - Matic, Fred - (not bad, but Matic not young and Fred not DM)
LB - Shaw, Williams - (should be ok, but not ideal)
RB - AWB, Williams, Dalot - (good first choice, not sure about the backup)
CB - Maguire, Jones, Rojo - (a little worrying)
CB - Lindelof, Bailey, Tuanzebe - (a little more worrying)
GK - De Gea, Henderson, Romero - (good, only issue is De Gea form)

So the clear answer is:
1. RW
2. CB
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RW - Sancho
CB - Alaba

Add Alaba to the CB and DM list and both aren't worrying anymore. Add Sancho to the RW LW and AM list also.
 
McTominay & Fred is a better cover for Matic than any starter that we have next to Maguire (I’m not entirely happy with him either but he will do with the right partner next to him). Especially since Matic had just prolonged his contract until 2023. So yeah, CB is a must. And Sancho (not even a generic right wing).
 
harms said:
McTominay & Fred is a better cover for Matic than any starter that we have next to Maguire (I’m not entirely happy with him either but he will do with the right partner next to him). Especially since Matic had just prolonged his contract until 2023. So yeah, CB is a must. And Sancho (not even a generic right wing).
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They are better players than any of the backup options we have at centreback, but it's debatable if they suit playing as the DM next to Pogba and Bruno. I hope we try to find the opportunity to play at least one of them in that position whenever possible in the remainder of the season. Fred had a brief cameo there in the last match and looked good, but that was against a Bournemouth team that we were dominating.
 
Craig Ward said:
Rodon is not good enough and never will be. Why his name is mentioned is beyond me. There's a ton of better options.

If you want Grealish before Thiago i suggest you head to the nearest Wetherspoons and never leave. You've clearly lost the plot
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Grealish hasn’t even reached he’s peak years yet, has a fantastic injury record, is captain of his team, has being English as a bonus and can cover midfield and the wings.

You could quite easily say Thiago has a terrible injury record, closing to the end of his peak years, has never played in the Premier league, would expect to be in the starting 11 (and he won’t be replacing Pogba or Bruno for it) and arguably would find it less of a privilege and honour to wear the Utd shirt.

In my opinion, Grealish would be the much better option in the long term, short term, for squad depth and squad harmony.
 
Most of all, we need an AMC, an FWR/AMR and in January, a FW as well. And we can all that in one player: Kai Havertz. For me, he would be ideal signing.
 
Most important for me is a centre back who can raise the team. I really rate Bailly and keep telling myself he’s potentially our best centre back and then he comes in and looks like a right donkey.

A few weeks back I’d have also said a right winger but now I’m worried if Sancho did come in it would slow down Greenwood’s development, I know Greenwood is a striker but he won’t get that slot at the moment.
I’d love it if we could sign Sancho anyway create some competition and rotate the top 3 depending on form etc...

I think a more pressing priority is another all round/creative midfielder, when either Pogba or Fernandes go off we look rubbish again, for me Andres and Lingard just do not cut it and Mata is getting on a bit.

So in conclusion one midfield and one defender,
Sancho would be a great bonus.
 
croadyman said:
Who should be looking at in the cheap CB options do you reckon?
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Salisu looks decent for the money, the one i like the best probably wouldnt be cheap - Upamencano.

Think if we are going for a CB, do it right. Get proper quality in
 
While I think it makes sense to want a DM to rotate with Matic or a pacy RCB to compliment Maguire, we've hardly been linked by good sources with players in those positions. We've only been strongly linked with an RW(Sancho), an AM(Grealish, VdB) and LCB or left footed centre back that Ole says we are looking for(Badiashile, Salisu, Torres, Rodon). I think I can understand why we've been linked with more of those positions (RW AM LCB) and not DM or RCB

We've already seen Matic get an extended contract and he is favoured now as our starting DM. Though an argument that we need a replacement can be made, Ole has often favoured Fred or Mctominay in Matic's role plenty times this season even before Matic started performing. For me it is clear that Ole assumes Fred or Mctominay can fill in for Matic as they have so far done since the beginning of this season. Which I think is why we haven't been strongly linked with a DM.

I've also seen people suggest (including me) that we need a pacy RCB to compliment Maguire. But we already have two of those in Bailly and Tuanzebe who are decent centre backs. I don't see us spending money on a similar type of CB unless we get rid of one. This I think also explains why we haven't been linked with a pacy CB to compliment Maguire.

As for the positions we've been strongly linked with - RW, AM and LCB, I think it's easy to see why we're interested in those positions instead. For RW we have none. As much as Greenwood is performing there, we still need depth in that area be it Sancho or anyone else.

As for the AM asides from Bruno our other options in Lingard Pereira and Mata are simply no longer good enough to even sit on the bench in this current team and it's as simple as that. We put one of them in for Bruno and there's a very big drop in quality.

And then we have the LCBs we've strongly been linked with - Badiashile Torres Salisu Rodon and Ole also saying we need a left footed centre back. I think this is the third position we are interested in because asides from Maguire we actually don't have a CB that can play on the left. Rojo seems likely to leave and Jones is also being linked with a move away or if not would be in the ward. So we do need someone that can play on the left CB besides Maguire though I think this is dependent on us clearing out Rojo and Jones

In my opinion this is what we are going for
 
I don't get the desperation for a new centre back. Your defence while not the best in the world has been good this season and will only get better as they play together more and more. Maguire has been a great buy, I like Lindelof as a player and Bailly and Tuanzebe look good back ups and with Mengi coming through as well, I don't see a massive problem for you there at all, you can easily have a successful season with those guys.

Same for LB I think Shaw is vastly underated by some posters here and he has progressed and progressed under Ole and with Williams as back up and Laird if he comes through (which seems likely) while on the right with AWB, Dalot and Laird again you seem to have good reliable depth.

The DM role could be covered by McT or Fred as others have noted, the issue for me is cover for Bruno and Pogba, so Grealish seems an ideal fit and a right winger obviously Sancho. If I had to bet I would guess you'll sign Sancho and Grealish and if I was Ole I'd buy Rice as well before worrying about a centre back.
 
I'd only look at Sancho, a centre-back and a defensive midfielder. I keep thinking it though. Our main issue is clearing all the deadwood that we have no use of.

I'm fine with Smalling coming back and us signing Sancho and a DM to cover/take over from Matic. Alaba is optimal given that he can play CB, LB, DM and CM but it's but it seems unlikely. Just get rid of Jones, Fosu-Mensah, Sanchez and I'm fine with whatever we sign basically. If anything. It's a weird transfer window incoming anyway.

Edit: Lingard can go too.
 
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This is a real test for Teflon Ed and Glazers, there is an undeniable need to take the next step to challenge Pool and Citeh, and it will need something that has been lacking which is swift and targeted signings. Yes , we did get Fernandes but we cannot rest and unless the Club is ambitious and is given The green light to invest, we will remain 3rd in line behind the player behemoths mentioned ( and looking at Chelski signings)

if Woody tries his usual trick of lowballing bids and dragging it out, then we will not see any improvement from where we currently sit. there is an air of the attractiveness currently and deals should be struck and rewards will come, but if they are happy with finishing in the top 4, qualifying for Champions League, then the ongoing leaks from Man Utd media of targets and interest will continue to satisfy social media and clicks, and Ed wilI triumph in what appears his real duty, meeting Financial targets to make Glazers money.
 
I think our need for another attacking midfielder is being underestimated here. I'd say Sancho is the priority, and he can play there, but we absolutely need another creator with actual goal threat. Our two best options for the role are key starters and if they need the rest or an injury happens the downgrade in quality is huge. Everybody knows that Lingard, Pereira and Mata are not good enough and won't get better (in my opinion they should've been gone already), but I was looking into our losses this season and saw that in the 10 games, at least one of them started and we only scored 4 goals. The trio had 1, deflected with bad goalkeeping vs Astana by JLingz, and 0 assists.

EPL:
Palace H (Lingard), West Ham A (Pereira and Mata), Newcastle A (Pereira and Mata), Bournemouth A (Pereira), Watford A (Lingard), Arsenal A
(Lingard), Liverpool A (Pereira), Burnley H (Pereira and Mata)

EFL Cup:
City H (Pereira and Lingard)

Europa League:
Astana A (Lingard)
 
I would go with RW. The other position depends
Either we go with a top class DM who can make up for the lack of pace of our CBs by giving them good cover or we groom Mctominay for the DM role and buy a top class CB to partner Maquire.
 
RW and DM.

We could upgrade at CB but I’m actually ok with what we have. A DM specialist to begin taking the reins from Matic is a higher priority. While I’m really impressed with Fred and McSauce, neither are a proper like for like replacement for Matic.
 
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