Which midfielder should Moyes buy ?

Which midfielder should Moyes buy ?

  • Total voters
    246
  • Poll closed .
Status
Not open for further replies.
Pexbo said:
I've said it time and time again, he needs someone to pass and move with him.


It's like watching someone practice Tennis without a partner.
Click to expand...

You know, it's funny you say that, when his best games were when Phil Jones of all people was his partner. You might just be onto something here Pex.

Anyway. My issue with this thread and the issue in general is that FM and Fifa addicts wade in and simplify everything by saying we should sign Gundogan, Herrera, Sandro, Cabaye, Bender, Fabregas, Modric, Vidal or someone.

It's never that simple. For starters we haven't signed an established midfielder since Hargreaves. I believe Carrick and Veron were before that. So you've got to consider the fact that midfielders in our team are typically youngsters we bought, academy graduates, or strikers signed from rivals who were so bad we stuck them in midfield.

Then you've got to consider that most of the players in that list don't want to leave their clubs. Is United really that much of a step up for them? Modric, Fabregas and Vidal I'd say wouldn't want to join as they're at sufficiently big clubs. Gundogan and Bender I'd put there too. Why would they leave Champions League finalists to join what may appear from the outside to be a team struggling.

With Herrera, to my knowledge he isn't getting in much at Athletic this season. What we saw of him (18 months ago) was very impressive, but why isn't he getting in there any more? Why would he walk into our team?

Then there's Sandro who Spurs simply wouldn't sell. And then onto Cabaye. I've always been a big fan of Cabaye but I'm not convinced he'd really revolutionise our midfield.

It seems to be a question without an answer.
 
Get rid of Anderson; if he's not going to be used it's useless him being here, and bring in Herrera and Cabaye for whatever fee they negotiate and we'll be sorted in my opinion.
 
Captain Obvious here, but I just think we're crying out for somebody who's strong-willed, looks for the ball, passes it on, and then moves again to make himself available.

I know we all wank ourselves silly over Carrick, but even he looks lethargic when looking for the ball at times.
 
Kevin Strootman. Oh.

I say just pick a bottom 5 team in Spain and buy their entire midfield. At least they could pass the ball.
 
Lawman said:
Pexbo people keep making excuses for Tom Cleverley, It's always his partners fault when the truth is he is just average. There is about 20 better midfielders in the premier league than him and that's worrying for us.
Click to expand...

Look, I'm not holding him completely blameless, he needs to learn to impose himself on the game a lot more and do things of his own accord but with that said, I still think with the type of player he is, he needs a partner who works alongside him and compliments hi style of play. He passed the ball to Fellaini numerous times today and Fellaini never once looked to get it back to him. He turned his back to goal and passed backwards or sideways.

We've seen numerous times during his time here how positive his football can be when he has played with players who can pass and move their way up the field and actually make progress.
 
You know it's bad when apart from Carrick, our other midfielders aren't even good enough to be cover at united.
 
nahealai said:
Captain Obvious here, but I just think we're crying out for somebody who's strong-willed, looks for the ball, passes it on, and then moves again to make himself available.

I know we all wank ourselves silly over Carrick, but even he looks lethargic when looking for the ball at times.
Click to expand...

Gundogan fits the bill.
 
To be fair, this is a problem that has almost feck all to do with David Moyes. Fergie left it get to this stage and now we look desperate in the transfer market, hence, making Moyes' job even more difficult.
 
nahealai said:
Right, let's see how many we can name off the top of our heads:

  • Michael Carrick
  • Yaya Toure
  • Fernandinho
  • Ramires
  • Frank Lampard
  • Jack Wilshere
  • Aaron Ramsey
  • Abou Diaby (when fit)
  • Paulinho
  • Mousa Dembele
  • Cristian Eriksen
  • Steven Gerrard
  • Phillipe Coutinho
  • Darron Gibson
  • Ross Barkley
  • James McCarthy
That's sixteen midfielders that play in a position close enough to that of Cleverley's (one or two may be a toss of a coin between themselves and Cleverley), and that's just from the top six last season. The fact that Gerrard and Lampard, well into their thirties, are still more effective than Tom says it all.

There's others like James Ward-Prowse and Yohan Cabaye who have been having stellar seasons to date whom many would put ahead of Cleverley, too.

As you say, it's worrying.
Click to expand...

I can think of another 10-15 as well.
 
nahealai said:
To be fair, this is a problem that has almost feck all to do with David Moyes. Fergie left it get to this stage and now we look desperate in the transfer market, hence, making Moyes' job even more difficult.
Click to expand...

Yep. Moyes tried to fix the problem in the summer as well but whoever was handling the transfers was inept, leaving us with just Fellaini to do the job of two or three better signings. As annoyed as we were, Moyes must have been apoplectic.
 
Surprised Veratti hasn't got more votes. He's brilliant and would be be fantastic for us.

However he'd cost about 35 million plus imo and I doubt we will be spending that on any one player anytime soon, as much as we'd all like us to.

Still he alone would not sort our midfield issues but he would be a good start none the less.
 
nahealai said:
To be fair, this is a problem that has almost feck all to do with David Moyes. Fergie left it get to this stage and now we look desperate in the transfer market, hence, making Moyes' job even more difficult.
Click to expand...

Well no it has plenty to do with Moyes. For example he saw fit to spend more money than Sir Alex ever did on a central midfielder on Fellaini. So with Fellaini struggling to look a decent midfielder for us so far thats a huge bomb from Moyes. Our troubles would be far more understandable if we spent half as much addressing the midfield this summer.
 
We need a new topic/poll considering the poll was data from last summer and some of the players there have been bought up. Ivan Rakitic for me is the obvious choice for us to go after.
 
Ekeke said:
Well no it has plenty to do with Moyes. For example he saw fit to spend more money than Sir Alex ever did on a central midfielder on Fellaini. So with Fellaini struggling to look a decent midfielder for us so far thats a huge bomb from Moyes. Our troubles would be far more understandable if we spent half as much addressing the midfield this summer.
Click to expand...

By the time we bought Fellaini we were already screwed, having wasted the summer by fecking up bids for other players. I don't think Moyes ever thought Fellaini was worth what we paid, his true assessment of Fellaini's worth can be seen by us not meeting the 23m release clause earlier. Moyes had a choice between overpaying for Fellaini or going into the season with an even weaker midfield than we currently have, so he went for what he thought was the least-worst option.

You might argue with the decision he made but he was in a no-win situation by then, which was mostly down to other people.
 
sullydnl said:
By the time we bought Fellaini we were already screwed, having wasted the summer by fecking up bids for other players. I don't think Moyes ever thought Fellaini was worth what we paid, his true assessment of Fellaini's worth can be seen by us not meeting the 23m release clause earlier. Moyes had a choice between overpaying for Fellaini or going into the season with an even weaker midfield than we currently have, so he went for what he thought was the least-worst option.

You might argue with the decision he made but he was in a no-win situation by then, which was mostly down to other people.
Click to expand...

I dont think that was the choice to make at all. We could have picked up a decent midfielder for half the price who could have performed as good or better than Fellaini so far. That would have been taking less of a risk and again, our problem in that area would have been far more understandable if we signed a £14 million midfielder because our midfield lacked more than that.
 
SkeppyRed said:
Surprised Veratti hasn't got more votes. He's brilliant and would be be fantastic for us.

However he'd cost about 35 million plus imo and I doubt we will be spending that on any one player anytime soon, as much as we'd all like us to.

Still he alone would not sort our midfield issues but he would be a good start none the less.
Click to expand...

You spent £28m on Fellaini. You don't think you'd spend £7m or £8m more on a player?
 
sullydnl said:
By the time we bought Fellaini we were already screwed, having wasted the summer by fecking up bids for other players. I don't think Moyes ever thought Fellaini was worth what we paid, his true assessment of Fellaini's worth can be seen by us not meeting the 23m release clause earlier. Moyes had a choice between overpaying for Fellaini or going into the season with an even weaker midfield than we currently have, so he went for what he thought was the least-worst option.

You might argue with the decision he made but he was in a no-win situation by then, which was mostly down to other people.
Click to expand...
He had all summer to strengthen our midfield. It's his fault entirely he wasted a month doing nothing, then another being deluded into thinking he could get fabregas here :lol:
There are so many midfielders world wide who we could have gotten for 20 million, let alone 30, who would've improved our midfield massively.
Even if we wanted to keep it from the premier league, why not go for schneiderlein? I'd love it if we got him in January for example, shouldn't be too expensive and would hugely improve us. Or pjanic, koke, trying for thiago, bender twins, Gustavo, Barkley, paulinho, etc. The list goes on and on.
 
Is there any chance we will sign a CM in January? Cant see many clubs willing to sell.

Prices are high and their is a danger you end up buying a player you didnt want because they are the only ones available(like Fellaini). Would be great if we could get somebody on loan.
 
I'm sorry did someone name Darran Gibson as a better player than Cleverley?

I'm leaving this thread straight away!
 
BarneyLFC said:
You spent £28m on Fellaini. You don't think you'd spend £7m or £8m more on a player?
Click to expand...


Fellaini costing that much is partly why I don't think we will spend 35m plus anytime soon. Loved to be proved wrong and I think Veratti would be worth it.
 
SkeppyRed said:
Fellaini costing that much is partly why I don't think we will spend 35m plus anytime soon. Loved to be proved wrong and I think Veratti would be worth it.
Click to expand...


Our biggest spend ever in a window has been around 60mil. Even if Moyes gets that sort of money he will have to spend brilliantly to address the weaknesses in the Squad.
 
Ekeke said:
I dont think that was the choice to make at all. We could have picked up a decent midfielder for half the price who could have performed as good or better than Fellaini so far. That would have been taking less of a risk and again, our problem in that area would have been far more understandable if we signed a £14 million midfielder because our midfield lacked more than that.
Click to expand...

Oh don't get me wrong, I don't think Fellaini should have even been an option for us. There were plenty of other players who would have been better than him, we'd never have gone for him if Moyes wasn't our manager. I wouldn't particularly defend Moyes' decision to target Fellaini, except by saying that he wasn't intended to fix the problem on his own either.

I was just defending Moyes from the ridiculous price we paid and the lack of other signings. If Moyes rates Fellaini then overpaying in that panic situation makes more sense than trying to quickly buy a cheaper player he doesn't rate as highly. That panic situation was forced upon Moyes, regardless of whether he was right to rate Fellaini that highly or not.
 
Until United start acting like other big clubs in the transfer market, which includes pandering to agents, stumping up big wages, and stumping up massive transfer fees in the region of £35-£50 million euros, then almost any excellent central midfielder mentioned in this thread is nothing more than a pipe dream.

It's the reason we signed Fellaini, and it's also the reason there is a clamour to sign somebody from Newcastle United in Cabaye, due to him being "realistic." When Real Madrid drew up their transfer plans at the start of the Summer, there was nothing realistic about spending £30 million on Illaramendi and £80 million on Gareth Bale. They went out and did it, though. Yes, the game is a nonsense. The window is madness. But they don't give out prizes for transfer morality. The market moved on without Manchester United and until United catch up and guys like Woodward start putting the money where the mouth is, players like Gundogan, Vidal amongst others, will always be dubbed as unrealistic, even though they'll somehow end up at Barcelona or Real Madrid at some point down the line.

So, either the club genuinely can't afford to spend the extra money, which is fine if finances are that tight. However, if the money is there, the approach must change.
 
thegregster said:
Our biggest spend ever in a window has been around 60mil. Even if Moyes gets that sort of money he will have to spend brilliantly to address the weaknesses in the Squad.
Click to expand...

I really do believe we have got a massive window coming up. (Summer, not January)

I think we are going to be shifting some dead wood, raising a small amount of funds that way and clearing the wage bill. On top of that, we have been frugal the last few years and there is cash available. Even more so, our income is increasing massively with sponsorship not to mention the new TV money.


Quite simply the squad is in serious need of investment and with time for Moyes to assess the squad and go through his rigorous scouting process to identify the correct players, I really think we will surprise people with 3 or 4 quality signings. 2 of which will be first team starters and either world class or the potential to be.
 
I think we need more than one. A bit of overhaul is necessary in this area. Two midfielders at least.
 
bosnian_red said:
He had all summer to strengthen our midfield. It's his fault entirely he wasted a month doing nothing, then another being deluded into thinking he could get fabregas here :lol:
There are so many midfielders world wide who we could have gotten for 20 million, let alone 30, who would've improved our midfield massively.
Even if we wanted to keep it from the premier league, why not go for schneiderlein? I'd love it if we got him in January for example, shouldn't be too expensive and would hugely improve us. Or pjanic, koke, trying for thiago, bender twins, Gustavo, Barkley, paulinho, etc. The list goes on and on.
Click to expand...

Was that waste of time really his fault though? From the outside it certainly looked to me like whoever was negotiating the deals was to blame. All Moyes can do is name targets, it's not down to him to decide what we bid or to handle the actual negotiations. Our whole transfer policy looked off this summer, that wasn't down to Moyes.

Anyway, if we're blaming Moyes for failing to strengthen this summer then SAF has to get about ten times more blame for failing to strengthen midfield for the last several seasons. This problem wasn't created by Moyes, he inherited it.

Seems stupid to blame Moyes for not fixing in a few months a situation SAF allowed to get to crisis point over several years, particularly when we appear to have forced Moyes to work with inept idiots..
 
Cabaye, Schneiderlin, Herrera. I'd be happy with one of those. Herrera's poor season has been over stated imo, he's been subbed off even when he's played well, he's been regularly played out of position and he's been on the bench a lot. They seem to be trying to freeze him out. I'd still like him here but after reading the Ed Woodward interview in UWS it seems extremely unlikely. I genuinely think all three would strengthen us. I don't think Fellaini did at all, he isn't better than anything we already had.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.