Who I would like us to go for when we offload Pogba?

Since you already have van de Beek and you can't slot him, Pogba and Bruno in one formation wouldn't it make the most sense to sign an upgrade on Matic/McTominay?

Bruno as a 10, Fred/vdB as 8s and then a new player as a 6 with McTominay as the back up would sound like a profound midfield formation for me. Maybe you could also sign a promising youngster as a back up for Bruno or trust Mata with that role.

A deep lying playmaker could also make sense. Question is if you could assemble a midfield that also puts in the necessary leg work if you play a Pirlo type of player next to an already attacking minded 8 and typical 10.
 
People should forget Neves. He’s not very good. Excellent long balls aside he’s usually playing short square passes and is suspect defensively.

I would go for Grealish if we want a creative player or Zakaria/Rice if we want a more defensive minded player.
 
Freak said:
People should forget Neves. He’s not very good. Excellent long balls aside he’s usually playing short square passes and is suspect defensively.

I would go for Grealish if we want a creative player or Zakaria/Rice if we want a more defensive minded player.
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The last 3 are very coveted and would cost a fortune especially Grealish
 
jamesjimmybyrondean said:
He and Fred in the double pivot would likley get bypassed easily
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Disagree wasn’t a problem he he played a pivot with Ndombele. Aouar is a hard worker too!

Only issue would be height or lack of height in midfield.
Baneofthegame said:
Zakaria
Koopmeiners
Camavinga
Rice
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Koopmeiners :devil:
devilish said:
JWP has 25 assists under his belt as opposed to the likes of McT (1) and Fred (1). At 64% he's got a higher tackling success rate then McT (58%) and Fred (51%). In 2019-2020 season JWP has covered a league-topping 334.6km in 1 season which suggest that he's quite hardworking. He had 60 interceptions as opposed to McT (31) and Fred (38) and had more recoveries as well (249 as opposed to McT's 147 and Fred's 234). These are the sort of players we should be looking at, people who can fend for themselves both defensively and offensively.
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Don’t understand the snobbery when it comes to Ward Prowse. He’s a great set piece taker and great passer, crosser (imagine an effective cross from RW) and an absolute baller in terms of competitive spirit.

Not saying he’s perfect but we could do a lot worse!
 
BenitoSTARR said:
Disagree wasn’t a problem he he played a pivot with Ndombele. Aouar is a hard worker too!

Only issue would be height or lack of height in midfield.

Koopmeiners :devil:

Don’t understand the snobbery when it comes to Ward Prowse. He’s a great set piece taker and great passer, crosser (imagine an effective cross from RW) and an absolute baller in terms of competitive spirit.

Not saying he’s perfect but we could do a lot worse!
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United's biggest mistake is that we're always searching for perfection, players who come in and just take us to the other level. In reality that's rarely sort things and it tend to cause more problems then it actually sort. Take Pogba or Maguire as an example. We spend ridiculous money on them and they are far from the answer of our prayers. Since they cost shitloads of money we've been forced to build the team around them.

What United should do is to rediscover an ancient custom ie to buy players with the characteristics to succeed at the club. Anyone old enough to remember us buying the likes of Ole, Johnsen, Carrick, Vidic and Evra knew that none of us believed that they were first team material. They came at the club with the right skillset and mentality to fit in our system and with the right coaching they became the legends they are today.
 
devilish said:
United's biggest mistake is that we're always searching for perfection, players who come in and just take us to the other level. In reality that's rarely sort things and it tend to cause more problems then it actually sort. Take Pogba or Maguire as an example. We spend ridiculous money on them and they are far from the answer of our prayers. Since they cost shitloads of money we've been forced to build the team around them.

What United should do is to rediscover an ancient custom ie to buy players with the characteristics to succeed at the club. Anyone old enough to remember us buying the likes of Ole, Johnsen, Carrick, Vidic and Evra knew that none of us believed that they were first team material. They came at the club with the right skillset and mentality to fit in our system and with the right coaching they became the legends they are today.
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I know there are probably a few examples out there that would show the opposite, but it just seems like players go down in quality almost immediately upon putting pen to paper with United. Maguire and AWB immediately come to mind.

But the most hilarious one to me right now is Telles. In his first ever game with us he put in multiple great corners. They had some wip, some pace, and they all missed the first man. Now? Two months after being a United player? He has lost the ability to put in a decent set piece. Completely gone. Now they are either easily, laughably, cleared by the first man on the near post, or floated up super high ten yards beyond the back post, coming almost straight down, where its Maguire usually fouling people as he tried to get his big lump on it.
 
I think with Fernandes and VDB we are fine for attack-minded centre mids and Fred and Mcctominay are ok in the box to box roles. So personly I think we need to spend the money in other areas.
  • We havn't really go anyone who can nail down the centre forward position (im hoping Greenwood could step up but that yet to be seen)
  • I know we have bought 2 youngsters who play RW (Pellistri and Diallo), but really we have no idea if either of these players will cut it at the level we need to and when they will be ready. Currently though we don't really have a natural Right-sided attacker in the squad.
  • The only real holding midfielder we have is Matic and his best years are behind him, (despite the fact we utterly mentally gave him a new 3 year deal.
  • Despite all the money we have spent on centre back and the fact we have 6 first team CB's on the books its still probably our weakest position. So using the money to either pay some players to leave and buy a decent centre back with some pace isn't a bad shout.
despite all this talk of Pogba leaving, my money is still on him signing a new mega Sanchez like the contract, just cos no one is going to pay decent money for a player who has been inconsistent for years, seems like he has attitude problems and is coming into his late 20's. So my money is on Pogba realsing his options are limited and Woodward panicking that he will leave for free and offering him a bonkers new deal that ends up going as well as the Sanchez or the Ozil deals have.
 
Viral United said:
Any one who don't have Mino Raiola as agent.
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Ideally yes, but plenty of players are under his influences.

Depending on the players, I won't mind.
Raiola is only a virus for special premium class Prince Pogba, very likely under instructions or given green light by said client. He rarely make noises for his other clients. I mean we kicked Romero out of the first team and he did nor say shit nothing.
 
Jadon Sancho. Any decent DM will do. McTomminy just needs to be removed.
 
Zlatattack said:
In a post Pogba world our midfield is going to be...

Bruno
??? DVB

We need someone who'll complement Donny. Ideally I think we need a CDM who can cover ground quickly, passes forwards, decent range of passing (particularly long passes as we like to play on the break) and doesn't linger on the ball.

What do people think of Saul?
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DeJong please
 
How will a midfield of Bruno Fred and Aouar be defensively. Aouar used to play in a double pivot with Ndombele who isn't all that defensively
 
MayosNoun said:
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the rumours for Milinkovic-Savic resurface. He really is the complete midfielder and is good for a goal. A powerhouse with excellent passing.

He isn’t actually too dissimilar to Pogba but he brings far more workrate.
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I watched him against Scotland in the Play off and he was anonymous.
We need big players for big games and from what I have seen of him in a Serbian shirt he is a pussycat
 
RkkMan said:
Ruben Neves is one of the biggest false images in the PL. Outside his worldies he`s a very overhyped and slightly above average CM genuinely no better than Dendoncker or Moutinho watch him and you`ll see or better yet ask Wolves fans who also dont rate him as highly as many people on the CAF do
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That's funny the fans always sang about him in at least 2 songs Nuno had a dream and we've got Neves and I live near Wolverhampton and know loads of supporters who rate him
 
devilish said:
JWP has 25 assists under his belt as opposed to the likes of McT (1) and Fred (1). At 64% he's got a higher tackling success rate then McT (58%) and Fred (51%). In 2019-2020 season JWP has covered a league-topping 334.6km in 1 season which suggest that he's quite hardworking. He had 60 interceptions as opposed to McT (31) and Fred (38) and had more recoveries as well (249 as opposed to McT's 147 and Fred's 234). These are the sort of players we should be looking at, people who can fend for themselves both defensively and offensively.
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Good shout - is there a relative minutes played stat?
 
I'm wondering about all these articles regarding Barca and needing to sell have any truth in them. I doubt it.

But if they are, Frenkie De Jong should become of supreme interest from us.
 
It will be difficult to get a big fee, so we’re probably looking at a player swap. I’d look at Odegaard at Madrid. As for Juve, the options aren’t as great tbh. According to Romano on a recent podcast, we turned down an offer from Juve in the summer that would have included Pjanic and Costa. I’d happily have taken Pjanic and some cash in exchange for Pogba but oddly our club didn’t consider it.
 
Grealish and specialist DM. Dont even mind CR7 for couple of years, but DM is priority.
 
jamesjimmybyrondean said:
How will a midfield of Bruno Fred and Aouar be defensively. Aouar used to play in a double pivot with Ndombele who isn't all that defensively
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You’d have plenty of energy and quality on the ball Aouar is one of the best ball carriers around and so there would be less pressure on our defenders from someone dwelling too long on it.

Any kind of long ball into midfield though would be lost we’d be really weak aerially and I’d worry how we’d cope on set pieces without any height from midfield.

That said Aouar is probably the most exciting young midfielder around and for a fair fee too so I’d never say no to him!
 
I think in the present climate the best value for Pogba is going to be based on a player swap/plus cash as opposed to a straight cash deal.. Frenkie De Jong is probably the one out there who is most akin to Michael Carrick but i cannot see a deal for him emerging..If it were to be a cash only deal then one of... Wilfred Ndidi... Denis Zakaria... Eduardo Camavinga could well be obtainable.
 
Have to say I'm being very impressed by Declan Rice. Shame he looks certain for Chelsea.
 
Gambit said:
Have to say I'm being very impressed by Declan Rice. Shame he looks certain for Chelsea.
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Yeah he's only 21 as well - he could turn into a really good player.

I definitely think we need to sign a good holding player to bring security so Bruno and Donny can provide the creativity (not that those two are slouches by any means)

Basically an upgrade on McTominay who is probably not technically sufficient to make it in that role.

Need someone tall and mobile and good defensively but who also has good passing ability and control.
 
Who would I like us to sign: Federico Valverde: really think this guy is a fantastic midfielder. Very complete.
Who would we realistically sign: Aouar or Rodrigo de Paul: both fantastic players. But i think Bruno Guimarães would be more suitable, since I think we need more an aggressive box-2-box.
 
There are some outstanding choices in this thread. I'm sure we'll go all out to sign one of them as a number one priority. When we fail to get the deal done, I hope we can bring in a veteran on loan from Uruguay to keep Cavani happy. :smirk:

I'd love Camavinga personally but there's a lot of rumoured competition to sign him.
 
If as the BBC are reporting Juventus are in touch about Pogba, I think we d be daft not to look into taking Bentancur from them in the deal, would solve the defensive midfield slot, likes getting stuck in, very tidy passer who also assists, good age too.
 
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