Why didn't we sign a right-winger?

Absolutely disgraceful really, even a squad option right winger would've made sense. Mata is completely done and Lingard isn't a right winger, our only hope now is if Lukaku occupys the right wing/wide forward area.
 
Roboc7 said:
Mata basically abandons the RW and we attack almost exclusively down the left or through the middle. Maybe the best solution is Sanchez on the right wing playing that role and Martial or Rashford on the left. Fred or Pereeira could also play on the right of he 3 in midfield to create at least some width on that side.

As you say the biggest issue is still the lack of quality in the full back positions but again that doesn’t seem to have been prioritised.
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Sanchez on the right seems so logical to me. He's excellent there. Perhaps he's more of a goal threat from the left because he can turn onto his right foot but he can put an excellent cross in from the right. Surely Martial will want to pull his weight this year. All he has to do is not be so sensitive and just give a shit because he has the talent.
 
Sanchez in January instead of Mahrez this summer was a mistake.
 
Because Mourinho didn't identify the right players. It's like he had one name in Willian and that's it. There were plenty of right wingers on the move both last year and this year which we ignored. Don't let anyone tell you there weren't options in the market.
Ed only has Mourinho's list to go on by. If we found that Willian was overpriced we should've moved to another target. This is where a DOF is needed.
 
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May be Ronaldo Screwed Woodwards Bale Facination with his Proactive move to juventus which also Screwed our LB sandro plans.
 
We would need to move Mata or Martial on first.
 
Because I guess 1 wasnt on Jose's list of 5 names. I dont know why... Cant explain it.

All of Lingard's good games have come in the middle. Mata is a world away from what the other better clubs have.

11% of our shots last season came from the right side. Thats the joint lowest in the league with Everton and Palace having the same 11%

On the other side we have 22% of our shots coming from the left side. Thats 2nd highest behind Watford who had 23%

66% of our shots came from central areas, thats 11th highest in the league so about middle of the pack.
 
I have a feeling that Sánchez will play on the right side since we didn’t sign a rw and martial didn’t leave.
 
luke511 said:
Absolutely disgraceful really, even a squad option right winger would've made sense. Mata is completely done and Lingard isn't a right winger, our only hope now is if Lukaku occupys the right wing/wide forward area.
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Why would you want to put our extremely expensive goal scoring CF out on the right?! Especially when he's shown himself to be a proven poacher who thrives when he gets the right service?

Quite a few people seem to be suggesting this, but it just isn't the answer.
 
Id be amazed if Mourinho saw the right hand side after January and thought "This will do".

Our entire build up play is lopsided as no one who plays on the right wing stays there. Everyone drifts in field and no one is comfortable going on the outside. It makes us predictable and Valencia our only out ball.

Now, if he changes to 3 5 2 his insistence on a CB will make sense and we have the attacking players to fill the roles. But if we stick to 4 2 3 1... This might be a long season for us.
 
Crimson King said:
Why would you want to put our extremely expensive goal scoring CF out on the right?! Especially when he's shown himself to be a proven poacher who thrives when he gets the right service?

Quite a few people seem to be suggesting this, but it just isn't the answer.
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Because thats where he looked best for Belgium, pulling onto the right for counter attacks where he can go 1 vs 1 with a defender and use his pace.

For United he seems glued to the middle of the pitch as Mourinho just wants a big guy as the focal point for attack
 
Interestingly, some really good quality right wingers have gone for reasonable fees. Malcolm is an exceptional talent, and went for 40 million Euros.

The issue with wingers and United is that Mourinho likes wingers who track back like crazy - Willian, Perisic and the likes. Fair enough, the guy has his style - but I'm pretty sure you can get a good run out of Martial/Sanchez on the right, stick the other on the left, and you have a 25 goal a season striker.

At the same time, if he adjusted his playing style a bit, a manager with Martial, Rashford, Lukaku, Sanchez, Mata and Lingard shouldn't really have issues with getting his team to play good attacking football. 2 of them are world class (close to it in Lukaku's case), then there's 2 outstanding talents with pace to burn along with reliable and versatile options in Mata and Lingard who are both productive goals/assists wise.

Yes, a speciaillist winger would be good, but its not like the squad is lacking good personnel in attack. Assuming Lingard starts at RW, your backup front 3 is Martial, Rashford, Mata. That's better than every team in the division barring City!
 
Inter Yer Nan said:
Sanchez on the right seems so logical to me. He's excellent there. Perhaps he's more of a goal threat from the left because he can turn onto his right foot but he can put an excellent cross in from the right. Surely Martial will want to pull his weight this year. All he has to do is not be so sensitive and just give a shit because he has the talent.
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Few games he played their last season or when our wingers switched wings, he was pretty gash.
 
I can't understand it whatsoever

Douglas Costa, Mahrez, Lucas Moura, Dembele, Justin Kluivert, Malcom, Felipe Anderson, Yarmelenko, Shaquiri etc all moved in the last year or so and I don't think we were interested in any

Fekir was available and Pulisic sounds like he was gettable too - I can't understand it at all

Jose's shortlist

1. Bale
2. Perisic?
3. Willian
4. ?
5. ?

this for me was priority number 1
 
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theriddler said:
Interestingly, some really good quality right wingers have gone for reasonable fees. Malcolm is an exceptional talent, and went for 40 million Euros.

The issue with wingers and United is that Mourinho likes wingers who track back like crazy - Willian, Perisic and the likes. Fair enough, the guy has his style - but I'm pretty sure you can get a good run out of Martial/Sanchez on the right, stick the other on the left, and you have a 25 goal a season striker.

At the same time, if he adjusted his playing style a bit, a manager with Martial, Rashford, Lukaku, Sanchez, Mata and Lingard shouldn't really have issues with getting his team to play good attacking football. 2 of them are world class (close to it in Lukaku's case), then there's 2 outstanding talents with pace to burn along with reliable and versatile options in Mata and Lingard who are both productive goals/assists wise.

Yes, a speciaillist winger would be good, but its not like the squad is lacking good personnel in attack. Assuming Lingard starts at RW, your backup front 3 is Martial, Rashford, Mata. That's better than every team in the division barring City!
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I don't think he likes Willian and Perisic for their hardwork, he likes a genuine winger in one side of the attack instead of inverted wingers, that's why he didn't want Mahrez I guess. There aren't many top wingers like that anymore.
 
buckooo1978 said:
I can't understand it whatsoever

Douglas Costa, Lucas Moura, Dembele, Justin Kluivert, Malcom, Felipe Anderson, Yarmelenko, Shaquiri etc all moved in the last year or so and I don't think we were interested in any

Fekir was available and Pulisic sounds like he was gettable too - I can't understand it at all

Jose's shortlist

1. Bale
2. Perisic?
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?

this for me was priority number 1
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Dembele, Kluivert, Malcom, Shaquiri would all struggle under Mourinho, we should have went all in for Douglas Costa but even he prefers to play on the left it seems.
 
altodevil86 said:
It seemed like an obvious position to improve to most folk. I can understand not bringing in a big name, if the value wasn't there etc. But surely we could have signed someone in the £20M or under bracket to at least add some depth, take a flyer on someone etc.

Is it money reasons?

It doesn't seem Mourinho is happy with our transfer dealings, but maybe that's over the CB fiasco, and he's fine with Mata and Lingard on the right?

Just seems bizarre to me. We weren't even linked with someone at the very end. Nothing.
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We dont need any more average players. Too many of those.
 
USREDEVIL said:
I say put Alexis on the right, dedicated to that side, Martial on left and let's get this feccer started.
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That's what i thought he was signed for. Fecking baffling that he doesn't play there. He'd interchange with Lukaku well one the right side switching position at will to confuse the oppo.
 
Devil may care said:
If we were going to really give 3-5-2 a shot it would half make sense as a triangle of Lukaku, Sanchez and Lingard in attack is about out best option right now given the Martial/Mourrinho issues, but if we are going to continue on with 4-3-3 then it makes no sense at all as neither Lingard or Mata are any good at RW and basically just drift in anyway, they barely even start out wide. I think it mainly comes down to the profile of player wanted by Mourinho vs the profile of player the board are willing to pay big money for, and no compromise was found.
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Unfortunately, we didn't sign a top CB. So a 4312 formation could be a good option:

Sanchez - Lukaku
Lingard
Pogba - Matic - Fred
Young - Smalling - Bailly - Valencia
De Gea

Martial - Rashford
Mata
Pereira - Herrera - Fellaini
Shaw - Rojo - Lindelof - Dalot
Romero
​
 
dannyrhinos89 said:
Shaqiri was available and he’s actually a decent player especially for 13 fecking million.

Just having him there as a stop gap this season would’ve been better than nothing.
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Fewer goals and assists than Jesse Lingard, smaller contribution to overall play. People keep going on about needing to buy players who improve the first XI, not just filling the squad with mediocrity. Shaqiri is the definition of mediocrity.
 
We were desperate for a right winger when we looked close to getting Pedro in 2015, and then he went to Chelsea. We've not looked close to signing one since.

And of the attacking players we do have, all of them seem to be allergic to the right flank. Whoever is actually supposed to be playing out there is never actually out there.

Sense. It makes none.
 
Crimson King said:
Why would you want to put our extremely expensive goal scoring CF out on the right?! Especially when he's shown himself to be a proven poacher who thrives when he gets the right service?

Quite a few people seem to be suggesting this, but it just isn't the answer.
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Because he plays better when he occupies the same position as Salah for Liverpool. Lukaku struggles when he's outnumbered in the middle, and the wing gives him an opportunity to run into space 1 v 1 more than it does in the middle. He can showcase his speed more in that position, and he has a quality cross on him as well.
 
Because our list of right wingers started with Willian and ended with Rebic. Can't blame the Woody for trying those targets quite half heartedly. Besides, we have a perfectly good right winger in Sanchez who, for some bizarre reason plays on the left wing even though we have plenty of options on left wing.
 
It has to be budgetary issues? Not even the Glazers with their microscopic knowledge of football can fail to see the state of our RW.

I genuinely think that purse strings has been tightened this window.
 
luke511 said:
Because he plays better when he occupies the same position as Salah for Liverpool. Lukaku struggles when he's outnumbered in the middle, and the wing gives him an opportunity to run into space 1 v 1 more than it does in the middle. He can showcase his speed more in that position, and he has a quality cross on him as well.
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Well then the problem isn't that Lukaku should play RW, it's that there's no fluidity in our front 3. They all occupy the same spaces most of the time.

Henry was a striker who would drift out wide to take advantage of space, and that is certainly something Lukaku should keep looking to do, but we shouldn't start playing him as an actual RW.
 
It’s clearly not money. We spent an absolute fortune on Sanchez. Why we did that instead of buying a RW is a complete shambles and Jose’s judgement only.
 
SwansonsTache said:
It has to be budgetary issues? Not even the Glazers with their microscopic knowledge of football can fail to see the state of our RW.

I genuinely think that purse strings has been tightened this window.
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I’m not sure, although today has been disappointing, potentially paying north of 50m for a 29yr old you could get for half in 12 months plus the figures needed to get Maguire out of Leicester would be madness. The club has proved if the right player does come along that fits the profile, they will spend.
 
Eugenius said:
It’s clearly not money. We spent an absolute fortune on Sanchez. Why we did that instead of buying a RW is a complete shambles and Jose’s judgement only.
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Yes a fortune, even though the transfer fee was nothing.

People seem to forget that. Obviously be commands 750k a week but still didn’t cost a fee.
 
Berbasbullet said:
Yes a fortune, even though the transfer fee was nothing.

People seem to forget that. Obviously be commands 750k a week but still didn’t cost a fee.
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He wasn’t free. We wrote off Mhki who is easily worth 30m in this market. And we’re paying him huge, huge wages.
 
While i am worried for that position, who'd exactly would fill it? Perisic only plays on the left. The only options that were link with as re William (no thanks) and Malcom, a player with good potential, but they were a lot of variables, will he adapt to PL etc. Ultimately i think he would be a decent signing, but then someone had to go, and that someone is most likely Martial. Now would i swap them? No. I do think that Martial might end up being a much better player.
And when the the asteroid will hit, our football dinosaur be dead and fired and dust settles, Martial just might be one of the persons new team is built around.
 
Eugenius said:
He wasn’t free. We wrote off Mhki who is easily worth 30m in this market. And we’re paying him huge, huge wages.
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Mhki who wasn’t working out (not a sleight on him).

End of the day I am confident Sánchez proves his worth this season.
 
Martial Lukaku Sanchez is the obvious solution but the stubborn manager will probably prefer to see Martial sat sulking on the bench most of this season to justify offloading him next year.. Mo will be p*ssed we didn't sell him and use the funds to pay the fee for one of his favourite OAPs in Willian so I expect some payback ..
 
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I Am Zlatan said:
I have a feeling that Sánchez will play on the right side since we didn’t sign a rw and martial didn’t leave.
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No chance Jose does that. He hasn’t even tried it pre season when there would have been no harm. Sanchez will only play left or central unfortunately. 3 players for LW and 0 for RW. Mental.
Mahrez was the one we should have signed, and we should have let Sanchez go City in January.

I reckon Ronaldo moving Juve threw our Bale plans too. That was Woodward’s dream signings this summer.
 
Because.mourinho scared.to ditch mata and face the backlashof having dumped mata.twice.

For jose it is all about him
 
We've got a bunch of talented attacking players - the board presumably think "stop buying and start training". Which is what Jose will now have to do.

Martial and Rashford - if they're ever going to make it it has to be now. It's still football, but on the other side of the pitch - it's not rocket science.
 
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