The sad reality is that McTominay or Fred would have improved us yesterday
Why don't we sign central midfielders?
- Thread starter Di Maria's angel
- Start date
Can he sell shirts or an international for a top football nation? How many views does his YouTube highlights have? Does he trend on Twitter?
I miss signings like Valencia, Berbatov, VDS, etc. Guys signed purely on what they’ll add to the team with no fanfare around it. We’ve become a club that sounds out the fans to check the level of excitement before making a decision. I remember the attempt to bring in that tosser from Bologna and we leaked it to see how the fans will react before pulling out.
This club is being run like a bank and if people haven’t figured it out by now, shame on you. Our results on the pitch is secondary to the interests of various stakeholders, whilst every other club is focused on winning trophies. A reboot is necessary and these execs are not the ones to do it because they are already indoctrinated in our ways.
Everything at United is about PR to get fans onboard, what cracks are they hiding? The football should get fans on side, not talking them into getting onside.
Within the premiership there are some solid cms we’ll never look at from mid-bottom table but the moment they start trending and fans start raving about them, the club will lose its shit trying overspend on them to appease the fans. They should noticed those guys before the fans because it’s their job to do so and bring them in. Newcastle has just built a base with players United fans will never want but accept they are doing a good job there. Till we move away from players by popular demand we won’t be signing the right players for sustained success. Barca, City, Arsenal, Real, Bayern, PSG, Milan, etc all buy the right player from such clubs and it helps them to success but United has to wait for that tabloid signing.
Also we did sign DVB but then just seemingly forgot that he existed and never played him.
He mostly played in the role we have too many players for anyway though. He played a bit in a pair and can do it but again he's not a specialist CM which is what we always seem to need.
What worries me most right now is the solution to lack of goal with United seems to always be to try and shoehorn a creative player into the CMs rather than simply sign a CM and create a balanced team.
But we didn’t need to sell them to buy Mount, so the issue is poor priorities. This type of central midfielder should have been a higher priority than a player who isn’t even a central midfielder who you intend to make into one.
Piss poor club management I now blame on Murtough for being an inept Glazer man. I see little value he adds to the team or squad.
Sir Alex is still in the boardroom and told them we don't do that here.
Indeed! The question of why we don't sign central midfielders, is becoming akin to the age old question of 'why are we here'?
Ever since Michael Carrick hung up his boots, (even before if we are honest) its seem to be the unanswered question. It goes along with questions, like "why don't we get a proper centre-forward"? We have attempted this of course in the recent past, but then we don't/won't change our style of play, so that the centre forward position becomes focal. Therefore, we keep playing wingers as strikers, and then buy more wingers and more wingers, till they are coming out of our ears!
We must be the easiest team in the PL to play against either for opponents defending against our wingers, none of whom really try to get behind the opposing defence, almost demanding 'ball to feet', so they can run at the mass defence, at times in a in 'kamikaze fashion'; or in transition, when the opposition simply 'pile' through our midfield with ease, mainly because no one is where they should be. Fred did get blamed for losing the ball in the 'wrong' position and at times rightly so, but now none of our midfielders seem to be in any defensible position at all when we lose the ball up field.
I trust ETH has a plan (I pray that he has) and its just circumstances that prevent its application.
Ever since Michael Carrick hung up his boots, (even before if we are honest) its seem to be the unanswered question. It goes along with questions, like "why don't we get a proper centre-forward"? We have attempted this of course in the recent past, but then we don't/won't change our style of play, so that the centre forward position becomes focal. Therefore, we keep playing wingers as strikers, and then buy more wingers and more wingers, till they are coming out of our ears!
We must be the easiest team in the PL to play against either for opponents defending against our wingers, none of whom really try to get behind the opposing defence, almost demanding 'ball to feet', so they can run at the mass defence, at times in a in 'kamikaze fashion'; or in transition, when the opposition simply 'pile' through our midfield with ease, mainly because no one is where they should be. Fred did get blamed for losing the ball in the 'wrong' position and at times rightly so, but now none of our midfielders seem to be in any defensible position at all when we lose the ball up field.
I trust ETH has a plan (I pray that he has) and its just circumstances that prevent its application.
Yeah very poor prioritisation
I’d argue that he’s one of the reasons the system is broken. Because he’s, you know, not a central midfielder. Not his fault of course but anyone who’s ever watched Mount play could tell you this wasn’t going to work.
it blows me away every year on the middies. We got lucky with Casemiro late, thank goodness. Same shite again and again. I'd have paid the money for Rice, at least he'd do a job for us and seems to have good character.
Not really - he's another attacker converted to a midfielder. It's basically like going to buy Giggs as a CM because he can do a job there.
Interestingly EtH mentioned it in his presser when he likened Mount to Eriksen. I.e. an attacker who sees their future in midfield. I suppose the difference is Mount is younger, so has a lot of time to grow into the role. Incidentally we don't.
EtH has obviously seen something in Mount which makes him think he's worth the gamble, for me though, if you'll shell out all that cash for a midfielder, buy an actual midfielder rather than an experiment. Lest we forget, Eriksen was free
Another one that’s going to need replacing within the next 12-18 months, if not sooner. Our squad building is laughably bad. Absolute amateur hour.
Agreed, mate.
Nope
I just think that we dont have people that keep themselves updated with how football evolves. We are always behind the curve when it comes to signing players.
When everyone was buying their David Silvas and Juan Matas, we did not have a proper no.10 for our team. That 2010 to 2014 was the period when no.10s would look solid in a side. We then bought Mata in January 2014, didn't really know how to use him and coupled with the fact that the no.10 role started becoming obsolete.
When City and Liverpool upgraded their GKs, we were still stuck with DDG who was pretty good so replacing him would have been controversial. But we never looked like even pondering upon that idea. The coaches we hired were dinosuars too.
It took another poor scouting, a debacle of a transfer window in 2022 for us to finally sign a left footed RW who turned out to be a dud whereas City and Liverpool have been enjoying that profile for years.
Real Madrid have won 5 CLs with a solid midfield of Casemiro Kroos and Modric, laying down the blueprint for everyone to see. Liverpool had incredible central midfielders when they were at the top of their game. Chelsea had a solid midfield of Kante, Jorginho and Kovacic. Whereas Utd kept trusting the idea of McFred. Brainlessness combined with lack of technical qualities. It was a miracle that Casemiro wanted to leave Madrid otherwise we would have had another season without a solid DM.
Anthony Martial is our best CF. He was signed in 2016. We have let numerous talented WC strikers move around without even trying to sign one for us. We did sign a few past it strikers or useless ones in Zlatan, Cavani, Lukaku and Ronaldo. We have spent another 75m on an unknown entity but I dont have any datapoint to comment on that.
This club is pretty much reactive to modern football trends. Not sure if they make use of any data. Brighton have shown how good usage of data can help you in setting up a system and identify players that can replace the ones that leave for bigger clubs. But this is Manchester United. They do things differently. They are always late to the party, their squad planning is worse than some of the worst clubs in the league and talent identification is just something I wouldn't even wanna talk about.
When everyone was buying their David Silvas and Juan Matas, we did not have a proper no.10 for our team. That 2010 to 2014 was the period when no.10s would look solid in a side. We then bought Mata in January 2014, didn't really know how to use him and coupled with the fact that the no.10 role started becoming obsolete.
When City and Liverpool upgraded their GKs, we were still stuck with DDG who was pretty good so replacing him would have been controversial. But we never looked like even pondering upon that idea. The coaches we hired were dinosuars too.
It took another poor scouting, a debacle of a transfer window in 2022 for us to finally sign a left footed RW who turned out to be a dud whereas City and Liverpool have been enjoying that profile for years.
Real Madrid have won 5 CLs with a solid midfield of Casemiro Kroos and Modric, laying down the blueprint for everyone to see. Liverpool had incredible central midfielders when they were at the top of their game. Chelsea had a solid midfield of Kante, Jorginho and Kovacic. Whereas Utd kept trusting the idea of McFred. Brainlessness combined with lack of technical qualities. It was a miracle that Casemiro wanted to leave Madrid otherwise we would have had another season without a solid DM.
Anthony Martial is our best CF. He was signed in 2016. We have let numerous talented WC strikers move around without even trying to sign one for us. We did sign a few past it strikers or useless ones in Zlatan, Cavani, Lukaku and Ronaldo. We have spent another 75m on an unknown entity but I dont have any datapoint to comment on that.
This club is pretty much reactive to modern football trends. Not sure if they make use of any data. Brighton have shown how good usage of data can help you in setting up a system and identify players that can replace the ones that leave for bigger clubs. But this is Manchester United. They do things differently. They are always late to the party, their squad planning is worse than some of the worst clubs in the league and talent identification is just something I wouldn't even wanna talk about.
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Real Madrid and Chelsea have signed up all the midfielders. I cannot understand why do they need so many midfielders.
SAF also had a perennial blind spot with central midfielders, refused to buy any. We were left with just Carrick and Fletcher, whom nobody but Man United fans rated very highly, for a champions league winning team. And the backup for them was very thin - remember when Scholes came out of retirement? And when we played JS Park and Fabio in the midfield?
Since Scholes and Keane, most of our central midfielders have been either home-grown mediocrities like Fletcher and Cleverley or converted attackers like Anderson and Mount. We did buy a few proper central midfielders, but not many and they mostly turned out terribly.
Instead everything has always gone through the wings. That was fine while we had decent wingers. Ho hum.
It’s crazy, there is still no sign of a plan despite us supposedly having a structure. Still dishing out huge wages that will make players impossible to get rid of as well.
The midfield blind spot is just baffling, it even existed under SAF, we’ve been happy to make do with players there for years and years.
Since Carrick/Scholes, United has hated CMs and then we wonder why we have no control of games.
We keep buying #10s and trying to convert them in to CMs, its a recurring pattern. I brought this up with regards to Mount when he was first linked, and got shot down, but its true. Mount, Pogba, Eriksen, VdB the list just goes on.
This started under Sir Alex and hasn't really stopped since. We haven't properly replaced Carrick and he retired in 2018. He barely even played that season, so 2017 in reality. We bought Matic, but he was on the downward curve. When we buy players, we either try and play them in the wrong position, or buy players that are too old, and can't give us more than a season or two.
I'm baffled at our insistence on buying #10's and refusing to buy #8's and #6's.
I'm baffled at our insistence on buying #10's and refusing to buy #8's and #6's.
Fletcher was no mediocrity..SAF also had a perennial blind spot with central midfielders, refused to buy any. We were left with just Carrick and Fletcher, whom nobody but Man United fans rated very highly, for a champions league winning team. And the backup for them was very thin - remember when Scholes came out of retirement? And when we played JS Park and Fabio in the midfield?
Since Scholes and Keane, most of our central midfielders have been either home-grown mediocrities like Fletcher and Cleverley or converted attackers like Anderson and Mount. We did buy a few proper central midfielders, but not many and they mostly turned out terribly.
Instead everything has always gone through the wings. That was fine while we had decent wingers. Ho hum.
Mount is more a number 10 like Bruno though, I assume that we’re talking more about CMs in this thread
Exactly this. A specialist cm should have been a priority ahead of Mount. Mount may work out but we are not in position to be taking such big gambles.
Antony and Sancho's contract a looking scary right now. 500k between the 2 of them. At any other organisation this type of incompetence leads to sacking but not at Manchester United. We are going into 11 years of this cycle. If do get new owners everyone working above the manager has to get the sack.
SAF also had a perennial blind spot with central midfielders, refused to buy any. We were left with just Carrick and Fletcher, whom nobody but Man United fans rated very highly, for a champions league winning team. And the backup for them was very thin - remember when Scholes came out of retirement? And when we played JS Park and Fabio in the midfield?
Since Scholes and Keane, most of our central midfielders have been either home-grown mediocrities like Fletcher and Cleverley or converted attackers like Anderson and Mount. We did buy a few proper central midfielders, but not many and they mostly turned out terribly.
Instead everything has always gone through the wings. That was fine while we had decent wingers. Ho hum.
Fletcher developed into a damn good player before the disease. He was no Mediocrity.
PL team of the year 09/10
So painfully obvious that we needed an upgrade on Eriksen and cover for Casemiro but here we are.
17 years. It's been 17 years since we last made a great midfield signing in Carrick.
Absolutely. Fletcher picking up a needless red card for a professional foul when we were 4-0 up on aggregate against Arsenal in the 09 CL semi final was a big blow to our final hopes v Barcelona that season.
Yeah think it's because Erik isn't putting enough emphasis on having midfielders who control tempo and carry the ball forward
Neither Antony or Sancho are good enough to be Manchester United players.
Antony has only got a good left foot and can't take on his man.
Sancho won't tackle and when he loses the ball he just stands still.
We should have put these 2 up for sale and we could have brought in Amrabat and Todibo, and even Leonardo.
Antony has only got a good left foot and can't take on his man.
Sancho won't tackle and when he loses the ball he just stands still.
We should have put these 2 up for sale and we could have brought in Amrabat and Todibo, and even Leonardo.
When Mount comes on board, DVB is very much an excess baggage. How many players can play #10 role, how many on #8. DVB failed to play #8 although Mount is still a big ? at this moment
It's hugely frustrating. We'll sign one more (at best) and continue to plod along with the likes of McTominay sat on our bench as cover when we know we could've cashed in for a respectable fee this summer. It feels like active sabotage now.
Fletcher clearly got the ball for that challenge. That was all on the ref.
I can't remember if it should have been a pen or not, but I do remember it was a challenge he didn't need to make. We were 4-0 up!
But he was too honest a player, it wasn't in his nature to just let an opposition player go straight through on goal unchallenged.
It just makes no sense. The board and the fans might justify not spending top dollar on someone like Rice. Instead of paying 100 mil on a practically dead cert success, we're spending 50/60 million countless times for bluffers. Fred, VDB, Mount etc.
Like someone mentioned before half these players aren't natural centre mids also. It's poor planning.
Like someone mentioned before half these players aren't natural centre mids also. It's poor planning.
No way. They are worse than anything we have, their passing level is below average
We had more than enough time to scout. I am sure there are a few 30-40m top talents around sonewhere we could have gotten for a decent price with lots of skills