I would be happy. But then, I'd be not throwing a tantrum regardless so it's a moot point for me. More interested in how we improve as a team and what direction our football moves towards. Saying that though, I'll judge failure/success in hindsight so blaming/lauding the window will take place.
Would you be happy with Morata, Fabinho, Lindelof and Perisic?
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As far as scoring more goals is concerned I think we need to see a massive improvement in output from Martial and Miki, and Mata and Rashford to also get more than last season. A better balance in midfield should liberate Pogba who I hope scores a few more, and helps the others to get more too. So I don't think bringing in "proven goalscorers" is the whole answer, though it is part of it. Dont know much about Morata but sounds like he's pretty clinical.
Of course some kind of Neymar / Ronaldo / Muller galactico would quicken the pulse but I'm not sure it's necessary. Mourinho will be desperate to maintain his second season record so if he's happy with the four mentioned that's good enough for me.
I suspect tho he'll be looking for another attacking player, in place of Griezmann. I don't think Morata is his replacement.
Of course some kind of Neymar / Ronaldo / Muller galactico would quicken the pulse but I'm not sure it's necessary. Mourinho will be desperate to maintain his second season record so if he's happy with the four mentioned that's good enough for me.
I suspect tho he'll be looking for another attacking player, in place of Griezmann. I don't think Morata is his replacement.
I feel exactly the same. Other than morata (who i would like us to sign) i am not for or against anyone.
I trust jose, but ultimately our performances will be how i judge the success of our window.
I'd be happy because at this stage it isn't looking likely !
Cosigned. With the right tactical setup and 7 guys behind them, Mkhitaryan-Martial or Rashford-Mata would be a good enough front 3. Add in a proper 9 like Morata to give us an aerial threat against teams sitting deep and you´ve certainly got enough talent.
And I think we´re starting to get there with the back 7. De Gea, Lindelof, Bailly, Pogba and Herrera should all perform well enough (Bailly doesn´t add much going forward but he covers space well enough to give our RB a bit more license) for us to be a fine attacking side, just need a 3rd CM (and a 4th for depth, really), a Shaw alternative in case he doesn´t perform at LB and hopefully one last decent Valencia season with someone like Semedo coming in next summer to give us a bit more end product there.
To answer the thread question, I´d say no. I definitely think Morata and Fabinho would be very good signings, have only seen a bit of Lindelof but he sounds like a fine partner for Bailly, but I think Perisic would just block Martial and has very limited upside.
This. I'm pretty concerned with how this summer has gone. In previous roles Mourinho seemed to be extremely clinical in the transfer market, he identifies the weaknesses, sets targets and gets them done soon. I vaguely remember transfers like Fabregas, Matic and Costa all seemingly happening within a week or two of the window opening, but I might be mis-remembering.
However, at United we're in the position again where we've signed one player and there's talk of hopefully having more done before the pre-season tour starts! How many times do we hear "next season playerX will have a full pre-season with the squad", so there seems to be general acceptance coming in after this point impacts their performance. The delay can only really indicate to me that in almost all positions our top targets are not available/achievable so we're having to go down the list, which is a concern as well.
The window hasn't actually opened yet. There's still time to get a couple more in time for preseason.
Shouldn't we be adding old man Matic to the list as well?
I'd be semi ok if we got most of these players. Mind, I would be happier if we were getting Matic for a fiver
I'd be semi ok if we got most of these players. Mind, I would be happier if we were getting Matic for a fiver
You mean closed right? Yeah, but I think getting players after the squad has starting pre-season is a big mistake and an un-necessary risk.
No opened. I think technically it opens in July.
I'm pretty sure it'll be Morata, Lindelof, Matic and Perisic (if Inter will sell), and no, I won't be happy because that will leave us pretty much the 6th best team in the country still.
They all are great except for Perisic, we can do better. If we get a top tier winger we have a genuine chance of winning the league.
I don't think I will be excited enough with those signing. I am actually more excited to see if the young players like Rashford, Martial, Bailly, Pogba, Shaw, Tuanzebe and A. Pereira can step up their game and make massive improvement. It'll be an interesting one to watch if they can improve, and also Fabinho, Lindelof and Morata are still considered very young too.
I'd be happy with it, or even Matic for Fabinho. We'll still need players like Rashford, Martial and Mkhitaryan to step up if we want to do anything though.
Morata, Lindelof, Matic/Fabinho and Dembele would be a really good summer though.
Morata, Lindelof, Matic/Fabinho and Dembele would be a really good summer though.
June 9 I thought?
July will be the month we really flex our impressive muscle I reckon.
Just got a feeling the first 2 weeks of July will see some proper good business done.
Just got a feeling the first 2 weeks of July will see some proper good business done.
Mostly.
I don't know about Perisić. Is he better than Mata or Mhkitaryan? I'd rather see a young wing forward with upside come in. He's the same age. He's a big guy, but it's not like you get an easy time on the ball with Maya or Mickey around.
Morata is probably as good a striker as any available. There's the him or Lukaku argument, but everyone else is either unavailable or a tier below.
I'd rather take a punt on Fabinho than go for Matić. I don't see a move to a 4-3-3 and unleashing Pogba et al with Matić.
I don't know about Perisić. Is he better than Mata or Mhkitaryan? I'd rather see a young wing forward with upside come in. He's the same age. He's a big guy, but it's not like you get an easy time on the ball with Maya or Mickey around.
Morata is probably as good a striker as any available. There's the him or Lukaku argument, but everyone else is either unavailable or a tier below.
I'd rather take a punt on Fabinho than go for Matić. I don't see a move to a 4-3-3 and unleashing Pogba et al with Matić.
Based on what exactly?
Nope, July 1st, same as every year, yet every year we get hysterical muppets complaining in mid June about lack of signings. We have one deal done, which is one more than a lot of other clubs.
If we're still chasing the majority of our targets in August then people have reason to be a bit concerned, but mid June is kneejerky BS.
I'm sure this is the case most of the time for us. We might wrap up one before the window opens but usually our business is done during the window.
I'm sure people still expect a Nani/Anderson situation where the club act fast and decisive, but people need to remember that was a one off for the club and that was a decade a go. Other than those two I struggle to remember any significant signings being done this early.
The fact that our team would be no better than it was this season when this was true, and the teams above us would still be better.
That's simply not true though is it? Perisic aside (as I've never seen him play so can't comment) are all improvements on current players in our squad.
The only argument could be Ibra is better than Morata, but Morata has age on his side and his goal scoring record is impressive.
Also let's be honest, we are much better than 6th and the table wasn't a true reflection of the teams quality. The last month or two of the season we prioritised the Europa League and sacrificed our league form for it.
Ok you're right it's July for Germany and Italy.
They're the kind of players I'd expect to be involved in the big clearout Jose and lots of us said they wanted, but we need a few top tier too to really improve.
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Don't agree with this, we lack serious attacking quality without Zlatan and have too many passengers in this squad.
We were sixth from November to March. In the final few rounds we did lose away to Arsenal and Tottenham and there's no guarantee whatsoever that we would have got more from those games if we had not "sacrificed our league form" for it.
The Europa League run is nothing more than a convenient excuse to hide the fact that we were only the sixth best team in the league.
Morata and Fabihno would significantly improve us in my opinion. Haven't seen Lindelof play for Benfica, only for Sweden(not sure, could go either way). Perisic is good but the money inter value him at is ludicrous, for his age. We could buy younger and better in my opinion. Be a good window not great, I think we have to trust Jose though. He knows what we are missing more than us. In terms of experience, workrate and integrating new players in.
Yes we lack consistent attacking threats but it's hyperbolic to claim we are worse than 6 other teams. If we hadn't sacrificed our later games we would have finished above Arsenal and potentially Liverpool.
This year will be true reflection with all of the top 6 playing in Europe. The lack of extra games really helped Chelsea and to a lesser extent Liverpool (even though they still nearly threw it away).
You'd expect our younger players to improve too so we can expect a better output from Martial and Rashford so that should alleviate a lot of our problems.
I also feel last season we were over reliant on Zlatan and the team became focused on playing through him. Without a guaranteed scorer you'd hope it'd encourage the other attackers to step up to the plate.
It hides nothing. Jose and the players all admitted they switched their focus as we progressed. They all stated a trophy is better than just getting top 4. It was clear we sacrificed league form from about April.
The sixth position from November to March was an anomaly. No one was dropping points. When the pressure started to build you saw Liverpool etc start dropping points. We didn't capitalise because we had shifted focus.
We will finish in the top 4 this season, as we should have this season. I have no concerns over Liverpool, the extra games will stretch them massively. Arsenal are has beens and will struggle while Wenger remains in charge. Spurs are good but they've struggled playing at Wembley so remains to be seen if they will be as consistent as the last couple of seasons. Chelsea and City are both obviously good, but I still have doubts over Pep and his style in the PL. He seems too stubborn to adapt and they struggled at times last season. I think City's transfer window is much more important than ours. Pep need a certain type of player to get his system to work, whereas I feel Jose is better at adapting to what he has at his disposal.
I would be happy with those signings if instead of Perisic it was one of Mendy, Semedo, Willian or Aurier.
To me I'd rather play mata and mkhitaryan on the wings, with ideally martial and rashford a run for their money. Perisic is overpriced and not worth limiting the playtime of our current wingers (The latters the biggest issue I have with that).
We definitely need fullbacks which are better going forward... If we play with Darmian/Valencia as our fullbacks, our fullbacks provide extremely little in terms of crossing and going forward except pace from Valencia.
Hopefully shaw makes a massive comeback, and in that hes decent going forward, better than our current options for sure I think when hes in form (which he realistically hasnt been since his injury...).
But valencia is aging, we do need to replace him eventually, I'd rather get semedo over all of them, but I have my doubts that hed want to rotate with him when theres a WC next year.
That probably is also a factor in our signings which we want as back up players... most want as much playtime as possible right now.
To me I'd rather play mata and mkhitaryan on the wings, with ideally martial and rashford a run for their money. Perisic is overpriced and not worth limiting the playtime of our current wingers (The latters the biggest issue I have with that).
We definitely need fullbacks which are better going forward... If we play with Darmian/Valencia as our fullbacks, our fullbacks provide extremely little in terms of crossing and going forward except pace from Valencia.
Hopefully shaw makes a massive comeback, and in that hes decent going forward, better than our current options for sure I think when hes in form (which he realistically hasnt been since his injury...).
But valencia is aging, we do need to replace him eventually, I'd rather get semedo over all of them, but I have my doubts that hed want to rotate with him when theres a WC next year.
That probably is also a factor in our signings which we want as back up players... most want as much playtime as possible right now.
Morata-15
Martial/Perisic-15
Mata-10
Mkhi-10
Rashford-10
Pogba, Herrera, set pieces, Rooney- 15 to 20
Job done.
Martial/Perisic-15
Mata-10
Mkhi-10
Rashford-10
Pogba, Herrera, set pieces, Rooney- 15 to 20
Job done.
How many did the existing players / combos that you listed score last season in PL? Just trying to see if your numbers are realistic.
They scored a lot less but I dont think we should be benchmarking them against last season, we should be saying last season was an anomaly and they are capable of scoring more goals than that. Martial and Miki have proved that in previous seasons and Rashford should be on an upward trajectory at his age.
Yes but you can't randomly pluck number of goals that you'd like them to score. Past performance is a much better indicator.
I don't really want Perisic. The others I would be very content with. I'd prefer a different winger like: Sanchez, Costa, Dembele. If Inter are asking in the 45-50 mil or over range then I thikn we should shell out and get one of these superior wingers. Sanchez would be a dream signing.
Last season is not a good indicator as it was the first season of Mourinho, Mkhi and Martial under Mourinho. The manager was not sure of his first eleven for large parts of the season.
We will have a more settled eleven this time and the numbers I mentioned are a rough estimate. The one I'm most unsure about is Mata. Mourinho might use 4-3-3 which means Mata would not be a starter. Where those goals would then come from, I don't know.
I'd be happy on the basis that they are Jose's targets and he's knows more about winning than all of us combined.
How do you know Martial's first season was not an anomaly? How do you know Mata will net double figures when Perisic is in the mix and taking away game time? How do you know Perisic will settle in? If he settles like Mkhitaryan hel score 2 league goals at best.
Obviously I dont know shit. I guess Im just being optimistic. But I think there are plenty of grounds for it.
Let me elaborate a bit on that though. Ironically, while @SirMattBugsby who originally posted those numbers is least sure about Mata, he's the one Im most confident about. He is clinical and scored second most goals for us last season despite being out for quite a while, and always getting hauled off after 70 minutes when he did play. He'll keep banging them in. Martial is the one Im least confident about, not for reasons related to his ability but because I worry he just doesnt fit in with what Mourinho is looking for. Miki was someone people warned would take a while to find his feet when he joined, he looks quality and I am confident he'll up his contribution.
Morata - assuming we get him - I know nothing about except for what Ive read so that's just a leap of faith really.
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Why don't you give us your estimate of the goals we'll score after these signings? Easy to question others' estimates..
If Morata and Perisic are the only 'attacking' signings, then I don't think we'll have enough goals in the team. They might replace what Ibrahimovic contributed in terms of overall goals, but we'd need improvement from Rashford, Martial, Mata, Mkhitaryan, and Pogba in particular. They all ranged between 8 and 11 goals in all competitions last season, while they should be targeting 15+ IMO. Depending on playing time (and where they end up playing the majority of their minutes) maybe 12-15 is also realistic for a 'slight improvement' but I think we need more than 'slight' if we're going to challenge for the title. If they all play well individually and we do well collectively as a team, there's probably 90 goals from those guys in all comps, but it's to be seen if that can be achieved. Also can't forget Lingard and Fellaini - they will probably have to settle for less game-time than the guys above now (I should at least hope so if we're signing players José sees as improvements), but with only 9 goals an 5 assists between them last season, this needs to improve even if they play less IMO. In theory it should push us to over 100 goals in all competitions from the players I've mentioned so far alone, but it rarely works like this of course. How often does a team have 6, 7, 8 players who make double digits? I haven't looked into it but I'd be surprised if many teams get this kind of return. We only had four players hit 10+ in all competitions last season.
Then of course, there's Wayne Rooney. It looks like he's staying, but will he? How much time will he get? Can he improve on the last couple of seasons? He's probably holding up the signing of a better player to be honest.
Finally, the more defensive players should still contribute more than a combined total of 10 goals IMO, probably closer to 15 including some of the youth and definite squad/utility players. As Man Utd, I do believe we should be hitting about 120+ in all competitions given the amount of games we expect to play. We got 105 last seasons which sounds decent, but we did play about 63 games or so? So it's not a great return. Surely we should be averaging more like 2 goals a game?
I know I've spoken a lot about goals, but it's what we need. We have a pretty solid defence and it looks like José is adding another two solid defensive options at least, so we'll stay difficult to beat and not ship too many goals. We just need to improve a lot at the other end I'm unsure if the current rumoured signings are going to provide more than what we had last season.
Then of course, there's Wayne Rooney. It looks like he's staying, but will he? How much time will he get? Can he improve on the last couple of seasons? He's probably holding up the signing of a better player to be honest.
Finally, the more defensive players should still contribute more than a combined total of 10 goals IMO, probably closer to 15 including some of the youth and definite squad/utility players. As Man Utd, I do believe we should be hitting about 120+ in all competitions given the amount of games we expect to play. We got 105 last seasons which sounds decent, but we did play about 63 games or so? So it's not a great return. Surely we should be averaging more like 2 goals a game?
I know I've spoken a lot about goals, but it's what we need. We have a pretty solid defence and it looks like José is adding another two solid defensive options at least, so we'll stay difficult to beat and not ship too many goals. We just need to improve a lot at the other end I'm unsure if the current rumoured signings are going to provide more than what we had last season.
Less so re Perisic, but Lindelof, Morata and Fabinho would be good business. The rest of our squad then need to step up