We need one centre back because Blind lacks many of the qualities that Mourinho wants in his players. This guy has them and it will be a simple swap imo. No reason to think he will be playing right back and we'll need to buy someone else for defence.
Eric Bailly | BBC say signing is imminent
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
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In Smalling's case it's certainly not a concentration issue, it's a technical issue. His passing ability is technically poor, and he knows it, which causes him to play safe, slow passes that makes it impossible to build from the back.
It's a reason teams like Real have Ramos and Barcelona's got Pique at the back.
Agree with most of this but positioning is equally important at full back as it is in the middle. That's one of the main reasons that Varela dropped out of the team towards the end of the season, and Valencia's positioning is probably the main thing stopping him from being a very good right back (in particular I seem to recall him being especially poor in this respect against Everton in the league).
The other thing is that he reminds me a bit of Kompany in a way, but the worst trait of Kompany. Everytime I watch City when he's playing over the last two seasons, Vincent looks like a red card waiting to happen. He always stands about 4-5 yards away from the player he is marking then flies into them when the ball is played to their feet. The first few seasons at City he was timing this well and winning the ball, but the amount of times now that he is late into the challenge and gets booked is embarrassing.
I'm certainly not saying the the lad is going to be a bad signing but let's just say I'm not completely sold on the idea yet. As far as having Ronaldo in his pocket goes, one of the main reasons we signed Phil Jones was the way he completely shackled Drogba at the peak of his career and look how that has turned out.
I've not seen Bailly play before so this is just me speculating but it wouldn't surprise me if Mourinho sees him as the back-up option who can step into the team a la Varane at Madrid or Zouma at Chelsea. It doesn't seem as unlikely for him to be a squad player if it's an incentivised deal and only £15-20m is being paid up front.
Suggestions of using him primarily at right back seem a bit far-fetched to me. Our options there are vast by comparison and I doubt Mourinho would look at that position as the first port of call.
Suggestions of using him primarily at right back seem a bit far-fetched to me. Our options there are vast by comparison and I doubt Mourinho would look at that position as the first port of call.
I'd like to think if we did sign Bailly, that he'd be one of two defenders being signed.
From the videos I've seen of him, he seems quite aggressive in a challenge which isn't always a good thing, so I'd be worried about him being a full season starter.
Like others have said though, if he can play RB as well, it adds some versatility in the defence.
The problem is, Rojo is just bad and Jones cannot be relied upon anymore, so that leaves Smalling and McNair as the only true CBs. Blind is fine for cover, and had a good season, but for me, isn't a natural CB
From the videos I've seen of him, he seems quite aggressive in a challenge which isn't always a good thing, so I'd be worried about him being a full season starter.
Like others have said though, if he can play RB as well, it adds some versatility in the defence.
The problem is, Rojo is just bad and Jones cannot be relied upon anymore, so that leaves Smalling and McNair as the only true CBs. Blind is fine for cover, and had a good season, but for me, isn't a natural CB
I may just be forgetting people but what vast options do we have at RB that are good?
The guys does seem like he has a red card in him as well, so long as he does it when AFCON rolls around so he doesn't miss any extra games for us he can get sent off in the last minute when we are winning 3-0, just so he gets it out of his system.
Yeah, I think this AFCON point is being thrown about way too much. Some of Jose's key players have been African; even SAF signed a few.
It would be silly to ignore outstanding talents just because of this concern.
By comparison. In other words, our options in central defence are cack.
But yeah, Valencia has been alright since returning from injury and I think Darmian will improve defensively under Mourinho. Fosu-Mensah has also looked capable when deployed there but I'd prefer he was deployed as a midfielder.
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Valencia isn't a bad RB, his positioning lets him down on occasion. Varela is another good option, not the finished article but can become a really good RB with the correct guidance. Darmian is a good player as well, he could excel this season without the restrictive tactics LVG employed, and of course there is Phil Jones, providing he stays fit for longer than 3 games a season.
Do you mean Aymeric Laporte or Eric Bailly
It can be improved massively over a few months. It's all about putting the work in.
Well I am not that sure that Jose would go for Stones. He's the kind of manager who wouldn't break the bank for a player, especially a defender whose still have a number of weaknesses in his game. At Chelsea he struggled with the homegrown player rule (ie players who would qualify as trained within the nation). He doesn't have this issue with us.
Valencia is 'alright' but we can't be content with that. His positioning is weak, he's not a natural fullback and it shows too often.
I'm not sold on Darmian, I don't think he's good enough.
Varela, too early to tell and TFM will be playing in midfield I expect. Phil Jones is about as much a RB as he is a demonstration of physical fitness.
We don't have one natural RB that you could call good.
I'm not a fan of Valencia but I think Mourinho will love him.
He would sign Steven Caulker if that was the case.
Being aggressive is not just a bad thing, it would actually give us back some steel a la Vidic. Im also fine with buying a young talent instead of trying all summer to get the "superstars" who will move somewhere else or stay late August
Darmian will be fine, Azpi was way worse before good coaches put their hands on him.
There's no way to defend or attack this argument as none of us knows exactly what that beautiful mind is thinking and planning. All I can say is that Mou loves to use a relatively tall 4 defense with a CB acting as a converted fullback. Gallas, Ramos, Ivanovic and at a lesser extent Chivu are a testament to that. We currently have Smalling, Jones (whose a crock), Rojo and CBJ as natural CBs. The latter can cover the role but they play as left back and there's no way in hell he would put Shaw on the bench to accomodate them.
I think we would have a setup similar to this
RB: Bailly?, Valencia
CB: Smalling, Manolas?, Jones, Rojo, CBJ
LB: Shaw, Darmian.
I think that Jones will be kept but if he spend another season in the treatment room then Mou will show him the door.
That description sounds like the role I thought TFM would play in the squad - quick, strong, good tackler but rash.
Im a fan of his at RB.
Maybe, but that doesn't fill me with confidence.
Is this done yet? It's been about 12 hours since I heard of this guy! fecking Woody and his dithering. Get it done Jose.
Mou and his staff have a lot of experience having only recently being working in Italy, Spain and England. They know the players there and they can spot a bargain. He can also rely on Mendes whose got good knowledge about the players out there. 20-30m may be peanuts in the EPL but in other leagues its decent money
I have a feeling that Mou will add a good number of players this year so he can implement his philosophy. I fear that we cant spend 40-50m on a CB especially if he's not the finishing product just yet
They bid £40m for Stones last year.
So not sure what your point is? If they bid on Stones just so they had enough English players at the club then they would have gone for the likes of Caulker. Instead the board signed him some unknown player from France.
At Chelsea who struggle to fulfill the homegrown talent and after stones had a great season
He's in Manchester now. We don't have the homegrown talent problem and mou tend to like cb who can defend. We also have a number of positions to strengthen
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Neville was able to put in a good cross right from the very beginning of his professional career, so he must have worked on it a lot as a youngster. Even during Euro 96, you can see clips of him putting in some world class crosses. There isn't as much emphasis on crossing these days in the development of players especially now that most are inverted wingers and most teams see a cross as a form of losing possession.
Giggs always had it in him to produce world class crosses, its just he was so fast.. he wouldn't have the time to take his time with it (which made him very inconsistent), he could definitely produce some good crosses and he was made to look bad at it with Beckham on the other side. As his game slowed down, he focused more on his crossing ability but the fundamentals at picking out a man were always there.
There are so many players in modern day football who you look at and they can't cross a ball for toffee and 10 years down the line, their improvement is very minimal at best.
CBJ is a naturally good crosser, he has a great feel for crossing the ball in and picking people out.. you can try to coach that into another left back but I am telling you now, he is a better crosser already than someone like Evra was over his entire career.
You could be right. Bye Felicia..er Darmian!
This guy gone to Barca, PSG or City yet?
Barca, PSG and City are all supposed to be after him too so I don't think that's the case.
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Yep he is awesome now those lot want him.
It's also a lie. Azpi wasn't way worse.
At Marseille he wasn't way worse?
Yeah but the same can be said for our central defenders, Smalling aside. I'd wager Mourinho won't be using Blind there next season, Jones is eternally crocked and Rojo is useless. We could use a right back but there are far more pressing issues in the team which need to be addressed first.
When he first came to Chelsea he wasn't way worse. His progression has been very gradual. He is a bit overrated nowadays though.
There is no doubt some players are naturally better through their own skill set but I don't agree with the fact you can't improve on crossing if you put in the practice. Plus with these players their skills are of the highest order so putting extra effort into practising their crossing there improvement comes very quickly. Just like any skill the more you practice the better you will get.
You are correct. And your words remind me of a certain Serbian
Everythings gone too quiet since this broke yesterday.
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