Declan Rice

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Hernandez - BFA

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Really don’t understand those who downplay him. It’s their opinion so fair play, but I just can’t understand how someone wouldn’t be impressed with him today - irregardless of how shit we were.
 

zenith

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He's a very good player but don't reckon he's a massive upgrade over matic and mctominay in that position.
 

Lemur

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I'm Irish, I should hate him. He was head and shoulders above our midfield in all aspects of the game today.
All aspects? Nonsense.

He created nothing. Sure did a lot of running though.
 

golden_blunder

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It's not about how good he is now. He's only 20 and he can read the game like an experienced pro.

His passing ability is excellent and very underrated.

If we don't pick him up in the summer, someone else surely will.
Yes and in 3 years we will be regretting not taking an early chance on him
 

Adnan

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Surely there has to be a better option than Rice for the holding midfielder role somewhere in Europe? If McTominay is gonna be a fixture next season, then I see little point in signing Rice. We need someone that not only is quick and mobile, but can also play football to a high level..
 

TMDaines

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Thought he was fantastic today. There was a group of us in the Stretty purring over him. Committed himself in 50-50 challenges and bosses the midfield. Loved how he had the confidence to stride forward from shielding the defence, finding the more advanced midfielders and wide players. Imagine him behind Pogba. By far the best player on the pitch.

He reminded me of Ferdinand. Absolute Rolls-Royce winning the ball back and then progressing it down the field. I can’t remember the last time a player made such an impression on me at Old Trafford. After five minutes I asked what could he do that say Phil Jones couldn’t? I quickly learnt.

I’m frankly astonished that so many others saw nothing of him today.
 

Art

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Surely there has to be a better option than Rice for the holding midfielder role somewhere in Europe? If McTominay is gonna be a fixture next season, then I see little point in signing Rice. We need someone that not only is quick and mobile, but can also play football to a high level..
I think Rice will be able to.
 

bond19821982

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While he was good today , I wouldn't take that performance as a barometer . We were embarassing in the midfield.

Still a good talent to keep a tab on.
 

bond19821982

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If its between Neves and him, i go with him. He is showing more potential than Neves.
 

deadrevelz

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Thought he was fantastic today. There was a group of us in the Stretty purring over him. Committed himself in 50-50 challenges and bosses the midfield. Loved how he had the confidence to stride forward from shielding the defence, finding the more advanced midfielders and wide players. Imagine him behind Pogba. By far the best player on the pitch.

He reminded me of Ferdinand. Absolute Rolls-Royce winning the ball back and then progressing it down the field. I can’t remember the last time a player made such an impression on me at Old Trafford. After five minutes I asked what could he do that say Phil Jones couldn’t? I quickly learnt.

I’m frankly astonished that so many others saw nothing of him today.
Interesting that you you said Rio. Could he become a CB? A Portuguese poster on here suggested that. It might be good to have a back up option if he doesn't make it as a midfielder.
 

the chameleon

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Absolutely a no brainer! Could turn out to be top class signing. Worse case, a solid squad option.
 

NoLogo

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I think Rice will be able to.
Exactly. I have seen him almost only in the mathces against the top 6 and it always felt that he above any other West Ham player was the one to hold his ground against all of these teams. Even the games where he was a bit worse it never felt like he was a burden to his team in these games or that they would have been better off without him in the team.
 

United Pro

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Interesting that you you said Rio. Could he become a CB? A Portuguese poster on here suggested that. It might be good to have a back up option if he doesn't make it as a midfielder.
He used to be a CB and got moved into midfield.
 

settembrini

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He was very impressive today. If we could sell Matic and have Rice and Fred competing for the DM spot next season that would be progress.
 

Devil may care

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People are so easily gassed, he had a really good 20 minute spell in the second half which meant I knew the Rice pudding club would be bumping his thread with hyperbole. We were atrocious today in general, the main issue being the sloppy forward passing, we weren't missing a cruncher.
 
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cyberman

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He was decent. I mean both sides were walking through each others midfield so im loathe to say any midfielder on the pitch had a great day.
 

edgar allan

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I hear you it's not a very glamours midfield paring but I truly think that 4 world class talents in front of these two could work really well.
4 world class talents would make any midfield work well. Any ideas who these talents are that we can sign?
 

NoLogo

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4 world class talents would make any midfield work well. Any ideas who these talents are that we can sign?
I think Pogba can be counted into that, I know some people on the caf don't rate him in that catgeory but at the moment he would be my choice as the most attacking of the central three players. Get Sancho on the right. He might need a season or two more to be at his best but his season at Dortmund suggest he would already be an improvement over anything we have at the minute. Apart from that Rashford would still be my leading striker but buying Rebic from Eintracht wouldn't be a bad move to get a quality back if Lukaku leaves. For the left world class tlaent I think Joao Felix would probably be my choice at the minute even though Hudson-Odoi is getting into the last year of his contract and everyone is hunting him right now, so I would definitely keep tabs on him and yeah we still have Martial, who I haven't given up complete hope on. Havertz is also a player I really like but would probably not get past Pogba.

We have options the question is just if we are willing to be aggressive enough in the market and can convince these players that United is the right move at this time in their career.
 

Adcuth

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I'd like to see him and Mctominay play a similar amount in a season then see how they're stats look. I'm not convinced by players on lesser teams that they can always move up a level. Especially defensive minded players that face a lot more attacking. Can find that when they don't have to be concentrating fully all game they can switch off at important moments.
 

edgar allan

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I think Pogba can be counted into that, I know some people on the caf don't rate him in that catgeory but at the moment he would be my choice as the most attacking of the central three players. Get Sancho on the right. He might need a season or two more to be at his best but his season at Dortmund suggest he would already be an improvement over anything we have at the minute. Apart from that Rashford would still be my leading striker but buying Rebic from Eintracht wouldn't be a bad move to get a quality back if Lukaku leaves. For the left world class tlaent I think Joao Felix would probably be my choice at the minute even though Hudson-Odoi is getting into the last year of his contract and everyone is hunting him right now, so I would definitely keep tabs on him and yeah we still have Martial, who I haven't given up complete hope on. Havertz is also a player I really like but would probably not get past Pogba.

We have options the question is just if we are willing to be aggressive enough in the market and can convince these players that United is the right move at this time in their career.
Pogba is on his day world class no doubt, he takes a good few days off though unfortunately.
I certainly wouldn't have Lukaku or Martial down as anywhere close to world class and for me I have sadly given up on Martial.
Rashford is a really good talent, whether he will be come the world class player we need remains to be seen.

I expect Ole to have money to spend, Sancho and a replacement for Lukaku & Young. I can't see the budget stretching beyond that. As much as I would like another Irish man like Rice at the club, I doubt if the money will be available.
 

Jib

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His vista and passing range isn't good enough. We already have Fred and McTominay as hard working midfielders.

If we want to keep Pogba ( and attract other world class players ), we shouldn't keep signing average midfielders like that. The tops clubs don't have 4 or 5 workhorses and 1 footballer in their midfield ffs.
 

starman

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Might not be the all action high energy or spraying and dictating player that is eye catching, but its understated his importance is for a teams structure due to how good he is at reading the game. He's already becoming one of the best players around at being in the right position
 

NoLogo

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Pogba is on his day world class no doubt, he takes a good few days off though unfortunately.
I certainly wouldn't have Lukaku or Martial down as anywhere close to world class and for me I have sadly given up on Martial.
Rashford is a really good talent, whether he will be come the world class player we need remains to be seen.

I expect Ole to have money to spend, Sancho and a replacement for Lukaku & Young. I can't see the budget stretching beyond that. As much as I would like another Irish man like Rice at the club, I doubt if the money will be available.
Of course if we deice to stay timid in the transfer market we won't be able to drastically improve and probably fall short on any of the major talents anyways. Real under Zidane are rumored to be able to spend 500M this summer, Bayern are willing to spend loads of money and Barca, PSG, City and probably even Liverpool will also look to improve with some of the best talents out there. So yeah if we aren't willing to put our money up and compete with these clubs we won't be anywhere near a big title in the next couple of years but the question is what are our ambitions then? Make the top 4? If that's our long term goal we have truly become Arsenal which would be really disappointing.
 

AR87

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I like Rice. Think he's quite good, but at his current level I don't believe he will elevate our team. If people can accept that and the club is willing to play him through a developmental phase where he'll make errors, possibly costly ones, then it's a reasonable investment, but he's not ready to be a starting XI player for genuine contending side. He has that potential, but his play on the ball needs refining and he'll need to adjust to playing in a side that is looking to be more progressive and dominate play.
 

matt23

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His vista and passing range isn't good enough. We already have Fred and McTominay as hard working midfielders.

If we want to keep Pogba ( and attract other world class players ), we shouldn't keep signing average midfielders like that. The tops clubs don't have 4 or 5 workhorses and 1 footballer in their midfield ffs.
Agree with this. Looks a decent player but I haven't watched him and thought yeh that's what we need.
Good prospect though.
 

nyanza

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I think he would end up being another Schneiderlin in a big team. I would be happy to be proved wrong if we actually go for him, of course, but I just don't see him ever offering enough to be starter in a team battling for the biggest trophies.
 

Lash

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I still just don’t see him as a true DM. I still think he’s CB playing DM, a la Dier. He is much better on the ball than Dier though.

Like @ivaldo said, him and McTominay would be too passive, as much as I think Scott is improving going forward, I don’t think it will be enough to create, unless we buy some super creative winger.
 
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