diarm
Full Member
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2014
- Messages
- 17,947
We're not going to sell 20 players this summer and sign another 20 to replace them so how do we sort this out without throwing more good money after bad with no focus and long term plan?
I reckon we should focus on an area we can fix in one summer and put all our efforts into that. Then do the same for another area next year and so on.
Most great teams (Peps teams are the exceptions to the rule) are built from the back and you only have to look at Liverpool this season to see how Van Dijk and a pair of quality fullbacks have changed their team. Our defence has been a joke for a long, long time and it's time for a purge.
Smalling, Jones, Rojo, Valencia, Darmian, Young, Bailly, Lindelof are not good enough to start for this club. In the case of Valencia and Young, they never have been but certainly not now that age has caught up with them. Sell or release those 8 and replace them with De Ligt, Koulibaly, Alderweireld, Wan-Bissaka and Digne for a net spend of about £200m.
If offers come in or they can be released, let any of Sanchez, Mata, Martial, Matic or Fred go but try and hold onto everyone else and use the wages saved to give Herrera the wages he deserves as one of the only players we have who looks like he gives a shit.
Use the young talent to plug any gaps further up the field but acknowledge that next season is about sorting out our defence for the next 5 years. I could accept Lindelof and/or Bailly being kept on as squad options but the rest need to be shown the door - a line needs to be redrawn in the sand and the message sent that prolonged underperformance is unacceptable at this club.
De Gea, Romero, Pereira
Wan-Bissaka, Dalot
Koulibaly, De Ligt, Alderweireld, Lindelof, Bailly
Digne, Shaw, Mitchell
McTominay, Garner
Pogba, Herrera, Pereira
Chong, Lingard, Gomes, Rashford
Lukaku, Greenwood
I reckon we should focus on an area we can fix in one summer and put all our efforts into that. Then do the same for another area next year and so on.
Most great teams (Peps teams are the exceptions to the rule) are built from the back and you only have to look at Liverpool this season to see how Van Dijk and a pair of quality fullbacks have changed their team. Our defence has been a joke for a long, long time and it's time for a purge.
Smalling, Jones, Rojo, Valencia, Darmian, Young, Bailly, Lindelof are not good enough to start for this club. In the case of Valencia and Young, they never have been but certainly not now that age has caught up with them. Sell or release those 8 and replace them with De Ligt, Koulibaly, Alderweireld, Wan-Bissaka and Digne for a net spend of about £200m.
If offers come in or they can be released, let any of Sanchez, Mata, Martial, Matic or Fred go but try and hold onto everyone else and use the wages saved to give Herrera the wages he deserves as one of the only players we have who looks like he gives a shit.
Use the young talent to plug any gaps further up the field but acknowledge that next season is about sorting out our defence for the next 5 years. I could accept Lindelof and/or Bailly being kept on as squad options but the rest need to be shown the door - a line needs to be redrawn in the sand and the message sent that prolonged underperformance is unacceptable at this club.
De Gea, Romero, Pereira
Wan-Bissaka, Dalot
Koulibaly, De Ligt, Alderweireld, Lindelof, Bailly
Digne, Shaw, Mitchell
McTominay, Garner
Pogba, Herrera, Pereira
Chong, Lingard, Gomes, Rashford
Lukaku, Greenwood