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Paulo Dybala

Lash

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Agreed, he has that tenacity that Tevez used to have despite not being the largest forward around. Someone here mentioned Pepe and Dybala to replace Lukaku if he leaves. Think that will be a great option - a "front 2" of Pepe and Rashford who can peel wide to the flanks, with Dybala just behind them.
Agreed, I'm not massively sold on Pepe, but him and Dybala would take pressure of them both in the goals. I envisage him playing the Lingard role in the formation against Spurs where we won 1-0.

Dybala is a dilemma. He can lead the line. That's the role he played in at Palermo. His dribbling and goal conversion is excellent. However he lack the physical presence to play in that role which is why Allegri moved him further down.

Unfortunately his contribution isn't that great. He isn't a lazy player but his skills on that matter is a bit lacking. Dybala will never head the ball and his passing is good but needs to work upon. That means he will be less effective the more you move him down the pitch.

If you ask me his best role is that of number 10 just behind a powerful striker like Lukaku. A narrow 4-3-3 system with Pogba, a hardworking box to box midfielder and Matic in midfield with Dybala and Rashford behind the main striker could do the trick.
I don't think we really need a header of the ball, considering we can't cross for shit. As I said above, he'd do really well in that Lingard role.
 

soapythecat

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Am I alone in thinking that Dybala is just another huge, classic post SAF failure signing in the offing?
I'm not sold on him in a Juve shirt from the few times i've seen him, so what makes us think he will perform in this United side? Looks like a player who needs absolute quality around him, and that is something we lack in abundance.
Would cost pretty much all of our budget, so I'm hoping this is just the usual press bollocks.
Does hint of a Woody type signing thought.
 

devilish

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Agreed, I'm not massively sold on Pepe, but him and Dybala would take pressure of them both in the goals. I envisage him playing the Lingard role in the formation against Spurs where we won 1-0.



I don't think we really need a header of the ball, considering we can't cross for shit. As I said above, he'd do really well in that Lingard role.
The talent is there but the problem is that he got deficiencies in whatever role you play him in. If you play him upfront then you'll exploit his dribbling and goal conversion rate however he'll be vulnerable in air and he's not a physically imposing guy. Meanwhile if he move him in a deeper role then other issues crop up. For example he's not exactly a great passer of the ball or a very creative player. He seem to strive best just behind a physically imposing hardworking striker who will create spaces for his dribbling and his finishing to be further exploited

Which makes you wonder, do we really need the guy.
 

Cassidy

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The talent is there but the problem is that he got deficiencies in whatever role you play him in. If you play him upfront then you'll exploit his dribbling and goal conversion rate however he'll be vulnerable in air and he's not a physically imposing guy. Meanwhile if he move him in a deeper role then other issues crop up. For example he's not exactly a great passer of the ball or a very creative player. He seem to strive best just behind a physically imposing hardworking striker who will create spaces for his dribbling and his finishing to be further exploited

Which makes you wonder, do we really need the guy.
No, square plug round hole transfer policy again. Name and profile of player far more important than what they can do for us on the pitch
 

devilish

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No, square plug round hole transfer policy again. Name and profile of player far more important than what they can do for us on the pitch


Look if he does well with us then we would sign a gold mine. The guy has so much talent that there were times when he was being liked to Messi. It happened the past as well with players like Henry and Bergkamp who were shunned by the Serie A only to become WC in the EPL.

However I wonder if we've got the squad to allow Dybala to shine with us. He did very well with Pogba and in Lukaku he'll have a brilliant partner upfront, however the rest leave much to be desired. We've got too many players who seem very comfortable playing behind the main striker but lack the energy or passing ability to play in a deeper role (Rashford, Martial, Mata etc). Do we really need Dybala?
 

tomaldinho1

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I can't think of a more expensive player that clearly won't suit our current system.

Unless we're having a real shift in personnel and tactics, I simply don't see how he'll fit in. We really need to sign someone how fits in well because I get the sense players are looking at us and wondering if it'll kill their careers if they join.
 

settembrini

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Dybala is class and there have been times in the past that I would have loved him at United.

However I don't think he's the sort of player that Solskjaer is after. He's technically fantastic, super creative, a good goal scorer... but he's also small, not the quickest, a bit lazy. Solskjaer has said he wants players who have 'pace and power' and that he wants us to be the hardest working team in the league... you won't get any of that with Dybala.

Of course Solskjaer also said that United are going to be ruthless and have a survival of the fittest policy at the same time that Phil Jones was signing up for another four or five years. So perhaps I shouldn't put much stock in what he says.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Dybala is class and there have been times in the past that I would have loved him at United.

However I don't think he's the sort of player that Solskjaer is after. He's technically fantastic, super creative, a good goal scorer... but he's also small, not the quickest, a bit lazy. Solskjaer has said he wants players who have 'pace and power' and that he wants us to be the hardest working team in the league... you won't get any of that with Dybala.

Of course Solskjaer also said that United are going to be ruthless and have a survival of the fittest policy at the same time that Phil Jones was signing up for another four or five years. So perhaps I shouldn't put much stock in what he says.
Jones contract before Ole got the permanent job. I’m guessing he didn’t have the final say about it, probably not even a single word he was allowed to say at that time regarding the contract.
 

Zlatattack

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What would be his best position for us? Where would he fit in our current 433?
 

giorno

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The talent is there but the problem is that he got deficiencies in whatever role you play him in. If you play him upfront then you'll exploit his dribbling and goal conversion rate however he'll be vulnerable in air and he's not a physically imposing guy. Meanwhile if he move him in a deeper role then other issues crop up. For example he's not exactly a great passer of the ball or a very creative player. He seem to strive best just behind a physically imposing hardworking striker who will create spaces for his dribbling and his finishing to be further exploited

Which makes you wonder, do we really need the guy.
Disagree with virtually everything. He's got great vision and passing, is very strong and difficult to dispossess and his hold up play with his back to the goal is great. He doesn't lack for physical presence at all, Allegri just likes to play with a target man

He's also not a great dribbler, he can dribble in midfield where he has space but in the final third in tighter areas he lacks explosiveness and quickness for it(which is why he rarely tries). He also has good stamina and fantastic workrate. Just look at the game against ajax, in the first half he nullified De Jong. The game turned on his injury

Pray he doesn't sign for liverpool or city
 

devilish

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Disagree with virtually everything. He's got great vision and passing, is very strong and difficult to dispossess and his hold up play with his back to the goal is great. He doesn't lack for physical presence at all, Allegri just likes to play with a target man

He's also not a great dribbler, he can dribble in midfield where he has space but in the final third in tighter areas he lacks explosiveness and quickness for it(which is why he rarely tries)

Pray he doesn't sign for liverpool or city
Well lets agree to disagree then. TBF this sort of disagreements are very common regarding Dybala. No one seem to agree on anything about what his strengths and his weaknesses are.
 

11101

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What would be his best position for us? Where would he fit in our current 433?
In the middle of the front 3, or maybe on the right of it. He's not a 9 but he works very well interchanging with the other forwards. He has played on the right a lot this season but it's not his best position.
 

settembrini

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Jones contract before Ole got the permanent job. I’m guessing he didn’t have the final say about it, probably not even a single word he was allowed to say at that time regarding the contract.
I don't buy that. Jones didn't sign a new deal right after Solskjaer got the job but a couple of months later. He would surely have had input on contracts at that point, same as he would have a big say on us selling Fellaini. Besides I think it's clear that Solskjaer simply rates Jones. After he was made interim manager he played Jones in every single game until he signed a new contract and then claimed that Jones was 'entering into his prime years as a centre-half' and that he was 'delighted' the player was staying at United. The only people I know in real life who are delighted that Jones is at United until 2023 are Liverpool and City fans.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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I don't buy that. Jones didn't sign a new deal right after Solskjaer got the job but a couple of months later. He would surely have had input on contracts at that point, same as he would have a big say on us selling Fellaini. Besides I think it's clear that Solskjaer simply rates Jones. After he was made interim manager he played Jones in every single game until he signed a new contract and then claimed that Jones was 'entering into his prime years as a centre-half' and that he was 'delighted' the player was staying at United. The only people I know in real life who are delighted that Jones is at United until 2023 are Liverpool and City fans.
Jones got the new contract in February, that was way before Ole got the permanent job. Interim manager shouldn’t be allowed to have an input for it because he was just a temporary employee.
 

charlenefan

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You don't pass up the chance to sign Dybala
It's that type of thinking that landed us with Sanchez

They'll be a reason why Juve want shot of him and if the likes of Pogba cant inspire us to be better than we are Dybala certainly wont either

Completely the wrong type of player and character for what we need
 

charlenefan

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Disagree with virtually everything. He's got great vision and passing, is very strong and difficult to dispossess and his hold up play with his back to the goal is great. He doesn't lack for physical presence at all, Allegri just likes to play with a target man

He's also not a great dribbler, he can dribble in midfield where he has space but in the final third in tighter areas he lacks explosiveness and quickness for it(which is why he rarely tries). He also has good stamina and fantastic workrate. Just look at the game against ajax, in the first half he nullified De Jong. The game turned on his injury

Pray he doesn't sign for liverpool or city
Far too much of this going around. Let Liverpool and City sign whoever they want, just because they'll excel there doesn't mean they'll do the same here. We need to get players who are right for us, not players who are right for other teams
 

settembrini

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Jones got the new contract in February, that was way before Ole got the permanent job. Interim manager shouldn’t be allowed to have an input for it because he was just a temporary employee.
It was the month before Solskjaer got the permanent job and after two months of Solskjaer playing Jones in every single game he was the manager for. An interim manager wouldn't be barred from having any input on new contracts because that would be stupid, you are literally paying him to assess these players with regard to team selections etc and then saying 'but your assessment of these players cannot have any bearing on their future'. Be honest and ask yourself if Fellaini was being picked in every single match by Solskjaer while Jones was never getting played would we have had the exact same situation with Fellaini being sold while Jones gets a long term deal? Seems ludicrous to believe that imo.
 

dove

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False 9 could be frightening on the counter. Pepe reminds me of Henry.

Rash/Martial.................... Pepe/Zaha
Dybala​
I honestly don't see how it would be frightening. Zaha, Rashy and Martial only reached 10 league goals once while we can't be sure how Dybala would look in the PL in the crap team like ours. I think we would struggle to score just like we do now.
 

MadMike

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No, square plug round hole transfer policy again. Name and profile of player far more important than what they can do for us on the pitch
What would be his best position for us? Where would he fit in our current 433?
What "current 4-3-3", what round hole? We've probably only played 4-3-3 in half the matches under Ole. We've played 3-5-2 and 4-4-2 diamond in a lot of games too.

People are talking about him not fitting to "our formation", when Ole has clearly not settled into one formation at all.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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It was the month before Solskjaer got the permanent job and after two months of Solskjaer playing Jones in every single game he was the manager for. An interim manager wouldn't be barred from having any input on new contracts because that would be stupid, you are literally paying him to assess these players with regard to team selections etc and then saying 'but your assessment of these players cannot have any bearing on their future'. Be honest and ask yourself if Fellaini was being picked in every single match by Solskjaer while Jones was never getting played would we have had the exact same situation with Fellaini being sold while Jones gets a long term deal? Seems ludicrous to believe that imo.
A new contract decision won’t be made right away. Thus, the decision of giving jones a contract was probably in January, Jones signed it in early February.

An interim manager is just a temporary manager. They have no right to decide the future of the club if the manager wouldn’t be guaranteed in the club next season.

Let’s have a think shall we, Fellaini is 31 yo. We had an offer from China for Fellaini with contract ends in 2020. It’s no brainer not to accept that offer for a player already 31 yo like him.
 

Silas

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What "current 4-3-3", what round hole? We've probably only played 4-3-3 in half the matches under Ole. We've played 3-5-2 and 4-4-2 diamond in a lot of games too.

People are talking about him not fitting to "our formation", when Ole has clearly not settled into one formation at all.
Exactly.
 

MadMike

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People are just projecting. They like 4-3-3 because the top 2 teams in our league are using it successfully and they think that's the system that we play or at least should play. But we're really lacking the hard working wingers and fullbacks that system requires to make it work in this league or CL.

Look how much ground the likes of Sterling, Salah, Mane, B.Silva cover. And also the ground Robertson, Walker, TAA, Zinchenko cover behind them to provide the width. And also the ball playing CBs they both have, that can play as high as CMs. How high-energy, high-pressing their midfield is? Training the system aside, which might even be beyond Ole's capability, how many players are we gonna have to change to make that system work for us? Can we even do it in one season, or at all?

I really don't know how people feel 4-3-3 is somehow our settled system. Mourinho was building up the side to play 4-2-3-1 or 3-5-2. Now 4-3-3 feels like the system least suited to our players tbh. And I don't think that can change unless we get 7-8 players (instead of 4) and spend well upwards of half a billion given the current market rates for players. Which I don't think there's any change it will happen.
 

giorno

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Far too much of this going around. Let Liverpool and City sign whoever they want, just because they'll excel there doesn't mean they'll do the same here. We need to get players who are right for us, not players who are right for other teams
Oh, it's not about you signing him. It's about how good he would be on either of those teams and how much he'd improve them
 

Suv666

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He is quality, if there is a genuine chance of him moving. We should defo try.

 

Hernandez - BFA

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I don’t blame people who see this as a typical “Woody trying to get a Marquee signing to make everyone happy/fill the triangular space with a square peg” signing.

But I don’t see it like that. If Pogba is going, then I’d take Dybala in a heart beat. If Pogba is staying, then if Ole genuinely sees a viable way to get both in team then so be it.
 

Kaglish10

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Disagree with virtually everything. He's got great vision and passing, is very strong and difficult to dispossess and his hold up play with his back to the goal is great. He doesn't lack for physical presence at all, Allegri just likes to play with a target man

He's also not a great dribbler, he can dribble in midfield where he has space but in the final third in tighter areas he lacks explosiveness and quickness for it(which is why he rarely tries). He also has good stamina and fantastic workrate. Just look at the game against ajax, in the first half he nullified De Jong. The game turned on his injury

Pray he doesn't sign for liverpool or city
Klopp and Pep don't even sign that kind of players. Klopp prefers players from a small club while Pep loves the same and also players who is in top form at a big club.

I disagreed with the notion that Dybala has a good vision. He doesn't. He can cross but that's just it.
 

Hugh Jass

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Him alone would be a disaster i feel. We would need to sign four or five others to accommodate him.
 

ThierryHenry14

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I have a feeling that Juventus will sell Dybala for 85m and replace him with James for 35m~40m.
 

Fer

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I have a feeling that Juventus will sell Dybala for 85m and replace him with James for 35m~40m.
Or even Felix (If he doesnt sign for City).

I think Juventus is going to buy James and Chiesa if they sell Dybala.
 

Sayros

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Honestly, people using his current form as a beating stick for his overall value as a player are being a bit harsh.

It's a major adjustment to play with CR7, who can be a black-hole for other offensive players. We've seen with Benzema the difference between how he plays with and without him.

I think Dybala is a gamble that's worth the risk. However, if it's at the cost of losing Pogba then you're not really making any progress and it's a lateral move at best.
 

Lennon7

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Not sure about this one. On the one hand, he’s young and has a ton of talent. Might be exactly what we need.

On the other, we need to buy other players to play alongside a player like this, and I’m not sure we will properly. Plus, he was shite at the World Cup and could just be another big money flop.