You can’t see United accommodating him unless Pogba is sold? Really? So you think if we were to sign him it would be to play in a two-man centre midfield, behind Lingard or Mata?
Seeing that Pogba has consistently played in a midfield two in preseason, and Fernandez as I understand plays as a 10/much closer to goal, he’s not a Pogba replacement.
He plays as a 8 too, and will be a Herrera replacement.
Do we really though?
We saw how well they can play last season. We are doomed if we go into the season with just them as midfielders.
Agreed. Pretty mental that we seem to not he interested in centre mids. Matic needs replacing badly, that position is the heart of the team.
Those midfielders will kill us all season long, Periera & Fred are liabilities, Matic is MLS/China fodder now, & Mctominay is promising, but is hardly proven yet.
Yes, I don’t think they’re a good enough group either but none look like leaving and that’s why I don’t think we’ll sign another. I think Longstaff might have appealed when United thought they could pick him up at a reasonable price, but not at his “not-for-sale” premium.
I really disagree. That he went back to an inferior league after a few years says it all about his time there. He was an average player at a mid table club in Italy which isn't being proven a the top level.
We're in trouble if Matic, Pereira and Fred form 3 of our 5 CMs.
Respectfully, it seems like You are readily conflating being a star with being proven. Over 30 games a league season 4 times, under the age of 23 in any top league is the definition of being proven. At worst you can claim he wasn't a break out star. But unproven? No way
I would agree
100 % correct, midfield options are not good enough to get into the top 4.
In my opinion definitely, although disappointingly I don't see the club buying anyone. I think replacing Herrera should have been one of our priorities if we have injury to McTominay we are screwed the other guys in the midfield haven't been very good. Fred and Perreira both need good seasons or they can feck off next summer when Matic hopefully fecks off when his contract expires, unless we foolishly give him an extension due to his experience which I really hope does not happen.
Chief, he started 17, 16, 24 & 23 games in Italy before going back to a lesser league. I count a key player as someone that starts 30+ (around 3/4+) league games in a season, as he has for Sporting.
Can we stop taking about a United team featuring Lingard as a starter. Not if we harbour hopes of getting back to the top or just generally.
Got a feeling if Bruno comes which, I don't think will happen but seriously hope he does, is that he will beat Jesse Lingard's contribution of 4 goals and 2 assists in League from last season.
This 100%. I had very high hopes that we were in for Bruno, and not just to replace Pogba but to play alongside him, complement him and add some much needed goals from midfield.
Possibly, but I’m not sure. It’s very different when we press more busily with the front four. Pogba is not a good presser, but he’s hard to get by and can cover ground. In the front four, he weakens our high press, but when he’s in the pivot, with high press or more aggressive press, it’s often enough to be hard to get by.
I really do think this is the case. Our passing interest has been used by a desperate Sporting to create a market.
Other than MCT they all are meh, unless you believe mid table is good enough for us.
Totally agree about about the rebuild. I thought we were going to bring in 5 players, which I thought was a brilliant way to start out rebuild and I seriously thought we were getting rid of a lot of deadwood, which got me excited. I really liked it when Ole said he wanted his signings in by preseason, as I thought we would have 5 players with time to get used to Ole's methods and gel with the team, which I think would have helped us improve a lot next season. At the moment it looks like Ole did get all his signings in by preseason but Woody didn't get him enough, which is fecking pathetic.
Yep. I'm actually a big fan of the two signings we have made, especially AWB but I had really pinned my hopes on Bruno as to me it looked like a no brainer for a Herrera replacement and for some creative pressure to be taken off Pogba.
If it was a proper rebuild, this should have been priority after AWB. Lindelof is almost there, he really showed what he was capable of last season but we need another top notch CB next to him. The Maguire talk (it still may happen) seemed right to me. I know a lot on here don't think he's worth it but I actually do. He's a sure thing.
It should have been. We cannot afford to slip lower than 6th. Now I'm not saying we will, but it isn't out of the question. We should have been pretty busy and astute with our signings and with AWB and James, it looked like we understood. Now, I'm not so sure.
He is a great sub to have on the bench, I don't rate him as a first teamer but he can definitely do a job for us off the bench.
Have you not been scouting him for like a season? I do agree however that he was only ever a Pogba replacement.
We were front runners but didnt want to pay the agent fees. We were also heavily linked with Silva but were negotiating forever until City came in and just bought him
I think our 2 signings have been decent and am glad we at least addressed one area we needed a serious upgrade in. I agree on your first point in bold because if Pogba doesn't turn up or the opposition manage to nullify him, we lose creativity which I think Bruno would massively help us with.
Would be extremely happy for this to happen
. Think Woody useless regarding transfers and has let us down badly this windowWoodward's strategy is make a bid worth feck all in the beginning of the summer, get rejected, become angry and brief the press that we've moved on, come back 2 months later with a slightly improved offer and end up paying 20 million more than was originally the planned.
I've said it many times - Ed is the only negotiator where the price goes up as a result of his negotiating not down.
I don't even think that's good enough to get into the top 6.... Wolves have a better midfield than that
