selling daley blind was a big mistake i think. he would currently be our best left back. be a first choice centre half and probably our best holding midfielder.
Selling Daley Blind
- Thread starter Josep Dowling
- Start date
Selling Blind was understandable given he was not the kind of player Jose likes. I don't think he would have been sold under Ole. I feel that he would be a better number 10 than either Mata or Lingard.
His replacement has even more problems with physical players
Are you a PSG fan? Else why are you mentioning them?
We're Manchester United 12th in the premier league, averaging a goal conceded every game and struggling with our buildup play
Daley Blind is better than that. Many players are
Bang on the money. And I have it on good authority that the only reason Jose sold him was because he didn't want anybody more handsome than him at the club.
I didn’t say I hated Nani just said he wasn’t good enough and he did nothing after leaving to say we shouldn’t have sold him.Not sure what your point is, Ajax players are better than Manchester United players? No s*** Sherlock.
I said, I don’t like Blind as a player - I’m sure in some ways that clouds my judgement but he spent a few years here & at points was a starter for disappointing United sides.
Him reaching the Semi-Finals of the UcL doesn’t change that. Lucas Moura basically single handedly got Spurs to the final, I’m still picking Neymar if I’m PSG.
I’m a little confused, Nani played 230 games for the club but he’s injury prone & inconsistent so bin but you’re attempting to emotionalise the word hate for a failed winger that played about 100 games too many for the club in a position he wasn’t suited.
I hated the fact he was our captain. I hated the fact he would spurn attacking opportunities by ‘turning back’. I hated the fact that when he did get far forward he forgot that he was once a winger & lost all ability to attack.
I hate Antonio Valencia the football player. I don’t know the guy so that’s as far as it goes but I couldn’t stand the guy on the pitch.
You’ve equated Emile Heskey to Nani & are acting as if Depay hasn’t positioned himself for another big move; we should let the thread get back to Blind at this point.
My opinions are all relative & I try to explain better below.
I read that post & agree wholeheartedly.
These players we’re not irreplaceable; in particular at their levels of performance with us when leaving.
A lot of why I miss the 3 as I do is because they’ve all left at different times & I can’t see how we’ve improved/replaced their potential output.
If a player is underperforming you don’t replace him with a player the level of his poor form, you should be replacing them with ones that perform the way they were expected/projected to which we have not done.
Being honest, I just dislike [can’t say hate] Tony V & what he embodied whilst here but we’re no better off now he’s left either.
You choose to go down a different avenue to suit your narrative but anyway we’ve gone off the thread discussion so let’s agree to disagree.
He’s ok but a lot of revisionism in here.
I would of kept him as a squad player, good professional, but our main problem has been not replacing people with higher caliber players. Instead, in a lot of cases we have either moved sideways or backwards.
So jose sold blind because he wasn't physical enough, then brought in lindelof!!
It was a huge mistake. His versatility in world football is something that is irreplaceable at the top level. Being able to slot in at CB/LB/CM and playing each at a decent level was very handy for you.
That wasn’t the case, he wasn’t “decent” at LB or CM, he was crap.
Yeah he was absolutely woeful in those positions.
Mourinho prefered to defend from crosses and not prefering to keep the ball: Basically the opposite of what Blind excelled at.
Biggest issue in losing him was his footballintelligence and versatility as you alluded to.
Excellent example of our shite recruitment and transfers out policy. Both him and Evans should never have been sold. Raphael and Zaha the same.
Farcical.
Farcical.
Fair enough if you think that. I don’t reckon he was any worse than someone like Young at LB. He lacked pace and wouldn’t be first choice at all in any of those positions but in a midfield three with two athletic players beside him he would be decent. I’m not saying he was amazing by any means but he wasn’t any worse than your current options and you could do with his versatility rather than players who are a) always injured at CB. b) Shouldn’t be starting at all anymore in Young and c) CM where the depth is poor.
Arguably Blind would be our best option at 3 different positions CB, LB and DMF
100%. Just go back to the Bristol City game in 2017 and so many wanted him gone after that performance.
Over Maguire at CB? No chance.
He's a good player but there's a lot of revisionism in this thread.
Because he was not english...
of course in hindsight selling him was a mistake because we did not get an upgrade on him. There is no revisionism at all. Blind right now would be a very handy player.
It seems that a lot of us have an inflated opinion of ourselves( United) right now. We may be a huge club with a huge following and financial clout but as far as football is concerned we are a mid table club.
The point I am trying to make is that not many top world class players are going to come to United right now.
It seems that a lot of us have an inflated opinion of ourselves( United) right now. We may be a huge club with a huge following and financial clout but as far as football is concerned we are a mid table club.
The point I am trying to make is that not many top world class players are going to come to United right now.
Alot of fans wanted Jose so badly to manage us and suddenly act like they never liked him or wanted him here either.. 3 years later.
That isn't revisionism - that is just purely understanding that not only the club but also you as a fan possibly made a mistake.
Alot of people had a poor understanding of Blind's ability to be a good player for us.
Better than Bailly, better than Jones, Better than Lindelof, Better than Young, Better than Dalot at LB, better than Rojo, Arguably better than current Matic or Fred (though I'm not 100% on that either). How anyone cannot see that is slightly confusing.
The fact is - fans got it wrong on blind just as much as Jose did. On top of that Jose has a history of selling the wrong players at the wrong time for his clubs & he did that at United aswell. Depay got one season at LW and could have been tried at CF only to buy Sanchez.
If performances like United vs Bristol is forgotten to be viewed as revisionism - Blind"s fantastic performances for United that are not seen by some fans ever is just exactly that - revisionism aswell.
Probably yeah, and then when he realised his mistake and that Victor (or Bailly who has the athletecism but is just all over the place positionally) is not suited for a low block either he went crying to the board for another CB like Maguire or Koulibaly to pair with Smalling; not Victor. Thats my take on it anyways.
I don't really understand this new term "low block" in fairness.
But the worrying thing with Jose, is that he seems to have said yes to "a" signing, in preference of no signing.
Seen with Fred, Lindelöf and Bailly.
Whereas I'm sure, transfer muppets aside, we'd all prefer one pretty good player, than a couple of "Might be oks". ie Maguire over Bailly & Lindelöf.
But then you could say none of us are happy we still have no right sided attacker, as we're waiting some star player to be available.
I like Lindelof. But Blind is better. He would be great if he got the chance to continue his development as a regular CB.
15/16 was his first season playing a centreback regularly. He developed a lot that season. Mourinho came in the summer of ‘16 and stopped it. A shame!
15/16 was his first season playing a centreback regularly. He developed a lot that season. Mourinho came in the summer of ‘16 and stopped it. A shame!
Mourinho has always played with a very low back-four and his teams always sits back very low in their own half and almost invites the opposition to cross the ball from the outside. If you have 4 dominant physical defenders and a Fellaini and Matic in front of them, you will win the ball back and counter. Its how he has always played and always will play.
Neither Victor, Bailly or Daley is suited for that setup.
And I completely agree with the second argument you made. Under Mourinho we seem to have way too stressed to just buy someone for a position, even if it was the fourth or fifth name on his list.
Now we seem to more focused to go for our top targets only, and if not to wait until they are available. Sancho for example. We could certainly have bought another offensive player last summer, but what happens then when the squad is full, the wage bill is maxed out again and Sancho suddenly available next summer? Well, he goes somewhere else instead.
This approach is going to frustrate the hell out of fans, including myself who was pissed that we did not get in two midfielders this summer. I still think that was wrong btw even if we had to go for someone lesser on this always talked about "list".
We seem to do nearly everything wrong, even when we're doing stuff that's right, like the Maguire/Wan Bissaka signings. Even those took way longer than they should have.
But even Ole said we wouldn't let Lukaku go without a replacement. Then we ended up doing just that. It's truly unbelievable.
But I think G Nev actually said it right when he pointed out by the time you take the axed players wages saved into the bargain on top of the Lukaku sale, we ended up only spending about 40m net.
Now that is a shocker.
Being better than trash players doesn't mean he himself is a good player, or the way to go forward. You are setting your standards to rock bottom with this list and thus any player doing the basics right will look good in comparison, but the reality is Blind did plenty of mistakes here in all positions he played. He was pretty much a jack of all trade, master of none type of player. Was a disaster in midfield whenever he played that LVG shifted him away, did a job in LB at some points but him being very slow prevented both LVG and Mourinho from continuing him there, did a job as a CB in a season but him being weak and slow again prevented Mourinho from keeping him there.
The Smalling - Blind partnership has to be one of the most overrated defensive pairing we have seen. This pair was protected from upfront with a midfield who kept passing sideways and backwards to decrease the number of shots on them, which LVG did to protect our weak defense as a defensive tactic, as shown by the upcoming stat that we were barely risking the ball and thus were very boring :
And from behind by an inform De Gea who kept saving ridiculous shots and chances. In reality whenever this pairing was put into action to defend, it was De Gea saving us again and again and again.
That's 10 minutes of De Gea saving our arses. These are only highlights. Does any thing in this video point to a great defense? On the contrary, it points to the fact we had the best GK in the world back then.
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Blind probably was the smartest player at the club in terms of footballing intelligence. If he had either been a bit quicker or a bit taller, he would have been a World-class defender.
He looked pretty good under Jose at CB but our team's ethos was defend and let Zlatan do the rest
"Being better than trash players doesn't mean he himself is a good player, or the way to go forward."
Of course it is. Of course. How can you possibly believe that keeping the worse player whilst getting rid of the better player is some sort of qualitative advantage? No matter the margin - its a disadvantage & that's the truth never mind your opinion on Daley Blinds performances.
Let's take it step by step. Qualitative and Quantitive.
When it comes to qualitative reasoning - look at Herrera. A good but simple player for us that is far from world class but is a much better and valuable player for us than Fred, Mata, Pereira and degrading Matic. Better than the trash players - why in your sense would it not make sense to keep Herrera over any of these players even though Herrera did have on and off problems starting for nearly every manager he has played under?
Now Blind - the guy played 9 months at CB for us and settled in that role in a way that Rojo hasn't done, that Jones can't do after SAF, that Bailly can't do & that Lindelof has arguably only done due to a lack of competition directed from exactly that - no CB's ability to settle well enough.
You say that Blind made mistakes sure - but also highlights that his good performances was due to LVGs tactics so that these should be regarded as void. What about Lindelof whose so called good season comes from Jose's Park the bus tactics or Bailly's good breakthrough 3 months under the same defensive strategies. Just because players follow the managers tactics that lead to good defensive results doesn't just suddenly undermine a players ability to follow those tactics - which simply needs to be done for things to work. In my mind you don't rate Blind due to him representing LVG & his philosophy or tactics the same way that fans couldn't bypass Fellaini as some sort of Moyes ethos tenant at United.
Blind was not just an intelligent player with easily the best ball playing ability out of the whole defence including maguire - but the lad was also a proactive defender who would try to read the attack and intercept attacks before they happened which correlates well with Smalling who can sit back and work like ying and yang as a reactive defender doing things when things needed to be done.Blind was far from a perfect player but was a useful player & was exactly that in many many matches - things that players like Jones, Bailly and Rojo haven't done for years. His lack of physicality would maybe directly leak a goal every 4 or 5 matches & even then the so called chunky players would struggle due to Blinds ability to read the attack and pressure of the game. Can't even be bothered to talk about the passes directly to the LW, the Cam or the CF that would get the ball quickly to an attacking position from defence better than even Herrera from midfield.
But fair - you don't think Blind being marginally better than Jones, Bailly, Lindelof, Rojo would be good for us & keeping the worse players is a better step forward.
Now quantitive reasoning.
Blind is like a technical and slower version of James Milner. Had the ability to LB better than Dalot & Young - would be better defensively at LB than both of them & positioning but would get outdone on pace - yet nothing on the level where Dalot & Young can completely get played all over the placed for 90 mins before grabbing a red card. Not worth keeping young over Blind & even though Blind lacked pave he would attack and play good crosses from deep. I preferred Blind at CB over CDM - however we don't have a single player in the whole squad who can even attempt to play the ball like Blind does and spread the ball across. Sure we may not want him starting every game - but you see Fred, Matic, Mata & Pereira doing absolutely nothing as a midfield that can control anything even against the poorest team. Put Blind deep centrally in a back 3 & allow him to roam to come forward as a DLP or play him next to Matic or Mctomminay who focuses on allowing blind to atleast attempt to dictact the game is better than anything we have currently. Fred can't even make a pass a couple centimetres in front of him without passing in to the opposition & even then it's not like he is a player with a defensive ability even comparable to 10% of Blind's ability. Blind can take free kicks and was a good crosser from LB.
Blind is a left footed CB & the only one from Rojo which does bring some advantages. Blind is arguably the only ball playing defender we had until maguire because Rojo, Lindelof & Bailly can't make a simple through ball.
Quantitively - one player under one small contract like Blind can do the full job of Jones, Rojo, Young, Bailly, the pereira we were hoping for alongside providing vital support or different ability and competition to Lindelof, Matic & Fred. Furthermore Mata & young's dead ball specialists is covered. A player like Garner has a decent player to learn from.
All under one contract and one player - Daley Blind could have givenuus an alternative for nearly 8-11 roles in the team - all of absolutely trash players. Even if he was rubbish in your eyes, how is getting rid of him whilst keeping the rest the right thing to do?
This isn't targeted at you - but I do find some fans of United assume we are this eternal big team that just can jump from one manager with one style to another (begging for LVG from Moyesz Jose from LVG & then Ole from Jose), that our managers can just chuck our better players to keep trash players that fit their ethos ( Blind, Depay, Evans, Smalling) & all of it just resonates like followers of Ed Woodward all until it goes wrong. No direction, no slow building of a long good squad.
Sure Blind isn't Varane, Koke or Alaba but neither are we currently Real or ateltico Madrid or Bayern Munich. We need to pay attention to keep the better players whilst getting rid of the worse ones bit by bit until we have a good collection of 24+ players.
Selling Blind is a mistake & whether that's a little one or not- it's just that, a mistake.
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First, no one has said that we should keep trash players. We all want them sold. The problem with selling most (not all) of our players in the last few years was that we didn't replace them well, not that they deserved to stay here. Blind being better than trash players doesn't mean he was the way to go forward for us, or that he was even great player. It just means we didn't replace him well. That's all.
Second, Herrera was an underrated top player who has a cornerstone in our midfield and made us click whenever he played. Blind was just a decent guy who was not really that impactful on our collective performance. The midfield went level above in terms on intensity and competitive playing when Herrera played, while nothing in our overall performance was affected any time when we dropped Blind. Each time Blind got dropped or shifted to another position, it was after he made a disaster that was worthy of that.
Third, LVG style was crap and not the way to go forward. With the removal of that system the defense got more exposed and their problems (whom we saw the glimpse it several times in LVG reign whenever we lost possession and had De Gea to save our arses). I don't get your point with Lindelof. Lindelof first season was his worst. His second season which he improved a lot, Mourinho got second midway through it and he continued to perform decently under Ole. Still performing decently. However there're still loads not 100% rating him and no one will say him getting dropped or injure will impact our performance in anyway.
Again just because he's better than trash players doesn't mean it was wrong selling him, it means we just didn't replace him well, but his impact on the team was nothing to show off and make us regret him not being around here.
Finally you overrate Blind in the rest of your post way too much. The guy was just a decent all around player. Had some good passing and crossing, but was very slow, very weak and did many mistakes in each position he played. He never managed to settle in a position in which there was competition over it. LVG didn't rate him at either LB or CBM and shifted him away from there even though he was his very own manager in Netherlands national team and knew him more than any of us. Mourinho didn't rate him at CB.
The guy is a jack of all trade, master of none. Can do a job in several positions but he has flaws in each of them that will arise after a time of playing him regularly there. It's inevitable. Fullback needs you to be pacey. Center Back needs you to have decent pace any physique and CBM needs better reading of the game, more awareness of the surroundings and better pace too. All these problems Blind had and kept showing themselves in each of these positions, hence the continuous shifting.
Him staying now would have done feck all to us anyway to regret him not being here. For defense, it's the least of our worries at the moment, for LB, he would be rotating with Shaw, nothing really extraordinary and for CDM, he would have been shifted away because he made disasters in each time he played there, like the video I posted of Arsenal FA Cup game earlier. Scott is better and far more suited to PL than him there.
That's fine. I overrated Blind and you underrate him.
Herrera was an underrated cornerstone of our midfield but its funny how the simple tactics that we played only effected the likes of Blind and didn't effect Herrera.
Herrera and Blind are on the same level to me - atleast in comparison to the players around them & letting them go whilst keeping the others was a mistake.
It's really no point trying to convince a person who doesn't value Blind that we shouldn't have sold him - so I will call it a day.
https://thefootballfaithful.com/players-manchester-united-should-not-sold/
I don't underrate him. I'm rating him at exactly where's. A decent player that's not worth all these discussions and all this regret about selling him. He was never very impactful on our performance and we never suffered from him being absent like you're rating him. Herrera on the other hand, showed a clear difference and impact whenever he played, and the midfield always suffered from lack of intensity whenever he was absent under any manager he played under in United so far. Blind never reached that degree with United.
It's really no point trying to convince a person who overrate Blind to that degree that it wasn't a problem selling him - so I will call it a day.
Also I don't know what's that link supposed to do here ?
He was almost always quite poor for us at leftback and in midfield. He had the occasional good match at leftback, but did he ever actually play well for us in midfield? I can't remember any matches off the top of my head, but then again I've got a shit memory.
Of course our midfield is so bad at the moment that it's still a possibility.
Completely agreed. Although his (lack of) physicality became an issue against some of the more physical strikers, i seem to remember him having loads of great strikers in his pocket during Van Gaal. The best thing about him though was how versatile he was. He could play CB, RB, LB, DMF, and CMF and do a decent job and he was a model professional as well
If him and Herrera had still been here, im am confident we would be in much better shape
agreed for the most part
certainly at left back anyway and we could use his passing in midfield
Not tall and strong enough for EPL, like Lindelof
Probably been reading the Cafe:
https://www.unitedinfocus.com/forme...o-looks-like-one-of-uniteds-biggest-mistakes/
https://www.unitedinfocus.com/forme...o-looks-like-one-of-uniteds-biggest-mistakes/
Let's be honest here if all our transfers worked out the way we wanted to, especially Bailly and Lindelof, Blind would be easily be an afterthought today. 2 years earlier when we sold him nobody would have predicted that the club would be run to ground with a bunch of mediocre players and manager. Nobody. Today we like that disillusioned guy who is having that ex-girlfriend syndrome because we couldn't find someone better.
Personally, I think he's an asset given his ability and versatility but people are bemoaning his departure purely down to the sorry state of affairs in the club. Saying that we shouldn't have gotten rid of him because he would easily be our first choice CB is just using the power of hindsight. By that virture we shouldn't have gotten rid loads of players. Which is a ridiculous argument in itself.
Personally, I think he's an asset given his ability and versatility but people are bemoaning his departure purely down to the sorry state of affairs in the club. Saying that we shouldn't have gotten rid of him because he would easily be our first choice CB is just using the power of hindsight. By that virture we shouldn't have gotten rid loads of players. Which is a ridiculous argument in itself.
Did Blind ever get a chance to play DM during his last 9-12 months with us?
I know he played there in his first couple of games when he signed but after then got moved to CB with the occasional game at LB.
I know he played there in his first couple of games when he signed but after then got moved to CB with the occasional game at LB.