No one, there's no one good enough in the market for the right price that would be a substancial improvement on Lindelof. The team lacks other position first before thinking on upgrading a "good" central back for a top one. I swear the amount of abuse Lindelof gets here is completely out of proportion.
Which CB to partner Maguire?
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Out of curiosity, what (in £) would you consider to be the upper limit of "the right price"?
Does this player have the right character, can they make another step or two up in level at United, can they speak or learn English or at minimum communicate enough in English, what type of mentality do they have, do they actually want to come to Manchester and play for Manchester United, how do they deal with the pressure and demands of a big, big club like Manchester United, are they the type of person the club wants to take on now a days? These are the questions that too few people actually don't ask or care to ask because it's a FIFA/FM dreamland out there.
If Evra and Vidic were playing now, nobody would have said shit about them because those types of player profiles aren't what people know about unless you're really into the weeds of a league or country like a few Portuguese posters are and what they said about Bruno.
Maguire is club captain, Lindelof recently signed a long term deal, and United only have 3 serviceable CBs. A fourth senior CB has to be signed while Tuanzebe and Mengi develop and for Tuanzebe's sake figure out his injury issues because it's a big issue for his professional development and the long term planning for United.
If Evra and Vidic were playing now, nobody would have said shit about them because those types of player profiles aren't what people know about unless you're really into the weeds of a league or country like a few Portuguese posters are and what they said about Bruno.
Maguire is club captain, Lindelof recently signed a long term deal, and United only have 3 serviceable CBs. A fourth senior CB has to be signed while Tuanzebe and Mengi develop and for Tuanzebe's sake figure out his injury issues because it's a big issue for his professional development and the long term planning for United.
Asides RW which I'm sure most people agree should be priority number 1, what other positions are you talking of
50M, paying over that for a defensive player seems as bad administration when we have limited funds and urgently need other positions.
CDM and a CAM.
Just imagine Bruno or Matic get injured, who would play? Fred or McTominay? you've seen how our performances drop without them.
We are the 5th best offense in the league, with 61 goals scored. Thats 30 goals away from City who has the best attack. On defense we are the 4th best of the league, with 35 goals received 8 goals away from Liverpool, and only 2 goals away from second place Sheffield United.
I dont think the defence is as urgent and some say it is.
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After RW I've seen alot of people prioritise either CB or AM or DM next. If Bruno gets injured we are back to Pereira or maybe you could play Pogba there. If Matic gets injured we play Mctominay there. If Maguire gets injured we play Bailly. I guess it's a question of which you see as the worse scenario.
How's Milenkovic been doing
Pogba plays great in the current position, moving him up to Bruno's position would be a mistake IMO. We would have Pogba in a different position were he doesnt play as well, and then you have to substitute a player to fill Pogba's role.
I rate McTominay, I really do. He plays with so much passion its hard not to like him but as we've seen in the last matches we dont have any player that can substitute any of the 3 starting in midfield without taking a huge hit in the performances.
We're also yet to see the defense without Maguire. Our depth really needs upgrading. At this point I'd say a back up AM/DM/CB are all equally important
Lindelöf.
I agree, I dont think any of our CB backups are realiable and theyre injury prone that doesnt help at all. If we are looking for a squad defender that can challenge Lindelof/Maguire for the initial XI Im all in, I just dont agree on spending huge amount in a defender since I dont see great defenders in this particular time. Besides VVD, Laporte and Varane I dont think there any CB in the world that we should spend more than 50M, and of course those players are not available to us.
Also the thing that makes me incline more for AM and DM its I think those are the ones that fatigue will get first, defenders can play more minutes and I think the drop in quality its bigger in the AM and DM department, and with a good defensive system you can turn average/good defenders into a top solid defensive unit. But with average/good attackers I think its harder to have an offesive powerhouse, you need talent in that department. Of course coaching plays a big part but you can only take a player so far in the offesive side.
I am a little concerned that there doesn’t seem to be a definitive target.
Obviously there’s Sancho for the RW, Grealish / Van der Beek for the creative midfielder role, but there’s no one repeated link for CB. Obviously there’s plenty of time with sorting this but it normally starts with regular links to a single person.
Obviously there’s Sancho for the RW, Grealish / Van der Beek for the creative midfielder role, but there’s no one repeated link for CB. Obviously there’s plenty of time with sorting this but it normally starts with regular links to a single person.
Lindelof has been fine, and is on par or better than the most of the defenders at the teams above us, in my opinion, apart from Van Dijk.
Think we'll always be questioned when we concede, but on a whole, we've looked pretty solid, especially when you consider that we didn't have a settled midfield like we have now.
Yesterday, we conceded a goal from a mistake and a set-piece. We were hardly torn to shreds by Soton and Lindelof was a massive reason as to why.
Don't get me wrong, if there's someone in the market who is better then we should obviously look to purchase. Football teams are about improving year in year out. If that means buying a centre back then so be it.
Think we'll always be questioned when we concede, but on a whole, we've looked pretty solid, especially when you consider that we didn't have a settled midfield like we have now.
Yesterday, we conceded a goal from a mistake and a set-piece. We were hardly torn to shreds by Soton and Lindelof was a massive reason as to why.
Don't get me wrong, if there's someone in the market who is better then we should obviously look to purchase. Football teams are about improving year in year out. If that means buying a centre back then so be it.
We have seen a defence without Maguire. IIRC it was against City in the Carabao cup. We were a shambles in defence.
Yeah there seems like nothing concrete on a CB target at all,that is a worrying sign to say the least
I don't think we'll here anything definitive until league positions are confirmed. But James Ducker again in his latest piece is reporting that Solskjaer wants a CB along with a striker to go with Jadon Sancho.
This striker link he keeps talking about doesn't make sense at all after we kept Ighalo. I still think he will change his tune to midfielder once we have sold Lingard & Sanchez (fingers crossed).
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The problem is having slow CBs can hamper playing further up the pitch.
Lindelof ain't no worse than Maguire.
I don't think we should sign a CB to complement Maguire. Maguire is nowhere as good as to build the team around him. If we sign a CB, then it should be a world-class one and then let Maguire (and if he fails, Lindelof) be his junior partner. So, either sign a top CB and play Maguire (or Lindelof) with him, or just sign a cheap backup player (I am tired of all our other CBs). No point on signing big for a player that is just as good as Maguire and Lindelof.
I don't think we should sign a CB to complement Maguire. Maguire is nowhere as good as to build the team around him. If we sign a CB, then it should be a world-class one and then let Maguire (and if he fails, Lindelof) be his junior partner. So, either sign a top CB and play Maguire (or Lindelof) with him, or just sign a cheap backup player (I am tired of all our other CBs). No point on signing big for a player that is just as good as Maguire and Lindelof.
If they average 15m a piece, that is 105m, which means a net transfer of 50m. Perfectly doable.
Selling Lindelof would be nuts. He is not great but he is one of four competent defenders we have at the club. And we have 10+ defenders. That would be weakening the team. I would rather sell all four of Smalling, Jones, Bailly and Rojo instead (the last 3 never play anyway).
Completely agree
Interesting. I don't think we have been linked with any strikers lately?
Knowing us, we probably miss out on key targets. If Ole feels that this is important, Ed should be already announcing signing of the CB. Norwich is already relegated, I would hop on a call to get Nathan Ake.
Maguire is slow, but Lindelof isnt. Of course he's not fast, not many CBs are fast but he's pretty decent.
Yeah that is what I find odd about it too
It's a shame we only have Ighalo till January, we may have been told that keeping him for another 6 months isn't going to happen.
I'd buy Declan Rice in a heartbeat. He can also fill in at dm if required.
He doesn't need a striker. If they managed to get Sancho then that would be enough. Surely it should be a cb and a cm?
Isn't Ake quite weak on the air? I think that @duffer told me that he isn't which made me surprised cause you know, he looks weak in the air. Well:
- he wins less than 50% of his aerial duels, and ranks 57 out of 58 EPL defenders who have played 1000 minutes or more.
- he is in bottom 25 of CBs from Europe's top 5 leages who have played 1000+ minutes.
Source: https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...ust 46.6 percent,ranking inside the bottom 25.
To be fair, that source might be wrong. EPL has it slightly differently, with him winning 53% of aerial duels (source: https://www.premierleague.com/players/4499/Nathan-Aké/stats)
For comparison, Lindelof who gets heavily criticized for his aerial duels, wins around 60% of them (source: https://www.premierleague.com/players/5066/Victor-Lindelöf/stats).
To be fair, he has attempted double the amount of headers as Lindelof, so that might explain things. With Lindelof not necessarily being better, but choosing his duels better. Still, it looks really poor on Ake.
Maguire who is a monster in the air, wins roughly 85% https://www.premierleague.com/players/5066/Victor-Lindelöf/stats (with more attempted duels than Ake).
So, all in all, if one of the biggest criticism for Lindelof is that he is weak in the air, I don't see how Ake makes sense, considering that at best it would be a sideways move in that regard,
I don't think we will find buyers for all of them and most will leave on loan with a right to buy. We can't even find a seller for Big Mike and he did well in the serie A
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. Smalling has been shown time and time again, not to be of the required level. A semi renaissance in a lesser league is no indication he’s suddenly good enough for us. We need exactly the ruthlessness Solskjær has shown to this point.
Smalling, Rojo and Jones are all done here. Tuanzebe needs to go back on loan. Despite the loaners, Maguire has been excellent. But because he cost 80m his mistakes are magnified. Since the turn of the year, our defensive record has been one of the best in the league. An upgrade to Lindelof would take it to the next level.
Konate for me is the first choice, closely followed by Upemecano. I think this is sensible long term building. That said, a shorter term but more guaranteed solution would be Koulibaly. Putting a quality partner next to Maguire would likely also illicit a further improvement to Maguire. Partnerships help improve individual performances as you have that much more understanding and confidence in your team mate. Look at how Fernandes has helped those around him.
I admit to being a bit biased but I’m sorry that we let Evans go so cheaply. Academy graduate, cool, experienced and never gets injured. Sadly too late to bring him back.
16/17: Buy Bailly to partner Blind
17/18: Buy Lindelof to partner Bailly
19/20: Buy Maguire to partner Lindelof
20/21: Buy someone to partner Maguire
21/22: Buy someone.2 to partner someone who was bought to partner Maguire
17/18: Buy Lindelof to partner Bailly
19/20: Buy Maguire to partner Lindelof
20/21: Buy someone to partner Maguire
21/22: Buy someone.2 to partner someone who was bought to partner Maguire
I don't think Maguire is top but he's much more likely to form a quality CB pairing with the right partner. Lindelof is simply too weak a defender to be anything other than rotation/backup option (ideally). He essentially just get by doing the bare minimum really, and his side of the partnership works purely due to his effort, concentration and ability on the ball. The defensive gifts aren't actually there from what I've seen and it's hard to see that changing.
Slight tangent here, but Evra was the standout fullback in a side that dismantled Chewsea in the CL semifinals.
In a nutshell
It's got to be Konate or Upamecano - to perhaps partner with Maguire at times, play in a 3 with Maguire and Lindelof when we do play that system, or step in for Maguire or Lindelof at times. At the same time, they will be work in progress as the both of them are young and can only develop and get better and it will be part of long-term building. Currently, the drop-off in quality without Maguire is big hence Ole can't afford to drop him - we will miss his leadership and organisation other than his technical abilities. As we start becoming more and more of an attacking, front-foot, risk-taking team playing a high line, we will need absolute top quality centre-backs (and the DM) to protect our goal while the other 7 outfield players are in attack mode. Bailly is a good defender, strong and aggressive, but too injury-prone to be reliable especially in this position and hopefully Tuanzebe who show's great potential and leadership qualities doesn't get injury-prone too.
