This guy has seriously gone from being flavour of the season to maybe Newcastle will pick him up or something. I wonder what Ralf thinks. There are bargains to be had for the right teams if the scouting is good
Denis Zakaria / signed for Juventus
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Kessie, Kamara AND Zakaria are all available on a free this summer and they’re all better than Matic and Fred so I’d happily ship out Pogba, Lingard, Matic, Fred, Mata and Chong then bring in two of Kessie, Kamara or Zakaria as well as one of Bellingham or De Jong which is a hell of an upgrade on what we currently have.
Brozovic (Inter) is a better fit for what we need and a more proven better player. I suspect he'll end up at Spuds but we should be looking at him.
Zakaria really has stalled in his development as a player, would probably be decent signing for a for a club not in top 6 and see how he goes.
Its very hard to know who’ll do what in the PL. Look at someone like Soumare at Leicester or Saul at Chelsea. Soumare looked a very sold pickup for decent money. He only looks alright. He could be good in another season or so. If someone came into our midfield and just ran around they’d get panned. We just need a clear idea of the system and gather the parts. I think it’s the hardest thing to do when you don’t have a system. It’s just trial and error. I’m hoping Ralf is some kind of genius.
Saul was sent out on loan for a reason, lord knows what Chelsea were thinking. Soumare was pretty average in his last season at Lille and very good the season prior, I can see why no big club went in for him. Brozovic is a mature player and would be a very good option. I suspect 'if' Ralf is getting a major say in purchases and he'd be looking for a younger option
Brozovic is far more proven than Soumare who was basically coming off of one season. Saul was very much on the way down (he didn’t make a very weak Spain team for the Euros, and was a squad player last season at Atletico). Not particularly comparable to Brozovic who is very much the main midfielder for Inter who are looking for their second successive league title for the first time in about 11 years
Yeah would be very shrewd business to sign two of them then go all in for De Jong later in the summer to complete midfield rebuild.
Is Ginter any good? We'll take him and bin off oil tanker slabhead.
Like the poster above said think every chance Brozovic goes to Spurs especially with his old boss being there now
How many spurs players are on more than 200k a week?
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He can’t be worse than Fred, has much better stamina and legs to get around which Matic doesn’t, isn’t a defensive liability like Pogba and is actually suited and at his best at that role unlike McTominay so if his injury problems are genuinely behind him Zakaria would be a good buy and would be available for cheap with him out of contract in the summer.
Wow football is such a simple game when you write it out like that.
Tbf, he hadnt looked as good as before his nee injury, which took him out close to 3/4 of a year. he's still an excellent ball winning dm, maybe not as good preinjury, but for me personally id be against signing him as hes part of the downed tools crew at BMG.
McTominay attempts 50 passes, apparently he hides from the ball. Zakaria attempts 46 passes, should be brilliant to read his thread if we sign him.
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Surely he wouldn't actually be that cheap?
Regarding the McTominay comparison above, on face value the stats in terms of what they do on the ball definitely lean heavily towards Zakaria, even this season.
McTominay
Zakaria
His stats aren't better than McFred
Yes, we should go for 2 of them. Do a deal with them this month.
Looks a huge improvement?Tweet
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Surely he wouldn't actually be that cheap?
Regarding the McTominay comparison above, on face value the stats in terms of what they do on the ball definitely lean heavily towards Zakaria, even this season.
McTominay
Zakaria
I don't rate him that highly but if he's £6m I'd go for it
Yeah personally feel it's a no brained for that kind of price or go with Kamara who is only slightly more but again a bargain deal
Are they league percentiles?Tweet
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Surely he wouldn't actually be that cheap?
Regarding the McTominay comparison above, on face value the stats in terms of what they do on the ball definitely lean heavily towards Zakaria, even this season.
McTominay
Zakaria
No brainer for 6m.
For someone like Newcastle/Everton maybe, but definitely not United.
His value is more than 6m. Sell him after 1 year if we are not happy with his performance and maybe get some profit on top of that.
£6mill for this kid is the bargain of the century imo.
Instantly upgrades what we have in midfield for relative peanuts, him and Fred would be great in Ralfs system (I’d have Scott as backup even though he played well last game, his average is lower than these two imo.)
I mean what players move for as little as 6 mill nowadays.
Instantly upgrades what we have in midfield for relative peanuts, him and Fred would be great in Ralfs system (I’d have Scott as backup even though he played well last game, his average is lower than these two imo.)
I mean what players move for as little as 6 mill nowadays.
So he can take up a space in the squad which could go to someone better?
No thanks.
Before injury he was better than Mcfred combined.
I’m not sure how people can say they don’t rate him that highly but we should still get him as he’s cheap. We are certainly not going to close the gap on the top clubs using that philosophy! We need to snap up the players that have the most potential and will significantly improve us!
Just to say this is a general comment as I have no idea if Zakaria is any good
Just to say this is a general comment as I have no idea if Zakaria is any good
Honestly for 6 mill it really is a bargain and will probably go to Bayern for that money.
Defensively sound player, very athletic and mobile who can carry the ball very well, suits Ralfs system very well. Ticks a lot of boxes for the money and imo is a player who can kick onto another level when he gets a move to a bigger club.
Really? That's why he's playing for a team 14th on the Bundesliga and who have gone on a bit of a losing streak since he was reintroduced to the team?
I'm not so sure your statement is correct.
Rice for 100m or zakaria for 6m ..
I will choose zakaria because slabhead deal thought me a great deal, that premier league experience is just rubbish.
I will choose zakaria because slabhead deal thought me a great deal, that premier league experience is just rubbish.
Of course he would. He can already sign a deal for the summer and announced he will leave. 6m for half a year is a decent price for BMG.Tweet
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Surely he wouldn't actually be that cheap?
Regarding the McTominay comparison above, on face value the stats in terms of what they do on the ball definitely lean heavily towards Zakaria, even this season.
McTominay
Zakaria
It is definitely correct. The Mönchengladbach 14th is not on Zakaria. Zakaria is still one of the better players in the first half of the season. The position depends on many other factors, but that is not an issue here.
Zakaria is a bit off track due to a serious injury, but for me he definitely has the potential to play for a international Topclub. Before his injury, it was valued at € 40-50 million. He is technically strong and shouldn't have any physical problems in the Premier League. Can build a game from behind and also likes to do the dirty work.
he's not a guaranteed upgrade but he is depth where we have none at at least physically strong. these are the types of punts you need to take on players like this, most wont workout but at least we didn't pay 55m for them like fred
There is a reason I wrote before injury, If he regain his form of the pre injury (which is more likely because he is still young) then no brainer.
Deals like these are where we should be looking at. We can get him now for a very cheap price or even sign him on a free next year. Zakaria, Kamara and Kessie are running out of contract. Haidara has a release clause.
There are some very good deals that we can make, hope with Rangnick here we start making smarter choices.
There are some very good deals that we can make, hope with Rangnick here we start making smarter choices.
Says a lot about the flavour of the month and links. 12 months ago Zakaria was meant to be the best thing since sliced bread and now people aren that keen and bet a lot of the opinions are just based on the Euros where he barely played. Seemed to be very similar on Naby Keita on here before going to Liverpool and he hasnt especailly excelled.
Barely seen him Zakaria myself but have seen Kessie a few times who is another a bit overhyped for me but solid. i have seen Kamara a few times and dont think he is far off the potential of Camavinga. Think he would be a shrewd signing.
I do feel this summer if we are to move forward our midfield needs rebuilding especiall considering the ages of Matic and Mata, the contract situations of Pogba and Lingard, the lack of breakthrough of Pereira and the quality of what remains in Fred and McTominay as starters. So I agree with you in need for reinforcements, I think we definately need two, dare I say three. I cant comment on Zakaria especially but I do think we should go for Kamara on a free transfer, personally I dont on Kessie though he is a good player....I think we should be going for another Milan players on a free and that is Romagoli who hasnt reached the heights expected, but he is solid, he is experienced, he does have leadership potential and would be a much better option as competition than those we current have to the starting eleven. I think with the possibility of beign able to sign Rice or Bellingham or DeJong....they all bring a big jump up in quality to me
Has he ever reached the level he was at before his injury?
Well his stats are better than McTominay this season and is more of a defensive midfielder, I’ll take any improvement at DM at this point. That’s not a dig at Scott.
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