Do ye reckon Sangare would work well with him or no? I have seen conflicting reports but not seen enough to draw conclusion either way.
Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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I'm absolutely amazed Manchester City and Pep are not in for him.. especially if we get him for about £50M. Steal of the century.
He would fit perfect in Peps team. I'm stlll expecting a late City run. I hope I'm wrong but no way City and PSG allow United a free run on a world class midfielder for a great price if Barcelona have let other teams know he's available.
Liverpool swooped in late for Nunez and got him. So I'm expecting City or PSG to do the same for De Jong.. now every man and his dog knows De Jong is available and De Jong to United is close.
He would fit perfect in Peps team. I'm stlll expecting a late City run. I hope I'm wrong but no way City and PSG allow United a free run on a world class midfielder for a great price if Barcelona have let other teams know he's available.
Liverpool swooped in late for Nunez and got him. So I'm expecting City or PSG to do the same for De Jong.. now every man and his dog knows De Jong is available and De Jong to United is close.
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The profile is good, however not sure if he can show it to PL. His strength lies with physicality. He's dominating Dutch league by physical metric. But from what I saw him in Ivory Coast NT or a bit I saw him when he's at Toulouse, he's not freakish enough (Kante vibe), for us to feel assured he can hit the ground running. He can play of course, but again he doesn't show a level you can't find else where. So the price needs to be reasonable, preferably less than VDB transfer, else this 2 signings eat all the rumored budget before sale of this window.
My stance is FdJ is a must, then filling other non midfielder option with the available budget. If we're to add another midfielder in this window, it's dependent on sale money.
I mean… this is a 4-2-3-1… we saw a lot of Fred here. If I’m the opposing manager, I stay very tight to FDJ and send pressure at Fred when playing out from the back. Maybe Frenkie is so amazing that Fred can play there, maybe he drops deep? But we’ve seen this. I do not trust Fred as the second part of a pivot. He’s not disciplined enough defensively. Kessie? Hell yes. Rice, Kante, Casemiro, Fabinho, Rodri, Tonali, for sure. But none of those guys are available.
I dunno… Fred’s got a very narrow set of skills, and he just doesn’t fit what you need in a modern DM.
That's why a defender who can bring the ball up comfortably and press resistant is critical to go with Frenkie. Frenkie can drop down or the defender can bring it up.
Perhaps this is why we are going for Timber. Apparently he's amazing on the ball.
No doubt, FDJ is sorely needed. I just don’t think Fred is the ideal pivot partner.
We have CBs who are decent on the ball IMHO. I just think we need a top DM over all other needs.
Thanks for the PTSD
How much did Liverpool pay for him?
Fred isn't a DM. We have been mis-using him in all his years here. He needs to play further upfield and use his work ethic and enterprise for pressing further upfield. I think he was sacrificed to accommodate Pogba and this vacuum there.
I kind of feel getting De Jong would cover some of the DM needs. I dont think anyone thinks Fred is the ideal partner, its more of a make do for one more season situation with him having some complimentary abilities, possibly. Rumours of bringing in Timber and maybe shaw tucking into midfield a bit or our other center backs being quite good on the ball might help fill out some of the gaps between Fred and De Jongs ideal midfield partner.
2nd Midfielder would just be a lower priority than bringing in another forward for me. We seem quite keen to bring in at least one defender too and that seems sensible to me even if its not immediately necessary. I just think we need a few new faces spread around the team and the defence struggled badly last season.
Another midfielder would probably be next up for me and i think we need 4 or 5 signings this summer ideally, so should be looked at.
Yah. Our own double pivot in the back. ETH may need to shift strategies now and prioritise on being able to build up from the back now that we are unlikely to get Nunez -- get a free agent striker to help out Ronnie's workload together with some Academy kids.
That's nothing we spent 6 years trying to find Pogba's best position.
The whole DM over all other needs is the perspective of last summer where we were top heavy without an adequate DM to bring thing together under Ole's style.
Now we're barebone at CF position as well as losing the creativity Pogba once offered. ETH came in with different approach (else he would go beg Pogba to stay and pay whatever wage Pogba would demand). Of course we don't need the DM of the same profile as last season. FdJ is a no 6, but in a different/ unique profile that doesn't require an destroyer, defensive babysitter or whatever else people think DM is.
Yes. The other midfielder option like Fred, VdB, especially McTominay needs to be upgraded. This whole DM parroting while ignoring context is similar to how after missing on Essien in 2005, and signed Carrick the following season, people couldn't stop comparing Carrick "short coming" to Roy Keane all season, without seeing the needed change in the approach, back then.
FdJ is a top no.6 when being played correctly.
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Good post.
Agreed while Fred may not be of the requisite quality but he is somebody of a profile who could dovetail very well with De Jong even if we don't get another Midfielder I think we can get by for another season .
Let's go!
It's finally happening.
It's finally happening.
Agreed. What we need is an energetic ball winner that can also contribute going forward. Basically a better version of Fred and Mcsauce. Konrad Laimer in RB Leipzig sounds like he maybe worth a shout, assuming the money is right. Truth be told though, even if we don't sign anyone and just have Fred and Mcsauce covering that role, we'll be fine.
Actually just compared Fred to Laimer on Fbref and I have to say, not entirely convinced Laimer is better. Laimer has better offensive numbers (xG and xA) however when you factor in that Fred is in EPL, they probably even out. Fred even has a better passing accuracy though Laimer carriers the ball better.
The one we should try to get is Kante, if he's available on the cheap e.g sub £20m. Short term solution who can be used sparingly with Fred.
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That Haaland package isn't a joke.
Yeah, add Timber at RB coming inside, Torres at left back and Sancho or another winger hugging the right touchline and there's suddenly space to build
CHOO-FECKING-CHOO
It’s happening dear muppets
Was it ever in doubt?CHOO-FECKING-CHOO
It’s happening dear muppets
@managingBarca on Twitter:
"Despite contrary reports, FC Barcelona have NOT received any offers for Frenkie De Jong.
@ffpolo"
"Despite contrary reports, FC Barcelona have NOT received any offers for Frenkie De Jong.
@ffpolo"
Then seven mins ago:
| BREAKING: It seems that everything is heading towards the departure of Frenkie De Jong; Xavi has accepted it, especially if the club can sign Bernardo Silva/Lewandowski.
@ffpolo [️]
Ha ha, easiest job in the World.
Despite good relations with Ten Hag, De Jong prefers to play at a club who's in UCL next season #mufc #mujournal
[@ffpolo]
What a waste of 2 posts haha
With United, the top tier journalists don't tend to report that we've made a bid until a deal is close to being done. The fact that this guy is saying that Frenkie is likely to leave is, in my eyes, a positive.
Are Barcelona trying to enter a veterans league?
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Shittt... you can see where this is going.
Nightmare scenario would be a sweep between these two.
This is from the MundoDeportivo article here (Tier 2). They also had an artice 2-3 day ago how FDJ does not fit role required of him and Xavi was trying to retrain him, now Barca are open to him leaving.
De Jong is no longer a priority (for Bacelona)
De Jong is no longer a priority (for Bacelona)
Everything is open for now, but the reality is that if the economic and sporting conditions are met, Frenkie de Jong is increasingly far from FC Barcelona.
- Barça admits that the possibility of the Dutchman being transferred this summer is increasing
- Xavi accepts his departure if he doesn't weaken the squad and someone better arrives, with Bernardo Silva as his main objective
- FDJ's agent is due for talks with Barcelona in a few days
- FDJ wants to stay but will accept the club's decision if they want him to leave
- No proposals received yet
- PSG, Bayern and City supposedly also interested
- Xavi wants Silva and/or Lewandowski and they have a game plan ready should they sign one or both.
Ehh, I am still a bit worried about a bigger side pinching him but equally I'd be quite surprised if City do make a move. Their journalists haven't reported any interest on their end.
Big day today?
isn't it?! Auto transfer tweet generator.I would really worry for FDJ's sense of reasoning if after failing to bench Bousquets in his favoured position, decides to go to mancity to attempt benching Rodri.
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What?
We haven't had someone like him in midfield since Prime Carrick
A proper deep lying playmaker in the team would make life a lot easier
So he's a DM? Because I'm not going to lie, this transfer feels a whole lot like the Pogba one where we went for a big name player who doesn't really fit instead of actually addressing the needs of the team. I'm not saying Ten Hag won't be able to get a tune out of him but what's the plan? Bruno, VDB and De Jong in the middle? That's a soft midfield. We still need at least one more midfielder in my opinion and that's more than half our budget on this lad so I hope he's worth it.
Everyone was excited for us to change our footballing structure, and change our transfer strategy to avoid going for expensive ‘stars’ who don’t want to be here.
Yet here people are, desperately willing for a transfer of someone on +350k/week who quite clearly has little interest at best in moving to our club. People have such short memories ffs.
Yet here people are, desperately willing for a transfer of someone on +350k/week who quite clearly has little interest at best in moving to our club. People have such short memories ffs.
Re the 'doesn't want to be here' point, agreed that ideally anyone we sign would be desperate to wear the shirt but I'm also ok with a player that's not, provided he's professional enough to give his all and play to the level required. Having worked with him before you'd hope that ETH has a decent line on this side of him and if he thinks that's the case, then I'd be inclined to believe him.
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