Who potentially replaces Ronaldo?

CarbonStoolBites

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Other players will have to rise to the occasion and level up their performances as well as goal output.

Here’s an interesting statistic:

2006-2007

We let RvN go in the summer, Ronaldo turned into a world class player, we had Saha and Rooney forming a great partnership up top (until Saha got injured), we scored 83 league goals that season.

2007-2008:

We scored 80 league goals with Cristiano Ronaldo in his best ever season for us and probably the greatest ever season of any individual player in Premier League history, we’ve also had Rooney and Tevez.

2008-2009:

We scored 68 league goals.
We had Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez and added Beebatov in the summer.

2009-2010:

We lost Ronaldo and Tevez that summer, added Valencia and Owen.
We scored 86 league goals that season (which is a better tally than the previous 3 seasons).
We had Rooney stepping up, we had Fletcher stepping up, we had Nani stepping up, these were the 3 players that really took it up a notch that season, with Rooney having an absolute world class season.

We don’t have a Rooney, but we have players who will step up their game, Sancho has the qualities to score in double figures, as well as Rashford and Bruno.
We have young attacking players who haven’t really been given a proper chance yet (other than Elanga).
So I’m excited to see what they can offer.

I’m excited for the new season, with or without Ronaldo.
I hope we stick with ETH and give him time regardless of whether we finish top 4 or not, as long as there is a plan that’s being implemented and we see gradual improvement in team cohesion and play.
 
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FatTails

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I am assuming that this didn’t come out of nowhere for the club. I am wondering if we tried to compete for Richarlison behind the scenes.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Stick with sorting out our midfield and centre back first Imo. There are not many quality striker available in the market so we stick with false 9 like the Ajax 18/19 or use Martial/Rashford since they are likely still in the club anyway.

Tadic = Bruno
Neres VDB Ziyech = Sancho VDB Antony
FDJ Schone = FDJ Eriksen
Tagliafico Blind De Ligt Mazraoui Onana = Shaw Martinez Varane Dalot DDG
 

Redcy

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Stick with sorting out our midfield and centre back first Imo. There are not many quality striker available in the market so we stick with false 9 like the Ajax 18/19 or use Martial/Rashford since they are likely still in the club anyway.

Tadic = Bruno
Neres VDB Ziyech = Sancho VDB Antony
FDJ Schone = FDJ Eriksen
Tagliafico Blind De Ligt Mazraoui Onana = Shaw Martinez Varane Dalot DDG
you cannot play FDJ/Eriksen together we will get murdered

-------------Sancho--------------------------Antony---------------
-----------------------------Eriksen------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------Bruno-------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------Fred-----------------------
--------------de Jong--------------------------------------------------
Shaw-----------Martinez-----------Varane------------Lindelof


Would be my best guess with Rashford swapping in for Sanco, Martial back up to Eriksen, Eriksen back up to Bruno, mcT back up for Fred, de jong mcfred, Malacia and our other defenders across the back


No way we go and buy anyone for more than 50m now
 

croadyman

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Neymar, don’t care for the Naysayers. Ronaldo gives me excitement, only other player we could get who could create that would be NeyNey.
Not a number 9 which is what we desperately need, absolute superstar name much like Mbappe but no way it happens anyway.
 

OpenIntrovert

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Goodness me, we have at least 4 of the same threads based on one rumour. Are you guys really that desperate for negativity?

Mods kindly merge all of these threads.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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you cannot play FDJ/Eriksen together we will get murdered

-------------Sancho--------------------------Antony---------------
-----------------------------Eriksen------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------Bruno-------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------Fred-----------------------
--------------de Jong--------------------------------------------------
Shaw-----------Martinez-----------Varane------------Lindelof


Would be my best guess with Rashford swapping in for Sanco, Martial back up to Eriksen, Eriksen back up to Bruno, mcT back up for Fred, de jong mcfred, Malacia and our other defenders across the back


No way we go and buy anyone for more than 50m now
I used to think the same thing about FDJ/Eriksen after I saw this.

 

Kaos

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Not understanding the suggestions for Bruno being a false 9. He’s pretty much been awful everytime he’s played there under Rangnick and Ten Hag doesn’t usually play false 9s anyway?
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Not understanding the suggestions for Bruno being a false 9. He’s pretty much been awful everytime he’s played there under Rangnick and Ten Hag doesn’t usually play false 9s anyway?
ten Hag played false 9 in 18/19 with Tadic. It’s about being coached and trained. Unlike ten Hag, Rangnick doesn’t know how to coach player to play in false 9 role.
 

NoPace

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Has to be someone cheap. Let's get Jovic on loan maybe. Surely Real would let us have him.

If not then Dybala perhaps?
My cheap idea is Danny Ings, who is on a big salary for Villa, somehow only 29, has 41 in 97 his last 3 Prem seasons for worse teams. Doesn't have much pace but we're presumably planning to play in the other team's half anyways rather than counter a ton under Ten Hag, and Villa have Cameron Archer who they might as well make the #2 striker there behind Watkins anyways if it saves them 8-10M (say his salary and a loan fee, though minus an Archer loan fee to a Championship side) even with the money they've been throwing around. Could even find a swap with Brandon Williams or Telles as they're light at fullback.
 

unplayable

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I'd love Lautaro Martinez, but I don't think we will spend the money it would take to get him.
 

RedRonaldo

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I think playing Bruno as false 9 could be explored. There's simply no 25 goals a season striker available in the market right now, who is within our budget.

DDG
Dalot Varane Martinez Malacia
Fred FDJ
RW Eriksen Sancho
Bruno​
 

Swordsman

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Lautaro, but I doubt it could happen.
Kane and Lewa are of course just pipe dreams
no way Kane would left Spurs for United.. Spurs got a better prospect of winning trophies as of now..

Lewa just want Barcelona.

No point going for players that are not keen to join United. We don't want another ADM situation
 

devilish

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My cheap idea is Danny Ings, who is on a big salary for Villa, somehow only 29, has 41 in 97 his last 3 Prem seasons for worse teams. Doesn't have much pace but we're presumably planning to play in the other team's half anyways rather than counter a ton under Ten Hag, and Villa have Cameron Archer who they might as well make the #2 striker there behind Watkins anyways if it saves them 8-10M (say his salary and a loan fee, though minus an Archer loan fee to a Championship side) even with the money they've been throwing around. Could even find a swap with Brandon Williams or Telles as they're light at fullback.
I can't wait to see us replace Ronaldo with Danny Ings.
 

Chicharo

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no way Kane would left Spurs for United.. Spurs got a better prospect of winning trophies as of now..

Lewa just want Barcelona.

No point going for players that are not keen to join United. We don't want another ADM situation
Agree, that's why I said it's just a pipe dream.
Personally, if there's even a slight possibility, I'd break a bank for Gnabry, he's not a CF but could improve our attack massively
 

sullydnl

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No idea. I like a player like Osimhen but I think he's too expensive.

The interesting thing about this crisitunity though is that it gives us the chance to really re-shape our attack, as the need to work around a 37 year old poacher who can't press is gone. I'd be really interested to see the type of attacker we'd go for for that reason. Will it be a more fluid attack? Will it be a proper target man CF? Somewhere in between?
 

NoPace

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A cheap idea that could work is Iheanacho from Leicester for like 15M. They could surely use the money towards filling one of their gaping holes at RW, LCB and the one they'll have in midfield if Tielemans goes. Ideally a swap for McTominay would suit everyone!

He's struggled as a lone striker, but he links up well and might suit Ten Hag's football, and then he can be the backup 9 next year when we buy someone in the summer.

A more realistic one I could actually see happening to be our 9 this year but then a backup after next year would be that 6'7 Kalajdzic that might go to Bayern. 25M or so is fine for a backup 9 these days, and at least you'd have something different off the bench in coming years, and if the plan is to have 60+% of the ball anyways, a giant striker who links up did work for Haller under Ten Hag. Maybe he was even being looked at as a potential replacement for Haller this coming year anyways. Haven't seen him much apart from highlights, but Transfmarket has him as the 38th most valuable striker and apart from Memphis Depay, Cristiano and Ekitike, none of the guys listed as more valuable seem likely to actually move this summer without a massive overpayment.

These probably sound like horrible options but the striker market is insane at the moment and I'm not sure the club or Ten Hag will want to immediately just throw a massive number at Lille to get David, Nice to get Gouiri, Sociedad for Isak or another player they weren't ready to spend on before Cristiano said he wants out.

And personally, I think this year will be tough anyways as it's such a massive adjustment to switch to Ten Hag's style from Ole/Rangnick and this is a multi-year project to sort us out.
 

devilish

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Rashford is off form, Martial doesn't seem to want to play football anymore and we've tried Bruno as a false 9 and it backfired spectacularly. There are some bargains that could be made. Dybala and Belotti are free agents while the likes of Kalajdzic and Moussa Dembele has just 1 year of contract left. However at this point the Glazers need to spend money. Else they should just cash in on the club and leave.
 

Giflet

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Cavani still hasn't really been closely linked with anyone, from what I've seen. It's unlikely but there's always the small chance we convince him to sign on for another season. Gives us a year to find a real replacement.
 

NoPace

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I think playing Bruno as false 9 could be explored. There's simply no 25 goals a season striker available in the market right now, who is within our budget.

DDG
Dalot Varane Martinez Malacia
Fred FDJ
RW Eriksen Sancho
Bruno​
I sort of think VDB as a false 9 is more likely than Bruno.
 

Josep Dowling

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Reading through the entire thread, I think the sanest answers are Joao Felix or Nkunku, but the best answers so far are Danny Ings and Kylian Mbappe.
You think the sanest answers are two players that will cost over £100m?
 

devilish

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Reading through the entire thread, I think the sanest answers are Joao Felix or Nkunku, but the best answers so far are Danny Ings and Kylian Mbappe.
United success started when SAF bought the enfant terrible of French football for a ridiculous fee of 1.2m. We then replaced Hughes with a goal poacher who was considered pretty one dimensional at the time. That goal poacher nearly lost his first team role because of some 23 year old striker bought from Molde and then he left because we signed another 23 year old striker from PSV (whom we would have signed earlier if SAF reacted to his son's suggestions). That Dutch striker lost his place because of a French striker we've bought from Fulham. Along the way we had a Trinidad and Tobago striker bought from Aston Villa who prior joining us was decent but hardly spectacular, a 17 year old striker from Everton who had immense potential but very little experience to match and the enfant terrible of Argentina.

The bottom line of the story is that most of our most lethal strikers weren't exactly WC when we signed them. We went for them because of their potential, their characteristics, their attitude and how all of that fitted with the entire squad and then we turned them into WC. Then we started becoming cautious, at first because we needed a cynical striker upfront to squeeze the last drop of talent from our ageing squad (ex Van Persie) but then because we wanted some big name to paper the cracks (Ibra, Ronaldo etc).

If we want to rebuild the team then we need to take risks again. We need a pool of player that grow together, they fit into the system and they peak together. That can't be done with a 37 year old prima donna who thinks that the world rotate around him.
 

UpWithRivers

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Anyone we go for is a risk. Id take that risk on Schick. He's the right age and experience. I think thats very important. Throwing a 22 year old i.e David etc in to replace Ronaldo is a bit much to ask. Kane/Lewa etc are ungettable.
Schick is a complete forward. Only question is if he is a one season wonder. His stats pervious to last season were never that great. But for 40-50 mill I think he would fit Ten Haags system perfectly.
 

andersj

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I think people are reluctant about the idea of Bruno as a false nine due to his lack of hold up play. We usually think about a false nine as someone who drops deep and is a focal point. I can see why people dont think that is suitable for Bruno.

That being said, EtH did use Tadic as a «striker». I’m not sure it is correct to label it a «false nine». Unless a false nine is just a nine that is really not a nine. But Tadic has several of the same flaws as Bruno. So yeah, maybe that could work.

If we do buy someone I would prefer Oshimen or Felix. If that is not possible, and we have to go for a budget option, I really dont know. DCL is not as bad as some of you make out. Could be smart buying him on the back of this season.
 

Bestietom

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Going to be hard to get in a CF who can score 20/25 goals a sesason now. We should have went all out for Nunez.
What about this guy Evanilson. Anyone from Portugal on this forum, seen him play.