Our Biggest Needs Priority Order

FrankWhite

Not Frank White
Joined
May 3, 2017
Messages
1,001
Looking at the squad, we need 4 players.
1) CF to replace Ronaldo/Martial
2) CDM to spell Eriksen
3)RB to spell/challenge Dalot
4)GK to replace De gea.

Looking at CDM, Bringing in FDJ or a player like him, would be great because rotating him with Eriksen, and Eriksen with Bruno gives us genuine quality and depth in those two areas. I believe FDJ will be an improvement on Eriksen in that role due to the ball carrying dimension he brings. Also, Eriksen will be an improvement on Bruno in the AM role because he can do everything Bruno does but with better refinement and decision making.

Issue is, it is hard to argue that is higher priority than the other three positions.

We literally haven't got anybody to replace Dalot with. If he gets injured, we're fecked.

De Gea, has improved a bit but he still hampers our play from the back, especially against strong pressing oppositions, forcing us to automatically concede possession.

Then you have the CF problem. Martial is the only player that truly fits the mould and he can't stay fit enough to play a full game. And Ronaldo is gone next summer.

Thoughts? Be good if we can get a poll going pleae Mods.

Funny how we've had such a great window with so many players coming straight into the starting lineup yet still so many needs :lol:.
 

RkkMan

Full Member
Joined
May 16, 2019
Messages
2,179
Looking at the squad, we need 4 players.
1) CF to replace Ronaldo/Martial
2) CDM to spell Eriksen
3)RB to spell/challenge Dalot
4)GK to replace De gea.

Looking at CDM, Bringing in FDJ or a player like him, would be great because rotating him with Eriksen, and Eriksen with Bruno gives us genuine quality and depth in those two areas. I believe FDJ will be an improvement on Eriksen in that role due to the ball carrying dimension he brings. Also, Eriksen will be an improvement on Bruno in the AM role because he can do everything Bruno does but with better refinement and decision making.

Issue is, it is hard to argue that is higher priority than the other three positions.

We literally haven't got anybody to replace Dalot with. If he gets injured, we're fecked.

De Gea, has improved a bit but he still hampers our play from the back, especially against strong pressing oppositions, forcing us to automatically concede possession.

Then you have the CF problem. Martial is the only player that truly fits the mould and he can't stay fit enough to play a full game. And Ronaldo is gone next summer.

Thoughts? Be good if we can get a poll going pleae Mods.

Funny how we've had such a great window with so many players coming straight into the starting lineup yet still so many needs :lol:.
For me in order
CF
CM- FDJ or his profile
GK
CB
Laird is having a fantastic loan spell and Dalot is a very good RB with lots of room for growth so I don't think we need a RB.
CF and CM are pretty self explanatory at this stage
GK is 3rd on the list because I think De Gea(trust me I'm FAR from his biggest fan) is improving a bit on his all round play and his shot stopping is still good. I'd still sign a GK but more of a back up that's still a good enough Sweeper GK to provide actual competition or step in if De Gea completely falls apart which Dubravka isn't doing then push for first choice GK in 2024.
CB is unpopular but we literally only have two good options in Martinez and Varane who's injury prone. Maguire is a gigantic flop who's completely lost confidence and Lindelof is a back up at best who's still shaky defensively even though he's good on the ball. One of Maguire/Lindelof(ideally our overrated captain) should be sold next year alongside Bailly with Jones and Axel being released to buy a reliable 3rd choice CB that can step in for Varane or Martinez like Akanji's done for Stones and Dias at City
 

Skills

Snitch
Joined
Jan 17, 2012
Messages
42,010
CM that can play on the turn
CF that can play on the turn
RB that can overlap on the outside
GK that can dominate his box (we're quite a short team now, so it's a bigger problem)
 

JB7

Full Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2008
Messages
8,826
1. Goalkeeper. Most important position to improve by a distance as getting the right goalkeeper in transforms the team both defensively and offensively.
2. Striker.
3. Right back.
4. Centre midfielder.
 

reddevilz007

Full Member
Joined
May 12, 2013
Messages
1,742
1. Goalkeeper. Most important position to improve by a distance as getting the right goalkeeper in transforms the team both defensively and offensively.
2. Striker.
3. Right back.
4. Centre midfielder.
Agree with GK
Everytime DDG gets the ball, we already know we’re going to lose possession. And a GK who can dominate his entire box, not just the 6 yards.
A CM and a number 10.
A CM that can rotate with Eriksen, and a number 10 to replace overrated Bruno.
 

footballbite

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Aug 25, 2022
Messages
329
In order:
Striker
GK
RB

CM and AM


The original post in this thread has missed out AM, and I'd argue that a Bruno replacement is starting to look almost as important as another CM. Bruno used to be able to get goals from the edge of the box, which is very useful against teams who park the bus and leave no space in behind. Utd really missed this ability vs Nicosia and Newcastle.

Utd should be looking for a young player with a cracking long range strike who can start rotating with and eventually replace him over the next 6-18months. I'd even consider someone like James Maddison, given his current form, contract, and Leicester's woes.
 

Desert Eagle

Punjabi Dude
Joined
Sep 25, 2006
Messages
16,778
Striker and goal keeper is crucial.

Then a Bruno replacement and a versatile cover defender.
 

rimaldo

All about the essence
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
40,680
Supports
arsenal
i think it’s fairly clear that our club has special needs.
 

M Bison

Full Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2015
Messages
6,795
Location
In the Wilderness
Supports
York City
For me a striker and its by a distance. The other positions would be nice but a striker would transform us imo.
 

altodevil

Odds winner of 'Odds or Evens 2023/2024'
Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
17,350
Finding a CDM that can spell Eriksen might be difficult if this forum is anything to go by.
 

RexHamilton

Gumshoe for hire
Joined
Feb 13, 2012
Messages
4,417
For me a striker and its by a distance. The other positions would be nice but a striker would transform us imo.
Yep, a striker for me too. One who isn't 40 or made of glass. Would be nice of they could score some goals too, but we can't be too picky.
 

Strootman's Finger

New Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
1,661
Not sure how anyone can look past midfield. If Eriksen can't' start, we're fecked, and he isn't even really a midfielder. We need to build a solid core, then look at attacking options.

But in all honesty, we need a CM,Striker, RB and GK and we need them all now.
 

bosnian_red

Worst scout to ever exist
Joined
Aug 13, 2011
Messages
57,585
Location
Canada
  1. CF who can hold up the ball and link up. Martial magically being not injury prone lowers the need - Felix/Lautaro/Osimhen?
  2. GK who can play out from the back and is commanding in the air - Diogo Costa/Maginan?
  3. DLP who can carry the ball and pass it well and is press resistant - Frenkie/Bennacer?
  4. RB to rotate/compete with Dalit - Malo Gusto/Vanderson?
I would guess that the following will be gone next summer:
  • De Gea maybe, contract expiring (unlikely)
  • Henderson
  • Dubravka
  • Heaton
  • Maguire
  • Jones
  • Tuanzebe
  • Williams
  • Fred
  • Van de Beek
  • Elanga
  • Ronaldo
So that would leave us with the following before incomings:

GK - n/a
RB - Dalot
CB - Varane, Lindelof, Martinez
LB - Shaw, Malacia
DM - Casemiro, McTominay
CM/CAM - Eriksen, Bruno, Hannibal, Iqbal
Wing - Antony, Rashford, Sancho, Garnacho, Amad
CF - Martial

So from here, we'll need a few goalkeepers, a RB to compete, #4 CB to backup Martinez essentially, a deep CM, and then a striker. I think the rest is fine, we'd have 2 players per position with some youngsters adding deeper depth.
 

Mainoldo

New Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2004
Messages
22,965
Equivalents of

1. Martial

2. Bernardo Silva (Finally see the back of Bruno)

3. Alisson Becker. If we didn’t know already Salah’s goal will never happen for us because our keeper doesn’t distribute well

4. Reece James

5. Jude Bellingham (All rounder in the middle)
 

mav_9me

Full Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
12,400
I think we can all agree the top 2 needs are CF and CM/Eriksen like controller.

Am sure we will get them in summer.

For me question is can we get a CF in Jan, somehow do a loan for anybody decent?

I've seen loaning Felix with commitment to buying in summer but I don't think he is a good No.9, as good a player he is.
 

Lee565

Full Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2019
Messages
4,978
Midfield, ronaldo is bad but christ fred is on another level of awful, the guy is dreadful technically and without a good midfield how are we going to supply the attackers without them feeding on limited half chances.
 

Volumiza

The alright "V", B-Boy cypher cat
Joined
Jul 13, 2018
Messages
13,510
Location
Somewhere in the middle
1. Bring in another ball playing CM, replace Martial, Ronaldo and Rashford asap and get Bruno on the bench for a bit / forever
2. Anything else
 

Rozay

Master of Hindsight
Joined
Oct 22, 2012
Messages
27,025
Location
...
1. Striker
2. Central Midfielder
3. Goalkeeper
4. Centre half.

Striker only edges centre midfield due to the fact that Martial has questionable fitness, otherwise I'd have them equal. A top class CM would be the most transformative for the side, but that is a side that has Martial playing at least, which can't be guaranteed. But I think replacing Bruno with Bellingham or FDJ would make us a significantly better football team - certainly our first XI. Another striker would give us a significantly better squad.

A dominating goalkeeper is also needed to further enhance what is an improving defence, and centre half cover is needed with Maguire being sold.
 

Rozay

Master of Hindsight
Joined
Oct 22, 2012
Messages
27,025
Location
...
For me a striker and its by a distance. The other positions would be nice but a striker would transform us imo.
A striker would 'transform' a United team that has Martial injured. But a midfielder would transform our first XI even with everyone fit.
 

Adam-Utd

Part of first caf team to complete Destiny raid
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Messages
39,954
A striker, maybe even 2.

Another RB as AWB has been abducted by aliens and clearly wasn't fancied.
 

Adnan

Talent Spotter
Joined
Oct 5, 2013
Messages
29,862
Location
England
We need a goalkeeper, deep roaming play-maker and a striker. But it's important we sign the correct profile of players for the roles in question, and attributes and traits also need to be looked at carefully among other things.

But for me a deep roaming play-maker with the ability to dictate play and carry the ball, would make a big difference. I'm also hoping to see Hannibal Mejbri integrated into the team next season which would hopefully give ten Hag more options in midfield and hence put pressure on under performing players.
 

mu4c_20le

Full Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2013
Messages
42,728
Not sure i see us signing another midfielder for big money after spunking 70m on Casemiro. Unless it's fdj but only because ETH insists.
 

Idxomer

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2014
Messages
15,013
A midfielder - Very important to have the option to bench Bruno which we don't have now despite the overall low quality of his performances.

A striker - This doesn't need explaining.

A goalkeeper - Despite the slight uptick in De Gea's sweeping, you just can't trust him long-term and he'll never be able to command his box.

All those are equally important to me and a right-back is just behind them though Laird can save the club the trouble of trying to find one.
 

Valencia Shin Crosses

Full Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2015
Messages
6,501
Location
"Martial...He's isolated Skrtel here..."
1. CF- Has to be an all-arounder. I'd rather someone that doesn't have huge goal tallies if they bring great hold up play, creativity, and overall just quality technique. Give me a Benzema clone over top poacher.

2. GK- No need to go over this again. We need a modern sweeper keeper, as everyone knows it'll instantly upgrade us both on and off the ball and how we control games.

3. Midfielder- I'm open to this being any of a DM, 8, or even closer to a 10. But we need more quality here, and quite frankly would be smart to even buy multiple midfielders. Someone that can replace Bruno would be ideal (but as more of an offensive 8 than a pure production 10 probably). But I'd take any sort of profile player that offers more technical quality and passing ability to our squad.

4. CB- Maguire needs to go, and Lindelof is just okay at this point. I think it would be a shrewd move for ETH to go get a young deputy CB that can eventually replace Varane. Ndicka is my choice for this spot. We can afford to be picky.
 

TwoSheds

More sheds (and tiles) than you, probably
Joined
Feb 12, 2014
Messages
12,739
Not arsed about CM. If a special player is available sure, but I'd like to see Mainoo and Mejbri getting eased into the team if possible. Unless they're not developing as the manager wants for whatever reason of course.

Right back very much depends on how Laird is getting on and whether he can stay fit. I quite like Dalot but I just don't see that he's ever going to be a world class full back. If we could sign an exciting full back then I'd certainly be happy.

Centre half I'd like to see Maguire shipped out and replaced with a young, physical player. Maybe the Korean lad at Napoli? I worry about our defence without Varane. I don't mind Lindelof myself but I'd rather he wasn't 3rd choice when we've an injury prone first choice.

Centre forward is by far the most important though for me. Our finishing and movement in the box has been too crap for too long. Weirdly Sancho is probably the best at this but he looks lost at basic football at the moment. I want someone with good pace, agility and close control who can link up properly with Bruno so he's not constantly trying to force it to a target man.
 

SWE-Chucky

Full Member
Joined
May 9, 2017
Messages
403
Location
Stockholm
Supports
AIK Stockholm
Didn't the club the announce that we will NOT bring this many players, like we did this summer (6 including Dubravka), next summer. So if we expect to lose 7-8 players again like some suggest, that will mean that we will need to bring in at lest 6-7-8 new players again because we already right now still need a back up for RB, back up for a deep playing CM, a new striker.

So I can get equation make sense. Either we go for another summer where we spend 200-250m because the players many would like us to get rid of, De Gea, Henderson, Heaton, Maguire, Jones, Tuanzebe, Williams, VdB, Fred, Elanga, Ronaldo, Wan Bissaka, Telles (maybe i have forgotten someone). But that would need get rid of 3 GKp, 3 CBs, 3 fullbacks, 2 CMs, 1 winger and 1 striker to start with that needs to be replaced. And like i said, we already need a backup for RB, CM, ST.

IF we get rid of all these players, can someone please explain how we can finance 7-8 new players that hopefully should be better then the ones we get rid of (otherwise what is the purpose to sell the players we have)?

Oblak GK (70m euro)
Backup GK (10m)
Backup GK (2m)
At least 2 CBs to cover for Varane, Martinez and Lindelöf (30m for both)
De Jong for the deep playing CM (75m euro)
A high class winger? Rafa Leao (130m euro)
A high class striker? J. David (40-50m), Osimhen (100mwi euro)
= Thats around 400m - Very realistic that will happen next summer when our director said a couple of days ago that neither amount of players or net spend will be close to what it was this summer

So if someone can explain how we will get rid of all these players we "don't like" and need to replace,will happen?

We would get maybe 80-90m for all players mentioned above if we sell them, se we need another 300m from Glazers to spend to replace the players we release or sell to buy better players, which is the whole idea by selling players and buying new ones if we want to improve our squad and take the next step in right direction and try to get back to top, where we expect us to belong.

If all this will happen then maybe we should also try to go all in for Mbappe since Madrid doesn't want him, Barcelona got Lewandowski and City Haaland. Antony (100m) - Mbappe (200m) - Rafa Leao (130m) - very realistic.
 

acnumber9

Full Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2006
Messages
22,253
Anybody who thinks we need a goalkeeper before another midfielder needs their head looking at.
 

Cathy Ferguson

Full Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2010
Messages
3,940
A CF is clearly a must. Ronaldo is done at the top level and Martial is injury prone and has not proven himself despite all his technical ability.

Does the Café rate Vlahovic? Isn't he more allround than Osimhen? Both would be expensive but better option than Toney at 60m.
 

Jericholyte2

Full Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2004
Messages
3,536
Striker
.
.
.
.
CM
.
.
RB
GK
CB

I’d expect the following to be sold / released to help fund them:

Henderson
Tuanzebe / Jones / Bailly / Maguire (I’d take anything over 30m)
Telles / AWB
VDB
Ronaldo
 

croadyman

Full Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2018
Messages
34,327
Midfield, ronaldo is bad but christ fred is on another level of awful, the guy is dreadful technically and without a good midfield how are we going to supply the attackers without them feeding on limited half chances.
Need someone to finish just as much
 

croadyman

Full Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2018
Messages
34,327
I think we can all agree the top 2 needs are CF and CM/Eriksen like controller.

Am sure we will get them in summer.

For me question is can we get a CF in Jan, somehow do a loan for anybody decent?

I've seen loaning Felix with commitment to buying in summer but I don't think he is a good No.9, as good a player he is.
I wish we could loan one in January