Very nice of Barca to give us a 50% discount on Alexis.
Thomas Vermaelen
- Thread starter Santos J
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Mascherano will probably get minutes in midfield unlike past seasons but Rakitić, Iniesta and Busquets will definitely be their first choice.
I doubt we are fuming, why would we swap a defender for another defender when a defender is what we need, more rubbish form the papers.http://www.express.co.uk/sport/foot...-Barcelona-bid-for-Arsenal-s-Thomas-Vermaelen
LvG is inconsolable, mate. My sources say that LvG, Woody, and Anderson spent last night eating ice cream and sobbing whilst watching Vermaelen highlights.
http://www.express.co.uk/sport/foot...-Barcelona-bid-for-Arsenal-s-Thomas-Vermaelen
while most on here will be cheering he has gone to BarcaNow with him out of the way we can focus on signing a proper, top quality centre back. We still need a central defender and a central midfielder for sure.
And yous helped Barca buy Suarez so happy f*cking days all round!
Atleast we wont have to play against him, tho, i think he'd be good for a goal or two.
After this, I hope van Gaal goes after every young talent Wenger goes for. Just to shit on his face.
After this, I hope van Gaal goes after every young talent Wenger goes for. Just to shit on his face.
Louis the XXX will be shitting his pants after the first 10 games.
Have you seen our start to the league?
I don't understand why on earth Arsenal thought you'd take a swap deal. Smalling is a better defender than Vermaelen and the reason you would have signed him was for depth so that was never going to happen. Bit odd.
15 million is a joke as well. That's two defenders Barca have well overpaid for this season.
15 million is a joke as well. That's two defenders Barca have well overpaid for this season.
Wenger taking the piss.
I read today Barca have paid for a third of the Emirates stadium with transfer fees since the project begun.
The Smalling swap was always odd. He's probably our fastest and most athletic defender at the club. No way we would part with him for Vermaelen. Still I think we need another experienced defender. You would think it would be Evans with all of the time he's gotten next to Rio/Vidic but he still seems inconsistent at times.
Vermaelen is much better than Smalling IMO. I think we should have went for the swap.
I don't....smalling actually has a future with us and is way less injured.
1) Vermaelen is maybe better than Smalling.....but "much better" sounds like Vermaelen is the best defender in the world and Smalling is Championship level
2) We need more defenders if we're playing 3-5-2....a swap means we're again short of 1-2 CB's
Smalling is younger though, he can surpass Vermaelen in time if he can stay clear of injury.
I don't think he has a future with us all. Being young doesn't mean they're worth keeping around. Smalling can be caught ball watching an awful lot of the time and he's prone to conceding headers. I think he's painfully average and not really United quality at all.
The 3 CB formation covers up his weaknesses and even then, I'm not confident in Smallings/Jones/Evans as a trio. Compared to all the other top teams like Madrid, Bayern, PSG, Arsenal, Liverpool, City, Juventus etc, our defense is distinctively average in the CB positions.
I can only hope we have a Vertonghen or a Subotic or somebody lined up. I don't think we would get Hummels or Benatia or anything like that. Even guys like Rojo or Kaya would be good.
Smalling is by far and away our best defender, and certainly a better defender then Vermaelen. He does, admittedly, have issues with the ball at his feet.
I'm concerned with our defence too, but its Jones I have the major worries about. And either way Vermealen was never going to be the answer.
I'm concerned with our defence too, but its Jones I have the major worries about. And either way Vermealen was never going to be the answer.
Jonny Evans is our best defender. But that's not really saying much. Vermaelen is good enough to play for Barcelona. Would Chris Smalling be?
I've noticed he doesn't want the ball when we're trying to play it out from the back, you need every player on the team looking to create angles to help their teammate in possession, not hiding or blocking off the striker. If he can sort that out then he'll go on to have a good career.
Evans is our best defender on the ball, defensively its Smalling. Quite clearly.
Horses for courses really. Smalling wouldn't suit a passing team like Barca, no. He's just not good enough on the ball to suit a system like that. But then again neither would the likes of Vidic or Terry. Doesn't make them bad defenders.
back up to your usual tricks then
RAWK logic!
Don't like the move at all, regardless of the fees involved - smacks of desperation
That line of thought is exactly why you are gracing internet fora with your superior knowledge and the likes of Wenger and LvG are making millions managing football !
Surely it would have made more sense to use the ~£35m on one top class centre back than Mathieu and Vermaelen? 1 new centre back would have been enough I reckon, with Piqué, Bartra and Mascherano (if that's where Luis Enrique wants to use him) already there.
I don't think Mathieu is a bad player, and he's versatile which is good, but at his age the signing doesn't make much sense. Vermaelen on the other hand isn't particularly quick like Mathieu, isn't that good defensively and is injury prone. Good on the ball, but that's not enough to make a good signing.
I actually like the Mathieu signing very much, just not by himself - I would've preferred a more elite profile CB (Right footed) who was young as the 2nd one, not Vermaelen. I believe the idea is the shift from 4-3-3 into a 3-2-3-2 or 3-4-3 formation and that's where a left footed CB like Mathieu along with a fleet footed R-CB made sense. Now, however? No idea what they are thinking
There's little I like about Vermaelen, he was so far off the radar that it's clear it was a move of desperation although I never understood why Marquinhos was the player the club put all their eggs in the basket for
Time will tell that Vermaelen definitely isn't good enough for Barcelona. In terms of actual defending, you know that thing you want defenders to do, Vermaelen is significantly worse than our 3.
Years from now, people will find it difficult to recollect Vermaelen as a barca defender. Close thread.
Hummels is the dream CB signing but as United fans we know that dream signings usually dont happen for us. Unfortunately world class CBs can be counted on one hand and we already have good potential CBs so I think signing one is out of reach for this window unless we're buying a squad player.
I think we can close this as he is signing for Barca today. If it falls thoruhg we can always open it again.
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