How many players do we need to sign this summer?

Quality with real mentality over quantity and hype. Realistically three vital signings is a must to progress against teams that will surely spend this summer and progress on their own.

Manager also must progress or we'll simply be found out, yet again.

Three potential first team players. Defence, midfield and attack. Two potential squad players. Defence and midfield. Potential as in Telles I assume was ment to be a squad player and DvB and Cavani were ment to be potential first teamers, at the very least squad. Sell those never playing along with DvB, Pogba and possibly Martial. Extend Cavanis loan

None!
Time for the youngsters and the deadwood to step up a gear.

Feed Me said:

The same as usual: a commanding CB, a holding midfielder, a right winger and a CF.

We don’t need a new thread on this topic so frequently, since the answer is the same as it has been for about ten years.

Click to expand...

Yup. Pretty alarming how often the same positions come up every year.

A centre back, a midfielder, a right winger and a striker. Given the reality of the impact COVID will have had on finances I think two of those will be addressed, maybe even only one.

Last summer made sense to go for depth. Now we need some added first team quality for the most part. Only really need depth for RB. If we're talking about addressing every need right now and having a squad capable of truly challenging, then that would be:

• RW starter - Sancho
• RB depth - Trippier
• CB starter - Kounde?
• CDM starter - Ndidi
• CM - Keep Pogba
• ST - Haaland

Not going to happen all at once though, and we'll do it the normal squad building way, so I'd bet we keep the grouping of Cavani/Greenwood/Martial as strikers and develop Greenwood to take over eventually to be the striker (which is what I'd do anyway). I don't see us keeping Pogba or getting Ndidi anyway, but generally that midfield 2 will need a revamp to truly get to the top level, as it needs both better defensive holding and more creativity/ability on the ball/progression ability. Pogba is fine with a quality DM, but as he's likely gone it'd need to be replaced. I think this summer we'll just get a RW like Sancho, a starter at CB and then RB depth like Trippier. Then we can have something like the below 2 lineups, with the following year making Greenwood starter, getting striker depth, and sorting out the midfield duo.

Must Have: Goalkeeper (not-De Gea), and midfielder who can play in midfield two but defensive minded (Ndidi I like).

Nice to have:
1) Centre Back because at some point one of Maguire and Lindelof will get injured.
2) winger (Pedro Neto type of nifty hard working player).

If we sell Pogba and Martial we can get CB and CM. In which case we only need funds for a winger. Doable.
In more pessimistic scenario where Henderson isn't the answer we're in deep shit.

One. Haaland.

Sell:
Pogba
Martial
Matic
Jones
De Gea
Lingard
Mata

Buy:
Nikola Milenković
SMS
Declan Rice
Max Aarons
Sancho
Ivan Toney
A backup keeper to Henderson.

PS: i don't think we'd be able to sign Haaland.

Sign up Pogba, Rice or Ndidi, Sancho and a DC

Will never happen though with the glazers

Feed Me said:

The same as usual: a commanding CB, a holding midfielder, a right winger and a CF.

We don’t need a new thread on this topic so frequently, since the answer is the same as it has been for about ten years.

Click to expand...

At the very least, we have tried to address the CB and CDM issue. It's truly baffling how we've just ignore RW since like a decade now.

There are 5 positions to fill, CB, CDM, RW, CF and a DoF.

Highly doubt we fill more than two (for first team) this next window.

We are in desperate need for a rw and a cdm in the summer.

We have spent the best part of £80m for three players to play on the right, ( Pellestri Diallo and James) all of whom are players with potential and not likely to feature as much as they should given the financial outlay. I really do question the logic in buying three players to play one position given that we will no doubt try to buy a more established rw option. All three should have had more game time, especially now as theres less pressure due to absence of fans in the stadium, but not much surprises me with the running of the team these days

We actually have a quick, decent cb in Bailly, but it seems hes either injured or dropped even after impressive displays and wont be afforded a run of games to prove his true worth.

At cf we could be rotating Greenwood with Cavani instead of putting him out on the right and hoping he will do well. MG playing upfront and only upfront would bring out the best in him.

A cdm like Ndidi would be ideal, however being Manchester United and having the ego of Ed Woodward we would no doubt pay way over the top for him and thus blow most of our budget of him.

Which brings me nicely onto the next point.
A DoF is essential to keep the continuity of the football project going. Managers come and go, players come and go, but having that one man whose sole mission it is to find players that fit our system and fill gaps in the squad is essential to the team.
A good DoF is more important than filling any holes lacking in the team.
With a good DoF we wouldnt have those holes in the squad. Said DoF negates the need for EW to get involved with negotiations and scouting of talent. Theres not as much need to spend such exuberant fees as a good DoF will unearth a diamond in the rough as for every £100m Sancho out there, theres a £20m Payet/Mahrez (as examples) out there.

A striker, a right winger, a centre back, and a defensive midfielder. In that order.

United only need one 'player' - DoF.

I'm convinced that the Glazers are going to mess up any plans this summer sadly, they are awful owners. Last summer was unforgivable. Really frustrating that we can't make the moves required to close the gap in terms of squad quality because these idiots don't know how to make money outside of owning sports teams.

Three or four.

CB
RB (back up)
CDM
ST

If Pogba goes then we'll need to replace him.

Dont we have this thread every season and every season it seems to be the same answer which shows how bad our recruitment has been
CB
CDM
ST

Hawks2008 said:

A striker, a right winger, a centre back, and a defensive midfielder. In that order.

Click to expand...

Would switch the order of striker and centre back but also add in a backup right back too

croadyman said:

Would switch the order of striker and centre back but also add in a backup right back too

Click to expand...

Not for me, would rather go another season of Maguire/Lindelof at the back than see the same striker options again.

We could sign 10 players, but if we do not develop an attacking plan, I don't see us winning anything anytime soon.

11

Someone better than Fred.
Someone better than McTominay.
Someone better than James.
Someone better than Martial.
Someone better than Lindelof.
Someone better than Wan Bissaka.

While these frauds are getting regular game time, we're at nothing.

Many....

Is the correct answer.

As many as we want but the coaching has to improve too.

AgentSmith said:

Depends if the Glazers are willing to give reasonable backing and allow all the money raised by selling the fringe players to be reinvested. Also then depends on the fee we can generate for Pogba.

This is probably a slightly unrealistic list but it doesn’t seem too far from what could be achieved with some intent and conviction in a Covid-stricken market.

In:

Trippier
Milenković
Camavinga
Sancho

Out:

Dalot
Jones
Pereira
Lingard
James
Pogba
Mata
Chong

De Gea Henderson

AWB Trippier
Milenković Bailly
Maguire Lindelof
Shaw Telles

Camavinga Matic
Fred McTominay

Sancho Diallo
Bruno VDB
Rashford Martial

Cavani Greenwood

With players like Grant, Tuanzebe, Williams, Garner, Pellistri, Shoretire etc. filling out the rest of the squad.

(I’d personally cash in on De Gea and Martial and add their replacements to the ’in’ list as well but it seems improbable and unrealistic to include this)

Click to expand...

You arent very smart moving on that many players we'd have a tiny squad that wouldn't challenge in all compitetions

A fair few. Much is made of our apparent individual brilliance but I’m not convinced.

We have a team full of solid performers and grafters but the reality is that we lack star power.

In terms of the front 6, we've been too reliant on Rashford and Fernandes. They've had a pretty shitty couple of weeks to be honest. Back in the day, different attackers stepped up at different times of the season. The likes of James, Martial and Greenwood have not stepped up at all.

Of course, we used to have just the one workhorse midfielder back then. Now we have two limited centre midfielders, and a right back who can't move properly with the ball.

Big argument to upgrade everyone bar shaw, Bruno and pogba. That includes the manager

We need to sort out how to play as a team first. Then we can think of replacing players.

This "direct" approach is border ridiculous.

Striker
Rw (could live without one)
Cm
Rb
Cb

Haland. We are missing a real #9.. if we had haland this season there would be a title race i believe.
Sancho. Out and out rw could dowonders for our creativity.
For cm i dunno. But we need someone who can do a job defensively but also has vision and passing ability. Fred mctominay together lacks that.
Rb to compete with awb. Trippier would be a decent shou aa he wouldnt shake thing up to much but offer things awb doesnt.
Cb to challenge lindelof and mcguire. Im not sold on upcamenco though.

Striker,RW

Striker and a quality right sided attacker.. priority.
Its not asking for new toys every year either.. we havent had a right winger since Nani.. its been years. and a 9 has been needed since we sold Lukaku... We got Ighalo on a loan and Cavani on a short term deal (clearly not fit enough to play every game).. we need reliable options for those 2 positions.

At least 5.

drunkmonkmeth said:

Striker
Rw (could live without one)
Cm
Rb
Cb

Haland. We are missing a real #9.. if we had haland this season there would be a title race i believe.
Sancho. Out and out rw could dowonders for our creativity.
For cm i dunno. But we need someone who can do a job defensively but also has vision and passing ability. Fred mctominay together lacks that.
Rb to compete with awb. Trippier would be a decent shou aa he wouldnt shake thing up to much but offer things awb doesnt.
Cb to challenge lindelof and mcguire. Im not sold on upcamenco though.

Click to expand...

No need to be when he’s already signed for Bayern Munich next season.

drunkmonkmeth said:

You arent very smart moving on that many players we'd have a tiny squad that wouldn't challenge in all compitetions

Click to expand...

City have used a core squad of 22 players to compete in 4 competitions with ease.

Pep must not be very smart either.

We need at least 5 players, and quality ones at that.

I have no idea who the club is going to sign in the Summer. It's random. We'll have a list of 5 targets, and we'll end up with 5 completely different ones to what we're expecting.

An attacking right back, a quality striker, a class midfielder who can actually pass and shoot, and we also need a top quality centre back or two.

charlenefan said:

I ask the question because in recent weeks we've seen injuries to Bailly, Pogba, VDB, McTominay & Cavani has left very little room for rotation

Seems likely Mata will go in the summer, if Pogba isn't going to sign a new contract than this is the summer to sell him as well and given his rise in form now's the time to let Lingard go as well

Does this mean then that like last summer this summer will be spent signing more squad options like Telles and VDB rather than players who will improve the starting XI? Because after all it's a lot less expensive to sign 3 or 4 backup players than it is 3 or 4 players top class players better than what we have already

Its a little concerning seeing as many are expecting an actual real title challenge next season

Click to expand...

Those people need to adjust their expectations. Title challenge is not on the cards anytime soon.

We'll reportedly look to bring in two players, one established and one younger player/backup. That should hopefully be enough to achieve our aim of top 4.

Some of these lists are mental. People are casually listing half a squad. Some of these recommendations aren't even likely over 2 summers. It's like we haven't even started the rebuild if this is to be believed

The midfield is the worst area of our team. Too little quality, and if Pogba goes, will be even worse. We need a midfield that is better with the ball than without it.