Meh, probably more than now but it wasn't standout. He's been average his whole career. The clamour for him in the summer was bizarreHe was in Italy
Sofyan Amrabat | 2023/24 Performances
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
There's small possibility that he might stay, just on the basis that it might be the most financially prudent thing to do. Especially if Fiorentina accept something lower than the originally agreed €25m, something around €15m-18m.
- Eriksen's legs are gone since his injury in April last season. He's not a DM anyway. Mount will replace him long term, hopefully.
- McTominay is on his last year of contract and it might be more prudent to sell him as he otherwise leaves for free, and all the money his sale would raise is profit as far as FFP is concerned.
- Casemiro might be better to find a Saudi buyer for. Because not only have his performances fallen off a cliff, but he's 32 and on £360k per week. Amrabat is on £75k. Amrabat's salary plus £15m to Fiorentina is cheaper than keeping Case next year alone. Never mind into 25/26 when his contract runs until.
If the club prioritise getting rid of the above and signing new CB, LB, DM, CF, then I can see why they might opt to sign Amrabat as a stop-gap for backup only.
- Eriksen's legs are gone since his injury in April last season. He's not a DM anyway. Mount will replace him long term, hopefully.
- McTominay is on his last year of contract and it might be more prudent to sell him as he otherwise leaves for free, and all the money his sale would raise is profit as far as FFP is concerned.
- Casemiro might be better to find a Saudi buyer for. Because not only have his performances fallen off a cliff, but he's 32 and on £360k per week. Amrabat is on £75k. Amrabat's salary plus £15m to Fiorentina is cheaper than keeping Case next year alone. Never mind into 25/26 when his contract runs until.
If the club prioritise getting rid of the above and signing new CB, LB, DM, CF, then I can see why they might opt to sign Amrabat as a stop-gap for backup only.
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Was on the fence and wondered if the lack of playing time was an issue but after the weekend, thats was really bad and beyond anything Scott or Fred served up.
I remember looking at his stats on fbref and he was averaging +90% passing success (one of the highest in the league) and a very low number of turnovers. He was obviously quite unadventurous with his passing, but that you can take from a deep -lying midfielder. The problem was that his defensive stats were very very low. I also remember on the final with West Ham, when they were trying to pressure him he would find an easy way out generally.
I'm not here to say he's not an average player, I'm saying that at least as far as stats are concerned he did look quite press resistant in Italy. The disclaimer obviously is that Italy is a slower tempo league, both your opponents press less and your team doesn't transition as quickly. You have more time and options there as a CDM to find passes.
Yes exactly. If he realised his level, accepted it and played it simple, he would survive more games. Now he tried to play some kind of playmaker role without the skills needed and the opponents feast on that.
It is probably comedy gold to the rest of the football world. I admire his work ethic and therefore I like the guy, and just feel sorry for him. It he moves so slowly and without any shielding of the ball what so ever. And he is often dropping deep when he starts his carries, which means losing in really vulnerable areas. He must be a nightmare for the centre backs.
If he starts the final, City will be allll over him like a rabid pack; not only does he turn slowly, he thinks slowly and releases even slower - that's like 3 distinct points where a turnover has a high probability of happening, on top of that, you've got him flapping after the initial mistake where he bumbles into who he's chasing, which is a yellow/accumulative red waiting to happen.
I too like the guy for his heart and endeavour, but he's well out of his depth at the pace and intensity PL teams play at. On a massive pitch like Wembley with a less compact unit around him, he's got the world on his shoulders. Cannon ball sub over starter.
His stats looking good for passing In Italy were easily explained in his first couple of appearances, always wants the ball, constantly dropped deeper than the CB's to pick the ball up. Pings a decent cross field switch but not very good at passing through the lines.
He does play like a player with irrational confidence in his own ability, he is not that guy at PL level.
He does play like a player with irrational confidence in his own ability, he is not that guy at PL level.
I agree. Some of the criticism is pretty harsh and nobody can claim that I am an Amrabat fan. I think, the major mistake was seeing him as a DM. He is not. He is a passer from deep, one that is decently physical and decently aggressive. I always like the look of him, I had him in mind for taking the spot of Eriksen in the team of last year. Not the DM but a CM who is moving the ball around and isn't a slouch so at least can contribute more in defence than Eriksen. But when we changed setup this year, I think the environment changed too much. His stats from last season were really good, he was one of the best passers (especially long passers) of the ball in Europe. So his reputation isn't just based on the international tournament, only (or mostly) the notion that he is a DM.
I think, the situation is quite tricky. Despite his flaws, I consider him as one of our best midfielders these days. Because his skillset is more rounded than the one of McTominay and Eriksen, he is probably more suited to an actual CM role than Mount, maybe even Bruno as he has some bite him and can tackle. And given Casemiros season and his potential decline, he isn't that massively behind. I certainly wouldn't extend his deal for the conditions that were reported, but when we talk about 5-9 million, I guess it'd win me over. I mean, at the end of the day, we underperformed massively this season and this will always reflect on individual seasons as well. Just as a working system in teams like Dortmund will make individuals look better.
He'd be a great player at x1.25 speed.
I mean yeah all of that is correct, but with the addition that while dropping deep at Fiorentina and asking for the ball all the time, he wasn't really responsible for giving away many dangerous turnovers. He was pretty decent and quite press resistant for Italy.
The main caveat is that EPL is not Serie A and many here could easily foresee that his lack of pace and vision would be exposed and exploited in a fast paced league like the EPL. I was more worried about his defensive numbers which were horrendously low for deep midfielder.
I called him a Sunday league player and I regret saying that for the simple reason I admire the guy for the effort he puts in when he wears the shirt. Having said that I really do hope Ten Hag doesn't play him in the cup final. It just wouldn't be fair to him.
Amrabat was horrendous in his last game against City. Starting him again in the final would be a foreseeable disasterclass.
And if opposition players can’t tackle him until he’s the ball at his feet 10 seconds
Just like Antony. The scouts and recruitment team warned against signing him and put a ceiling of 20m on his valuation.
This idea that our scouts are shit doesn't hold water - they've been ignored and marginalized for years.
this thread drives me crazy. People just ignoring that he clearly isnt good enough for this level, yet we should just throw around 20 million like it is ok to blow that on a trash player. Prob the same people who claim our players are only worth 5-10 million tops.
We can’t keep him, it will just be another player we want rid of in 12 months time and will either be stuck with or take a big loss on.
You can’t fault his effort but he just isn’t good enough and we really need to make sure we aren’t retaining these type of players anymore.
I’ve no doubt he will be gone in the summer, Erisken and Casemiro will likely go as well with couple of players coming in. The compromise will be another year of Mctominay most likely.
Yeah I dont get it either. i'd rather take a punt on someone like Archie Gray if leeds lose next week. Young, press resistant, high ceiling, can play multiple positions
It's madness. He had two half decent performances before the last game and people wanted us to exercise the buy clause..."He is not that bad". People never seem to learn. It's like we have 10's of Woody's on the forum. I hope the new management is smarter than that.
He is completely unsuited to this league. Slow, cumbersome and crumbles under pressure. He can ping a ball or two and looks nice doing it when there is no pressure. The same happened in the final against West Ham, he looked neat and tidy when West Ham sat back in the first half of the final but looked ordinary as they became more assertive in the second half. And then folks on here declared he is better than Rice.
This. People here tend to forget that even to be a useful squad player, there's still a baseline level of quality and reliability that's required.
Have we made his signing permanent yet.?
It really depends on what salary he gets and how much we pay Fiorentina. He's a 27yo, on the last year of his contract. He reportedly only earns somewhere between £65-75k pw, according to capology. The deal with Fiorentina is for £21m (€25m) although that could be cancelled and renegotiated downwards. I don't think there's a scenario where we can take a big loss on him, even if you had to write it all off. The numbers bandied around are quite small by modern standards. McTominay will cost more if he leaves on a free. Being a homegrown player and all.
But yeah it's hard to argue that he has done enough to deserve a place here.
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I imagine he’d demand a pay rise and Fiorentina wouldn’t drop that price by much but even if they did we just shouldn’t even be contemplating signing someone we know isn’t very good just to make up the numbers. It’s same kind of logic we’ve used for years retaining players and it’s why we get stuck with so much dross. We’d lose out because no one is giving him wages we’d be paying or paying a decent fee for him in 12 months time.
He only started 10 league games and a few of those were at left back. Replace him with a younger player for same money or even someone from the u21s or the academy for a season. Even a loan or someone on a one year contract, we’re only replacing someone who has had about 3 or 4 good games.
That performance against Brighton was quite hilarious. He's obviously not good enough for the long term but I don't that was his 'regular' form. I do think he should have had an extended run of games to get some match rhythm but that could be said of half the squad tbh.
If he starts against City, I hope he plays really well and scores a fecking screamer to win us the game or something. He's been close a few times this season from outside the box.
If he starts against City, I hope he plays really well and scores a fecking screamer to win us the game or something. He's been close a few times this season from outside the box.
He had a run of playing all our important/bigger games before the african cup of nations. He had a few months after that where he was down the pecking order but thats going to happen if the team has to move on when you choose to go play in a tournament mid season.
amadou onana for 30-40m pounds is better than any DM we have now
Everton bought him for just under £30 million August 2022
Doesnt seem likely they'd sell him without a significant increase unless his contract runs down. Similar to how they bought Lukaku for just over £30 million and didnt sell until they were offered over £71 million for him, by us. His contract is until 2027 as he signed a 5 year deal
I think it's team dependent and is caused by what the opposition are doing and in turn determining what he has to do to try and match them or stay in the game. Brighton's football leaves opposing players with more choices to make on when to stick and when to twist and they purposely attempt to draw midfielders out to play around them - midfielders have to have their wits about them and be confident of their decisions vs. them, but they also have to be able to do what they set out to do so they aren't caught in no man's land. I also think you have to have a handle on your own capabilities against sides like that so you can be more superfluous with the micromanagement of your own game.
When CM's are really uncomfortable, their timing goes to pot and that's when they are often too late to tackles or start to misplace what look like basic passes and often get that heavy-footed gait because of pauses for thought. It happens to the best of them when their legs are gone, but it's equally seen in young players learning the ropes or players who are playing (and trying to keep up) in a game that's overloading/overwhelming them.
As long as the game is in front of him and not too complex or intricate, I think Amrabat can look perfectly fine, but once he's bombarded with movement and information whilst being pressured into making split decisions, you're likely to see him unravel. He's clearly quite a good footballer when allowed time and isn't being swarmed, but if you turn the dial up, like some midfields in the PL do as a point of order, you're going to see the comedy element come to the fore as the poor guy starts to get scrambled.
Certain midfields in the league are custom-made to mess him up and make him look worse than he is - or at least shine a light on what he isn't - and I'd also expect that he'll mostly look better as a sub than a starter because the 1st halves are mostly battles for the right to play and are more aggressive and hectic whilst, after 60min or so, most teams are lessening their pressing and pressures as their legs tire, which will logically be a better environment for Amrabat.
He has that rare combination that we rarely see of being slow as an athlete, slow technically and slow in thought... slow players who make it tend to be amongst the fastest thinkers on the pitch and often have really good technique under pressure to go with it....
I don't disagree. He definitely has some fundamental issues but he's still capable of performing in certain situations and tactics. Heck, him just being somewhat of an orthodox midfielder and ETH abandoning the 4/5 man press, made us a bit harder to play against in the last 3 games. I think Amrabat had a genuine 3 or 4 out of 10 game against Brighton. A lot of unenforced errors, which you've rightly highlighted are due to making decisions in those half moments where you have time and space but also are very close to being pressed. For someone who has not played much this season or with regularity, I'm sure his football brain deserted him more than he wanted.
My whole short point was that I think it's a shame he and others (e.g Eriksen, Amad etc) haven't had much match rhythm this whole season. From what was a 3/4 game, with some minutes in his legs, he may have 'elevated' that to a 5 or 6. Still not good enough but at least not the self sabotaging mistakes he showed on Sunday and it raises the bottom level.
Overall though, this is all on ETH with his stubborn suicidal tactics. He's given such a low platform to perform for all the players, I almost feel sorry for them. I recall last year how you and I was aghast at the signing of Mount and looking with envy at Caicedo. Seems like we were every right to be so disappointed despite the latter's rocky season.
he was absolutely immense. Worth the loan fee alone for that performance! 
My MOTM. Was everywhere today
Couldn’t agree more, was everywhere, braver with the ball and put in a great performance, the player we thought we would have all season.he was absolutely immense. Worth the loan fee alone for that performance!
MOTM for me.
Happy for him, he has endured a terrible season but has come good in the last few weeks
Obvious cliche incoming… but he played like a new signing today. That performance alone was worth the loan fee.
Probably his best performance for us. Not going to get carried away and call for us to sign him though.
Played well, some moments when he was a bit tentative on the ball but he was tough, physical and somehow showed a surprising turn of pace.
Brought the Morocco 2022 spirit.
Best performance by any United-player all season
He is good in a low block..
Good performance, makes you wonder why he was not played more.
Had a very good partnership with Martinez imo. Shame he never had a stable CB partnership behind him all season.