Aleksandar Dragović - defender - possible target?

Kant-ona

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Aleksandar Dragović (born 1991 in Vienna; Serbian parents - I know that this is an important issue to some patriots) is an Austrian footballer currently playing for Dynamo Kyiv as a defender.

Height: 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Why have we heard his name before? He was in the famous Basel team which had a few big matches in Europe.
Injury record: I just googled how many matches he did miss in the Austrian and the Swiss league and for Kyiv. Only a few. So far this guy didn't have a serious injury.

Transfer speculations/rumours: Juventus is trying to sign him. West Ham as well. Chelsea and Arsenal are/were watching him. One or two years ago, there were some speculations that also Manchester United scouts had him on their list. Twitter says, there is a big chance that Dragovic is moving this January or in summer.

I wonder if he could be a target for us: He is tall. He has good nerves. (Last time I saw him he did very well against Neymar in a friendly between Austria and Brazil.) He seems not to be injury-prone. He has shown that he has the potential to deal with premier league football whenever Basel met english clubs.
 
Serbians are very good at producing defenders. Only on the last ten years they have produced Vidic, Subotic, Ivanovic, Kolarov amongst others. Based only on that fact - and haven't ever watched this guy play - I am all for signing him.

Also, he has a hipster name.
 
He is Austrian, born and bred in Vienna. Great defender, he has matured immensely over the last couple of years at Kiev. Occasionally still has mistakes in him, but he is excellent in the air, pacey, commanding and very good on the ball. Will be top class in a few years, as his attitude is brilliant and he follows a clear career plan since he was about 17 and came through the youth system at Austria Vienna. Sign him up I would say, he will go for peanuts comparatively.
 
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Does he hoof the ball from the back less than 300 times a game? If so, sign him up
 
Being from Austria I have watched him several times for the national Team and also in some games for Basel.
He is a good Defender (maybe the best we got in Austria atm) but nothing Special which would put him above the Options we have available.
 
Yeah I agree, he is a solid player and the most talented defender from Austria since a good amount of time,but I still think a transfer to United would be a step too big for him. Should rather play for a decent club in one of the Top3 leagues, from the mentioned teams West Ham sounds like the most plausible option for me. We have already enough or too much "yeah he is ok" defenders, we need to get rid at least of one of them and sign a quality CB, who adds really something to our defence, Dragovic would be just another player from the first category.
 
Ive watched him the grand total of 0 times and dont know who he is. but i know for a fact he's a 6 ft 2 brick shithouse who makes the odd clumsy error and absolutely clatters people. dominant in the air with good leadership abilities. Has probably played on through a bloody injury as well.
 
Not good enough. He is Alaba's buddy since they were 10 or 11 - played together already in the Austria Vienna youth. If he had enough quality for the big leagues or teams Bayern would have already gotten him some years ago.
 
Blackwidow said:
Not good enough. He is Alaba's buddy since they were 10 or 11 - played together already in the Austria Vienna youth. If he had enough quality for the big leagues or teams Bayern would have already gotten him some years ago.
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Hate arguments like this. Why didn't Vidic get signed up by one of the big clubs at an earlier age?
 
Blackwidow said:
Not good enough. He is Alaba's buddy since they were 10 or 11 - played together already in the Austria Vienna youth. If he had enough quality for the big leagues or teams Bayern would have already gotten him some years ago.
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Anchan?
 
Would be worth the money, but he's not left-footed, so we'll probably try to sign Vermaelen again.
 
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Hmm...

He comes from Serbia...
 
In theory, there should be value in buying from Russia with their currency troubles, right? Is that how economics work? Maybe teams will start buying youngsters if they're half off.
 
Aleksandar, wo-o-oa, Aleksandar, wo-o-oa!
He comes from Serbia...

Sign him now.
 
Aleksandar, wo-o-oa, Aleksandar, wo-o-oa!
His dad's from Serbia...

Sign him now.
 
The only thing I know about him is that prior to the Basel - Bayern round of 16 clash in the CL a couple years back he ridiculed Mario Gomez and said he's no good at football. Then Gomez scored 4 in one game.
 
Sean_RedDevil said:
Hummels :)
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Hummels is a different story of a time young players were not appreciated at Bayern - Gerland, the Ex-U23 coach always predicted a Hummels-Badstuber partnership in the German national team already when they were 17/18... But there was no way into the team in the year Hummels was with the professionals - same with Kroos at that time. That is why they were loaned. But Bayern has a lot of Austrian players in their youth teams and that (apart from Bavaria) is their main scouting region.

Dragovic is a good player - for a midtable club/Europa League clubs. But that is not the goal United has.
 
NoPace said:
In theory, there should be value in buying from Russia with their currency troubles, right? Is that how economics work? Maybe teams will start buying youngsters if they're half off.
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There is value buying from Russia but this guy plays in Kiev which is the capitol of Ukraine.
 
I had never heard off him until recently. My scouts on FM found him, I tried to buy him but he chose Barcelona instead. Will be on the cheaper side. I have no idea how good he is IRL but if Juventus were trying to get him he's likely to be pretty good.
 
Snow said:
There is value buying from Russia but this guy plays in Kiev which is the capitol of Ukraine.
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Oy. I seem to have been duped by Putin. Apologies to any Ukranians.
 
If we needed only one defender to stabilize our defence, then I would also go for a worldclass one. (Whoever this would be.) But I really think that we need at least three new defenders.

Evans is not good enough. Jones must show that he is able to stay fit. Rafael hardly seems to play for us because of injuries. Blackett and McNair have potential, but I am not sure if they are United material. So I can see Evans and Rafael leaving. And I can see Blackett and McNair step back from the starting eleven.

And if we really sign a few new defenders, Dragovic should be on our list in my opinion. A few here said that he is very good, but not good enough. I would say he can be definitely as good as Smalling. (Which is still no new Vidic, but at least a good replacement for Evans.) He was one of the key players at Austria Wien and Basel and is now one of the key players at Dinamo. That's not bad.
 
Regardless if he is Man Utd material or not and just to keep the thread updated. Rumours say that Spartak Moscow is willing to pay 12 mio to get Dragovic from Kyiv.
 
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