[Big Andy]

Erm, what about the 2 years he spent sitting behind Antony? Or the fact that we bought him, then the following summer we spent £70m on another RW (Sancho) and then another £80m on another RW (Antony).

Our player development is fecking dogshit because we buy a player because we like the idea of their potential, bottle it when it comes to actually developing them by giving them adequate gametime and then quickly sign another expensive more experienced option in their place. We've repeated this year after year, and then sat there gormlessly wandering why aren't playing developing without proper gametime.

I think our player development has been shit the last few years as we never play a settled team. It's a raft of changes every week just to give fringe players game time and to rest players. Next season with us having no European games, I think we'll see a smaller more settled team every week, which will help with consistency.

 

[NicolaSacco]

I predict that by the end of this season he'll be considered Utd's most valuable player. He arguably already is.

 

[FriedClams]

My big concern with diallo is if we are hyping him up too much because of how much he stood out amongst relative crap.

 

[northernsoul74]

My big concern with diallo is if we are hyping him up too much because of how much he stood out amongst relative crap.

My big concern is he won’t want to play wing-back long term. He’s a breath or fresh air.

 

[Shark]

My big concern with diallo is if we are hyping him up too much because of how much he stood out amongst relative crap.

Yeah, the Januzai effect.

 

[hellhunter]

I predict that by the end of this season he'll be considered Utd's most valuable player. He arguably already is.

Would be nice if he could stay fit for a season first

 

[surf]

Would be nice if he could stay fit for a season first

Yep, the next step in his career progression is to prove his durability over a whole season.

 

[Revival2024]

Yeah, the Januzai effect.

He has had more and profound consistency in his performances across all the club he played for compared to Januzaj. From the difficulty of Rangers, overcoming it, moving to Sunderland on loan, becoming their young player of the year and PFA championship Fans' player of the year. Scoring 14 goals and 4 assists. His return to United led to 9 goals and 8 assists in 38 appearances in his first proper season.

Januzaj had a good season, maybe a purple patch but never kept it up. Also didn't show the character to overcome the challenges Amad has faced. All Amad needs to do now is step up another gear, stay fit, get stronger, be more decisive and take on more responsibility. I hope he doesn't waste his ability at wing-back. He has more quality than that. Should be at the creative front.

 

[SuperiorXI]

Yeah, the Januzai effect.

He's a lot better than Januzai. You can tell as soon as he gets on the ball Amad is going to make something happen. Very dangerous player.

 

[Zumbi]

My big concern with diallo is if we are hyping him up too much because of how much he stood out amongst relative crap.

On the flip side, he might be the sort of player that really thrives once he has better players alongside him. He had a tough job last year being one of our only threats, as teams knew that if they shut him down there was little danger from our other players. Having Mbeumo and Cunha alongside him could really open up space, passing options and shooting opportunities he wasn’t afforded before.

 

[El Zoido]

Yeah, the Januzai effect.

He’s already miles better than Januzaj, who was never all that.

 

[Cathy Ferguson]

I predict that by the end of this season he'll be considered Utd's most valuable player. He arguably already is.

He is overrated in my opinion, which is not a popular opinion around here. He is good and improving but Arsenal have Saka and Liverpool have Salah which is the standard for a top 2 finish. Amad is nowhere near that world class level. Will be interesting to see where he plays, I don't think Mbuemo will be an option from the bench.

 

[Eagle_eye]

He is overrated in my opinion, which is not a popular opinion around here. He is good and improving but Arsenal have Saka and Liverpool have Salah which is the standard for a top 2 finish. Amad is nowhere near that world class level. Will be interesting to see where he plays, I don't think Mbuemo will be an option from the bench.

It's not a popular opinion and rightly so.. Considering this is Amads first full season in the Premier league, he scored 8 and assisted 6 in 26 games compared to Saka who played 25 games, scored 6 and assisted 10 and he's been a regular for a number of years.. Salah at 22 flopped at Chelsea and was loaned out to Fiorentina and Roma.

 

[Amar__]

He is overrated in my opinion, which is not a popular opinion around here. He is good and improving but Arsenal have Saka and Liverpool have Salah which is the standard for a top 2 finish. Amad is nowhere near that world class level. Will be interesting to see where he plays, I don't think Mbuemo will be an option from the bench.

Literally nobody thinks he is Saka or Salah's level.

 

[BarstoolProphet]

Hell, Saka is way below Salah anyway, so they're not the same bracket at all.

 

[bgoodall]

I think our player development has been shit the last few years as we never play a settled team. It's a raft of changes every week just to give fringe players game time and to rest players. Next season with us having no European games, I think we'll see a smaller more settled team every week, which will help with consistency.

I was literally just writing this about player development in the Amorim thread. Agree 100 percent!!!!

 

[Ole'sgunnarwin]

I predict that by the end of this season he'll be considered Utd's most valuable player. He arguably already is.

He 100% is. Only player that has his level of quality is Bruno and with him being a lot older, it has to be Amad

 

[Gordon'sHill]

He 100% is. Only player that has his level of quality is Bruno and with him being a lot older, it has to be Amad

He's a good player. He is also not equipped to be a wing back. So lets see where he fits in.

 

[Brightonian]

He's a good player. He is also not equipped to be a wing back. So lets see where he fits in.

Dunno how many times it needs to be said, but he played great at wingback last season.

 

[Revival2024]

Dunno how many times it needs to be said, but he played great at wingback last season.

When the silly Amorim experiment comes to an end, a proper manager will stick him in a position that befits his talent. He may have played well in some games but that doesn't mean he should be held in that position. He is an attacking midfielder, more of a 10 than Mbuemo who the club are willing to shell 60million for.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Dunno how many times it needs to be said, but he played great at wingback last season.

Dunno how many times it has to responded to, but he played but a handful of games there and had a couple of stinking defensive performances such as Brentford and West Ham, in amongst the couple of great performances.
Nowhere near enough to judge either way if he can really do the job.

 

[Ezkay]

Dunno how many times it needs to be said, but he played great at wingback last season.

Because he’s an outright good player.

If you play peak Messi LB, he’ll probably still be unreal there, does that mean he’s a LB?

Amad excels on the touchline, so basically a touchline winger. Being wingback means he gets in those positions but then has to be defending the back post and is sometimes our deepest player? What a ridiculous misuse of his talent. Go watch the Brentford game end of season for example.

Why don’t we just have a normal full back and a normal winger man. Can’t wait for this to end.

 

[NicolaSacco]

He 100% is. Only player that has his level of quality is Bruno and with him being a lot older, it has to be Amad

Yep, that’s my thinking. I did wonder if you’d get more money if you sold Yoro (not suggesting that will happen, just thinking of values), but imho Amad is still worth more.

 

[Ekeke]

Hell, Saka is way below Salah anyway, so they're not the same bracket at all.

When Salah was Saka's age he was playing in an easier league and not as good as Saka is in England. So its a bit early to be saying that.

 

[BarstoolProphet]

When Salah was Saka's age he was playing in an easier league and not as good as Saka is in England. So its a bit early to be saying that.

Not every trajectory is lineary. I'm just judging them on how they perform and Saka is still some way off Salah's level, I'm not saying he will never reach it.

 

[sired44]

I think next season we will see Amad float between RWB and R10.
In the games where teams sit deep it makes perfect sense to play Amad as the RWB and Mbuemo as the R10. However, in the games against the big guns, the R10 position will be whoever is in the best form out of Amad and Mbuemo as we will likely play someone a bit more defensively minded at RWB. Either way, he will still start about 80% of our games i feel.
Lets hope his trajectory continues.

 

[Gordon'sHill]

Dunno how many times it has to responded to, but he played but a handful of games there and had a couple of stinking defensive performances such as Brentford and West Ham, in amongst the couple of great performances.
Nowhere near enough to judge either way if he can really do the job.

Yep, he works hard but I don't think he has the physicality or natural stamina to play the role. People seem to massively underestimate how demanding the role is. Also it negates his attacking threat.

 

[Ekeke]

Not every trajectory is lineary. I'm just judging them on how they perform and Saka is still some way off Salah's level, I'm not saying he will never reach it.

Fair enough. Yeah Saka might reach it if he keeps improving.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Yep, he works hard but I don't think he has the physicality or natural stamina to play the role. People seem to massively underestimate how demanding the role is. Also it negates his attacking threat.

I think too many fans naively think we’re going to become some dominant team where our wingbacks barely need to defend & will simply play as wingers. I can’t personally see it mind.

 

[Brightonian]

Yep, he works hard but I don't think he has the physicality or natural stamina to play the role. People seem to massively underestimate how demanding the role is. Also it negates his attacking threat.

I do hear the logic, truly. But he literally played a good handful of games there where he both 1) was up the defensive challenge and 2) looked a real attacking threat precisely because of the space to run into and the wide starting position.

With Amad people talk about the #10 and WB positions as just being on a simple spectrum between 'attacking' and 'defensive'. But there are other differences, and while I think Amad is great at #10, I think there are also specific things about the WB position which make him great there too. I also think it's a more important and potentially more demanding position in this formation than #10, and we might actually need our best and most skilful players there in order for the formation to work.

I'm not dying on the hill or anything - I love him at #10 too and maybe it is marginally the better position for him. But based on the actual evidence of last season, I don't think the margin is big.

 

[Crimson King]

Yep, he works hard but I don't think he has the physicality or natural stamina to play the role. People seem to massively underestimate how demanding the role is. Also it negates his attacking threat.

Most of his goals and assists came from WB so it didn't do that at all

 

[Teja]

Yeah, the Januzai effect.

Januzaj was pre-data in football but I'm desperate to see some data from that season if anyone bothers to get around to watching old tapes and putting the season up on fbref or understat or something.

Amad shows up high on many graphs clustered alongside the right sort of players and the radar on fbref looks very solid so I know for a fact that it's not a flash in the pan season and he's a good quality PL winger. Hard to say if he'll get to the level of someone like a Saka but that's the hope with him.

Spoiler

 

[90THMIN...]

Yep, he works hard but I don't think he has the physicality or natural stamina to play the role. People seem to massively underestimate how demanding the role is. Also it negates his attacking threat.

Totally disagree. I can count the number of bad games he had at wingback, in fact I believe he had more bad games playing the 10 position than at wingback. Amorim's first game versus Ipswish, he had a lovely run and an assist at wingback, he scored a hat trick playing as a wingback versus Southampton, had two assists versus Everton playing at wingback, had an assist playing versus Forest playing wingback, came on at Brentford after his injury and scored playing wingback and that's not counting some good games he had at wingback without assisting or scoring. He is very capable of playing at wingback and delivering, no issues at all.

 

[Brightonian]

Totally disagree. I can count the number of bad games he had at wingback, in fact I believe he had more bad games playing the 10 position than at wingback. Amorim's first game versus Ipswish, he had a lovely run and an assist at wingback, he scored a hat trick playing as a wingback versus Southampton, had two assists versus Everton playing at wingback, had an assist playing versus Forest playing wingback, came on at Brentford after his injury and scored playing wingback and that's not counting some good games he had at wingback without assisting or scoring. He is very capable of playing at wingback and delivering, no issues at all.

I was hoping someone would go back and check which games these were so I didn't have to, many thanks!