Andreas Granqvist

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No matter how bad it has gotten in the last few years we have never been in a place where Granqvist could get in our team.
 

Denis79

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Oh I can’t wait to see him lineup with lindelof
*shoots self in head*
2 snails without 5 midfielders to shield them like in the Swedish national squad.

Should be alot of fun against the pace of the PL. Exciting!
 

Irwin99

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Impressed at the World Cup ...but then so did Ron Vlaar in 2014. A bit depressing if true.
 

Cassidy

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I just cant take this seriously. No way
 

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He would not get games for Cardiff, Southampton, Newcastle, Huddersfield, etc this would only make sense if we literally had the worst CBs in the Prem which is complete hyperbole.
 

izec

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Granqvist :lol:

Absolute joke that is. Not only plays he in Sweden, but the guy is close to retirement ffs. Thats worse than the John Terry rumours. Instead of selling Lindelöf and cutting our losses, we want to bring back his partner in crime who shined at a world cup for an ultra defensive Sweden team. We wont get the best out of him anyway, Lindelöf is just not good enough. Instead of Smalling cleaning up for him, a worse player in Granqvist will do that. Whats the fecking point. We never learn, remined me of the time Liverpool signed Klavan.
 

A-man

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No he is not.
I think he is, but that would not be the reason for bringing him in. The reason would be his routine and leadership elements. He has almost 80 matches for the national team, is the captain and has shown great leadership. That would be reason, not if he is a better player than Jones, Bailly or any of the other centrebacks. That is also one of the reasons why he got awarded Guldbollen as Best player in Sweden last year (biggest reason was Zlatans injury).

I think it could be worth the chance. He is at least not much worse than anybody else and they all need someone to take command.
 

Isotope

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Well, Chelsea did show interest in Crouch last year. Attacking equivalent of our alleged interest in Granqvist.:)

More likely he's drumming up interest for himself. Even Jose wouldn't do this IMO.
:D Well, Crouch was England International, and used to play for Liverpool. So, he has his use.

Neither would you see them playing Lindelof and Bailly.

We're 8th for a reason.
We still have Rojo and Jones that would equal to Otamendi and Lovren.
 

Ekeke

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:D Well, Crouch was England International, and used to play for Liverpool. So, he has his use.



We still have Rojo and Jones that would equal to Otamendi and Lovren.
I think Jones is okay for most weekends but Otamendi and Lovren are better. Rojo was the most beaten CB in the league last year, so all it takes is running at him.
 

golden_blunder

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I think he is, but that would not be the reason for bringing him in. The reason would be his routine and leadership elements. He has almost 80 matches for the national team, is the captain and has shown great leadership. That would be reason, not if he is a better player than Jones, Bailly or any of the other centrebacks. That is also one of the reasons why he got awarded Guldbollen as Best player in Sweden last year (biggest reason was Zlatans injury).

I think it could be worth the chance. He is at least not much worse than anybody else and they all need someone to take command.
So a 6 month leader. That makes complete sense now. Consider me sold
 

United Pro

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He was good at leading a defence at the world cup because he literally was surrounded by 8-9 teammates. Their job was to defend, defend and defend. He couldn't have asked for more protection being at the heart of that defence. His job was to lead the line and hoof anything that came his way.

Not everyone is capable of leading that sort of a defence so credit to him for doing an excellent job in that system. But that system is the polar opposite of the one we should be playing. We should constantly be on the front food. Our CBs should be agile. They should have the knowhow on what to do 1v1. And they should be able to pick good passes and be calm under pressure.

The guy is 33 and plays in Sweden's fecking second division. Utter shambles that people even are entertaining this stupid idea. 6 month deal would be pretty bad. He is actually no better than the duds we have. We've already wasted enough time trying to sort out the defence, let's not waste even more by loaning a bloke who has absolutely no business being in the PL. Just overpay for a quality leader in January, or play a kid there until the summer and acknowledge that the only way we will win matches is by attacking for 90 mins.
Yeah that's true, he was playing for a very defensive side that shielded him very well. But, there are several games/situations in a game where that's exactly what we do and his ability to lead the defence could be very useful.

In the long term, there are many players that I would have over him, as he lacks a bit of pace/agility and isn't the best on the ball. But, for the situations I mentioned above, he is superior to most of our CB's and a 6 month loan deal wouldn't be the worst thing, if a younger, better CB is not available.

You say "just overpay for a quality leader in January", but which players fits that bill that's available? Presumably, that sort of player was pursued in the summer unsuccessfully. I'd rather spend big on a top, young talent that is already quality, like say Skriniar, Pavard or Tah or go for an established player at the right price, like Alderweireld. But, there are no guarantees that they will be attainable.
 

limerickcitykid

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Y"all go to far with this "leadership" stuff. A CB needs to have quality first of all.
Aye, being a leader of shit teams doesn't really mean much. John O'Shea was still looking solid for Ireland's ultra defensive approach while he was getting relegated to League One with Sunderland.

If all we want is leadership and experience then we should sign my boy Atiba Hutchinson to solve our midfield problems too. Even he has had a better career than Granqvist. Obviously though this will just be another Ron Vlaar story and we won't sign him.
 

Devil may care

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No, I'm saying, as a qualified teacher and a football coach, that the arm around the arm around shoulder works only when it works, if it doesn't and people still don't give a shit, especially when they're adults and not children, there are other psychological means to an end, I believe that with Mourinho's tenure here he'd had a fair share of the former approach and it probably hasn't worked. The modern coaching, which insists on the positive attitude and all smiles 24/7 doesn't teach anybody how to cope with with losing, pressure, criticism (which will come from the outwards such as the social media, press, fans and so forth) and ends up making your players soft. You have to delude yourself if you think that the other managers don't mix the approaches. Given that Mourinho is renowned for his psychological approach (read any of the books about him and you'll get the clue), I doubt he's only throwing everybody under the bus and I'm pretty sure what he says in the media is about 10% of the whole picture, no matter how much the media try to make you believe otherwise, in the end it's up to you what you wish to believe.

As for Mourinho he probably should walk but the next manager will only temporarily fix things just so that all can go to shit again in a year or two time, said it numerous time around here. His point about our CBs' distribution is valid though so I have no idea why anybody would feel offended by it unless you're a precious snowflake. What's next, Mata being mad if Mourinho hints that he's not there to win aerial duels? DDG crying because Mourinho questions his sprinting abilities? Our CBs cannot play the ball for shit, Lindelöf probably being the one with the biggest potential on paper, yet cannot transfer it on a consistent basis.
I realize that all management can't be all sugar coated, our greatest ever manager threw a boot at David Beckham, but it was all done behind the scenes, Mourinho constantly drags players publicly and it's not just professional criticism of them, it's snide, spiteful, petty little jabs that come off more personal than anything, and lets not just go with the narrative of our supposedly soft players can't cope with his style, we are the third team in a row he's been at where this dressing room unrest has happened, the bulk of the Real team went on to win 4 CL's while the Chelsea team he lost completely won the PL the season after he left with largely the same squad, so there's a clear pattern of his man management failing over the course of the last few years.

No one is arguing our CB's are poor at playing out from the back, but this is not something you publicly chastize them for, saying you had to a play a CM there to get it done, it's got nothing to do with being a "snowflake" and everything to do with professionalism and respect. As for the other part, I disagree, we have went from a manager out of his depth, to an eccentric has-been to a miserable narrcissist who plays some of the worst football I've ever seen, I believe we have a squad that can be a quality attacking side if we were coached that way and if e had a manager that generated a positive atmosphere. So I'll say now, if Zidane comes in I think well have a genuine title challenge next season, and I'll either be right or you can throw it in my face later like the Lukaku stuff.
 

Isotope

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I think Jones is okay for most weekends but Otamendi and Lovren are better. Rojo was the most beaten CB in the league last year, so all it takes is running at him.
Yeh. You're right then.
 

manutddjw

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This thread should be used if anyone needed an explanation on Sir Alex’s cow in the field speech.

I know our defenders aren’t good (except for Smalling) but people claiming a defender playing in the Swedish 2nd division is better than our current options or thinking this is a good signing, I can’t even begin to understand the logic. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if someone bumped an O’Shea thread and people claim we should sign him because he “knows the club” and is “better than what we have”.
 

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This thread should be used if anyone needed an explanation on Sir Alex’s cow in the field speech.

I know our defenders aren’t good (except for Smalling) but people claiming a defender playing in the Swedish 2nd division is better than our current options or thinking this is a good signing, I can’t even begin to understand the logic. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if someone bumped an O’Shea thread and people claim we should sign him because he “knows the club” and is “better than what we have”.
Remember when everyone wanted us to sign Ron Vlaar?
 

Irwin99

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Remember when everyone wanted us to sign Ron Vlaar?
To be fair, he was an absolute monster in that World Cup :drool: Probably one of the most surprising performances of that tournament.

But yeah, this would be a really strange transfer. Wasn’t it Fergie who said you should never sign a player on the back of an impressive national tournament? (Poborsky)
 

Cloud7

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Top stuff. Let’s get Drenthe in to shore up LB as well.
 

::sonny::

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He is a calm, great penalty taker, good in the air

Even an amateur player like Lindelof looked like decent next to him
 

Kostur

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I realize that all management can't be all sugar coated, our greatest ever manager threw a boot at David Beckham, but it was all done behind the scenes, Mourinho constantly drags players publicly and it's not just professional criticism of them, it's snide, spiteful, petty little jabs that come off more personal than anything, and lets not just go with the narrative of our supposedly soft players can't cope with his style, we are the third team in a row he's been at where this dressing room unrest has happened, the bulk of the Real team went on to win 4 CL's while the Chelsea team he lost completely won the PL the season after he left with largely the same squad, so there's a clear pattern of his man management failing over the course of the last few years.

No one is arguing our CB's are poor at playing out from the back, but this is not something you publicly chastize them for, saying you had to a play a CM there to get it done, it's got nothing to do with being a "snowflake" and everything to do with professionalism and respect. As for the other part, I disagree, we have went from a manager out of his depth, to an eccentric has-been to a miserable narrcissist who plays some of the worst football I've ever seen, I believe we have a squad that can be a quality attacking side if we were coached that way and if e had a manager that generated a positive atmosphere. So I'll say now, if Zidane comes in I think well have a genuine title challenge next season, and I'll either be right or you can throw it in my face later like the Lukaku stuff.
Coincidentally Mourinho is also the third manager under whom our players seem to be unrested, Mourinho meanwhile won titles at Real and Chelsea even if he got sacked, whereas ever since SAF has departed we haven't won a single title. So there's a clear pattern that ever since SAF has departed we fail to win the titles and sooner or later our players lose their shit and are discontent with every manager's approach.

And again, our players are not the ones to question him playing Pogba as a semi-CB, especially given that it has won us the game in the end and even more so when they obviously fail to execute his orders (which is, i.a., playing it from the back). People are discontent when we hoof it from the defence but at the same time seem to have a problem when Mourinho picks a drastic measure such as playing Pogba as a ball-playing-semi-CB-what-is-this type of role to play it from the back. You really have to make up your mind on that.
 

A-man

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Aye, being a leader of shit teams doesn't really mean much.
I think the opposite. Sweden manage to qualify for World Cup despite having a relatively poor team and despite having a strong group with Holland and France, and later also by beating Italy without conceding any goal over two matches. Also did ok in the World Cup. The key was good organisation and sticking strongly to tactics. In United there is no such things atm, only 11 boys running around randomly.
 

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Coincidentally Mourinho is also the third manager under whom our players seem to be unrested, Mourinho meanwhile won titles at Real and Chelsea even if he got sacked, whereas ever since SAF has departed we haven't won a single title. So there's a clear pattern that ever since SAF has departed we fail to win the titles and sooner or later our players lose their shit and are discontent with every manager's approach.

And again, our players are not the ones to question him playing Pogba as a semi-CB, especially given that it has won us the game in the end and even more so when they obviously fail to execute his orders (which is, i.a., playing it from the back). People are discontent when we hoof it from the defence but at the same time seem to have a problem when Mourinho picks a drastic measure such as playing Pogba as a ball-playing-semi-CB-what-is-this type of role to play it from the back. You really have to make up your mind on that.
We are able to build from the back with Van Gaal with Smalling as one of our main CBs. We should be able to play out of the back without playing midfielders there. And Mourinho teams did not really play that well out of the back even when he had CBs who were technical.
 

Kostur

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We are able to build from the back with Van Gaal with Smalling as one of our main CBs. We should be able to play out of the back without playing midfielders there. And Mourinho teams did not really play that well out of the back even when he had CBs who were technical.
The only time we were able to build from the back was with Blind or Carrick filling in the CB role. Blind at Ajax in his first spell played as a LB/CDM, so you could actually say that even when he was here we actually had to resort to a midfielder playing as a CB, so it's not really a new concept. Selling Blind is obviously on Mourinho, cannot do much about Carrick retiring. The closest we get to a ball playing CBs that we have are probably Rojo and Lindelöf, the former is constantly injured, the latter, as I've said before, fails to consistently do it for us for one reason or another.
 

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The only time we were able to build from the back was with Blind or Carrick filling in the CB role. Blind at Ajax in his first spell played as a LB/CDM, so you could actually say that even when he was here we actually had to resort to a midfielder playing as a CB, so it's not really a new concept. Selling Blind is obviously on Mourinho, cannot do much about Carrick retiring. The closest we get to a ball playing CBs that we have are probably Rojo and Lindelöf, the former is constantly injured, the latter, as I've said before, fails to consistently do it for us for one reason or another.
Blind was only really a midfielder his last season at Ajax and his first season here. The rest of his senior career was at LB/CB/RB. And Mourinho has not really has not really had sides that build from the back even when he had the likes of Terry, Carvalho, Lucio, Ramos, etc. I do not know why we are acting like the CBs are the only thing stopping him from doing that right now.