Anyone else who doesn't care for signing more defenders?

[Kapardin]

But is it worth spending 100m on a 27 year old defender just to compete for the top 4 for the next 2 years?

Surely you need to be seeing a CL win out of a 100m signing (and we won't even be in CL next season). At least that's Madrid and Juventus' philosophy. Sign big only if you're expected to win big.

We have to start somewhere. 27 is not old. He can give us atleast 4 years. In that time, hopefully one of Bailly or Lindelof, or both, develop into top defenders.

The market prices have been massively inflated. We need atleast 4-5 first team players, which could easily go north of 350 million if we want real quality. I believe we can afford it if the Glazers release the funds. Or, we have to go the Arsenal way and try to identify some unknown gems.

 

[Skills]

We have to start somewhere. 27 is not old. He can give us atleast 4 years. In that time, hopefully one of Bailly or Lindelof, or both, develop into top defenders.

The market prices have been massively inflated. We need atleast 4-5 first team players, which could easily go north of 350 million if we want real quality. I believe we can afford it if the Glazers release the funds. Or, we have to go the Arsenal way and try to identify some unknown gems.

But we're going to waste 2 years of it in 4-5th and at least one of them outside of the CL. Is it really a good use of money then?

 

[Patrick08]

Think it will take us more than just a £100m signing to win the Champions League although I think signing Koulibaly will be a massive step in the right direction.

100 m is insanity to spend on one centre back. Besides players look way better in Italian league as competition is a tier below there. Italian sides specially Napoli are known to fleece money.

 

[redIndianDevil]

Me. While we don't exactly have prime Beckenbauers or Maldinis in our ranks, we have players who are more than capable of doing a good job if given proper coaching and tactics. I also agree that we need better CBs but what we have is more than enough to fight for top 4.

IMO the problem is no two CBs are give proper time to settle and create a partnership. Even if two CBs play for quite some time, they are affected by our ever changing CMs. No one is allowed continuity in our side.

 

[Jig1234]

Who is the fella wearing no.17?. Moving from LB into MF. Linking everything. He looks familiar.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[ash_86]

We definitely need new defenders. With Mourinho or not.

 

[Sir Scott McToMinay]

I don’t really care about signing players, period, but we’ll need a couple because we’ll have to go through a second rebuild.
We have Fosu Mensah and Tuanzebe coming back from loan and should be perfectly good options.
I’d sell Rojo and Jones, and buy one CB ,no stupid nonsense like Koulibally for 90m (LoL!) though.
Solid, good and smart buys is what we need.

 

[Hammondo]

We have no midfield, fix that first.

 

[Sir Scott McToMinay]

All the people who are mentioning how Liverpool spent 75m on VVD, which in their view makes Koulibaly for 100m a good value, I honestly don’t understand this mindset.
First of all, Liverpool got so many buys right before that, they’ve bought really really well, they have a well coached side and all they’ve needed was a top CB to tighten their defence.

We’re at best about 3 years before we’ll be in that position, we don’t even have a team, and that is not something a new manager will be able to fix overnight.
Koulibaly for 90m would be a hilariously poor potential transfer in our case.

 

[Skills]

All the people who are mentioning how Liverpool spent 75m on VVD, which in their view makes Koulibaly for 100m a good value, I honestly don’t understand this mindset.
First of all, Liverpool got so many buys right before that, they’ve bought really really well, they have a well coached side and all they’ve needed was a top CB to tighten their defence.

We’re at best about 3 years before we’ll be in that position, we don’t even have a team, and that is not something a new manager will be able to fix overnight.
Koulibaly for 90m would be a hilariously poor potential transfer in our case.

This.

 

[giorno]

Needs more Phil Jones

 

[RedDevil@84]

Needs more Phil Jones

You can have him

 

[Aloysius's Back 3]

Smalling - Blind - Jones

Bailly - Blind - Rojo


Key man is & will always be Blind.

Smalling & Jones have had a good partnership in the past - likewise Bailly & Rojo. Though they can never keep it up because every single one of them is Rash in various levels.

However both would have benefited from blinds ability to play the roles that Matic & Mctomminay were doing as midfielders who play through the defence - giving them a cover & a pivot.

Was a wonderful player - good enough to keep as our 3rd best defender even if people disagree. Went from our 2nd best defender under LVG to a LB under Jose - apart from the final Europa where he was again fantastic.

 

[Jig1234]

We definitely need new defenders. With Mourinho or not.

Need a DOF and a new manager before any defender or player. Why sign anyone when the man in charge is on borrowed time?

 

[Jig1234]

Smalling - Blind - Jones

Bailly - Blind - Rojo


Key man is & will always be Blind.

Smalling & Jones have had a good partnership in the past - likewise Bailly & Rojo. Though they can never keep it up because every single one of them is Rash in various levels.

However both would have benefited from blinds ability to play the roles that Matic & Mctomminay were doing as midfielders who play through the defence - giving them a cover & a pivot.

Was a wonderful player - good enough to keep as our 3rd best defender even if people disagree. Went from our 2nd best defender under LVG to a LB under Jose - apart from the final Europa where he was again fantastic.

Mint footballer. Never got a chance in DM. But I'm glad he is ballin' at Ajax. Class professional and player.

The way he pocketed Lukaku when he was at Everton. Class. He has no height or pace but Lukaku could not do anything.

Blind should still be a Utd Player. We should have kept him, sold Jones, Rojo or Smalling.

 

[Buster15]

If signing a new defender means we can sell more of our current defenders then I'm all for it in theory.

Really depends on the defender though.

That’s right. We urgently need a commanding centre back so we can build a strong central defensive pairing.

Smalling is the most reliable.
Lindelof was showing signs of improvement before his injury.
Bailly is an enigma but has been error prone one week and good the next.
Rojo has lots of energy but can be an accident waiting to happen.
Jones is simply too injury prone to get a consistent run.

 

[#25]

Regardless of whether it magically fixes our problems, I do think that the back needs addressing. Bailly and Lindelof are doing pretty well, and Rojo can be worked with, though he isn't exactly prime anymore and he and Bailly do get injured. Smalling is a good squad player, but we need at least one more rock solid dependable midfielder. Jones needs to leave.

 

[endless_wheelies]

Yeah we wanked ourselves to sleep over the 60 league goals a season we barely scrape over the line.

The solution being to have a terrible defence?

 

[Canagel]

We have no midfield, fix that first.

And why don't we have a midfield?

 

[VeevaVee]

Signing top quality defenders will probably have the best effect on the next manager, who will need to sort midfield and attack in their own way. A top top defender will fit into any side.

 

[Hawks2008]

Nah mate, we need a CB. Haven't you heard that Maguire would have won us the treble??

 

[AgentP]

Our whole team is a mess but defense is the most vulnerable area in our team. So yeah signing a defender is top priority. Maybe with a top defender at the back, the midfielders and attackers will be able to play with more freedom (according to Jose).

 

[Mcking]

And why don't we have a midfield?

We don't have a midfield despite spending 89m on a midfielder and another 89m on two other midfielders, we don't have an attack despite spending 75m on a striker. What makes people think a 100m defender will just magically solve our defensive problems? Because Liverpool signing Van Dijk coincided with an improve in their defensive game?

 

[Fracture90]

Depends on the manager really. With Tuanzebe looking pretty good for Villa so far this season, new manager might think it's the RW position that's more urgent to deal with first. That's even without considering replacing Lukaku.

 

[Hammondo]

And why don't we have a midfield?

Our midfield is our worst position, we have no one who can run a game well.

 

[Skills]

When you sign good defender your attack flourishes as well. Still not sure if Mourinho in charge would change anything no matter who we sign but hoping...

Does it?

Yeah fans of Liverpool and Manchester City simply loved their teams when they conceded sloppy goal after sloppy goal each week to ruin otherwise decent performances. Just go and look back through their forums.

I'm sure they loved it more than the shit we're serving up now despite spending 80m on a CB and 50m on a RB.

A solid defence is the foundation of any great team. Just look at the great Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea teams since 2000. All had a rock solid back four!

Keep a clean sheet and you only have to nick a goal to get all 3 points. Keep conceding and it gets far harder to win matches!

Apparently not.

Should have done a poll so we could flag anyone who voted yes and ignore anything else they have to say about football.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

Dumb bump of a thread. Our defence used to be shit. Yet our midfield and attack have both got far worse than how bad our defence was before strengthening it. So trying to paint it as if strengthening our defence was pointless is too dumb for words ...

 

[MikeUpNorth]

I think the AWB signing made sense - pricey, but not outrageous for a 21 year old top prospect, in a position where we had no first choice player.

The Maguire signing was verging on insanity though. A huge fee for a player who is marginally better than the ones we already had, if at all. He will get you what, an extra 2-4 points per season, maybe? And that's worth paying a world record fee for, when we already had 6 central defenders on the books? This is the kind of decision which stops the club moving forward - just awful squad management.

 

[VorZakone]

I think the AWB signing made sense - pricey, but not outrageous for a 21 year old top prospect, in a position where we had no first choice player.

The Maguire signing was verging on insanity though. A huge fee for a player who is marginally better than the ones we already had, if at all. He will get you what, an extra 2-4 points per season, maybe? And that's worth paying a world record fee for, when we already had 6 central defenders on the books? This is the kind of decision which stops the club moving forward - just awful squad management.

Nah, Maguire was needed IMO.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

I think the AWB signing made sense - pricey, but not outrageous for a 21 year old top prospect, in a position where we had no first choice player.

The Maguire signing was verging on insanity though. A huge fee for a player who is marginally better than the ones we already had, if at all. He will get you what, an extra 2-4 points per season, maybe? And that's worth paying a world record fee for, when we already had 6 central defenders on the books? This is the kind of decision which stops the club moving forward - just awful squad management.

The awful squad management was having 6 other senior CBS on the books when he arrived. Not adding him.

 

[Sky1981]

It depends what sort of defender.

When we bought Stam and Rio they were fees at the time that screamed top class defender.

The worrying thing now is when the likes of Maguire are being talked about at 60-70m, as he's definitely not one to get too excited over.

Stam and Rio won't get to their WC level playing for this lot

 

[Tarrou]

so you're suggesting we shouldn't have signed a right back?

or what is the point of this bump?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I think we needed defenders. However this myth that signing defenders is going to turn us into a proper attacking force as it'll 'set everybody free' is and always was baloney. We didnt fail to play proper attacking football under Mourinho and Ole becuase we lacked defenders. It's because they couldn't get the team to do so regardless of the defence.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

I still want a left back tbh.

 

[Eric7C]

I think we needed defenders. However this myth that signing defenders is going to turn us into a proper attacking force as it'll 'set everybody free' is and always was baloney. We didnt fail to play proper attacking football under Mourinho and Ole becuase we lacked defenders. It's because they couldn't get the team to do so regardless of the defence.

Exactly. Mourinho has always been known to rely on the individual brilliance of his attacking force; he has never really coached a cohesive unit. Ole doesn't seem any different.

We need a modern manager who loves coaching play.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Exactly. Mourinho has always been known to rely on the individual brilliance of his attacking force; he has never really coached a cohesive unit. Ole doesn't seem any different.

We need a modern manager who loves coaching play.

Yes, precisely. We need someone who understands progressive modern attacking football and focuses on the details involved in that. Once we improve on the training ground and start playing like a cohesive outfit the other things can be looked at - big signings, right winger, midfield etc First it's about playing like a well managed football team that knows how to attack.

We've scored more than 1 goal in 1 game this season. That's pathetic. And nobody is surprised given how disjointed and plucky our football is.