Axel or Bailly or Lindelof - whom should we sell?

Drz

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Bailly for me, besides his injuries, I'm too often left with the impression he's not "switched-on" during games.
A bit of a shame, because he is decent on the ball and very athletic. But reliability is key for me in defensive positions.
 

Oranges038

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Bailly, he's too erratic on the pitch and too injury prone.

That bicycle kick clearance he tried in the Europa League final tells you everything you need to know about him as a defender.
 

11101

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Why is Lindelof in this conversation? He's established himself as a perfectly good starting centre back. We want to upgrade but whoever we buy could easily fail and then we will need Lindelof again. If they don't fail, he would still be our best backup.

I would probably sell Bailly first. We know what we are getting by now and he's 27, it's not going to change. He'll be brilliant for a while and then do something crazy, and then get injured. Above all a backup should be reliable and he's not that.

There are serious doubts over whether Tuanzebe will make it, he's had some stinkers alongside good performances, but he at least deserves a chance to show it one way or the other.
 

Inigo Montoya

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Keep Axel, he showed towards the end of the season that he’s worth persevering with. The other two need replacing
 

RoyH1

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I'd keep LIndelof. Availability is the best ability and he's not as injured and provides more regularity than some of our other options. He's an ok nr.3 centre back.
 

André Dominguez

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Bare in mind that selling Lindelof doesn't mean we're getting a better version on the next CB. Baily should be the one to be sold. Makes sense to keep Axel as 4th choice: counts as homegrown player and as formed in the club and he's decente enough to rotate against bottom teams.
 

devilish

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All of them. Tuanzebe and Bailly are injury prone, Lindelof is unsuited for our game.
 

dal

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I think there’s more to Bailly then his ability which is good but he seems to add something to the morale of the squad.

However regardless of this I do feel it’s him who needs to go and we need to sign a player of around 23 who has the potential to be better than Maguire.

We need to look for someone around that age with the same attributes as Van Dijk. Strength, awareness, Decision making, Pace, good in the air.

The problem is it’s so hard to find that around 23 so the price has to reflect it as I can’t see us splashing out another £80 million on a ready made 25/26 year old.
 

led_scholes

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If we sing a CB then Bailly, because at least Lindelof is not always injured.
 

Mcking

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Five center halves is not too much to be fair. Lindelof is the best of the three, so don't think we should consider selling him. Should be either Bailly or Tuanzebe depending on who would be easier to move on.
 

Tallis

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I would definitely sell Bailly. I would be open to sell Lindelof if we can get a suitable replacement. No point in selling Axel - he has been fit recently. We should give him more game time when we can to help him develop.

Ultimately, we want to get a quality partner for Maguire (Kounde?) and 2 solid backups (axel plus one).
 

A-man

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In the discussion should be considered, how big are the odds that we get a new CB that is guaranteed to start 30+ PL matches for us and guaranteed to improve us?
 

MyOnlySolskjaer

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I'm far from Lindelof's biggest fan, but I want to know how much his injury issues had impacted his performances recently, last season he was in good form and it's clear he's losing most of his battles but not sure if it's injury or just overall poor defending.

We're not doing Axel any favous as much as I like him, at this age he needs to play regularly, if we can sell him with a buy-back option that would be fantastic, Bailly has signed a contract so he's not going anywhere and why is Jones still here?
 

charlenefan

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Bailly
Tuanzebe
Lindelof

In that order
 

Bobcat

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For all his faults, IMO, Lindelof is clearly the best of the three. If he’s happy being a bench option, we should keep him.

Axel is ok and still has room to develop.

The sight of Bailly charging around and throwing himself into weird positions and tackles freaks me out. The new Rojo. Add to that the fact that he thinks he should be starting more games, and to me it sounds like it is time to move him on.
Pretty much this. Not that hes that much worse than the other two, but the fact that he has the gall to moan about not starting when hes barely fit for 1/3 of the season is reason enough to get rid
 

Eugenius

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Loan Axel to a premier league club. He needs 30+ starts for him to show whether he's good enough, or if not raise his price tag like Lingard.
 

Red Stone

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All of them, but the order is Bailly, Axel and then Lindelöf, simply because the first two are injured more than they are fit and I'm sick of unreliable centre backs. It's the one area of the field above all others that requires stability. It would make our goalie's job a hell of a lot easier too.
 

Havak

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Out of the three, Bailly makes the most sense to sell. Despite his injury record, I think he would also fetch the highest price.

He is clearly someone who wants to play first team football and will leave if he isn't being selected, but it isn't the managers fault when he is injured probably more than 1/3 of the time. He was not available for 20 games this season I believe, which is pretty much 33% of a 61 game season. If you're not fit enough, you can't blame Ole for selecting someone who was basically ever-present despite an ongoing back injury in Lindelof.

I don't think we will sell a CB this Summer window though, other than Phil Jones if we can finally get him off the books. We will roll on with 5 CBs considering the injuries 3 of them have had throughout their time at United.
 

Withnail

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Lots of chatter/leaks that United are looking to buy a senior center back to pair with Maguire.

In a reasonably run club, this should mean a departure.

Who should that be?

Axel - injury prone. will have the most suitors given his age/wages. We will likely get 10-15m for him.

Bailly - injury prone. will be the hardest to shift given his wages/injury record. We will likely get ~15m

Lindelof - stays fit and wages are high but reasonable. Clubs like Villa, Everton could end up paying 20-25m
Why does it mean someone has to be sold?

With the injury records of Bailly and Tuanzebe, selling either at this stage could leave us short of options.
 

KikiDaKats

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I’d keep them all and Add and extra CB, giving us 5 CBs.
Would like to Bailly played as fullback instead of CB though and compete AWB. Defensively I believe he is better and can’t be any worse going forward. He looks comfortable on the ball and just a matter of adapting his game.
When need be he can be added competition to Lindelof and Tanzuebe.
 

anant

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Bailly and its not even close.

If Lindelof is fine with being the 3rd choice CB, I'd keep him - mostly available, a decent player, good passing, and as a bench option not many teams would be having a CB as good as him
 

KiD MoYeS

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Be inclined to keep Tuanzebe as a backup option, as he is an academy player. The other two can go as soon as upgrades are brought in, they are all average to decent defenders at best.
 

Bastian

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I think if Tuanzebe isn't at least 3rd choice next season, he needs a loan (or a transfer). We should 100% sell Bailly, no question. I don't think there's one good reason for keeping him. Lindelof is a good squad player, but if we sold both, getting in one definite starter and one promising centre back, that would be ideal.

Surely, the club has to sell Bailly. It is just negligence not to.
 

dove

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Of course Bailly. Lindelof should not even be considered for selling, ideally we should sign another CB to play alongside Maguire but Lindelof would still be a very decent cover and he manages to stay fit. Bailly is pretty much useless cause he is always injured.
 

JustCoco

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For me I wish it was clear cut, but it’s not.
Bailly’s injury problems make him a nomination, however Lindelof is just so damn awful.

I can’t decide if I’d rather have a guy who would warm the bench that’s; 1) not going to play as much so won’t get injured as much but can do a good job, or 2) someone who’s rarely injured but shouldn’t even be worthy of the bench.

christ, we still have Jones, I think he should be the first to go before even mentioning Bailly or Lindelof
 

cyril C

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The ones to be sold, are Rojo and Jones. It is OK to have 5 CB 1 of which from Academy. But I am sure 1 or 2 of them would feel unwanted hence ask to leave, which can happen in 2022 season.
 

Eternitiy

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Bailly should be released.

Tuanzebe I don't think is good enough long term, so I'd let him go if a good offer comes in, but I will be content to keep him as backup even though he's likely to miss a fair amount of the season through injury.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Lindelof can at least play ball playing so he can be Maguire's backup. Axel would have been my ideal for 4th choice to fight with Lindelof.

Bailly should have been released and I never understand the logic of giving him a new contract, he's clumsy, injury prone, not ball playing CB, and old enough not to be given time to develop.
 

CM10

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Probably Bailly, although I wouldn't be completely surprised if Axel went either.

I think the thing that plays to Axel's advantage is he can play in both channels (and is of course younger). He should only stay if there's a chance of him getting regular-ish football though, it doesn't do anyone any favours having him sat on the bench for another year.
 

TwoSheds

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Bailly without a shadow of a doubt.
Yep. Like the guy but he's had more than enough chances to show his capabilities and he's not consistent or fit enough to play for us.
 

SecondFig

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Honestly, given that Axel and Bailly are both injury prone, I'd keep them all - probably works out to four fit CBs for most of the season.

But, if one was to leave, I think it's clear it'd be Bailly
 

userman

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If we do get a new starting centre back in this summer I say we loan out Tuanzebe to a PL-club for regular playing time and to see whether or not he he's up to the level, if he's not then we sell him next summer with a year left on his contract.
Keep Lindelof and Bailly as backups, Bailly getting his final chance to prove his fitness and that he could be a consistent and reliable back-up option but we'll probably have to sell him next year because he wont prove that..
Worst case neither Tuanzebe or Bailly shows that they should be considered as genuine options and we sell them both next summer, making way for Mengi to be considered as the back-up option alongside Lindelof for the 22/23-season.