Yep, CB should not be a priority for us this summer.
Ayden Heaven | 2024/25 Performances
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Yup. Having more than one CB with genuine recovery pace will make a massive difference.
Heaven is genuine transfer magic. The footballer in him is so good that the rawness he obviously has must take a back seat.
Impressive player.
Impressive player.
And Yoro has had a few really good games, should be fully adapted and fully grown now. Time to kick on.
I feel worryingly optimistic again. I'm an idiot.
I'd say Maz - De Ligt - Yoro, Heaven getting a lot of starts in between though.
If we don't, then I hope it's
de Ligt/Maz Yoro/'Arry Heaven/Martinez
- I want Yoro to play centrally. We need a CCB with pace and ball playing skills. If we don't buy anyone then Yoro should be used there.
- I would hate to see 'Arry or de Ligt used as CCB's next season in the league.
- Heaven is a good option for LCB. Hopefully, Martinez will be back and can find some his first season form.
- I only want proper right winger/wide attacking player used at RWB. Would hate to see us go with a 5 man defense.
- Dorgu and Dalot to be used as LWB's
- Amad and another player we buy (Rogers or whathisname we are linked with from Portugal any good?) to be used as RWB.
It's absolutely vital. And with Yoro and Heaven with finally could have that. Maybe just maybe this will be the end of our giant holes in midfield as our CBs will be able to push forward?
It's a big shame he got that injury because with the lack of game time this season we just don't know where he's at.
Can he actually be a starter next season? You'd say unlikely given his age and lack of experience. If he'd got 15 games under his belt this season we'd have a clearer picture of him.
Can he actually be a starter next season? You'd say unlikely given his age and lack of experience. If he'd got 15 games under his belt this season we'd have a clearer picture of him.
Maz / De Ligt / Maguire / Martinez / Heaven / Shaw/ Yoro /Fredrickson is a solid enough centre back list considering we’ve no Europe next season . Pity about the clown(s) behind them though
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It's not really. Two of them are glacial, Martinez is fecked now, Shaw cannot be relied on, Fredricson we know very little about at this level.
Yoro looks like he can step up and be a big player, Heaven looks promising and Mazraoui is solid.
Yoro instead of Fredericson and Fredericson leaving on loan hopefully. Mazraoui and Yoro for RCB; de Ligt and Maguire for CCB; Martinez, Shaw and Heaven for LCB. But Yoro also for LCB as Shaw and Martinez are injury-prone.
We didn’t let him go, it was just a very smart piece of business by United. It’s particularly annoying as a Gooner being on the wrong end of one of your only shrewd transfer moves in recent times. I’m not sure why there was suddenly such long-term, strategic thinking from your recruitment team when it was at our expense.
His deal was expiring and we offered him an extension. He’s a CB / LB who had Gabriel, Kiwior, Califiori, Lewis-Shelly, Zinchenko and Timber ahead of him in the pecking order.
You offered him a pathway to immediate first team football at one of the biggest clubs in the world. So we lost a real talent for £1.5m. Even in the absolute worst-case scenario I can imagine where he doesn’t fulfill his promise, you could still sell him in a couple years for 10x what you paid for him.
I like this post!
I've seen enough. He is big time.
Why if he's good enough?
Tbf, we have been told that is the new way under Ineos.
Yeah, fair enough. His transfer is definitely a data point in their favour.
He will get patched up over the summer. Amorim has been managing the CB's playing time pretty well, they go off no matter what is happening on the pitch, with the exception of one or two games. I've never seen United substitute CBs with the frequency Amorim has done.
Couldn't lob us the kid, Dowden as well, could you? He looks a bit good
I'm just worried with Yoro, having 2 teenagers as regular starters in a back 3 (or 4!). Especially if the team is struggling, it's a lot of pressure to put on young shoulders.
He's doing fine. I'm sure he's already ahead of schedule for where the club expected. No need to rush him!
He looks like he's still going to fill out his frame a bit more. He could end up being very physically imposing.
Thankfully (for us) Dowman is going straight into the first team next season. Arteta wanted to give him his debut this season, but the rules prevented it.
Mertesacker and his team have been doing an incredible job. Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri broke through this season. Dowman next season. And we’ve had Heaven and Hutchinson picked off by United and Chelsea respectively.
I think Heaven is gonna come good. Unlike Chido Obi, who reportedly had his head turned by a wage offer no one could match, Heaven seems more focused on his long term career and development as a player.
Also, he hasn’t filled out yet, so the step up to senior football will become easier with time. Once again, this is unlike Obi, who had such a size physical advantage over those in his age group that the step up to first team football became difficult.
It will be interesting to see how Amorim uses him next season and how he develops.
If you look at Garnacho/Mainoo there journey into the first team went from 0 to 100 and then the struggles started. Amad's path has been slower (for many reasons) but I feel his path prepared him for the first team a lot better than the other two I mentioned.
Heaven is more than ready for first team football, so it will be a good test of the coaches to manage his minutes correctly next season.
If you look at Garnacho/Mainoo there journey into the first team went from 0 to 100 and then the struggles started. Amad's path has been slower (for many reasons) but I feel his path prepared him for the first team a lot better than the other two I mentioned.
Heaven is more than ready for first team football, so it will be a good test of the coaches to manage his minutes correctly next season.
We need to replace the clowns.
Even the Aston Villa number 2 will do a better job.
As mentioned above, it’s really annoying he got injured earlier in the season because I think he could’ve basically guaranteed first choice LCB for the remainder of the season.
Now I just hope he plays a significant part of next season. Martinez may comprehensively be our best progressive passer in defence but Heaven’s height, pace, and athleticism is the prototype for what you need as an outside CB.
Now I just hope he plays a significant part of next season. Martinez may comprehensively be our best progressive passer in defence but Heaven’s height, pace, and athleticism is the prototype for what you need as an outside CB.
I would still wait for a few more games, he's done well so far but the sample is too little. We are also talking about being Manchester United level all of a sudden. With the signings we will be punching for top4 easily so the defence has to be solid. High hopes for Heaven he can save us some money.
Yoro actually looked like a leader end of season. his darting runs forward show big confidence. Need to get better defending in and around the box but he looks like a senior player to me and not a risk in the lineup anymore.
I really like the look of him. Everytime he's played he's stood out. If he can stay fit, him and yoro can be mainstays for years to come. Hoefully he starts games more frequently next year.
God no, Mazraoui does not suit playing CB, he is not very good there. Tbh he is not really good for any roles in this set up long term.
He is better there than at RWB. He defends the wide areas and plays out from the back very well.
After he's injured and would be replaced, he's still able to catchup to Watkins (on offside position, albeit Watkins was carrying the ball), and defended really well. I thought that was impressive, and showing his good mentality as defender.
Just annoys me even more that we are not playing a back 4. The defensive solution is so obvious long term. We have the best young pairing you can find in Yoro and Heaven. You couldn’t ask more from a partnership, and we are just wasting a body that could be used further up the pitch by looking for an extra centre half. You would like to think Yoro and Heaven have everything to be a world class partnership. Play a third midfielder, not a third centre half.
He was very very impressive in that Villa game. If we can do a few more of these 2m signings for players that are worth 60m, we will be in good shape.
What? He has been our best RCB, only Yoro could be equal or better to him. Links up very well with Amad when he played RWB and pretty solid defensively.
Mazraoui definitely struggled for the last couple of months of the season, but before that he was performing well at RCB. The question is whether the earlier form was what we can expect more of next season and he just had a rough patch at the end (possibly due to playing significantly more games than he ever has before in his career), or whether the early form was a bit of a one-off good patch and going forward we'll see him struggle more often. No way to really know, but hopefully it's the former.
I was thinking the exact same thing. We could probably put all the names of backup keepers in the EPL into a hat, pick two out at random and be in a much better place in the goalkeeping department next season.
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I think this is where it's worth keeping in mind that a large number of transfers in from outside England tend to do better in their second season. It's not unreasonable to expect most of last summer's signings, who've all been at least decent at times this year, to up their level next year. Fingers crossed.
I think Yoro and Heaven will be best suited to the wide CB role because we need pace and strength in those areas if we want to push up and defend large spaces, as for your CCB, I think De Ligt will be best suited to it, due to his aggressiveness, he can contest aerially and push up while the wide CBs cover when needed.
as for WBs, I think it depends on the performances of the player in that position, I am hoping Dalot gets out of his funk and Dorgu develops further next season.
I'm hoping it also shows that he wasnt that injured and ended up coming off as a precaution. Initially thinking he's about to come off injured for the 2nd time in 3 starts and 3 sub appearances I was thinking it could be a bit of a concern. But then after Evans was readied to come on, he looked absolutely fine chasing back with Watkins and defended well so yeah surely he wasnt really injured.
I think his strength is what impresses me the most so far. Comparing him to Yoro I feel like I see Yoro just about coping with players in physical tussles at times and sometimes he looks like he will lose the battle although I think he usually sees off the danger even if that happens. With Heaven he always seems completely cool and calm when in a physical battle. He never looks like he might lose a physical battle.
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