Best Midfield Combination?

IrishRedDevil

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Bruno
Mainoo
Tielemans
Santos
Baleba
.
Mount (3 games per season)


Now that the rebuild is complete, what’s the best combination in your opinion?

What will become our most selected midfield this season?
 
I want to see Baleba and Mainoo with Bruno of course. I have wanted someone in central midfield with plenty of running power to partner Mainoo
 
I think any combination not involving playing 4-2-3-1 and Bruno in midfield is the tits.

None of them are good enough to play in a midfield two, in terms of physicality or technique.
 
Whoever is playing best is probably the right answer - best combo on paper I think is Baleba + Tielemans
 
I think we need to answer what the expectation of our midfield is first. It's looking like it's one CM sitting with the CBs whilst the other joins the attack (and nothing in between). If that's the case Santos deep and Baleba to roam, otherwise the rest don't have the legs.

In a more traditional midfield two it's probably Santos and Tielemans.
 
RedEM10 said:
I want to see Baleba and Mainoo with Bruno of course. I have wanted someone in central midfield with plenty of running power to partner Mainoo
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This is it for me as well - I think this will eventually become the 1st choice midfield.

It will get the best out of both of them.

We will probably see a lot of Baleba and Tielemens as well but I think in that combination we don’t get the best of the explosive ball carrying abilities of Baleba as he will have to sit deeper to cover for Tielemens.

Tielemens / Santos are probably the best at passing through the lanes to progress the ball.

The criticism of the Mainoo-Baleba midfield will be that neither are great at progressive passing. But both Mainoo and Baleba are capable of resisting the press, beating a man and carrying it forward and then playing a simple pass to Bruno, Cunha, Amad.

And I think in possession, it will allow Mainoo to be closer to the front 4. Mainoo is so effective in tight spaces and intricate play around the box.

Just feel that combination will bring the best out of both of them.

Baleba-Santos I think will be too defensive minded. Will make us much harder to beat and it’s the midfield I want to see us closing out games when we’re leading.
 
I want to see a proper three-man midfield this season featuring Santos, Baleba, and Tielemans/Mainoo.
 
Timoni07 said:
I want to see a proper three-man midfield this season featuring Santos, Baleba, and Tielemans/Mainoo.
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We're probably not going to see too much of that because Bruno will start every PL and CL game as the de facto "third midfielder" in the "number 10" role.

So realistically it's a 2 man midfield combo out of 4 midfielders we have (not counting Mount)
 
I'm not sure right now, we will probably see quite a bit of rotation over the course of the season and at until we have Baleba ready. As a guess on which would be our more frequent selection

-----Tielemans (Mainoo)---Baleba (Santos)-----------------------------Bruno (Lacey/Mount)-------------

But this is more related to Tielemans coming in as an experienced starter for Villa so I can't imagine he would join us without assurances on being a regular and Baleba being our most expensive midfield signing which makes me think he will also be a regular. It's a bit confusing though as I believe Santos left Chelsea because he was behind in the pecking order and Mainoo have a very good second half to the season.

That being said if we can progress deeply in all the cup competitions this year there should be plenty of games to go around.
 
I honestly have no idea. I can see potential in every combo...but I can also see potential problems with every combo.

Let them fight it out and whichever two combine the best and are in the best form should be the main two at that time. Hopefully we find multiple different combinations work so we have plenty of options going forward.
 
Lash said:
For me, it's probably Baleba Mainoo or Baleba Tielemans.
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This, I think Mainoo Baleba will play most games because they are the most complimentary and defensively secure duo, Santos has a shout but I think Santos - Tielemans will be our reserve duo. We will have Baleba as the hunter, playing as a box to box 8 a ka Casemiro, whilst Kobie sits as the anchor, Mainoo can do the build up stuff from deep being press resistant and Baleba will have the job to drive forward, support the press and use his recovery pace to stop transitions. Bruno will do his Bruno things
 
Red Rash said:
I'm not sure right now, we will probably see quite a bit of rotation over the course of the season and at until we have Baleba ready. As a guess on which would be our more frequent selection

-----Tielemans (Mainoo)---Baleba (Santos)-----------------------------Bruno (Lacey/Mount)-------------

But this is more related to Tielemans coming in as an experienced starter for Villa so I can't imagine he would join us without assurances on being a regular and Baleba being our most expensive midfield signing which makes me think he will also be a regular. It's a bit confusing though as I believe Santos left Chelsea because he was behind in the pecking order and Mainoo have a very good second half to the season.

That being said if we can progress deeply in all the cup competitions this year there should be plenty of games to go around.
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Santos didn't go well with Tielemans, not enough legs (combined). Tlelemans preferred partner is Beleba, 2nd choice is Mainoo. Santos+Mainoo might be good enough for weaker teams. The biggest puzzle remains on Mount, really can't see any time slots for him when all fit, and I bet his chance of being fit is much lower than the rest of the 4.
 
Oscar Bonavena said:
We're probably not going to see too much of that because Bruno will start every PL and CL game as the de facto "third midfielder" in the "number 10" role.

So realistically it's a 2 man midfield combo out of 4 midfielders we have (not counting Mount)
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4231 seems to have been favoured by Carrick at Middlesbrough as well, so we likely won’t transition to a midfield three until post Bruno and Carrick.
 
MadDogg said:
I honestly have no idea. I can see potential in every combo...but I can also see potential problems with every combo.

Let them fight it out and whichever two combine the best and are in the best form should be the main two at that time. Hopefully we find multiple different combinations work so we have plenty of options going forward.
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Agree with this.
 
Two for me,

Balaba-Santos (just think it will be a solid base to build everything around)

Baleba-Mainoo (Baleba should just allow Kobbie to be Kobbie, Baleba covers a lot of the issues of playing Mainoo that Santos doesn’t.

Those 3 players are our future and the ones I’d most want to see but I imagine once everyone is fit it’ll be Baleba and Tielmans.

I’m not sure about Tielmans, wait and see how he gets on. There was a reason no big team had brought him in.
 
I don't think anybody, incl Carrick, really know until we see the various combinations on the pitch.
 
Andersons Dietician said:
Two for me,

Balaba-Santos (just think it will be a solid base to build everything around)

Baleba-Mainoo (Baleba should just allow Kobbie to be Kobbie, Baleba covers a lot of the issues of playing Mainoo that Santos doesn’t.

Those 3 players are our future and the ones I’d most want to see but I imagine once everyone is fit it’ll be Baleba and Tielmans.

I’m not sure about Tielmans, wait and see how he gets on. There was a reason no big team had brought him in.
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I would have less concerns with Tielemans with someone athletic alongside him (not for 3 weeks)
 
If we want more ball carrier, we go with Baleba - Mainoo double pivot while Bruno offers passing ability.

If we want more passers, we go with Baleba - Tielemans double pivot with Bruno as no 10.

If we want to rest Bruno, we can play 3 man midfield with Baleba - Tielemans - Mainoo.

I need to watch more of Santos more to see what he can offer in the game but based on what I watch so far, he will be best to play alongside Mainoo or Baleba not Tielemans.

There is no really best midfield combination as they offer different things. However, I must say midfield combination consists of Baleba and Mainoo with either Tielemans or Bruno would be my preference.
 
The best combination will be Baleba+1. The rest don't have enough mobility to get around the pitch and against any half-decent Premier League team that's going to be a major issue. Couple it with slow defenders, incapable to defend large spaces on their own and it's a recipe for disaster. The whole of last season we talked about ground coverage, speed and general physicality or lack thereof in our midfield and the only player we brought in this summer to rectify this in some way, was also the last player we did bring in. Up until the Baleba signing I already thought the profiles we were targeting this summer were an awkward fit for our team and the Hull performance didn't help to alleviate these concerns. Hopefully this perception will change over the next weeks and months, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have to go back into the market for a midfielder next summer, because we're still not balanced enough in that area. The Ipswich game Tomorrow could already be a decent pointer.
 
Baleba Mainoo for me.

It would be fun to see Baleba, Mainoo and Tielemans in MF, with the latter playing advanced. Then Bruno on the right whipping crosses to Sesko.

Alternatively, Baleba, Mainoo and Bruno in the middle and we buy a full back with good crossing qualities.
 
Whatever combination we play I’d like Mainoo to get game time.

The jury is out on Tielemans, can he handle the Utd pressure.

Mainoo/ Baleba for me. Santos needs slowly developed. This rebuild isn’t just for this year.
 
Timoni07 said:
I want to see a proper three-man midfield this season featuring Santos, Baleba, and Tielemans/Mainoo.
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Me too. We are constantly overrun in midfield by 3 men midfield teams. Bruno is not midfielder.
 
Baleba, Mainoo and santos should be against the top teams. Put Bruno on the right where he can still create and his worth ethic is quality. Then we’d need the other 2 attackers to be pacy. Against teams we should be dominating. Can have Baleba and tielemans with Bruno in front.
 
Steve 007 said:
Bruno is undroppable. We’d be nowhere near top 3 last season without him.
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If Bruno is undroppable make our attack working with Bruno. If that doesn't work and in order to accommodate Bruno in midfield, we'll have to go back to transitional football. Transitional football won't work well with our ambition to dominate opponents, to better control games and in general make a squad able to compete for trophies year after year.

So if we want to play dominate football which should be a goal for United we have to solve problem of Bruno in the midfield. So far, our solution was to find two midfielders to accommodate Bruno in the midfield. Those two midfielders + Bruno should be able to play against 3 pure midfielders. Those attributes make those two target midfielders very special, that'll be tough to find, enormously expensive and wanted by every big club in the Europe.

So far, we haven't found those two midfielders and I personally doubt that we'll do.
 
darko1963 said:
If Bruno is undroppable make our attack working with Bruno. If that doesn't work and in order to accommodate Bruno in midfield, we'll have to go back to transitional football. Transitional football won't work well with our ambition to dominate opponents, to better control games and in general make a squad able to compete for trophies year after year.

So if we want to play dominate football which should be a goal for United we have to solve problem of Bruno in the midfield. So far, our solution was to find two midfielders to accommodate Bruno in the midfield. Those two midfielders + Bruno should be able to play against 3 pure midfielders. Those attributes make those two target midfielders very special, that'll be tough to find, enormously expensive and wanted by every big club in the Europe.

So far, we haven't found those two midfielders and I personally doubt that we'll do.
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I repeat Bruno is undropable. I’m sure you now agree as does the whole forum.
 
After today. The only possible combo is mainoo and bruno dead start. We kust have to guest who will partner them
 
There is none. We will play every conceivable combination given the amount of games we have.
 
Mainoo was class, Bruno is PFA player of the year and Tilemans did well. Let’s see Santos cameo but I still think he’s 4th choice.
 
Raoul said:
There is none. We will play every conceivable combination given the amount of games we have.
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Don’t believe this will be the case at all. We should see a combination come together. Yes others will play games, that doesn’t mean we won’t have a first choice combo.

That has to include Mainoo.
 
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