Borna Sosa

Lux Thunder

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Few sources from Croatia, Germany and England reported today about our interest in Borna Sosa.

Wrote about him in a hidden gem thread already, one of the most creative left-back in the top 5 European leagues. Good age, surely better than Telles and attainable for a low price as Stuttgart is facing a relegation battle. Germany tried to lure him to play last Euro for their national team and that didn't go well with Croatia fans.

Despite public hate, he makes his way into the Croatia team and would probably be a starter at World Cup. Get one more assist again Bayern this weekend.

Fun fact: he would be the first Croatian to ever play for the club. Some reports also linked him with Barcelona recently.



Fbref Report

 

PoTMS

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I've heard he's good going forward but suspect defending. Is this going to be another Telles? Hard pass in that case.
 

Giggsy13

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Bin Telles for about €10 million and upgrade the position for only €15 million. Makes too much sense.
 

Bojan Djordjic

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I've heard he's good going forward but suspect defending. Is this going to be another Telles? Hard pass in that case.
Telles is equally shite going forward as he is defending. He's nowhere close to having this guys attacking stats. He seems well able to dribble, carry and make progressive passes. Depending on how cheap/dear he is, he could be an interesting one.
 

DWelbz19

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These bitches love Sosa
 

Zoo

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Has anyone seen the original story in Kicker?
 

MUFC OK

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Saw an article from a Leeds website on him, saying he basically plays as a left winger and offers nothing defensively. Can anyone confirm this? Assuming we don’t want to play 3 at the back he might not be suitable.

Looks to have a great cross though.
 

sullydnl

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Guessing he doesn't believe in the art of defending, those defensive stats would have us tearing our hair out after a handful of games.
Meh, wouldn't pay much attention to that, stats are tricky when it comes to measuring defensive qualities.

For example, Van Dijk:

 

Bojan Djordjic

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Meh, wouldn't pay much attention to that, stats are tricky when it comes to measuring defensive qualities.

For example, Van Dijk:

Yeah, counting stats are pretty useless for defenders and probably tell you more about a team's style rather than a players qualities. Not to say he isn't defensively poor but just that you can't read anything into those statistics, unlike the attacking ones which are really positive.
 

Lux Thunder

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Telles put his numbers in Portugal in the team winning/challenging for title every year and Sosa is playing for the team battling relegation, so that is not very comparable.

As for his defensive/offensive stats, he plays in a three back formation so those numbers are heavily influenced by responsibility in the system. But, he also played for Croatia in four back formation and he looked solid defensively also providing a great offensive threat. It's not fair judging him on his defensive stats solely because then we can argue about Robertson not being a good left-back and he certainly is.

If ETH wants his left-back to be his main creative outlet from the left side, Sosa represents a low risk under the budget signing. Of course, the smart manager would play him to his strength, if he can suit his plans initially.
 

Nou_Camp99

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I will be honest, I have no idea who this guy is but worries me I keep reading he's very poor defensively.

Not like we have compete against the likes of Salah, Mahrez, Saka, Kuluevski, Bowen and whoever Chelsea decide to play on the right is it?

Oh wait....
 

MUFC OK

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Telles put his numbers in Portugal in the team winning/challenging for title every year and Sosa is playing for the team battling relegation, so that is not very comparable.
Agree, I'm sick of hearing this sort of argument from Utd fans, it's beyond unintelligent. Correlation/causation and all that.. The Pau Torres being the 'Spanish Lindelof' is as bad, maybe worse.
 

jesperjaap

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He has an amazing crosser from the videos.
Have to admit, never heard of him before the links, only really watch Leipzig and Dortmund and occasionally Bayern games in the Bundeslegia.

But this comment so reminds me of all the positive comments about how much of an amzing signign Telles would be for us when I had never heard of him either. Not saying Sosa is anything like Telles, certainly hope he isnt if we are linked.
 

Lux Thunder

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Agree, I'm sick of hearing this sort of argument from Utd fans, it's beyond unintelligent. Correlation/causation and all that.. The Pau Torres being the 'Spanish Lindelof' is as bad, maybe worse.
And it's more because of their hair than their abilities.

What I'm sick of also is too much emphasis on defensive attributes, it's a middle table team's fan thinking. Go stick with AWB then, why wouldn't we think about the space left by the opposition wingers and take advantage of it or make them work more without the ball than just simply think of how to stop them.
 

MUFC OK

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And it's more because of their hair than their abilities.

What I'm sick of also is too much emphasis on defensive attributes, it's a middle table team's fan thinking. Go stick with AWB then, why wouldn't we think about the space left by the opposition wingers and take advantage of it or make them work more without the ball than just simply think of how to stop them.
I agree we should prioritise attacking abilities. Getting more balls into the box for Ronaldo is absolutely key. It's criminal that we havent seen more of that when he's put away pretty much every decent delivery provided to him this season.
 

Lux Thunder

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I agree we should prioritise attacking abilities. Getting more balls into the box for Ronaldo is absolutely key. It's criminal that we havent seen more of that when he's put away pretty much every decent delivery provided to him this season.
Yeah, let's criticize the defensive stats while also complaining about our full-backs offensive output when Sosa has more assists and created chances than all our options combined.
 

Adnan

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Sosa and David Raum (Hoffenheim) are very interesting options for the left back role imo. I think it would be a sensible move to bring someone in who can provide a attacking threat in a high defensive line.

Our mentality has to change regarding the role of the fullback and hopefully it will now that we have ten Hag as the head coach. I think we're still living in the past regarding the role of the fullback with the players we have at the club, Dalot is probably the closest one to being the option we need. But he still hasn't shown anything to convince me that he can be the longterm option.
 

NoPace

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Saw an article from a Leeds website on him, saying he basically plays as a left winger and offers nothing defensively. Can anyone confirm this? Assuming we don’t want to play 3 at the back he might not be suitable.

Looks to have a great cross though.
That fits if we buy Timber to play RB and tuck in and help out in midfield. Sancho hugging the touchline on the right (with Bruno narrow on the left since Sosa will provide width. Makes sense:


----------------Striker------------------
------Bruno-------VDB--------Sancho
Sosa----Fred---------------------------
------------------DM-------Timber-----
-----Torres/LCB-Varane-----------
---------------Goalkeeper-------------

That would be a summer of Sosa, Timber, Torrer or another LCB, a DM and then I would be fine with waiting a year on striker and running Ronaldo into the ground with one of Rashford or Martial staying for a year and being meh as a change of pace guy, since I think those defensive spots are bigger problems and striker could wait a year more than relying on Maguire and Dalot and such. Same with De Gea and Henderson. Why not give them a year and hope Henderson can step up or De Gea can be taught to pass again, when there are other, huge problems with less talent and professionalism and upside.
 

BayernFan87

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His crosses are very good.
Everything else is not good enough for you I think.
 

Red_toad

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He has an amazing crosser from the videos.
So was Telles prior to United, excellent crossing and in dead ball situations.


Same old stuff on the Caf, he looks better on youtube than what we have so he must be better. Hopefully we can get someone who's really watched him play to get some feedback.
 

Adnan

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So was Telles prior to United, excellent crossing and in dead ball situations.


Same old stuff on the Caf, he looks better on youtube than what we have so he must be better. Hopefully we can get someone who's really watched him play to get some feedback.
Telles was bang average at Porto and I even discussed this with @Peyroteo who agreed. Apart from having a good cross, Telles lacked greatly on the ball when it comes to dribbling etc. But it wasn't a big deal because he came in as a back-up.
 

Blood Mage

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Ten Hag's system needs attacking wing-backs so it's expected that we will be linked to players like this. Not sure if this kid is good enough though, he looks like another Telles to me. He has a good cross on him but little else to his game.