CDM or Centre Back Priority? | Poll added

[GueRed]

Centre-Back.

The drop off in quality from Maguire to the likes of Lindelof, Bailly and Tuanzebe is HUGE.

We badly need a good centre-back to partner Maguire.

Who though?

 

[Abraxas]

A few weeks ago I was thinking midfield, as it seems pivotal to quite a few things that are going wrong with our build up, tempo, creativity in some games. If we get a grip of those things there may be additional benefits to our defending, particularly if the midfielder is of a certain type.

However, the more you look at our defensive options the more worrying it gets. We are an injury to Maguire away from a potentially disastrous season. I don't think it can be overstated how important he is, and while he is a fit player, we simply must have more to rely upon. In midfield the options are not perfect, the balance can be questioned, the quality of a few can be questioned but they generally will do a solid job, but I can't shake the feeling of how Maguire reliant we are. The rest do not organise, they don't seem to communicate and they don't deal with things aerially.

 

[eire-red]

I think we need both. We're not convincing at the back, but we also can't retain possession and control the game from midfield. Both of these compound upon each other.

 

[Adam-Utd]

CB. Midfield we have 4/5 good options already with some great young players coming through academy.

 

[MattofManchester]

Both. We need to displace Lindelof.

Can't offer a title challenge with McFred.

 

[crossy1686]

If we’re going to persist with Dave in goal this season we need a strong back line. The midfield will have to wait.

 

[TwoSheds]

CB. Easily. But also we need the right player. If there's a great DM knocking around and all the CB options are uninspiring then go with the the DM who is actually a proper upgrade.

 

[gerdm07]

On a similar note am I the only one that thinks Rice and Phillips have just been a little better than good in the Euros? I say this because at this point I'm not sure either one would be a significant upgrade on McFred. Both are better, just not by much. Neither seem natural with the ball and make the game easy.

 

[KD6-3.7]

I don’t see why we can’t prioritise both. But if we fail to sign a DM while only bringing in Sancho and a CB I’d say thats a poor transfer window. It would be so unbelievably easy to upgrade on both McFred and without needing to break the bank.

 

[RedSky]

Not remotely close. CB all day long, we've got a massive flaw in the team with our current first choice CB partnership that opponents take advantage of match after match. Weak at set pieces, weak at defending high balls, weak against strong players and they always target the same CB... on top of that, lets assume worst case scenario and we have another injury to Maguire, what happens? We have to rely on a forever broken Bailly/Jones (hah) or Tuanzebe (who appears to be going out on loan) or go with one of the kids. CB is a huge problem area, Lindelof was a decent short term fix, but time to move on.

 

[TheRedDevil2019]

CB without doubt.

 

[Foxbatt]

If we are keeping Pogba then a DM is a must. We can't play McFred and Pogba. We can play any CBs yet the midfield is going to get overrun with McFred.
Yet if we get a quality DM the defense even with Lindelof in it is going to be under less pressure.

 

[bosnian_red]

Midfield for sure. A holding midfielder would make us much less vulnerable for people to run through the midfield. We don't have a chance at competing for a league title without a well balanced midfield, even with Varane and Maguire. We would have a chance at doing it if we had a well balanced midfield but with Lindelof and Maguire at the back.

Varane would be absolutely huge mind you - just I feel we desperately need to sort out the midfield, even getting a proper partner for Fred who can sit in place and not vacate the midfield all the time but also be a good enough passer would be massive.

 

[Mcking]

A defensive midfielder that can handle the ball well, over a CB. Lindelof the CB is better than McTominay the midfielder, and a defensive midfielder would offer us so much in terms of balance, and quality if he is good.

 

[bsCallout]

Changed my mind on this a lot. I'd have to go with CB now.

As others have mentioned the drop off is big as our options are poor. In CM, we have decent options.

A very good CB could really help in all phases of play just as much as a CDM, there is no reason the CB can't pass the ball between the lines like we want the CDM to do. Maguire has been doing it better than Rice for England.

 

[RedDevil@84]

In CM, we have decent options.

Not really. We have an almost porous midfield in many games. McT brings out his ace game only in a few games.
Our CBs need to be on top of their game for full 90+ minutes which is a very tough ask.

 

[PieCrust]

Not going to complain if we sign Varane, would actually be an amazing piece of business and Lindelof has never been good enough to be a regular starter. But the greater "need" is in midfield. McT and Fred are both the same kind of box to box CM and we don't have anyone in the squad to complement them nor to execute Ole's tactical desire to play the double pivot. It's a huge hole within the tactical setup. I also don't think McT is good enough to be a starter and Fred is borderline. However getting a quality DM to pair with them might make them both look a lot better.

The reality is though, we need both a CB and DM this window. Assuming we do sign Varane, I'd like us to drop interest in Trippier (even though he's an improvement over AWB) and spend the remaining transfer budget on a DM.

 

[DWelbz19]

I think Lindelof is a better CB than McFredorism are better midfielders — so a DM.

 

[Van Piorsing]

Too many injury prone defenders and only one leader in that formation, therefore CB is slightly bigger concern imo. Varane or Botman needed badly ASAP.

Need for DM is becoming more of common knowledge than opinion, but we have a lot of midfielders who can play deep, including Matić on the bench.

 

[bsCallout]

Not really. We have an almost porous midfield in many games. McT brings out his ace game only in a few games.
Our CBs need to be on top of their game for full 90+ minutes which is a very tough ask.

I think McT, Fred, Pogba, VDB, Garner are good options. Its not saying we don't want better.

At CB we have Maguire, Lindelof and then injury prone players in Bailly, Tuanzabe and no one else.

 

[El Zoido]

Easily CB, we dropped off a cliff the moment Maguire got injured last season. Both are important, but CB is definitely the #1 priority for me.

 

[sincher]

CB for me, but a fairly close call. I have a fair amount of faith in McTominay.

 

[MadMike]

Not remotely close. CB all day long, we've got a massive flaw in the team with our current first choice CB partnership that opponents take advantage of match after match. Weak at set pieces, weak at defending high balls, weak against strong players and they always target the same CB... on top of that, lets assume worst case scenario and we have another injury to Maguire, what happens? We have to rely on a forever broken Bailly/Jones (hah) or Tuanzebe (who appears to be going out on loan) or go with one of the kids. CB is a huge problem area, Lindelof was a decent short term fix, but time to move on.

That is mostly coaching or tactics and not Lindelof’s fault. He was part of a similar setup under Mourinho and we didn’t have a such a problem. We had Lindelof and Smalling ahead of DDG and they defended fine. We replaced Smalling with Maguire both of whom are excellent in the air. Yet somehow now we concede by the bucket load.

I’m not saying he’s individually great at defending set pieces, but he ain’t terrible either. He is being scapegoated here for team failures. The biggest drop in individual aerial ability at the back has been Valencia to AWB. But I wouldn’t blame him either for us being so poor.

 

[RiqCantona]

CB priority. McFred can still do the job even if we don't sign a DM.

 

[GBBQ]

Solskjarr should insist on both. Have the Glazers agree to a net spend of 200 mil this season on the understanding that we’ll have a max budget of 100 mil in 2022 (which will be set aside for a striker). We have such a young squad with so many promising talents in the underage that if we got this window right we could reduce our transfer spend in years to come with a good production line of players coming through.

 

[Leeuw]

GK, CB, DCM in that order.

 

[AngeloHenriquez]

Fred/ Scott in CDM or partner for Maguire out of Bailly/ Lindelof

Bailly/ Lindelof are better CB's than Fred/ Scott are DM's (not bad CM's but not DM's)

So my preference is a DM

 

[Shimo]

CB with pace that is less passive in engaging attackers. Plain and simple we will be able to step up 5-10 yards up the pitch, there won't be that nervousness of teams breaking on us all we do is back up to 18. It will mean the midfield 2 will be able to get closer to the attackers. Right now because Bruno plays so high up the pitch, there is either too much of a gap trying to get the ball to our attackers or we end up leaving a bigger gap between the midfield and the CB because they are further back due to lack of pace.

Ole simply doesn't want to play with a pure CDM and I know during the Euros the narrative was that Kante unlocks Pogba but, I don't think there is gap Kante and Fred is that high in the energy and ground covered. Kante does do better in sniffing out danger but, end of day we are never getting Kante and there are no other players out there that I can say will be a step up from Fred in the way Ole wants to them to approach a game, which is there isn't just one sitting CDM.

 

[Hal9000]

A good quality CDM will protect the CBs so a CDM

 

[rotherham_red]

It's a little convoluted but my reasoning for a CB over a DM (despite the DM actually being the bigger need) is that if a DM was bought first, I don't think a CB would be, as we would be able to get away with not replacing Lindelof.

However, if a CB was bought first, then a DM would then automatically become a necessity as the McFred pivot will not improve to a big enough extent to do the job adequately, and we would then focus on getting the right player to unlock the team's potential.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

A few weeks ago I was thinking midfield, as it seems pivotal to quite a few things that are going wrong with our build up, tempo, creativity in some games. If we get a grip of those things there may be additional benefits to our defending, particularly if the midfielder is of a certain type.

However, the more you look at our defensive options the more worrying it gets. We are an injury to Maguire away from a potentially disastrous season. I don't think it can be overstated how important he is, and while he is a fit player, we simply must have more to rely upon. In midfield the options are not perfect, the balance can be questioned, the quality of a few can be questioned but they generally will do a solid job, but I can't shake the feeling of how Maguire reliant we are. The rest do not organise, they don't seem to communicate and they don't deal with things aerially.

Yep you've convinced me to change my vote, very much echo your thoughts.

 

[RedSky]

That is mostly coaching or tactics and not Lindelof’s fault. He was part of a similar setup under Mourinho and we didn’t have a such a problem. We had Lindelof and Smalling ahead of DDG and they defended fine. We replaced Smalling with Maguire both of whom are excellent in the air. Yet somehow now we concede by the bucket load.

I’m not saying he’s individually great at defending set pieces, but he ain’t terrible either. He is being scapegoated here for team failures. The biggest drop in individual aerial ability at the back has been Valencia to AWB. But I wouldn’t blame him either for us being so poor.

You bring up Lindelof with Mourinho. Ok, let's go there. First season with us, warning signs already there, he had a 47% aerial win percentage. He conceded 13 goals in 14 starts, we conceded a total of 28 goals that season. Ok, first season syndrome, probably down to him settling in. 2nd season for Lindelof begins... he starts in 11 games for Jose in the league, we concede 16 goals in those games, winning 5. Jose is then sacked. He did improve his aerial success rate in his 2nd season, unfortunately I can't look at just the first 11 games without checking each match individually. But his total season ending stat was 63%, I mean that's still bad for a CB, but better than his opening season.

The good thing about Lindelof is that he isn't injury prone and that was a step up from Smalling, Jones, Rojo and Bailly. But he has always been defensively dodgy at United and our defensive slump started when he became a first teamer.

To put it into perspective...

​

​	Games​	Goals Conceded​	Clean Sheets​	Clean Sheet %​	Goals Conceded Per Game​
Lindelof Starts​	25​	29​	7​	28%​	1.2​
Lindelof Doesn't Start​	68​	57​	31​	46%​	0.8​

​

You could argue by starting Lindelof it cost Jose his job. Naturally this wasn't all on Lindelof, but is it really a coincidence that our defense turned to shit as soon as he became a regular for us? As I say, he was a good stepping stone, but if we're serious about winning trophies and titles, Lindelof cannot be a regular. This is why it's urgent he's replaced.

 

[Canuckred64]

You need the option of both as a necessity in this poll.

A top CB to partner McGuire is a necessity but no more necessary than a CDM who can unlock Pogba to play the way he does for France. We need to find a Kante to get the best from Pogba.

Until we address both issues we will be chasing City in the Premier and them and a couple others in Europe.

 

[appleman]

It's difficult. In theory I still like the Fred-Pogba option, if they're backed up by a defense able to correct some of their marking mistakes. In that case a faster defender than Lindelof could save the team a lot (i.e. Varane, who could benefit from a leader like Maguire, which imo he needs, otherwise you have a Puyol/(good)Umtiti-less Pique level CB, leaving him very unreliable, imo).

But you might want a more defensively/control reliable option in either of their places in many games, and leave the Fredba midfield as a plan B, which would make Lindelof like much more of a defender than in some of the games in which midfield lost the game too much.

Then again, you can't always play Plan A, sometimes (for a variety of reasons) you're back to Plan B, C or D in midfield and then it'd be nice to have someone capable of fixing many of your midfield's mistakes, which gets us back to CB.

McT and Fred and even Pogba step up their defensive game when led well from the back, so I'd rather see a swifter, and better in the air partner to Maguire than Lindelof. So, I think first focus on making sure the final wall is strong before you ease their necessity. As such, I say CB. But man, both would be so nice.

Also I think Sancho might really do wonders for Pogba back in CM. A lot of games, especially when Bruno was a bit too tired to always be an option for him, and Matic being too far back when he got tired, I felt like Pogba missed a safe option, getting into dribbles to create risky options, often leading to him losing the ball, creating a chance for the opposition to score, and it being Paul's fault for not wanting to just kick forward at random. Sancho will support midfield more in possession and thus provide an extra option for Pogba to pass to and combine with. This will improve midfield immensely and if you lose the ball less, Pogba won't have to run back as much, showing everybody his weaker assets all the time. This is all in theory and might not work, but last summer I thought this would really free Pogba from waiting for a Rashford run or Bruno to support him and I still do. I hope I'm right. (Extra: I think a more midfield oriented winger like Sancho will also ease some things for Fred, hopefully increasing his passing rate along with Pogba's, and I think Fred links best with him out of our options at the moment). So again, CB for me.

 

[Infra-red]

I've seen worse CB pairings than Maguire-Lindelof compete for the league. I don't think I have ever seen a worse midfield pairing than Fred-McTominay do the same.

As well as screening the back 4, a new CDM with decent passing ability will improve our build-up and free up Pogba/Bruno from having to continuously drop deep to collect the ball.

 

[Smores]

A midfielder who can control the game and take the pressure off the defence would be far more valuable imo. Lindelof isn't that bad at all.

Most teams have a worse CB, you'd probably have to go back to Rio and Vidic to find a PL winning team that didn't.

It doesn't help that Fred is no use at set pieces. Ideally the new midfielder helps us in those vulnerable areas too.

 

[Tomuś]

CB

 

[11101]

CDM. A good midfield has a player who can create (Pogba, Bruno), a player who can disrupt things (Fred), and one who can recover the ball and move it forward. A really good midfielder can do both of the latter.

Matic was that player but he's too old now.
Fred is too frantic to be anything other than the disrupter.
McTominay is decent but doesn't stand out at anything.

Now our midfield is able to protect the defence, or push in attack. Not both. Keep the attacking threat, properly protect the defence, and the centre back problem almost goes away.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

A minor-to-moderate upgrade on either Fred or McTom just won't do it. Not if we intend to play Pogba in the middle to a significant degree.

A moderate (preferably more than moderate, of course) upgrade on Lindelöf, on the other hand, would make a lot of sense - simply in terms of strengthening the defence. This seems doable/realistic. Whereas landing an undoubtedly top class DM of the sort we actually need...seems much less likely.

 

[Raveneye]

If rumours are to be believed, you're looking to pick up both Varane and Camavinga.

I think given Bailly's injury record and the slow progress of Tuanzebe's development you need a commanding CB, like Varane, a medium injury to Maguire at the moment could easily ruin your season. If Bailly was also injured suddenly your defence is looking very inexperienced. So I can see why Ole is targetting that.

The midfield is an interesting one, because you tend to play 4231 an out and out DM is not what you need, if Ole is looking to switch to a 433 then a specialist DM is needed, but there is no hint of that. Camavinga is excellent defensively, but progresses the ball well too, but he's also 18 and though he has plenty of first team experience he is still very young and can be dispossessed if forced onto his right. He is more of a long tern purchase packed with potential rather than nailed on starter, though I would expect him to get a lot of minutes. But a midfield choice of Fred, McT, Camavinga, DvB and Pogba gives you world class depth for the formation Ole prefers.

Henderson
AWB Varane Maguire Shaw
Fred Camavinga
Sancho Bruno Pogba
Cavani
​

Subs: DDG, Lindelof, Telles, McT, DvB, Greenwood, Martial, Rashford

That's a hell of a squad

​

This post convinced me to turn my opinion around. While I think a DM is necessary to get the team functioning at peak performance, it's true we have depth in midfield but are worryingly exposed with just an injury or two at CB. Maguire is just such a constant that I subconsciously assumed he'd be fit all of next season despite him finally picking up a sprain this season. In my head it was like a blip rather than a real danger. So yeah, to prevent worst case scenarios, I see why Solksjaer would prioritize a CB first if he had to choose.