Glad someone else has noticed.
Centre Back... Who do we go for?
- Thread starter Macern
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Glad someone else has noticed.
You realise of course that Tuanzebe was our 3rd choice CB and why we sent Smalling on loan? Because we decided he's good enough and the coaches felt he could force his way into the team. The only reason he's not currently in the team is injuries. The coaches who saw him while he was on loan and in training feel he's good enough now.
He has not showed anything so how could we know how good he is? He’s played a handful of PL matches, and only one (1!) as starting CB. It’s nothing. He had a great opportunity when Ole let him play the easy EL matches but then he got all the injuries.
Which is exactly my point. His performances at a lower level suggested he has it and he'd have gotten chances this season but got injured. Once he stays injury free he'll get a chance to usurp.
Luke shaw and buy a left back.
Awb maguire and shaw as a back 3.
Different variations
Awb maguire and shaw as a back 3.
Different variations
We are paper thin at CB after Lindelof and Maguire and I would argue that bringing in a CB is a more urgent priority than RW. Koulibaly partnering Laporte will make city a real force and nightmare to play against. Getting an established CB like Koulibaly for £50 to £60 million should be a no brainer even at his age of 29. We’d likely get 3 to 4 world class seasons out of him. The Sanchez comparisons are just laughable. Are we forever going to fear getting a player pushing 30 just cause of one bad experience? Mental way to run a club. Sometimes you need that experience and and guaranteed quality you get with a player like Koulibaly who would make an immediate impact with us.
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I was going to say that Ake is very good in the air for his height, but looked up the stats to make sure they agree with my eye test and he only wins just over 50% of aerial battles. That is quite poor, significantly less than Lindelof. I'm pretty sure he wins a surprising amount of headers on attacking corners so that may be why I thought he was better than he is.
With that in mind my interest in Ake has largely disappeared.
Ok, then I misunderstood you, sorry. I agree, he has shown enough at lower level to earn a chance and to be worth the effort to develop. If he can make it at this level, is yet to see.
Ben Godfrey anyone?
Vid of yesterday’s game with focus on players and coaches comments.
//youtu.be/gXlvSeTn1Ww
Skip to 3:34 and you’ll hear ole talking to Ake at the end of the match. If you listen carefully (and I have a few times) he says to Ake ‘Good job. We need a left footed centre back. Keep going’.
Now I could be wrong and instead he’s actually saying ‘Good job. You need a bit of luck from your centre backs. Keep going’ as the subtitle states but to me that makes no sense.
What do you guys think?
//youtu.be/gXlvSeTn1Ww
Skip to 3:34 and you’ll hear ole talking to Ake at the end of the match. If you listen carefully (and I have a few times) he says to Ake ‘Good job. We need a left footed centre back. Keep going’.
Now I could be wrong and instead he’s actually saying ‘Good job. You need a bit of luck from your centre backs. Keep going’ as the subtitle states but to me that makes no sense.
What do you guys think?
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That doesnt make any sense
Care to elaborate?
Just doesnt make sense to say that to me then say keep going
I’m not sure who is available, but we don’t want to be moving Shaw or AWB to CB. Far better to buy someone who is a specialist, rather than move one of our starting 11 to another position.
keep going as in keep performing as you have been. anyways listen to it if you have min and let me know what you hear. at least then i'll know it's my mind playing tricks on me.
I find it difficult to accept, the comments that we need to buy another CB to cover for where Maguire is poor. I’m not saying the statement itself is wrong because I agree, but it seems ridiculous.
Players playing in a 2 like CBs often compliment each other, but each play on their individual merit.
Players playing in a 2 like CBs often compliment each other, but each play on their individual merit.
You are probably right about what you think he says but I don't think it's any coincidence that he went up to Ake instead of one of their other players but that is probably just me looking into it too much.
I think if we got any kind of indication that Koulibaly wanted to join Utd instead of City then could see us switching our priorities from signing Grealish/Van Der Beek to him. I realise he doesn't fit into our general criteria of buying players over the age of 29 but he is generally considered to be the second best CB in the world behind Van Dijk.
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You might be right but that is a very wild thing to do right in front of the camera.
Not seen many Lille games, but Gabriel looks a good CB, good in the air, has a yard of pace, he can ping a decent ball as well, but he is left footed so that would mean moving Maguire to RCB which may not be a bad thing being between Gabriel and AWB who both have the pace to cover him.
Ole to Ake ‘we need a left footed center back so just keep going’
Jesus manYou're actually right
Would take him as third choice as Bailly isn't very good and Tuanzebe can't be relied upon
Last thing we need is yet another injury prone cb.
Alexis Sanchez was considered one of the best wingers in the world when we bought him.
Benoît Badiashile would be my top priority. Has so much talent. I know we want an established star but IMO this guy is not far off. Maguire and Lindelof deserve first crack next season and Badiashile can be eased both into the premier league and the squad with less pressure and hopefully by the half way mark he could be first choice along with Maguire.
Bailey, Jones and Smalling to go.
Bailey, Jones and Smalling to go.
As an Austrian I would go with Martin Hinteregger from Eintracht Frankfurt. Would be a cheap signing. A left footed, scoring CB, who is used to play in a high pressing team!
I don't think we will get a CB this summer. There is no outstanding candidates for a reasonable price.
Alot of names mentioned, but none of them are proven CB's. If we are going to replace Lindelof say with someone just as good as him, there is no point spending money.
I have seen Upemacano being named around however; watched him recently and he is no where near ready.
We cannot buy for the sake of buying a CB.
Alot of names mentioned, but none of them are proven CB's. If we are going to replace Lindelof say with someone just as good as him, there is no point spending money.
I have seen Upemacano being named around however; watched him recently and he is no where near ready.
We cannot buy for the sake of buying a CB.
I think Ruben Dias from Benfica is an interesting option, he’s only 23 but has the potential to be a beast. Great in the air, good tackler, seems to have a good eye for a pass and seems to have some game intelligence. Unsure about pace though
Yeah he's class.. when we were linked with Victor back then I was hoping we could get him instead. I thought Jose would be aware of him being portugese and all. Or maybe that Quaresma lad one of the Sporting fans keep banging on about.
Exactly what I've been saying. There is no one available for a good price that would be a significant upgrade on Lindelof. People go on to mention Upamecano but I just think they haven't actually seen him in enough games. I do feel we would get a CB but only if we offload our current ones. It's also probably going to be a squad option that can play LCB too because we would have none once Rojo and Jones leaves. Hence the "we need a left footed centre back" and strong links to Badiashile Salisu Rodon and Pau Torres
This is what annoys me with fans sometimes. A simple answer of we should go buy Koulibaly, or Upemacano or any other CB.
Napoli want £70m plus for Koulibaly who is 29 playing in the Italian league. No offence but Smalling has outshone him.
Upemacano plays in a 3 back and is not convincing.
I agree, if we offload 2 CB's we could get a backup CB, I would be okay with that because I can understand it might not be easy to bring in a CB.
Realistically, people say we cannot do win titles with the CB pairing we have, I can agree with that somewhat. But, we are not even coming top 4 with the attack we have. Why not sure up the attack get the rhythm going for next season by buying a RW / Midfielder and then finish the team with a CB season after?
I don’t necessarily disagree but I’d say 2 things.
If the defence is solid it allows the front men even more freedom to attack
smalling is gone, rojo is gone, Jones and tuanzabe are injury prone. It leaves us fecked for cover
I agree that a solid defence allows the front men alot of space. Tuanzebe has really put a screw in the works IMO. He was obviously the backup.
I agree with cover we look doomed at the moment but that cannot mean we spend £70m on a CB, considering we need depth in our attack. If we could get a decent £20m backup, it would be perfect for now.
This season, our defence has coped with difficult moments however, our attack has not coped with it.
We could bring in a player like him, Torres or Salisu if we are focusing on Sancho & Grealish,however maybe we don't buy Jack and go all in for Koulibaly
I think people are running with this Upamecano has been poor thing and it doesn't hold much weight for me. He makes the odd mistake just like any cb, including VVD. Overall he's been excellent for Leipzig over the last few seasons and it seems very likely that he's going to leave Leipzig before next season. He's strong in the air, good on the ball and the most important part of a Leipzig defence that have conceded the 2nd fewest goals this season after Bayern Munich. The only legitimate arguments I've heard against signing him are his potential injury record which is fair. He did have 1 long term injury last season but he has been mostly injury free this season with the exception of missing a couple games in August, and I think to suggest he's not ready yet like I've seen some suggest is a bit ridiculous since he's already a better defender than Maguire despte only being 21.
For now we're sorted but someone quick, tall and good on the ball like Jonathan Tah/Romagnoli. I'm still hoping that Tuanzebe can become that player.
Primary target is clearly Koulibaly. Would be a great shout for the here and now.
I know De Ligt supposedly turned us down before but I'd love to go for him again. Phenomenal potential as a Rio like CB and would also be great as the sweeper in a 3 or as some additional cover for Matic.
I know De Ligt supposedly turned us down before but I'd love to go for him again. Phenomenal potential as a Rio like CB and would also be great as the sweeper in a 3 or as some additional cover for Matic.
I’d lurvvvvveee to get DeLigt