Signing 3 senior midfielders at once is something barely any team would do. I don’t think it’s wise or realistic. I think 2 good ones plus a promotion - like Koné, should suffice and then we reassess later.
Centre Midfielder Transfer Links
- Thread starter luke511
- Start date
Signing 3 senior midfielders at once is something barely any team would do. I don’t think it’s wise or realistic. I think 2 good ones plus a promotion - like Koné, should suffice and then we reassess later.
I think Liverpool bought Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Macallister and someone else in one window so it possible but I agree unlikely. I think Bruno will be counted as someone who can play there so two signings still seems most likely outcome.
That’s true.
I think a better way to phrase it is that we’re not going to spend £200 million plus on three midfielders, which is what it would take to get Baleba, Anderson, and another, when Liverpool’s three cost £130 million combined up front and I’d imagine Forest will push hard for £100 million alone for Anderson.
Delap, Gyokeres, Watkins, Ekitike were the ones widely reported?
There were never any serious and creditable links that United or Amorim actually wanted Gyokeres.
Watkins was who Amorim preferred, sure, but he was always behind Sesko in the club's priorities, and it's the club which ultimately makes the transfer decisions.
I am assuming your last name is either Wilcox or Amorim, or at least Vivell, since you talk with such confidence and authority about behind-the-door decisions that only these threes are really aware of
What about taking a punt on Bouaddi or someone highly rated and then one of Anderson or Baleba. We aren't going to be able to really replace Casemiro like for like. I don't think we need Wharton. Mainoo can move the ball around and mix it up as it is and so can Mount if we are stuck. We need to replace the heartbeat of the team really, someone who will play a very brave game and try and dominate the opposition
It feels like we are making more solid recruitment decisions recently and going back to basics. I personally think the likes of De Jong or Neves for a season or two could replace that experience in there and a three man midfield also gives us a much better chance of competing and creating chances, whoever is starting.
It feels like we are making more solid recruitment decisions recently and going back to basics. I personally think the likes of De Jong or Neves for a season or two could replace that experience in there and a three man midfield also gives us a much better chance of competing and creating chances, whoever is starting.
The Watkins stuff was pretty widely reported by The Athletic a few weeks ago when Amorim left. Andy Mitten also reported that we weren't in for Gyokeres in the summer.
Why get precious about someone's rebuttal when you were confidently saying Sesko was 4th or 5th choice yourself? Is your information better than everyone else's?
Out of curiosity, is there a list if people who stylistically or statistically match up to a prime Casemiro. Be interesting to see. Not sure how to search for that myself
Anderson and Baleba would cost a lot and we also need a LB at least. But I hope for once we also find some cheaper player, under the radar, who is really good, like Lammens
I’m not sure the players we are been linked with match their price tags.
Liverpool paid over £100 for Wirtz and Isak two players who could be potentially the best in their position in the league possibly world. I am not saying that they got that but that was the potential.
Rice and Caceido both went for close to 100m
The two young kids we are constantly linked to Wharton and Elliot are being tipped to cost the same. Are they potentially among the very best In that position? If not why are we looking at them at these fees.
Data driven or not we could be overpaying for unambitious signings.
Liverpool paid over £100 for Wirtz and Isak two players who could be potentially the best in their position in the league possibly world. I am not saying that they got that but that was the potential.
Rice and Caceido both went for close to 100m
The two young kids we are constantly linked to Wharton and Elliot are being tipped to cost the same. Are they potentially among the very best In that position? If not why are we looking at them at these fees.
Data driven or not we could be overpaying for unambitious signings.
Anderson yes he can possibly reach Rice's level , Wharton would definitely require lot of accomodations to actually fullfill his potential but talent is there .
But the thing is we cant get fixated on these specifics targets if the cost are prohibitive then move on , there are plenty of good midfielders out there may be not as good as them right now but potential to get there .
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They will not cost the same.
Let us see which clubs will go for them in the summer as Citeh will not pay that amount and that is for sure!
You claimed:
"Delap, Gyokeres, Watkins, Ekitike were the ones widely reported?"
But it was rather "widely reported" that Amorim preferred Watkins, but the club preferred Sesko.
It was also never "widely reported" by any creditable sources that United saw Gyokeres as a priority signing.
I do not need to be any of the people mentioned to be able to refute the claim which you also made without any insider knowledge...
Thanks.
Liverpool signed 4 centre backs in January - Jacquet at 20 (who is first team ready now, albeit is staying with Rennes to see out the season) and then 3 cheap punts in Adekoya, 19, Ndiaye, 18, and Ndukwe, 17. Obviously Jacquet is a direct replacement for Konate. Leoni is injured all season so he may not end up being the player they hoped. I suppose Gomez will stick around so their 3rd/4th choice centre back spot will be contested by Leoni/Adekoya/Ndiaye/Ndukwe. With the latter 3 being signed for about 5m total, these are fairly cheap punts and I guess they see it as 'may the strong survive'.
I suppose it depends how ready or able we see Kone/the Fletchers/Orozco etc to be. We definitely need at least 2 CMs. If Ugarte goes, ideally we replace him with a youngster already at the club. But I wouldn't be against Baleba, Bouaddi and a young punt under £10m.
I had an initial look for potentially good DM replacements in the following link, but TLDR there weren't many:
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/centre-midfielder-transfer-links.488776/post-33997872
I thought I'd have another go at doing a similar thing, but tweaking slightly to focus a bit more on stylistically similar players to Casemiro. I used his current season's data as a reference as it's still excellent and well beyond most other midfielders out there.
Mainly, I filtered out players based on a number of Casemiro's key stand-out, differentiating attributes; primarily: high defensive work-rate, strong progressive passing, and not being bad in the air. If restricted to more additional data-points eg only exceptional in the air, plus scoring goals, there'd be basically no one left.
I decided to add Sofascore's season player ratings for wider context, because some of the extra bits-and-pieces Casemiro does relative to other stylistically similar central midfielders (eg goals, headers etc.) will still get captured there to some degree without narrowing the field too arbitrarily. Looking at Sofascore's ratings relative to other data sources and my own observations, they seem fairly solid for assessing player performance.
Results were pretty similar overall to my previous attempt, but with a few names dropping out and a few finding their way in.
I removed basically all the older (eg >28) players from the non-PL Big 5 Leagues as they are unlikely to be signed.
I also looked at younger prospects from most of the still respected smaller leagues who could maybe make the step-up in future.
Big 5 Leagues (age, club, Sofascore Season rating):
Premier League - Elliott Anderson (23, Nottingham Forest, 7.1); Nico Gonzalez (24, Man City, 6.97); Ethan Ampadu (25, Leeds, 7.03); Declan Rice (27, Arsenal, 7.51); Vitaly Janelt (27, Brentford, 6.94); Ibrahim Sangare (28, Nottingham Forest, 7.06); Bruno Fernandes (31, Manchester United, 7.65); Casemiro (33, Manchester United, 7.15); Granit Xhaka (33, Sunderland, 7.34)
La Liga - Antonio Blanco (25, Alaves, 6.91); Unai Vencedor (25, Levante/Bilbao, 6.67); Pape Gueye (27, Villareal, 6.97); Pepelu (27, Valencia, 7.06); Kervin Arriaga (28, Levante, 6.86); Frenkie De Jong (28, Barcelona, 7.24)
Serie A - Ederson (26, Atalanta, 6.94); Manuel Locatelli (28, Juventus, 7.53)
Bundesliga - Chema Andres (20, Stuttgart/Real Madrid, 6.95); Nicolas Seiwald (24, RB Leipzig, 6.99); Tom Krauß (24, Kölln/Mainz, 6.94)
Ligue 1 - Mamadou Sangare (23, Lens, 7.06); Tanner Tessmann (24, Lyon, 6.91); Jordan Teze (26, Monaco, 6.88)
I've also plotted two of the most important attributes below which I'd used as a filter. Together with relativised Sofascore ratings as an overall player quality barometer:
A few notes:
- Casemiro is a defensive freak.
- Replacing both Bruno and Casemiro will be a nightmare.
- Can Real Madrid be persuaded to not take back Chema Andres for what Utd were willing to sign Baleba for?
- Locatelli is doing crazy things (albeit in Serie A...). Shame he's 28 and Juve captain...
- It's obvious why Anderson might be a priority target for United as the youngest PL player on here, as well as being on the Pareto Line (if you exclude the freaks); even though he doesn't have the exact same profile as Casemiro.
- Man City already have one of the top young DMs in the PL in Nico Gonzalez - them also taking Anderson would seem greedy...
Younger Prospects from Smaller (non-Big 5) Leagues (age, club, Sofascore Season rating):
Vanja Dragojevic (20, Partizan Belgrade 7.02); Mathias Siltanen (18, Djugardens, 7.15); Soumaila Diabate (21, RB Salzburg, 6.79); Aleksandr Stankovic (20, Club Bruges/Inter Milan, 7.32); Kamiel Van De Perre (21, Union St Gilloise, 6.91); Justin Janssen (19, Nordsjaelland, 6.91); Cauan Barros (21, Vasco De Gama, 7.07); Shea Charles (22, Southampton, 6.93); Stije Resink (22, Groningen, 7.23); Youri Regeer (22, Ajax, 7.09)
A few notes:
- Mathias Siltanen (who I've mentioned here before) seems a rare and exciting Casemiro-esque profile for an 18 year-old, and should follow the Bergvall route from Djugardens to the PL (hopefully to United, but Bournemouth and City have scouted him in the past).
- Stankovic is apparently being scouted by Man Utd and Spurs interestingly enough. I watched him vs St Gilloise and he seems an exciting player who strikes the ball very well indeed, albeit seems more a Rice-type box-to-box, maybe even a 10, than a 6/DM. Similar to Chema, can he tempted away from his kinda parent club?
- Dragojevic has been strongly linked to Borussia Dortmund recently.
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I love it. 4 stand out players to check out on YouTube. I had no idea locatelli had hit back and finally delivered on his early promise. Thanks for that great post.I had an initial look for potentially good DM replacements in the following link, but TLDR there weren't many:
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/centre-midfielder-transfer-links.488776/post-33997872
I thought I'd have another go at doing a similar thing, but tweaking slightly to focus a bit more on stylistically similar players to Casemiro. I used his current season's data as a reference as it's still excellent and well beyond most other midfielders out there.
Mainly, I filtered out players mainly based on a number of Casemiro's key stand-out, differentiating attributes; mainly: high defensive work-rate, strong progressive passing, and not being bad in the air. If restricted to more additional data-points eg only exceptional in the air, plus scoring goals, there'd be basically no one left.
I decided to add Sofascore's season player ratings for wider context, because some of the extra bits-and-pieces Casemiro does relative to other stylistically similar central midfielders (eg goals, headers etc.) will still get captured there to some degree without narrowing the field too arbitrarily. Looking at Sofascore's ratings relative to other data sources and my own observations, they seem fairly solid for assessing player performance.
Results were pretty similar overall to my previous attempt, but with a few names dropping out and a few finding their way in.
I removed basically all the older (eg >28) players from the non-PL Big 5 Leagues as they are unlikely to be signed.
I also looked at younger prospects from most of the still respected smaller leagues who could maybe make the step-up in future.
Big 5 Leagues (age, club, Sofascore Season rating):
Premier League - Elliott Anderson (23, Nottingham Forest, 7.1); Nico Gonzalez (24, Man City, 6.97); Ethan Ampadu (25, Leeds, 7.03); Declan Rice (27, Arsenal, 7.51); Vitaly Janelt (27, Brentford, 6.94); Ibrahim Sangare (28, Nottingham Forest, 7.06); Bruno Fernandes (31, Manchester United, 7.65); Casemiro (33, Manchester United, 7.15); Granit Xhaka (33, Sunderland, 7.34)
La Liga - Antonio Blanco (25, Alaves, 6.91); Unai Vencedor (25, Levante/Bilbao, 6.67); Pape Gueye (27, Villareal, 6.97); Pepelu (27, Valencia, 7.06); Kervin Arriaga (28, Levante, 6.86); Frenkie De Jong (28, Barcelona, 7.24)
Serie A - Ederson (26, Atalanta, 6.94); Manuel Locatelli (28, Juventus, 7.53)
Bundesliga - Chema Andres (20, Stuttgart/Real Madrid, 6.95); Nicolas Seiwald (24, RB Leipzig, 6.99); Tom Krauß (26, Kölln/Mainz, 6.94)
Ligue 1 - Mamadou Sangare (23, Lens, 7.06); Tanner Tessmann (24, Lyon, 6.91); Jordan Teze (26, Monaco, 6.88)
I've also plotted two of the most important attributes below which I'd used as a filter. Together with relativised Sofascore ratings as an overall player quality barometer:
A few notes:
- Casemiro is a defensive freak.
- Replacing both Bruno and Casemiro will be a nightmare.
- Can Real Madrid be persuaded to not take back Chema Andres for what Utd were willing to sign Baleba for?
- Locatelli is doing crazy things (albeit in Serie A...). Shame he's 28 and Juve captain...
- It's obvious why Anderson might be a priority target for United as the youngest PL player on here, as well as being on the Pareto Line (if you exclude the freaks); even though he doesn't have the exact same profile as Casemiro.
- Man City already have one of the top young DMs in the PL in Nico Gonzalez - them also taking Anderson would seem greedy...
Younger Prospects from Smaller (non-Big 5) Leagues (age, club, Sofascore Season rating):
Vanja Dragojevic (20, Partizan Belgrade 7.02); Mathias Siltanen (18, Djugardens, 7.15); Soumaila Diabate (21, RB Salzburg, 6.79); Aleksandr Stankovic (20, Club Bruges/Inter Milan, 7.32); Kamiel Van De Perre (21, Union St Gilloise, 6.91); Justin Janssen (19, Nordsjaelland, 6.91); Cauan Barros (21, Vasco De Gama, 7.07); Shea Charles (22, Southampton, 6.93); Stije Resink (22, Groningen, 7.23); Youri Regeer (22, Ajax, 7.09)
A few notes:
- Mathias Siltanen (who I've mentioned here before) seems a rare and exciting Casemiro-esque profile for an 18 year-old, and should follow the Bergvall route from Djugardens to the PL (hopefully to United, but Bournemouth and City have scouted him in the past).
- Stankovic is apparently being scouted by Man Utd and Spurs interestingly enough. I watched him vs St Gilloise and he seems an exciting player who strikes the ball very well indeed, albeit seems more a Rice-type box-to-box, maybe even a 10, than a 6/DM. Similar to Chema, can he tempted away from his kinda parent club?
- Dragojevic has been strongly linked to Borussia Dortmund recently.
Chema Andres looks unreal and suited to the Premier League. Definitely has some Rodri about him. Very strong in the air and solid enough tackling and passing. He's at Stuttgart now so not ungettable if we can tempt him. Let Carrick coach him.
Dragojevic's range of passing is impressive. Would be very useful switching the ball to the wingers.
Interesting to see how their careers go. I could definitely see a Premier League team going for Chema Andres given his size and aerial ability.
Dragojevic's range of passing is impressive. Would be very useful switching the ball to the wingers.
Interesting to see how their careers go. I could definitely see a Premier League team going for Chema Andres given his size and aerial ability.
If you'll re-read my notes - Chema Andres isn't exactly purely owned by Stuttgart unfortunately, otherwise he would seem a no-brainer.
Real Madrid have a cheap buyback option on him.
However, they still have a reasonable amount of midfielders in their squad and coming through. So the question is rather if Real Madrid can be offered enough to not re-integrate him in to their squad?... If United waved how much they were willing to spend on Baleba at Real for him instead, maybe it wouldn't be impossible. No idea really though.
He certainly looks the type who one could imagine going to a Dortmund for a cheap fee and do well, only for United to be linked a season or two later for 5x what Dortmund bought him for. Same with Siltanen if he ends up somewhere like Bournemouth.
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Real Madrid are being linked with players like Enzo Fernandes, Rodri and world class players as usual. If the club felt he was worth the gamble I don't think it would take more than £30m to take him from Stuttgart, considering what they paid for him they'd be making multiples of that. Never know but hopefully our club are aware of the player.
Rodri looks completely shot. If that’s Real’s big plan to get their midfield back on track I reckon they’d be better served looking elsewhere. They’d be bailing City out with a big cheque, I’s rather he stayed there tbh.
Berg, Anderson, Neves is a good balance of profiles technique and experience. We do not need 3 100m midfielders to be competitive.
We need horses for courses and one X factor player.
We need horses for courses and one X factor player.
I agree, but very sceptical towards Neves. And Sander Berge will probably be expensive considering age. I was very pro Berge when he went to Fulham and have been for years, but now? Depends on price.
There are so many exciting young midfielders in the PL. Anderson, Garner, Mateus, Baleba, Scott, Tonali. Neves and Berge? A bit underwhelming and short sighted at this point.
Neves has signed a new contract which is good news as we won’t go anywhere near him now as the last thing we need is another player with no mobility. Berge has always been a decent player but I can’t see us paying 50m plus for someone who turns 28 this month. If we picked him up for 25m like Fulham did that would have been good business.
I agree we don’t need 3 100m midfielders but we need to spend a lot of money there as we’ve been making do for so long.
Yep, agree with this, don’t think we’ll target either of them.
Not short sighted if you factor in my note about not needing three 100m midfielders. There are other positions that need elite investment too. LW, CB, LB?
Anderson would be my X factor modified signing. Berg and Neves were functional but quality additions to round out the profiles we need for that position.
1. Anderson; Baleba, J Neves, Wharton
2. M Fernandez, others identified
1 or 2 from that top bin, plus 1 or more from the other bin
2. M Fernandez, others identified
1 or 2 from that top bin, plus 1 or more from the other bin
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That would be some summer
I’ve moved Wharton to top bin due to his expected price
I like that structure, but mine would be:
1. Anderson, Tonali,
2. Mateus F., Baleba, Alex Scott, Wharton,
Maybe that Lille-talent in group 2. But wow; there are so many great and exciting options!
For me it's do whatever it takes do get Anderson, then I'll take whomever of Baleba/Wharton/whomever-else.
I just see Anderson as the box-to-box diamond for a decade (Keane vibes re Keane's early years at forrest).
After that, indeed, a Wharton or Baleba would compliment him well (with Mainoo, too, and Ugarte gone etc., we then have something like a quality midfield).
Haven't followed Neves for a while but he used to be fecking quality.
Just to confirm it’s J Neves from PSG I mean here. He’d cost €100m+
But he is top quality. Pair him with the right one and we’re sorted
Thanks for this mate. Was a brilliant read and much more than I expected from my post. Great work.I had an initial look for potentially good DM replacements in the following link, but TLDR there weren't many:
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/centre-midfielder-transfer-links.488776/post-33997872
I thought I'd have another go at doing a similar thing, but tweaking slightly to focus a bit more on stylistically similar players to Casemiro. I used his current season's data as a reference as it's still excellent and well beyond most other midfielders out there.
Mainly, I filtered out players based on a number of Casemiro's key stand-out, differentiating attributes; primarily: high defensive work-rate, strong progressive passing, and not being bad in the air. If restricted to more additional data-points eg only exceptional in the air, plus scoring goals, there'd be basically no one left.
I decided to add Sofascore's season player ratings for wider context, because some of the extra bits-and-pieces Casemiro does relative to other stylistically similar central midfielders (eg goals, headers etc.) will still get captured there to some degree without narrowing the field too arbitrarily. Looking at Sofascore's ratings relative to other data sources and my own observations, they seem fairly solid for assessing player performance.
Results were pretty similar overall to my previous attempt, but with a few names dropping out and a few finding their way in.
I removed basically all the older (eg >28) players from the non-PL Big 5 Leagues as they are unlikely to be signed.
I also looked at younger prospects from most of the still respected smaller leagues who could maybe make the step-up in future.
Big 5 Leagues (age, club, Sofascore Season rating):
Premier League - Elliott Anderson (23, Nottingham Forest, 7.1); Nico Gonzalez (24, Man City, 6.97); Ethan Ampadu (25, Leeds, 7.03); Declan Rice (27, Arsenal, 7.51); Vitaly Janelt (27, Brentford, 6.94); Ibrahim Sangare (28, Nottingham Forest, 7.06); Bruno Fernandes (31, Manchester United, 7.65); Casemiro (33, Manchester United, 7.15); Granit Xhaka (33, Sunderland, 7.34)
La Liga - Antonio Blanco (25, Alaves, 6.91); Unai Vencedor (25, Levante/Bilbao, 6.67); Pape Gueye (27, Villareal, 6.97); Pepelu (27, Valencia, 7.06); Kervin Arriaga (28, Levante, 6.86); Frenkie De Jong (28, Barcelona, 7.24)
Serie A - Ederson (26, Atalanta, 6.94); Manuel Locatelli (28, Juventus, 7.53)
Bundesliga - Chema Andres (20, Stuttgart/Real Madrid, 6.95); Nicolas Seiwald (24, RB Leipzig, 6.99); Tom Krauß (26, Kölln/Mainz, 6.94)
Ligue 1 - Mamadou Sangare (23, Lens, 7.06); Tanner Tessmann (24, Lyon, 6.91); Jordan Teze (26, Monaco, 6.88)
I've also plotted two of the most important attributes below which I'd used as a filter. Together with relativised Sofascore ratings as an overall player quality barometer:
A few notes:
- Casemiro is a defensive freak.
- Replacing both Bruno and Casemiro will be a nightmare.
- Can Real Madrid be persuaded to not take back Chema Andres for what Utd were willing to sign Baleba for?
- Locatelli is doing crazy things (albeit in Serie A...). Shame he's 28 and Juve captain...
- It's obvious why Anderson might be a priority target for United as the youngest PL player on here, as well as being on the Pareto Line (if you exclude the freaks); even though he doesn't have the exact same profile as Casemiro.
- Man City already have one of the top young DMs in the PL in Nico Gonzalez - them also taking Anderson would seem greedy...
Younger Prospects from Smaller (non-Big 5) Leagues (age, club, Sofascore Season rating):
Vanja Dragojevic (20, Partizan Belgrade 7.02); Mathias Siltanen (18, Djugardens, 7.15); Soumaila Diabate (21, RB Salzburg, 6.79); Aleksandr Stankovic (20, Club Bruges/Inter Milan, 7.32); Kamiel Van De Perre (21, Union St Gilloise, 6.91); Justin Janssen (19, Nordsjaelland, 6.91); Cauan Barros (21, Vasco De Gama, 7.07); Shea Charles (22, Southampton, 6.93); Stije Resink (22, Groningen, 7.23); Youri Regeer (22, Ajax, 7.09)
A few notes:
- Mathias Siltanen (who I've mentioned here before) seems a rare and exciting Casemiro-esque profile for an 18 year-old, and should follow the Bergvall route from Djugardens to the PL (hopefully to United, but Bournemouth and City have scouted him in the past).
- Stankovic is apparently being scouted by Man Utd and Spurs interestingly enough. I watched him vs St Gilloise and he seems an exciting player who strikes the ball very well indeed, albeit seems more a Rice-type box-to-box, maybe even a 10, than a 6/DM. Similar to Chema, can he tempted away from his kinda parent club?
- Dragojevic has been strongly linked to Borussia Dortmund recently.
How does Ederson actually stack up stats wise, can't seem to see where he is in the plot. Reason I ask as we've monitored him for a long time and his contract is coming down. I wouldn't be surprised if we added him for a modest fee and I think he would bring much needed depth and experience.I had an initial look for potentially good DM replacements in the following link, but TLDR there weren't many:
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/centre-midfielder-transfer-links.488776/post-33997872
I thought I'd have another go at doing a similar thing, but tweaking slightly to focus a bit more on stylistically similar players to Casemiro. I used his current season's data as a reference as it's still excellent and well beyond most other midfielders out there.
Mainly, I filtered out players based on a number of Casemiro's key stand-out, differentiating attributes; primarily: high defensive work-rate, strong progressive passing, and not being bad in the air. If restricted to more additional data-points eg only exceptional in the air, plus scoring goals, there'd be basically no one left.
I decided to add Sofascore's season player ratings for wider context, because some of the extra bits-and-pieces Casemiro does relative to other stylistically similar central midfielders (eg goals, headers etc.) will still get captured there to some degree without narrowing the field too arbitrarily. Looking at Sofascore's ratings relative to other data sources and my own observations, they seem fairly solid for assessing player performance.
Results were pretty similar overall to my previous attempt, but with a few names dropping out and a few finding their way in.
I removed basically all the older (eg >28) players from the non-PL Big 5 Leagues as they are unlikely to be signed.
I also looked at younger prospects from most of the still respected smaller leagues who could maybe make the step-up in future.
Big 5 Leagues (age, club, Sofascore Season rating):
Premier League - Elliott Anderson (23, Nottingham Forest, 7.1); Nico Gonzalez (24, Man City, 6.97); Ethan Ampadu (25, Leeds, 7.03); Declan Rice (27, Arsenal, 7.51); Vitaly Janelt (27, Brentford, 6.94); Ibrahim Sangare (28, Nottingham Forest, 7.06); Bruno Fernandes (31, Manchester United, 7.65); Casemiro (33, Manchester United, 7.15); Granit Xhaka (33, Sunderland, 7.34)
La Liga - Antonio Blanco (25, Alaves, 6.91); Unai Vencedor (25, Levante/Bilbao, 6.67); Pape Gueye (27, Villareal, 6.97); Pepelu (27, Valencia, 7.06); Kervin Arriaga (28, Levante, 6.86); Frenkie De Jong (28, Barcelona, 7.24)
Serie A - Ederson (26, Atalanta, 6.94); Manuel Locatelli (28, Juventus, 7.53)
Bundesliga - Chema Andres (20, Stuttgart/Real Madrid, 6.95); Nicolas Seiwald (24, RB Leipzig, 6.99); Tom Krauß (24, Kölln/Mainz, 6.94)
Ligue 1 - Mamadou Sangare (23, Lens, 7.06); Tanner Tessmann (24, Lyon, 6.91); Jordan Teze (26, Monaco, 6.88)
I've also plotted two of the most important attributes below which I'd used as a filter. Together with relativised Sofascore ratings as an overall player quality barometer:
A few notes:
- Casemiro is a defensive freak.
- Replacing both Bruno and Casemiro will be a nightmare.
- Can Real Madrid be persuaded to not take back Chema Andres for what Utd were willing to sign Baleba for?
- Locatelli is doing crazy things (albeit in Serie A...). Shame he's 28 and Juve captain...
- It's obvious why Anderson might be a priority target for United as the youngest PL player on here, as well as being on the Pareto Line (if you exclude the freaks); even though he doesn't have the exact same profile as Casemiro.
- Man City already have one of the top young DMs in the PL in Nico Gonzalez - them also taking Anderson would seem greedy...
Younger Prospects from Smaller (non-Big 5) Leagues (age, club, Sofascore Season rating):
Vanja Dragojevic (20, Partizan Belgrade 7.02); Mathias Siltanen (18, Djugardens, 7.15); Soumaila Diabate (21, RB Salzburg, 6.79); Aleksandr Stankovic (20, Club Bruges/Inter Milan, 7.32); Kamiel Van De Perre (21, Union St Gilloise, 6.91); Justin Janssen (19, Nordsjaelland, 6.91); Cauan Barros (21, Vasco De Gama, 7.07); Shea Charles (22, Southampton, 6.93); Stije Resink (22, Groningen, 7.23); Youri Regeer (22, Ajax, 7.09)
A few notes:
- Mathias Siltanen (who I've mentioned here before) seems a rare and exciting Casemiro-esque profile for an 18 year-old, and should follow the Bergvall route from Djugardens to the PL (hopefully to United, but Bournemouth and City have scouted him in the past).
- Stankovic is apparently being scouted by Man Utd and Spurs interestingly enough. I watched him vs St Gilloise and he seems an exciting player who strikes the ball very well indeed, albeit seems more a Rice-type box-to-box, maybe even a 10, than a 6/DM. Similar to Chema, can he tempted away from his kinda parent club?
- Dragojevic has been strongly linked to Borussia Dortmund recently.
Ederson is at (5.9, 6.8) on the plot - towards the bottom-left...
His overall stats/player profile/style is similar to Casemiro, just with him being literally not as good as Casemiro at anything.
He doesn't seem terrible by any means, but I wonder if he's really more of a mid-table PL player than elite. He might be decent off the bench instead of Ugarte I suppose.
Ah yes, I see him now. Is this just this season? I know he's had a relatively poor season in comparison to previous. I also think he's more of a ball carrier than passer though, so that checks out.
It's going to be very difficult to replace Casemiro like for like, I think we'll have to find combinations with options to replicate what he brings.