That midfield is hardly good enough to qualify for European places next season.
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- Thread starter luke511
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That midfield is hardly good enough to qualify for European places next season.
Immediately thinking Camavinga/Tchouameni/Barrios, dark horses would be the likes of Casado or Chema
If Chema can be picked up for £30 million or less then he’s a no brainer and the same for Casado as I think they’ve got the physical attributes to handle the PL, I’d still want Anderson and Wharton as first choice pairing then Mainoo plus one of Chema or Casado as squad options.
Casado is 5ft7. He makes Martinez look tall
Id take Lee cattermole at this point
Bernardo Silva is the same size yet is as strong as an ox and I’ve never seen him bullied by anyone, physicality isn’t just down to how tall someone is.
Bernardo Silva play alongside Rodri who was the best DM I'm the world and he is 6ft3
Even when Rodri was injured for a year Bernardo Silva was a beast in midfield who was never bullied then over the years there’s been Makelele, Kante and others if I could be bothered to really look into it that were small in stature but physically were beasts.
Are you referring to last year?
Was it last season Rodri was injured ? All I know is Bernardo Silva has always looked a beast regardless of his stature and regardless of who he’s played alongside.
I’ve changed my mind. Get Adam Wharton! The inability to play football if we remove Bruno is abysmal.
There is no way he could be picked up for that little. Madrid would probably rather keep him for that.
Camavinga and Barrios have really bad injury records.
This is exactly why I’ve said for months that I want to see us bring in Anderson AND Wharton as our first choice pairing as Wharton if he has legs around him can be very creative from deep and without Fernandes we’re fecked creatively
Real have so many midfielders so aren’t going to use the buyback just to stock pile when they’ve got so many positions they need to upgrade or strengthen in, they’d only us the buyback to raise extra funds but by pricing Chema too high they’d end up stuck with him when midfield is where they’re already strongest squad wise.
I think I read somewhere the buyback is £13 million so using that then selling him for £30-£35 million is still double their money and helps raise funds to balance their attack and strengthen their defence, the problem Real has is how unbalanced the squad is.
Be careful mentioning Wharton in the same breath as Bruno on here!
It's not as if Bruno doesn't often spend significant amounts of matches dropping deep to dictate play and make through-balls...
And:
Obviously Real wouldn't trigger the buyback on an unwanted player until a follow-on sale with a third part was agreed. But then it would be a formality.
At £30mil you'd probably have half the PL in for him. Real could surely hold out for more if they were willing to sell.
He is a player whose possible fee is hard to gauge, but I'd guess if he was sold it'd be more like £40-55mil demanded. He has also just spent the season at Stuttgart, who if you'll remember managed to sell Woltemade for £65mil. Real will surely be aware of that if United came knocking for Chema.
Shea Charles? Northern Ireland international. Really? Never really stood out to me
even if Ugarte leaves I still can’t see us purchasing 3. I reckon Collyer would pickup that role. He can’t be any worse than Ugarte!
Wharton should not be a target as his weaknesses are too similar to Mainoo’s. We need to be adding all-arounders this summer. Two from Anderson, Fernandes, Scott and Sangare for me.
I can’t believe anyone is advocating signing Baleba - he’s been horrific.
Real are diabolical dealing with injured players. I'm amazed they haven't addressed it as they love a sacking.
Mainoo’s passing range isn’t really like Wharton’s. It’s more of a stylistic difference, similar to Xavi & Busquets, or Kroos & Modrić (just in style, not quality).
A Mainoo–Wharton partnership would work better if Bruno leaves and we move to a midfield three. I’d be happy to bring in Wharton, but only if we also add a more all-round midfielder.
Mainoo is great at keeping possession and working in tight spaces, while Wharton is better at controlling the tempo and dictating play. Different strengths, but they could complement each other.
Let’s hope the club come to this conclusion also instead of the briefs we hear of them being similar in style.
I’m not sure Mainoo and Wharton would even work in a three. They just don’t offer enough in the way of mobility and pressing to play together. I also haven’t seen any evidence Wharton can dictate play. He’s not remotely press-resistant either.
Annoyingly Garner would be the dream partner for Kobbie but I guess that ship has sailed with him signing an extension at Everton.
I’m not sure what you mean press resistant. He rarely takes more than two touches on the ball. Are we just underrating Wharton now? There’s some new series narrative like he’s Charlie Adams.
He doesn’t have the athleticism to press or the technical ability to play through the press. He is capable of a killer pass and his long-range passing is very good but the rest of his game is very mediocre.
Sounds a bit like Toni Kroos for me.
I think Wharton could work with right players around him. But i doubt Mainoo is one them. And overall i think we should not be searching for players to play with Mainoo, but players to start ahead of Mainoo. I can't explain it but Mainoo lacks of... something, to become a top player...If ever there's a slim chance, I want us to splurge 80+m for Nico O'Reilly. I think he'll be world class in the near future.
That’s an interesting list - Enzo at 4 is a surprise, I thought they were very different players (albeit based on perception as I don’t really watch him much).And:
Where did you get it from out of interest?
Yeah, having two unathletic midfielders is just repeating what's going on now. We need someone to cover a lot of ground, be decent in the air and have recovery pace in the mix.
Enzo has played at the tip of Chelsea's midfield 3 quite a few times this season (in front of Caicedo + Santos/Lavia).
But I think also people overlook how much Bruno drops in to midfield to receive the ball and spray passes about.
From here: https://scoutlab.streamlit.app/
Good luck finding that.
A fair point re: Bruno dropping deep, even more so over the last 24 months I guess, which will skew if viewing on paper.
I’m thinking to the eye they’re totally different.
Really interesting how much closer they are and thanks for the link.
Could Devaney not save you money? Supposedly doing well at St Mirren and SPL not a bad league, all things considered. Buy two and have him as part of a rotation of four?
I am watching the Bayern v Madrid game. And Arda Guler is absolutely amazing. I do see his long term future as a CM too. If there's any chance we could get him wouldn't mind us spending a fortune to bring him.
Jude Bellingham is doing well too. love the way he can carry the ball forward.
Jude Bellingham is doing well too. love the way he can carry the ball forward.
I just watched the first half of the Sporting-Arsenal UCL 1st half and Morten Hjulmand is a beast! He reminds of Carrick, the player, in that he's constantly scanning what's around him and always makes himself available in the 1st phase of possession. He's very good on the ball, keeps possession well, and makes some great first time one touch passes.
Off the ball he's excellent at both winning the ball back in the tackle and interceptions.
For me he'd be an ideal acquisition to play the 6 role for us next season.
Off the ball he's excellent at both winning the ball back in the tackle and interceptions.
For me he'd be an ideal acquisition to play the 6 role for us next season.
Teams would run over the top of us, we’d be lost when they don’t have the ball.
Good player. One issue might be age… 27 soon… and our recent transfers seem to have set an age ceiling below that.
But if he’s the one and can give a good 4 years, we might have to balance maturity/proven vs “future”
Exactly.
United to sign Camavinga, Baleba and Tonali this summer.
Tapped Up FC...
Tapped Up FC...
Why would anyone sign Baleba?
I'm just making a tongue-in-cheek comment about them all being players United have been linked to, and have been linked with moves away from their clubs, playing of late as if they've had their heads turned/they're trying to tank their value for a move.