Lee O'Connor plays right back. Levitt is an attacking midfielder; he hasn't the defensive skills nor experience to play left-back. Hamilton is a more likely option than Levitt. He's played on the left. Has good all-round skills (attack & defense). Still under-21, I think - so would not count for squad size limit. Also Borthwick-Jackson or Demitri Mitchell; but they're not under-21 so they would count as a squad players if we keep either. Mitchell + CBJ will surely both leave on loan again. I bet O'Connor goes on loan too. Rojo is never a left-back no matter what his agent says. I think Ole is happy with Young, Dalot & Darmian as squad reserves. How can left-back be a priority when DCM, CM, CB, and RW demand signings? Plus still need to sell 4,5,6, ... players to lighten the wage bill.
Cover/competition at left back
- Thread starter Bastian
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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.
Every time Shaw starts limping a bit I begin to worry about this. I’d be very (pleasantly) surprised if he would last a season without chunks of injury layoffs.
Please Woody. Shaw has never been the most injury-free player and having to play Young or Dalot for an extended period of time at LB gives me nightmares. Honestly think Darmian is our 2nd best LB in the squad and actually wouldn't mind keeping him if he would play over Young.
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A new starting left back will be seen as priority next summer.
Tierney at 25m should be the option imo.
AWB is really putting a spotlight on Shaw and exposing his ability defensively and his attacking contribution isn't good enough to make up for it. Too many other priorities this summer but if he doesn't have a great season I reckon next summer we might be going for a new LB.
Hmm that is probably about right... Mendy, Rose, Davies, Alonso, Chillwell, Robertson and Digne are probably better while he's on a similar level to Kolasinac, Holebas, Taylor etc
I have to agree, I’ve always found Shaw pretty average.
25m for Tierney. If we could offload Rojo and Darmian that’d fund it.
I'm not having Davies and Alonso in that list. Both are bang average at best.
As is Shaw.
Possibly but he's a better defender than both of them (much better in Alonso's case) and he's miles better in attack than Davies who's absolute shite.
Lee O'Connor, give the kid a chance instead of Young, he is quality.
This is massive issue and I’ve been saying it for what seems to be years. It will bite us on the arse sooner or later.
we need chillwell and ricardo, could be great cover with a chance of progress
It took less than two and a half games for him to pick up an injury. I stand by the opinion that it was daft to not strengthen at left back.
How close to being ready is Brandon Williams?
How close to being ready is Brandon Williams?
All that dancing and the result was back at square one. Cool, but horrible delivery into the box. Great routine, great dismount, crap landing.
Didn’t see this thread bumped on Saturday but 100% agree with this.
I mentioned Ashley Young would end up playing a sizeable amount of games this season when Shaw inevitably got injured & multiple people got their backs up.
Shaw as our Left Back is a disaster waiting to happen.
I truly have no faith anyone at the club knows what they’re doing.
Darmian can play too at left back. He is not a bad defender at all.
I was wondering what happened to Demetri Mitchell as he was meant to be a future left-back.
I had a quick look around and found that:
1. he is back from Hearts where he had a number of injury problems and is now in our under 23s squad
2. his only tweet in the past few weeks was a single 'ambulance' emoji
3. he has got his own clothing brand.
Not sure he will be replacing Luke Shaw anytime soon.
I had a quick look around and found that:
1. he is back from Hearts where he had a number of injury problems and is now in our under 23s squad
2. his only tweet in the past few weeks was a single 'ambulance' emoji
3. he has got his own clothing brand.
Not sure he will be replacing Luke Shaw anytime soon.
I'm surprised you weren't more interested in Sessegnon. Fits the Ole mould of type of signing as he is young and English, plus he can cover both LB and LW.
I was thinking about options to plug the immediate gap at LB from our own squad, not a new signing in January or whenever.
Sky (I know) said at the very start of the summer we were interested in him
To be fair to Young, Zaha does that to defenders all the time - he isn't the first and he wont' be the last.
Sums Zaha up for me.
A lot of dancing but the cross was blocked, so what's the point?
What happened to Cameron Borthwick Jackson in the end?
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They should be asking how he got on against Colchester
Telles will be in the final year of his contract this summer. Might be the perfect time to sign him.
Excellent going forwards, decent as a defender too.
Excellent going forwards, decent as a defender too.
That's a class tweet from Townsend.
Hmmm. Would be interested see Lee O'Conner on the bench. Looks a prospect from some vids I chanced upon.
Brandon Williams and Ethan Laird will be the full backs coming through.
Looks as though O'Connor is being pushed centrally.
I think we would of been interested but would he of been interested in us. He would of wanted to start wherever he chose to go and I'm not sure he is any better than Shaw at the moment and he wouldn't of started ahead of any of the options we currently have on the left wing.
Its difficult to bring in competition for Shaw, he good but not great. That means you either bring in an understudy who isn't as good or you go out and buy someone better which will cost a fortune and will leave you with a very expensive sub in Shaw. The other issue is Shaw needs to be playing all the time to be any good, very much like Rooney used to be. So Im still undecided what the best option would be but I think Dalot can play of the left so hopefully when fit he will get some game time there.
I hope he leaves, we're ruining him.
How much would Digne cost from Everton?
Still here.
Still here.
But it's strange that he's almost forgotten about these days because he actually looked a competent player with a future when he had that run in the 15 > 16 season.
Incredibly, I suppose he's now 6th choice LB after Shaw, Young, Darmian, Dalot and Rojo and he's better than a 6th choice EPL player.
Transfermarkt value him at £27M. Don't know if they would take that amount for him though.
I would LOVE Digne. Him as first choice with a rotating Shaw is dreamy depth. However, can't see Everton letting him go when he's arguably their best player/MVP. If AWB cost us £50m, Digne would AT LEAST eclipse that figure.
Not 100% convinced on Tierney (another with major injury issues) but still think we missed a trick not going for him or Sessegnon as mentioned. I rate Chilwell so could see us/other top six clubs going after him soon. Likewise, I really rate Alex Telles at Porto, who can literally do everything.
Get Danny Rose in the next window. Quick fix! Shaw is just getting too comfortable.