Can't wait for him to leave & look like a WC CB. One of my favourite players at United - possibly too attack minded of a CB for Jose.
Hasn't made a mistake ever since playing there.
Hasn't made a mistake ever since playing there.
Daley Blind fears Manchester United could sell him in the summer
- Thread starter Tom Van Persie
- Start date
Ashley Young rediscovering his form is a threat to both him and Darmian. He's right to be worried. Even if we switch to a more permanent a back 3, I don't see how Blind will be needed in the future.
Smalling, Jones, Bailly, Rojo, Lidelof and even Tuanzebe... are all players I'd have ahead of him at CB. That's 6 players. And if we sign a LB he'd be behind the new arrival and Ashley Young for the LB spot, with Rojo capable of playing there in cases of emergency.
Mourinho has been told to sell before buying and him and Darmian would surely be near the top of the list.
Smalling, Jones, Bailly, Rojo, Lidelof and even Tuanzebe... are all players I'd have ahead of him at CB. That's 6 players. And if we sign a LB he'd be behind the new arrival and Ashley Young for the LB spot, with Rojo capable of playing there in cases of emergency.
Mourinho has been told to sell before buying and him and Darmian would surely be near the top of the list.
This is something I wouldn't mind seeing either, he's got good positional awareness and a decent range of passing so I think he could do a job for us in the absense of Matic and Carrick, he gets exposed as a full back because he seems to have zero acceleration but in CM he could use his other attributes to compensate, plus he'd have more cover behind him, would be worth a shot anyway.
He has been a good servant to this club, I like him and would be glad if he stayed in any capacity possible. The reality is that he would be of a much better use at another club who play to his strengths. From the bunch consisted of Darmian, Mkhitaryan, Mata and him he should be the last to get rid.
Good footballing brain, but he's too small and slow to be an EPL defender.
When you're small and slow, you really need to have elite skill to be successful in this league. Modric at Spurs comes to mind, Mata when he was at his best, maybe David Silva right now.
When you're small and slow, you really need to have elite skill to be successful in this league. Modric at Spurs comes to mind, Mata when he was at his best, maybe David Silva right now.
I am not expecting 22 WC players either. In matter of fact Im quite happy with Romero + Im warming around the idea of us having Rojo and Fellaini around. However players need to be suited to the EPL. As said Blind is too small to play as CB/CM and too damn slow to play as a fb. He's not cut for the EPL.
Fair enough, but I still think he is a useful squad player to have around.
If he played for another club I wouldn't necessarily want us to go out and buy him, but he's already with us so it makes sense to keep him. He can help plug some gaps in the team, especially during a congested fixture list and inbetween injuries to other players.
It's hard to have top/world class players across the whole squad.
Darmian is (was?) our preferred choice at leftback when we want to play defensively, and is also cover for rightback. Blind was ahead of him in matches where we wanted to play more offensively, but Young has obviously moved far ahead of him in that situation. In saying that, if we do sign a new leftback then Young will be ahead of Darmian in the rightback spot as well.
Ultimately I think Mourinho will want to keep Darmian and sell Blind. However Darmian will likely want to leave to look for starting spot, so that may then mean Blind will stay after all to provide extra cover.
Nice player and I love him, but he's not good enough to fill the CB, LB or even CDM that strangely some imagine all his problems will be solved if he's moved to it, even though he was mediocre during LVG first season. He's a good squad player to have as he fills multiple roles but he's never going to be a starter in a top team in a strong and fast paced league as EPL.
I'll be happy to keep him but not if he leaves, well good luck to him.
I'll be happy to keep him but not if he leaves, well good luck to him.
It has to be remembered that he was average/poor in central midfield in his first season with us.
Maybe now that he's settled he might do better there, but I wouldn't be holding my breath about it. Especially when you would think that the system we played back then would have been better for him than how we play now.
Not good enough to be a CM and not aggressive enough to be our CB. To slow to be a LB..
Like him but we have better players now for the job he did..
Like him but we have better players now for the job he did..
He has clearly shown that he can be a very good CB and that being slow and weak can easily be made up for by cleverness.
The problem is that Mou doesn’t see him as a CB. He would be better off somewhere else. Barca would do well to have him in their squad.
The problem is that Mou doesn’t see him as a CB. He would be better off somewhere else. Barca would do well to have him in their squad.
Keep!
See ya later Daley.
Not even top 5 most good looking in our squad either.
Not even top 5 most good looking in our squad either.
If we want to challenge at the highest level we really need a left back and a right back....
players who can defend but can also attack
I think in Valencia, Blind, Young, Mitchell coming through and players like Tuanzebe, Fosu Mensah and Rojo we can handle a crisis at fullback
I really don't rate Darmian in an attacking sense and defensively he's not been fantastic either
Makes absolutely no sense. Typical!
He should leave on his own. Doesn't he want to play regularly
If he wants regular football he will probably have to go somewhere else. If he's happy being a squad player I say we keep him. Versatile player. Jack of all trades, master of none.
Dunno why we don't play him in CM. Can't do any worse than Herrera atm
Good backup player for the left back or defensive midfield position. Would not mind him staying if he is OK playing a backup role. We're not getting a starting quality player willing to come in and be a backup for anyone.
Because he absolutely can do a lot worse than Herrera.
Biggest reason I would keep is because the lad is more stable than Jose is & a manager who doesn't find it hard to play football on the floor will get good use of him.
He's awful at left back or wing back, but actually quite good as a centre back. He is a centre mid though? Can't remember him playing there too many times. But yeah, maybe it's time to sell him. We don't really need him anymore. I've always liked Blind though, good footballer.
I like him. I wish he is given a chance in midfield though. He has the forward passing abilities and defensive reading skills to make it there.
Another player who is clearly overrated due to a lack of playing time
The way Barca play their football that's a good call. He's very technical and a clever player.
I like Blind but he epitomizes the thoughtless way we approached our transfer business post SAF
Not a bad player but doesn't have a specialist position, lacks pace and strength and just seems far too much of a 'nice' player
I think he must be worth £25m in today's market and we should take the money
Not a bad player but doesn't have a specialist position, lacks pace and strength and just seems far too much of a 'nice' player
I think he must be worth £25m in today's market and we should take the money
Personally i'd sell if a good offer came in. Just don't see what he contributes to us anymore as i'd rather have Young as a back up LB and it's obvious he isn't going to play in midfield at this stage.
I think him and Darmian are actually good players, they just do not fit in the more fast-physical english game.
I don't think I agree. Quite the opposite, I reckon he'd be terrible for Barcelona with all his flaws exposed.
Both of Barca's current CBs (Pique and Umtiti) are very quick and athletic players. They need to be, because pushing up the pitch to support the midfield requires very quick recovery times when the ball is played in the space behind them. Blind might be calm on the ball, but he doesn't have the pace to recover or the strength to win tussles for the ball. At least Mascherano, who played there before for Barca, had terrier like qualities. A strength and ferocity beyond his size. That's not something Blind possesses. And in terms of being a CB Umtiti is a better fit at Barca than Mascherano was, precisely because he's got more size, strength and pace.
Blind's agent has just released a book, the rather boring title is 'Deal'. The agent is called Rob Jansen and he's the biggest Dutch agent after Raiola (who was an ex employee of his firm) and he's close to retiring. Jansen had a journalist follow him around and travel with him for a year, the journo could write whatever he wanted. Some passages were about his work for Daley Blind at United (Jansen is also Koeman's manager, some fascinating stuff about Everton transfers last summer in the book too), and it gave some very interesting insight into how stuff works behind the scenes.
For example last season when Daley was benched around the January period, he immediately got very frustrated and his agent came over to Manchester, it was described how they had talks in the Lowry hotel. Agent was already looking for other clubs, for example he had already had an informal talk with Inter's technical director and offered Inter he could move Blind to them in the summer, while in the meanwhile he was trying to calm down Blind. Of course Daley got back to playing a lot for us and he was in the starting line-up for the Europa League final. But everything suggested he would be a goner as soon as he would be benched a lot again.
Edit: there was some good stuff about Woodward too, from the agent's perspective Woodward was portrayed as an autistic tool. There was a scene after the Everton match in the director's box at Goodison park, where agent Jansen tried to talk to Woodward about Blind, but Woodward just gave a blank stare and acted like he didn't recognise him. Which is kind of weird considering the fact that Jansen was also, for example, Edwin van der Sar's agent, meaning he's been making deals with United for quite some years now.
Another scene where Woodward called up Jansen out of the blue and got really angry and accused him of unsettling matters right before the Real Madrid match at the start of this season. What happened in reality was that Jansen had called Jorge Mendes to make an appointment with Mourinho to check and discuss Blind's perspective for this season, because Woodward had ignored him previously, and Jansen reckoned Mourinho complained to Woodward about this, which led to frustration on Woodward's side.
I thought it was interesting how even a sensible and pretty intelligent lad like Blind, who's father is also very familiar with the footballing world, completely loses all faith the moment he gets benched or feels he's not top of the pack anymore. In that regard I also think it's extremely likely he will be wanting leave us this summer. Unless the perspective of playing time changes again of course, but I don't really see that happening given Young's great form, Lindelof being preferred at CB and Mourinho not using Blind as a midfielder.
For example last season when Daley was benched around the January period, he immediately got very frustrated and his agent came over to Manchester, it was described how they had talks in the Lowry hotel. Agent was already looking for other clubs, for example he had already had an informal talk with Inter's technical director and offered Inter he could move Blind to them in the summer, while in the meanwhile he was trying to calm down Blind. Of course Daley got back to playing a lot for us and he was in the starting line-up for the Europa League final. But everything suggested he would be a goner as soon as he would be benched a lot again.
Edit: there was some good stuff about Woodward too, from the agent's perspective Woodward was portrayed as an autistic tool. There was a scene after the Everton match in the director's box at Goodison park, where agent Jansen tried to talk to Woodward about Blind, but Woodward just gave a blank stare and acted like he didn't recognise him. Which is kind of weird considering the fact that Jansen was also, for example, Edwin van der Sar's agent, meaning he's been making deals with United for quite some years now.
Another scene where Woodward called up Jansen out of the blue and got really angry and accused him of unsettling matters right before the Real Madrid match at the start of this season. What happened in reality was that Jansen had called Jorge Mendes to make an appointment with Mourinho to check and discuss Blind's perspective for this season, because Woodward had ignored him previously, and Jansen reckoned Mourinho complained to Woodward about this, which led to frustration on Woodward's side.
I thought it was interesting how even a sensible and pretty intelligent lad like Blind, who's father is also very familiar with the footballing world, completely loses all faith the moment he gets benched or feels he's not top of the pack anymore. In that regard I also think it's extremely likely he will be wanting leave us this summer. Unless the perspective of playing time changes again of course, but I don't really see that happening given Young's great form, Lindelof being preferred at CB and Mourinho not using Blind as a midfielder.
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Was never United material, nice guy, great hair, but only ever so slightly above average as a player. Would be good at a subtop Spanish side.
Useful squad player, would rather keep him.
Is there a position he is actually good enough to play in?
If we're being bluntly harsh, I don't see the point in a squad player who isn't good enough to be a back up fullback and would be 6th choice as a centreback...he'll either never play or play in a role he isn't good enough in.
Although I'm not desperate to get rid of him either, and we'd need an actual decent fullback before we got rid of any of our not so decent ones.
If we're being bluntly harsh, I don't see the point in a squad player who isn't good enough to be a back up fullback and would be 6th choice as a centreback...he'll either never play or play in a role he isn't good enough in.
Although I'm not desperate to get rid of him either, and we'd need an actual decent fullback before we got rid of any of our not so decent ones.
If he goes it would more so be out of a need to move a couple of players out (maybe Blind and Fellaini) for Jose to make a couple of buys that he wants to continue building a Mourinho squad. I realize he likes Fellaini but with the PSG overtures, I think we have to realistically consider he may go.
I'd probably worry about being sold in January first if I were him. Wouldn't be surprised if we've tried to move him on before now.
DM.
He epitomizes LVG's warped sense of suitability of English football. LVG himself said he likes multi functional players. Maybe it works in Holland
whatever he goes in summer, he comes back to manchester in 1-2 years. You bet Baldy will be keeping tabs that's his kind of player.
During the summer deadline rumours, read somewhere that a Senior United player was trying to engineer a move out of the club, and my first thought was of him. Unfortunately, he is better suited to a possession based play than Mourinho's style. But a very intelligent player. If he goes, my only regret would be not seeing him more in the defensive midfield role. But now with Lindelof here starting to show his potential, I think he will want to move on.