Do we have enough depth to compete this campaign?

[VP89]

A football thread here - I don't want to dwell on circumstance of each outgoing:

Outgoings
Martial
Jones (looking all but done)
Van De Beek
Lingard (looks likely as a deadline day deal)
Greenwood

No ingoing nor is there any suggestion of a pursuit from a credible source. I suppose we can count Elanga and Pogba as extra bodies from here till the summer.

Attack - Ronaldo (36) , Cavani (34), Rashford, Sancho, Elanga.
Midfield - McFred + Matic with Bruno/Pogba as advanced options.

If Pogba stays fit I think we'll be OK in midfield actually. Defense I think we'll be fine too.

Just the attack worries me with early dependence on Elanga + Cavani being injury prone. We are still in the FA cup and Champions League, with a lot of PL fixtures to push for top 4.

 

[BluesJr]

Amad should maybe be recalled after todays shambles.

 

[spiriticon]

Yes. Our squad was too bloated anyway, we could do with a few outgoings.

Trust the youth, teach them good human values, and let them do their thing.

 

[Solius]

Yes. Our squad was too bloated anyway, we could do with a few outgoings.

Our squad was bloated in certain areas but definitely not in midfield or attack. We only have three players who can play CM and one of them often can’t last 90 mins.

 

[OleGunnar20]

Amad should maybe be recalled after todays shambles.

Id say Pellestri makes more sense given how pointless his loan spell has been. Fine he might not be as good but he had/has potential and you never know, could up his game if given the opportunity as backup.

Leave Amad at Rangers where he'll no doubt learn and grow a ton in all senses of the word, hopefully able to playa role for us next year even.

 

[spiriticon]

Our squad was bloated in certain areas but definitely not in midfield or attack. We only have three players who can play CM and one of them often can’t last 90 mins.

I think in attack we're ok. We still have Ronaldo, Rashford, Cavani, Elanga, Sancho fighting for 3 places. If the shit hits the fan, we call Diallo back.

Midfield is less stacked, but we've had that problem since forever. Sure Donny's gone, but he never played anyway.

 

[sullydnl]

We also have Mata knocking around somewhere, who wasn't mentioned in the OP.

 

[marktan]

There's like what 20 odd games left? I think we'll be okay. Most of those players barely play anyway, it's better for them to get game time.

I also think a slimmer squad is better because it lets your starters get regular game time, and if they're not good enough you realise where you need to improve in the transfer window. One problem we've had with 50 players in each position is if say Rashford plays badly, we say let Lingard or Elanga or Martial play instead. Reality is it's likely none of them are good enough for the LW spot so having our main starters playing every game should let us pick out which spots to reinforce more easily.

The proactivity in loans is something that Real have been doing with a lot of their squad recently and it works out well for them. Regular game time means they either play well and increase their value or at the very least they have minutes under the belt. The worst thing is for all those players to not get minutes. Smalling, Garner recently have shown that loans can help increase value for good players in our squad that aren't getting minutes.

 

[Solius]

I think in attack we're ok. We still have Ronaldo, Rashford, Cavani, Elanga, Sancho fighting for 3 places. If the shit hits the fan, we call Diallo back.

Midfield is less stacked, but we've had that problem since forever. Sure Donny's gone, but he never played anyway.

Can we recall Amad outside of a transfer window?

 

[HailtotheKing]

Can’t believe Zakaria just went to Juve for 5m euros + add ons.

 

[Trequarista10]

Same topic as the other thread, 'Why are we loaning our first team bench?'

In short, squad was too bloated before.

We need a DM regardless of outgoings, as we have plenty CM/AMs. We need two imo, one now and one in the summer. VDB leaving doesn't make a huge difference as he wasn't trusted in CM anyway.

Greenwood suspension is an issue and presumably could change things. Maybe Lingard will stay now or maybe we would have kept Amad if we had known, but I still think it's good for Amad to go on loan. I suspect we will see Elanga play on the right some now. Mejbri and Shoretire may make a few bench/substitute appearances if needed. We may even see Juan Mata

 

[Mickeza]

If Lingard stays then yes - easily.

 

[spiriticon]

Can we recall Amad outside of a transfer window?

If we're short of players I should think so, there's always a clause to recall at anytime isn't there?

 

[Leftback99]

Elanga replaces Greenwood, the rest have barely kicked a ball all season despite some long injury spells for other players.

 

[joedirt87]

^ yep none of these guys going out loan have played much. We rotate the same 2-3 subs every game.

 

[Scholsey2004]

We've still got Rashford, Sancho, Elanga and Mata in the wide areas. Will probably be good for Sancho's confidence to get a run of uninterupted games anyway.

 

[Poborsky's hair]

A football thread here - I don't want to dwell on circumstance of each outgoing:

Outgoings
Martial
Jones (looking all but done)
Van De Beek
Lingard (looks likely as a deadline day deal)
Greenwood

No ingoing nor is there any suggestion of a pursuit from a credible source. I suppose we can count Elanga and Pogba as extra bodies from here till the summer.

Attack - Ronaldo (36) , Cavani (34), Rashford, Sancho, Elanga.
Midfield - McFred + Matic with Bruno/Pogba as advanced options.

If Pogba stays fit I think we'll be OK in midfield actually. Defense I think we'll be fine too.

Just the attack worries me with early dependence on Elanga + Cavani being injury prone. We are still in the FA cup and Champions League, with a lot of PL fixtures to push for top 4.

Totally forgot about PP, similarly last year he came back from injury and had an immediate impact and his best games came from LAM, but then Ole couldn't resist to come back to Rashford and drop him deeper again. Let's hope RR was watching. We could use him as an advanced playmaker from out wide. He hasn't had a bad game there for us in fact...

 

[bosnian_red]

So if Lingard, Martial, Greenwood, Van de Beek, Jones, Henderson are all gone as options, we still have (of realistic options that will be used):

Front 3 - Rashford, Sancho, Elanga, Cavani, Ronaldo

Midfield 3 - Bruno, Pogba, McTominay, Fred, Matic

Back 4 - Shaw, Telles, Wan Bissaka, Dalot, Maguire, Varane, Lindelof, Bailly

Goalkeeper - De Gea, Heaton, Grant

We'll be fine numbers wise. In the summer it'll be different though. Add Ronaldo, Cavani and Pogba to this list to replace.

 

[Bertie Wooster]

We'd have managed fine with the loans going out - that's why they were being loaned out, as they were largely dispensable for the second half of the season.

At most, we were maybe leaving ourselves a player short, but I was hoping Hannibal was going to be given opportunities.

The unexpected Greenwood situation has definitely left us one senior striker short. 4 senior players for 3 attacking slots isn't great. Especially with two being mid 30's. Even without injuries it puts more pressure than is ideal on Elanga delivering consistently, rather than being a 'bonus' attacking option. And it's potentially the same with the likes of Hannibal should injuries occur.

 

[VivaRonaldo85]

It would be nice to even be linked with someone! Somebody, anybody

 

[sun_tzu]

Shoretire might find himself on the bench a bit I guess

Had this happened a couple of weeks ago perhaps we would have been in for vlahovic or alvarez ... or at least have kept martial around

As it stands I though with a day to go I expect we will just carry on with what we have

Potentially
Ronaldo / cavani / rashford could play centrally

Rashford, sancho, elanga, lingard, mata shoretire could play wide

Can see us being very relient on rashford and sancho wide with ronaldo / cavani rotating up top

Not bad but potentially a big drop off in quality with a couple of injuries

 

[TheRedHearted]

A football thread here - I don't want to dwell on circumstance of each outgoing:

Outgoings
Martial
Jones (looking all but done)
Van De Beek
Lingard (looks likely as a deadline day deal)
Greenwood

No ingoing nor is there any suggestion of a pursuit from a credible source. I suppose we can count Elanga and Pogba as extra bodies from here till the summer.

Attack - Ronaldo (36) , Cavani (34), Rashford, Sancho, Elanga.
Midfield - McFred + Matic with Bruno/Pogba as advanced options.

If Pogba stays fit I think we'll be OK in midfield actually. Defense I think we'll be fine too.

Just the attack worries me with early dependence on Elanga + Cavani being injury prone. We are still in the FA cup and Champions League, with a lot of PL fixtures to push for top 4.

you can’t have enough depth if you don’t even have a balanced starting 11.We need either two dms or a dm and a central midfielder

 

[BlueHaze]

We are fecked. Our attack was already awful and we have Amad and Martial on loans. Now this whole Greenwood thing.

 

[blades_8]

Yes. Our squad was too bloated anyway, we could do with a few outgoings.

Trust the youth, teach them good human values, and let them do their thing.

This we have been crying for the youth to be played so let’s do it

 

[siw2007]

I think we have just enough for this season. I’m more worried about next season as there will potentially be quite the cull of the squad.

 

[Thiagoal]

I think Jesse has to stay now. He can play across the front line and cover Bruno!

 

[RedBanker]

Can’t believe Zakaria just went to Juve for 5m euros + add ons.

He signed for Juve? Bluddy hell.

 

[RedBanker]

I think Jesse has to stay now. He can play across the front line and cover Bruno!

Yes but can he cover for himself though?

 

[devilish]

I am concerned about the striker position. Rashy is not a striker and Cavani/Ronaldo are ancient

 

[King7Eric]

No we don't. And anybody who's suggesting we do given the injury record of some our forwards and midfield players are kidding themselves. I can understand from a PR perspective it'd be a shit show to make or announce a signing tomorrow, just imagine the Greenwood related comments any social media post will attract. But from a footballing perspective, if we don't sign a player for the forward line tomorrow, we are in trouble.

 

[SATA]

I forgot we still have Juan Mata at the club. He’ll come in useful now

I know we have a tall lanky striker in the U23s whose name I have forgot. Is he ready for the first team? I mean Fergie brought in Macheda from the reserves and he had quite an initial impact

 

[Dazzmondo]

I thought we already had a major lack of depth in certain positions even before this window. It's pretty obvious that the Board have decided not to buy any players until the new manager comes in the summer in any case. A lot of investment will be necessary next season and I'm sceptical about the Board actually investing what is needed even if we do get one of our 1st choice options. I think the biggest issue is that we now need to buy a new striker in the summer with Cavani leaving, which we didn't before (unless Martial agrees to return after his loan maybe but that wouldn't be ideal in any case).

 

[Judge Red]

In terms of quality we never had enough depth. Ralf can pick random youth team players out of a hat who’ll offer as much as VDB, Martial, Jones and Lingard have so far this season.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Shame that we loaned Martial. We have only 3 wingers now. And we need mc asap

 

[Bertie Wooster]

I forgot we still have Juan Mata at the club. He’ll come in useful now

I know we have a tall lanky striker in the U23s whose name I have forgot. Is he ready for the first team? I mean Fergie brought in Macheda from the reserves and he had quite an initial impact

Joe Hugill (the U23 striker) has gone backwards this season and has dropped back down playing for the U18's as much as he has for the U23's.

I don't think he's even ready for a loan to the EFL until next season, let alone our first team squad.

 

[HailtotheKing]

So many players are gonna be gone in the summer that it beggars belief that we didn’t see the need to get someone in now. Also to help us get 4th so we can actually attract all our big targets including the manager. Martial, Donny, Henderson, Jones, Pogba, Matic, Bailly, Lingard, Pereira (hopefully), Mata (hopefully), Cavani, Ronaldo (possibly). That’s an entire team. Do you think this board are capable of bringing the 5 or so players we’d need to replace them not to mention the better fullback and CDM?

Right now, we gotta pray that Pogba hits the ground running and doesn’t get injured, McFred don’t get injured and cavani or Ronaldo doesn’t go down. And Sancho really needs to start having an impact. A few injuries and we are gonna be screwed. Not to mention, March looks like one of the the toughest months on record.

Never a dull moment.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

Elanga is going to be quite important.

We definitely could have done with an extra midfielder.

 

[Smores]

We've no choice but to rely on the youngsters a bit more now and change the formation if injuries demand it.

Sancho hopefully gets played into form.

 

[OmarUnited4ever]

If Lingard goes that leaves us with Ronaldo, Cavani, Rashford, Sancho and Elanga, 5 players for 3 positions (Assuming we play 433 or 4213), not ideal but if the 5 above stay fit should be ok.

As for VdB going that will leave us with McTominay, Fred, Matic, Pogba & Bruno, that means 5 players for 3 spots, and it's as above, with Majberi returning, he might be available as an option behind the 5 mentioned so we should be ok.

 

[The Boy]

I would imagine that this will stop Lingard going to Newcastle