Elliot Anderson | Athletic: United's main target

King7Eric said:
This mentality is exactly what has been holding us back and likely will moving forward. We have always spent money but with a focus always on quantity over quality.

Signing Anderson for 100 million would be better business than signing Baleba and Joao Gomes for 100 million.
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Baleba would not be a Cunha/Mbeumo type signing at all. He would be an Anderson-like signing. He would be a player we would sign with the hope and realistic belief that he can become the best midfielder in the league, he wouldn’t be a PL proven 26 year old to steady us as a CL side.

Baleba being a success here would look the same as any hope we have of Anderson being a success here. Now people may feel it’s less likely with Baleba, but that would be the hope of any club buying him this summer. He’s 2 years younger than Anderson and I feel written off way too soon by many. He could easily have a better PL career than Anderson if he gets his next move right, there is enough there for sure.
 
r3idy said:
You say that now , but when you loose the physicality, able to defend one box and score in another when Cas goes, that’s when you pay top $$$ for Anderson.
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I want those attributes this summer to be bought in but refuse to believe the only way to do it is spend £100 million plus.
 
Rozay said:
Baleba would not be a Cunha/Mbeumo type signing at all. He would be an Anderson-like signing. He would be a player we would sign with the hope and realistic belief that he can become the best midfielder in the league, he wouldn’t be a PL proven 26 year old to steady us as a CL side.

Baleba being a success here would look the same as any hope we have of Anderson being a success here. Now people may feel it’s less likely with Baleba, but that would be the hope of any club buying him this summer. He’s 2 years younger than Anderson and I feel written off way too soon by many. He could easily have a better PL career than Anderson if he gets his next move right, there is enough there for sure.
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I don't know how you can watch both of them play and think they have the same ceiling. Anderson is a level above Baleba.
 
hellhunter said:
I wonder what people who actually watch them think about that @Daydreamer @GoonerBear
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It's a tough 1 to assess to be honest. You'd say it was more expansive on the ball with Partey and Xhaka and Zinchenko inverting also helping out with build up. But then you'd say it wasn't as good at the other side of the game in terms of off the ball work. That's before you get to how unreliable Partey and Zinchenko were fitness wise. Xhaka is probably the biggest miss to be honest, but he wanted a fresh challenge.

I've certainly no regrets about spending £100M on Rice though. Id question nearly every other transfer before him.
 
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Marwood said:
Why are you so amazed by this?

They were a much better watch 22/23 season weren't they? A genuinely entertaining team. They just came up against a very good City team.

They'll have to win their last 3 games this season to get 1 more point than they did 22/23.

And most importantly nobody wants to watch this current Arsenal team. Even Arsenal fans don't want to. They've scored 1 more goal from open play than Bournemouth have. A United that struggled this season and sacked their manager have scored more goals from open play.

This idea Rice has transformed them is a complete fallacy.
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Every home game is a sell out. They may not be aesthetically pleasing on the eye but that's down to Arteta channelling his inner Alan Hansen "defences win championships".

As for your comments about Arsenal being a better team before Rice arrived. I think you'll be in the minority with the view with football fans. Rice has been awesome for arsenal. Wish he played for us instead.
 
King7Eric said:
I don't know how you can watch both of them play and think they have the same ceiling. Anderson is a level above Baleba.
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There is actually nothing to suggest that they are just two different types of players but won't surprise me in slightest if Baleba gets his act together and prove to be better player than Anderson in long run .
 
I remember back around 09/10 there was a debate around Jordan Henderson vs Jack Rodwell, and who we should buy. We ended up with neither, but one of them had a much better career ofcourse.

IDK if this has any relevancy, but its hard to figure out who will have the better career.Its a lot of money, so hopefully the club makes the right choice.
 
hellhunter said:
I wonder what people who actually watch them think about that @Daydreamer @GoonerBear
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Xhaka - Partey - Odegaard was an incredibly complete midfield in 22/23. However Partey had injury issues (in addition to allegedly being a complete monster).

And the entire composition of the squad was different. We had the peak versions of Zinchenko and White in defence and peak versions of Martinelli, Saka and Jesus (for the first half of the season) upfront.

Plus, we were a bit of an unknown quantity. No one expected us to be so good (least of all City, otherwise they wouldn’t have sold us £85m of talent). Teams would actually go toe-to-toe with us.

On the other hand, Rice faces packed defences each week. Not only are we a completely different team, but our opposition and the league itself have become a lot tougher.

Is this team with Rice in the engine room as entertaining to watch? No. But even if we were able to time travel the 22/23 midfield into the present day, their play wouldn’t be as entertaining either. They wouldn’t be able to express themselves in the same way in the league as it currently is.

Also, anyone who doesn’t rate Rice as a top player by now likely never will and no evidence will convince them otherwise.
 
Bringing it back to Anderson, he looks a top player and if we didn’t already have Rice / Zubimendi / Lewis-Skelly and have other areas of the team that need attention as a higher priority, I would definitely want Arsenal to be in for him.
 
Daydreamer said:
Xhaka - Partey - Odegaard was an incredibly complete midfield in 22/23. However Partey had injury issues (in addition to allegedly being a complete monster).

And the entire composition of the squad was different. We had the peak versions of Zinchenko and White in defence and peak versions of Martinelli, Saka and Jesus (for the first half of the season) upfront.

Plus, we were a bit of an unknown quantity. No one expected us to be so good (least of all City, otherwise they wouldn’t have sold us £85m of talent). Teams would actually go toe-to-toe with us.

On the other hand, Rice faces packed defences each week. Not only are we a completely different team, but our opposition and the league itself have become a lot tougher.

Is this team with Rice in the engine room as entertaining to watch? No. But evening if we were able to time travel the 22/23 midfield into the present day, their play wouldn’t be as entertaining either. They wouldn’t be able to express themselves in the same way in the league as it currently is.

Also, anyone who doesn’t rate Rice as a top player by now likely never will and no evidence will convince them otherwise.
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Good ebening!
 
gormless said:
For some reason my mind went to our Anderson from 2008, who we signed with the realistic hope and belief he could become the best midfielder in the league
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So many young midfielders are hyped as the next best midfielder in the league but they rarely, if ever, live up to the hype. The qualities a young midfielder should show is either good technical ability (close control or passing ability) or tough mentality. Athleticism alone rarely yields good results. That’s why I struggle to see potential in Baleba.

Most midfielders appear on the radars around 23-24yo because that’s the position that really requires to have experience.

Of all the midfield links, Anderson looks the more complete in terms of technical ability and mental strength
 
Marwood said:
Rice hasn't changed Arsenal though. They were probably a better team before he arrived.

The Carrick/Anderson comparison is fair but look at the fee we paid for Carrick. It was a decent amount but was nowhere near record breaking.

Why should we be breaking any kind of record for Anderson when we didn't for Carrick. Two similar players..
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Of course he has. They are no 1 in the league. That’s a testiment to doing something right for many games a season. Even if they’ll be no 2, this is as far as they have gotten for a title shot in a long time. But of course it’s about other players too.

Carrick’s fee was high at the time. 6th most expensive at the time. If it’s 80m for Anderson then he’ll be the 6th most too. If it’s 90, then he’ll be the 3rd most. Not much difference. Doubt we’ll pay over 90.
 
King7Eric said:
I don't know how you can watch both of them play and think they have the same ceiling. Anderson is a level above Baleba.
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He isn’t. It’s because people watch tv via speadsheets now, so don’t appreciate the nuance between players. All they can see is that Anderson scores highly across expected this and progressive that - however, a player can easily have a smaller toolkit but more extreme gifts and be the better player. Not every all-rounder is better than everyone else.

Now Anderson has undoubtedly had a better season than Baleba, not disputing that. But a Baleba who fulfils his potential from a season ago could absolutely be a better player than Anderson. The fact is, he could do things that most others cannot do at a very high level, and he doesn’t need to do everything as well as Anderson if those things allow him to make more of a difference. It’s like saying a different striker is better/more potential than Haaland because they do more things.
 
Marwood said:
The difference between Bellingham and Anderson in terms of style is pretty clear.

You pay top money for a Bellingham type. He's a game changer.

You don't for Anderson.
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But Bellingham was no more impactful for Dortmund than Anderson is for Forest
 
Fortitude said:
Should be wooing him from now on. CL confirmed. We badly need a controlling midfielder.
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He's two European games away from CL with forest. They make that and you'd have to question if he'd leave or stay to do a season with forest in CL
 
dinostar77 said:
He's two European games away from CL with forest. They make that and you'd have to question if he'd leave or stay to do a season with forest in CL
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Don't think that will make even the slightest difference to be fair.
It's his summer to move.

Just hope he had the character to become a big player for a team like us on the up, rather than take the easier City route. Especially with Pep possibly leaving and the charges on the horizon.
 
At risk of making the ‘no shot Sherlock’ comment, I’d say this all rides of Rodri. Admittedly, Bernardo Silva leaving opens up a slot in the City XI, but Rodri leaving would cement the move I feel.

And if his heart is set on City then we should move on.
 
If Anderson is the Casemiro replacement then count me in, though it seems to me Tonali is the better fit for us as a pure 6. But if Anderson is seen as the upgrade on Mainoo it's a hard no for me. And I don't see Anderson coming to United to slot into the rotation behind Mainoo and our Casemiro replacement...certainly not at the cost of 100m+ it's probably going to require to pry Anderson loose from Forest.
 
Jericholyte2 said:
At risk of making the ‘no shot Sherlock’ comment, I’d say this all rides of Rodri. Admittedly, Bernardo Silva leaving opens up a slot in the City XI, but Rodri leaving would cement the move I feel.

And if his heart is set on City then we should move on.
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No shot Sherlock.
 
Fortitude said:
Should be wooing him from now on. CL confirmed. We badly need a controlling midfielder.
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I think all the noise points towards City unfortunately, I think even things United have been putting out there suggest they might know Anderson's answer as well.
 
Fortitude said:
£££

He’s about to triple or quadruple his wages with a move.
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Yep. He's not going to take any "200K+ per week and 5-6 years" risk just to participate in the UCL with Forest. And there's no 100% guarantee that big clubs will be after him a year later. Anything can happen in football. He must sign when offer is on the table.
 
gajender said:
There is actually nothing to suggest that they are just two different types of players but won't surprise me in slightest if Baleba gets his act together and prove to be better player than Anderson in long run .
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Rice and Ugarte are also different kind of players but I don't think it's an exaggeration to say one is clearly better than the other.

Not saying Baleba is similar to Ugarte but just because 2 players have different styles, doesn't mean you can't judge that one is clearly better than the other.
 
lex talionis said:
You’ve clearly been watching Tone Loc, not Sandro Tonali.
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In regards to Tonali. I some on the forum don't rate him. However he's been linked with City, Arsenal and Utd. So clearly there is a player there who is of interest to the big clubs. Maybe its his adaptability to play in a no6 or no8 role. Or his endless energy to get around the pitch. Or a combination of many different aspects.

I think if he left Newcastle and played with better players around him, we'd see his qualities shine more.

My personal preference is for Baleba and Scott as our two midfield reinforcements this summer, I.e. more realistic targets. However I can see why the club would be inyin a experienced player like Tonali.

To get it back on track, I don't think Anderson will leave Forest this summer if they get CL football. He will be priced out of a move. Also he'd be mental to go to City if Guardiola left. There will be an inevitable downturn for a few seasons. Always is after a legendary manager leaves.
 
dinostar77 said:
In regards to Tonali. I some on the forum don't rate him. However he's been linked with City, Arsenal and Utd. So clearly there is a player there who is of interest to the big clubs. Maybe its his adaptability to play in a no6 or no8 role. Or his endless energy to get around the pitch. Or a combination of many different aspects.

I think if he left Newcastle and played with better players around him, we'd see his qualities shine more.

My personal preference is for Baleba and Scott as our two midfield reinforcements this summer, I.e. more realistic targets. However I can see why the club would be inyin a experienced player like Tonali.

To get it back on track, I don't think Anderson will leave Forest this summer if they get CL football. He will be priced out of a move. Also he'd be mental to go to City if Guardiola left. There will be an inevitable downturn for a few seasons. Always is after a legendary manager leaves.
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He plays next to an infinitely better player since he got there! City, it literally doesn’t matter if he succeeds or fails; just gets no minutes then thrown away, like Kalvin Phillips. Arsenal already have better midfielders and he could be used as utility rotation there, which at least makes sense and also matches Arteta’s horrid football.

Our needs are much greater and the penalty much more severe for him being as bad as he is. Better to get Bruno G for a few years than a much worse player who will need moving on in a couple of years for not being good enough.
 
I dont know how good Anderson , Tonali and baleba are on the air.. but we need to make sure that we somehow get Casemiro's dominance in the air ..
EPL is more physical this year and will be again next year..long throws , set peices are even more important
 
dinostar77 said:
However he's been linked with City, Arsenal and Utd.
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Ha, you keep repeating this as if it actually means something. He might as well have just been linked to these clubs by his agent as he's desperate to get away from Newcastle. Without those clubs actually willing to make sizeable offers for him, which doesn't seem on the cards right now, it's hot air.
 
The_Midfielder said:
I dont know how good Anderson , Tonali and baleba are on the air.. but we need to make sure that we somehow get Casemiro's dominance in the air ..
EPL is more physical this year and will be again next year..long throws , set peices are even more important
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Tonali is horrible in the air; can't jump.

Anderson and Baleba are both actually good in the air defensively; not that far off Casemiro stats wise. Neither of them are close to having his offensive threat from set-pieces though.
 
Relying on your DM to score a header is not ideal anyway. We have a lanky striker in Sesko so I hope its him whos gonna head them in after Casemiro. Midfielders should do midfield stuffs
 
Haven't seen any player so highly rated by the caf and touted so likely to succeed that since Evan Ferguson
 
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