GK or ST

[Bert_]

st

 

[Von Mistelroum]

Striker for me. It's become clear lately that GK might need a change but striker desperately needs an upgrade in the worst way.

With money being tight, it'll be a struggle because strikers will cost a lot this summer. I don't think we'll get one for under £80m and that's 80% of the reported budget.

 

[Hughes35]

We have a keeper that many would argue needs upgrading.... we literally don't have a striker. Not really a contest

 

[CM]

If you're signing the best in class to replace them, a striker would likely get us more points so you'd have to go with that. I still wouldn't renew De Gea's contract in that situation though.

 

[arnie_ni]

I think it's mad anyone can say striker. We don't even have a striker to upgrade from ffs.

Why have a ball playing keeper if our midfield cant play under pressure when he passes to them?

Goalkeeper and midfielder (ie de jong) come hand in hand I think. Get both together in the same window and well see a big improvement in our style of play but without a striker we won't score many more goals.

 

[DavelinaJolie]

A striker, but to be honest if we can't do both there'll be a lower ceiling on the improvements we could see.

 

[RVN1991]

Striker but we are desperate for anyone competent who could give DDG competition if not entirely replace him.

 

[Trigg]

A striker, one hundred percent.

 

[paulscholes18]

Goalkeeper, would allow us to have a higher line, and have more of the ball in the opponents half.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Striker.

 

[El-Manos]

Striker and it's not even close. Having said that, we need to upgrade on De Gea sooner rather than later. Too many blunders this season and his weaknesses are as apparent as ever.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

With a rumour of budget constrain for this summer spending , what is more important for us going into next season? A keeper or a striker (if we have to choose one)

I personally would rather go with de gea as our keeper than Martial as number 9. But I also understand the importance of having a keeper who can play progressive football.

Mods- Polls would be appreciated.

Give me a top class keeper and I'd stick Rashford up top over getting a striker in and still having De Gea back there.

 

[King Azaz the Unabridged]

Echoing what a lot of folks have already said... striker given the terms of the thread, but there's absolutely no reason we need to pick one or the other, whatever the budget this summer.

We don't need to spend a lot of money to improve massively in both positions.

 

[dalriada]

100% a striker for me, just look at our goal difference. I recognise some of De Gea's shortcomings given the current style of play, and he needs competition at least, but we need almost a Chicharito-type goal-getter desperately. Martial's time is up.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

In this hypothetical scenario the answer is obviously striker as that is clearly our biggest priority. However keeper is second on the list so if we are only able to address one key position this summer we won’t go anywhere fast. Even with a constrained budget I’d expect 3/4 incomings.

 

[Loony BoB]

I'd take two good strikers before I think about a goalkeeper, personally. We're so dry up front.

 

[bosnian_red]

We can sign more than 1 player. Goalkeeper is easily the 2nd biggest priority. Striker easily the #1 priority.

Goalkeeper there are plenty of cheap options out there who would improve us loads and benefit our system.

Striker we need a world class player, and even mediocre players are expensive, so it's worth just getting the right player and paying the premium.

 

[davidmichael]

If we’re saying which is the bigger priority position than it’s a centre forward as Martial is hit and miss when fit although is injured two thirds of the time whilst Weghorst was never going to be more than an emergency loan til the summer which means our options are Martial for a third of the season, Rashford played out of position or one of the kids like McNeil or Hugill.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to see De Gea in goal at all next season so I’d honestly go with Henderson in goal for us for a year with Butland coming back on loan and Heaton as third choice unless we’re going to promote one of the kids like Vitek but either way I think De Gea has to go in the summer.

 

[M Bison]

striker by a distance and I’d argue we need another CM before a replacement for Dave

 

[kundalini]

Keeper would be my top priority

Rashford and Martial are both decent strikers and we have tons of options for the wide forward roles.

 

[ti vu]

I'd rather replace the keeper and take more control of games, play a higher line and create more chances by doing that, than have a guy up top having the ball lumped at him from deep and trying to feed off long through balls and second balls 90% of the time.

You're talking as if the best ball playing GK would allow you significantly improve this team several levels. If it's only one signing and that's all the eggs in one basket for GK, it's almost impossible to transform from to 70+% possession peak Barcelona with this composition of this squad.

Having more control of the game doesn't mean you can totally neutralize threat. There are quite many teams out there that capable of counter attack and sucker punch the very best at game controlling the game/possession. Do you really think a GK would make this squad better at controlling game than Man City? Control also doesn't always mean more threatening, or closer to a win.

Take Bayern as example. Overall they're still dominating the league quality wise. They have Neuer, and then Sommer, two of the best GKs in the whole league. Just look at Bayern this season. They still conceded the least, and scored the most, and lose the least amount of games too; yet they can't establish safe point lead over Dortmund. Why? Because they don't have a reliable high volume scorer like they did previously with Lewandowski, to turn some of those draws into wins. You can take a few more defeat if you don't draw a lot, and be in better position. Bayern surely has proven CF as top of their transfer priority this coming summer, too. You would have thought they're prioritizing the successor plan for their aging GKs, since they have goal scoring down.

Even Pep couldn't assemble a team with total control and impenetrable with limitless money. Pep is purist as you can get, and even he sees sense in trading off some balance for a monstrous scorer, even when City really never lack in goals.

High volume scorer who spread the goals and get those extra wins even for dominating teams is still important. I can't recall any top teams that rebuild a team prioritizing GK over score (when they don't already have one in the squad). So please give us example of teams that prioritizing GK over scorer in their rebuild to justify your suggested approach.

 

[united_99]

Keeper would be my top priority

Rashford and Martial are both decent strikers and we have tons of options for the wide forward roles.

We have only scored 51 league goals while Bruno constantly creates most/2nd most chances in the league. And I can actually see us scoring even less next season if we don’t sign a quality striker.

 

[Sassy Colin]

It's no good drawing every game 0-0.

Better to win 5-4

In any case, De Gea gets buckets of clean sheets.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Would I rather see Rashford as a striker but Garnacho or buy Maddison or other new LW on the left for us to buy quality keeper that can retain possession against high press? Yes!!

To me, quality keeper that can retain possession against high press will improve our away games because the main reason we have shit away record is because we are struggling to take control of the game against high press, can’t keep possession if we hoof the ball all the time.

 

[SAFMUTD]

Considering we'll only have Martial who's neither good enough nor available for 80% of the season I'd say striker it's the most important one. But GK is definitely a huge priority as well.

 

[Red in STL]

Would I rather see Rashford as a striker but Garnacho or buy Maddison or other new LW on the left for us to buy quality keeper that can retain possession against high press? Yes!!

To me, quality keeper that can retain possession against high press will improve our away games because the main reason we have shit away record is because we are struggling to take control of the game against high press, can’t keep possession if we hoof the ball all the time.

If Rashford plays as mainly a central striker his goal output will be half what it is now, he's best with space in front of him that he can run into, no way he will get that playing centrally

 

[RikRuud]

ST - its been arguably our biggest problem since RVP left.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

If Rashford plays as mainly a central striker his goal output will be half what it is now, he's best with space in front of him that he can run into, no way he will get that playing centrally

This season Rashford has better goals ratio per game as centre forward than as left winger or left forward or even right forward. Rashford wouldn't score the kind of goals that run into open space but he would still able to score the same kind of goals that he scored vs Man City. Having Rashford for half season or full season as our centre forward while buying us more time until 2024 when the striker market will be a lot cheaper will be my preference will be my preference. We can sign 3 players with 100m budget to improve our goals and keeper by relying on Rashford as centre forward.

 

[DOTA]

Striker but we need both and I believe if necessary we should buy a cheap striker in order to make sure we can also afford a cheap goalkeeper.

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

Striker definitely. Maybe even two strikers over a goalkeeper.

 

[Tarrou]

I'd pick striker but I don't think the preference matters, any serious major club would buy both in this situation as they are both fundamental to success

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

I think this thread is very unfair because keeper doesn't cost 100m so we can sign both striker and keeper if we can find a striker that doesn't cost 75m-100m.

The thread should be spend 100m on striker only or spend 60m on Højlund and the other money on keeper?

 

[Sauxees Moi Hui]

I think De Gea is nearly certainly gone, but replacing him doesn't have to be too expensive. So, we can get both a star striker and a new starting GK, probably.

 

[Red in STL]

I think this thread is very unfair because keeper doesn't cost 100m so we can sign both striker and keeper if we can find a striker that doesn't cost 75m-100m.

The thread should be spend 100m on striker only or spend 60m on Højlund and the other money on keeper?

Good luck finding the striker we need without spending those amounts

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Good luck finding the striker we need without spending those amounts

We need to because we only have 100m to spend.

 

[croadyman]

Seems to be a lack of strong links to a keeper,so seems Utd see a striker as more important

 

[led_scholes]

City won the league without a St. You can't win anything without a good GK. GK for me.

 

[ifightdragons]

If we want to stand a chance of actually creating more chances for our strikers, we have to transform our playing style to be much more possession based, with higher lines that can counterpress, and the ability to play out from the back through a high press.

Goalkeeper is therefore our top priority to gain more control, and feed our front line.

We can sign Kane or Osimhen, and play with de Gea, but they would be seriously hampered by our inability to maintain possession. Just like all of our previous strikers have been hampered.

The less possession and control we have, the less chances we'll create... Unless we're just sitting back and going for counter attacks, which we should never again use as our main strategy over a full season.

I find it hard not to agree with Oranges038 and Longshanks on this one.
Also think MadDogg makes very good points.
Both positions are almost equally important, but I'd want to start transforming our playing style before adding the bells and whistles. And that needs to start from the back.

Start from the back with press resistant players that are great passers, and you'll improve both offensively and defensively.
Then add the striker who will get much more chances to score, because we actually have the ball more.

 

[foolsgold]

We've only scored 2 more goals than the team sitting in 19th place. We've scored 32 goals less than Arsenal

Our defence including DDG have largely carried the team this season. He's going to finish with the most clean sheets of any keeper in the premier league. Over 40% the goals we've conceded in the league have come in just 3 blowouts (Liverpool, City, Brentford) that aren't really fair to hang on the keeper. The entire team capitulated.

It's a title winning defence with a relegation quality attack.

I'm not saying we don't need to upgrade the keeper but with an effective defence in front of him we can probably get through another season without too many consequences.

We need to find another 20 or 30 goals much more urgently than we need to stop 5 goals from DDG howlers. We simply can't rely on Rashford and Martial next season. It's possible that Sancho or Antony go on a scoring tear or even the player with the number 11 shirt comes back and scores 25 goals but I wouldn't like to bet on it.

 

[fallengt]

ST and a backup GK.

I dont care if club decide to give ddg another mega contract again, someone needs to challenge his spot.