If no more players come in is this squad equipped for the season it has ahead?

Fortitude

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I see some saying we have the bodies, but do those bodies match with the aspirations of the vast and demanding season we have ahead of us?
 
I'd say it's anywhere between 7th-4th. If Carrick can finish in the top 3 again this season it will be a pretty special achievement. We were pretty ropy yesterday in that first half and it could have gone either way, but we had some good fortune and the confidence returned. I can't help but think the team is still mentally brittle and there is a lack of leadership in the side. In terms of your specific question, the personnel to play the in the way Maguire spoke about (high up the pitch, on the front foot, assertive) just isn't there.

I don't think we'll sign highly transformative players in the next couple of days, but maybe a left back that will provide some balance in the attacking third.

What I am hoping for from this season is another CL qualification and Mainoo, Amad, Yoro, Heaven, Dorgu, Baleba, Sesko and Santos all taking steps further in their development, setting us up well for the following season. We are not equipped to challenge for the title IMV.
 
Spurs, Villa and others have shown you can address multiple defiancancies in your squad in a single window.

If the financial situation really is that bad, then be honest with the fan base and set expectations before the window opens.

Luke Shaw is obviously not good enough for this level anymore. Utd know that themselves, hence being linked.worh multiple left backs.

I'd love to know what the summer transfer strategy was. There must have been a plan.

We need as a minimum a striker and a left back before the window shuts. We may not make CL qualification without them.
 
dinostar77 said:
Spurs, Villa and others have shown you can address multiple defiancancies in your squad in a single window.

If the financial situation really is that bad, then be honest with the fan base and set expectations before the window opens.

Luke Shaw is obviously not good enough for this level anymore. Utd know that themselves, hence being linked.worh multiple left backs.

I'd love to know what the summer transfer strategy was. There must have been a plan.

We need as a minimum a striker and a left back before the window shuts. We may not make CL qualification without them.
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Spurs and Villa have also shown that money can’t buy wins. Especially spurs. Teams like Brighton have shown that you can spend little and still perform miracles. I’d say we need a LB and CB. Cunha, Mbuemo, Rashford and Sesko can be enough upfront. Our defence will cost us points and games.
 
DJ_21 said:
Spurs and Villa have also shown that money can’t buy wins. Especially spurs. Teams like Brighton have shown that you can spend little and still perform miracles. I’d say we need a LB and CB. Cunha, Mbuemo, Rashford and Sesko can be enough upfront. Our defence will cost us points and games.
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Yeah but the level of centre back we need would likely cost more than we can afford and this late in the window it is nigh on impossible.
 
In terms of 1st and 2nd choice we're pretty decent in all positions except for LB in my opinion. If we don't have major injuries/form issues we should finish in Top 5 at least. Need upgrades in defense to go any further.
 
1. What's our goal?

2. How fortunate will we be when it comes to injuries?

----

If our goal is top 4 and making it to the CL knockout stages, then I think it's more than doable with this squad provided no injury crisis.

------------------ Lammens ---------------
Dalot - De Ligt - Martinez - Shaw
------------ Mainoo - Baleba ------------
------- Amad - Bruno - Cunha -------
------------------ Mbeumo -----------------

With the likes of Sesko, Santos, Tielemans, Dorgu, Lacey, Rashford, Mount, Yoro, Mazraoui and Maguire on the bench.

That is a solid team in my opinion. There are no world class goalscorers ala Haaland, Kane, Mbappe or Dembele, but those players are rare. Shaw is a little bit slow and sluggish, but with Cunha and Baleba working hard off the ball in that space, I think that we can make it work.
 
Yes, but as with any club we need to not be unlucky with injuries.
 
Let's be honest, this has been a really poor transfer window. The players we've bought in are not going to elevate us to the next level. I certainly don't see us finishing as high as last season. INEOS penny pinching after the shambolic spending and running of the club under the Glazers to blame, although one wonders why they bought in if they weren't willing to spend big.
 
Equipped for what?

If to win the PL, no. But we are equipped to make top 4 again. I’m not as worried about the backup striker situation as I am the LB situation. If we had gone in for Hall before Newcastle’s carcass had been picked clean we’d have the LB sorted out, but here we are.
 
Back 4 is going to be the problem, and maybe we need to think outside of the box in terms of solutions because Shaw is a liability at LB against quality opposition. You see the way City coped without a recognised LB for a long spell by playing Gvardiol and Ake there and tweaking the defensive and attacking set up slightly and you wonder can we do something like that? We obviously want Hall but financially it is too big a step this summer. There must be a collective solution. I think the problem is much deeper than just Shaw, it is trio of Martinez, Shaw and Rashford down the left that will get caught out time and time again this season and definitely needs attention. It is fine at home to Ipswich while players find fitness, but we won't see that selection in big games.

Working from attack down to midfield, and it's hard to say that a squad with Bruno, Rashford, Cunha, Mbuemo, Sekso, Amad, Mount, Tielemans, Mainoo, Santos and Baleba shouldn't be targeting top 5 at a minimum this season.
 
We would really need Martinez, De ligt and Shaw to stay fit all season, I wouldn't bet on it
 
eire-red said:
Back 4 is going to be the problem, and maybe we need to think outside of the box in terms of solutions because Shaw is a liability at LB against quality opposition. You see the way City coped without a recognised LB for a long spell by playing Gvardiol and Ake there and tweaking the defensive and attacking set up slightly and you wonder can we do something like that? We obviously want Hall but financially it is too big a step this summer. There must be a collective solution. I think the problem is much deeper than just Shaw, it is trio of Martinez, Shaw and Rashford down the left that will get caught out time and time again this season and definitely needs attention. It is fine at home to Ipswich while players find fitness, but we won't see that selection in big games.

Working from attack down to midfield, and it's hard to say that a squad with Bruno, Rashford, Cunha, Mbuemo, Sekso, Amad, Mount, Tielemans, Mainoo, Santos and Baleba shouldn't be targeting top 5 at a minimum this season.
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Is he even just a liability vs quality opposition? I think he’s a liability vs anybody - especially if they have pace.

We’ve played Ipswich & Hull so far arguably 2 of worst teams in the league and he has struggled.

He will come up against much better wide players as season progresses
 
I don’t think the starting eleven is any better unless Baleba comes in and plays much, much better than he has in a year. Thats pretty unforgivable really.

We should’ve been trying to kick on in a weak league. We’re in danger of being in a pack of about 6 clubs playing for three Champions League spots.
 
I couldn't care less about the quantity. We're (still) a one-man team. If that man performs like he did yesterday, the squad will be good enough for a decent season. If he plays like he did a week ago, the answer will be a resounding no.
 
It’s frustrating because you think if we had been more aggressive this window (LB, Striker, CB) we could have been competing for the title.

But needed to sell players for that and we are pretty poor at that.

With what we have currently, finishing in the top 3 will be a great result.

With one injury to Shaw / Sesko, we could be fighting for 5-7th place.

We don’t have depth in those two critical areas and that could be our achilles heel
 
The squad is good enough to achieve top four and the knockouts of the Champions League, yes.
 
Its gonna be a long season if we dont bring in a LB.

The clock is ticking until Shaw pulls up with an injury.
 
LukeTheRed said:
Is he even just a liability vs quality opposition? I think he’s a liability vs anybody - especially if they have pace.

We’ve played Ipswich & Hull so far arguably 2 of worst teams in the league and he has struggled.

He will come up against much better wide players as season progresses
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Yeah I get that, but then surely the onus is on management to limit that liability? I'm not buying into the notion that we're going to leak goals all season unless we spend another £200m to fix the defence.

Playing Shaw, Martinez and Rashford on the same flank is flashing a massive green light at opponents and saying, "hey, come this way guys". Away from home or in big games do we need to do something different, like a Baleba, Tielemans and Mainoo midfield to tighten up defensively? Surely there's more than just shrugging our shoulders and saying "well we didn't buy Hall so what can we do?"
 
Liverpool - have dropped off
City - decent
Arsenal - decent
Villa - dropped off
Chelsea - have improved
Spurs - currently a disaster

3rd has to be the *minimum*.

Forwards: Cunha, Rashford, Sesko, Mbeumo, Dorgu, Fernandes, Amad - best we've had in years
Midfield: Beleba, Fernandes, Mainoo, Santos, Tielemens - very good. Prem proven. Would like to add one more.
GK: BEst we've had in years
Defence: Pretty bad, but not awful.
 
We have done well to set a minimum floor in the midfield, with the hope that atleast 2 of them will kick on and have a good season. But the gap in defense, struggle in set pieces and over-reliance on Bruno continues. But ultimately we have a squad good enough for top 4 provided injuries don't derail the season.
 
It’d be a travesty that a club of this stature doesn’t have more than one specialist left back when it has ambitions to play 60 games in the upcoming season.
 
I'm fairly okay with the squad, yes it would be nice to have a bit more depth but the problem with that comes with the players who don't start. Unless you are realistically challenging for the league and CL, its not easy to keep a big squad of 25 players happy knowing many are only going to start around 15-20 games and only getting a few minutes off the bench.

However, Utd aren't competing for the league or CL, the ambition is to get a squad capable but its still a work in progress. We have some good young prospects who are going to need minutes for development, Lacey, Fletcher's, Heaven and Yoro etc, and yesterday only Yoro got to come on for the last 20 mins. We've still got the likes of Amad, Mount and De Ligt yet to make an appearance this season and despite that our bench was very strong yesterday. We have to be accept you are never going to have 2 quality players for each position, only the teams regularly winning leagues can ever assemble squads with great depth, we are a decade of little success so we are about as good as it can be under the circumstances.
 
LukeTheRed said:
Is he even just a liability vs quality opposition? I think he’s a liability vs anybody - especially if they have pace.

We’ve played Ipswich & Hull so far arguably 2 of worst teams in the league and he has struggled.

He will come up against much better wide players as season progresses
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I think in those games you'll likely see Dorgu start to help him out to mitigate and stop the double up. If shaw stays fit again this season he will be fine. He's a good player, but it feels like fans are still out with the pitchforks for him every season no matter what he produces. The only thing wrong with him, he's every bit as good as Hall if not better, is he's liable to get injured at some point.

I'd like us to sign a young LB and blend him in while Shaw is fit and can still shoulder a lot of the burden while player B gets settled but as we've seen with Casemiro, we should have done that last season with his position, the club don't seem to feel the same way about the squad as a lot of the fans do. There's a lot of talent and a big top 4 wage bill at Carricks disposal. If we can find a way to grind out games without Casemiro we will be more than fine for top 4. I guess what they are doing is seeing what is the least amount they need to spend to make top 4 as the foundation and then see what they need to add to go up a level every season after. Thats the hope anyway. It seems fairly logical to me for a club that badly needs stability over fluctuating every season. There'll be loads of games for everyone and the mood around the players seems as good as it's ever been post Fergie.

It's not what everyone wants but it might just turn out to be the most sensible thing we could have done in hindsight. Especially when we are trying to bring several young players along and maximise their potential and playing time, the mix needs to be right
 
I don’t think that we are equipped at LB and ST at all for a long domestic season AND CL.

Shaw is only ever a day away from a new injury at any given time, his history has shown us that. To go into a season just hoping that he stays fit is a fools policy.

Sesko is young and picking up injuries. Something which he probably will do for a few more years due to his frame size. How we don’t have a proper CF to backup and provide competition to him is poor. The rest are not CFs; you see that when we play.

Baleba is our best hope and i never ever thought I’d say that. Mainoo is getting better and better but needs physical presence which hopefully Baleba will provide.

I find Tielemans too weak; he always been like that. Hes a great forward passer and we will need that against certain teams but we cannot build a midfield around him. Santos looks promising but long way to go for him.

As for our CBs; toss a dice to see which ones will be fit on any given week. But, I do like Maguires never say die attitude.

The squad overall has more options than last season but it’s debatable if it’s any better. Without the LB and ST I think we will come up short when those inevitable injuries happen.
 
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Equipped for good season to be 5th and quarter finals but that would mean everything going right- injuries, form etc
 
Think it would take a good bit of fortune on the injury front and great squad management for us to get back in the champions league and compete in the cups. Too lacking defensively, and not enough depth all around. Hope Carrick can keep up the great work.
 
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We're going to have a problem at full-back. Shaw won't hold up under the demands of a 50+ game season and the drop off is already noticeable. Carrick clearly doesn't view Dorgu as an option at LB and if Mazraoui moves across as he did yesterday, it leaves us a body short on the other side. We're basically in a position where we have to hope for Harry Amass to have an almighty step up or a deadline day signing with a real injection of quality there.

I think we needed another striker as well, even if it was someone who could just hold the fort for a handful of games like Welbeck. The frequency of Sesko's injury/fitness concerns don't fill me with confidence when the alternatives are false 9 options like Cunha and Mbeumo. That's the kind of thing we probably could've got away with last season but with the reintroduction of European football, we're playing minimum 8 more matches than last season. It looks like we're underestimating the toll those additional matches could have on our squad.
 
Still think we are fine in the attacking departement. You can be succesful playing with a false 9 like Cunha/Bruno. Mbeumo isn't a real 9, but isn't a real winger either. Still, he scores too many goals to leave him out too often
It's not ideal but we'll find ways to score and win matches with our attack even when Sesko isn't fit or out of Form.

I'm much more concerned with LB. Shaw ain't it anymore and needs better competition than Mazraoui on his weaker side.

I’d be quite happy with the window if we can bring in a decent left-back.
 
PoTMS said:
Let's be honest, this has been a really poor transfer window. The players we've bought in are not going to elevate us to the next level. I certainly don't see us finishing as high as last season. INEOS penny pinching after the shambolic spending and running of the club under the Glazers to blame, although one wonders why they bought in if they weren't willing to spend big.
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Yeah, this is the most relevant question today. I can't think of too many sound reasons. I think they may have dramatically overestimated their ability to make the right decisions whilst underestimating the competitive environment in which they were getting involved. There has been no talk of any gradual takeover and while that's the case, there is no reason for them to put money into the club as that's giving the scum money without anything in return.

And we'll of course address the defense next summer, but while it is taking the club three years to address the components of the team, others are of course continuing to build and improve. This tactic rests upon having an incredible manager at the helm who will get the absolute best out of the personnel available and that our recruitment is second to none.
 
No.

All we've done so far is strengthen midfield with three signings, having effectively lost two midfielders since the end of last season.

If we get signings at LB and/or attack before the window closes, reassess. But as is that obviously isn't enough, because absolutely nobody went into this window thinking midfield was the only area of need.
 
Wednesday at Stoke said:
It’d be a travesty that a club of this stature doesn’t have more than one specialist left back when it has ambitions to play 60 games in the upcoming season.
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More of travesty, that if your the opposition you know to target Shaw and his side of the pitch, cause he's crap
 
No.

We have one left back in the squad. Said left back is old, washed, injury prone and has cost us several goals already this season.

It is absolutely criminal they have not addressed this.
 
Yes. Our season is not going to hinge on who we have a left back, all positions are important but none other than striker are pivotal.

Whilst it’s possible we may end up having an injury crisis, having loads of players is no guarantee against that. Only a couple of years ago we had about 6 CB’s and they all got injured at the same time.

Up front is probably the issue more than anywhere else, but we have three forwards who only put up half their usual output last season. Given two of them have had a year to settle in, I’d expect much more from them this year.
 
No I think we are a bit short.

It’s possible we end up using Dorgu at left-back but then we could be short at left-wing, especially as we’ve already seen Cunha being used through the middle.

We don’t want a lack of available options to be a constant theme and a regular contributor to dropped points throughout the season. It would be very frustrating if that is the case and without an addition it looks quite likely at the moment.
 
No because we have one definitive LB who has arguably stayed here way too long, very injury prone, on the decline and on the last year of his contract, so is liable to not give a shit anyway.

I can live without an attacker even though we really should have swapped Zirkzee for someone else.
 
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