Jack Grealish / signs new 5 year contract

[romufc]

What did we have as backup to Scholes when we were winning trophies left and right?

What does Liverpool have as backup for Mane, Firminho, and Salah? or City for Silva and KdB? or Barca in the past for Xavi and Iniesta? They don't need equal quality and expensive player as backup, because they have a strong XI where other positions can cover one injured player.

In 2008 we had Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher, Hargreaves, Scholes, Gibson and Cleverly.

Liverpool have Shaqiri, Origi as backup - not good enough but they play Ox in there too.

City have Gundogan and Barnado Silva

 

[MadMike]

I think you're just creating your own narrative. Mine is:

Rashford New Striker New RW
Bruno
New DM Fred

Bench - Romero Mctominay James Martial Williams Tuanzebe Solid back up AM

You're probably doing the same with the new striker. There's no indication we're looking to splash on a starting XI quality striker. Before signing Ighalo on loan we had made a take-it-or-leave-it £25m offer to Bournemouth for Joshua King. If that had got accepted that would be the end of that.

We're looking for a backup striker, not someone to replace Martial which will be extremely difficult.

 

[Yagami]

People say he dives? I wouldn't have imagined that to be one of the criticisms against him. He is one of the physically strongest midfielders in the league and it's so hard to push him off the ball generally.

I think there are lot who think he goes down too easily. Mainly because I reckon they hear the stat about him being the most fouled player in the league and just make the assumption from there.

 

[sullydnl]

City have all of KDB, Sterling, Silva, Silva, Mahrez, Aguero and Jesus alternating through the attacking positions of their team week on week (not counting the young talent Foden or the injured Sane). Not coincidentally, they never have to start three players of the Lingard/Perreira/Mata ilk in a given game.

I can understand people arguing that we won't have enough money to get Grealish while also strengthening other areas, or that we won't be able to sell enough players to accommodate him. Those are fair, pragmatic concerns.

The fretting about how you'd fit all these attackers into the same side if we had them is beyond me though. The answer is you don't, you rotate and be happy that we actually have depth. The likes of Rashford, Martial, James et al aren't so outstanding that they can't afford to sit on the bench when required.

Lingard, Mata, Perreira and Pogba have 3,554 minutes between them in the PL this season, over 39 full games not counting any other competitions. If you want to carve out game time for new signings you start there and end by rotating some of our "star" players

 

[romufc]

I think you're just creating your own narrative. Mine is:

Rashford New Striker New RW
Bruno
New DM Fred

Bench - Romero Mctominay James Martial Williams Tuanzebe Solid back up AM

I was replying to the poster who said we have a £60m utility player.

Your narrative has a £50m ST on the bench.. how does that work?

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

You're probably doing the same with the new striker. There's no indication we're looking to splash on a starting XI quality striker. Before signing Ighalo on loan we had made a take-it-or-leave-it £25m offer to Bournemouth for Joshua King. If that had got accepted that would be the end of that.

We're looking for a backup striker, not someone to replace Martial which will be extremely difficult.

If we got Haaland too Martial would have been on the bench. Anyways even though we get a back up striker :

Rashford Martial New RW
Bruno
New DM Fred

Bench - Romero Mctominay James King Williams Tuanzebe Solid back up AM

 

[romufc]

So if we want to sign him what do we say? "I can't guarantee you a starting place because all the positions you play in we already have our best players there but I can guarantee all our players won't be fit"

You're correct our squad is not good enough. But the positions we are not good enough in are the ones Grealish can't play in. We need an RW clearly. We need a DM because Matic is declining. We need a striker because Martial is inconsistent and we need a solid back up AM for Bruno that's not Lingard, Mata and Pereira

I'm sorry but we cannot guarantee players they will walk into the team. He has to earn his way into the team. This creates hunger in the players. When there is no one pushing you for your place, complacency kicks in.

We need a DM as you say but we have kept 4 clean sheets with Fred and Matic with McT coming back. Where we have lacked all year is creativity and we will be going into a new season with 1 additional creator in the RW dept.

 

[romufc]

City have all of KDB, Sterling, Silva, Silva, Mahrez, Aguero and Jesus alternating through the attacking positions of their team week on week (not counting the young talent Foden or the injured Sane). Not coincidentally, they never have to start three players of the Lingard/Perreira/Mata ilk in a given game.

I can understand people arguing that we won't have enough money to get Grealish while also strengthening other areas, or that we won't be able to sell enough players to accommodate him. Those are fair, pragmatic concerns.

The fretting about how you'd fit all these attackers into the same side if we had them is beyond me though. The answer is you don't, you rotate and be happy that we actually have depth. The likes of Rashford, Martial, James et al aren't so outstanding that they can't afford to sit on the bench when required.

Lingard, Mata, Perreira and Pogba have 3,554 minutes between them in the PL this season, over 39 full games not counting any other competitions. If you want to carve out game time for new signings you start there and end by rotating some of our "star" players

Exactly, it is worrying that fans are happy to see bare thin squad again. If we are to be serious about winning the league again we need 13/14 quality players not just 11.

playing 2 games in a week gives the manager room to rotate whilst everyone playing similar number of games.

One game week you will play a combination of
Rashy Martial Greenwood.
Rashy Greenwood New RW
Greenwood Martial New Rw


In midfield you rotate 1/3 players every other game, this way players remain fresh and get game time too.

The reason for all our injuries is due to lack of rest. If Rashford had the odd game rest here and there, who knows he wouln't have got injured.

Likewise with McTominay.

 

[MadMike]

We need a DM as you say but we have kept 4 clean sheets with Fred and Matic with McT coming back.

Which exactly shows the importance of Matic, or a capable DM. And Matic is a free agent in the summer while neither Fred nor McTominay is a #6/DM. I'm sure you see how going into next season without a DM might be more problematic than not having Grealish. An injury to one of Fred or McT and the other will have to play every game without reprieve. In a position neither is a natural in.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

I was replying to the poster who said we have a £60m utility player.

Your narrative has a £50m ST on the bench.. how does that work?

It works because he's not performing up to standard. Very simple

 

[pacifictheme]

City have all of KDB, Sterling, Silva, Silva, Mahrez, Aguero and Jesus alternating through the attacking positions of their team week on week (not counting the young talent Foden or the injured Sane). Not coincidentally, they never have to start three players of the Lingard/Perreira/Mata ilk in a given game.

I can understand people arguing that we won't have enough money to get Grealish while also strengthening other areas, or that we won't be able to sell enough players to accommodate him. Those are fair, pragmatic concerns.

The fretting about how you'd fit all these attackers into the same side if we had them is beyond me though. The answer is you don't, you rotate and be happy that we actually have depth. The likes of Rashford, Martial, James et al aren't so outstanding that they can't afford to sit on the bench when required.

Lingard, Mata, Perreira and Pogba have 3,554 minutes between them in the PL this season, over 39 full games not counting any other competitions. If you want to carve out game time for new signings you start there and end by rotating some of our "star" players

Indeed.

No one cared when we had yorke, cole, solskjaer and sheringham for two positions.

 

[romufc]

But Matic is a free agent in the summer and neither Fred nor McTominay is a #6/DM. I'm sure you see how going into next season without a DM might be more problematic. An injury to one of Fred or McT and the other will have to play every game without reprieve.

I agree a DM is required.

If we say we can sell Pogba for £100m and have a budget of £80m

Grealish - £60m
Soumare - £35
Rw - £100m

Plus all the other sales of Smalling etc

 

[hungrywing]

Like some people have pointed out, if we're sticking with a front three then it'd be nice to line up 2-3-2-3 like City against the cannon-fodder instead of that ridiculous 4231 (4213)

--Rash---Martial---RW
---Grealish---Bruno----
Shaw-----DM-----AWB
-----Maguire----CB------
------------DDG-------------

 

[MadMike]

If we got Haaland too Martial would have been on the bench. Anyways even though we get a back up striker :

Rashford Martial New RW
Bruno
New DM Fred

Bench - Romero Mctominay James King Williams Tuanzebe Solid back up AM

Seriously doubt it, United are not Dortmund. He would have gradually got some game time, like Greenwood does, and if he had proven to be better and more consistent than Martial then maybe. And still quite likely to have been a bit more protected even if he had shown more consistency than Martial early on.

That's probably the reason he chose Dortmund too. Easier league, less pressure, more faith on youngsters. It can't have been the money

 

[MadMike]

I agree a DM is required.

If we say we can sell Pogba for £100m and have a budget of £80m

Grealish - £60m
Soumare - £35
Rw - £100m

Plus all the other sales of Smalling etc

Well, there's the issue of the support striker that isn't settled since we didn't sign Haaland or King. I have my doubts Ighalo will be signed permanently. And then we don't know who is on our radar for the DM spot and how much he will cost.

I believe these 3 positions (RW, DM, 2nd Striker) will be the priority this summer with another AM being 4th down the list and hinging on the sales of Pogba and Alexis Sanchez to free up money.

It's not that I don't want more creative players, I'm not a masochist. I'm just realistic about the prospects of us acquiring our top targets early and off-loading the ones we need to offload, which are prerequisites before turning our attention to AM. Chances are kinda slim, let's be honest. I fully expect us to still be chasing DM and RW by mid August in true United fashion.

 

[Isotope]

In 2008 we had Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher, Hargreaves, Scholes, Gibson and Cleverly.

Liverpool have Shaqiri, Origi as backup - not good enough but they play Ox in there too.

City have Gundogan and Barnado Silva

Exactly. Carrick and Hargreaves weren't creative players as backup for Scholes. They were more of supplement (where Carrick as the main partner). You may have a case for Anderson, which was one for the future. Others were just academy players.

Liverpool. Self answered.

City. Gundogan on the cheap. Now you have a case with B. Silva, a backup for aging David Silva. And they are challenging for CL and the League.

 

[Isotope]

Well, there's the issue of the support striker that isn't settled since we didn't sign Haaland or King. I have my doubts Ighalo will be signed permanently. And then we don't know who is on our radar for the DM spot and how much he will cost.

I believe these 3 positions (RW, DM, 2nd Striker) will be the priority this summer with another AM being 4th down the list and hinging on the sales of Pogba and Alexis Sanchez to free up money.

It's not that I don't want more creative players, I'm not a masochist. I'm just realistic about the prospects of us acquiring our top targets early and off-loading the ones we need to offload, which are prerequisites before turning our attention to AM. Chances are kinda slim, let's be honest. I fully expect us to still be chasing DM and RW by mid August in true United fashion.

This is my thought as well. Who wouldn't want Grealish in the squad, or good extra AM? But we just need to be pragmatic.

 

[MadMike]

Like some people have pointed out, if we're sticking with a front three then it'd be nice to line up 2-3-2-3 like City against the cannon-fodder instead of that ridiculous 4231 (4213)

--Rash---Martial---RW
---Grealish---Bruno----
Shaw-----DM-----AWB
-----Maguire----CB------
------------DDG-------------

City's game plan is not just a formation though. They press really high and with a lot of intensity to win the ball back early, dominate possession and prevent the opposition from attacking. When they fail to do that (mostly against good teams) they tend to ship in a lot of goals because not only do they not have enough defensive players in their starting XI but most of them are shit at defending too. Even their keeper, his best quality is rushing out early instead of defending his line.

That would require a big paradigm shift from us, we're being set up to counter attack not press teams to death. Not sure Ole knows how to coach that style either.

 

[hungrywing]

City's game plan is not just a formation though. They press really high and with a lot of intensity to win the ball back early, dominate possession and prevent the opposition from attacking. When they fail to do that (mostly against good teams) they tend to ship in a lot of goals because not only do they not have enough defensive players in their starting XI but most of them are shit at defending too. Even their keeper, his best quality is rushing out early instead of defending his line.

That would require a big paradigm shift from us, we're being set up to counter attack not press teams to death. Not sure Ole knows how to coach that style either.

Yeah, I know. Should have qualified 2-3-2-3 "in attack".

And yes, I agree re the paradigm shift hence the qualifier 'against the cannon-fodder'. Ole can still use his wussy little 4231 in the other games.

 

[Renegade]

Like some people have pointed out, if we're sticking with a front three then it'd be nice to line up 2-3-2-3 like City against the cannon-fodder instead of that ridiculous 4231 (4213)

--Rash---Martial---RW
---Grealish---Bruno----
Shaw-----DM-----AWB
-----Maguire----CB------
------------DDG-------------

AWB & Shaw are not great/consistent in those attacking areas.

 

[hungrywing]

AWB & Shaw are not great/consistent in those attacking areas.

True but we also don't have to be as cavalier with the FB's as City*.

I guess it's also kind of moot as it really doesn't look like Ole knows how City* press (or will just not drop his zonal marking thing) Which is weird cause even amateurs can see what they do.

I don't know why I put the asterisk there it just felt right in the moment.

 

[romufc]

Exactly. Carrick and Hargreaves weren't creative players as backup for Scholes. They were more of supplement (where Carrick as the main partner). You may have a case for Anderson, which was one for the future. Others were just academy players.

Liverpool. Self answered.

City. Gundogan on the cheap. Now you have a case with B. Silva, a backup for aging David Silva. And they are challenging for CL and the League.

Yes because I haven't mentioned the creative players, we had a whole heap of them.

Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez, Giggs, Nani, Berbatov, Welbeck and Park.

Liverpool now have Fabs, Milner, Keita, Ox, Henderson, Lallana, Wijnaldum.

City up top have Jesus, Mahrez, Sane, Sterling, Bernado, Aguero.

So do we not aim to challenge for the title?

 

[romufc]

Well, there's the issue of the support striker that isn't settled since we didn't sign Haaland or King. I have my doubts Ighalo will be signed permanently. And then we don't know who is on our radar for the DM spot and how much he will cost.

I believe these 3 positions (RW, DM, 2nd Striker) will be the priority this summer with another AM being 4th down the list and hinging on the sales of Pogba and Alexis Sanchez to free up money.

It's not that I don't want more creative players, I'm not a masochist. I'm just realistic about the prospects of us acquiring our top targets early and off-loading the ones we need to offload, which are prerequisites before turning our attention to AM. Chances are kinda slim, let's be honest. I fully expect us to still be chasing DM and RW by mid August in true United fashion.

Agreed, but I am basing signing Grealish on Pogba leaving. If he stays then we dont need one. U think next season Greenwood will step up even more so he can perform the role of 2nd ST. RW and DM are crucial though, these should be signed asap.

It will be so annoying waiting till mid August.

 

[Cassidy]

Agreed, but I am basing signing Grealish on Pogba leaving. If he stays then we dont need one. U think next season Greenwood will step up even more so he can perform the role of 2nd ST. RW and DM are crucial though, these should be signed asap.

It will be so annoying waiting till mid August.

I would sign Grealish anyway. He can fill in LW and RW as well as 10 and 8. He makes alot of sense especially if Villa go down and he doesnt cost a bomb

A very good player who can play across the attack and in midfield and is a leader. We need a sqaud if we are to compete

 

[LiteralDave]

As great a player Grealish is, we do not need a midfielder with his skill set. We need more of a conventional midfielder with control and great passing ability, rather than an attacking midfielder who takes a lot of risk and bomb forward at every opportunity.

 

[romufc]

I would sign Grealish anyway. He can fill in LW and RW as well as 10 and 8. He makes alot of sense especially if Villa go down and he doesnt cost a bomb

A very good player who can play across the attack and in midfield and is a leader. We need a sqaud if we are to compete

I have been saying we should sign him, but alot of posters think that we shouldnt sign a £50m player to sit on the bench.

I can almost guarantee he will play 70% of the games with rotation and injuries. Look at how many games Lingard and Perreira have played this season. We cannot have them as 2nd choice ever.

 

[Cassidy]

I have been saying we should sign him, but alot of posters think that we shouldnt sign a £50m player to sit on the bench.

I can almost guarantee he will play 70% of the games with rotation and injuries. Look at how many games Lingard and Perreira have played this season. We cannot have them as 2nd choice ever.

Agree. He wouldn't sit on the bench much and I prefer him to Maddison

 

[MadMike]

I have been saying we should sign him, but alot of posters think that we shouldnt sign a £50m player to sit on the bench.

I can almost guarantee he will play 70% of the games with rotation and injuries. Look at how many games Lingard and Perreira have played this season. We cannot have them as 2nd choice ever.

I can guarantee that he won't unless Pogba leaves. Lingard and Pereira played so much before us signing Bruno and only because Pogba and McT were long term injuries. They won't even play that much going forward this season, never mind the next.

 

[romufc]

I can guarantee that he won't unless Pogba leaves. Lingard and Pereira played so much before us signing Bruno and only because Pogba and McT were long term injuries. They won't even play that much going forward this season, never mind the next.

Ole started the season with Lingard in the No.10 role though, so he was always going to play a big role this season.

I do believe it hinges on Pogba leaving. I hope he does so we can all move on from this. If he stays we will have to offer him a new contract and it would be ridiculous wages that he has not earnt.

 

[Raulduke]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Manchester United have stepped up their interest in Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish.

The MEN understands United have expressed interest in signing Grealish, 24, early in the summer transfer window after they finalised their shortlist of playmaker options last month. United's preference is to 'execute' deals for summer targets in February.

United are conscious Grealish could make his England debut before the end of the season and then feature at the European Championship, causing his valuation to soar. Villa have not confirmed whether Grealish, contracted to the club until 2023, has a reputed £45million release clause.

Grealish often socialises in Manchester to escape the Birmingham bubble and United are believed to have previously enquired about the Villa talisman. Tottenham Hotspur failed with a £25m bid to sign Grealish in 2018.

Solihull-born Grealish and Leicester City playmaker James Maddison have been under consideration to reinforce the United attack; each scoring nine goals for their clubs this season.

 

[Tony247]

Always build a squad (not just starting 11) that can comfortably or with highest probability beat teams positioned 6 to 20. If we have that attacking firepower then title challenge is much achievable. Matches against top 4 (excluding us) are mostly 50-50 and top teams usually lose points against each other. But anything common these teams do is to batter rest of the teams and accumulate points + GD.

 

[Seven Seas Sardines]

I reckon we might actually get this deal done before the summer if Villa get relegated early. Not only to avoid his market value going up, but also to have it done before offloading Pogba, which otherwise also would see Grealish' price go up since everyone knows we have money to spend.

Grealish should be the first player we buy in the summer, with Sancho coming in when Pogba leaves.

 

[Isotope]

Yes because I haven't mentioned the creative players, we had a whole heap of them.

Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez, Giggs, Nani, Berbatov, Welbeck and Park.

Liverpool now have Fabs, Milner, Keita, Ox, Henderson, Lallana, Wijnaldum.

City up top have Jesus, Mahrez, Sane, Sterling, Bernado, Aguero.

So do we not aim to challenge for the title?

Exactly. So now we're on agreement that we don't need an expensive backup for one creative player. Instead, we should get as much Starting XI that share creativity.
Just like those teams, they had a strong XI, then supplemented with some others.

Unless Ole has a starting spot for Grealish in his best XI, this expensive purchase doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense for him at his age, either.

 

[romufc]

Exactly. So now we're on agreement that we don't need an expensive backup for one creative player. Instead, we should get as much Starting XI that share creativity.
Just like those teams, they had a strong XI, then supplemented with some others.

Unless Ole has a starting spot for Grealish in his best XI, this expensive purchase doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense for him at his age, either.

Yes, but we still need depth. Bruno cannot be the only AM we have.

A new RW would help but we still need more.

 

[RedCurry]

Indeed.

No one cared when we had yorke, cole, solskjaer and sheringham for two positions.

Players will happily sit on trophy winning benches. See how many class players City had on their bench over the last couple of years. Same as Ole and Sheringham. It's completely different when you are in a squad that isn't winning silverware.

 

[Renegade]

Players will happily sit on trophy winning benches. See how many class players City had on their bench over the last couple of years. Same as Ole and Sheringham. It's completely different when you are in a squad that isn't winning silverware.

I think the issue is people would rather prioritise strengthening the immediate starting 11 than signing back ups to potentially our 2 best players in Bruno & Rashford.
Especially as it seems we can only sign 3 players a window and don’t have unlimited money.
Everyone would love a player of Grealish’s quality in the squad.

 

[Van Piorsing]

As great a player Grealish is, we do not need a midfielder with his skill set. We need more of a conventional midfielder with control and great passing ability, rather than an attacking midfielder who takes a lot of risk and bomb forward at every opportunity.

Grealish will be a direct Lingard replacement if it happens and on top of that definitely we should find a proper player who can pass from the deep.

 

[gza the genius]

If Pogba leaves then I think getting him is a must - we can't just solely rely on Bruno for creativity.

It all depends on how Ole wants to play as well - we've looked good with the 3-5-2 recently so you could have:

DDG
Lindelof - Maguire - Shaw
AWB - Bruno - Fred/Mctominay - Grealish - Williams
Martial - Rashford

It'd be a little more difficult to squeeze them all in if we get Sancho too, but that would certainly be an extremely good problem to have. You could almost push Lindelof out and AWB to rcb. Or you could just go 4-3-3 and take Williams out.

I guess my point is, we would have options. It's the same as if Pogba stays. I don't see too many people advocating selling Pogba and not bringing in a replacement.

 

[James Ward]

I think the issue is people would rather prioritise strengthening the immediate starting 11 than signing back ups to potentially our 2 best players in Bruno & Rashford.
Especially as it seems we can only sign 3 players a window and don’t have unlimited money.
Everyone would love a player of Grealish’s quality in the squad.

Next season we have Fred, Bruno, Scott as our three midfielders. Definitely need an AM(Grealish) and a box to box midfielder without question. I think Grealish can be got for 40 million if Villa get relegated. We need a minimum of five quality midfielders unless we want a repeat of what happened this season with injuries and playing bloody Andreas and Jlingz who are brutal. Do we really want another season of watching these two?

Our attacking players are - Greenwood, James, Rashford, Martial - Definitely need a new RW and Grealish can play on left as well. Some striker on loan would probably do us.

If we just sign three good players in these posistion's next season it will be looking bright.

 

[RedNed77]

I don't understand everybodies insistance on us needing a DM. For me, you would only go defensive against the top 6 teams, which we haven't struggled with at all since Ole took over. Our problems have quite obviously been breaking down defensive teams. Fred & McTominay are more than capable of providing the defensive cover in addition to our defenders in Maguire & AWB who provide a fair bit of grit, Shaw has also started looking more aggressive and defensively competant since he's been given a run out as left sided player in the back three, and I'm optimistic

We don't need to be aiming for a top 5 player in the world in every position, Fred & McTom are good enough for that position as they have shown when we have played other top 6 teams. Additionally Grealish and Fernandes will put a shift in defensively as well as offensively, they're not David Silva'esque players who are lightweight in their defensive capabilities. A midfield 3 of McTominay/Bruno/Grealish would be better balanced than a Midifield three of Partey/McTominay/Bruno in my opinion.

When we play a top 6 team, Grealish or Fernandes can take a break and we can play Fred/McTom/Bruno.

I'd probably take Grealish & Maddison before I started looking at a DM, but I don't see that happening and a RW is a must for us.