Jonathan Tah

If we sign a CB from Leverkusen I would go for Hincapie next year.
 
We don’t need numbers in defense at the moment. If we sign any more CB, they should improve our first choice defense or alternatively could be outstanding prospects who can improve the first team in 2-3 years.
 
aeh1991 said:
While we dont sign any CF, CM and RWB? Of course.

No. We won't sign a CB. We have Heaven, Fredericson and Kukonki.
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Tah is free agent and Huijsen has 50m clause. But yeah i dont except this to happen, especially not Martinez to leave when injured, or someone to buy Shaw. Just my wishes.
 
Trex said:
What!!! You can't be serious.
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It's hardly controversial. He's 32 and was at the end of his contract, is on big wages, is very slow so isn't suited to Amorim's favoured high line, and you would assume Amorim is trying to build a team for the future rather than trying to win the league with the same set of players that have failed to do so over the last 6 years.

If we hadn't made a comeback vs Lyon, I'd bet most of the forum would agree with me given how he defended in that game.

Note I'd have only let him go if a suitable replacement was found.

Now, we decided to extend him by a year which is fine. But it also means we have a LOT of centre back options at the club and bringing in more seems like strange squad planning in terms of pure numbers.
 
criticalanalysis said:
@Zehner

Thoughts? Is he going to leave? Will he be a good option for us? Does he have attributes to play well in the PL?
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I think Tah 2023 - 2025 has been the best Bundesliga CB since Boateng and Hummels and yes, he's definitely going to leave. But to be honest, I don't think you have a chance. Carro (our CEO) has said in multiple interviews that Tah has always had many interests but is only willing to go to a handful of clubs with realistic chances of competing for big league or international trophies in the short-term. It's the reason he let his contract run out after nobody made use of his buyout clause. And this time around, it seems Real, Barca and Bayern are interested. Many reports say he's agreed terms for Barca and only waiting for them to find a way to register him.

On a side note, Tah's story is actually pretty great. Was one of the most impressive U20 CBs I've ever seen but strangely, he became more error prone with every year and also added too much muscle mass until he even lost his starting spot in ~2022 and should be sold. No club he deemed good enough was interested, so he stayed. In came Alonso and independently from that, Tah hired himself a therapist, changed his diet to reduce muscle mass and to everyone's surprise earned himself a starting spot at the beginning of the 23/24 season. Cememted his place in the team more and more with every match until he was the undisputed defensive leader in a team that lost only one game the whole season. Probably the overall third best player in the Alonso era only behind Wirtz and Xhaka.
 
Dominos said:
It's hardly controversial. He's 32 and was at the end of his contract, is on big wages, is very slow so isn't suited to Amorim's favoured high line, and you would assume Amorim is trying to build a team for the future rather than trying to win the league with the same set of players that have failed to do so over the last 6 years.

If we hadn't made a comeback vs Lyon, I'd bet most of the forum would agree with me given how he defended in that game.

Note I'd have only let him go if a suitable replacement was found.

Now, we decided to extend him by a year which is fine. But it also means we have a LOT of centre back options at the club and bringing in more seems like strange squad planning in terms of pure numbers.
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He deserves a lifetime contract for his quality and resilience. I know I'll keep him till he retires.
 
Lindelof is out, Maguire will be out next year, Lisandro is light version of Jones, Heaven is not ready to play as first choice defender. This would be very, very smart signing.
I keep saying for years that then and there we must start doing this kind of transfers.

i know that he is not free free but with no transfer fee involved it would be excellent transfer.
 
aeh1991 said:
We also have Shaw (if fit) and Mazraoui. I agree we could need one more, but not this summer since priorities are elsewhere. Tah is overrated and would cost a lot. I doubt he would come to be backup to Maguire and De Ligt as he is similar to them. Also quite overrated. He will have huge wage demands, too. And he'll have better offers eventually (Bayern, Barca obviously, maybe even Real).
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He’s available on a free.
 
I can't see Tah Playing RCB, mazroui is better than him.

Tah might be useful as the central maguire type defender.
.however I prefer a left footed CB and ditch Martinez soon
 
Zehner said:
I think Tah 2023 - 2025 has been the best Bundesliga CB since Boateng and Hummels and yes, he's definitely going to leave. But to be honest, I don't think you have a chance. Carro (our CEO) has said in multiple interviews that Tah has always had many interests but is only willing to go to a handful of clubs with realistic chances of competing for big league or international trophies in the short-term. It's the reason he let his contract run out after nobody made use of his buyout clause. And this time around, it seems Real, Barca and Bayern are interested. Many reports say he's agreed terms for Barca and only waiting for them to find a way to register him.

On a side note, Tah's story is actually pretty great. Was one of the most impressive U20 CBs I've ever seen but strangely, he became more error prone with every year and also added too much muscle mass until he even lost his starting spot in ~2022 and should be sold. No club he deemed good enough was interested, so he stayed. In came Alonso and independently from that, Tah hired himself a therapist, changed his diet to reduce muscle mass and to everyone's surprise earned himself a starting spot at the beginning of the 23/24 season. Cememted his place in the team more and more with every match until he was the undisputed defensive leader in a team that lost only one game the whole season. Probably the overall third best player in the Alonso era only behind Wirtz and Xhaka.
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I also think he's waiting for Barcelona, but you can't rule out Madrid. Miltao is constantly injured and we know how much Perez loves free transfers. Plus if Xavi Alonso ends up managing there...

I can't recall having seen him play, is he similar to any of our current centreback options?
 
DOTA said:
We'd presumably have to offer high wages to see off Bayern and Real Madrid though.

£200k a week for 5 years is more than £50m.
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It would be the same if your 50M player then agreed to play for 7500 a week but I don’t think we’ll be offering him 200k/week and neither would Real or Bayern. If Bayern het Tah, we’d be wise to get Kim Jae Min off of them.
 
Wednesday at Stoke said:
It would be the same if your 50M player then agreed to play for 7500 a week but I don’t think we’ll be offering him 200k/week and neither would Real or Bayern. If Bayern het Tah, we’d be wise to get Kim Jae Min off of them.
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He should be available anyway.
 
Wednesday at Stoke said:
It would be the same if your 50M player then agreed to play for 7500 a week but I don’t think we’ll be offering him 200k/week and neither would Real or Bayern. If Bayern het Tah, we’d be wise to get Kim Jae Min off of them.
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You reckon what Bayern/Real would be offering will be low enough that we can tempt him here for significantly less than 200k? That is also the amount reported as Kim's current wages, I note.
 
It doesn't quite make sense, especially when you'd expect him to rotate into the central center-back role, which is already occupied by both Maguire and De Ligt. Despite the departures of Lindelof and Evans over the summer, I still believe our center-back depth is more than sufficient, and I don’t see it as a priority at all.

LCB - Martinez, Shaw, Heaven
CCB - De Ligt, Maguire, Yoro
RCB - Mazraoui, Yoro
 
Zehner said:
I think Tah 2023 - 2025 has been the best Bundesliga CB since Boateng and Hummels and yes, he's definitely going to leave. But to be honest, I don't think you have a chance. Carro (our CEO) has said in multiple interviews that Tah has always had many interests but is only willing to go to a handful of clubs with realistic chances of competing for big league or international trophies in the short-term. It's the reason he let his contract run out after nobody made use of his buyout clause. And this time around, it seems Real, Barca and Bayern are interested. Many reports say he's agreed terms for Barca and only waiting for them to find a way to register him.

On a side note, Tah's story is actually pretty great. Was one of the most impressive U20 CBs I've ever seen but strangely, he became more error prone with every year and also added too much muscle mass until he even lost his starting spot in ~2022 and should be sold. No club he deemed good enough was interested, so he stayed. In came Alonso and independently from that, Tah hired himself a therapist, changed his diet to reduce muscle mass and to everyone's surprise earned himself a starting spot at the beginning of the 23/24 season. Cememted his place in the team more and more with every match until he was the undisputed defensive leader in a team that lost only one game the whole season. Probably the overall third best player in the Alonso era only behind Wirtz and Xhaka.
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That's high praise and from the sounds of it, he may have a Rudiger like impact at his next club. Thanks for the insight. Will be keeping an eye on him to see how he translate this form and pedigree in a different league.
 
Zehner said:
I think Tah 2023 - 2025 has been the best Bundesliga CB since Boateng and Hummels and yes, he's definitely going to leave. But to be honest, I don't think you have a chance. Carro (our CEO) has said in multiple interviews that Tah has always had many interests but is only willing to go to a handful of clubs with realistic chances of competing for big league or international trophies in the short-term. It's the reason he let his contract run out after nobody made use of his buyout clause. And this time around, it seems Real, Barca and Bayern are interested. Many reports say he's agreed terms for Barca and only waiting for them to find a way to register him.

On a side note, Tah's story is actually pretty great. Was one of the most impressive U20 CBs I've ever seen but strangely, he became more error prone with every year and also added too much muscle mass until he even lost his starting spot in ~2022 and should be sold. No club he deemed good enough was interested, so he stayed. In came Alonso and independently from that, Tah hired himself a therapist, changed his diet to reduce muscle mass and to everyone's surprise earned himself a starting spot at the beginning of the 23/24 season. Cememted his place in the team more and more with every match until he was the undisputed defensive leader in a team that lost only one game the whole season. Probably the overall third best player in the Alonso era only behind Wirtz and Xhaka.
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Very insightful. Cheers.
 
criticalanalysis said:
That's high praise and from the sounds of it, he may have a Rudiger like impact at his next club. Thanks for the insight. Will be keeping an eye on him to see how he translate this form and pedigree in a different league.
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He doesn't have Rüdiger's athleticism though.
 
aeh1991 said:
We also have Shaw (if fit) and Mazraoui. I agree we could need one more, but not this summer since priorities are elsewhere. Tah is overrated and would cost a lot. ........
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Tah is a free transfer. Currently paid just 46,500 pounds a week. No chance in hell he'd be expensive for whoever bags him. Even on 3 times his current pay.
 
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Walters_19_MuFc said:
It doesn't quite make sense, especially when you'd expect him to rotate into the central center-back role, which is already occupied by both Maguire and De Ligt. Despite the departures of Lindelof and Evans over the summer, I still believe our center-back depth is more than sufficient, and I don’t see it as a priority at all.

LCB - Martinez, Shaw, Heaven
CCB - De Ligt, Maguire, Yoro
RCB - Mazraoui, Yoro
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Martinez and Shaw might make one available player together with their injuries. Once upon a time Maguire was always fit and ready to play, these days he picks up and injury quite often. de Ligt isnt always fit either and Mazraoui had a reputation as fairly injury prone.

Maguire might also leave at the end of next season. Although im not sure if Tah is really that great... i remember Brain Brobbey of all people making him look like a bad defender once.
 
DOTA said:
You reckon what Bayern/Real would be offering will be low enough that we can tempt him here for significantly less than 200k? That is also the amount reported as Kim's current wages, I note.
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I don’t know if Real or Bayern would want him. Barcelona’s business model is to likely sign serviceable players on a free and then flip them a year later to boost their books, so he might not be as interested in doing that.
 
Walters_19_MuFc said:
It doesn't quite make sense, especially when you'd expect him to rotate into the central center-back role, which is already occupied by both Maguire and De Ligt. Despite the departures of Lindelof and Evans over the summer, I still believe our center-back depth is more than sufficient, and I don’t see it as a priority at all.

LCB - Martinez, Shaw, Heaven
CCB - De Ligt, Maguire, Yoro
RCB - Mazraoui, Yoro
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Your mistake is putting so much faith in Martinez and Shaw being fit
 
Wednesday at Stoke said:
I don’t know if Real or Bayern would want him. Barcelona’s business model is to likely sign serviceable players on a free and then flip them a year later to boost their books, so he might not be as interested in doing that.
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Bayern have been interested for a couple of years now. Real are more of a wild card but if Alonso goes there and considering the mess of their defence right now it is highly probable they would enter the race. Tah to Barca has been on for a while but their usual financial issues plus the Alonso to Real situation might derail that.
 
Wednesday at Stoke said:
I don’t know if Real or Bayern would want him. Barcelona’s business model is to likely sign serviceable players on a free and then flip them a year later to boost their books, so he might not be as interested in doing that.
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Bayern's interest is already a open secret. And he's been linked to Real since Alonso is likely joining them.
 
DOTA said:
This season has been a rarely unaffected one for Mazraoui in terms of injuries as well, he's usually missed plenty.
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Exactly we have a defence with players who are no strangers to injuries. I would not be surprised if United are looking into adding another to the squad
 
Cassidy said:
Well no hence why out defensive record isn’t very good. We’ll obviously prioritise attack as the biggest need but I’m pretty sure we won’t be neglecting CB
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I'd rather give minutes to youth players if we really have that many unfit cbs but yeah Tah on a free is totally fine.
 
Walters_19_MuFc said:
It doesn't quite make sense, especially when you'd expect him to rotate into the central center-back role, which is already occupied by both Maguire and De Ligt. Despite the departures of Lindelof and Evans over the summer, I still believe our center-back depth is more than sufficient, and I don’t see it as a priority at all.

LCB - Martinez, Shaw, Heaven
CCB - De Ligt, Maguire, Yoro
RCB - Mazraoui, Yoro
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You also have Fredricson who looked great on his debut and Kukonki who Amorim is apparently massively impressed with in there too so that’s 9 players for three positions already even with Lindelof and Evans leaving.

What we really need is a keeper, a right wing back, a central midfielder, a left sided 10 and a striker and although I don’t think we’ll get all of those we at least need to prioritise things financially in order to to at least try to get those positions sorted.
 
Teja said:
I'd rather give minutes to youth players if we really have that many unfit cbs but yeah Tah on a free is totally fine.
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I would rather sign Tah on a free who is better than our current CBs
 
Insanity said:
@Zehner Is he fast? Good on the ball? How is his heading ability? Does he play central CB for Leverkusen?
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He's slow in acceleration but is quick over longer distances. Good on ball as well, for heading he's good but it's not to say he's good at reading crosses. I think generally his reading of the game isn't top class but he can make up for it by being aggressive and first to the ball.
 
Tallis said:
We don’t need numbers in defense at the moment. If we sign any more CB, they should improve our first choice defense or alternatively could be outstanding prospects who can improve the first team in 2-3 years.
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We probably do. We play 3 at the back and Martinez, Shaw are un reliable, Lindelof is probably going. De Ligt can pick up injuries.
 
dinostar77 said:
I also think he's waiting for Barcelona, but you can't rule out Madrid. Miltao is constantly injured and we know how much Perez loves free transfers. Plus if Xavi Alonso ends up managing there...

I can't recall having seen him play, is he similar to any of our current centreback options?
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Insanity said:
@Zehner Is he fast? Good on the ball? How is his heading ability? Does he play central CB for Leverkusen?
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For us, he played as the central defender in a three at the back system. He did his fair share of front foot defending, especially in counterpressing situations but not as much as the R/LCBs. Instead, he was more important in defending counter attacks. His speed (I think he reached 35 km/h in some games) and strength is excellent for that and was a key enabler for the high line we play. As said, he lost a fair bit of muscle mass before his ascend to form and it made him more agile and improved his acceleration but he there were two or three occasions when he was taken by surprise by the strength of a really physical striker (Antonio, Boniface, Lukaku).

Last season, he was very basic in the build up. His biggest strength is transitioning after winning the ball. Where other CBs pass it backwards to the keeper, Tah has excellent vision and often finds a surprising forward pass that sets the team up for a counter attack or possession phase, sometimes he even combines it with a bit of tidy footwork. This season, he has also improved his passing massively. One of his long balls to Frimpong lead to the red card against Neuer. He's decent at those passes now but still nowhere near Hummels, Boateng, Bonucci, van Dijk and those kind of CBs.

His heading is very good. Alonso occasionally likes to defend deep in his own half and we have to deal with lots of crosses in those phases. But for a very long time, Tah was one of those CBs that left you wondering how somebody so good at defensive headers could be so terrible at offensive headers since he went whole seasons without scoring one. That improved as well under Alonso and Tah was one of our biggest threats from set pieces, often being involved in our trademark late goals in some capacity.

All that being said, I still can't say he'll be a huge success wherever he goes because I'm not sure how he deals with more negative stress than he had in the last two years with us. As said, in the past he was extremely error prone. It seems he really has developed in that respect particularly but we all know bad habits die slowly. Really hope he'll hit the ground running wherever he goes, though, since he comes across as a very likeable guy. Was very popular among the young players and overall an important figure in the dressing room, speaking multiple languages and all that.

Regarding Barca/Madrid: As said, he seems to be waiting for Barca to give the final signal but some journalists claim that he has a very close bond with Alonso and that Madrid consider using that to hijack the transfer. Bayern seem to be in the race as well but less likely. It was reported that Tah was disappointed with them last summer because the transfer failed after Bayern seemingly qanted to renegotiate an already agreed fee with us. Was quite the story back then with Carro growing so frustrated of Bayern that he almost insulted Eberl at a semi-public fan event over it. Still, they seem to be in the race for him and I doubt Tah would say no to them if they end up being his best option to win titles.
 
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