That’s true, maybe if we sign a specialist DM it could work. What are your thoughts on savage and Zidane? I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in and around the first team squad this season looking at how there playing in pre season, they’d make up the numbers, also we are more then likely going to sign a midfielder wether it’s de Jong or an alternative. The problem we have is that we don’t have a single holding midfielder which will be preventing us from playing a 4-3-3. I do think eriksen could work in a 2/3 man midfield if Bruno plays as a false 9 and we have eriksen, Fred and VDB, could work against the lower teams and teams we should dominate.
Lisandro Martinez | Man Utd player - Contract till 2027, with the option to extend for a further year
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He's a centre back and ten Hag has made it clear that he's going to play there.
I will not comment on Savage and Zidane, did not see the games. And to be honest I don't get excited with preseason games, summer period I try to stay off football as much as possible, especially after last season fiasco I told myself "let's see the first game of a new season".
I believe the reason McFred works so well is because they work hard and cover for each other with a bit of a random movement (as neither of them is a DM), that's why I also think Eriksen + 1 will not work until we get a proper DM who can hold position and cover deep midfield. Bruno in midfield is no-go.
But it doesn't seem like we're in the market for a DM, so I think we will continue playing McFred + some more attacking combos for games where we dominate totally, but somehow I don't see that happening often this season.
He might start a lot of games at CB. But I don't think Ten Hag expects him to hang back all the time. We'll see.
If ETH had plans to deploy new personnel in midfield he would sign one. It's hard to believe we would chase CBs all summer for a totally different position. This isn't some squad option signing as ETH said.
I think the plan must be for him to become the starter as left sided centre back. My concern is who partners him - Maguire is captain, with that massive fee - I think there's a pressure to play him. But I'd say Varane is the best CB at the club - but the injuries are a problem. It should be Martinez and Varane as starters until Varane inevitably is injured. The problem is I like to see a solid CB pairing with confidence and an understanding of each other - I'm a bit worried how Martinez will adapt here when Varane could be in and out the team and Maguire isn't exactly a confident, decisive partner/captain.
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Some myth busting. As I said in his transfer thread, if you actually watched the game you’d know Haaland could’ve had a hattrick on another day.
They aren’t even great chances imo. Shots from acute angles
I think from the games we’ve seen, with Maguire moving to RCB and Telles getting minutes at LCB, I expect Martinez to start a lot of games at LCB partnering Maguire.
Its not a partnership many of us would have picked at the start of the summer but let’s see.
Its not a partnership many of us would have picked at the start of the summer but let’s see.
He made Martinez look like a child after a long ball from the goalkeeper and bulldozed past him into the space in behind. I suppose “lack of pace in a high line” only matters when it’s Maguire though.
“Look like a child” Jesus hyperbole really is the only way to talk on this website isn’t it 
Erm, no mate, these things did not happen, supposedly Martinez dominated Haaland. If this was Maguire it will be all over the internet and football experts who claimed with certainty that Martinez shut down Haaland would have different memo.
On top of that if you actually watch the full highlight some of the "clearances" from Martinez I think were Titus Bramble style.
He’s chasing long balls over the top and they’re still getting back at him to the point he’s taking punt shots from acute angles.
That’s not from a failure of marking him out that’s from Ten Hags style of pressing high. The quality of Haaland ensures he gets quality shots away but they aren’t great chances and if he scored a hatrick from that then he’s a magician.
It’s a weird point to bring up, it’s almost point scoring of some kind
It’s not weird and it isn’t point scoring at all. People questioned Martinez’s physical attributes and got told “he was fine against Haaland!” as a rebuttal, when clearly it wasn’t the case.
Have a center back ever dominated Haaland?
I've seen Haaland against the lot, Van Dijk, Koulibaly, Ruben Dias he bullied them all.
I've seen Haaland against the lot, Van Dijk, Koulibaly, Ruben Dias he bullied them all.
They weren’t in physical altercations there!
it was from balls over the top that Timber and Martinez got back in line with anyway. Haaland isn’t choosing to shoot from shit angles because he thinks it’s easy, it’s because the CBS got back at him.
Notice how isolated the striker is in those clips as well. That’s because of Ten Hags high press that isolates the opposition CF.
I would very much argue Haaland winning the ball from a long ball, with his back pinned to Martinez, is a physical altercation. And that last clip was no shit angle, you’d expect him to score from there.
Looks like it.
Though I wonder if Varane is fit, he has to start over Maguire surely.
Varane is better at everything. Faster, more comfortable on the ball, passes it faster with both feet. Decent in the air too.
The problem is Varane is never fit for long enough.
I've seen Anthony Martial bully the shit out of Dias just last year when he was in terrible form and Dias was the player of the season.
Did anyone expect Ajax not to concede a single chance to Haaland? Or CB not to lose any battle with one of the best 9 in the world? Myth busting
All of those are from awful positioning by Timber, so that doesn't worry me in the slightest. If anything i'm happier knowing we haven't bought another scatty defender.
Losing duels happens to every defender so you can't read too much into that.
But that clip starting 25 seconds is evidence that you cannot avoid physical battles just by playing a certain style of football. A long ball from the goalkeeper and the striker pinned the smaller centre back, easily won the flick on and was through on goal 2 seconds later. There's another clip of Haaland winning an aerial long ball vs Martinez and directly from that Dortmund briefly had a 2v1 but messed it up.
People on here would have you think that type of football got left behind in the 90s and it's not something we need to worry about. In reality crosses, set pieces and long balls are just an inevitable part of the game that you will have to deal with in every match. Playing a high line and keeping possession reduce the frequency of dangerous situations but not to the point where you can afford to have a weakness in those incidents.
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No shame in losing some duels to Haaland. Even Van Dijk will struggle against him at times.
So we are saying one of the best no.9’s in the world today managed 3 opportunities, one directly from pinning Martinez and winning the duel (shock and horror) means we are all living in our dreamland about him?
Of course he’s going to lose duals and probably get beaten for headers on occasion, it’s football.
I saw a thing on Sky Sports News the other day about "The smallest Centre Backs in the league".
Why is this only a thing when United are concerned? Nothing about the shortest centre back in the league before it was a United player was there?
Why is this only a thing when United are concerned? Nothing about the shortest centre back in the league before it was a United player was there?
How often have you heard height mentioned with Kounde? He's 3cm taller
That's the thing though, they don't work well at all
fecking hell - how dare he not play a flawless game against the best 9 in the world.
Martinez and Timber did a great job against him, nobody said they won every dual.
Did anyone expect Ajax not to concede a single chance to Haaland? Or CB not to lose any battle with one of the best 9 in the world? Myth busting
Yeah it's strange.
(a) These are just long balls to a freak of nature like Haaland who even a guy like VVD would have trouble handling for an entire 90
(b) They were fairly low probability shots - one was a weak foot shot from an acute angle and he still managed to hit the bar. Normal strikers won't be able to do that.
Got to admire the way the got back on the line with the keeper our and covered the right side of the goal. Just one moment though.
Haaland did not get those opportunities because he played some “world class only be can do this” type of skill, but because he is physically much superior compared to midget CBs Timber and Martinez.
Don’t be naive you can bet even that shit stick Mateta from Crystal Palace can cause him similar problems, never mind players like Kane and Haaland.
And how foolish is that notion, “yes but it’s Haaland or Kane”. Well no shit Sherlock but that’s our direct competition. For the Southampton strikers we didn’t need to buy a 60m CB did we?
Compare Ruben Dias to VVD. Last season Dias was in the bottom 28th percentile among CBs in Europe's big 5 leagues for percentage of aerial duels won, while VVD was in the 94th percentile. That gap amounts to VVD winning an extra 17.5% of his aerial duels, which seems like a lot.
But the impact of that is limited by the relatively low number of aerial duels they face. If Dias had been as dominant as VVD it would have won him 0.58 of an aerial duel per game. Meanwhile if VVD had been as weak as Dias it would have cost him around 0.9 aerial duels per game.
The point being that even if we were to assume Martinez' height will make him weaker in those situations, the negative impact of that isn't seen in every duel he loses but rather the duels he loses that a dominant physical presence wouldn't also lose. And that number is heavily limited by the relatively low number of those situations CBs actually face in a game. So much so that the massive gap in aerial dominance between Dias and VVD last season didn't even amount to a full duel won/lost per game.
But the impact of that is limited by the relatively low number of aerial duels they face. If Dias had been as dominant as VVD it would have won him 0.58 of an aerial duel per game. Meanwhile if VVD had been as weak as Dias it would have cost him around 0.9 aerial duels per game.
The point being that even if we were to assume Martinez' height will make him weaker in those situations, the negative impact of that isn't seen in every duel he loses but rather the duels he loses that a dominant physical presence wouldn't also lose. And that number is heavily limited by the relatively low number of those situations CBs actually face in a game. So much so that the massive gap in aerial dominance between Dias and VVD last season didn't even amount to a full duel won/lost per game.
Tbf can you remember another sub 6 foot big money centre back signing joining a PL club? Nathan Ake is 5’10 but he was at least already playing in the prem.
Asking again, where are similar reports for Kounde?
The Koundé that plays in Spain?
I’d love to see the stats regarding him and Martinez.
Those three clips were literally all that Haaland did in that match. Martinez did very well.
Its bad enough just cherry picking clips, but Martinez isnt even at fault in two of those, Timber is. And in the last one his only problem is missing a tackle, which at the end of the day, happens to everyone from time to time. That video tells us nothing.
No confirmation on work permit yet
Should we panic?
Should we panic?