They are but Torres is a more passive style of defender where Martinez is more aggressive. And generally I'd say the latter style complements our current selection of CBs more.
“a ball-playing centre back” - a bit of a broad brush isn’t it? Torres is good on the ball but looks a lot more comfortable playing deep and lacks some aggression. I’ve not seen Martinez much but he’ll be much more assertive (as well as good on the ball) if ETH rates him so highly.
Martinez is a lot more proactive in his defending, often ventures out and presses very high by default. He is very good at switching play too.
He does play for Villarreal….. Yeah he is more passive but he’s currently a better footballer.
Odd…the Ajax fans on here and big Twitter fan accounts don’t seem to want him to go at all.
Surely you see that the fee is contextual and far from black and white in an open market?
Plus Fab has put it out there they would accept less than that.
Ben White is also an english CB.....nuff said
At best.
Ruben Diaz cost City £65 million which was a similar situation to Martinez in the fact they were similar ages at the time of the transfer and they were the best defender from a top team outside of the top 5 rate leagues. Ake to Chelsea also seems to be going for £40+ million and Botman to Newcastle was £35 million.
How much are you expecting to save? his release clause is £55 million and they aren't going to let him go for much cheaper than that. At best we would get him for around £45 which is basically the same price as Martinez would cost.
Yeah well our Maguire stupidity and you lot throwing money for Ben White sort of inflated the market.
He’s €55m and the club have put it out their they would accept as little as €45. Which i said Romano already confirmed. That’s around £38m. Which is saving a lot.
He was speaking to Elko Born (his twitter here) who also said that prior to last season he wasn't really that highly thought of by the fans, who were still viewing him as "just a defender" and not a very technical player. Of course, we've seen his passing range, which would look great next to a fit Varane on the right side of him, but I still think the amount bandied about is incredibly high for someone who is not a sure bet, let alone in a physical league like the Prem.
Romano and many sources say his release clause is 55/60 Euros which makes me think they haven't got a clue as it should just be one figure and even then we'll see if they would accept 10/15 million Euros less than the release clause when Utd come calling.
Agree on Anthony, I just feel that with Martinez the potential upside and influence on our style of play would be significant. Having a Centre back that is comfortable playing balls into the midfield or directly to the wingers instead of our lb and rb is very important in the style of play ETH is trying to create. It's probably why he'd be our first priority after FDJ and if we can only have one between Anthony/Martinez it will undoubtedly be Martinez.
But one crux of signing this player is our manager wants him because he knows him inside out, ability and personality wise. We are paying a premium for those intangibles that simply cannot be gauged for other players presented to him as alternatives that he may have turned down in favour of Martinez.
It would fit perfectly if United paid the same money for Martinez as City paid for Haaland.
Exactly. Very well said.
Yeah, I understand the reasoning. It's a fundamental position with being able to cope with possession from the GK (we can leave that for another thread) and further up the pitch. Interesting line from Lindelof about training that playing out from the back relies on much more than just the back four and midfielders, which sounds like everyone is being made responsible for everything. Anyhow, you're right, Martinez has likely enormous value for ETH in ensuring capability in a fundamental area of the pitch. The price point simply has to mean that he'll be an automatic starter, because you don't seek out that defender for his squad value or personality in the dressing room for +50m. My guess would be that he'll hope Varane is fit for the league matches and he'll play Maguire in the Europa and that one or two League Cup games before the World Cup, again, next to Martinez.
If he signs to play CB the intention will be that he's first choice LCB, because neither Maguire nor Varane offer as much from that position in an ETH side as Martinez does.
Do you have concerns about his lack of height, purely for his stature think he would do better at DM but then Erik don't fancy him playing there.
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him playing every week would be an exceptional bad message, the problem however is the lack of plausible alternatives. Looking for leaders in the team that are going to play and they just aren't there, assuming CR7 isn't going to be there. In a perfect world someone like Rashford would have been a long term pick, but the performances just don't justify it.
