Manchester United Summer Transfer Window 2015: What do we still need?

[Yorkeontop]

Hopefully we have realised the error in our ways, a big money CB has never won anybody anything. Even the much maligned Berbatov won us a league title. We should not break the bank eg. £40 m plus to bring in one.

 

[sully1]

I don't see us winning anything meaningful with Rooney as the main guy. We've just never done it with Wayne as the main man for one reason or another. Think Ronaldo, Van Persie and hell even Berbatov that season did the business.

This

Rooney upfront will be a disaster waiting to happen this season if he gets anything less then 20 league goals this season. LVG will have no problems pointing out Rooneys flaws when the media ask him why Rooney isn't scoring as many goals as Aguero, Costa, Sanchez etc

 

[0161_UNITED]

Considering where United is in this timeframe, I'd consider the following:

1) Never sell De Gea to Madrid for a penny less than Dan Levy's asking price for Lloris, which would be a fortune. In other words, every time Perez calls I'd tell Madrid, "How much is De Gea today? Call Levy and ask him how much Lloris is today - that's the price. By the way, may we negotiate terms with Sergio Ramos now? Also, would Benitez bring me another beer and have the pinxtos brought over please?" Other than that, keep De Gea and wait and see if Madrid get a transfer ban. I think De Gea won't play for 6 months to a year - even on a free - if that happens.
2) Serve up a monster offer for Bale, if Madrid flinches.
3) Serve up a monster offer for Kane, if Levy flinches. (Ain't happening, IMO).
4) Everton are sick of Chelsea, and desperately need CBs. We have Evans and others. I'd snatch Stones from the Chavs.

However, I'm not desperate on CBs. We still need to know what Smalling, Jones, and Rojo offer.

 

[KingMinger22]

I can't believe people are taking about the CB position the most.

Defensively we will at least be solid.

In attack, where are the goals and creativity going to come from? I don't think we can safely say any of our front 4 can deliver goals and spark for us.

No point buying a decent or 'good' CB. Get an excellent one or manage with what we have.

I think we will have to wait another summer before we can hopefully get in some more top quality additions. It seems there isn't the class available that we need.

 

[CapeTownRed]

Hopefully we have realised the error in our ways, a big money CB has never won anybody anything. Even the much maligned Berbatov won us a league title. We should not break the bank eg. £40 m plus to bring in one.

Tell that to Sir Alex and Rio Ferdinand...

 

[YouOnlyLiveTwice]

If we say Pedro is coming here, which i very much think he is, we have one very good first 11 and a good second line-up.

DdG
Damo Mike Rojo Shaw
Schneiderlin Schweinsteiger
Pedro Mata Depay
Rooney

Romero
Valencia Jones Blind Blackett
Carrick
Herrera Fellaini
Jesse Hernandez Young
​

I think we need a new CB to partner with Mike and a first choice striker instead of Rooney. It will most likely be next season we deal with those issues, but even without that it's looking very good quality and squad depth wise.
The match-winning attacking player just isn't available atm and that will probably see us not winning the title, but we should be able to give it a good fight with the options we have.

​

 

[Crashoutcassius]

If we say Pedro is coming here, which i very much think he is, we have one very good first 11 and a good second line-up.

DdG
Damo Mike Rojo Shaw
Schneiderlin Schweinsteiger
Pedro Mata Depay
Rooney

Romero
Valencia Jones Blind Blackett
Carrick
Herrera Fellaini
Jesse Hernandez Young
​

I think we need a new CB to partner with Mike and a first choice striker instead of Rooney. It will most likely be next season we deal with those issues, but even without that it's looking very good quality and squad depth wise.
The match-winning attacking player just isn't available atm and that will probably see us not winning the title, but we should be able to give it a good fight with the options we have.

​

but we are'n't playing this way, we are playing depay 10 and young on left wing?

 

[YouOnlyLiveTwice]

but we are'n't playing this way, we are playing depay 10 and young on left wing?

LvG will learn soon, hopefully

 

[Crashoutcassius]

LvG will learn soon, hopefully

i kinda get what you're saying, but in reality mata hasn't done well enough to play 10, and the way LVG likes to play 10s he doesn't fit, as he is slow and weak.

He may work but for me he doesn't seem like an LVG player first and foremost but beyond that he doesn't seem like he'll ever he an LVG number 10, which is basically a second striker

 

[YouOnlyLiveTwice]

i kinda get what you're saying, but in reality mata hasn't done well enough to play 10, and the way LVG likes to play 10s he doesn't fit, as he is slow and weak.

He may work but for me he doesn't seem like an LVG player first and foremost but beyond that he doesn't seem like he'll ever he an LVG number 10, which is basically a second striker

I know, LvG wants a strong second-striker type of player there and Mata is not that. My OCD is just telling me that we got to have him in the middle, but it probably won't be with LvG.

Anyways, put Depay in the middle then with Mata and Pedro besides him, that would probably be more like it.

Rooney
Pedro Depay JMata
​

That's not bad either

 

[Ixion]

Tell that to Sir Alex and Rio Ferdinand...

Stam was pretty big money at the time too.

 

[RedMilo]

Hummels, Pedro & Kane would do nicely. Lloris also if DDG leaves.

 

[dannyrhinos89]

i kinda get what you're saying, but in reality mata hasn't done well enough to play 10, and the way LVG likes to play 10s he doesn't fit, as he is slow and weak.

He may work but for me he doesn't seem like an LVG player first and foremost but beyond that he doesn't seem like he'll ever he an LVG number 10, which is basically a second striker

Mata primarily played 10 for chelsea and he was fantastic. I just can't see what goes through LVGs mind playing mata wing and Memphis at 10.

Mata is best in the hole simply because of his footballing brain and ability to create.

Depay is a proper old school winger, pace to burn, ability to beat his man, cut inside and unleash a shot.

These LVG experiments aren't getting the best out of certain players and will cost us. It's so blatentky obvious that depay should ge wing and mata 10.

 

[Mainoldo]

Mata primarily played 10 for chelsea and he was fantastic. I just can't see what goes through LVGs mind playing mata wing and Memphis at 10.

Mata is best in the hole simply because of his footballing brain and ability to create.

Depay is a proper old school winger, pace to burn, ability to beat his man, cut inside and unleash a shot.

These LVG experiments aren't getting the best out of certain players and will cost us. It's so blatentky obvious that depay should ge wing and mata 10.

Did Mourinho play Mata as #10? I'm guessing LVG has the same logic as Mourinho.

 

[sun_tzu]

I'm starting to think we wont get a centreback... and that worries me as based on last season we lack a leader at the back (especially if De Gea goes that stability from a top centre back will be even more vital)

 

[sun_tzu]

i kinda get what you're saying, but in reality mata hasn't done well enough to play 10, and the way LVG likes to play 10s he doesn't fit, as he is slow and weak.

He may work but for me he doesn't seem like an LVG player first and foremost but beyond that he doesn't seem like he'll ever he an LVG number 10, which is basically a second striker

indeed - like when he wouldn't play Rivaldo through the middle.

Personally I'd still like to see Rooney as a No10 - but we would have to bring in a striker to enable that and there does not seem to be many if any top strikers available.

 

[Infra-red]

This really depends on the club's expectations for the new season. Provided Rooney has a good year the current squad probably has a decent chance of finishing 4th and getting to the CL last 16. If Woodward and Van Gaal are hoping to achieve more than that, they'll need far more firepower and better centre-halves than Rojo, Evans and Jones. I'm sure they're aware of this.

Did Mourinho play Mata as #10? I'm guessing LVG has the same logic as Mourinho.

Yes Mourinho did.

 

[Tosicsleftpeg]

Mata is a hero! Can easily play at cam he always gets goals and has the best technique in the squad. I think we need to be more traditional and play fast players out wide with a playmaker in the middle rather than the other way round as we seen to be playing like at the moment.

We need a striker but I'm not sure we will get one now. Definitely need an arching player of some sort.

 

[Ole90+3]

indeed - like when he wouldn't play Rivaldo through the middle.

Personally I'd still like to see Rooney as a No10 - but we would have to bring in a striker to enable that and there does not seem to be many if any top strikers available.

Rooney at #10? Oh Jesus, no!

Rooney can rank among the world's best strikers at the moment in regards to goal-scoring ability. Obviously not as good as Aguero or Suarez but he ranks in the top 10 imo.

Rooney in a #10 position, when comparing to the world's best, is quite laughable. His first touch is piss, and continues to get worse every season. He has pretty poor ball control and dribbling ability. Short passing isn't up to much, and as far as I can see he doesn't appear to have the eye for killer passes.

 

[SSSSnake]

Rooney at #10? Oh Jesus, no!

Rooney can rank among the world's best strikers at the moment in regards to goal-scoring ability. Obviously not as good as Aguero or Suarez but he ranks in the top 10 imo.

Rooney in a #10 position, when comparing to the world's best, is quite laughable. His first touch is piss, and continues to get worse every season. He has pretty poor ball control and dribbling ability. Short passing isn't up to much, and as far as I can see he doesn't appear to have the eye for killer passes.

My beef with Rooney is that it always seems like he needs a long run of games to get anywhere near the form we've seen in the past. I just hope he stays injury free this season since it doesn't look like we're adding another striker to the ranks.

 

[Yorkeontop]

Tell that to Sir Alex and Rio Ferdinand...

At the of the days goals win matches. I recognise the contributions of of a guy like Rio but do you think we wouldn't have won those titles without him?

 

[legball]

Keep De Gea, sign Griezmann and Otamendi.

 

[starman]

Pretty incredible, how we are still only half way through our business this summer. Sure, we have brought in 4 new players, all needed.

Yet still have not sorted our the GK situation, no Di Maria replacement. No new centre back and no replacement for Falcao or RVP.

 

[Jonnymufc]

http://www.football365.com/news/21554/9946605/Austin-To-Stay-Striker-Reportedly-In-QPR-Talks

18 Premier League goals in a bloody awful team...surely worth £15m to give us some additional firepower?..

 

[Jacob]

Pretty incredible, how we are still only half way through our business this summer. Sure, we have brought in 4 new players, all needed.

Yet still have not sorted our the GK situation, no Di Maria replacement. No new centre back and no replacement for Falcao or RVP.

Not everybody needs replacing, we only need two quality (according to LvG) players per position.

 

[JoaquinJoaquin]

Rooney at #10? Oh Jesus, no!

Rooney can rank among the world's best strikers at the moment in regards to goal-scoring ability. Obviously not as good as Aguero or Suarez but he ranks in the top 10 imo.

Rooney in a #10 position, when comparing to the world's best, is quite laughable. His first touch is piss, and continues to get worse every season. He has pretty poor ball control and dribbling ability. Short passing isn't up to much, and as far as I can see he doesn't appear to have the eye for killer passes.

This isn't 2009. Rooney has gotten by on reputation for a long time now and if the club think he will get 25+ goals this season then they will be in for a very big shock.

 

[KingMinger22]

Even if we add two quality outfield players, I am not sure we will have enough.

I really worry about our creativity and attack.

 

[starman]

Not everybody needs replacing, we only need two quality (according to LvG) players per position.

Well by that virtue, still need a Di Maria replacement (presumably Pedro) and replacement for Falcao/RVP.

Personal choice is Griezmann and wouldn't mind Berahino as a extra striker who can also cover wide areas. Both could be had for under 65m. Thats apparently around the price just needed to buy Kane.

RCB -Smalling/Jones
LCB - Rojo/Blind

Regarding the CBs, its debatable if that's enough quality

 

[bucky]

Laporte, Embolo/Martial, Lucas/Felipe Anderson/Fekir/Pedro, De Gea staying or some new GK.

Seems a lot, but I think we still need to improve and those players could be the improvement for the future we need. They are mostly young players, since I'd rather see us sign those players than the finished product. Also, I just don't see Bale, Reus, Benzema or similar players available. Otamendi's one brilliant season isn't enough to convince me that we should sign him for the touted prices, the same applies to Kane. Ideally de Gea is staying and we bring in 2 more players, because we already had enough changes in the last couple of years and the team needs to grow.

 

[dannyrhinos89]

Did Mourinho play Mata as #10? I'm guessing LVG has the same logic as Mourinho.

Yes Mourinho did play him at 10 like I said he was very effective when he played that position too.

Lvg and his stupid ideas will cost us from getting the best out of our players

 

[Mainoldo]

Yes Mourinho did play him at 10 like I said he was very effective when he played that position too.

Lvg and his stupid ideas will cost us from getting the best out of our players

No the point I'm getting across is both Mourinho and LVG don't rate Mata good enough to play number 10 for them. LVG gave Mata enough games as a number 10 at the beginning of last season.

 

[ManUSarge]

While I am far from ready to call this window "poor" I am concerned at how it seems to be ending. I know that we are supposedly in the running for Pedro still but the interest from City and Chelsea here when it seems like he is coming to us is concerning. I was hoping that the Otamendi talk is about him coming to us but I really don't think LvG is in for him for some reason. Regardless...as well as we have done in filling in the gaps in the midfield, RB, and Memphis...I share the opinion many do about our front line and keeper.

As far as DDG goes, I understand that we want to show Real that we are not pushovers and will keep him for another year but I really feel that keeping a goalkeeper here just to spite the other team will not be good for the team. I understand DDG says he wants to play and no doubt he will be as professional as possible but we are going to be in this situation next year for sure...needing to find another keeper. Perhaps the keeper we want isn't available right now for whatever reason but if DDG's head isn't in it, do we really want our keeper to be at 80% all season because of all this?

I am not as convinced as some are about Rooney. I only saw glimpses of who we all want him to be last year...even when he was playing up front. I think that is all we can expect from Rooney...bits and pieces of great football mixed in with lots of average football. I think it would be a mistake to leave it to Chich and Wilson up front if/when Roo gets injured.

I am also having a hard time keeping the faith in LvG's brand of football and where he is deciding to play certain players. I'm not even talking about the "free flowing attacking football" that we were all used to under SAF but just the ability to not put a shot on target for large portions of the game. His loyalty to Young while he has a potential game changer for that position is baffling to me. Don't get me wrong...I know Young stepped it up for us last year and was undroppable last season...but is he really who we want going forward? I will be honest...I was screaming for Young to be sold at the beginning of last summer.

To wrap up this rant...I think our squad has improved. I think it is enough to keep us in the top 4. I think our main weakness is up front...although if we are going to stick with Blind as a CB I would argue we have bigger problems than attacking. I am just a fan that sees that we are one to two more good signings from making the pundits start saying United first when they are asked who the title contenders will be. I know that is asking a lot this season since we have so many new players and the squad will need to gel a bit, but I think if we were to land Pedro and Otamendi it would be a massive lift in our title hopes this year.

 

[RedorDead21]

This isn't 2009. Rooney has gotten by on reputation for a long time now and if the club think he will get 25+ goals this season then they will be in for a very big shock.

This is bollocks. So last season against West Ham when he scores from his own half I didnt see any comments following that game saying he couldnt score in a brothel. A player who for 10 years has been pretty much useless for the first 5-6 games when coming back from injury and when a season kicks off. He was poor again against Spurs in some regards. He'll be poor I imagine in some regards for a good few games yet. He'll end up as our best ever goal scorer and England's best goal scorer. But like Shearer was hounded out for no good reason the same is happening here. I'd like to see Aguero or Costa playing in DM when needs must. He would run both of them into the ground trying. There are few better today in this country. Under Moyes when Arsenal game to OT with the worlds best midfielder in Ramsey according to all on sundry he dropped into midfield and absolutely dominated the trio of Ramsey, Ozil and Wilshere. He's beeen our best player for much of the last 5 years and seen off alot of complaints. He could quite easily score 20+.

 

[wiz4231]

GK - Romero, Johnstone, New GK - Cillessen
CB - Smalling, Rojo, Jones, McNair, Blackett
FB - Darmian, Valencia, Shaw, Blind
DM - Carrick, Schneiderlin, Goss
CM - Schwienstiger, Herrera, (Pereira)
#10 - Mata, Fellaini, Pereira
RW - Januzaj, New Winger - Pedro
LW - Depay, Young
ST - Rooney, Hernandez, Wilson

Valdes, De Gea, Lindegaard, Evans, Lingard out, personally I'd look to ship out Blackett and replace him with a quality young CB

 

[C'est Moi Cantona]

You look at the best team we can field ( inc Pedro)

-----------------------DDG----------------------
Darmian------Rojo--------Smalling-------Shaw
--------Schweinstegier----Schneiderlin--------
-----------------------Mata----------------------
Pedro---------------Rooney-------------Memphis

And just as long as Rooney can still cut it, and Memphis is as good as he looks then that is surely a team that can challenge for the title, it's a team that will concede very few, and one that should create lots, everything is there.

Hernandez is good enough to back up Rooney, Carrick and Herrera more than good enough for the midfield, Blind and Young good enough for the left side, but for me what we need is an adequate CB back up, and a right winger to compete with Pedro.

I personally don't think Jones, Mcnair, or Evans are good enough to cover a long term injury, and Mata is painfully slow to be on the RW.

A double bid to Lazio for De Vrij and Anderson would tick both those boxes for me, both have the quality to be first team players, but both would likely be happy to start on the bench to fight their way into the team. Sadly it might take Lazio getting knocked out of the CL for any hope of it happening.

 

[chetan]

Is anyone feeling indifferent towards our transfer activity for the remainder of the window. After the way preseason and the first game has gone I feel even if we buy a CB or a winger like Pedro nothing much is going to change.
If we get someone like Stones, he will most probably replace Smalling or will be back up to Smalling. If we get Pedro then he is going to replace Mata on the right.

This is just pure speculation on my part, but LVG's use of squad has taken away all the excitement for me of any impending transfers.

 

[Dreaded]

Is anyone feeling indifferent towards our transfer activity for the remainder of the window. After the way preseason and the first game has gone I feel even if we buy a CB or a winger like Pedro nothing much is going to change.
If we get someone like Stones, he will most probably replace Smalling or will be back up to Smalling. If we get Pedro then he is going to replace Mata on the right.

This is just pure speculation on my part, but LVG's use of squad has taken away all the excitement for me of any impending transfers.

We are 1 game into the season give it a little time!

 

[CapeTownRed]

At the of the days goals win matches. I recognise the contributions of of a guy like Rio but do you think we wouldn't have won those titles without him?

Not as many, no. Having possibly the best defender in the league in your team tends to give you an extra dimension. Also, how many cliches are there about the league being won on the basis of clean sheets...

 

[KingMinger22]

Is anyone feeling indifferent towards our transfer activity for the remainder of the window. After the way preseason and the first game has gone I feel even if we buy a CB or a winger like Pedro nothing much is going to change.
If we get someone like Stones, he will most probably replace Smalling or will be back up to Smalling. If we get Pedro then he is going to replace Mata on the right.

This is just pure speculation on my part, but LVG's use of squad has taken away all the excitement for me of any impending transfers.

Our best player is likely to leave.

We sold our most talented outfield player, even if he was shite last year. I think we were all hoping he would deliver this season.

We have bought well and sold some deadwood. That said, we still only have half a good team with no supreme quality in attack.

 

[marukomu]

I'll be so glad when this window is shut. I hate all this bullshit and the papers setting up rivalries for transfers that are not even true. Sometimes I feel like giving up on football altogether.