youngrell
Full Member
Mkhitaryan, Fred and Lindelof all had about 2-3 months of absence at the start of their United careers, and Bailly had a similar period in the middle of his first season too (although that was after an injury). Pogba got dropped for a few weeks too.Who are you referring to exactly? Bailly and Ibrahimovic were integral to our cup successes and they made an immediate impact. Pogba had always been a divisve figure but he basically started every game and he had been brilliant imo. Mkhitaryan, and the later replacement Alexis, were also given extensive chances before they were widely considered as failed signings and sent to the bench. The fact that they failed later on elsewhere supported this decision. You may not rate Lukaku or Matic but it's undeniable that they were regular starters for us.
The cases of Lindelof and Fred were a bit trickier. They obviously came from a less competitive league and it always took time for these players to adapt to the intense, physical Premier League. Fabinho didn't start a single game for 3 months after he joined Liverpool and now he's crucial to the team. For me, Lindelof was still introduced prematurely due to the injury crisis at that time. If he were given more time to adjust, he would have developed more confidence and been more prepared to the physicality here.
These were all £30m plus signings, not kids, and he either decided after buying them that they were not good enough or they didn't fit into what he was trying to achieve. Which begs the question, why sign them?