Interesting. What is his passing like? He's quite small for a centre back..
Surely if we're head to head with Arsenal for centre backs they will join United given Arsenal already have the first XI spots covered.
Potential Centre Back signing?
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Interesting. What is his passing like? He's quite small for a centre back..
Surely if we're head to head with Arsenal for centre backs they will join United given Arsenal already have the first XI spots covered.
To buy themselves more time or will that clause become active this summer?
6 feet isnt small for a CB. Hincapie and Timber were both CBs before moving to Arsenal and are the same size or smaller respectively
Arsenal play CBs at fullback as well so theres more spots than youd think. Lukeba's passing stats are good so he might be an option as a fullback as well
Is it not telling that Timber has ended up as a right back, exactly what many posters on here thought would end up happening if we signed him back when we were linked under ETH?
Slightly. But he's 5'8 not 6 feet, and we play Lisandro CB and hes 5'7
Arsenal play CBs at fullback. They did it before Timber was starting with Ben White too. Its just their tactic. It doesnt mean it would have happened here because we rarely play a CB at fullback. However I do think that if both he and Lisandro were fit, yes we'd probably have played him as a fullback rather than having 2 short CBs.
I wasn’t interested enough to dig deeper.
I would assume the clause is viable from next summer on since it’s somewhat pointless otherwise. Maybe he wants to focus on the WC this summer and not deal with inquiries. €14m helps with spending another year at Dortmund (who will be playing CL) and he is still young for a CB.
It's not small, it's relatively small. I hate to sound like an American woman here, but let's be honest, we want tall players at centre back in the Premier League, and if not, their mentality really has to make up for it.
Robert Renan is the prob the best young CB in South America that I can see via analytics and seems to perfectly fit the profile we're looking for. He's 6'1 and has excellent win % for aerial duels which a number of posters have rightly pointed out is a potential weak spot for us next season with Casemiro gone and Maguire featuring less. All round he's very athletic and rarely loses 1v1 in the air or ground.
He's fairly elite with both passing and ball carrying. Was 6th in Brazil for progressive passes per 90 last season, 3rd for forward passing overall.
Was 15th last season for progressive carries per 90 and 4th this season so far.
7th in Brazil for progressive actions per 90 last season.
He's managed to put up some excellent numbers despite only moving to a very average Vasco recently, apparently he was touted as the next big thing in Brazil a couple of years ago and got signed by Zenit. The transfer has had major issues due to sanctions placed on Russian teams following the war in Ukraine which meant he didn't play much and was eventually loaned back to Brazil. I've started watching all the Vasco games and frankly he looks even better to the eye test.
It's hard to know what transfer policy United will take going forward because on one hand Ratcliffe said he wants to find the next Mbappe rather than buy him and on the other they've prioritised premier league proven players. It's gonna be incredibly difficult to sign a player whose putting up elite numbers in the premier league for low amounts as you can see with Anderson so if United were going to look outside of the EPL then this is the CB I'd like to see us sign because his ceiling is so high.
However if we're going for premier league proven then my preference would be Murillo, I'm a big fan of Senesi and think we should be seriously looking at him too but Barcelona rumours look ominous.
He's fairly elite with both passing and ball carrying. Was 6th in Brazil for progressive passes per 90 last season, 3rd for forward passing overall.
Was 15th last season for progressive carries per 90 and 4th this season so far.
7th in Brazil for progressive actions per 90 last season.
He's managed to put up some excellent numbers despite only moving to a very average Vasco recently, apparently he was touted as the next big thing in Brazil a couple of years ago and got signed by Zenit. The transfer has had major issues due to sanctions placed on Russian teams following the war in Ukraine which meant he didn't play much and was eventually loaned back to Brazil. I've started watching all the Vasco games and frankly he looks even better to the eye test.
It's hard to know what transfer policy United will take going forward because on one hand Ratcliffe said he wants to find the next Mbappe rather than buy him and on the other they've prioritised premier league proven players. It's gonna be incredibly difficult to sign a player whose putting up elite numbers in the premier league for low amounts as you can see with Anderson so if United were going to look outside of the EPL then this is the CB I'd like to see us sign because his ceiling is so high.
However if we're going for premier league proven then my preference would be Murillo, I'm a big fan of Senesi and think we should be seriously looking at him too but Barcelona rumours look ominous.
Martinez is 5’9”. He’s short for a centre back, but 5’7” is the same height as Messi!
That is incorrect. There are 2.54 cm's per inch so
67(5'7) x 2.54 = 170.18
69(5'9) x 2.54 = 175.26
https://www.unitconverters.net/length/cm-to-feet.htm
and google both had the same results
Edit - tried 2 more converter sites and yes they had different results. So the google embedded cm to feet converter and the site I linked must have the wrong formulas
Formulas are correct you need to convert it into feet and inches not just feet other sites must be just converting it into feet .
5.7 feet is not the same as 5'7". It's a decimal spot purely for the 'feet', so it'll go 5.7 - > 5.8 -> 5.9 -> 6. Or to put it another way, 0.5 feet is the same as 6 inches.
Seems my man Lacroix is in demand
He's certainly got the pace.
Annoyingly Vuskovic is playing too well. Scored his first senior goal for Croatia. Given Motm and praised by the opposition.
Tottenham are sitting on a gold mine, he'll be sold for a massive fee this Summer.
Tottenham are sitting on a gold mine, he'll be sold for a massive fee this Summer.
Should be all in for him. Great age, tall, physical and very good aerially too. Seems to be quite consistent and does not struggle with injuries. I imagine that changes the second he joins us, though.
Is anyone close to this level? I think Martinez is exceptional as a footballer, but I mean a centre back who stays fit and can also play. I remember more old school types who also had an amazing passing range like Bonucci.
If Maguire stays. We have Martinez, De Light, Yoro and Heaven competing for 2 starting slots.
Even being in 4 different competitions, I can't see us needing an extra centre half. Not when we are alledgly buying 2 x CMs, a left winger and a left back.
Also if you are a CB, why would you come to Utd knowing you have five other CBs to complete against for two starting slots?
Even being in 4 different competitions, I can't see us needing an extra centre half. Not when we are alledgly buying 2 x CMs, a left winger and a left back.
Also if you are a CB, why would you come to Utd knowing you have five other CBs to complete against for two starting slots?
They're not going to sell him unless they get relegated - even then would be unlikely. If he's as good as everyone says, he'll have a season in the prem, do well and be worth even more - he's on a 5 year deal from when he joins Spurs. I think.
They might not have a choice. He doesn't seem overly happy with Tottenham and has made it pretty clear he'd move. Player power is king these days.
Because 2 of them are made of glass and 2 are kids
I don't think that's true when you have signed a 5 year deal. He might kick up a bit of a stink, but someone would have to pay an astronomical fee to get him out of it.
What about Osmande Diomande?
He was highly rated not so long ago.
He was highly rated not so long ago.
But if you don't play the "kids" you lose them. Like we lost Gerard Pique as he couldnt enough game time, as he had peak Ferdinand and Vidic in front of him.
Exactly how I feel. Some would disagree and I can understand why but if de Ligt could be sold, I would do it. Despite him being one of the better defenders, he is regularly injured and United can't carry these players the way that they have done for the past few years (Mount, Shaw, Martinez...)
I think therein lies the answer. Maguire, Martinez, de Ligt...all decent players but nowhere near Vidic / Ferdinand standard, so the young lads like Heaven & Yoro have every chance to stake a claim. If they can't force their way in past a couple of often injured players then United need to be looking elsewhere. Personally, I see bright futures for both of the lads and hope that they will receive the minutes that they need.
Yoro should play plenty of games but De Ligt/Martinez cannot be relied on and Maguire is only being renewed because of how injury prone they are.
We have conceded 20+ goals more than Arsenal, only 1 team in the top half has conceded more. While I like Heaven and think we got a bargain at £1m it's just naive to think we should be relying on a completely unproven 19 year old whose had 600mins this season, no other top team would do this. I'd rather see us sign a LCB and loan Heaven out for experience.
While CM is the priority we should be doing everything we can to not start next season with perma crocked Martinez and unproven Heaven as our CB options especially when you have players like Senesi/Van Hecke and Murillo all potentially available.
TOTD podcast think that if Maguire signs a new deal we won't be in the market for another CB. Left back is the only defensive position they may look at this summer to get someone in.
Said for a good while then I think 2-3 midfielders, a left back and a left winger needs to be our shopping list.
I agree bar possibly the winger. Whilst I thought that previously, players like Lacey and Gabriel play wide, so I’m wondering whether between them and Dorgu, we’ll consider ourselves covered out wide.
Invest heavily in midfield, try and sell Zirkzee, Ugarte and Onana, then work out what’s left and who is available.
I don't see a world we sign both a left back and left winger. It will be one or the other depending on whether they view Dorgu as primarily a left back or primarily a winger - so we'll have Shaw, Dorgu, Cunha + new signing covering the left side.
Although I don't expect Shaw's fitness to last, he's still there and playing, and so long as he's there they have to count him so two left backs and two wingers is standard depth.
As great as Gabriel has looked in the under 18’s it needs to be remembered he’s 15-16 years old but I agree in selling Onana, Bayindir, Ugarte, Rashford, Hojlund and Zirkzee which will raise around £100 million plus offloading Malacia, Casemiro and Sancho to free up around £800K a week in wages.
I’d be happy to see Dorgu pushed further forward as an alternative or back up to Cunha as he offers a completely different threat and also defensively will always cover the left back, if we were to bring in three quality midfielders and a quality left back then I’d be happy with our summer business.
Adnan has been banging that drum here for ages.
No RB would make me feel unconfortable knowing our current options
I think we're grand at RB. Dalot has quietly had a decent couple of months since moving back to a four, and he has the athleticism that's more important than ever in the PL. Mazraoui is a very solid option if he continues to stay fit.
Neither of them are Cafu, but I don't think anybody else in the league bar Arsenal have two better options there. I also think both improve if we have a proper attacking LB who bombs forward, as each of them have good attributes to be a bit more conservative and protect against the counter but can't be expected to do much in the final third.
He hasn't been around for a while?