Yeah does seem quick on the counter,however don't see him moving in January so would have to wait until summer
Potential striker signings (who aren't named Højlund)
- Thread starter sullydnl
- Start date
Why are all the ex Benefica strikers failing elsewhere? Benefica are one of three dominant Portuguese teams along with Sporting and Porto, but Nunez for example is playing for a previously fairly successful team....
Do they play a specific style at Benefica that helps these strikers that is not replicated at their new clubs? Conversely, Haller was a fairly limited player, and a flop at West Ham, but very successful in ETH's Ajax team. We need to find someone with a similar style to Haller but better, i.e. a rich man's Haller.
Haller never played for Benfica/in Portugal, so I am not sure why you mention him in this context? Also I don't think he was that limited as a player for Frankfurt (haven't seen much of him for Ajax and even less for West Ham, so maybe he appeared that way), seemed to be a good scorer as well as having good hold-up play.
The likes of Toney, Vlahovic and co would cost us a bomb. I'd rather see us go for cheaper players with the right characteristics whom we can improve. I am thinking of the likes of Marcus Thuram
The comparison was that Haller appeared better than he was because he was really suited to the Ajax style of play (ETH played to his strengths), and I was asking if the Benefica strikers all played in a certain way at Benefica that suits their style, but at their new clubs, their limitations were exposed?
Joël Piroe at Swansea could be one to watch in the Championship. Big number 9, looks to becoming a consistent goalscorer in the championship, 23 and most importantly - Dutch.
These are observations from this week's highlights so don't take them too seriously:
Beto, Udinese - Inter seemed scared of him on set pieces, he occupied several central defenders. Looked a little slow over short distances, better over longer ones, which makes sense as he's 6'4
Hojlund, Atalanta - Good little run and really nice pick out of a pass to make a goal for them
Tammy Abraham, Roma - Fluffed a good chance but also set up several for his teammates, looked quite alert and made some good decoy runs
Gapko PSV, - 2 assists from crosses (one corner) and a nice finish, appeared to end the game as their 9. Basically seemed to have a great game but doing LWF stuff
Fullkrug - Looks like a champo strike and is 29, but had some nice passes and now has 15 in his last 32 in the Bundesliga (with a solid 19 in 32 in the 2nd division sandwiched in there). Would be a plan C type move, but if it's 10-15M or so and we want to spend elsewhere it might work as a stopgap for a year or 2.
All in all, it looks like we're going to have to either take a leap on a young talented but unproven or with average numbers so far #9 (Hoijlund, Thuram) or accept a player with limitations (David, not a target man, Beto maybe only a target man) or move a winger or 10 and hope they can still produce as a #9 (Gapko, Nkunku) or just spend a massive amount on Abraham or Toney and hope we get our money's worth.
Beto, Udinese - Inter seemed scared of him on set pieces, he occupied several central defenders. Looked a little slow over short distances, better over longer ones, which makes sense as he's 6'4
Hojlund, Atalanta - Good little run and really nice pick out of a pass to make a goal for them
Tammy Abraham, Roma - Fluffed a good chance but also set up several for his teammates, looked quite alert and made some good decoy runs
Gapko PSV, - 2 assists from crosses (one corner) and a nice finish, appeared to end the game as their 9. Basically seemed to have a great game but doing LWF stuff
Fullkrug - Looks like a champo strike and is 29, but had some nice passes and now has 15 in his last 32 in the Bundesliga (with a solid 19 in 32 in the 2nd division sandwiched in there). Would be a plan C type move, but if it's 10-15M or so and we want to spend elsewhere it might work as a stopgap for a year or 2.
All in all, it looks like we're going to have to either take a leap on a young talented but unproven or with average numbers so far #9 (Hoijlund, Thuram) or accept a player with limitations (David, not a target man, Beto maybe only a target man) or move a winger or 10 and hope they can still produce as a #9 (Gapko, Nkunku) or just spend a massive amount on Abraham or Toney and hope we get our money's worth.
It's tough to get excited about a 25 year old who is only a consistent 1 in 3 player (much worse last year but he was injured so let's excuse it and count the previous 3 seasons in Ligue 1 and Bundesliga) but he does have size and mobility and seems to link up well. Would seem like a big risk and we might just end up with a Crystal Palace striker, but if he scores 15 goals this year I could definitely see him getting a big move.
Out of all positions we need to strengthen this is my major concern. That's because top quality strikers who are able to play with a club like United are in short supply. Even EPL proven strikers at mid-tier/low tier clubs have little experience on the matter. They are used to play counterattack football were they have the space and the time to work their magic. In such style of football even Rashy can score goals. The Serie A strikers on the other hand are used to a low physical and low tempo football. Which is why players like Lukaku and Abraham can score loads of goals there. I am not an expert of La Liga or the Bundesliga but whenever I see clubs playing there I am not particularly impressed by their obsession in defending in numbers either.
What we need is a Haaland, a Kane or an RVN. Quite frankly I can't see anyone available of that calibre.
So in my opinion we should
a- get rid of the forwards we have. First of all they are useless and secondly by getting rid of them it strengthens our hand in terms of persuading players to come it. Romano stated that when United approached Sesko the first thing he asked was if Ronaldo is going to remain. He made his mind once we said yes.
b- we need to go for strikers who might not be the finished product but whose got the right characteristics to succeed. Unlike Ole who only brought smiles and giggles to the table, ETH can coach.
c- we need to bring in strikers who won't break the bank. Else if he fails then we'll end up with glorified subs no one wants (like tackles and the fridge)
Some of the suggestions here are shocking.
The closest thing you can get to Haaland is osimhen,but his more work-rate less goals.
Vlahovic is more complete but less imposing more lewandoski than Haaland.
It depends on what ten hag's wants,in the end if he wants a 9 that terrorizes the defense line while chipping in with some goals and creating chances for others, osimhen is your best bet.
If he wants a striker who would offer good link-up and hold-up play while also retaining the physicality needed to dominate in the box vlahovic is the best bet.
The likes of Martinez,nkunku,david,toney and Felix are either inside forwards who we have tons of,not good enough for an ambitious side or basically a Martial lite player.
You should all ask yourselves without goals what do these no.9s offer us ? Would they become another Daniel James or the Mane's and Ronaldo's era benzema.
The closest thing you can get to Haaland is osimhen,but his more work-rate less goals.
Vlahovic is more complete but less imposing more lewandoski than Haaland.
It depends on what ten hag's wants,in the end if he wants a 9 that terrorizes the defense line while chipping in with some goals and creating chances for others, osimhen is your best bet.
If he wants a striker who would offer good link-up and hold-up play while also retaining the physicality needed to dominate in the box vlahovic is the best bet.
The likes of Martinez,nkunku,david,toney and Felix are either inside forwards who we have tons of,not good enough for an ambitious side or basically a Martial lite player.
You should all ask yourselves without goals what do these no.9s offer us ? Would they become another Daniel James or the Mane's and Ronaldo's era benzema.
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We aren't signing anyone. Closest thing we can get to Haaland is getting Ronaldo back to form.
Interesting to see a player being so honest.
If we can't get a top striker and go for a young player, I could see worse ideas than a Maguire or McTominay for Scamacca swap if they're keeping Moyes. Moyes gets a player who will fit his football nicely and West Ham can go buy a striker who can chase balls into the channels and do the things Antonio does.
Way too risky as our #1, but if we end up going for say Gouiri, David, Neymar or another sort of false 9 type, adding some size makes sense.
I came here to suggest him after seeing this. I actually think something like Hojlund + Scamacca could be a good bit of business and give us varying options in strikers. He's got great technique and is a very good hold up player, I think most people assumed with Scamacca and Paqueta signings, West ham might adopt a bit of a different style to fit them in - but no.
Sure it's not Kane, but it might a sum of the parts job.
I have probably missed someone, but if you look at the last god knows ho wmany years, how many times we signed a striker that hasnt been signed on a 1-2year kind of shelf life Ronaldo, Cavani, Ighalo, Falca, RVP......In ten years the only ones I can think of are Lukaku and for me even at the time, that was a poor signing, but with the fee a diabolical one.....and it was. Then the other is Martial "he is so talented"....he is still here what is it 7/years on when he has been injured or poor for probably a good 70-80% of that time.
That is absolutely terrible business. Martial looked a good signing, hasnt worked out but he should have gone ages ago....the last decent and successful not old striker we signed, is Chicarito and that must be 13/14years ago, yet we have continued with these older striker signings when only two have actually been really good.
Will we learn, as there seems to be a huge push towards us signing Kane. Partly understandable when there is a shortage of top quality young strikers that are not old and the only semi proven one is £100m odd.
I have barely seen some of the strikers now breaking through, but this surely has to be the way forward this summer. Giouri, Hoijlund, Oban, Sekso, Vitor ROque....there are a few breaking through, for me, surely signing a couple of talented youngsters with a decade career ahead of them for £80m odd is more prudent than signing Kane, when realistically we are not a couple of players away for challenging for the title or Champions League, RVP was a different time entirely
That is absolutely terrible business. Martial looked a good signing, hasnt worked out but he should have gone ages ago....the last decent and successful not old striker we signed, is Chicarito and that must be 13/14years ago, yet we have continued with these older striker signings when only two have actually been really good.
Will we learn, as there seems to be a huge push towards us signing Kane. Partly understandable when there is a shortage of top quality young strikers that are not old and the only semi proven one is £100m odd.
I have barely seen some of the strikers now breaking through, but this surely has to be the way forward this summer. Giouri, Hoijlund, Oban, Sekso, Vitor ROque....there are a few breaking through, for me, surely signing a couple of talented youngsters with a decade career ahead of them for £80m odd is more prudent than signing Kane, when realistically we are not a couple of players away for challenging for the title or Champions League, RVP was a different time entirely
would anyone take something like Hojlund and J Felix on loan ?
Not too many options that are realistic and good enough. Top two are clearly Kane and Osimhen but the fees will be huge and I don’t think Levy will sell to us. So where does that leave us if we buy someone like Hojlund, who realistically should be back up for now?
Dusan Vlahovic
Joao Felix
Gonçalo Ramos
Lautaro Martinez
Neymar
Kolo Muani
Pros and cons for each.
There’s also the option of signing someone like Kvaratshkelia for the left, and deploying Rashford as the permanent #9. I am a HUGE admirer of Kvara, and would move heaven and earth to get him, but I am just not sure about moving Rashford to 9. The big benefit of Neymar is that he could interchange with Rashford throughout the game, and he would greatly improve our playmaking and creativity. But his age and injury record are huge concerns.
I think Martínez is better suited to a 2, Muani is relatively unproven still, Ramos may not actually be good enough - hard to tell - Vlahovic and Felix would probably fit best from that list but I think they would struggle to justify the huge fees they’d command. With a gun to my head, I’d probably say Felix, with Neymar (bit of a risk) as plan B, assuming we got Hojlund as back up and as a different type of option.
Dusan Vlahovic
Joao Felix
Gonçalo Ramos
Lautaro Martinez
Neymar
Kolo Muani
Pros and cons for each.
There’s also the option of signing someone like Kvaratshkelia for the left, and deploying Rashford as the permanent #9. I am a HUGE admirer of Kvara, and would move heaven and earth to get him, but I am just not sure about moving Rashford to 9. The big benefit of Neymar is that he could interchange with Rashford throughout the game, and he would greatly improve our playmaking and creativity. But his age and injury record are huge concerns.
I think Martínez is better suited to a 2, Muani is relatively unproven still, Ramos may not actually be good enough - hard to tell - Vlahovic and Felix would probably fit best from that list but I think they would struggle to justify the huge fees they’d command. With a gun to my head, I’d probably say Felix, with Neymar (bit of a risk) as plan B, assuming we got Hojlund as back up and as a different type of option.
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I think Kolo Muani would be a great fit in this team / the way EtH wants to play.
Isn't he far too similar to Rashford ? I really see Kolo Muani as a less talented Rashford with a better workrate. Useful for many teams, but not what you need IMHO.
he’ll be more expensive than hojlund too
If we're signing Hoijlund, a big but young striker, maybe Gnabry makes sense as the other striker? He's never really gotten a long run as a 9, but he scores goals, might not cost an insane amount and we've looked better with a more mobile #9 type anyways.
Felix has the same problem as Martial where he doesn't have the sheer desire to get into the box to finish off attacks, but...
IF we have a deal with Kane agreed on a free for next year, and we're signing Hoijlund, any one year loan of a forward who's got even a decent chance to play well would be fine with me. Let's say Kane would cost 90M. Saving 90M and spending 20M on a massive one year loan of someone like Felix still probably just about makes sense, yeah. Same logic as loaning in someone from a relegated team whose team can't afford him like Rodrigo, Bamford, Daka, Iheanacho or Vardy.
We need a number 9; an out and out striker who can score goals, a clinical finisher.
Hojlund looks like a hold up play striker, I'm not sure if he's the right one, but then again he's only 20 yrs old and has room to grow into that striker.
Hojlund looks like a hold up play striker, I'm not sure if he's the right one, but then again he's only 20 yrs old and has room to grow into that striker.
If we are owned by Qataris we can go for Kane + (Ferguson or Hojlund)
Oshimen should be the top priority. Hojlund doesnt have the top level quality we need and Harry kane is not going to be easy with Levy behind
I don't think Kolo Muani and Hojlund has the top quality we need in our striker. They were absolutely deleted by Kim Min-Jae when they faced each other this season. I can see them struggle against top class defenders in the prem. We need to go for either Oshimen and Kane.
Where we getting £130m from for a striker when we have issues with GK,CM along with backup CB & CDM as well. Go on enlighten me on that one
Whilst I like Osimhen you do realise the Napoli president is notoriously worse than Levy to deal with, it’s well reported. If we can’t get Levy to sell us Kane with 1 year left on his contract we aren’t going to get him to sell us Osimhen for a realistic price, it will be 130-150 million with multiple years left on his contract
Doubtful. Gnabry was never first choice there, he couldn't even get ahead of Choupo-Moting as first choice.
I don't understand why we are not in for Thuram. Free agent, young and quality. He can be excellent backup for no1 target (Kane or Osimhen).
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Yeah clearly something we aren't convinced about
Shame. It is zero risk basically.
Yeah I can't understand it either when he's free
I can't say I particularly like our current position.
At this point it seems that Osimhen and Kane are by far our best solutions to solve our ST problem. The former might be too difficult to get (for the reasons @L1nk has already mentioned) and the latter seems to be closer to Madrid than to us.
At this point it seems that Osimhen and Kane are by far our best solutions to solve our ST problem. The former might be too difficult to get (for the reasons @L1nk has already mentioned) and the latter seems to be closer to Madrid than to us.
Interesting that Ekitike is apparently going to leave PSG. I guess he wants playing time, so might go to Germany, but isn't he supposed to be a future star?
I can't understand how all the wonderful sports pages of our newspapers haven't linked us to Messi yet... 
Obviously I know we need to sign a new striker, but I would also be interested in keeping Sabitzer as a utility player, he looked really handy in an advanced 9/10 role the last few games he played certainly more effective as a striker than either Martial or Weghorst, at £20m or less he could easily fill in as a back up striker as well as filling in midfield
Considering we will be priced out of Kane and Osimhen I think the only acceptable and reasonable thing to do is take a punt on TWO young strikers with potential and hope atleast one of them hits the ground running.
Hojlund and Someone else probably. Too risky to only get 1 young striker if they aren't guaranteed to hit the ground running like Kane would.
Also we really need two either way but if we got Kane then I'd be fine with only one in.
Hojlund and Someone else probably. Too risky to only get 1 young striker if they aren't guaranteed to hit the ground running like Kane would.
Also we really need two either way but if we got Kane then I'd be fine with only one in.
We don't usually do Zero risk as there is normally more than better chance it doesn't end in a disaster.
Hojland and Gift Orban/Marcos Leonardo?