As far as permanent signings go, we buy players over the hill who are good for a year or too or players that are too young and go out on loans for years before we release them, the few players in the mid 20's (24 to 27) we have bought in the last 5 years are Bruno & Martinez who both worked out quite well, that's not to say everyone between those ages will as we have bought Mount this year (Haven't included as 3 injury ridden months isn't the basis for anything) but I do think we need players between this age profile.after Wout, I don't know what to think about your last paragraph! So long as he can contribute consistently at whatever he'd be brought in to do (presumably, score goals), I'd lean toward the outlay being worth the punt. Just don't want anymore absolutely duds here who don't even look like United squaddies let alone contributors to the cause.
Serhou Guirassy
- Thread starter KeanoMagicHat
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Seems like it's worth it in theory to add an in-form 27 year old striker because strikers are now so expensive and we need to save all our money for at least one CM - and a 2nd soon enough since Casemiro probably doesn't have more than next season at most - and an RCB.
For example, the strikers available on a free this summer apart from Mbappe are older players like Morata, Taremi or Ben Yedder, guys who haven't put it together despite talent like Iheanacho, or I guess Gabriel Barbosa would be the one signing as promising as Guirassy on a free, but who knows if we get him.
We might otherwise end up spending 40M on a Matheus Cunha type, as I doubt we'll sign another 20 year old to backup Hojlund.
Even if he's just a decent backup for Hojlund, for 17M that would be fine, unless his wage demands are Martial-sized. If they're short of that, we'll effectively be saving money at backup striker.
Haven't seen him apart from highlights, but forwards are so expensive now and we just spend a ton on Hojlund, so doing this sort of thing and paying huge fees for a quality #8 and #6 (sell McTominay to pay for the 2nd) and a quality RCB and we'd presumably look a lot better:
Hojlund/Guirassy
Antony/Diallo
Rashford/Garnacho
Bruno/Mount
#8/Mainoo
Casemiro/#6
Dalot/AWB
RCB/Maguire
Lisandro/Lindelof
Shaw/Reguilon or Malacia
Onana/Bayindir
it's not super exciting (still probably need to upgrade on Lindelof, one of the RBs and who the hell knows about how we'll feel about Onana and Antony/Diallo will look in 18 months), but it beats the alternative of spending 50M on another #9 and relying on Mainoo to play 60 games a year.
TLDR: We need to add some quality players to Lisandro, Bruno and Shaw. We have young, discernible talented in Hojlund and our 2 LWs (Rashford, Garnacho) and Mount as a 2nd option as a #10, so a few measured punts at backup keeper, 2nd LCB and 2nd striker all make sense if the money saved from not spending top dollar there goes into the midfield and a partner for Lisandro, and maybe even some saved over for RB, or if we need a RW or keeper.
For example, the strikers available on a free this summer apart from Mbappe are older players like Morata, Taremi or Ben Yedder, guys who haven't put it together despite talent like Iheanacho, or I guess Gabriel Barbosa would be the one signing as promising as Guirassy on a free, but who knows if we get him.
We might otherwise end up spending 40M on a Matheus Cunha type, as I doubt we'll sign another 20 year old to backup Hojlund.
Even if he's just a decent backup for Hojlund, for 17M that would be fine, unless his wage demands are Martial-sized. If they're short of that, we'll effectively be saving money at backup striker.
Haven't seen him apart from highlights, but forwards are so expensive now and we just spend a ton on Hojlund, so doing this sort of thing and paying huge fees for a quality #8 and #6 (sell McTominay to pay for the 2nd) and a quality RCB and we'd presumably look a lot better:
Hojlund/Guirassy
Antony/Diallo
Rashford/Garnacho
Bruno/Mount
#8/Mainoo
Casemiro/#6
Dalot/AWB
RCB/Maguire
Lisandro/Lindelof
Shaw/Reguilon or Malacia
Onana/Bayindir
it's not super exciting (still probably need to upgrade on Lindelof, one of the RBs and who the hell knows about how we'll feel about Onana and Antony/Diallo will look in 18 months), but it beats the alternative of spending 50M on another #9 and relying on Mainoo to play 60 games a year.
TLDR: We need to add some quality players to Lisandro, Bruno and Shaw. We have young, discernible talented in Hojlund and our 2 LWs (Rashford, Garnacho) and Mount as a 2nd option as a #10, so a few measured punts at backup keeper, 2nd LCB and 2nd striker all make sense if the money saved from not spending top dollar there goes into the midfield and a partner for Lisandro, and maybe even some saved over for RB, or if we need a RW or keeper.
Yeah, the downside here is low, unless the wage demands are so high that he can't be moved to Ligue 1 or the Bundesliga (or even Turkey), where he's been a reliable enough goalscorer that you'd figure getting 15M for him would be easy enough.
Strikers are just insanely expensive now. I think a lot of the budget conscious teams will end up playing with a false 9 a lot more or just trying to convert wingers like Dries Mertens did, because spending 45M on Matheus Cunha. Palace spent like 50-55M on Benteke, Mateta and Edouard and it's difficult to argue they wouldn't have been better off just buying 2 cheap forwards for 15M each, getting the same results (which is basically Mateta and Edouard, so I guess I mean not signing Benteke) and spending 40M more split between a quality RB to replace Wan-Bissaka like and a midfielder who can pass from deep (which they still don't have in the squad).
Wrong profile of striker for us to sign (just like Hojlund) as they are reliant on service. Given that Rashford is our main man (whether he is good enough for the standard we want to reach is for your interpretation) we should be recruited strikers that bring the best out of him provided that Martial is unfit. We should have gone big in the summer for someone like Randal Kolo-Muani or even Morata. Someone that can hold it up and make the ball stick and create space for Rashford to run-in behind. The fact that someone as bad as Weghorst managed to get the best out of Rashford speaks volumes about the type of player we need.
Guirassy is by all means a decent player but the service he would get from Rashford and Antony would be sub-standard to say the least.
On a sidenote, I don’t think we should even be looking at players considering that Ten Hag’s “project” is up in the air and we haven’t started a new one yet.
Guirassy is by all means a decent player but the service he would get from Rashford and Antony would be sub-standard to say the least.
On a sidenote, I don’t think we should even be looking at players considering that Ten Hag’s “project” is up in the air and we haven’t started a new one yet.
Can you shed some light on his playing style?
Is he someone who can play with his back to the goal?
How is his hold-up and link-up play?
Can he create chances for himself or is fully service dependent?
How is his heading ability?
I think any striker who is only good running towards the goal is not going to work with our "Transition" (just a hipster name for counter attacking) style of play. Hoof-ball teams, like we are under ETH, need someone with a good hold-up play, have to be good in the air and good at winning long balls launched at them from the keeper to bring others into play.
Most criticism around the guy is either down to ignorance or snobbery.
A- United aren't loaded. We are in desperate need of a striker and we don't have a huge budget to rely upon
B- Even if we were loaded there aren't many 100m rated strikers around and let's face spending 100m on a striker only to send a 70m striker on the bench is stupid
C- the guy is not a one season wonder. He scored 14 goals in 29 games last season, 12 goals in 49 games the season before and 14 goals in 33 games in 20/21
D- Its not uncommon for good forwards to either spend a little time at top club level (Lineker, Bierhoff) or nothing at all (Signori, Les Ferdinand, Berardi, Di Natale, Immobile). It only take a bit of bad luck (injuries at the wrong time or a change of management) or a shit agent to ruin it all.
Guirassy is tall, he's got decent quality and a good eye for goal. His signing would allow us to get rid of Martial and he'll provide cover/competition for Rasmus. Assuming that we give him a realistic salary then at 15m he's a no brainer. If he does well then we'll find a diamond in the rough. If not then surely we can recoup most of his fee afterwards
A- United aren't loaded. We are in desperate need of a striker and we don't have a huge budget to rely upon
B- Even if we were loaded there aren't many 100m rated strikers around and let's face spending 100m on a striker only to send a 70m striker on the bench is stupid
C- the guy is not a one season wonder. He scored 14 goals in 29 games last season, 12 goals in 49 games the season before and 14 goals in 33 games in 20/21
D- Its not uncommon for good forwards to either spend a little time at top club level (Lineker, Bierhoff) or nothing at all (Signori, Les Ferdinand, Berardi, Di Natale, Immobile). It only take a bit of bad luck (injuries at the wrong time or a change of management) or a shit agent to ruin it all.
Guirassy is tall, he's got decent quality and a good eye for goal. His signing would allow us to get rid of Martial and he'll provide cover/competition for Rasmus. Assuming that we give him a realistic salary then at 15m he's a no brainer. If he does well then we'll find a diamond in the rough. If not then surely we can recoup most of his fee afterwards
Yeah that's an especially good point when you consider so many of our bad signings have been from top clubs too.
A senior striker for 17m to replace Martial is a good idea even if he's over performing this year.
His per 90 non-penalty stats from recent seasons he was starting regularly.
Rennes 20/21 - 0.46 goals, 0.43 xG
Stuttgart 22/23 - 0.49 goals, 0.50 xG
Stuttgart 23/24 - 1.69 goals, 0.92 xG
So:
1) He's obviously unsustainably overperforming his underlying stats this season.
2) Those underlying stats themselves are really good, but they're from a tiny sample size of 10 games/8 starts and mark a dramatic improvement on previous seasons.
3) His underlying stats from last season were essentially on par with Weghorst's best Bundesliga season.
4) He would have to make the adjustment from the Bundesliga to the PL.
So if you were a betting man you'd have to say that if we signed him the odds are in favour of him reverting quite a bit and being fairly meh in terms of output.
Against that, as others have said, at £15m you can afford to take a punt. Especially if all we're really concerned about is replacing the soon to be out of contract Martial with another older forward to be back-up to Hojlund.
Rennes 20/21 - 0.46 goals, 0.43 xG
Stuttgart 22/23 - 0.49 goals, 0.50 xG
Stuttgart 23/24 - 1.69 goals, 0.92 xG
So:
1) He's obviously unsustainably overperforming his underlying stats this season.
2) Those underlying stats themselves are really good, but they're from a tiny sample size of 10 games/8 starts and mark a dramatic improvement on previous seasons.
3) His underlying stats from last season were essentially on par with Weghorst's best Bundesliga season.
4) He would have to make the adjustment from the Bundesliga to the PL.
So if you were a betting man you'd have to say that if we signed him the odds are in favour of him reverting quite a bit and being fairly meh in terms of output.
Against that, as others have said, at £15m you can afford to take a punt. Especially if all we're really concerned about is replacing the soon to be out of contract Martial with another older forward to be back-up to Hojlund.
Guirassy is reliably scoring the chances he gets, this dramatic improvement is essentially Hoeneß successfully turning Stuttgart into one of the best possession based teams in the league.
So if you put Guirassy into a team that is able to create a lot of chances he will score a lot of goals. But as United isn't that team, I wouldn't expect too much from him in that regard, except if the overall play is improved as well.
From what I can gather this is exactly what he is good at. He's more of a hold onto the ball and open up space (then find neat positions to score from once its laid off) type of striker. Not that we use them well, but he will also win us freekicks.
He's got about 60% win rate on aerial duels vs Højlund's 20% and almost twice as many passes per 90 while playing.
Some 2020-24 league stats (as not to use his "patch") on duels/involvement (with Højlund comparison):
Fouls won (per 90):
2020-21: 2,9
2021-22: 3,2
2022-23: 2,4
2023-24: 2,6
Højlund: 0,7
Aerial duels won (per 90):
2020-21: 3,6
2021-22: 3,5
2022-23: 2,3
2023-24: 3,5
Højlund: 0,7
Ground duels won (per 90):
2020-21: 4,3
2021-22: 4,1
2022-23: 3,4
2023-24: 3,4
Højlund: 2,1
Passes attempted (success) (per 90):
2020-21: 24,8 (76%)
2021-22: 26,2 (80%)
2022-23: 24,0 (74%)
2023-24: 29,7 (79%)
Højlund: 15,4 (76%)
/source: Squawka
2020-21: 2,9
2021-22: 3,2
2022-23: 2,4
2023-24: 2,6
Højlund: 0,7
Aerial duels won (per 90):
2020-21: 3,6
2021-22: 3,5
2022-23: 2,3
2023-24: 3,5
Højlund: 0,7
Ground duels won (per 90):
2020-21: 4,3
2021-22: 4,1
2022-23: 3,4
2023-24: 3,4
Højlund: 2,1
Passes attempted (success) (per 90):
2020-21: 24,8 (76%)
2021-22: 26,2 (80%)
2022-23: 24,0 (74%)
2023-24: 29,7 (79%)
Højlund: 15,4 (76%)
/source: Squawka
Newcastle are looking at him too…….and most of you said nah to Gordon and look what happened.
Yeah, I would still absolutely say nah to Gordon.
The guy's closing in on 28. There's probably a reason why he's gone under the radar until now. Reeks of panic buy in my opinion.
Absolutely walks into our team.
Says far more about our recruitment than his quality.
Again. I don’t think it’s a striker we should be looking bbc at.
Yesterday is a prime example. Put peak Ronaldo up top & where’s the service.
Until we can consistently create chances of a similar type, game in game out, buying a striker won’t see the results it should.
For the price, he’s worth a punt but him alone without wholesale changes on the wing & in midfield will do very little.
Yesterday is a prime example. Put peak Ronaldo up top & where’s the service.
Until we can consistently create chances of a similar type, game in game out, buying a striker won’t see the results it should.
For the price, he’s worth a punt but him alone without wholesale changes on the wing & in midfield will do very little.
27 or 28 year old strikers for that sort of price are what’s needed, somebody in their peak rather than another Hojlund that is a few years off. Ideally you’d get a player in that would do a job for a few years until Hojlund is ready to lead on his own.
Would you put Antony Gordon today into the United team ahead of Rashford last year? And that Rashford was only good enough to scrape 3rd.
I’m sorry but he’s not it chief.
Cold blooded finisher. Bit of a gamble but at that price tag you have to do it.
He’d be more comfortable if you guys played a more possession based game but it is what it is
He’d be more comfortable if you guys played a more possession based game but it is what it is
Rashford of last year. I’m talking about the here and now. Gordon’s better.
Here and now you’d take Willian at Fulham ffs. The guys got 6 goal contributions all year, set the bar higher.
He’d walk straight into our team today & play down to the team, he‘s not the hill to sit on.
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Get him in. I can see him doing a Demba Ba/Papiss Cisse.
Why would we sign a striker that is obviously not a long term player ?
Give him a contract when he's probably not our first striker choice to bring in
A striker in a level of Osimhen(not specific him but his kind of calibure) will be great for us.
We can't bring another unknown player as Hojlund
Give him a contract when he's probably not our first striker choice to bring in
We need to aim for a more stable striker and a level above, not bring one as a plaster
A striker in a level of Osimhen(not specific him but his kind of calibure) will be great for us.
We can't bring another unknown player as Hojlund
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Because we already have a player who is the long term player. We need someone who's in form and can score goals, which Guirassy can do. He's 27, hardly a player at the end of his career, he's actually in his prime.
For €17.5m or whatever his release clause is, its a good signing if we choose to make it. If it doesn't work out then we'd get money back off of selling him in a year or two.
Signing a clearly better CF than Martial, for Martial's position as backup CF who challenges Hojlund, for 17m. That's a no-brainer to me. And I don't even not rate Martial (once in a while he can be useful), but we clearly need consistency and goals and he can bring both. I don't mind the age. His profile looks like he could even play alongside Hojlund. Could be a temporary solution until we get Ferguson in 2 years.
Risk reward ratio seems good
We can't turn our nose up on a player like that right now with our current striking options. Cisse was signed in January and scored 13 goals in 14 PL games. Honestly, do people really think we're going to buy Osimhen in January?
He’ll start ahead of Hojlund who needs time to find his feet
Must say I watched him play plenty for Rennes and underwhelming would be the appropriate adjective for his performances there.
He looks like hes hitting a purple patch in the Bundesliga.
Another underwhelming striker that had a purple patch in the Bulli was Weghorst and we all know how he turned out to be with United
He looks like hes hitting a purple patch in the Bundesliga.
Another underwhelming striker that had a purple patch in the Bulli was Weghorst and we all know how he turned out to be with United
Do people think Hojlund can start every game for the next 5 years?
Not sure the connection you’re reaching for between weghorst and this deal? Weghorst was a loan
If he is lucky enough to skip injuries yes. But we do need backups. I’d prefer Welbeck to this guy though
He has a goal or assist every 128 minutes for Rennes - 25 goals / 4 assist in 3727 minutes. A goal every 149 minutes, or if you want to split it by season, 158.8 (20/21) and 129.8 (21/22) minutes per goal. By no means a feat that I'd call underwhelming, and while he is of course doing a lot better for Stuttgart in his second season for them than for Rennes so far it certainly isn't like he has been terrible before he landed there. For comparison, Hojlund is at 240.8 and Martial at 286.5 minutes per goal this season.
Even if you discount his current season as an outlier his averages still outshine what United's CFs have been showing this season so far. For such a low exit clause he's basically a nobrainer, unless United does a United and gives him a five year contract on 350k/wk right off the bat. But if his wage demands are reasonable he's worth a punt for sure.
absolute no brainer and a smart signing from us for once. hope it gets done.
100% he'd be a flop. The bundesliga always have those kind of purple patch strikers.
The lad has already missed games due to injury. I demand Welbeck as it means he will stop scoring against us
We’re linked with Serhou Guirassy and the three strikers you’ve mention are Ba, Cisse & Osimhen.
I’m saying your posts stink as much as those that only compared Pogba to Viera.
You mean strikers Ba and Cisse that came from Germany to the PL in the January window. And, I only mentioned Osimhen because people want him when he'll be really expensive as opposed to Guirassy who is as cheap a striker as you can get these days. Why the hell would you think I'm talking about skin colour?
Fecking hell, as a POC, what is with this desperation to paint everything racist? Honestly, you are truly pathetic.