PresentCan I .get a show of hands of those that said we definitely would?....
So we didn't sign a central midfielder
- Thread starter charlenefan
- Start date
We did introduce Cleverley to the first team though, and Young could and possibly will play in the middle when Valencia and Nani play together, not to mention the great form of Anderson. Carrick, Giggs, Park and Fletcher are waiting in the wings and Gibbo is stuck in the reserves! I think we have plenty of options and happy with the squad.
4-4-2 with Anderson and Cleverley leaves us very, very open as we have seen against Spurs and Arsenal. We could afford that against them, against Livermore and Coquelin but against better sides - who actually field proper defenders, too - we might not get away with playing such open football.
Yeah plenty of options but its quantity not quality.
3 good games for cleverly and anderson and a lot seem to be pinning their hopes on that partnership.
Domestically we'll be fine and may just pip the title but for europe if we face barca again I fail to see how we'll pose a bigger threat this time round.
This. Plus if Carrick keeps his return to form of last season. Still an addition of Sneijder's caliber would have been ideal.
Quantity not quality?
Which of Anderson, Cleverley, Giggs, Carrick and Fletcher don't offer quality.
There's this bizarre belief on the board that only winning the most competitive league in the world would be a bad season. If we win the league this year, we have done incredibly well. We might not be favorites against Barce, but of course we can beat them on our day.
Said all along we needed one and I still hold firm on it.
Saying that, Sneijder was not the answer for me, Modric and Nasri were better options, Fergie obviously went for the latter but it broke down for whatever reason.
I still thought we'd go sign a potential world beater like Goetze or M'Vila, but it wasn't to be.
Have to rely on the current crop now, which despite having good young talent in, still isn't particularly great overall. Though I'm sure now that the window is shut, those who said we needed a midfielder will suddenly do a U-turn and claim we're fine now, never needed one anyway cause of Cleverley and bla bla.
Saying that, Sneijder was not the answer for me, Modric and Nasri were better options, Fergie obviously went for the latter but it broke down for whatever reason.
I still thought we'd go sign a potential world beater like Goetze or M'Vila, but it wasn't to be.
Have to rely on the current crop now, which despite having good young talent in, still isn't particularly great overall. Though I'm sure now that the window is shut, those who said we needed a midfielder will suddenly do a U-turn and claim we're fine now, never needed one anyway cause of Cleverley and bla bla.
Money talks, not signing WS today we still have the cash, we can easily spend in January if need be.
Let's give Cleverly a proper chance like we gave Scholes, Beckham, Giggs, butt
Let's give Cleverly a proper chance like we gave Scholes, Beckham, Giggs, butt
We shoulda bought a new goalie
I don't know, it makes sense, but they were able to tear City apart in the Shield, who wanted to win that game badly, and had the best defense last year with Chelsea.
They might struggle against Barca and Real, but then anyone would.
Spot on this. Those Spurs and Arse teams were pretty dire and whilst being a good combo, Cleverley and Anderson in a midfield pair is most definitely not the answer against the big guns.
Fergie will just have to go with 3 man midfields at times this year, I think we'll see it a lot more than last year.
I have to admit I didn't think Cleverly was capable of stepping up like he has, so I was definitely in favour of buying another CM. I still think we could possibly do with a ball-winning defensive midfielder, but given the way our midfield's looking so far I'm not unduly fussed either way.
Sneijder could still sign on a special dispensation. Four/ five long term injuries in CM..............BELIEVE!
Why's that, we have loads?
Is it just me or do all footballers saying "obviously" in every single sentence?
We have no choice now but to promote a couple of these boys to the bench. Exciting times
Not Forlan? We bought Hughes back, though that's shouldn't really count as we sold him in the first place.
Anyone in a two man midfield would. With 4-4-2 we have close to zero chance against Barcelona and Real Madrid, that's my point.
And City will only be stronger than they were in the Shield; Agüero is a huge upgrade on Balotelli and they'll have Nasri over Milner... They are dangerous, going into the Manchester derbies with a 4-4-2 would be a huge gamble, whatever happened in the Shield.
I still believe, therefore, that we're thin in central midfield; and of course there's the spectre of Gibson. I like him, he looks a good lad and all but I hoped I would never have to see him again in a Premier League game wearing the United shirt. That prospect makes me uncomfortable.
I wanted 3 signs this transfer season. A winger (Bastos), a CM (Schweinsteiger) and a striker (Lazovic).
A. Young, Cleverley, Wellback and even Anderson have surprised me and done very well so far. But it is too early to say this squad can win all the competitions this season.
A. Young, Cleverley, Wellback and even Anderson have surprised me and done very well so far. But it is too early to say this squad can win all the competitions this season.
Their offense may be better, but that won't help them keep from shipping 3 goals a half against out first team.
If we can hurt City like that, and slaughter Arsenal, I think we'd hold our own against Real. And we'd get closer to Barca with out quicker passing and moving.
Nani, Young and Rooney all come into midfield to make up the numbers.
Carrick was in great form during the last three months of last season. He's played 45 mins of football this term, and it's widely accepted that he was carrying a knock during that game. Short memories.
What people need to realise is that Fletcher and Carrick are effectively third and fourth choice now - that's some seriously good talent to have as 'back up'.
Better attackers might exploit the space we leave a lot better.
Imagine us against Madrid without a specialised DM, with only Anderson and Cleverley in midfield. Özil and Ronaldo would have a field day. Like Raúl, Redondo and co. had at Old Trafford in 2000.
In light of City trying to buy success it gives me a kind of warm glow to see us producing and buying young talent.
If we go on to take the title with all these kids in the team and coming through i will be very smug indeed.
So no, initially i wanted us to buy big but now i am not bothered we didnt spend a stupid amount of money.
If we go on to take the title with all these kids in the team and coming through i will be very smug indeed.
So no, initially i wanted us to buy big but now i am not bothered we didnt spend a stupid amount of money.
Why would we play them without a holding player? You think SAF is Harry Redknapp? Even vs a mere Liverpool, I can't see us not playing a holding player with those 2.
Says more about the interviewer than them to be fair.
Our first choice midfield from last season is on the bench. We will be absolutely fine.
I am loving the spat out dummies though.
I am loving the spat out dummies though.
It wasn't me, it was - I think - Sarni who said we won't use three-man midfields this season. I am arguing against that idea.
I reckon SAF will bring Phelan out of retirement to play DM on some occasions
You said Cleverley and Anderson might not manage against 'better side' than we've faced so far. That particular Arsenal line-up is probably worse than Spurs, so I could accept someone saying we haven't faced a proper top 5 team yet. Not to take away from what we did, I'd back this team to beat Chelsea at home as well.
If you just mean Barca and Madrid then I agree with you, but saying 'better sides' is pretty wide open. If we play the same offensive group as we have recently at Stamford Bridge I'd be excited, especially if our first choice back 4 is available.
Until Pogba can prove himself and/or Fletcher gets back anywhere near his best form of a few years ago then yes I still think we need a top top CM!
I think that midfield would encounter a lot of problems against Chelsea and City this season.
Yeah, er, I wouldnt hold your breath.
I am adamant we should've matched City's offer of wages for Nasri. Why the hell not if we were reportedly prepared to offer the same to an older, Wesley Sneijder (who wanted more)?
Is transfer addiction more dangerous than crack addiction?
It would've been madness to offer Nasri basically the same wages as Rooney.
It concerns me that we were willing to spend big money on getting a player of his quality to strengthen the squad and end up not signing him or someone else. Fergie clearly identified the position within the squad that he wanted to fill.
Nasri is apparently on £170,000 p/w, at least, thats what I've commonly seen in reports. Thats not the same as Rooney.
The thing with Rooney, is that nobody knows the definitive figure. It seems if someone has an agenda against Rooney, they'll say he's earning £250,000 a week. The Rooney 'fanboys' will say he's on £180,000 because both of these figures (and somewhere in between) have been reported. So if you ask me, I'd say its fair just to say he's earning £220,000 a week. Unless someone has a picture of his wage slip, I'm not going to argue a toss about this with anyone. In truth, plenty of 'richest footballers in the world list' place Rooney pretty damn high up too.
Anyway, our next highest earner is reportedly Ashley Young on £130k. Inflation of wages is inevitable and with the clearout we had i'd say its possible we could've paid Nasri what he wanted, so we either didnt think he was worth it (which I disagree with), or we were simply delaying the inevitable in that we didnt want to inflate our own wages further by paying Nasri something fairly close to Rooney.
Because Nasri isn't worth it.
I'm quite happy carsick is not playing!
Fletcher will be a welcome addition when he is back on full steam
Could it possibly be the reason Sir Alex didn't go through with the transfer was because in the end he decided it wasn't worth it after seeing how Cleverley and Anderson were developing as players?
The timeline to me seems clear. Before we went to America the Boss wanted a midfielder. After seeing our pre-season games and us coming back and destroying City in the Shield he decided he didn't want a midfielder. Something happened between time to change his mind.
Would could that possibly have been...?
