Put in a €25-30m offer and they will sell.
I wouldn't be surprised if that happens.
I dont think we will see a repeat of last season because last season's new players ought to have settled so should know what to expect in this league and we have a new ball playing centre half who.should contribute to how quickly we move the ball upfield.
I don't know how Pogba and Bailly will be more settled, they looked pretty settled to me, I kinda expect to see similar from them and I would be content with that, they absolutley weren't the problem last year.
Keita is as close as you'll get for me. He is a far more complete midfielder than Kante and much better in advanced areas too. German newspaper Bild, recently produced an article http://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/rb-leipzig/80-mio-fuer-keita-52312422.bild.html claiming Leipzig may now be tempted by a huge enough offer. If that is true we should be straight in there and make him our priority target. I cannot think of another midfielder who would improve us as much. Whoever does get him will be a far stronger team and a serious threat next season in my view.
Yea I agree, Keïta is the real deal. He is the kind of player that makes your midfield tick, if there is anyone we should be looking at to complete a brilliant midfield 3 it is this guy.
I couldn't agree more. I think he could do any job in midfield, but in particular, some games you don't need a specialist DM and then a player like Kante becomes less relevant. Whereas Keita is perfectly capable of fulfilling a variety of roles, getting forward and contributing positively to the attack. I was disappointed we didn't end up with Kante last season, but i will be absolutely gutted if we miss out on Keita. I would still fancy us for the title even if we miss out on Perisic and only signed Keita, we need him far more than a winger imo, although re-signing Zlatan is another no-brainer and simply a must for me too. Bring those 2 in and i would be more than happy with our business and our squad strength going into next season.
Would be a similar sort of signing to Schneiderlin IMO. Very good defensively and being a DM/box to box but passing not good enough for the top teams.
Not really a CDM though, is he? Not want we want or need really. Would much rather someone like Matic come in. May not be "sexy" name signing, but would certainly fit the bill here.
There's also the possibility that if Pereira grows into the team as the season progresses, we could still play a nice technical three man midfield if needed;
There's the potential that signing a pure DM could change the team dynamic in a few ways, if Mourinho were to be up for it. I'm one of the evil ones that actually prefers Dier, as his CB experience would hint at the fantasy being somewhat attainable. Extra support for the CBs coming from the middle might not only mean (as oft conjectured) Herrera and Pogba could get forward more, but also who plays on the left (say, Shaw and Martial) would get more chance to overlap and combine. Pogba's playmaking abilities, Herrera's tenacity and through balls, Martial's directness and goal scoring potential (when in form), all enabled in part by Lukaku bulldozing around would create plenty of opportunity for fluid attacking play.
.I agree with this. Not a 'flashy' player. But the right age, the right discipline, the right mentality and, very likely, the right price under the circumstances. For me Dier *might* work, but is far too big a gamble at Levy prices, and Matic just doesn't cover the ground quickly enough anymore.
Also, in my view, the most important. Although a 'galactico' in the final third would really make the Premier League sit up and take notice.
It's one of the most difficult positions to play for the level we want to be at. Somebody inexperienced isn't going to help. Players like Busquets and Weigl, who are naturals at it, are rare.
You would have thought so, but we seem hell bent on seeing how much money we can spend.
Naby Keita is actually very good. It is not necessary for us to buy a holding mid in the purest sense of the term. Just need another quality mid besides Pogba to bolster our options in that area. Seems to be Jose's line of thinking as well since Nainggolan, Fabinho, Matic and Dier whom we have been linked with all have differing skill-sets. I'm sure Jose has distinct plans for what to do if we don't get a pure DM vs if we do get one.
That's hardly going to transform all those draws into wins? That is extreme wishful thinking. Any sane supporter would argue we need at least two more key signings.
We haven't really been linked to Fabinho and the Nainggolan links can probably be dismissed as the usual noise around contract negotiations. Matic and Dier have been regularly linked since the beginning of the summer and it's probably therefore safe to assume that they are the two targets.
It might be optimistic as you say but I wouldn't rush to conclude that what we saw from Martial, Rashford, Mkhitaryan and Mata isn't their normal level and its not extreme optimism to expect at least two of them to have more productive seasons. If any two of them achieve something in the range of 20 goals and assists in addition to improvements in defense then most of these draws would be turned into victories - whether that will be enough depends on how good our rivals will be.
Too much uncertainty and dependance on hope. We still have some glaring holes in our squad and lack quality in certain areas. Not saying we should necessarily be chasing a Galactico signing but we certainly need to add quality to one or two areas before the season starts. We will be putting a lot of pressure on Rashford, Martial, Lukaku, Mata and Mhikitaryan - this in turn will most likely backfire. We are in no position to be rolling the dice again this season. I'd rather we start the season with a more balanced squad and less dependance on current underperforming players, who in all honesty still have it all to prove.
There's a few more options...
Obviously we have young players who can play as a defensive midfielder. Not sure what clubs play under 18 in a holding midfield? So academy players are certainly jot filling the position anytime soon. I'd say out of our younger players Axel has been very good as a defensive midfielder, he's the nearest near ready player we have.
Callum Whelan is a promising young player from the academy. I would've preferred to see him taken on tour, instead of Mctominay. That way, we could've had Whelan as the deepest midfielder (as he has been for the U18s allowing Gomes sand Bufonge to build a strong rapport in their attacking forays), and Pereira further forward like how Mctominay has been deployed in the starting berth.
N'Zonzi could be a solid option as he's got a buyout clause, which again makes me think we just aren't interested, or he'll be the guy we buy when everyone else is given up on. I like Jorginho but I am not sure the PL is a good fit for him, I'm sure Mourinho would like Diawara though.
I have my doubts about Jorginho too, he's very skinny and sometimes struggles for fitness towards the end of games, so he'd have to hit gym and treadmill pretty hard to survive here. But he is the only Carrick-esque player there is out there, the others are either DMs or box-to-box rather than deep playmakers. Jorginho keeps the ball moving all the time and has quite forward, probing passing with very high accuracy.
Yeah agree with that which is why I expected us to sign a game changer but I guess the Griezmann rethink put us in a terrible position. We need our own Sanchez/Hazard to build an attack around though players like Mata/Mkhitaryan/Martial have shown the capacity to do that at various points in their careers even if its too much of a gamble but who can we sign to provide such magic?
Yeah, Jorginho is definitely more of a DLP than the others mentioned, I am just not sure he'd fit Mourinho's love of physical players. especially if we are going to give Pereira a chance to really have a go as one of the midfield 3 over the season, he'd want the other 2 to be more powerful I imagine.
