After watching us play Villa it become striking to me how even middle table clubs are full of players that can turn with the ball in tight spaces. How on earth after spending Gazillions and being very top heavy we still didn’t manage to bring a single player that would be comfortable with receiving the ball to his feet in tight space and turning the opposition players around. Greenwood, Rashford, Sancho barely can hold on to the ball when someone is breathing down their necks let alone being able to turn players. Cavani\Ronaldo are obviously too old at this stage for any of this. Then Bruno\Donny are not those type of players either as their strengths are either vision or combinational play. All our midfielders are obviously shite at it as well. The only one that can potentially develop into such a player I guess is Diallo as he has the required base qualities. I think this is definitely the type of skill set we should be aiming for a lot more than we do, otherwise we’ll continue to struggle badly in possession.
The type of players we’re badly missing….
- Thread starter Rajma
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Good ones
Greenwood’s ball retention is actually pretty good.
It was kinda of funny when Villa had Luiz, Ramsey, Buendia and Coutinho at the same time on the pitch.
I said it in another thread, technique wise in midfield, where do we rank in the league? We have one of the most cumbersome midfields ones the top half that’s for sure
It was crazy, and they were also missing Mcginn, who’s good at this too.
I really think we should be looking at Jacob Ramsey kids going to be a star, can turn players, run with it, close control, looks the real article.
Came here to say this.
Yes. Bruno as well.
I think the bigger problem is we are not playing as a team.
Particular with the press and coordinated moves in the final third.
Our players can play well, but we need to manage them better.
Particular with the press and coordinated moves in the final third.
Our players can play well, but we need to manage them better.
It’s crazy that Leicester and Wolves, Aston Villa, West Ham etc all have 2-3 man midfields we’d swap for.
Tielemans Ndidi
Rice Soucek
McGinn Douglas Luiz
Neves Moutinho
Villa probably the weakest but it’s kind of shocking and not just recency bias.
I keep seeing us linked with Rice and Bellingham for £70-100m. Loads of the players above were players signed for reasonable fees. I know Haidara is gaining steam but there must be CM’s across Europe for 20-30m in Portugal, France and Germany.
Tielemans Ndidi
Rice Soucek
McGinn Douglas Luiz
Neves Moutinho
Villa probably the weakest but it’s kind of shocking and not just recency bias.
I keep seeing us linked with Rice and Bellingham for £70-100m. Loads of the players above were players signed for reasonable fees. I know Haidara is gaining steam but there must be CM’s across Europe for 20-30m in Portugal, France and Germany.
Yeah, he is really developing that side of his game, also his dribbling/ball progression. If he was playing in a functional team he'd get more recognition imo.
2-3 competant CM would make an hell of an improvement. McFred and Matic wouldnt be a starter for any top 10 team.
He needs to take the on the full back wide a little bit more as the cutting in is a bit predictable but in general he’s made big improvements to his ball retention and hold up play. Looks a lot stronger now as well.
How do you expect to control games with a double pivot of Mctominay and Fred?
A lot of you guys underrate how technically poor and deficient they are, keep on hoping in vain to dominate games.
A lot of you guys underrate how technically poor and deficient they are, keep on hoping in vain to dominate games.
Greenwood and Sancho can hold possession in tight spaces but Sancho needs to bulk up a little otherwise he’s never getting in ahead of Elanga/ Greenwood again.
Manager and tactics, let's not forget under LvG we played liverpool off the park with a midfield of fellaini, carrick and Herrera. Fergie could get a midfield of carrick and cleverley to still control games.
We’re missing confident players, Rashford, Sancho, Shaw & Harry we’re fecked over with bad voodoo after the Euros. Time for the old sports psychologist to earn their crust.
Pogba, Matic and Donny would make a good midfield. People will say it's severely unbalanced and I agree. But technically that's our best midfield.
We started Donny, Matic and Mata against Wolves in the last game of the season. One of the best performances from our midfield. So the issue is not that we don't have it, but our manager is expecting something different from our midfielders.
We started Donny, Matic and Mata against Wolves in the last game of the season. One of the best performances from our midfield. So the issue is not that we don't have it, but our manager is expecting something different from our midfielders.
Quality players that aren't complete cnuts.
I'm surprised most of you even care anymore. This team has been a letdown for years now. Even in the games they win, watching them makes me sick. Bottom table clubs making them look silly, and struggling to score goals with supposed world class players on the team? Why bother? I stopped watching this team at the end of 2021 and will spend my time doing other things. I'll check back in Summer, and watch next season until it's apparent they suck again, when I'll stop. Probably around October.
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A younger Matic and France's Pogba (not to be confused with our one mind you), in other words 2 mobile technical midfielders who are physical and able to play from deep, and capable to transitioning defense into attack without panicking and giving the ball away.
Good thread this.
Its not rocket science. We're missing a midfielder that knows how to tackle.
A neutral (Saints fan) pointed out to me last season that United's midfield is astonishing. He asked, what do you want from a midfielder? Simple answer, one that can run, tackle and pass. All our midfield can do 2 of these things (at most) but NONE do all 3. Scott M was the closest. Run through the list in your head and you'll see that he's right. Until we address this - and it shouldnt mean spending stupid money cos I'm not talking about a Bruno or Pogba - we will continue to struggle
Its not rocket science. We're missing a midfielder that knows how to tackle.
A neutral (Saints fan) pointed out to me last season that United's midfield is astonishing. He asked, what do you want from a midfielder? Simple answer, one that can run, tackle and pass. All our midfield can do 2 of these things (at most) but NONE do all 3. Scott M was the closest. Run through the list in your head and you'll see that he's right. Until we address this - and it shouldnt mean spending stupid money cos I'm not talking about a Bruno or Pogba - we will continue to struggle
I feel like we could do with players like McGinn and Conor coady, the whole no thrills/showbiz type with real professional attitude that will scrap for everything on the pitch and have a leadership quality about them that will embody what is expected of the club and get across to new signings.
This
So are you saying we had complete control when Matic and Pogba were our midfield last season?
Or are you saying Fred and Matic gave us control against Villa?
We're missing a Carrick type so badly
A player that takes up the correct positions in midfield both when playing out from the back, and to shield the defence without the ball.
Every other top team got a player like this: Rodri, Fabinho, Jorginho, Kimmich, Casemiro, Busquets and so on.
Every other top team got a player like this: Rodri, Fabinho, Jorginho, Kimmich, Casemiro, Busquets and so on.
Everything you say is right and it makes United's approach even stranger. The club seems to be briefing that it will only buy £100m players. As if only players that cost that much can improve our squad.
When you look at the league table our midfield is probably outmatched by every other team in the top half of the table. It wouldn't take spending £100m on one man to rectify that.
We need a sitting midfielder who will just sit and plug the holes that appear in midfield, and we need a midfielder who can control games, progress the ball with his passing, has a good passing range, knows what positions to take up offensively and defensively to always be an option to receive the ball, and both of them to be secure on the ball.
A constant issue with us for ages has been reckless giveaways. We misplace easy passes all the time and in turn resist doing tougher passes because we're more likely to feck it up. We constantly feck up first time passes, we constantly feck up progressive passes, and we don't pace the passes correctly either. We also constantly feck up with touch or dribbling choices, leading to cheap give aways (Fred, McTominay, Pogba all hugely problematic). All stems from a lack of basic technical ability from the midfielders at the club. Matic is in terms of profile the only adequate midfielder at the club, but his issue is age and not having the legs to cut it anymore. Pogba is too careless and sloppy with control. Fred way too sloppy with control and passing with a non existent passing range. Mctominay has very little passing ability. Van de Beek is average with his passing and has little passing range.
Take Chelsea's midfielders of Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic... None of ours are capable of looking after the ball like Kovacic or Jorginho can, none of ours are as consistent with their passing, none can plug the holes like Kante can.
We have a lot more issues, but the midfield is obviously a massive one.
A constant issue with us for ages has been reckless giveaways. We misplace easy passes all the time and in turn resist doing tougher passes because we're more likely to feck it up. We constantly feck up first time passes, we constantly feck up progressive passes, and we don't pace the passes correctly either. We also constantly feck up with touch or dribbling choices, leading to cheap give aways (Fred, McTominay, Pogba all hugely problematic). All stems from a lack of basic technical ability from the midfielders at the club. Matic is in terms of profile the only adequate midfielder at the club, but his issue is age and not having the legs to cut it anymore. Pogba is too careless and sloppy with control. Fred way too sloppy with control and passing with a non existent passing range. Mctominay has very little passing ability. Van de Beek is average with his passing and has little passing range.
Take Chelsea's midfielders of Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic... None of ours are capable of looking after the ball like Kovacic or Jorginho can, none of ours are as consistent with their passing, none can plug the holes like Kante can.
We have a lot more issues, but the midfield is obviously a massive one.
Kante and Jorginho is exactly what we need. I keep hearing Rice would fix our problems and he wouldn’t on his own. He would fix the Kante hole.
We would still need a deep playmaker who is good defensively but is also a quality passer. Tielemans and Neves are decent options. Will they reach the level of the best deep playmakers. Maybe not. But we don’t really need them to. We have potentially a world class forward line but no control in the middle of the park. Until we get that we can’t maximise our abilities.
Yup. There's loads of players/combinations of players that we can sign to get us solid defensively while giving us enough control. Posted it in another thread, but players like these:
- Tchouameni
- Guimaraes
- Kessie
- Bennacer
- Kamara
- Rice
- Bissouma
- Ruben Neves
Take Kessie and Kamara both on a free. Or one of the 2 and spend 35m on Guimaraes to get the playmaking from deep. Or spend a similar amount on Bennacer. There's no excuse for us to not go after one of these guys. Unfortunately, seeing links to Haidara and McGinn is just giving me the impression that the club doesn't want an actual defensive midfielder nor does the club want and actual passing controlling midfielder, and that's the most frustrating bit.
Ball playing midfielder. Simple as that! Our attack will always score goals and despite our defence not being the greatest this season, if we were able to control games more, they wouldn't be constantly under pressure. Having the ability to control games and sustain attacks will really take us to that next level.
With Matic and Pogba potentially going, we could really do with at the very least two midfielders.
A deep-lying playmaker is a must, as we have no one who currently fits that profile of player. After that, we could do with a number 8, who, not only has an eye for a pass, but can keep the ball under pressure.
Below shows the players I think would be attainable:
Number 8
Fabian Ruiz
Youri Tielemans
Frankie Kessie
Nicolo Barella
Number 6
Ruben Neves
Teun Koopmeiners
Marcelo Brozovic
Bruno Guimaraes
Boubacar Kamara
With Matic and Pogba potentially going, we could really do with at the very least two midfielders.
A deep-lying playmaker is a must, as we have no one who currently fits that profile of player. After that, we could do with a number 8, who, not only has an eye for a pass, but can keep the ball under pressure.
Below shows the players I think would be attainable:
Number 8
Fabian Ruiz
Youri Tielemans
Frankie Kessie
Nicolo Barella
Number 6
Ruben Neves
Teun Koopmeiners
Marcelo Brozovic
Bruno Guimaraes
Boubacar Kamara
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Yeah, I've seen him tip toe through traffic many times. Kid is pretty damn good at getting out of trouble. That being said, the original post is dead on. Our team as constructed is made to play in space on the counter. It's terrible against the press and terrible against the low block; so basically, anytime we get hit with congestion or pressure, we fail.
Was about to post this, chelsea midfielders is what we are missing.
For some reason, it seems like our scouts only look for overpriced, overhyped talents in UK only.
It's called being a supporter. Something you clearly know feck all about.
Literally this, and with this we will retain the ball loads better.