Would not turn my nose up at Meunier at all. Always impressed me when I've seen him play.
Thomas Meunier
- Thread starter RedMachine03
- Start date
I remember Belgium tanking someone and him scoring a hat trick from Rb and assisting some goals too
Yeah, I recall at least one really standout performance at the last WC.
Would love for this to happen
I doubt Young and Shaw have put in that many dangerous balls into the box in thier whole United careers.
His technique/passing is better than (at least) half of our attacking players. Just saying...
I really like him. He's class and could be signed for a reasonable price.
I really like him. He's class and could be signed for a reasonable price.
It makes too much sense. Won’t happen.
Impressive
Impressed me whenever I've seen him play.. Could be the best business you've done in years if you land him at that price.
He's meant to lack pace but has wonderful technical quality? Sounds like Blind
Far more athletic. Much more skillful as well. Not the paciest but quick enough. Also a very strong player who uses his body well unlike Blind.
OK cheers. Seems like exactly what we need with Dalot looking 2 years away from being a starting right-back
Absolutely. It really is a no-brainer.
If we are smart him plus Alderweireld are two key positions solved for £50m.
We do not do smart trades, we only pay players for double of what they worth.
Chances created per 90 minutes this season.
Young: 1.71
Shaw: 1.29
Meunier: 0.97
This is why you can't rely on stats, most of Youngs crosses this season have been woeful
A chance is registered if Young makes a 5 yard pass to Rashford 40 yards from the goalie who instantly takes a shot.
No it's not the same situation. It's a tactical decision, PSG switch between a back 4 and a back 3 during games that's why Kehrer is Tuchel's first choice while Alves who has been mainly used as a midfielder can support center midfield.
Interesting, this is why I don't like stats like this. How many assists has Meunier had?
Whoscored appear to have Young on 1.5 chances created per 90 minutes.
Their top 10 for chances created by rightbacks this season (top 5 leagues):
Kimmich: 2.7
Lazaro: 2.4
Schmid: 2.3
Cancelo: 2.2
Alexander-Arnold: 2.2
Trippier: 2.1
Lazzari: 2.1
Lala: 2
Florenzi: 1.8
S. Roberto 1.7
This season Young's crossing accuracy is 21%. Meunier is 19%. Shaw is 27%.This is why you can't rely on stats, most of Youngs crosses this season have been woeful
It's true that recently Young's crosses have been awful, like every other part of his game. Prior to him signing a new contract and his form tanking they were basically fairly average, which is better than Meunier.
There's nothing wrong with using stats to support your arguments. I tend to find that on this forum the people who don't like stats often have very strong opinions on players and don't like it when facts conflict with what they think is true. Not saying this applies to you, this is has just been my general experience.
Young is on free kick and corner duties, around half of his key passes come from there.
3 for Meunier. 2 for Young. Young plays more but in a harder league and in a worse team. PSG will score over 100 league goals this season, United probably won't get past 70
As a comparison in the league, according to Transfermarkt, Meunier has 3 goals and 4 assists in 1448 minutes, whilst Young has 2 goals and 2 assists in 2298 minutes. So, Meunier has almost a goal or assist every 207 minutes, whilst Young has a goal or assists every 575 minutes. Sure a fair bit of the differential between the two can be accounted for the difference in quality of the teams and leagues that the respective players play in. But Young is also on a lot of the free kicks and corners which should lead to clear chances. I think it's fair to say that Meunier is a fair bit better than Young when it comes to offensive contribution.3 for Meunier. 2 for Young. Young plays more but in a harder league and in a worse team. PSG will score over 100 league goals this season, United probably won't get past 70
Statistics databases are not too good. They don't attribute blame for goals conceded. A lot of United's recent goals are partly due to poor, or weak defending. Given we're comparing defensive positions this ought to be the first stat we should look at. Yet United's managers refuse to play full-backs at full-back!, and instead, insist on playing wingbacks and wingers (even when they're not helping with assists). Blame it on the manager. In his early career, Young played as a wingback and had a good assist record. He has a mediocre assist record now. Stop playing him.3 for Meunier. 2 for Young. Young plays more but in a harder league and in a worse team. PSG will score over 100 league goals this season, United probably won't get past 70
On squawka you can filter to remove chances from set pieces (which I should have done the first time, apologies) and Young's chance creation rate per 90 minutes is essentially identical to Meunier. 0.94 vs 0.97 in favour of Meunier. This negates playing time and set piece bias so all we are left with is the fact that Meunier plays in a weaker league and with better team mates and only creates at the same, not very high, rate that Young does. Shaw creates slightly more than both of them (1.07 per 90 minutes and I don't know about you but I agree with the general consensus that he is an excellent defender but not an especially strong attacker). As I posted above Meunier has a worse crossing accuracy than Young and worse rate of successful dribbling so taking all that into account I cannot agree with the idea that he is fundamentally a better attacker than Young. I think he gets a better rate of goals and assists purely because his team are so absurdly dominant in their league and those numbers would collapse to Young levels or worse if he was put into this current United team.
I'm not sure what the rest of your post has to do with the first sentence but you are preaching to the converted by telling me we need a better defender than Young at right back.
My number #1 choice for the position would be Wan-Bissaka who is no great shakes at all going forwards (plenty of potential to improve though) but an absolute monster of a defender.
This season:
Young - 0.12 xA per 90
Shaw - 0.13 xA per 90
Meunier - 0.21 xA per 90
Meunier is by far the most creative out of the 3. The only reason he hasn't created many chances this season is because of less game time. When he actually plays he is much better going forward, not only in creating chances but also building the play and progressing us up the pitch.
Young - 0.12 xA per 90
Shaw - 0.13 xA per 90
Meunier - 0.21 xA per 90
Meunier is by far the most creative out of the 3. The only reason he hasn't created many chances this season is because of less game time. When he actually plays he is much better going forward, not only in creating chances but also building the play and progressing us up the pitch.
If supposedly most of the transfer budget has been allocated to more important positions, like CM and RW, "cheap" acqusitions like this guy and Aldewereild would be good. FB are not the most critical positions, and it would give United more capable depth in squad. Plus, less pressure for Dalot so he would develop more steadily.
Contracts expire:
Thomas Meunier : 30-06-2020
Aaron Wan Bissaka: 30-06-2022
João Cancelo: 30-06-2023
Kieran Trippier: 30-06-2022
So that might explain why there are rumours linking United to Meunier.
1) Because he only has 1 year left so would no cost too much. Or,
2) Because his agents are putting rumours out to get a better contract renewal.
You can buy the available player. Not the fantasy player. Maybe I'd like Wan Bissaka or Cancelo too? But at the right price because this team needs almost entirely rebuilding, and the stingy owners won't pay for that.
Wait people are using stats to argue that Ashley Young is better going forward than Meunier?
Really? Ashley 'my favourite pass is an aimless hoof down the line' Young?
Not that I'm completely sold on Meunier, but that's taking stats to a new level.
Really? Ashley 'my favourite pass is an aimless hoof down the line' Young?
Not that I'm completely sold on Meunier, but that's taking stats to a new level.
They are using stats badly. Chances created is not only a flawed metric, but not accounting for minutes played makes chances created completely useless.
Meunier is better going forward than Young and the stats support it, just don't ask bad statisticians.
Would much rather Doherty.
Interesting post. From what I've seen, Meunier is a better offensive full back then he is defensively. In fact, I'd say he can be defensively suspect at times. But, the overlapping runs he makes is very impressive. This gives another attacking option on the right and opens up space for the right winger to cut inside. Meunier has been fairly average this season though. Young on the other hand is quite a defensive right back and doesn't get forward regularly enough to help out the right wing which is often left empty due to a lack of a proper right winger in the squad.
Imo, we need a RB upgrade who is both superior offensively and defensively to what we currently have. E.g. Wan-Bissaka is very solid defensively but doesn't have enough offensive output currently, while imo Meunier is better getting forward but I wouldn't call him solid defensively. Interesting to see who we end up with there.
No they don't, the stats show that the fundamentals of Meunier's attacking are either about as good as Young's or clearly worse and the logical reason for his higher goal and assist rate is because he's plays for a much stronger team than United in a weaker league.
I am using stats to support what I see with my own eyes which is that Meunier, like Young, is not particularly good as an attacker, and the people who believe he will significantly improve United in that regard are clearly overrating him.
Signing Meunier and Alderweireld should plaster the cracks in our leaky defence for at least 2-3 seasons. De Gea will be glad.
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Exactly, which is why we'll read stories about Woodward turning them both down because he had his heart set on Kimmich and Varane, neither of whom he'll come anywhere close to signing, despite offering to pay a quarter of a billion pounds for them.Signing Meunier and Alderweireld should plaster the cracks in our leaky defence for at least 2-3 seasons. De Gea will be glad.
Meunier Being called better in attacking threat than Wan Bissaka has put me some question mark. I’m looking at the stats that his biggest output in a season was 4 goals & 4 assists in Ligue 1 17/18. That’s considered low for the hype of his attacking threat. Alves has produced more assists than him both this & last season, & I know last season he played right back.
I watched Wan Bissaka and I must say he’s a very talented right back & I’m certain Sir Alex would have been all over him, quick, can dribble, still young, defensively looks matured and if there is room improvement I think he can improve his attacking output. £40m for him would have been a better option than £20m for Meunier if 4 goals & 4 assists is all his best output in Ligue 1. We are talking about a 40m that gives you a 10 years right back position.
I watched Wan Bissaka and I must say he’s a very talented right back & I’m certain Sir Alex would have been all over him, quick, can dribble, still young, defensively looks matured and if there is room improvement I think he can improve his attacking output. £40m for him would have been a better option than £20m for Meunier if 4 goals & 4 assists is all his best output in Ligue 1. We are talking about a 40m that gives you a 10 years right back position.
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