You're very likely correct. A new centre-back coming in is fine. However, my argument is Bailly and Smalling are both better than Jones and Rojo. Especially Bailly, who seems a great buy.
Victor Lindelöf
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I make you right and it's his distribution that really lets him down at times. I think if our transfer policy is trying to prise away the assets from the Real, Bayern or Barca's....all you'll end up doing is making them richer with improved contracts. It's better to attempt to buy the up and coming players. For me I'm guessing the players being bought ceilings are higher than those who are here (irrespective on how good they are currently playing)...
Absolutely. Couldn't disagree. I think Jones and Rojo are very lucky to still be here, regardless of recent form.
I don't think this is an impulsive January purchase, it shows long-term planning by Mourinho. I can see no reason for Mourinho to buy another CB with so many options already available to us.
He could've dithered like David Moyes and waited until the summer when Madrid/ City/ Barca/ Bayern swoop in and the purple patch our current CBs are having has ended.
I like it.
He could've dithered like David Moyes and waited until the summer when Madrid/ City/ Barca/ Bayern swoop in and the purple patch our current CBs are having has ended.
I like it.
I suspect Smallings days are numbered as he's the least likely to be happy being a squad player but equally the one that's valued the most. If the valuation is right, you don't pay 40m for Victor as a squad player. Shaw may not be far behind Smalling.....
Why are people excited about Semedo? hes a right back isn't he so surely won't be ahead of tony v in the pecking order.
I agree with brophs thoughts on Smalling. As soon as we play a little less defensively he looks nervous and out of depth. I don't think we can depend on Smalling for that reason. Jones looks great for a few games and then is invariably injured. When will we learn? We'll also be losing Bailly to ACN. Bring in new blood and youth to push the current CBs and those who don't take the challenge should be let go.
Tony V is 31, and surely we can't expect him to be playing 100% of matches. Mind you, his fitness is exceptional.
It's also why I worry a lot about Ibra/ Carrick.
Agreed. When teams wanted to get at us and weren't playing for a draw it was pretty straightforward to get a goal. The defence was decent and smalling was great at beasting particular players and he is very strong in the air but sometimes he makes silly mistakes, as all defenders do, and he doesn't recover, he just becomes a disaster for the rest of the game.
I think he is still our third best centre back and will get back in to the starting team at some point, however some of the worship for him last year was excessive. He is certainly better than rojo and very different possibly complimentary to Jones or bailly. and we know he is good with blind. If lindelof is better though he must really be a decent player.
I genuinely have no worries about his fitness for another couple of years at least, he is a tank. Semedo will not get in ahead of tony v, he has the managers complete trust and just look out how much of the play we did through him yesterday.
A few people just seemed quite excited about him, whereas I'm not too bothered about a second choice right back, still always nice to have a new player.
Because he's really talented and will most likely be our long term right back. If we don't sign Semedo this summer then another club like Bayern will sign him and we'll wish we snapped him up when we had the chance.
As for Lindelöf, I have no problem with us spending this amount of money on him. I trust Mourinho in the transfer market, the four signings we made in the summer have been excellent and Mourinho has a good record when it comes to buying centre backs.
I approve of this. Anything that means Smalling's role reduced is alright by me.
Cant wait for January transfer window and bring Lindelof to Old Trafford. After watching his videos on youtube, I agree if Jose really want to buy him. really promising and exciting young player. Jones, Bailly, Rojo, Smalling and Lindelof, really strong CB choices. He also can play as RB, so can be good back up. And with Ibra as his compatriot, he can get help to settle in Manchester more easily.
Rojo is class, I would say he is possibly better than Bailly.
Jones and Smalling are also very good.
If its not broke, don't fix it. Waste of money Lindelof.
People said the same about Evra as we had Heinze. Semedo looks like he could be an amazing right back with a lot of attacking intent. He's young too. I think Tony V is great and always believed he could become a right back. But there are enough games for both and Semedo will surely take over as Valencia gets older, or he might be better already and Valencia will play back up and cups.
Gaz retired in 2011, Rio, Vidic and Evra retired or left the club in 2014. We're now in 2016 and apart from RB (whom ironically was sorted by a right winger), none of the 3 roles had been adequately filled. Sure, people will say that the defence is stable and will bring stats as proof to back it up. However these people ignore that we had 3 of the most defensive minded managers that had ever lead Manchester United. People who believed that closing the gaps is the foundations of a winning team.
That's not good enough. The best teams in the world used to rely on their defences and the best defences had players whom you could rely on week in week out. SAF was not a defensive sort of manager but even he insisted on that. Parker-Bruce-Pally-Irwin, Gaz-Stam-Johnsen-Irwin, Gaz-Rio-Vidic-Evra. Those were the defences that lead us to the peak of England's and Europe's greatness. Sure players in midfield and the forward line may change. Who will forget Ole-Sheringham replacing Cole-Yorke in the dying moments of the CL final which made history. But the defence was always the same, a rock United to lean on, a bastion even the young Barcelona team struggled against.
So Mou has every right to demand and fully expect his defenders to do well week in week out. No ifs no buts. And considering that they have failed miserably in replacing Vidic, Rio and Evra then he's got every right to add new players who will. Sure Smalling and co are still relevant. No team can only have 12 players these days. But from now on nothing will be guaranteed for them, they have to work hard in the training room and make the most out of every minute on the pitch.
We've got a manager who goes past the names. He showed that with Mkhitaryan. For example Blind was flawless yesterday. People like Shaw should better watch out as hype alone can only get you so far with this manager around
That's not good enough. The best teams in the world used to rely on their defences and the best defences had players whom you could rely on week in week out. SAF was not a defensive sort of manager but even he insisted on that. Parker-Bruce-Pally-Irwin, Gaz-Stam-Johnsen-Irwin, Gaz-Rio-Vidic-Evra. Those were the defences that lead us to the peak of England's and Europe's greatness. Sure players in midfield and the forward line may change. Who will forget Ole-Sheringham replacing Cole-Yorke in the dying moments of the CL final which made history. But the defence was always the same, a rock United to lean on, a bastion even the young Barcelona team struggled against.
So Mou has every right to demand and fully expect his defenders to do well week in week out. No ifs no buts. And considering that they have failed miserably in replacing Vidic, Rio and Evra then he's got every right to add new players who will. Sure Smalling and co are still relevant. No team can only have 12 players these days. But from now on nothing will be guaranteed for them, they have to work hard in the training room and make the most out of every minute on the pitch.
We've got a manager who goes past the names. He showed that with Mkhitaryan. For example Blind was flawless yesterday. People like Shaw should better watch out as hype alone can only get you so far with this manager around
He's signed a new contract to get rid of the 30m clause.
Is this the commonly held view now? If so what a turnaround.
Bailly is going to be world class if he keep going like this. Rojo is currently in the same boat, not world class, but he is on his way to be something. I am happy that Mourinho saw something and gave him a second chance.
It's Scholesy's view, they're pretty much never commonly held. Rojo's definitely been better this season but it would be hard to be worse than he was last year. I agree with Brophs, I think him and Jones are very lucky still to be here, and I think if we have genuine aspirations of winning the league that Rojo can't be anything more than a 4th choice who can also cover left back if we're desperate. I haven't seen much of Lindelof so have no opinion of him but centre back is an area we definitely need to improve.
We've signed this guy by all accounts? I'm reading that it's a done deal?
Clearly you havent been watching Rojo this season. We're unbeaten in 11 games with him and hes been a large factor in that. Not sure what else you want from him. Hes playing out of his skin.
It wasn't fair that people judged him as a left back before.
I think we shouldn't spend any money on our CBs. We also have TFM. The Lindelof fee also seems very inflated.
I saw the 2 challenges in our last 5 league games which he should have been sent off for whilst there have been other errors in that run. In fairness, I did say he's been better this season, but I think there are plenty of centre backs in the league who are better than him, never mind across Europe.
I agree He won't be ahead of Valencia, he's playing far too well and is keeping himself very fit but it makes sense to plan to the future. After reading around the general consensus seems to be Semedo could become one of the best RB's in the world someday so We could always get Semedo signed up to united but let benfica keep him for another season on loan or something.
I don't know much about him tbh but it seems like one of those we'd be stupid to miss out on him type of deals. (Like we did with renato Sanches)
I'm not too fussed about Renato, doesn't seem to be smashing it currently. Yeah sign him up, if hes willing to be a back up for a couple of seasons that is fine. For what its worth I don't think there are a lot of right backs ahead of tony v in world football right now.
I'd take a new Evra. Get it done Woodward.
I know it's weird isn't it, Valencia was a pretty average player apart from I think 2011 season when he was very good apart from that he's been pretty forgetful but he's really made that RB position his own, his consistancy is amazing he rarely puts a foot wrong and yeah there's not many other RB I would take over him.
By your logic, Sergio Ramos is rubbish aswell cause he gets a ton of red cards.
How many times should Herrera, etc be sent off? What about Ibra on Dawson? You could go on all day. Fact is, he wasn't sent off. And those challenges weren't in the box so its not like he risked a penalty or anything. I'm glad he got "stuck in" and let them know he was there. We've been lacking that since Keane.
Swear some people made their minds up about him and now don't want to admit they were wrong so they're clutching for straws on this.
Pretty clear that Jose doesn't rate Blind all that much as a CB.
I think Blind in general only has next year at most before being moved on.
I'd cash in on Jones whilst he's fit, and let someone else take the injury risk.
Good luck to him and all, but the club comes first.
Good luck to him and all, but the club comes first.
If the stories are true, why is this tit signing a new deal to help out Benfica at a cost to us? It's not like he was going to leave on a free.
I'd suggest even mentioning him in the same post as Ramos and Keane is straw clutching, I did say there were other errors as well (he was really poor generally at Everton) but don't doubt he's doing the best he can.By your logic, Sergio Ramos is rubbish aswell cause he gets a ton of red cards.
How many times should Herrera, etc be sent off? What about Ibra on Dawson? You could go on all day. Fact is, he wasn't sent off. And those challenges weren't in the box so its not like he risked a penalty or anything. I'm glad he got "stuck in" and let them know he was there. We've been lacking that since Keane.
Swear some people made their minds up about him and now don't want to admit they were wrong so they're clutching for straws on this.
If he's now being called "class" though, that's a damning indictment of our defence because the 2008 side had 4 centre backs (Ferdinand, Vidic, Pique and Brown) who were miles better than him.
I think jose is thinking that they're playing well as a pair and bailly is off to the afcon soon. Why disrupt a working back line for a game or two, only to have to change it again when bailly leaves. I think that unless we are a defensive rock when bailly comes back from afcon, he will come back in.
However, jose is loyal to players who play well, so if jones and rojo continue to play well, they may play for a while yet.
Because he is grateful to the club that launched his career, something that seems to be rare these days. He is not backstabbing any club with this. If the club wants him, than it should pay his price, regardless of the release fee.
I don't get it, is this deal now off?
No just more expensive. He signs deal so his release clause disappears then signs for us for more dollar is the story.
Why would we be happy to do that? Makes no sense.
How highly do you rate him? His YouTube video posted on here looked class but it's not a particularly great way to judge a player.
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