Victor Osimhen

TheRedDevil'sAdvocate

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Name a player who would go straight into the first 11 and be a huge success and take a league by storm then?
Why should i? I never believed in magical solutions and players who can transform teams all by themselves. Football is a team game, it's the compatibility between the individuals that leads to better synergies on the pitch and makes any system function properly. At Napoli, both Spaletti and Sarri made him the focal attacking point for sides that valued possession of the ball and intricate movement and passing. He was surrounded by players like Kvara, Zielinski, Politano, Lozano etc., who were perfectly suited to the way Osimhen plays the forward position.

To give you an inkling, last season, Napoli topped Serie A in 10+ passes that lead to shots and the vast majority of passes Osimhen received were in or on the edge of the box in central positions. He works hard to make the most out of whatever space he can find, but the team also works very hard to get him on the ball in dangerous/high value areas.

Who's going to create the same setup for him here? Rashford and Garancho, who are second forwards disguised as wingers or Antony who can't cross and creates one chance every six months? He'd look lost. Not as lost as Hojlund, but that doesn't say much.
 

JuriM

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Why should i? I never believed in magical solutions and players who can transform teams all by themselves. Football is a team game, it's the compatibility between the individuals that leads to better synergies on the pitch and makes any system function properly. At Napoli, both Spaletti and Sarri made him the focal attacking point for sides that valued possession of the ball and intricate movement and passing. He was surrounded by players like Kvara, Zielinski, Politano, Lozano etc., who were perfectly suited to the way Osimhen plays the forward position.

To give you an inkling, last season, Napoli topped Serie A in 10+ passes that lead to shots and the vast majority of passes Osimhen received were in or on the edge of the box in central positions. He works hard to make the most out of whatever space he can find, but the team also works very hard to get him on the ball in dangerous/high value areas.

Who's going to create the same setup for him here? Rashford and Garancho, who are second forwards disguised as wingers or Antony who can't cross and creates one chance every six months? He'd look lost. Not as lost as Hojlund, but that doesn't say much.
So you agree it's impossible to say whether one added player would make us better or that he wouldn't either.
 

TheRedDevil'sAdvocate

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So you agree it's impossible to say whether one added player would make us better or that he wouldn't either.
I'm saying that the environment (style of football, tactics and teammates' characteristics) that allowed him to shine in Naples couldn't be further away from what United are trying to implement. Osimhen isn't the type of forward you partner with two other (inverted) forwards who want to get on the ball at the end of moves to provide the finish. And they, in turn, always looked better alongside a false #9 type of forward who would open up spaces in-behind for them to run into and not the other way around. You could argue that ETH has made it work with a more "classic" forward leading the line at Ajax, so it could also work for us. But there are many things ETH did well at Ajax, but has failed to replicate them here.
 

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Why should i? I never believed in magical solutions and players who can transform teams all by themselves. Football is a team game, it's the compatibility between the individuals that leads to better synergies on the pitch and makes any system function properly. At Napoli, both Spaletti and Sarri made him the focal attacking point for sides that valued possession of the ball and intricate movement and passing. He was surrounded by players like Kvara, Zielinski, Politano, Lozano etc., who were perfectly suited to the way Osimhen plays the forward position.

To give you an inkling, last season, Napoli topped Serie A in 10+ passes that lead to shots and the vast majority of passes Osimhen received were in or on the edge of the box in central positions. He works hard to make the most out of whatever space he can find, but the team also works very hard to get him on the ball in dangerous/high value areas.

Who's going to create the same setup for him here? Rashford and Garancho, who are second forwards disguised as wingers or Antony who can't cross and creates one chance every six months? He'd look lost. Not as lost as Hojlund, but that doesn't say much.
Exactly. If it was as easy as spending 100m on big name players we would have hit the winning formula years ago.
we need to buy players that are going to work for our team setup and in my opinion this guy wouldn’t. Throwing 130m at him will just exacerbate the wastage issue.
 

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Can’t see him coming here although to be honest I don’t even know what profile of striker we’ll be in for in the summer
 

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I can't see us spending that kind of money on a single player anytime soon. We'll be balancing the books in regards to FFP for a few seasons I think.
 

Mainoonited

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I think we need to buy this guy and build a team around him. He's a goal machine.

We messed up last summer - should have taken out a mortgage to get Kane - we didn't.

Now we need to break the bank for osimhen. He does the hardest thing in football, score goals.
 

Mickeza

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I can't see us spending that kind of money on a single player anytime soon. We'll be balancing the books in regards to FFP for a few seasons I think.
The 150m loss COVID impacted year is off the books from the summer plus the 90m injection of equity for FFP from INEOS - on top of that we’ll be selling players - we can definitely spend a huge chunk this summer. I don’t think we’ll be signing Osimhen though - not sure he’s the profile we want.
 

leoric

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We have to be in for this guy, honestly any striker with an eye for goal would be a huge improvement for this team. It's a crazy situation we find ourselves in.
 

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Does anyone who the feck this guy is? I’ve seen his name before during transfer muppet season but no idea if he’s reliable or a random bloke who’s waffling for attention.

 

croadyman

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Does anyone who the feck this guy is? I’ve seen his name before during transfer muppet season but no idea if he’s reliable or a random bloke who’s waffling for attention.

Don't think he's reliable at all,however gut feeling is he has agreed to join you. Will probably see the tier 1s get on it later in season
 
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You can say that about any striker? If they are not getting the ball then what's the point. So what we gonna do? just give up on decent strikers? Get Weghorst back?
Sign a player who is similar in style to the current false 9 Harry Kane or peak Berbatov. A player who is 9 who can operate as a second striker type 10, able to create chances for our wide men whilst also score himself. Its why Players like say Solanke and Zirkee make sense for that reason. Weghorst sort of operated that way for us but was too damn slow nor silky enough to make a big impact.
 

Andycoleno9

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Huge mistake if we don't try to sign him this summer. Another season without clinical striker will be (again) costly.
 

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Exactly. If it was as easy as spending 100m on big name players we would have hit the winning formula years ago.

Would we ?

The club seem to have given up on the big transfers after Pogba. The next one was Antony, after several years, but Id hardly call him a big name player.
 

golden_blunder

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Would we ?

The club seem to have given up on the big transfers after Pogba. The next one was Antony, after several years, but Id hardly call him a big name player.
Whether you agree or disagree the point is that I don’t think we’re gonna drop 100+m on this guy and it would be the wrong strategy to do so
 

UpWithRivers

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Sign a player who is similar in style to the current false 9 Harry Kane or peak Berbatov. A player who is 9 who can operate as a second striker type 10, able to create chances for our wide men whilst also score himself. Its why Players like say Solanke and Zirkee make sense for that reason. Weghorst sort of operated that way for us but was too damn slow nor silky enough to make a big impact.
That just means have shit strikers. Top strikers are rare. That's why we haven't had one in years. That's why Chelsea never had one. That's why Liverpool spent 100 mill plus on Darwin and bought Gakpo etc. We have lost Kane and now the only top striker left is Oshimen. I agree we need to adapt to a striker. But I would say that's the right thinking. Get a Rw that can cross. Or a RB that can cross. Or whatever. Its better than our plan now which is get sht strikers and don't cross to them. But make sure they come deep and run about a bit. Why is that a good plan?
 

golden_blunder

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Huge mistake if we don't try to sign him this summer. Another season without clinical striker will be (again) costly.
Ok so spend 130m euro on this guy, do t fix the supply line and watch him score 10 goals in a season. What then? We have no room in FFP and you want them to chuck a significant portion of the budget on a striker who needs a supply line. Makes sense
 

Irwin99

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We've invested big time in Hojlund and we'll try to develop him, so i can't see this happening. As others have said, Chelsea seems the obvious destination for him in the premier league
 
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That just means have shit strikers. Top strikers are rare. That's why we haven't had one in years. That's why Chelsea never had one. That's why Liverpool spent 100 mill plus on Darwin and bought Gakpo etc. We have lost Kane and now the only top striker left is Oshimen. I agree we need to adapt to a striker. But I would say that's the right thinking. Get a Rw that can cross. Or a RB that can cross. Or whatever. Its better than our plan now which is get sht strikers and don't cross to them. But make sure they come deep and run about a bit. Why is that a good plan?
Football is a team game and you play to your team strengths. You don't behave like England during their golden generation era and try to force Gerrard and Lampard together because they are top class. Its like wondering why a Liverpool under Klopp preferred Firmino to a top class 9 for Salah and Mane. Our current wide men would perform better with a striker who's strength is build up and creativity. If we had the money to reinvest Willy nilly we could do what you are suggesting. We don't any more
 

Andycoleno9

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Ok so spend 130m euro on this guy, do t fix the supply line and watch him score 10 goals in a season. What then? We have no room in FFP and you want them to chuck a significant portion of the budget on a striker who needs a supply line. Makes sense
Don't tell me that for our supply line we need new players? We have perfectly good enough players to play efficient and attacking football. It is on manager. If our manager can't create good general play with this group of players then we must replace him with one who can.
So, yes. I would spend complete budget next year on Osimhen. Just as i wanted that for Kane last summer.

To be clear here; Kane is the one who got away. I do agree with you that Osimhen has issues in general play but ....my God, another year without having a proper striker will kill me :).