tenpoless
No 6-pack, just 2Pac
Kroos Modric Vidal
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In summer 2014 this would have been great.Kroos Modric Vidal
Don't see it with him.Bruno G now because Newcastle are having a fire sale and want the money more than the player. 70m should do it and he's actually worth it for once.
You going of our transfer list from 10 years ago.Kroos Modric Vidal
Dont forget.. City's midfielders nationalities are Spanish, English, Portuguese, Norwegian, Croatian and Belgium as well...Question is, how many Midfielders does a top squad need?
I just did a quick google at City's squad and they have 10 Midfielders, we currently have 7.
When you look at who those 7 are:
Mount, Bruno, Mainoo, yes you can envisage these being important players here longer term, but then you have:
Amrabat on loan, Eriksen & Casemiro and I cannot see any of those three making a hugely positive impact next season and beyond.
So, for me, those three need to be replaced sooner rather than later, and that's not even considering Donny & Hannibal out on loan, with potential sales ahead.
Also, don't forget that Fred, Sabitzer & Iqbal all departed recently too.
Finally, McTominay.....
Is he even anywhere near good enough?
For me, absolutely not good enough, but unless you could use him in an exchange deal, I think we are stuck with him for the forseeable future.
So you could argue that when you consider those that have left or are potentially leaving, we actually need 5, possibly even 6, ...!!!
Ultimately he can do it all, tackle, foul, pass, run, assist and score for a CM.Don't see it with him.
See I'm torn on this, because I can't wait to see how a Casemiro duo Mainoo turns out. If the balance works out well then I'd focus on a Casemiro long term replacement first.I'd keep :
Casemiro
Eriksen
Mainoo
Mount
Sell :
Bruno
McTominay
I'd Sign :
A long term creative replacement for Eriksen and a more advanced midfielder better than both Mount and Bruno.
That would result in :
Casemiro/Mainoo - New/Eriksen
New/Mount
We should be all over Alex Scott at Bournemouth IMO. I also follow Bristol City where he was last year and won Young POTY in the champ over Amad, and I can honestly say he’s class. We should have signed him over Mount in the summer as he was half the price and much better suited to playing deeper in Eriksen’s role but can also play higher up in Bruno’s area too. Tactically flexible, creative, technical but also physical midfielder who can carry the ball.I'd keep :
Casemiro
Eriksen
Mainoo
Mount
Sell :
Bruno
McTominay
I'd Sign :
A long term creative replacement for Eriksen and a more advanced midfielder better than both Mount and Bruno.
That would result in :
Casemiro/Mainoo - New/Eriksen
New/Mount
I agree, we need some height added. Out of a whole squad 3-4 are useful in the air.Whoever we sign, height is a big consideration. Casemiro was important at set pieces last season and whereas Martinez is effective in general play his technique against bigger players at corners etc. is problematic.
Mainoo is taller than his often stated height online and may grow some more but he's no giant. McTominay gets game time for a reason.
This is part of the balance issues with team building that makes me think that Joao Neves would be unlikely, especially if Gore has a future here.
We have to hope players like Vermeeren stick around at their clubs until the summer. Don't see us making moves like this this January but hopefully in the next 3 weeks our senior level structure will be more or less in place (or confirmed) and we can get to work early to prepare for the summer business.Arthur Vermeeren should be our no.1 CM target
He doesn't cost much and has an undeniable talent (strongly linked to Atleti, Barcelona, Spurs, Brighton). Spending another 100m on Neves would be repeating past mistakes. And he's already better than Hjulmand (60m). We need to make a lot of signings, so clever transfers that leaves us some flexibility for other transfers are the way to go.
Yes, a great signing for them. He will cost +80m in near future..Vermeeren would have been a very good purchase but it looks like he's going to ath madrid, this is the type of signing we should be making.
Who are they suggesting?Wouldn't have a clue....I will have to watch United Stand to formulate an opinion.
Last time I checked he said we were going hard for Declan Rice so it has been a whileWho are they suggesting?
I agree with this. I like Casemiro but he shouldn’t be part of our rebuilding project due to his age and he is on high wages and we need to reset our wages structure. Getting rid Casemiro’s salary alone (18m per year) without taking into account the transfer fees is almost like freeing a space to buy 1 player. Eriksen doesn’t have the capability to play in high intense and aggressive pressing set up so I‘d listen to offer for Eriksen. As for McTominay, he’s not good enough and not press resistant to play in deep position and we don’t need player with limited ability like him as no 10 either.Onana, Redonda, Neves
+ Mainoo, Bruno
I’d listen to offers for McTominay, Casemiro, Eriksen
hard working midfield.
good player that can find a pass and score a goal , £30 million and he’s yours.@MC89 Do you think Matt O’Riley has what it takes to make it at a club like Utd? I see Atletico have taken a strong interest in him recently.
Agreed with this take, man.We won't have an unlimited budget so that needs to be taken into account.
The worst mistake United can do is to see departments in isolation rather then how everything fit together. Take for example Martinez. Everyone said that having a pocket sized CB isn't an issue anymore. After all we're playing in 2023 not the 1950s anymore. Yet having CBs who aren't exactly great in air (Martinez but also Lindelof) meant that we're dependent on inches at other areas in the pitch. Since Casemiro, Mainoo, Bruno and Mount are hardly giants then.....arise Sir McTominay and goodbye ball possession football or any sort of football that requires well things such as passing or retaining the ball. You win and you lose as a team. Thus either we add a couple of CBs that are good in air like Scalvini is or else we have to add CM's that are tall.
CM must also take in account the flanks. We currently have 4 selfish wingers who think that they are prime Cristiano Ronaldo. The only similarities with the guy is their work rate on the pitch. Thus we need wingers that can either cover alot of distance or else provide loads of goals and assists. From a purely football perspective Greenwood would be perfect as a RW. He is a generational homegrown talent, he can play as RW and as STK and with 4 assists under his belt he's among the top 5 assist right wingers at the top 5 leagues (U23). That's amazing considering that the rest play with either better clubs (Saka, Foden and Neto) or easier leagues (Simons). I would have a look at Bryan Mbeumo of Brentford. He's currently 7th in the EPL in terms of distance covered, he's got an eye to goal (7 goals in the EPL including against Spurs and Chelsea) and a respectable 3 assists.
What we surely don't need is another no 10. We already have bucketloads of those. Thus I'd go for midfielders who are either DMs, deep playing playmakers/B2B or can cover both roles. If Chelsea are considering selling Conor Gallagher then we should consider it. He's tall, in terms of distance covered he's 5th and ahead of Rice and just 4 behind the English international in terms of interceptions. I would consider Ederson (Atalanta) and Genoa's DM Morten Frendrup.
Can he play in a deeper role though? Dlp?good player that can find a pass and score a goal , £30 million and he’s yours.
Well INEOS certainly like a challenge which we saw with the Berrada appointment. Think it would still take a miracle to lure him away thoughI think we should see if we can get Tchouameni out of Madrid personally. They may welcome a good fee for him this summer.
Every top club now needs to make decisions, and can’t simply stockpile top players. If Real want to target Mbappe and Davies and heaven knows who else, they may be open to a big sale to balance books. They are quite covered in midfield, and I think Tchouameni would be a good double pivot partner with Mainoo. We could use some physicality, although I’d always make an exception for FDJ if he were back on the table.Well INEOS certainly like a challenge which we saw with the Berrada appointment. Think it would still take a miracle to lure him away though
The Nou Camp could be burning behind him and we're challenging for Champions League & Premier League but he still wouldn't leaveOk, hear me out. I was thinking this even before Xavi announced he was leaving but with Barcelona seemingly falling short in La Liga this season it seemed likely to me that there would be a significant refresh of their team.
Could De Jong be back on the table 2 years after our initial pursuit? He’s still only 26 and remains one of the world’s best at keeping the ball and progressing play. The problem is Ten Hag will have lost a lot of faith and trust in his transfer choices after the likes of Antony and therefore it would need full support of the club. I’m not sure De Jong would meet the profile of player that Ineos would target due to his wages.
Another one that really interests me is Oscar Zambrano from Ecuador. He was linked with us fleetingly in January and obviously passes the YouTube eye test. He was linked more heavily with a number of other clubs including Bournemouth, Luton and Rangers for a fairly modest fee and it seemed a move of some kind was on the cards in the window and yet he remained in Ecuador. Could it be that a bigger club declared their interest but wanted to wait until the summer? Possibly for FFP reasons?
Others we’ve been linked with such as Joao Neves, Redondo and Javi Guerra I have some reservations about.
Ideally we sign top talents for both DM and number 8 and then with Mainoo’s ability to play both roles we will be in fantastic shape: New DM, Mainoo, new CM, Bruno, Mount.
Casemiro and McTominay potentially moved on.
Thuram for me over Onana. Should be a fair bit cheaper and his ball carrying is second to none. Probably not as defensively robust as Onana but he’s no slouch and I think we miss ball carrying in the team more than anything.Onana at Everton and Thuram are two of my favorites that should be available this summer. I'd also look to sell Bruno and bring in a replacement while we can still get a very good fee for him. We manage to do that and we can really get a quality attacking mid in (Wirtz being my preference).
McT and Eriksen should be gone, and possibly Casemiro as well if we get a decent bid for him.