We Need Two Full Backs

There is a practical difference between having credit, and being confortable enough to use it.

Im sure most people have tens, if not hundreds, of £ availble to them on their credit cards. But they dont use it becasue they know they cant clear those balances in good time.

Well that’s just stating the obvious, but you can spend credit if you have it, it’s a choice. So again just reinforcing what I said in the first place.
 
Well that’s just stating the obvious, but you can spend credit if you have it, it’s a choice. So again just reinforcing what I said in the first place.

What you said in the first place was that we had money because we didn’t spend it on Hall….

Selling Maz would have raised money, that combined with funds not spent on Hall means there should be scope for two fullbacks.
Who’s to say they didn’t, plenty of speculation we tried to sign him and he wasn’t going to be free. The net spend is low, extremely unlikely more couldn’t be spent

The only solid information was that United made inquiry about Hall’s availability. And that was quite some time ago, meaning it’s very feasible that money they considered spending on Hall has now gone towards Baleba.

It’s quite clear that money is very tight and if they did wanna go into the RCL, that would need to be a level of confidence it could be cleared in good time.

So when you consider the context, it looks like there isn’t a much scope. Otherwise we would be making moves.
 
What you said in the first place was that we had money because we didn’t spend it on Hall….




The only solid information was that United made inquiry about Hall’s availability. And that was quite some time ago, meaning it’s very feasible that money they considered spending on Hall has now gone towards Baleba.

It’s quite clear that money is very tight and if they did wanna go into the RCL, that would need to be a level of confidence it could be cleared in good time.

So when you consider the context, it looks like there isn’t a much scope. Otherwise we would be making moves.

You are going round in circles to try and prove you are right when you’ve stated numerous times the club can spend. You got it wrong, just move on, they could spend but they might choose not to for numerous reasons. Thats all there is to it.
 
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We would ideally buy 2 athletic fullbacks. 1 who's shit-off-a-stick quick (a Kyle Walker style sweeper who can help us mop up counter-attacks like Enciso's yesterday), and 1 who's decent in the air to help us with defending set pieces.

While I think centreback is also an area of concern, it's a lower priority imho. All our CBs might currently have flaws, but they also each bring something positive to the table. I don't think you can say that about our fullbacks to anywhere near the same extent.

There's significant room for improvement at both RB and LB right now, and signing a pair using 2027's transfer budget would be massively helpful for United this season. It might even be the difference between winning a trophy and ending it empty handed. It has to happen at some point, might as well do it now.
 
The problem is that even though everyone shits on dalot and Shaw how many top quality full backs are there? Do we really want another Malacia, Regulon, Telles, Darmian? Spend 20/30 plus and then still need a first team player? Basically we need Hall then maybe Balde. We can't get them. Don't know where to go from there.
 
Dalot and Maz are not optimal, but they’re good enough for now.

Sir Rat, if you’re reading this pay close attention: deal with the LB right now and address the RB next summer.
 
Yeah they are essential part of next summer rebuild along with an athletic aerially dominant CB and ST. IF there's anything left then look at either winger to provide x-factor or someone with athletic profile to cover for Baleba.
 
I think today was 100% proof that we need two new fullbacks. Shaw is in the twillight of his career and ultimately isn't good enough in addition to the injury issues. Dorgu isn't close to being good enough. Dalot should be in his prime, but he can be downright woeful or just about average. Tonight he was god-awful. Mazraoui is a decent squad player but just about as interesting as a Toyota Corolla.
 
We need 4, none of Shaw, Mazaraoui or Dalot should be playing for us next season. That’s not realistic of course which is just another reason why it was so negligent not to buy a fullback this summer.
 
2027 in a few months and our full backs will still be Dalot, Shaw, Dorgu and Mazraoui. Would any of them be tolerated at Chelsea, Arsenal, City or Liverpool for as long as we've put up with them? Our standards are truly in the gutter.
 
We loaned dalot out to ac Milan what seems to be about 5 years ago because we didnt want him and yet hes still here
 
I think today I finally realised our problem. This same problem we’ve had for many years. We don’t and haven’t had functioning fullbacks for the best part of a decade or more.
Other teams have overlapping fullbacks who put in crosses. They aren’t necessarily great players but they know to every time overlap at the right time and can stick a ball in a dangerous area. Really good teams have brilliant players who can do even more.
We don’t have that. Dalot is so bad when he gets in good positions, Maz doesn’t overlap, Dorgu is wildly inconsistent and isn’t even a fullback and Shaw can’t do it and tbh never could in the traditional sense.

It feels so damn obvious and I have no idea why I never saw it before but I cannot unsee it now. I’ve been thinking it’s been a midfield issue thren previously an attacking issue. Sigh. We could honestly pluck average fullbacks from most of the teams in the league and be infinitely better
 
It’s a minimum of a full back either side, would rather have more but I think we’d be looking at a centre back as well than a RB and a LB are vital. They need to high quality players who can defend at one end but just as important can create at the other end through crosses and at times make space for our wide attackers.

I think a bit like this summer just gone that we will probably make a meal of our recruitment. I know we want Hall but next year could look different and he could go elsewhere or choose to stay. Not sure about the market for right backs.
 
Please be patient. It'll have to wait till the fullback summer window scheduled for after the centre back summer window.
 
I have a feeling we will not sign CB next year because we haven't got the budget for it. Instead, we will trigger Maguire's one year option then focus the summer window in signing 2 left backs and 1 right back.
 
There’s no denying after the City fans that neither of those two are anywhere near good enough. Dalot has had the game time he’ll never get there.
 
We need two new full backs , two CB's and atleast two new attackers that's the bare minimum , might need midfield additions depending on how things pan out this season we are royally screwed .
 
Both of them that started today are brain dead, making simple mistakes one of which lead to a goal (given in error) offering nothing really going forward at the same time.
 
We have needed them for years. It angers me to discuss with some fans here that Dalot is not good enough (Maz neither).
It has been so obvious for years. Fullback is an absolute key position. I'd argue every CL final team has top class full backs, otherwise you suffer nowadays.
 
I think it's looking fairly obvious to everyone that we fecked it this summer by not bringing in backup options at the very least. Will be amazed if we don't have to revisit this in Jan as I just can't see how the current options get us into top 4/5 this season.
 
Absolute top of transfer list next summer is 2 new first choice full backs. Now Hall is possibly off the list i would go for Kayode at Brentford and Truffert at Bournemouth. Both would massively improve our team and actually give us threat from full back positions.
 
Absolute top of transfer list next summer is 2 new first choice full backs. Now Hall is possibly off the list i would go for Kayode at Brentford and Truffert at Bournemouth. Both would massively improve our team and actually give us threat from full back positions.
Yeah those would be great signings. We sorely lack any sort of final third threat from either position and it just puts further creative emphasis on our forwards/Bruno to pick up the slack. People also don't realize how crucial fullbacks are to breaking down low blocks. Being able to put in great delivery from wide while having additional bodies in the box, or having a player that can hurt teams making those extra man runs on the inside is so crucial to breaking teams down compared to if your fullbacks are constantly being dared to cross by the opposition while they blast it into row Z.
 
Absolute top of transfer list next summer is 2 new first choice full backs. Now Hall is possibly off the list i would go for Kayode at Brentford and Truffert at Bournemouth. Both would massively improve our team and actually give us threat from full back positions.
Really agree, although I can see our board unwilling to pay what these clubs want and eventually losing to other clubs..
 
It’s been needed for some time just like most of the other areas of the squad. Dalot’s passing is atrocious and regularly puts us in trouble. Shaw can’t attack either, I still think he can do a job defensively but he’s not reliable enough. My biggest issue is this has been known for over 5 years yet here we are. We sold a LB that’s ended up at Real Madrid after we sold him for peanuts to Benfica. Just another example on how bad we are in the transfer market.
 
Absolute top of transfer list next summer is 2 new first choice full backs. Now Hall is possibly off the list i would go for Kayode at Brentford and Truffert at Bournemouth. Both would massively improve our team and actually give us threat from full back positions.
I haven't watched a tonne of Kayode, but from what I have seen he seems like he's more a physical type rather than being technically sound. I think that works for a counter-attacking team, but if we wish to be come more dominant like Arsenal and Man City in games, I feel like there is a limit to the value you get from physicality offensively speaking. Truffert seems to have a really nice balance of both which is why I think he must be our key target for the LB position now Hall is likely off the table.

That said, I don't know who that RB is who can improve on Dalot. Wesley Franca at Roma is someone I liked before he went there and would be a very attacking option.
 
We loaned him out because he wasn't ready for Premier League and to give him experience.

I don't think we can actually know that for sure.

I definitely read that Solskjaer preferred Fosu-Mensah as an option at right-back to Dalot, and I've also definitely read that Solskjaer didn't think Dalot could defend (he was right) and wanted a new option at right-back in the summer of 2021.

Dalot barely played in 2019/20, we loaned him out for basically all of 2020/21, and he didn't start a game for us in 2021/22 until Solskjaer was gone.

He basically made a name for himself under Ten Hag because he was the only defender not to get injured. I don't think he's actually improved as a footballer that much at all, and I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that a previous regime (correctly) marked him as not good enough very quickly.
I don't agree. He was loaned cause he was shit and we didnt want him as noted here by @Alex99
 
I don't agree. He was loaned cause he was shit and we didnt want him as noted here by @Alex99
He was 20 and had previously played 400 minutes of professional minutes before he joined us. Do you think a player is ready for Premier League at that age with that little experience? Of course he went out on loan to develop and get experience.

Top 10 fullback in PL last season for chance creation, overall rating and with 3 assists to go with it. He's not good enough for us if we want to win a title, but he's obviously not shit. This season he is #2 for chance creation amongst fullbacks.
 
I haven't watched a tonne of Kayode, but from what I have seen he seems like he's more a physical type rather than being technically sound. I think that works for a counter-attacking team, but if we wish to be come more dominant like Arsenal and Man City in games, I feel like there is a limit to the value you get from physicality offensively speaking. Truffert seems to have a really nice balance of both which is why I think he must be our key target for the LB position now Hall is likely off the table.

That said, I don't know who that RB is who can improve on Dalot. Wesley Franca at Roma is someone I liked before he went there and would be a very attacking option.
Look who Arsenal play fullbacks. They aren’t really technical either

Is City’s left back technical? Hes a big tough CB playing as a LB.
 
Absolute top of transfer list next summer is 2 new first choice full backs. Now Hall is possibly off the list i would go for Kayode at Brentford and Truffert at Bournemouth. Both would massively improve our team and actually give us threat from full back positions.
Kayode has been falling out of favour. Nowadays teams seem to prioritise defence than attack from fullbacks.