What do we still need? Aka The never ending story

[Beaucoup]

We need a good LB, the fact we've missed Shaw so much, just goes to show how bad the options are in that department.

 

[dannyrhinos89]

At least we should spring into action now the footballs done. I hope this week we see a signing of some sort

 

[#07]

In truth, we could replace every member of our back four. They are all good enough in 1v1 duels when the game is in front of them. However, their lack of awareness when the ball goes wide or is in the air is shocking. Its hard to see how we will win everything if even average teams call sling in a ball against us and know it will cause chaos. Look how many set pieces we conceded from this season, look at how twice last night the one Sevilla player with a chance of getting the ball surrounded by United defenders was allowed to ghost in and score.

Last night's game made me feel that the best we can hope for from next season is probably fourth place. We are probably good enough to win enough games against lesser opponents to get fourth. However, our defence is horrible. In knock out football its hard to see us being sturdy enough or switched on enough to do what needs to be done to win trophies.

 

[Skåre Willoch]

I like this video a lot, actually.

Even though I haven't heard of half of the players, and I'm very surprised to see Jens Petter Hauge in there, they argue very well for every player they chose.
If we get Sancho, most of these players seem like the title suggest, sensible options to fill in the rest of the most needed positions.

Koopmeiners have been receiving a lot of praise for a while now, hasn't he? Would he be expensive?

 

[Leftback99]

We need a good LB, the fact we've missed Shaw so much, just goes to show how bad the options are in that department.

Definitely. A good left footed left back would make the squad a lot more balanced. Also allowing Williams to be used on his natural side as competition for Wan Bissaka.

 

[croadyman]

We need DMF, RW and Cb for starting 11 and RB, LB, AM and ST for squad depth.

Hard to argue with that

 

[croadyman]

We need a good LB, the fact we've missed Shaw so much, just goes to show how bad the options are in that department.

Yeah we really do but still think Ole will stick with what we have there for now

 

[Craig Ward]

I like this video a lot, actually.

Even though I haven't heard of half of the players, and I'm very surprised to see Jens Petter Hauge in there, they argue very well for every player they chose.
If we get Sancho, most of these players seem like the title suggest, sensible options to fill in the rest of the most needed positions.

Koopmeiners have been receiving a lot of praise for a while now, hasn't he? Would he be expensive?

I liked the video as well - very informative and well presented. Fair play

I havent seen any credible links to Koopmeiners but i;d suspect around 20-25mil. Much better option for DM than, say Declan Rice.

 

[Craig Ward]

Hard to argue with that

Its way too much for 1 window though. Never going to happen.

We need to be realistic and stop living in a dreamworld.

Much of what we bring in will depend on what we can get out the door.

Consider players here Ole has excluded from the squad or rarely uses:
Smalling/Sanchez/Rojo/Jones/Periera/Lingard/Dalot. Could even add D.James & Mata in.

Ole knows who he wants in and around his squad and is basically looking to cull the rest.

We have a big squad and we have to sell.

We will only sign a CB if we sell three: Smalling/Jones/Rojo. Even Bailly. We can only sell players who have buyers as well. It;s a tricky one.

We need three quality additions this summer and we need 6 out.

We need RW/AM/CB in my opinion. Next summer we can target a DM, CM and CF

I'd love to sign 4 or 5 this window but its never going to happen. We have a lot of activity to do in outgoings and desperately need 3 in.

 

[croadyman]

Its way too much for 1 window though. Never going to happen.

We need to be realistic and stop living in a dreamworld.

Much of what we bring in will depend on what we can get out the door.

Consider players here Ole has excluded from the squad or rarely uses:
Smalling/Sanchez/Rojo/Jones/Periera/Lingard/Dalot. Could even add D.James & Mata in.

Ole knows who he wants in and around his squad and is basically looking to cull the rest.

We have a big squad and we have to sell.

We will only sign a CB if we sell three: Smalling/Jones/Rojo. Even Bailly. We can only sell players who have buyers as well. It;s a tricky one.

We need three quality additions this summer and we need 6 out.

We need RW/AM/CB in my opinion. Next summer we can target a DM, CM and CF

I'd love to sign 4 or 5 this window but its never going to happen. We have a lot of activity to do in outgoings and desperately need 3 in.

Yeah totally agree with those positions for this summer and like you say need to see some serious outgoings as well

Need to sell

Smalling
Pereira
Rojo
Sanchez
Lingard
Dalot

 

[BenitoSTARR]

I like this video a lot, actually.

Even though I haven't heard of half of the players, and I'm very surprised to see Jens Petter Hauge in there, they argue very well for every player they chose.
If we get Sancho, most of these players seem like the title suggest, sensible options to fill in the rest of the most needed positions.

Koopmeiners have been receiving a lot of praise for a while now, hasn't he? Would he be expensive?

Koopmeiners wouldn’t cost much more than £20m if that. He’s a very good player in DM/CB/CM and honestly the best DM/CM in Eredivisie for my liking. He’s a great leader, very composed and has a great progressive passing ability as well as stunning long balls (Pogba-esque). He’s also very good defensively in terms of his positioning too so if you want someone to do the Matic role of deep midfielder who can slot into defence and progress between the lines I genuinely cannot see a better fit in world football for a better price.

He’s about as no brainier a signing for me as they come from Eredivisie. AZ are a team I follow and he’s IMO the best player by far at the club. A lot of people like Stengs and Boadu and I’m sure they’ll have ok careers but Koopmeiners is the one for me.

I liked the video as well - very informative and well presented. Fair play

I havent seen any credible links to Koopmeiners but i;d suspect around 20-25mil. Much better option for DM than, say Declan Rice.

I personally think they really glossed over a lot. It was very superficial IMO.

He won’t be linked because he’s not a high profile name yet. Very few British journos will have been keeping tabs on him but I’d be stunned if he doesn’t move onto bigger and better things very soon.

 

[Skåre Willoch]

Koopmeiners wouldn’t cost much more than £20m if that. He’s a very good player in DM/CB/CM and honestly the best DM/CM in Eredivisie for my liking. He’s a great leader, very composed and has a great progressive passing ability as well as stunning long balls (Pogba-esque). He’s also very good defensively in terms of his positioning too so if you want someone to do the Matic role of deep midfielder who can slot into defence and progress between the lines I genuinely cannot see a better fit in world football for a better price.

He’s about as no brainier a signing for me as they come from Eredivisie. AZ are a team I follow and he’s IMO the best player by far at the club. A lot of people like Stengs and Boadu and I’m sure they’ll have ok careers but Koopmeiners is the one for me.

Great input, thanks. How is his work rate and stuff? Is he quicker than Matic? Can he cover more space?

 

[Josep Dowling]

If we were to make a title challenge. I think we need to sign players in this order:

RW: Love Greenwood but we cannot expect an 18 year old to start every week. Our attack has been down the left side for so many years now. Adding a pacey threat from the right would make us even more dangerous. Ideally Sancho.

CB: Lindelof is too weak and appears to not like heading. Smalling, Jones and Rojo should be moved on. Bailly is injury prone to ever make the position his. Ideally Dayot from Leipzig

LB: Shaw is too injury prone. Williams isn’t good enough at the moment to be number 1.

CF: Either more clinical than Martial or a better option to bring on that Ighalo.

DM: Matic he getting on and will likely leave next season anyway. I suspect he will be replaced next summer. Fred can’t play the role.

5 players. It looks like RW won’t be resolved this summer. Will they spent the money elsewhere instead? I have my doubts.

 

[Steven-UK]

100% we need a world-class striker. Currently our forwards need 5/6 chances to score 1. Our forwards are just not good enough, and Rashford, well, he is morphing into Welbeck each time he plays.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Great input, thanks. How is his work rate and stuff? Is he quicker than Matic? Can he cover more space?

Work rate is absolutely fine. He’s not going to bound around midfield chasing stupidly but that’s not what a good holding player has to do. I’ve not seen him lose a foot race with anyone because his positioning is so good he’s not been caught out. He’s more mobile than Matic so would cover more ground. If you want someone who runs and harriers loads then he’s not that player. But neither is Matic.

If you want to know his true impact when he doesn’t play they are -3.72 net goals. That is both offensively scoring less and defensively conceding more for 19-20 season. When he plays a full 90 they average 1.42 positive gap in goals conceded and scored.

I’m not overstating the mark by saying he makes them tick.

If you want to look into his stats more https://fbref.com/en/players/a26fb8aa/all_comps/Teun-Koopmeiners-Stats---All-Competitions

 

[DevilRed]

I think it was telling that OGS tried to sign haaland in the last window.

He wants goalscorers. The more the better.

I wouldn't be surprised if we went for a striker regardless of Sancho.

 

[Zlatans Knee]

Jimenez, Sancho and a left back and we would be back up there challenging. Williams and Laird can give AWB the kick up the ass he needs at right back. Shame is isn't going to happen though. I am however intrigued to see who we will sign seeing as the main targets seem to be unobtainable (unaffordable).
I may as well add a new centreback on the shopping list. Just to have some sort of aerial presence. Maguire's head seems to be the wrong shape to be able to head the ball towards the goal.

 

[kirk buttercup]

100% we need a world-class striker. Currently our forwards need 5/6 chances to score 1. Our forwards are just not good enough, and Rashford, well, he is morphing into Welbeck each time he plays.

He is still Recovering from a pretty Serious injury ,Bit harsh .

 

[Craig Ward]

Jimenez, Sancho and a left back and we would be back up there challenging. Williams and Laird can give AWB the kick up the ass he needs at right back. Shame is isn't going to happen though. I am however intrigued to see who we will sign seeing as the main targets seem to be unobtainable (unaffordable).
I may as well add a new centreback on the shopping list. Just to have some sort of aerial presence. Maguire's head seems to be the wrong shape to be able to head the ball towards the goal.

So much wrong with this post.

Challenging for what? Surely not the title. Jimenez wouldnt start ahead of Martial and i doubt at his age would want to play 2nd fiddle. We dont need a LB. We need creative players before a bloody LB

Williams and Laird can displace AWB? On what planet? Williams has proven he's a good squad player - but he's not a starter for us and Laird hasnt kicked a ball for the 1st team.

 

[redpatron]

We need wide players, at least two. One starter and one coming off the bench. We have too many guys who think they are Ronaldo and go for goal every chance they get. We need players who play from
the touch lines and beat a man on a dribble and create space/movement. Opposition know they can just stack the box and zone mark everyone, because our crossing is shite.

He is still Recovering from a pretty Serious injury ,Bit harsh .

I think people forget he wasn't even suppose to be back until the Fall at the earliest, he was deemed to be out of Euros when the injury happened.

 

[iHicksy]

What we need:

• CB to replace Lindelof
• LB to rotate/challenge Shaw
• Wide Left attacker to rotate with Rashford
• Wide Right attacker
• Creative attacking centre mid to be backup to bruno/pogba

 

[Ace of Spades]

I still think a RW, CB, AM, LB and DM are the things needed.

 

[Stretender]

Haaland , Sancho, Upamecano and Jack Grealish. This can be done over two windows (summer and January). We need competition in this team, no one should think they have a divine right to start for Manchester United. If you are not on your A game, off to the bench son.

 

[Zlatans Knee]

So much wrong with this post.

Challenging for what? Surely not the title. Jimenez wouldnt start ahead of Martial and i doubt at his age would want to play 2nd fiddle. We dont need a LB. We need creative players before a bloody LB

Williams and Laird can displace AWB? On what planet? Williams has proven he's a good squad player - but he's not a starter for us and Laird hasnt kicked a ball for the 1st team.

Thanks for your opinion Craig. Seeing as this is a forum, it shall remain only that. An opinion. Nice to see that it managed to get you excited though.
Let me correct you on a couple of points though. I did not mention that anyone should start ahead of Martial. I would however have him starting ahead of Rashford and moving Martial to Left forward position again. But they would be able to rotate.
I did not mention displacing AWB. I said that they could give AWB a kick up the ass which he needs right now. Unless you missed last night's match, he was at fault for both goals.
You will also notice that I said that we need Sancho as well who would provide the desired creativity. However, I would argue that we have more creative players than Liverpool, but that does not mean that we are a more effective team. So I will cordially disagree with you on that one too.
Feel free to go on a rant somewhere else.

 

[Rolaholic]

If we can't get Sancho in this window, spending money on a long term option at DM + CB would go a long way towards strengthening the side.

Signing up the likes of Partey and Upamecano/Konate for around 100m combined would offer us a much stronger spine and would allow for more squad depth with certain current starters being relegated to the bench.

In a perfect world it'd also be nice to bring in another FB option but not sure how realistic that would be depending on how much we'd spend on the aforementioned positions.

For RW we could try to get someone on loan for the short term as I still hope we'll be in the picture for Sancho next summer.

 

[Freeney]

We need two wingers/forwards.
One bonafide right forward (Sancho) and a cheap but decent left forward/winger who doesn’t mind not starting every important game. That’s why i could see us going for a player like Douglas costa ( even though he’s always hurt and don’t score enough). He would be cheap and a clear upgrade on Daniel James.

 

[Craig Ward]

Thanks for your opinion Craig. Seeing as this is a forum, it shall remain only that. An opinion. Nice to see that it managed to get you excited though.
Let me correct you on a couple of points though. I did not mention that anyone should start ahead of Martial. I would however have him starting ahead of Rashford and moving Martial to Left forward position again. But they would be able to rotate.
I did not mention displacing AWB. I said that they could give AWB a kick up the ass which he needs right now. Unless you missed last night's match, he was at fault for both goals.
You will also notice that I said that we need Sancho as well who would provide the desired creativity. However, I would argue that we have more creative players than Liverpool, but that does not mean that we are a more effective team. So I will cordially disagree with you on that one too.
Feel free to go on a rant somewhere else.

No need to be so touchy. I only disagreed with your opinions as they sound far fetched and without any context.

Williams and Laird will not give AWB a kick up the ass as you put it. He;s better than them both - regardless of current form. Williams isnt good enough to be a regular utd starter and laird is unproved. Sorry my logic got your knickers in a twist so bad

 

[croadyman]

What we need:

• CB to replace Lindelof
• LB to rotate/challenge Shaw
• Wide Left attacker to rotate with Rashford
• Wide Right attacker
• Creative attacking centre mid to be backup to bruno/pogba

Would go for

Badiashile
Reguilon
Grealish (can cover CAM too)
Sancho

Obviously we won't get those four players in this window but that is who I would go for in those areas

 

[croadyman]

Haaland , Sancho, Upamecano and Jack Grealish. This can be done over two windows (summer and January). We need competition in this team, no one should think they have a divine right to start for Manchester United. If you are not on your A game, off to the bench son.

Which one of those do you think could be got in January then because personally would say it has to be over two summer windows

 

[Stretender]

Which one of those do you think could be got in January then because personally would say it has to be over two summer windows

I was mainly thinking about Haaland in January I heard his release clause becomes active in January. The reason is get him early in January before others enter the race. I think if we sell a few players we must have enough money to buy the other 3 this summer

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Haaland , Sancho, Upamecano and Jack Grealish. This can be done over two windows (summer and January). We need competition in this team, no one should think they have a divine right to start for Manchester United. If you are not on your A game, off to the bench son.

how much do you think? 120 for sancho, 150 for haaland, 80 for grealish, not sure about doyot given he signed a contract last week.... lets say he costs 1m, thats 351m in one season?

 

[Sea-Cow]

What we need:

• CB to replace Lindelof
• LB to rotate/challenge Shaw
• Wide Left attacker to rotate with Rashford
• Wide Right attacker
• Creative attacking centre mid to be backup to bruno/pogba

Pretty close, but I would prioritize the following, in order of need --

1. Wide Right attacker (Sancho, ideally. Apart from that, I have no clue)
2. LB to rotate / challenge Shaw (Reguilon -- yes, I've only seen him play one time but that was enough for me, sign him up)
3. DM that is press-resistant, can help keep possession, and can cover a bit of grass nicking back possession (I saw a lad against Barca doing this job perfectly and apparently he wants to leave his current German team. Would be absolutely daft to let him sign for the league winners)
4. Wide left attacker to rotate/challenge Rashford (no idea really, surely there are options available)
5. CB to replace Lindelöf (Bailly ??)

 

[Stretender]

how much do you think? 120 for sancho, 150 for haaland, 80 for grealish, not sure about doyot given he signed a contract last week.... lets say he costs 1m, thats 351m in one season?

If we pay what Dortmund want and now I just feel we should pay that , it's 100 million pounds, Upamecano give them 70, grealish 50 plus add ons. Thats 220 this summer. Then in January activate Haaland's clause I hear its less than 100 million pounds. That is good investment and united can sell deadwood and raise 60 million towards that. The rest we should be able to pay am sure we can afford it. We know what we need so lets just go and get it.

 

[Zlatans Knee]

No need to be so touchy. I only disagreed with your opinions as they sound far fetched and without any context.

Williams and Laird will not give AWB a kick up the ass as you put it. He;s better than them both - regardless of current form. Williams isnt good enough to be a regular utd starter and laird is unproved. Sorry my logic got your knickers in a twist so bad

If you had not gotten so excited in the first place I would not even have bothered to reply. Try stating your opinion in future without being so excitable. You will get your point across better that way.
Oh and once again you have tried to argue about something I did not state. I did not state that Williams should be a regular starter. I said that he would be able to apply pressure on AWB. Which he will (in my opinion) unless AWB improves next season.

 

[kirk buttercup]

If you had not gotten so excited in the first place I would not even have bothered to reply. Try stating your opinion in future without being so excitable. You will get your point across better that way.
Oh and once again you have tried to argue about something I did not state. I did not state that Williams should be a regular starter. I said that he would be able to apply pressure on AWB. Which he will (in my opinion) unless AWB improves next season.

tbh I would prefer William's to AWB at the moment.

 

[Devil may care]

I always thought the whole "we only need 2 signings to be challengers for the PL" stuff was silly, but the fact it looks like we are even going to feck the Sancho deal up, who knows how many windows we are from being anything more than a side playing for top 4.

When you look at our regular starting back 4 it cost about £200M to put together and still looks lacking. Lets be real, we've anchored ourselves with Maguire, he's a decent CB but for the fee we paid we should have been getting a top 5 CB in Europe, now we are in a position where we've made him vitually undroppable. I see lots of posts about fullback's, it's like shouting at a brick wall, Shaw and AWB are locked in as the main starter's for the foreseeable future and their attacking output will likely always be mediocre.

If Pogba stays midfield depth is decent, we just desperately need a quality holding midfielder who can start the bulk of the games with Pogba and Bruno in the midfield 3.

The front 4 are getting some stick after last night but there's been plenty of good stuff from the 4 to have patience, especially given 3 of the 4 are under 25 and this is the first season Martial and Rashford have actually had a consistent position week in and week out. The problem is the competition, Mata/Pereira/James/Lingard aren't good enough and I don't think Ole has much confidence in Igalho, it's why Ole delays making subs and fans moan, but he knows that none of those 5 are likely to do anything impactful so why bother.

At this point if we can unfeck the Sancho situation and get a top holding midfielder I'd consider that a big win for Ole with two more important building blocks.

 

[jesperjaap]

I like this video a lot, actually.

Even though I haven't heard of half of the players, and I'm very surprised to see Jens Petter Hauge in there, they argue very well for every player they chose.
If we get Sancho, most of these players seem like the title suggest, sensible options to fill in the rest of the most needed positions.

Koopmeiners have been receiving a lot of praise for a while now, hasn't he? Would he be expensive?

Though I havent seen anything of any of these players either bar Sancho obviously, just the sentiment is a good one for me. Squad wise especially, we are lacking quality in several areas. I still expect us to sign Sancho or Grealish, even if not there will surely be a big transfer from us. Considering that and the sad fact we probably wont move on half the players we really should be, there wont be a huge amount of money to strengthen other areas, so we hopefully do make 2/3 very good signings under £30m.

The scouting network really should be utilised this summer. And should it really be that difficult Badiashille, Gabriel, Nouri, Soteldo, Stevanovic, Soumare, Tonali are just a few young players been linked with us recently that would probably all come in at under £30m and a few more even less.

Lets face it we have absolutely no decent squad cover in our attacking positions or dm, so a couple such signing of quality at a cheap price could be vital this summer.

I just really hope we can move on some player as Dalot, Mensah, Smalling, Jones, Perreira, Rojo all offer very little to our squad let alone the likes of Mata, Lingard for example. Seems to me like literally every summer the last 5 years there should be at least 7/8 players out, the numbers just dont seem to go down, really should be addressed more ruthlessly than even SOlkjear has so far

 

[croadyman]

I was mainly thinking about Haaland in January I heard his release clause becomes active in January. The reason is get him early in January before others enter the race. I think if we sell a few players we must have enough money to buy the other 3 this summer

I didn't think his clause becomes active until the summer of 2022 but I am sure somebody who knows better can put me right on this one

 

[Maureen-yo]

Koopmeiners wouldn’t cost much more than £20m if that. He’s a very good player in DM/CB/CM and honestly the best DM/CM in Eredivisie for my liking. He’s a great leader, very composed and has a great progressive passing ability as well as stunning long balls (Pogba-esque). He’s also very good defensively in terms of his positioning too so if you want someone to do the Matic role of deep midfielder who can slot into defence and progress between the lines I genuinely cannot see a better fit in world football for a better price.

He’s about as no brainier a signing for me as they come from Eredivisie. AZ are a team I follow and he’s IMO the best player by far at the club. A lot of people like Stengs and Boadu and I’m sure they’ll have ok careers but Koopmeiners is the one for me.

I personally think they really glossed over a lot. It was very superficial IMO.

He won’t be linked because he’s not a high profile name yet. Very few British journos will have been keeping tabs on him but I’d be stunned if he doesn’t move onto bigger and better things very soon.

Completely agree with this, he’s a very good player for the price you would be expecting to pay (sub £30million) and can cover 2 Positions.

 

[Michael T]

Haaland , Sancho, Upamecano and Jack Grealish. This can be done over two windows (summer and January). We need competition in this team, no one should think they have a divine right to start for Manchester United. If you are not on your A game, off to the bench son.

My thoughts exactly. I'm hoping Ole thinks the same way, and will accept no alternatives.