What do we still need? Aka The never ending story

[Highfather_24]

This seems to be our team right now :

De Gea/Romero
AWB/Dalot
Smalling/Tuanzebe
Lindelof/Jones
Shaw/Young
McTominay/Matic
Pogba/Fred
Andreas/Mata
Lingard/Greenwood
Martial/James
Rashford/Sanchez

With the likes of Angel, Chong and Garner around the fringes.

We need to sell : Rojo, Bailly, Darmian, Lukaku, Sanchez and Matic.

We need to buy : CB, CM and a RW.

De Gea/Romero
AWB/Dalot
CB/Tuanzebe
Lindelof/Smalling
Shaw/Young
CM/McTominay
Pogba/Fred
Andreas/Mata
RW/Lingard
Martial/James
Rashford/Greenwood

 

[NJM78]

Looking at last season table we need to make up 5 points and a 17 goal swing whilst Spurs must do worse next season just to catch them up. We have lost Herrera and Fellaini who actualy go us points last season plus Lukaku looks to be on his way.

We scored less than 4 of the top 5 and conceded way more than all 5. This window has been a fecking shambles so far, no offence to James but he wont start much, AWB is a huge improvement on Young but we will be equally w@nk going forward next season, these next 12 days need to be special.

Also I will bet my left nut that Chong, Gomes and Greenwood do not get more than 25 games combined next season in all competitions, it will be the usual suspects.

 

[Casanova85]

a) a CB
b) De Gea and Pogba staying
c) a top quality MF (Pogba can't do it alone)
d) a new CF

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

Same as last summer less a RB plus a CM with Herrera going. Plus a striker if Lukaku goes.

 

[Woeisme]

We still need most of what we needed before the transfer window opened.
It was widely accepted that we needed at least 5 key players to address our glaring deficiency's in key areas. additionally we needed to clear-out the dead wood. ( And this was considered the START of the rebuild, with another 2-3 windows needed after that)

We needed a RB, CB, 2xCM and a RW.
You could argue we needed a forward. (and 6 other players) But we clearly needed 5.

We have gotten One. A Right back. And cleared out/Sold, Zero.

We also largely agreed that we needed to do our business as quickly as possible to give us the best possible chance of integrating that many players into the side before the season started. That hasn't gone great for us

Looking at last season table we need to make up 5 points and a 17 goal swing whilst Spurs must do worse next season just to catch them up

I appreciate and understand the point that you are making. Its just unfortunate that this is where we now are as a club. We need those 5 points to achieve FOURTH. We were over 30 pts behind two teams last season.. and we have made just one signing in an attempt to close that gap?

6 years ago the idea of us finishing 4th was was perceived as a colossal failure. Now its something we hope we might achieve?

So, What do we still need? We need to accept that as a club, we are not interested in being first. Fourth gets us similar financial reward with a fraction of the investment.

 

[George The Best]

What we need right now is Ole to not go to Norway with the squad tomorrow and start bashing some doors down. Looks like Lukaku is on his way out which will put us in a negative net spend position as things stand. Eleven days until the window slams shut. Forget selling players for the time being, other than Lukaku. We need a CB, DM and CM/AM. I’ve given up on the RW and a Lukaku replacement. Absolute minimum of 3 players still needed in the building by Aug 8th.

 

[Houdini]

What we need for the next season:
1 WC CB
1 starter CM BOX to BOX would be the best or creative AM, 2 if Pogba leaves (1WC)
1 starter RW
1 WC striker if Lukaku leaves or believe in Greenwood and use the money for a WC RW
optional: decent LB for the future
sell the deadwood
*starter means better what we have

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

Despite all the doom and gloom we're actually only a few key signings away from having a pretty exciting looking team. One big push Woody!

 

[George The Best]

Despite all the doom and gloom we're actually only a few key signings away from having a pretty exciting looking team. One big push Woody!

Quite possibly. But the few is a minimum of 3, if Lukaku goes then 4. You think Woody can pull that off with less than eleven days to go?

 

[Jacob]

Get Maguire and Bruno in and we're in good shape - not great but good.

Sancho and Longstaff next summer and good turns to great.

DDG

AWB ------- LINDELOF ------ MAGUIRE ------- SHAW

LONGSTAFF

BRUNO ------------ POGBA

SANCHO ----------- GREENWOOD --------- RASHFORD



Bench: ROMERO, DALOT, TUANZEBE, McTOMINAY, FRED, MARTIAL, GOMES

7/11 British ​

 

[Jamie Shawcross]

Quite possibly. But the few is a minimum of 3, if Lukaku goes then 4. You think Woody can pull that off with less than eleven days to go?

Pull it off with 11 days to go? I am pretty sure than any deals that do happen in the next eleven days, have been going on for some time. Sometimes its a matter of WHEN its announced etc, there are nuances to the deals. Its not like there's gonna be a mad trolley dash, it doesn't work like that.

 

[Houdini]

Why we need a WC CM/CMD:

It seems like we are in deep s...t so far. The only WC players we have are DDG and Pogba. There is a possibility that Pogba will leave this summer. And what we have in mdfield?

Fred - unless a miracle happens not good enough for EPL and even then not first team
McT - not great not terrible
Pereira - not a first team quality yet and he is more attack minded
Matic - Ok but declining should be a backup or play in 3 men midfield
Garner - far from a starter yet

so we still need a CM even if Pogba stays.

And I'm better not gonna talk about our CB and RW situation. Even a striker can be a problem if Pogba leaves. However I have a faith in Greenwood.

 

[Fer]

It seems that we are going to end up our summer transfers with Maguire and a midfielder.
Who would you prefer between Milenkovic-Savic and Bruno Fernandes?

 

[Infestissumam]

It seems that we are going to end up our summer transfers with Maguire and a midfielder.
Who would you prefer between Milenkovic-Savic and Bruno Fernandes?

Fernandes. SMS would only be a Pogba replacement I guess.

still hope we sign Longstaff.

 

[bucky]

It seems that we are going to end up our summer transfers with Maguire and a midfielder.
Who would you prefer between Milenkovic-Savic and Bruno Fernandes?

The latter.

 

[Adnan]

Dybala, Maguire and Longstaff will do me just fine if we can pull it off.

 

[Judas]

Dybala, Maguire and Longstaff will do me just fine if we can pull it off.

IF by some miracle we end up with this, after how dry it's been looking the last couple of weeks, I'd be pretty damn happy.

 

[Nitewolf]

We can spend all the time in the world speculating and suggesting and thinking about what we need for our club to improve, but none of these ideas or dreams will ever come true with this management.

Most of you want to remain optimistic and in high spirit I get that. But we have to be real. Our stadium need renovation, our squad is in dire shape and needs talents in many places, just look at the right wing situation! Which top club, or even any club in EPL that didn't address such a clear problem for more than 7 years now? For good sake, AWB is the first real solution to our RB since RAFAEL? Let that sink in for a minute.

This isn't about coaches or players, this isn't even about Ed Woodward, this is about the owners who just don't give a shite about improving the club or entering any serious compitition. None of our so called high profile signings since SAF left were on strong football ground, that's why they all fail miserably.

There were no investment in infrastructure, no football project, no DoF, and those things are just not gonna change unless we got a new management.

I don't have 4 billions around to buy the club, at the same time I'm tired of keeping my hope high every summer window thinking (here we go, we're gonna turn this around) cause clearly we the fans are the only ones who give a shite. I'll keep cheering for my club and watching every game and biting every nail like I always do. I just won't keep my hopes as high as I use to, so what if we missed top 4. You should do that too.

 

[PieCrust]

I'd be estatic if we can acutally close on Maguire, Dybala, Bruno while shipping out Lukaku and Darmien. That would be an amazing window considering Wan-Bissaka and James. I think the club should pay w/e it takes if those 3 are real possiliblities. They are all quality players and that would be exactly the kind of window we need to correct this current mess.

The only player we're linked with I don't want is Longstaff at £50m. That's a hard pass for an unproven prospect in my book. £30m is more than fair.

I mean, it's not going to happen, but I can dream that we actually address almost every weak area within the squad. Next summer find a DM then.

But then I remember that Ed is in charge.

 

[Nitewolf]

I'd be estatic if we can acutally close on Maguire, Dybala, Bruno while shipping out Lukaku and Darmien. That would be an amazing window considering Wan-Bissaka and James. I think the club should pay w/e it takes if those 3 are real possiliblities. They are all quality players and that would be exactly the kind of window we need to correct this current mess.

The only player we're linked with I don't want is Longstaff at £50m. That's a hard pass for an unproven prospect in my book. £30m is more than fair.

I mean, it's not going to happen, but I can dream that we actually address almost every weak area within the squad. Next summer find a DM then.

But then I remember that Ed is in charge.

I'd like to make a comment on (every weak spot) you mentioned.

We lost Herrera, our main destroyer and the only guy who could actually do some work in the midfield for us. We lost whatever Fellaini was contributing, and Matic is technically gone. Bringing Dybala and Bruno isn't what we need. It's actually the wrong thing to do since every top team in the planet is dropping the 4-5-1 setup completely because it just can't cope with 4-3-3 or even 3-4-3. And all our Academy graduates are actually wingers and Attacking midfielder so why bring in two top AM?

We should have gone for players like Rodri and Ndombele, DMs and CM, that's what we need. But we don't have a DoF. We got Ed.

 

[Stepney73]

We all know the issues with our squad and I have always thought that we needed 4 in this summer and around the same next summer before even thinking of any sort of challenge for top honours.

Can't see this happening though.

 

[PieCrust]

I'd like to make a comment on (every weak spot) you mentioned.

We lost Herrera, our main destroyer and the only guy who could actually do some work in the midfield for us. We lost whatever Fellaini was contributing, and Matic is technically gone. Bringing Dybala and Bruno isn't what we need. It's actually the wrong thing to do since every top team in the planet is dropping the 4-5-1 setup completely because it just can't cope with 4-3-3 or even 3-4-3. And all our Academy graduates are actually wingers and Attacking midfielder so why bring in two top AM?

We should have gone for players like Rodri and Ndombele, DMs and CM, that's what we need. But we don't have a DoF. We got Ed.

I acknowledged that DM is still a need. But Ed and Ole seem happy to stick with Matic and McT. If we can get those players I mentioned we're linked to, it would be amazing with or without a DM signing. Can you really dispute that? Like, you wouldn't want to sign those players knowing we're not going to sign a DM anyway? That would be some weird logic.

Herrera as much as he was loved by the fan base was never a regular starter in his time here. I liked him as well, but it's not like he was ever the first name on the team sheet. And Fellaini? Come on. At best he was an effective option off the bench but a complete liability as a starter, whether he was just ineffectual playing the ball or foul just waiting to happen. Fellaini was never a player that was up to United's level. I appreciated his contributions and nobody can question his effort, but he was not a big part of the team or a critical loss by any means.

 

[Nitewolf]

I acknowledged that DM is still a need. But Ed and Ole seem happy to stick with Matic and McT. If we can get those players I mentioned we're linked to, it would be amazing with or without a DM signing. Can you really dispute that? Like, you wouldn't want to sign those players knowing we're not going to sign a DM anyway? That would be some weird logic.

Herrera as much as he was loved by the fan base was never a regular starter in his time here. I liked him as well, but it's not like he was ever the first name on the team sheet. And Fellaini? Come on. At best he was an effective option off the bench but a complete liability as a starter, whether he was just ineffectual playing the ball or foul just waiting to happen. Fellaini was never a player that was up to United's level. I appreciated his contributions and nobody can question his effort, but he was not a big part of the team or a critical loss by any means.

You seem to miss my point completely.

Why do you think we're shite for all these years, because we don't have a midfield that's why. Fellaini was terrible, Herrera was not a regular starter, yet they were the only CM we have in our squad. Do you know how many CM city have? Liverpool? Tottenham? Chelsea? Arsenal? Even leicester and Wolves have better players and numbers in midfield than us.

Dybala is not a good signing for us, he is the opposite of what we need right now. The whole world is shifting away from AM to skillful number 8 who can contribute to attack and defense, Dybala is a classic number 10, that's why he isn't playing for Juventus, not because of Ronaldo like many here are saying. Juventus are moving away from 4-5-1 and Dybala can only play in 4-5-1 which we can't use any way cause we got Pogba, or a Dimond 4-4-2 which is a big liability if you play against 3-4-3 for example.

CMs and DMs are far more urgent need in our squad. Mctominay and Matic are not gonna cut it and are frankly very poor for a team aspiring to finish in top 4.

 

[Bestietom]

Same as we wanted at the start of this transfer window except for RB.
We still need to address our midfield wit 2 players. DM and a box to box midfielder
A top CB, Koulibaly would be my choice, If not Minenkovic.
A Goalscoring RW is needed for the past 6 years.
That's 4 players still needed before we can actually challenge for honours.

 

[Houdini]

With the current situation I would be satisfied with:

DDG
AWB Lindelof Maguire Shaw

Pogba SMS/McT

Fernandes

Dybala/James/Mata Rashford/Greenwood Martial/Sanchez


Lukaku and rojo seem to by sold and the others are bench quality
If Pogba leaves then we should go out for Longstaff again

 

[SambaBoy]

Been a shamble of a window so far. Before the season had ended, a lot of us were claiming we could do with 2 RB's, 2 CB's, LB back up or to even take over Shaw, 2 CM's (more if there were depatures), a RW and a ST. Also a GK as some felt De Gea wasn't good enough.

I think it's looking likely that we are going to end up with one RB, a untested young winger, and potentially a CB.

In all honesty, I wasn't expecting the massive turnover of players that was predicted as it's very hard to do in the modern day era with the prices floating around and it's unhealthy for the squad but I expected to see the start of the deadwood being shipped out and 3 top players brought in, with a few youngsters (i.e. likes of James, Sessegnon, Longstaff etc). None of the deadwood has been shipped out, instead we are handing them contracts.

Granted, the club are right in not paying some of the fee's that have been touted such as the £50m for Longstaff but some of the deals done by other clubs have been spot on both in terms of talent, experience, potential and value such as Ndombele. Mind-boggling that we gave Young, Jones and Mata new contracts.

 

[Bestietom]

With the current situation I would be satisfied with:

DDG
AWB Lindelof Maguire Shaw

Pogba SMS/McT

Fernandes

Dybala/James/Mata Rashford/Greenwood Martial/Sanchez


Lukaku and rojo seem to by sold and the others are bench quality
If Pogba leaves then we should go out for Longstaff again

Like to see all these players here but it won't be this season.

 

[Tel074]

I'm suprised anyone else is suprised. We sold Ronaldo and replaced him with Valencia . We never have a good window we never get in what we want .. Like him or hate him I'm pretty sure this is exactly why Mourinho finally ran out of patience and chucked a tantrum.

Moyes is out talking about our pathetic transfer business so basically that's 2 of our last 4 managers .
Ed gets dogs abuse and probably rightly so but as long as we have these amercian parasites running the club we will not have a transfer window we all know we need .

I honestly think Pep would struggle to finish top 4 at United with the idiots running the club

 

[pauldyson1uk]

Sick or reading who we are linked and not linked with in the press , personally I dont think will buy anybody else.

 

[YouOnlyLiveTwice]

I just Don't see Who our DM is going to be next season, think that is the most important position to strengthen right now

 

[Fosu-Mens]

I just Don't see Who our DM is going to be next season, think that is the most important position to strengthen right now

Yeah. Could get two of Partey, Marc Roca and Grillitsch for the fee of Maguire. All three would protect our central defenders and create some balance in our team.

 

[George The Best]

With the current situation I would be satisfied with:

DDG
AWB Lindelof Maguire Shaw

Pogba SMS/McT

Fernandes

Dybala/James/Mata Rashford/Greenwood Martial/Sanchez


Lukaku and rojo seem to by sold and the others are bench quality
If Pogba leaves then we should go out for Longstaff again

We are doing a great job in overheating Lampard’s brain for the opener in this case.

 

[Volumiza]

If we add Maguire, Bruno and Dybala as is being reported then we don't need a lot more,

if Pogba goes and is replaced by SMS then along with the above that's a serious team and would be a really impressive shopping spree. Here's hoping,

 

[Fosu-Mens]

If we add Maguire, Bruno and Dybala as is being reported then we don't need a lot more,

if Pogba goes and is replaced by SMS then along with the above that's a serious team and would be a really impressive shopping spree. Here's hoping,

Two starting centrebacks with little pace in a high pressing team.
Two fullbacks that are better when off the ball.
Zero midfielders that can balance or control or defend in the starting line up.

If Pogba goes, then our main creator and the only midfielder that is capable of playing out of defense is gone.

A starting 11 of Rashford, Martial, Dybala, Pogba and Bruno will be problematic when losing the ball or possession. And we are going to do this alot with the high number of bad shots that Rashford and Bruno usually takes, and Pogbas risky play low on the pitch. Getting two balancing midfielders instead of Bruno would do wonders at controlling the game, pressing and protecting our central defenders.

 

[ManchesterYoda]

Get Maguire and Bruno in and we're in good shape - not great but good.

Sancho and Longstaff next summer and good turns to great.

DDG

AWB ------- LINDELOF ------ MAGUIRE ------- SHAW

LONGSTAFF

BRUNO ------------ POGBA

SANCHO ----------- GREENWOOD --------- RASHFORD



Bench: ROMERO, DALOT, TUANZEBE, McTOMINAY, FRED, MARTIAL, GOMES

7/11 British ​

R Greenwood - Dybala - Sancho L
That would be better

 

[NoPace]

We really did need a transformative summer. Ole has done well to install a system but the club has failed to sell the necessary players and bring in upgrade where needed apart from Wan-Bissaka, even if we do assume Maguire or another CB are coming too.

It's tough to argue against us needing 5 signings still. Starting RW, #10 and LCB and then we also need a CM and a 6 since Fred and Matic haven't inspired any confidence whatsoever, with one of those two midfielders able to be a cheaper punt as long as the other is versatile enough to pair well with either Pogba or McTominay. Maybe even just a biggish loan fee for someone like Lemina who's randomly frozen out at their club.

Loan for Gomez to get him more time as a #10, probably the Eredivisie or Portuguese League since the former suits him football-wise and I assume he speaks Portuguese so the latter might be an easier adjustment.

Sell Lingard (15 or 20M to a mid-table Prem side), Matic (Italy or Turkey for 5M), Fred (Some side would pay 15-20M for him) and Rojo (Italy or Spain for 6-8M) to raise enough money to cover the RW signing.

-------------------------Martial(Greenwood)--------------------
Rashford(Chong)---------#10(Mata)-------------RW(James)
----------------Pogba(CM)----McTominay(DM)---------------
Shaw(Young)-------------------------------WanBissaka(Dalot)
-------------Maguire(Jones)-Lindelof(Smalling)------------
------------------------De Gea(Romero)------------------------


and then Chong for the attack, Pereira the midfield and Tuanzebe the defence round out the squad.

 

[LoCalXT]

How bad are Umtiti's knees?
Good enough for 30-40 games a season while Axel develops?

 

[Volumiza]

Two starting centrebacks with little pace in a high pressing team.
Two fullbacks that are better when off the ball.
Zero midfielders that can balance or control or defend in the starting line up.

If Pogba goes, then our main creator and the only midfielder that is capable of playing out of defense is gone.

A starting 11 of Rashford, Martial, Dybala, Pogba and Bruno will be problematic when losing the ball or possession. And we are going to do this alot with the high number of bad shots that Rashford and Bruno usually takes, and Pogbas risky play low on the pitch. Getting two balancing midfielders instead of Bruno would do wonders at controlling the game, pressing and protecting our central defenders.

Mr Glass Half Empty

 

[Ishpan2]

If the world was ideal:

Lukaku for Dybala

Pogba + $70mil for Neymar + Verratti (they both want out, noone else will pay for them)

$65 mil for Issa Diop

De Gea
AWB Lindelof Diop Shaw
Mctominay Verratti
Neymar Dybala Martial
Rashford

Will this happen? No, because we don't have city's owners. But still, this is what we would need to compete for the treble in my eyes. Realistically, we get Fernandes+Maguire and fight for top 4.

 

[Houdini]

If the world was ideal:

Lukaku for Dybala

Pogba + $70mil for Neymar + Verratti (they both want out, noone else will pay for them)

$65 mil for Issa Diop

De Gea
AWB Lindelof Diop Shaw
Mctominay Verratti
Neymar Dybala Martial
Rashford

Will this happen? No, because we don't have city's owners. But still, this is what we would need to compete for the treble in my eyes. Realistically, we get Fernandes+Maguire and fight for top 4.

Treble??? Nice wet dreams...