What to expect from a new centre back pair?

DFreshKing

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Anyway, to the thread topic. What do people make of Cristian Romero? A nice balance with Maguire? Not someone I have been watching but from the obligatory youtube clips seems, strong, aggressive, with decent speed. The antithesis of Lindelof? Count me in....
 

Bastian

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As a fan of Madrid as well as Utd I have to disagree. Varane has lost a yard or two recently and what happens to us at Utd when he inevitably gets injured? We have to change our system. We can get away with it at Madrid as we have other defenders with similar attributes to step in.
Not seen that before, @giorno @carvajal you concur?
 

A-man

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Anyway, to the thread topic. What do people make of Cristian Romero? A nice balance with Maguire? Not someone I have been watching but from the obligatory youtube clips seems, strong, aggressive, with decent speed. The antithesis of Lindelof? Count me in....
He's very aggressive, absolutely the opposite of Lindelof and also other mentioned defenders like Varane and Torres.
But didn't he just, like last week, sign a contract?
 

Pass and Move

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We certainly need a stronger physical presence than Lindelöf for set-pieces, and AWB and even Shaw need to be a lot more pro-active and less re-active in defense sometimes, they are too relaxed quite often.

For me the biggest issue however is the inability for our defenders to play a ball past the first press into our central midfield. Pogba for example wastes so much energy tracking side to side to create a triangle only for the ball to never reach him, instead making it's way to the FB each time and leaving him frustrated and giving the opposition time to shift 11 men behind the ball again. It's ridiculous how incompetent our defenders are at playing a simple ball out from the back.
 

Cloud7

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It amazes me that the quality of CB's we've had at United over the last two or three decades, is something that we've seen, and having seeing Ferdinand, Vidic etc., we then watch Lindelof and say "Yeah this guy is good enough to be part of a title winning defense."
 

golden_blunder

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Again no real arguments, just emotional ones.
Never said he was the best CB in the EL, but he was one of our better players.


Yes he was one of our better players.
We lost the game because we were poor offensively, that's my opinion.
Don't see how any of those statements can be controversial that you believe I'm in total denial. You're just trolling again.
Again no addressing of Lindelof clanger in the final

trolling? I’m an admin. Just because my opinion is strongly different from what you believe doesn’t mean I am trolling
 

golden_blunder

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We certainly need a stronger physical presence than Lindelöf for set-pieces, and AWB and even Shaw need to be a lot more pro-active and less re-active in defense sometimes, they are too relaxed quite often.

For me the biggest issue however is the inability for our defenders to play a ball past the first press into our central midfield. Pogba for example wastes so much energy tracking side to side to create a triangle only for the ball to never reach him, instead making it's way to the FB each time and leaving him frustrated and giving the opposition time to shift 11 men behind the ball again. It's ridiculous how incompetent our defenders are at playing a simple ball out from the back.
And they will often do it when the trap is closing in, it’s irritating
 

bosnian_red

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Without a solid, balanced midfield base in front of them? Not a whole lot IMO.
 

Bastian

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Don't think so
Thanks. Thought not. Not seen any indication of it myself. So I'm back expecting him to sign a bumper new deal at Madrid, though still hoping he somehow decides to join the Ole project at United...
 

MadMike

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Normally if one CB is tall and a bit on the slow side, you want another CB that is fast to complement them. A fast CB will not usually be as tall or good in the air.

The problem we have here is that despite having Maguire who is a bit of a colossus, the other CBs and our RB are not very good in the air. In combination with what must be poor tactics/coaching we end up conceding loads from set pieces as result.

That makes the decision difficult. Do we pick a tall CB again to help improve our set piece defending, risking making the defence too slow? Or do we pick a faster CB (what Bailly was supposed to be) and hope the coaches can sort out whatever the set piece issue is?
 

sun_tzu

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Id expect a mistake or two at the start of the partnership... followed by collective caf moaning that we brought the wrong player or it wouldnt have happened if we had played, Lindeloff or Bailey or if Jones was fit or we gave Axl a chance or if we kept smalling etc
 

bsCallout

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Statman Dave mentioned Botman I think, anyone seen him, would he be a good buy?
 

Bertie 2 Hats

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The perfect centre back does not exist, however we should be aiming for one that compliments Harry, one who's biggest strengths are Harry's biggest weaknesses. It's going to imperative we get this right first time as we can't afford to get it wrong in what's going to be the most competitive season in the last few years.
 

A-man

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Again no addressing of Lindelof clanger in the final

trolling? I’m an admin. Just because my opinion is strongly different from what you believe doesn’t mean I am trolling
Yes trolling. Writing toxic post after post which don't add anything except you trying to stir things up.
 

Andersons Dietician

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Generally I think Lindelof is actually quite good but with Harry I just don’t feel confident with the pair of them. I think you could replace either and the other would probably improve. However you don’t spend 80 mil and then drop him.

As for what I expect it depends on who comes in. Varane I think has most of the required attributes to perform well but neither he or Harry are that great positionally or at organising the defence and so on. So I’m not convinced that taking out the one that actually does the leading and organising in Lindelof is the right thing to do. Maybe we need a strong vocal personality in there more than we need pace.
 

golden_blunder

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Yes trolling. Writing toxic post after post which don't add anything except you trying to stir things up.
They don’t add in your world because every post you write is trying to spin away from Lindelofs performance which the rest of us are talking about.

did I say that you were trolling? Now I await an apology
 

A-man

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They don’t add in your world because every post you write is trying to spin away from Lindelofs performance which the rest of us are talking about.

did I say that you were trolling? Now I await an apology
You said I was in complete denial for thinking 1 Lindelof was one of our better in EL and that our attack was not good vs Villareal . All you do is starting discussions like this, pointless. You don’t need to reply, I’m out.
 

golden_blunder

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You said I was in complete denial for thinking 1 Lindelof was one of our better in EL and that our attack was not good vs Villareal . All you do is starting discussions like this, pointless. You don’t need to reply, I’m out.
I don’t know how you come to the conclusion that Lindelof was one of our best players. In defence alone Shaw and Maguire were better than him. arguably, AWB was too, defensively speaking.

as for the Final you always turn the talk to the amount of goals scored rather than address the first issue which is the idiotic goal we conceded.

still waiting on a apology for saying I’m a troll. In case you hadn’t noticed many of the forum feel the same way so how is that trolling for having a differing opinion? Again I’ll wait
 

Paul_Scholes18

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Rio and Vidic pairing.
It would be nice, but we got to lower the expectations a bit and think about what is realistic with the money we got.

We all want our right winger to be as good as Ronaldo.
Defender pair as good as Rio, Vidic etc.
Central forward at Rooney, RVP level etc.


Although to win the league you do not need everything to be the best in the world level. We just need a good enough attack to win games and a solid defensive structure as a team.

We need to be smart in the market and not just spend huge money when we need players in different roles to help us be the best team.
 

Giggsyking

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It would be nice, but we got to lower the expectations a bit and think about what is realistic with the money we got.

We all want our right winger to be as good as Ronaldo.
Defender pair as good as Rio, Vidic etc.
Central forward at Rooney, RVP level etc.


Although to win the league you do not need everything to be the best in the world level. We just need a good enough attack to win games and a solid defensive structure as a team.

We need to be smart in the market and not just spend huge money when we need players in different roles to help us be the best team.
To win the league with the structure you are pointing out here you need a world class manager, and we are far from that. If we do not have world class players in multiple position including the CB pairing, Ole will not win the league.
 

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[QUOTE="A-man, post: 27328614, member: 110845"

Yes even a good third CB would improve us 10 goals.
We’ve been lucky Maguire hasn’t been injured until now. But this also shows how important it is to rotate more
[/QUOTE]

Sorry, but a third CB is the last thing we need. We need to buy a great partner for Maguire. It is not a rotation issue. Titles can’t be won without a good defense, so we need a couple of absolute beasts forming the core of team defense.
 

golden_blunder

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[QUOTE="A-man, post: 27328614, member: 110845"

Yes even a good third CB would improve us 10 goals.
We’ve been lucky Maguire hasn’t been injured until now. But this also shows how important it is to rotate more
Sorry, but a third CB is the last thing we need. We need to buy a great partner for Maguire. It is not a rotation issue. Titles can’t be won without a good defense, so we need a couple of absolute beasts forming the core of team defense.
[/QUOTE]
Unless off course he means dropping Lindelof down to backup and his place taken.
but I doubt that’s what he meant
 

A-man

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I don’t know how you come to the conclusion that Lindelof was one of our best players. In defence alone Shaw and Maguire were better than him. arguably, AWB was too, defensively speaking.

as for the Final you always turn the talk to the amount of goals scored rather than address the first issue which is the idiotic goal we conceded.

still waiting on a apology for saying I’m a troll. In case you hadn’t noticed many of the forum feel the same way so how is that trolling for having a differing opinion? Again I’ll wait
Well it is personal opinion. I think he was one of the better in out team. Shaw was the best imo and Maguire also good. His best match was the first vs Granada. Watch this clip and you’ll see both out CBs were quite good, even Lindelof. It’s only a few minutes.


Ok I’ll be honest.You sometimes write good stuff that I enjoy reading. We don’t always share opinions but it’s still good reading that adds value for me, otherwise I wouldn’t read it. It’s clear you’re passionate about football and United and that you are knowledgeable about football. Then you mix this with short posts without any value, which seem to have the purpose to start quarrelling discussions far from the topic. If you do this on purpose you’re trolling, if you don’t do it on purpose I’m sorry for saying you’re trolling, because it’s not a nice thing to say, but advise you to think twice before you tap”post reply”.

I am also guilty of posts leading in to endless meaningless discussions so I’m not saying I’m better than you.
 

A-man

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Sorry, but a third CB is the last thing we need. We need to buy a great partner for Maguire. It is not a rotation issue. Titles can’t be won without a good defense, so we need a couple of absolute beasts forming the core of team defense.
What I mean is that if we would have a third CB at similar level I expect us to improve ten goals. If we buy a top CB for 50+ mill we must surely expect more for it to be worth it. I base this on the fact that we have conceded som many goals (1.7/match) when the pair Lindelof-Maguire haven’t played. If those matches could be improved to the same level as when our first pair play, we would be looking at roughly ten goals improvement.
 

bosskeano

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If we pay 50m for a CB I expect that person to be a starter every week
bloody hell i'd hope so if we are dropping 50m as that guy can't be third choice. That would be a big chunk of our budget along with signing Sancho.
 

A-man

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If we pay 50m for a CB I expect that person to be a starter every week
Of the ones normally mentioned as potential signings, there are not so many that can be guaranteed starters. Varane is one, Koundé might be one as well, but don’t think Torres for example would walk right in. City bought Ake for 42 mill so if you add the United tax that’s about what you get for 50 mill.
 

golden_blunder

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Of the ones normally mentioned as potential signings, there are not so many that can be guaranteed starters. Varane is one, Koundé might be one as well, but don’t think Torres for example would walk right in. City bought Ake for 42 mill so if you add the United tax that’s about what you get for 50 mill.
We ain’t spending 50m for a person to sit on the bench long term, we just can’t afford that.
not a huge fan of Torres for the same reason I don’t rate Lindelof, but I do think he’s a bit better than Lindelof as he seems a bit more aggressive. But, I’d expect a lot more so he wouldn’t be my choice.
 

A-man

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We ain’t spending 50m for a person to sit on the bench long term, we just can’t afford that.
not a huge fan of Torres for the same reason I don’t rate Lindelof, but I do think he’s a bit better than Lindelof as he seems a bit more aggressive. But, I’d expect a lot more so he wouldn’t be my choice.
Torres looks similar to Lindelof but minus the PL experience and minus 80 games of partnership with Maguire and AWB. I don’t think the intention would be that a 50 million guy would sit on the bench, but look at City. Their bench is full of 50 mill defenders. It is always a risk to bring players to the PL.
 

golden_blunder

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Torres looks similar to Lindelof but minus the PL experience and minus 80 games of partnership with Maguire and AWB. I don’t think the intention would be that a 50 million guy would sit on the bench, but look at City. Their bench is full of 50 mill defenders. It is always a risk to bring players to the PL.
If we thought like that we’d never upgrade anyone
 

ThinkTank@Cafe

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Sorry, but a third CB is the last thing we need. We need to buy a great partner for Maguire. It is not a rotation issue. Titles can’t be won without a good defense, so we need a couple of absolute beasts forming the core of team defense.
Unless off course he means dropping Lindelof down to backup and his place taken.
but I doubt that’s what he meant
[/QUOTE]

You mentioned that you don’t think Botman to be ready for the role of one of the two United main CBs. I’m not quite sure too. But I just don’t see a “no brainer” target. Do you have a candidate in mind?
 

golden_blunder

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Unless off course he means dropping Lindelof down to backup and his place taken.
but I doubt that’s what he meant
You mentioned that you don’t think Botman to be ready for the role of one of the two United main CBs. I’m not quite sure too. But I just don’t see a “no brainer” target. Do you have a candidate in mind?
[/QUOTE]
I think everyone is a risk. Even Varane. I liked konate but for injuries. I like the look of Tapsoda but again it’s a punt. Ramos might be an idea on a short term 2 year deal, seeing how Silva has got on. I still like DeLigt. Wonder could we swap him for Pogba and do a swoop for DeJong? Dreaming I know. I don’t know is the honest option but anything decent needs to be an option, as you probably gather I’m not a huge fan of Lindelofs style of defending
 

A-man

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We’d never have tried Vidic if that was the case. No pl experience
Its just that no PL experience could be a risk, doesn’t mean it’s a no go, absolutely not. Many of the best defenders in the PL are from other countries. I’m just not sure a guy like Torres would walk straight in.