Why did Ole prioritise a CB over a DM?

Jericholyte2

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Simple question really. We all knew the Glazers wouldn’t open the purse strings enough to get a RW, CB and a DM, so why did Ole prioritise a CB over a DM?

We have nobody good enough to be a Man Utd starting DM right now, before Varane we had one and a half good enough CBs who would have been stronger with greater protection by an Ndidi type in front of them. Once the Ronaldo euphoria has died down we'll quickly see what a mistake that was.

But I guess we’ll only get to see how good a manager Ole really is next season, after we’ve bought a CM or two.
 
It's puzzling but he genuinely must not see it as an issue, or else he would have prioritised it.

Every summer the club has been clear about our target positions. When we were first after Maguire, then AWB, then Varane, and Sancho we were very clear about our needs beforehand. But we never were strongly linked to a DM all summer. Even going back a few years I can't remember any concrete interest. So the logical conclusion is that we never planned for one at all.
 
Because Varane is better than any other DM available and lindleof is crap?

feck me that Varane signing is one of the best bits of business we’ve done in years.

Im mindful of how the team will look when McTominay comes back. He was an absolute monster against Leeds and is in the age bracket where midfielders can potentially flourish.
 
money already earmarked for sancho, no affordable options at DM on the radar, not enough players sold. who knows.
 
I think it's a lot to do with who was available and for what figures. Maybe it's better to ask why we diverted 70 million to the right wing before DM.

We got Varane for a relatively small fee considering his stature in the game, I think that is logic enough for why we pursued that one.
 
He didn't see Mctominay ever getting injured. He's the glue that holds together our midfield.
 
Jericholyte2 said:
Simple question really. We all knew the Glazers wouldn’t open the purse strings enough to get a RW, CB and a DM, so why did Ole prioritise a CB over a DM?

We have nobody good enough to be a Man Utd starting DM right now, before Varane we had one and a half good enough CBs who would have been stronger with greater protection by an Ndidi type in front of them. Once the Ronaldo euphoria has died down we'll quickly see what a mistake that was.

But I guess we’ll only get to see how good a manager Ole really is next season, after we’ve bought a CM or two.
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Even without a CM, he has to deliver something this season. Just finishing top 4 and getting knocked out in group stages of CL is not enough, actually wasn't enough last season either, and after Varane, Sancho and Ronaldo are here it certainly isn't enough now.

On topic: I think we needed a CB as well as DM and when someone like Varane is available is hard to miss out on it, he wasn't expensive either.
 
I don't know but if I had to guess it's because a world class CB became available and no DM he wanted was at a reasonable price
 
It wasn’t just the CB. We also signed a striker, CR. Probably the sudden availability of Varane and Ronaldo nudged us in that direction. It was how much better they were than our current options (and cheap) that forced our hand. As opposed to us prioritising the positions per se.

In any case, I don’t think that was the problem. We decided not to put VDB on the transfer market despite Ole not trusting him for shit and we also seem to have offered Lingard an extension (though this might be the board’s decision “to protect asset value”) instead of telling him he’s simply unwanted, he won’t get any minutes and flogging him to the highest bidder.

Between those two we would have easily generated 30-40m and freed enough salaries to sign a good DM too. It was still a very good summer, let’s be honest. But with some better planning and quicker actioning, it could have been perfect.
 
Buying Varane is a good piece of business. Sancho I am not so sure.
 
Before we signed Varane, the craze for Upomecano, top cbs in 20/21 season was up there along with RW.

We solved 2 areas, trying to sign elite level CDM this window is just not logical financially.
 
a CB was priority. It was the right decision. A DM was needed over sancho who was bought to fill the RW position but Greenwood is already great in that role.. and sancho played left ffs
im sure a DM will be next in hopefully in January.
Hard to complain after the summer window.
 
I think we wanted a DM over a CB but Varane was available and no top DM was, we have rushed to buy the wrong players before and it was a sensible decision.
 
It was an opportunity he couldn't miss. Varane on sale, a CB that would walk right into the team and strengthen us. Weird to question that as everyone has screamed over Lindelof for years now. That was absolutely nothing wrong with that. The biggest problem is that he prioritized a winger (maybe also too good to say no to Sancho?) but also bought Ronaldo instead of a DM, that was a mistake. But obviously, the biggest mistake was signing VdB earlier, money that should've gone to a DM.
 
Too many reactionary threads opened when we lose, that OP can be in one of many threads discussing transfers or Ole...
 
It's not about prioritizing, nobody can say we didnt need a CB and we got one, brilliant one too.
 
Getting a world class player in January is very difficult and it doesn't happen very often. Not to mention that there were not any actual signs that we were seriously going for a DM - mostly those were speculations.Either we were satisfied with what we had, or Glazers didn't want to spend any more money. Getting Varane was an opportunity we simply couldn't afford to miss, Lindelof isn't good enough.We simply needed a CB
@Mickson Ronaldo cost us very little and the transfer came out of nowhere. Had we been serious about getting a DM,we would've done it earlier, I don't think one thing has anything to do with the other.
That being said, thank God we signed Ronaldo, with him we can at least hope to actually achieve something this season.
We'll wait for the next summer to buy a DM, it ain't gonna happen in January
 
The question is how much did we need Sancho after buying a similar young player in Amad last season?

We also have one of the best youngsters to ever come out of the academy in the same position.
 
No one can possibly be saying that buying Rapael Varane over a DM was the wrong move. It's probably a criminally punishable offense.
 
Chicharo said:
Getting a world class player in January is very difficult and it doesn't happen very often. Not to mention that there were not any actual signs that we were seriously going for a DM - mostly those were speculations.Either we were satisfied with what we had, or Glazers didn't want to spend any more money. Getting Varane was an opportunity we simply couldn't afford to miss, Lindelof isn't good enough.We simply needed a CB
@Mickson Ronaldo cost us very little and the transfer came out of nowhere. Had we been serious about getting a DM,we would've done it earlier, I don't think one thing has anything to do with the other.
That being said, thank God we signed Ronaldo, with him we can at least hope to actually achieve something this season.
We'll wait for the next summer to buy a DM, it ain't gonna happen in January
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I see Mickson's crusade against Ronaldo goes on.
 
We needed a centreback.

I don't get why we spent 2 years going after Sancho and spending nearly £80m when there was clearly no plan to sort out the midfield though. Much as I want Sancho to do well I still have no idea why we actually needed him. Where as we very clearly needed a midfielder, probably just as much as we needed a CB.
 
Think you’re looking at the wrong part of the pitch. I think, if we were aware of the Ronaldo situation sooner and he was signed first, would we have bothered with Sancho?

We would have had Cavani, Ronaldo, Rashford, Greenwood, Lingard, Martial, Bruno and Pogba as attacking options (and yes, i understand there’s question marks in there regarding ability, age, fitness, consistency etc). Hardly struggling for cover though.

Whereas midfield is an obvious gaping hole.
 
Real Name said:
I see Mickson's crusade against Ronaldo goes on.
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Do you think it was a good choice to get a 36-year-old striker with enormous wages instead of a DM regarding squad building? If I had to choose between the two, it would be an easy choice.
 
When a player like Varane is available, you go for him. Very good business if you ask me. Besides, we were not going to pay some 70M plus for signing Rice anyway.

Our lack of a good RB is affecting our play more if you ask me. McFred is pretty solid tbh.
 
Mickson said:
Do you think it was a good choice to get a 36-year-old striker with enormous wages instead of a DM regarding squad building? If I had to choose between the two, it would be an easy choice.
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We didnt sign Ronaldo instead of DM so there's no choice. When a 36 year old striker, one of the best players in the world or even ever becomes available you go for him, easy choice I agree.
 
A CB we badly needed. Sancho over a DM and a RB though. Why? A team with Tripper and Bissouma or Tchouameni would be miles better.
 
One of the worlds best centre backs was available at a very modest price and was keen to come here?
 
I think the caf had already decided Lindelof was the worst CB we've ever had...

Primarily because a top class player became available in an area we wanted to improve. There wasn't a DM of his calibre available this window.
 
Real Name said:
We didnt sign Ronaldo instead of DM so there's no choice. When a 36 year old striker, one of the best players in the world or even ever becomes available you go for him, easy choice I agree.
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It's difficult to say, maybe he wouldn't have bought a DM anyway which I find odd.
 
We def need a DM, but not for the reasons people think. A DM in this system does not resolve our problems even if he was the best in the world.
 
We needed a centre-back, Varane who is a world class one, signalled his desire to move, and also did so last summer. He was available for cheap.

And with Varane's pace we can play a higher line, eliminate some of the space behind Fred & McTominay, which could in time make us less reliant on playing both of them. I think that's the idea anyway. Still need a DM, but it could work as a short-term solution.
 
Mickson said:
Do you think it was a good choice to get a 36-year-old striker with enormous wages instead of a DM regarding squad building? If I had to choose between the two, it would be an easy choice.
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Mate, no one is acting like a crusader here, we all wish what is best for the club, but Ronaldo was signed just couple of days before the deadline(ok, the deal was probably agreed couple of days earlier that is for sure), so there was no choosing between him and a DM. We should've gone for DM much earlier and then talk about signing Ronnie if the opportunity presented itself, as it did. We didn't, which only means that we were satisfied with McT,Fred, Matic and Pogba...Not signing a DM had nothing to do with signing Ronaldo. We wouldnt've signed a DM anyway or it would've been a panic buy
As for the salary, no one can convince me that is an issue, we are one of the richest clubs in the World,we are just owned by wankers
 
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