Somebody in Valencia’s mould would be fantastic. A good winger who was also pretty adept at defending.
At least that’s how I remember it anyway.
At least that’s how I remember it anyway.
Wing-back prospects
- Thread starter The White Pele
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Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
You might want to watch his previous sides to understand the importance of the wingbacks. Yes we want to dominate the game (wing back out ball, switch of play and pressing is key to this) but we also want go create overloads and chances too
If he wants wingback who performs like wingers like his previous sides then use Amad for now. There is other alternative within the team for the wingbacks. We don’t have alternative midfielder and centre back to turn us into a team that can dominate football.
Yeah, no new wingbacks this summer, probably. We will bring Cunha, striker, midfielder and a CB maybe.
Lack of quality wingback play will seemingly be the biggest challenge for Amorim next season, and might lead to his sacking. This system(3-4-3) relies on them so much to provide width...
Only after summer 2026(proper wingbacks would be the focus then, I assume) can he truly make a squad suitable to play his system, but he won't get that much time.
The problem we're gonna have is - the level that we're at, most games are settled by moments of quality. As oppose to 90 minutes of possession and territorial dominance. To win the league you likely need both, but we're miles off that.
The best chance Amorim has of getting enough points next season to avoid the sack is probably to stack the squad with as many match winners as he can buy, which would include an attacking wing back.
So, according to you the strategy is:
1. Don’t sign wingbacks
2. Sack Amorim when he fails with no wingbacks
3. Sign wingbacks
Yeah, doubtful.
Pretty sure we have more options at CB than wingback
Didn’t realise Tyrik Mitchell and Ola Aina are both out of contract this summer. Worth looking at
We have quantities but do we have options that can turn us into a dominant team?
Yoro, DeLigt and Martinez, of course we should add more quality but honestly you are just not realising the importance of the wingbacks to the system
Wingbacks are not the key to dominate or play possession. To dominate, the key is the central area. Right now, we are incapable to dominate. Spending the money on wingbacks and ignore the central area won’t make us to be a dominant team.
Like I keep saying, understand the system before commenting
Aina would be great, especially on a free. But I think he has an automatic extension if they avoid the drop.
That wasn't my strategy - you misinterpreted what I've meant. I think the club(Amorim) won't be able to sign wingback(s) this summer due to other priorities and lack of funds, and that will come with consequences which might lead to Amorim's failure, sacking.
Wingbacks will remain a "hole" in the squad until summer 2026, and that sucks.
Hmm, hopefully our recruitment strategy is aware of this gap.
Personally, given the rumours I think we might looking at Ederson for the RWB role, he has a lot of qualities for it.
We’ve also signed Diego Leon to add depth to LWB
United have excellent centrals midfielders in Bruno/Mainoo/Casemiro/Urarte whilst effectively zero threat in the wide areas. They're 19th in the league for key chance creation stats while Bruno is putting up Kevin De Bruyne type numbers and even Casemiro/Urgate are among league leaders in many defensive midfield metrics. You cannot dominate midfield no matter how good you are when said midfielders are passing the ball to forwards who lose possession over and over whilst posing zero threat in 1v1 situations.
What United need are quality players for 10 roles (Cunha would help massively) and wing backs capable of breaking the lines/providing width, something both Shaw/Dalot are not capable of which is supported by the fairly abysmal attacking metrics they have both had throughout their time here.
Having quality wide players allows you to dominate midfield because pressing teams have to worry about leaving those players 1v1, something no team on earth does currently when they're against Garnacho and Hojlund.
Avoid the drop? You mean qualify for the UCL?
False rumor spread earlier this season. He is out of contract in the summer.
No avoid the drop is (quite common) slang for not being relegated, which they did handily this year so they can activate the extension if they wish to.
It might well be the case, the athletic were reporting it still only 2 days ago (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6323599/2025/05/01/ola-aina-nottingham-forest-personality/) but I don't know how reliable Paul Taylor is.
I’m pretty sure it was The Athletic where I read it wasn’t the case recently so who really knows.
I can say the same thing to you that you need to understand the system.
Agree to disagree then.
We cannot even dominate our own build up phase. We are still struggling to dominate the ball against opposition high pressing. Without fixing this, we will lose possession cheaply over and over in dangerous area before the ball even reach to forwards.
Amorim system relies his CCB to join to his midfielder during the build up phase to form the following structure.
GK
RWB - RCB - LCB - LWB
Maguire/de Ligt - Ugarte
RWB - RCB - LCB - LWB
Maguire/de Ligt - Ugarte
I cannot imagine how Maguire or de Ligt playing next to Ugarte being assigned to play like Busquest or Carrick will allow us to dominate the game in our build up phase in Amorim’s system playing against the high standards pressings of PL level.
In addition to this, we have no 10 and striker issue, which also part of the central area. Fix the CCB, midfield, no 10, and striker first, then we can start talking about the wingbacks.
If we want wingbacks with winger’s quality then I would rather see Amad to allow us fixing other areas first. The fact is that any wingback who can score hattrick should be considered as excellent or quality wingback. But, we don’t have the right quality players in the central area CCB, midfield, no 10, and striker.
Yeah, we have massive issues getting the ball up the pitch quickly which is a large part of why our forwards lose the ball so often. If you can't break the press your forwards get two types of chances, direct punts from the back or passes to feet against set defences. Neither of which are especially good.
By far the most transformative signing we could make would be someone who is elite at breaking the lines in the middle third under pressure.
Emphatic YES!
Please make this happen this summer. Ederson / Angelo Stiller I'd be happy with or any rando of the Sander Berge level from Portugal that's not widely known / Ruben recommends on the cheap would be fine too.
Munoz of Crystal Palace?
We don’t need WBs, we need to revert to a back 4.
We are going to waste money on specialist roles only to abandon this system early next season.
We are going to waste money on specialist roles only to abandon this system early next season.
Kayode looked pretty tasty today for Brentford
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Kayode is an excellent young player. Had a superb debut season for Fiorentina where his overall physicality absolutely shone through.
I’m never surprised with Brentford anymore, there are so many “hidden” gems they pick up and look to develop and he’s an excellent addition on loan and someone who if they can pick up for around £20m would represent excellent long term value as I believe he can be worth double that in 3 years.
He looks exactly like what we want Dorgu to be on the left for us
Leroy Sané is out of contract and is a vertical winger with great pace.
True, apparently wants to move to London though
Quenda was a winger/RM wasn't he?
Why are people expecting actual wingbacks and not wide midfielders?
Amad looks way more imposing at RWB so I doubt we are just going to spend money on a RWB/RB type prospect.
I don't think we are targeting 4 Dorgu type players for the squad. We are going to type some wingers capable of playing as wingbacks whilst having fullbacks that are also capable of playing as wingbacks in the system.
Why are people expecting actual wingbacks and not wide midfielders?
Amad looks way more imposing at RWB so I doubt we are just going to spend money on a RWB/RB type prospect.
I don't think we are targeting 4 Dorgu type players for the squad. We are going to type some wingers capable of playing as wingbacks whilst having fullbacks that are also capable of playing as wingbacks in the system.
When the opposition are pressing high where do we lose the ball? Are the centre backs losing it? Do you think it's our midfielders? What kind of % do you think is average for a forward player in duels?
The fact is that statistically United have decent numbers when it comes to building out of the back and progressing the ball via passes from middle to attacking third. We make more of these passes than Arsenal/NewcastleSpurs/Chelsea/Forrest/Villa.
We should sign someone like Bruno Fernandes. 99th percentile for progressive passes/key passes/passes into penalty area/through balls. Also 90th percentile for progressive carries/carries into final 3rd/carries into penalty area.
Just swapped agencies and is negotiating a new deal with Bayern the last I read.
As shown in Sundays game Amad does NOT have the defensive capabilities to play there and the only reason Amad looks good there at times is because he has space out wide to run at the opposition instead of being stifled as one of two 10’s and also because the alternative is Dalot and Mazraoui who aren’t wing backs and when they play it means Amad as a 10 has no one on the outside to overlap or even support him therefore making Amad look better as a wing back.
The plan should be for Amorim to simply tweak his system and play a genuine 3-4-3 rather than a 3-4-2-1 and use wingers instead of 10’s which would stretch play and the opposition, give Amad and Garnacho their natural roles, create space for the midfielders, give us natural width, allow us the variety of both of either the wingers or wing backs going on the outside or coming inside and put a lot more pace in the team.
Let’s just say for example everyone was fit and we were to sign a new keeper, two high energy wing backs like Frimpong and Kerkez and also a striker like Gyokeres or Osimhen then played a 3-4-3 with wingers so we looked like this,
Keeper, Yoro, Maguire, Martinez, Frimpong, Bruno, Ugarte, Kerkez, Amad, Gyokeres/Osimhen, Garnacho
I’m only using those as an example as I’m aware of our financial and PSR issues and also of our need to win Europa but just in those tweaks in the set up make us look far more balanced, far more solid, far better tactically and far better for how you need to play in the PL.
I'm interested to see if anyone's watched much of Oscar Mingueza at Celta? Came through as a CB at Barca but has been playing on the right and his stats look very promising from an attacking point of view.
He'd also bring the added benefit of CB cover, should we need it. Villa were close to signing him in January apparently.
If we don't sign anyone I'd like to see one of the youngsters promoted at the very least. Kamason seems the obvious choice on the right though Mantados name was floated as a more attacking option also.
He'd also bring the added benefit of CB cover, should we need it. Villa were close to signing him in January apparently.
If we don't sign anyone I'd like to see one of the youngsters promoted at the very least. Kamason seems the obvious choice on the right though Mantados name was floated as a more attacking option also.
Alas, wrong type of player. I think he also might play for us already, which suggests he isn't the solution to the problem. Which might be explained by him being 91th percentile for progressive passes received and penalty area touches.
The problem isn't progressing the ball in the opposition half, it's about breaking the lines of their press in our own half and getting the ball into the opposition 3rd quickly in the first place. Fernandes makes less than half of all his passes in the middle third of the pitch. It's important to look at where players are making passes and carries rather than just raw numbers. All those things lend him to being a very good attacking midfielder, but things like how often he's dispossessed on the ball, how often he gives it away etc. (not to mention his goal threat and all that other stuff) make him ill-suited to playing deeper.
We need a Kimmich/Vitinha/de Jong style player, not another Bruno Fernandes (although cloning him would be undoubtfully helpful).
Its so annoying we have Ait-Nouri, Kirkez and Frimpong right there and we will end up getting none of them.
Except that as I said in my previous post United have good numbers for ball progression from the back into midfield. It's only when the ball get's played into the forward line that we become a relegation team. So to answer the question about priorities we most certainly do not need to sign this type of player before a number of forwards are added. Rashford/Greenwood/Sancho and Anthony have all left with no replacements whereas we have Mainoo/Ugarte/Casemiro/Bruno for CM, all of whom are good players when they're not passing to Garnacho or Hojlund.
United have the highest number of touches per game in the defensive 3rd of any Premier League team, 6th in middle 3rd touches and 10th in final third touches. So with all due respect, this clearly isn't capturing the problem. We don't get the ball out from the defence into midfield quickly enough, the balls gets stuck being circulated around the back 5 and teams either win it back with their press or drop back into their defensive shape. It's why we struggle to score goals. We look like a relegation team when the ball gets to the forwards because we simply don't get the ball out of the back very often and when we do it's usually very slow.
The top 5 teams for touches in their own defensive 3rd are United, Brentford, Southampton, West Ham and Spurs (with Leicester in 6th). The bottom 5 are Arsenal, Bournemouth, Forest, City and Everton (with Liverpool, Villa, Newcastle and Brighton immediately after them). Even if you look at it in terms of percentages (which has it's own issues), we're 10th/12th/14th, surrounded by a whole glut of really bad teams. We're in the wrong group there and it's very obvious in our play.
So yes, we desperately, desperately do need a midfielder who can actually break a press and get the ball forward quickly. Mainoo and Ugarte are frankly terrible at progressing the ball from deep, Casemiro is our best at is, but he's erratic and get's caught by pressing players on the half turn way too often (which is why Madrid always played Kroos as the first receiver from the defence and not Casemiro). Bruno simply shouldn't be playing there unless we're playing against a team with no intention of pressing and just looking to defend in 2 banks of 4/5, he's better in attacking positions and we're robbing Peter to pay Paul by dropping him back.