True, but you do have to take into account how poor the teams competing with us were. Also we had Casemiro who chipped in with a lot of important goals. Mainoo got some form back. Be interesting to see what midfield we use more next season. Carrick isn’t really one to change up the line up much unless an injury or suspension.
Youri Tielemans | Signed | #18
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Yeah exactly , was seeing these comments all season. Our own fans genuinely talk like all other midfields in the prem are full of Vieiras and Keanes. When in reality most of them would have dreamt to have Casemiro, Mainoo and Bruno.
Even our current midfield of Mainoo, Santos, Tielemans and Mount is up there. People keep banging on about needing a 3rd CM signing when the majority of teams don't have a 3rd or 4th choice CM as good as ours. We are in a much better position this season.
Im excited to see our midfield as all 4 have the ability to keep the ball in tight spaces which should in theory allow us to dominate the ball more. Tielemans im excited to see as he could be the shrewdest signing of the summer based on his price and quality.
Now if we talk about winning the league or champions league then yeah I think we need to add 1 or 2 sprinkles of star dust into the squad but as it is we have a very good squad and I think most people outside of a part of our fan base have us in the top 4.
Hopefully we will see him in action tomorrow.
If I am honest he is a player in the past in his pre Villa days that I did not have a lot of time for , always thought he seemed a bit lazy and only turned it on at times when he wanted to.
I suppose that he is not a particularly quick player or athletic player may have colored my judgement on him.
I have been very impressed with his time at Villa , hopefully he carries that form for us.
If I am honest he is a player in the past in his pre Villa days that I did not have a lot of time for , always thought he seemed a bit lazy and only turned it on at times when he wanted to.
I suppose that he is not a particularly quick player or athletic player may have colored my judgement on him.
I have been very impressed with his time at Villa , hopefully he carries that form for us.
Lot of top teams with UCL would always have good 3rd and 4th choice CM and even competent 5th choice. 3 of the 4 teams below had at least 5 solid or competent midfield option while the team that didn't have 5 midfield ironically out of European spot now.
When Chelsea had UCL, they had Caicedo, Santos, Lavia, and Enzo. This season, they didn't need to have good squad depth as they don't have european comp.
Arsenal had Zubimendi, MLS, Rice, Merino, and Norgaard. And now they signed Bruno G.
City had Rodri, González, Reijnders, Silva, Kovacic. And now they signed Anderson to replace Silva.
Liverpool had Gravenberch, Endo, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, and Jones.
While this season we are competing in UCL so we need better squad depth than teams that don't have UCL. We have Mainoo, Santos, and Tielemans only with trying to convince ourselves that we are going to convert Mount the Bruno's backup with bad injury record as our 4th choice midfield and our 5th choice is Fletcher. In comparison, the likes of Liverpool, City and Arsenal who are in CL have better midfield depth than us.
Outside of City and Arsenal, Mainoo Tielemans Santos and Mount as 4th choice and Bruno as an emergency 5th choice is a good set of midfielders. I doubt we would be happy to get in Jones, Endo, Norgaard, Lavia, the later of which has been a sick note. If we went in with those 5 options as our options for the 2 pivot roles thats not an insane position to be in. Its not perfect but its also not the catastrophe some fans are making it out to be.
Bruno should be absolutely nowhere near playing in the middle. He's getting older so if he's not in his best position he should be being rested. We also have no one who's particularly capable of replacing him in his best position, so the idea of having to use him deeper as a solution boggles my mind.
You are talking about a fifth choice CM which would require us having 3 CMs being injured at the same time. The 5th choice CM is literally there to make up depth and if we have an average season likely is not getting a lot of games anyway. We are not going to be having 5 1st choice midfielders for 2 positions, that is silly. Additionally, you have Cunha who arguably is better in a CAM than left wing. So yes, boggles the mind that some would throw their toys out the pram if we went into the season without buying a 3rd CM this summer.
Individually quality players but we got ran through in midfield far too often. Without someone mobile or without a strong passer, we struggled against better midfield opposition and teams were able to just glide through the middle.
With Tielemens we’ll be able to break teams down more, and with Santos / hopefully a mobile DM we’ll be able to defend in the midfield much more effectively - it’s not all about tackling ability, Cas couldn’t run
You still don't get the point here. Let me expand this more.Teams with CL football like Liverpool, City, and Arsenal seem to have 4 to 5 midfielders of CM and DM with 2 of attacking midfielder, so basically they have 6 and even 7 players for 3 positions in midfield. While we have 3 midfielders of CM and DM (Santos, Mainoo, Tielemans) with 2 of attacking midfielder (Bruno and Mount), so basically 5 players for 3 positions in midfield.
So basically, Endo and Norgaard were their 7th choice of midfield last season, they are not even their 3rd or 4th choice. While our 7th choice is non existing so we will need to consider Tyler and Jack Fletcher as part of the 6th and 7th choice. I'm sure everyone including you would considered Endo and Norgaard as far better midfield right now than both of the Fletcher brothers. That's why we need that 3rd CM signing because they have Kovacic, Endo and now Zubimendi or Lewis-Skelly (because Arsenal sold Norgaard and signed Bruno G), while we have Tyler and Jack Fletcher.
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Its confusing because your own argument makes no sense. Sometimes you are including CAMs in the convo, sometimes not. If you're going to include CAMs why not include Cunha in the equation who also plays there. Which ever way you want to pick and choose your argument my point still stands.
In my original post I didn’t include CAM at all. But you replied to my post by adding CAM like Bruno. So I played along to your argument by adding the CAM. And now you want to include Cunha our LW or forward option as midfielder option. What’s next? Mbeumo and Amad? Please stop considering forward as midfielder because it’s irrelevant to the discussion about midfielder.
In conclusion, your point doesn’t stand because teams with CL football like Liverpool, City, and Arsenal seem to have 6 and even 7 players for 3 positions in midfield. While we have 5 players for 3 positions in midfield.
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Yeah I don’t see the need for another midfield addition when for me we are lacking quite a bit defensively at cb and full backs.
Andre Santos I guess is a sort of unknown and isn’t as proven as Tielemans but that’s who the club have gone for so we’ve got to trust to see how he develops. I guess the only concern with Mount is the injuries (who’s now got injured again of course). But id rather we go for someone young or even a loan deal in midfield if we do want to up numbers.
Did we though? Which of these better opposition midfields ran through our team?
Arsenal - beat them at the emirates, dominated the game at old Trafford. No signs of midfield inferiority in either game.
Man City - away got well beaten but that was a game we played a two man midfield but we were well on top in the home game.
Liverpool - beat them twice. They certainly didn’t stroll through our midfield in either game.
Aston Villa - beat them once but arguably should have won the away game. Certainly weren’t dominated in midfield.
Like I acknowledge our midfield lacked a physical presence but the idea that this automatically means we just got ran through is a nonsense. We’re not up against world class midfields most weeks we’re up against midfields who have similar issues or issues elsewhere. A lot of our midfield problems in the early part of the season were also down to tactical errors from Amorim too.
We struggled against teams who had certain personnel in midfield rather than the actual quality of players. Fulham, Newcastle, Leeds games in particular. All those teams finished behind us. And two of them were in the bottom eight. They all have very physical midfield players but on the other side of that all lacking technical ability and final third decisiveness.
4th choice as shown by mounts continued injuries as we cannot rely on him.
And Its not just injuries. It's rotation and fatigue. If one of the non injury prone midfielders gets injured then that's two playing every minute of every game twice a week or Bruno having to rotate in whilst also being our most important player in another position. See how stupid that sounds?
To be fair it wasn’t even better opposition. Even mid table teams just walked through.
When Mainoo got moving we were much better, but you must be in denial if you thought our midfield was top tier last season
There's a lot of middle ground between being "top tier" (did anyone actually claim that?) and being ran through all the time.
A large chunk of our midfield issues last year were down to Amorim's set up. We were much more solid when Carrick mitigated Case's weaknesses by changing our structure and keeping Mainoo closer to him. I strongly suspect the addition of Santos and Tielemans will prove a significant upgrade, although we still need a third new CM to come in.
I think it's asking for trouble. If we're hoping to compete on four fronts then we need a fourth CM. As well as rotation for playing twice a week, we also need quality off the bench for sub appearances - the lack of which hurt us last season even when we were playing far fewer games. Mount should never be relied upon to be anything other than a versatile bonus player who can fill in for a few positions.
Just saw he was having to apologise for saying United were a bigger club than Villa. 
Bizarre isn't it and saying he has to be "more careful" with his words.Just saw he was having to apologise for saying United were a bigger club than Villa.
Amazing.
Nothing that ain’t true. They should respect him for all he did at their club and accept… your best players will always move to bigger teamsJust saw he was having to apologise for saying United were a bigger club than Villa.
What is going on, that was not controversial in the slightest.
Well, you know how football fans are. Pretty sure they would have rained abuse on him.
I think he should now be made issue an apology to Man Utd for his apology to Aston Villa for just stating a fact.
And he should be made do this loop of apologies every day until he learns the golden rule of 'never fooking apologize'.
And he should be made do this loop of apologies every day until he learns the golden rule of 'never fooking apologize'.
Football fans are weird when it comes to demanding apologies - I'm pretty sure I saw some posters on here (or it might have been tweets) that Rashford needs to apologise before he plays for us again.
Yep you can see the difference easily. We finally have a decent crop and possibly 1 more.
He was on high wages at Villa because he was a free signing. We're paying him less but over a longer time to make up for it
Cheers. Should have just upped the wage package and done a 3+1.
It might make more financial sense the way we've done it, who knows.
I'm of the opinion we'll get a good few years out of him and then he'll go to the MLS or something anyway and those extra years in the contract won't matter.
If he has the same decline as almost every other player on the planet, then I hope you're right. It wouldn't surprise me though if his contract is still relatively high. Anyone know his salary here?
It was reported we’re paying him the same amount but spread over longer because it being more spread out is better for our finances.