Lisandro Martinez finally announced

He was shite, he does have an absolute shit show in front of him and beside him though tbf to the lad, and behind him with Dave crisp packet hands

Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see 5 at the back is an absolute necessity with this squad. Dalot & Shaw/Malacia pushing on for width with Varane/Martinez flanking Maguire. Maguire doesn’t get exposed for pace; Martinez & Varane can play with the ball. 2 at the back with Maguire & Napoleon and any combination of midfielders at the club in front of them is 8th place finish in waiting

Shaky at times but looks decent enough in the ball although a bit rash at times. I’m sure he’ll grow into his role in the team

I would like to see him as a holding midfielder, I know that’s supposedly not his position but he could do well for us there imo.

If he calms down he'll be OK. Not a good start.

DM makes far more sense right now.

Doesn't fill me with confidence that he was signed because Timber refused to move prior to the World Cup.

So we basically got Ten Hag's second choice centre back from his previous club.

Its like Mourinho trying to sign Varane for Roma and ending up with Lindelof.

Had real problems first half but none of those were related to his height

Seemed more organisational which isn’t surprising as Maguire and him hadn’t played a single minute together before
The only poor issue 2nd half was that reckless barge that should have given them a penalty

On the ball he was mostly excellent

Jury still out as it looks weird seeing someone of his stature in the heart of a PL defence but at least he doesn’t shit his pants on the ball when pressed
The only one back there who doesn’t

Put him next to somebody who can actually turn and run, and who isn't constantly caught out of position before you judge him.

Calling him a dud after one competitive game is stupid.

He'll be fine. A lot of 1 game reaction mongers on tonight.

He can clearly pass between the lines to to speak and is a lot more assured on the ball than Harry or Shaw. Just needs to bed in a little - and a decent centre half next to him.

Originally Posted by Wayne Jenkins

Put him next to somebody who can actually turn and run, and who isn't constantly caught out of position before you judge him.

Calling him a dud after one competitive game is stupid.

If the last ten years have taught us anything, it's that that's not stupid at all. Merely efficient.

he is too short.
at one point the Brighton forward controlled the ball on his chest over him and was nearly through..

we didn't need him. we have varane and lindelof who are more than adequate.

if you actually watch the league you'll realise you can get away average cb.(Nathan are starts for city, do you know how dogshit he would look for us)
our cb are always under the spotlight because every team we play are bearing down on a goal with our midfielders chasing them back towards our goal.

for liverpool, henderson and Fabinho make the pitch so small and their full backs press up meaning the cb are never exposed and never having to face up to the oppositions forwards.

and him being good on the ball is a mute point because a competent midfielder will be picking up the ball from them meaning they need to only complete 5/10 yard passes.

we didnt need to splash 57m on him especially when its not even a given he will be a success.

Originally Posted by marlo

he is too short.
at one point the Brighton forward controlled the ball on his chest over him and was nearly through..

we didn't need him. we have varane and lindelof who are more than adequate.

if you actually watch the league you'll realise you can get away average cb.(Nathan are starts for city, do you know how dogshit he would look for us)
our cb are always under the spotlight because every team we play are bearing down on a goal with our midfielders chasing them back towards our goal.

for liverpool, henderson and Fabinho make the pitch so small and their full backs press up meaning the cb are never exposed and never having to face up to the oppositions forwards.

and him being good on the ball is a mute point because a competent midfielder will be picking up the ball from them meaning they need to only complete 5/10 yard passes.

we didnt need to splash 57m on him especially when its not even a given he will be a success.

If only.

I wouldn't mind if he had electric pace. Just drop the scot, push martinez into midfield then play someone else alongside harry.

He does have a cracking shot on him. Midfield worth a try or would it break him like it has every other @#%&! we put there?

57 mil for a cb being converted to a midfielder .. when folk would have you think we are 17 mil (price of Frenkies contract being bought out) away from getting FDJ. Imagine we’d just actually spent the money on FDJ, kept England + Frances international centre backs and put the money left over to Better use

Fortunately he won't have to play against super talented guys like welbeck every week.

Wobbly first half, understandable I suppose. Clearly a good footballer, which is rare in a United shirt these days.

He is £#%&!ing tiny though. The likes of Chris Wood and Michael Antonio will be salivating at the prospect of isolating him back post.

Originally Posted by ErikvanHaaksbergen

57 mil for a cb being converted to a midfielder .. when folk would have you think we are 17 mil (price of Frenkies contract being bought out) away from getting FDJ. Imagine we’d just actually spent the money on FDJ, kept England + Frances international centre backs and put the money left over to Better use

We can’t pay the £17m. It doesn’t work like that.

He isn’t going to be converted to a midfielder either.

I can’t see him sticking him in midfield. He’d have done it straight away if he was planning on doing that.

ETH has someone he knows and we have a defender who is comfortable on the ball and reads the game. That reduces a problem. Thing is, we’ve much problems and not much budget.

I don’t think we’ve prioritised it over other deals. We just can’t get the other deals done.

If we got FDJ and Sesko for the money being talked about then we’ll have spent around £150m and picked up five very good players and I don’t think anyone would have been too unhappy with it…. But I think if you’d said to anyone that we’d have started todays game with the same side that finished last season with a 30 year old freebie and a new centre back in there, they’d have been livid.

McFred starting as first choice is truly upsetting. There was only Martial missing. And he should have been sold too.

Originally Posted by dunk

Wobbly first half, understandable I suppose. Clearly a good footballer, which is rare in a United shirt these days.

He is £#%&!ing tiny though. The likes of Chris Wood and Michael Antonio will be salivating at the prospect of isolating him back post.



We can’t pay the £17m. It doesn’t work like that.

He isn’t going to be converted to a midfielder either.

we can tell him to forgo it with barca and pay him a signing bonus go 16.95 million

Originally Posted by marlo

we can tell him to forgo it with barca and pay him a signing bonus go 16.95 million

Not sure we can, or we would.

Originally Posted by marlo

we can tell him to forgo it with barca and pay him a signing bonus go 16.95 million

Exactly. And I’m not saying he should be converted to a cm .. but the longer this McFred pain goes on that will be the call. Absolutely preposterous signing given the teams needs and to make it worse he’s minute. Either we go 5 at Back (which clearly wasn’t the plan) or we disintegrate further from here barring major signings

Originally Posted by Dr Stranger

ETH has someone he knows and we have a defender who is comfortable on the ball and reads the game. That reduces a problem. Thing is, we’ve much problems and not much budget.
.

Varane is comfortable on the ball. Won the World Cup as Frances ball playing centre back next to Umtiti. Won 4 European Cups. Benched