Martial Injured

Originally Posted by Joe Biden

I get what marlo is saying to be fair, unless you're shifting maguire or lindelof buying a CB wasn't as urgent as 2 midfielders a striker and a right back

Which can all be as urgent as you like, it there aren’t any to buy you’re pretty much £#%&!ed.

Originally Posted by dunk

If they don’t spend £70m on the players we have, we just wouldn’t have spent anything as the players he wants in midfield and attack haven’t come to fruition or aren’t available/clubs have set artificially high values as they don’t want to sell.

It’s a failure of preparation by the club, but can be put down to the changing of the guard in terms of all the people that have left (including scouting and recruitment) and the manager coming in and knowing what he wants and needs and what is available. This summer was always going to be shit transfer wise imo.

Sorry Dunk but Ten Hag was interviewed in April, in the midst of our worst season in 20 years with the interim manager saying open heart surgery was needed.
If you cannot identify and line up additions that suited him at that stage why did they appoint him?

Originally Posted by Joe Biden

I get what marlo is saying to be fair, unless you're shifting maguire or lindelof buying a CB wasn't as urgent as 2 midfielders a striker and a right back

Yes but they're not exclusive.

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone after the end of last season who didn't think we needed defensive reinforcement.

Maguire was absolute shite
Varane a crock
Lindelof not good enough
Bailly mr chaos
AWB, Dalot and Telles not good enough
Shaw AOTS


Buying Martinez doesn't mean we can't/won't by a mid/attacker


What I do have issue with is the way we've pursued De Jong. We're really £#%&!ed if that doesn't come off and we don't buy a suitable alternative.

Attacking wise, the Ronaldo saga we could have done without. Elanga isn't good enough, and I don't want to go into the season with only Tony, Rashford and Sancho. Absurd.

Martinez and Eriksen are fine signings. We just need more like them.

Originally Posted by Whip Hubley

Yes but they're not exclusive.

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone after the end of last season who didn't think we needed defensive reinforcement.

Maguire was absolute shite
Varane a crock
Lindelof not good enough
Bailly mr chaos
AWB, Dalot and Telles not good enough
Shaw AOTS


Buying Martinez doesn't mean we can't/won't by a mid/attacker


What I do have issue with is the way we've pursued De Jong. We're really £#%&!ed if that doesn't come off and we don't buy a suitable alternative.

Attacking wise, the Ronaldo saga we could have done without. Elanga isn't good enough, and I don't want to go into the season with only Tony, Rashford and Sancho. Absurd.

Martinez and Eriksen are fine signings. We just need more like them.

The point is priority though.

if we had signed de jong and Anthony this summer , you’d say we need another striker and then you’d say we’d need RB:

There’s no situation in which if we signed midfielders and forward that anyone would be saying we needed a cb.
It’s the very very least of our worries and it’s the position that you don’t change that often.

a top 6 team should not have more than one CB on the bench we are gonna have 3 internationals maybe 4 if you include Jones. It’s ridiculous.

elanga will most like start for us. It’s criminal we didn’t buy attackers FIRST and FOREMOST and for once ironically enough drag our feet on the cb we don’t really need!

Originally Posted by marlo

The point is priority though.

if we had signed de jong and Anthony this summer , you’d say we need another striker and then you’d say we’d need RB:

There’s no situation in which if we signed midfielders and forward that anyone would be saying we needed a cb.
It’s the very very least of our worries and it’s the position that you don’t change that often.

a top 6 team should not have more than one CB on the bench we are gonna have 3 internationals maybe 4 if you include Jones. It’s ridiculous.

elanga will most like start for us. It’s criminal we didn’t buy attackers FIRST and FOREMOST and for once ironically enough drag our feet on the cb we don’t really need!

I disagree regarding that point re my last post, I just don't think it should be hard to target 4 or 5 players and pursue them with equal vigour.

We needed, IMO, after last season:

CB
RB
LB
Mid (perhaps 2)
ST

We have 3 out of those 5 or 6. Big, big if we get FDJ and Sesko, that's got to be considered a very good summer.

If we don't get the above or alternatives, it's really poor.

Originally Posted by Whip Hubley

I disagree regarding that point re my last post, I just don't think it should be hard to target 4 or 5 players and pursue them with equal vigour.

We needed, IMO, after last season:

CB
RB
LB
Mid (perhaps 2)
ST

We have 3 out of those 5 or 6. Big, big if we get FDJ and Sesko, that's got to be considered a very good summer.

If we don't get the above or alternatives, it's really poor.

We won’t sign anyone else and haven’t really addressed our major squad problems

It’s his first window however so I’ll give him. A little slack

Originally Posted by Whip Hubley

I disagree regarding that point re my last post, I just don't think it should be hard to target 4 or 5 players and pursue them with equal vigour.

We needed, IMO, after last season:

CB
RB
LB
Mid (perhaps 2)
ST

We have 3 out of those 5 or 6. Big, big if we get FDJ and Sesko, that's got to be considered a very good summer.

If we don't get the above or alternatives, it's really poor.

It's a nonsense that we haven't signed any midfielder that isnt attacking / a playmaker like Eriksen.

However we definitely needed two new full-backs.

Originally Posted by Wayne Jenkins

It's a nonsense that we haven't signed any midfielder that isnt attacking / a playmaker like Eriksen.

However we definitely needed two new full-backs.

Welcome aboard Wayne. It may have escaped your attention that we have signed a new left sided full back. I do think we could upgrade RB too though given that AwB is as thick as mince.

CM has to be the next priority for me... and quickly.

city -
Ake, Laporte, Diaz, stones

Liverpool -
Vvd, kanoute , Matip, Gomez

Chelsea -
Silva, chalaboa, sarr, azpeliceta

Spurs -
Romero, royal, Sanchez , tangaga

United (last season)
Maguire, varane, lindelof, bailly, Jones

as you can see there isn’t that much difference between any of those groups including ourselves.
we could have got away with our CB group as it’s in line with our rivals quality wise.

There’s no reason we decided to strengthen that department especially when only 2 of them play and they aren’t changed on 60 mins.. We needed a new gk before we need a cb.


Priority wise we need 2 midfielders, 2 wide players, a striker and a rb before we needed a cb that’s 6 players.

We hired the manager to bring in his style of football. That requires upgraded fullbacks, a ball playing centre half and a midfielder that can dictate a game. He’s sorted 2 of the 4 and is waiting on the centre mid because of issues on Barcelonas side. We needed Malacia and Martinez whether you agree with it or not.

Originally Posted by browser

We hired the manager to bring in his style of football. That requires upgraded fullbacks, a ball playing centre half and a midfielder that can dictate a game. He’s sorted 2 of the 4 and is waiting on the centre mid because of issues on Barcelonas side. We needed Malacia and Martinez whether you agree with it or not.

Can't wait for the window to close, a load of people with some awful takes ....

De Jong and a striker is an excellent window, especially with martial now injured...

Whichever way its dressed up - the defence was more of a priority than midfield and attackers. Last year Burnley (Relegated), Villa, Brentford, Palace, Wolves, Brighton all conceded less than we did... Think about that for a minute... I couldn't even name some of their defenders, and yet they performed better than ours...

We were shit at scoring goals too, West Ham and Leicester (plus everyone who finished above us) all scored more than we did last year.
Mid table level goal scoring and relegation level conceding...

I'm sure the new manager believes he can get more goals out of the existing players, just by his influence and improve how we play through the lines. He probably feels less confident that he can teach the crop of defenders he inherited how to set the tone and flow out from the back, we've been atrocious at it for years.

I'm sure he would love a couple more up top - but he's said it many times already, its not about just signing players, its about signing the right players. If we have to play Nacho until the January transfer window because the right player isn't available at the moment, then so be it.

Originally Posted by browser

We hired the manager to bring in his style of football. That requires upgraded fullbacks, a ball playing centre half and a midfielder that can dictate a game. He’s sorted 2 of the 4 and is waiting on the centre mid because of issues on Barcelonas side. We needed Malacia and Martinez whether you agree with it or not.

Yup.

Originally Posted by Ronny

Sorry Dunk but Ten Hag was interviewed in April, in the midst of our worst season in 20 years with the interim manager saying open heart surgery was needed.
If you cannot identify and line up additions that suited him at that stage why did they appoint him?

We sacked all the recruitment staff because their record over the last 10 years was shite. We did this in May as part of the ‘new start’ so who is identifying and lining up additions? They asked him who he wanted. He said Malacia, Timber/Martinez and FDJ, and then Antony. They got 2, I didn’t fancy it, 1 is in abeyance through no fault of United’s and 1 has been priced at a ridiculous level because his club don’t want to sell.

ETH needs time with the players to determine exactly what he has and identify exactly what he needs and then a scouting/recruitment team to sort out who it is he needs. That can’t be done between May and August, unfortunately.

It’s frustrating as £#%&!, but we’ve cleared the decks in terms of Woodward and his ‘team’ right the way down to Manager and it will take time for them to sort the direction and click into gear to get us going the way the manager and club want us to.

If we were to get Sesko and FDJ, while clearing more of the white, it will have been a tremendous window all things considered.

Originally Posted by Bobda

Whichever way its dressed up - the defence was more of a priority than midfield and attackers. Last year Burnley (Relegated), Villa, Brentford, Palace, Wolves, Brighton all conceded less than we did... Think about that for a minute... I couldn't even name some of their defenders, and yet they performed better than ours...

We were shit at scoring goals too, West Ham and Leicester (plus everyone who finished above us) all scored more than we did last year.
Mid table level goal scoring and relegation level conceding...

I'm sure the new manager believes he can get more goals out of the existing players, just by his influence and improve how we play through the lines. He probably feels less confident that he can teach the crop of defenders he inherited how to set the tone and flow out from the back, we've been atrocious at it for years.

I'm sure he would love a couple more up top - but he's said it many times already, its not about just signing players, its about signing the right players. If we have to play Nacho until the January transfer window because the right player isn't available at the moment, then so be it.

we buy a cb every year near enough.

our problem is whats INFRONT of our CB's.
they vacate the area, leave a huge gap in behind them and we have a striker who doesn't close down our opposition so they can pick their passes.
most teams get a free run at our defence which is why we concede so much.

our problem is our midfield.
if our midfield clicks and is competent it will highlight our deficiencies attacking wise.

so once we fix our midfield, we will then need to upgrade our attack.

thats two areas that need improvement with mentioning getting a new cb.

however you look at it we don't need a cb YET.

if you put Diaz and ake in our team at cb we wouldn't suddenly be solid at the back. our defenders right now are no worse than our rivals.

Garnacho to start?

Originally Posted by marlo

we buy a cb every year near enough.

our problem is whats INFRONT of our CB's.
they vacate the area, leave a huge gap in behind them and we have a striker who doesn't close down our opposition so they can pick their passes.
most teams get a free run at our defence which is why we concede so much.

our problem is our midfield.
if our midfield clicks and is competent it will highlight our deficiencies attacking wise.

so once we fix our midfield, we will then need to upgrade our attack.

thats two areas that need improvement with mentioning getting a new cb.

however you look at it we don't need a cb YET.

if you put Diaz and ake in our team at cb we wouldn't suddenly be solid at the back. our defenders right now are no worse than our rivals.

Yes this. I've no issue with the signings but I blame the midfield for not screening our defence as much as I blame our defence, I even blame our lazy attackers not tracking back etc.

I think ten expected to be able to sell about 3 cbs pretty easily though and didn't realise they were basically squatting at United (not dissimilar to de jong at barca tbf)



This is exactly the time not to play Ronaldo imo.

Conceded 30% more goals last season than the one prior. Will have to put Sherlock Holmes hat on to think about what changed. Could be having 10 players when out of possession but not sure

It’s really disappointing we’re starting the season in this position
You would have hoped we’d have had all our major business done before the season opener

That Martial injury has really put a bit damper on our start to the season but it’s also highlighted how threadbare we are up front

However we could still end up having a really good window
If we sign FDJ (I don’t think we will) or another top quality number 6, sign Sesko and bring in a wide right forward as backup to Sancho (Maybe Ziyech on loan) then we’ll have had a good window and provided ETH with enough squad depth for this season

Not looking good at the moment but that could easily change in a few weeks

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

It’s really disappointing we’re starting the season in this position
You would have hoped we’d have had all our major business done before the season opener

That Martial injury has really put a bit damper on our start to the season but it’s also highlighted how threadbare we are up front

However we could still end up having a really good window
If we sign FDJ (I don’t think we will) or another top quality number 6, sign Sesko and bring in a wide right forward as backup to Sancho (Maybe Ziyech on loan) then we’ll have had a good window and provided ETH with enough squad depth for this season

Not looking good at the moment but that could easily change in a few weeks

So in summary you are saying is that if we sign some more good players we will have had a good window?

Back on topic, Martial is a fanny and we should have cashed out on him sooner. The gloves ffs, the gloves.