Manchester United Banter Archive July 10 2018

10 Jul 2018 22:07:48
Evening ladies and gents, just wondering how y'all think Jose will line it's up this season?
Last year Jose wanted to move to a 352 but abandoned that claiming he couldn't get the right players (namely perisic) . Since there's only really been rumours of just blind returning to Ajax and no other CBS leaving, and with us being linked to organising leader types joining, do you think Jose will again try 3 at the back?
Personally I think that Ronaldo joining juve makes the Sandro deal more likely so will be a big upgrade down the left and using Shaw as his deputy (assuming he stays) would mean Valencia and young can cover the right side for a season while dalmat is blooded in and adapts. Now I know this is not ideal but I believe young is better on the right anyway and both are reliable enough at least so that Woodward can prioritize other positions this summer.
Also just throwing it out there but what would you guys think of buying Maguire with smalling going the other way cheap? This would be in addition to the experienced CB so is very unlikely but just feel it's a deal that could suit all parties and Maguire kinda reminds me of Bruce n guess I'm just a sucker for nostalgia.

10 Jul 2018 22:46:29
How does us buying Leicester’s best centre half for cheap and giving them Smalling suit all parties? Do you mean it suits United? Why would Leicester agree to that?

I don’t think Young is very good on the right, never seen him have a good game for us there, and who is Dalmat?

10 Jul 2018 22:57:05
Maguire is nowhere near the level required. After this WC fiasco is over (once England play a side better than championship level) then I suspect people will come back down to earth Re the England individual players as well.
Want a WC center back then we should be chasing the Rafa Varane’s of the world.

11 Jul 2018 06:49:57
I think we will we more of the same. Safety first, worry about the opposition first. The interesting thing for me is how Jose reacts if he doesn’t get the players he wants the time. He was clearly disgruntled with some last year, rumours abound that Pogba has been offered to other clubs, he has little faith in Rashford and Martial, Bailly seems to have upset him, Shaw is out of favour, Herrera hardly got a look in last year. That’s a lot of players to have fallen out with or publicly criticised. Without going back to United Addicts England vs United argument, therein lies the main difference.

11 Jul 2018 08:57:17
Robbie,

Bitterest post of Tuesday award goes to you mate, how unfortunate that some people can't just be happy for others and have to do everything down. We are in the World Cup Semi Final, get over it.

11 Jul 2018 13:28:20
Probably with his usual park the bus formation, its time we got back to playing with attacking flair that our fans demand.

10 Jul 2018 18:43:07
Alright boys, won't be long now until we see who plays Croatia in the final😀.

10 Jul 2018 19:16:22
Itl be sad leahy if there's no English representation in Sunday's final, it's far to long since English had success in it . On the bright side tho federer normally wins and I don't mind him plus IL be watching England win the world cup on the other channel.

11 Jul 2018 13:32:13
World cup badminton slate? Lol, me and Leahy are getting ready for Ireland lifting the trophy in 2022 lol.

10 Jul 2018 16:36:06
Best of luck CR7 on your new Italian Journey! We wish you all the best and should you play Real madrid in a Champions League Game you will soon realise who your trye family where.

10 Jul 2018 18:06:16
He used us time and time again, and had no loyalty, so why should we wish him luck?

Ronaldo cares for Ronaldo no one else.

{Ed025's Note - exactly FZZ..

10 Jul 2018 19:43:43
This is going to kick start a lot of transfers now . Real need to make a big move for somebody. Could be a very interesting couple of weeks😆😆.

10 Jul 2018 20:17:14
Is it just me or does anybody else think it's a fantastic piece of business by Real Madrid.

They've just made a profit on a player they paid a world record fee, he's arguably their greatest ever player and all time leading goal at the age of 33!

It was the right time for him to move on, they've just won their third consecutive Champions League and made a profit on a player they've squeezed every inch of talent from who brought them unprecedented success.

At least we can put any rumours of his return to bed now. I think the Italian league will suit him and he'll continue to tear it up there for a couple more years.

Maybe we're just starting to witness the slow decline of the great Ronaldo and Messi and a new era is almost upon us.

10 Jul 2018 20:38:33
I'm with you fzz.

10 Jul 2018 22:49:49
Juventus have already made millions in stock prices. Gone up almost 20% . Ronaldo deal already paid 😆😆.

10 Jul 2018 22:50:23
DLIB,

Not sure it’s as simple as them ‘making a profit’, but it does appear to be a great deal for them, Ed has always said they had a plan to rebuild their team this season, they are the worst team to win the CL in years, that’s why it’s even more annoying we played so badly against Sevilla, all the teams left were there for the taking and we proved we aren’t even good enough to beat Sevilla.

11 Jul 2018 00:10:38
Hold on a minute DLIB, you mention ronaldo and messi, but no mention of fellaini in the same breath-i just don't get it-surely an oversight on your part! (and how come no-one ever mentions the 'little cantona' djemba djemba, so good they named him twice? -whats the matter with you people?!

11 Jul 2018 00:13:30
Fzz

I no all to well what he done and i must be the only one greatful thst we had i'm in our team! What player has not used us? And what player would greet SAF everytime he saw him

On a personal note - my comment was tongue in cheek

He left us did we boo him or slag him off? No we praised him

Now wait to see what RM fans do for him.

11 Jul 2018 13:33:05
Just a pity United didn't match the offer.

10 Jul 2018 12:15:40
Hey Eds, any truth in the ....

{Ed002's Note - Wong page.}

10 Jul 2018 12:16:49
Now most fans if asked towards the end of the season to pick the key area of weakness in our squad would have answered with the same answer. Our fullbacks.

It seems common knowledge that Valencia and Young are not ideal options at fullback. Both are converted wingers who ironically struggle with creating chances from open play. They are also both 32/ 33 by the start of next season and clearly cannot go on forever in what is probably the most physically demanding position on the pitch.

And yet the latest rumours are that we might not sign another fullback having already signed Dalot, a player who has played 7 first team games in a much less demanding league. Meaning we will go though next season with more or less the exact same fullbacks and the exact same problems as last season.

Now, we have no way of knowing how accurate these rumours are. At this time of year the media will tell you we are about to sign roughly 1957383 players this summer. Which obviously never happens.

However, maybe we should consider this rumour to be true. After all Mourinho has been at our club for two whole seasons now. This is his fifth transfer window and Dalot is so far the only fullback he has attempted to sign.

Maybe the issues we see with our fullbacks aren't issues with their ability, but them faithfully following the tactics our manager puts forward. After all Young has been far more creative and gets forward far more for England than he does for us.

Mourinho typically likes to have one full back who'll push forward and one who'll stay deep and help protect against counter attacking threats. Even at Madrid where you had Marcelo who practically plays as a winger Mourinho also chose Arbeloa as his RB. A player who'll sit alongside the centre backs.

Mourinho is a pragmatist and a defend first coach, it would be foolish to expect him to want his defenders to be more offensive than defensive.

We may not see any other fullbacks come in as Mourinho may well be very happy with the job our current fullbacks are doing.

10 Jul 2018 12:34:43
Its maybe because all the top clubs know we want new full backs and they are over pricing their players and is porbably the reason we haven5 signed a top lb yet.

Its more to do with negotiating a reasonable fee to get the deal done as we are still interesrinf in signing Sandro and the only thing holding back is the fee.

10 Jul 2018 13:09:53
Singh,

When has it ever bothered us paying over the odds? We do it all the time.

10 Jul 2018 12:40:28
Ed has said on the European pages that we are still interested in Alex Sandro. Perhaps we're just trying to move on the likes of Blind and Darmian before moving for him. Especially if wages were an issue for the club earlier in the year.

10 Jul 2018 13:43:10
Let’s not forget about guys like fosu mensah and Tunazebe (I know he’s not a full back but has been used there for us) coming back for pre season. Is he giving these guys a chance? Who knows.
Full backs are a tricky position to sign in the modern era with how important they are. Danny rose the price being thrown around is 50 million, Alex Sandro around the same and he’s in the final year of his contract. That amount of money is ridiculous and with FFP applying to us I think it’s too much money to potentially waste.
Unfortunatley we do need upgrades in the full back position, but we have some young talent in fosu mensah, dalot, tuanazebe and I guess we could still consider shaw but I think he’s got no chance unfortunatley.
It will be interesting to see what we do regards the positions.

10 Jul 2018 15:29:04
I think the World Cup has shown we've got a strong good squad littered with some very good players.

In my opinion the priority should be trying to sign a RW. I think adding a quality right winger would have the biggest impact on the team. It's become a problem position with no obvious solution. Lingard is better centrally, Mata is often ineffective when deployed wide and beyond that there isn't really anybody else?

I'd like us to target a more traditional wide player. Somebody that stays wide, makes the pitch bigger, somebody willing to beat their man and put quality crosses into the box for Lukaku. This will create more space for the likes of Sanchez, Lingard and Pogba. It will help to reduce congestion in the middle of the park and provide us with a different kind of threat and more ammunition for Lukaku. We've seen at this WC that Lukaku thrives from quality deliveries into the box.

Whilst I think it would be a mistake not to target a RW if one wasn't forthcoming I would even consider playing Ashley Young in that position. Cue the sniggers and laughter but just hear me out. He's probably the best crosser at the Club and his job would predominantly be to offer width and provide crosses for Lukaku. He still possesses decent pace and dribbling ability. He works tirelessly, is positionally astute and is able to follow instructions. I know I've probably lost most of you already but I think we just need some balance on the right and it may just release the likes of Pogba, Sanchez and Lingard whilst providing Lukaku with more opportunities.

Failing that we need new full backs that can overlap and cross a ball! Come full circle with that post. I fear I may have just committed football banter suicide 😂.

10 Jul 2018 07:04:27
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 10 July 2018