News: Woody’s Roundup - The Summer 2019 Transfer Thread

i dont agree with your assessment at all. he has very good stamina (which is key) and he seems to anticipate potential threats well to break up plays. i like how he always wants to play it forward as soon as he gets the ball and i like his short game.

my bet is that hes now starting to get comfortable with epl's pace and will be an asset protecting the backline, recycling possession and allowing us to get out quickly into the final third. à la fernandinho.

 

Fred was gassed at the end of the Barca game. Absolutely gassed.

Fred has great energy levels, not stamina. He stays moving and is always buzzing around, but his ability to sustain that isn't great. And that's more valuable as an 8 than it is as a 6.

Also, you cant compare our setup to City. They have teams pinned in for a majority of the game. They can afford a deeper CM that's more of a playmaker because they aren't asked to defend often. We sit much deeper.

He's a decent outlet as a 6 but his best skills are his energy, transitioning forward, and ability to keep the ball moving. All things more applicable to an 8.

 

Saul would be the best option possible, if we're to bring in a new B2B mid. But his release clause of 150mil Euros is a lot, unless we'd have a monster kitty at our disposal this summer.
Ndombele, who is tabbed with a big future, would cost around half that price.
Also believe that he's the type of player who would do extremely well in the Prem. The pace and physicality of the league are tailor made for him.
Verratti is obviously another good option, especially to help with our creativity. Question is whether he is actually ready to leave Paris this time. Can't rule Rabiot out either though: he appears to be leaning towards La Liga, but depending on how we spend for other positions, you have to consider someone of his quality available on a free, if he's willing to make the move.

 

Who do you think should be our 6 then? Not having a player with playmaking abilities will just make our midfield easier to divide and nullify.

I think Fred being gassed is to be expected when he isn't playing weekly. Also, with better technical ability behind and ahead of him, we'll have more of the ball and have to do less high intensity work defensively. Our sitting so deep right now is because of our on-the-ball deficiencies as much as our counterattacking strengths.

 

Fred and Scott have put in several decent performance that at least provide us potentially quality depth in midfield.

The problem is we posters really don't know what's going on with Pogba and Herrera, do we? It appears both will be leaving this summer and that's a tragedy if true.

The right answer, position by position, comes down to what Ole envisions our style/philosophy/whatever to be and I'm not sure he's sure about that yet. Does he envision United as a counterattacking club, a high pressing club, a possession club or what? There's no single right answer, whatever that answer is informs the kind of player he'll go for in each of the positions where we current upgrade requirements and holes to fill due to summer transfer business.

Losing Herrera is one thing, but losing Pogba would be calamitous, yet it appears to be in the cards.

 

Right now? Herrera then McT.

Ideally, I've been a proponent of signing a DLP for a while. Someone like Neves that has range and vision from deep. If we're going to buy a defensive 6, might as well look for a ball wining monster ala Kante. Playing an 8 there just doesn't make sense to me.

 

there is no kante out there. imo dlp's can be marked out of a game too easily (see jorginho in the prem), i prefer the creativity to come from both 8s. i see fred as the perfect fodder to make that work: energetic yet skilled enough to recycle possession and move the ball forward quickly.

mctominay will be our jack-of-all trades in midfield, i actually like him but he shouldn't be regular starter (like lingard for the frontline).

 

DLPs get marked out of the game if they're the only creativity, if they're the hub. Chelsea lack subtlety and misdirection. The point of a DLP (or a player with DLP characteristics) as the 6 for us is not that everything goes through them, but that they stop us from only having one creative source in midfield. If you want two creative 8s, then you want two creative players in midfield too.

The difference is where you want the pressing and B2B running to come from. There's also the difficulty in varying the spread of passing ability up and down the pitch - with a creative 8 and a great passing 6, you can move either up or down the pitch more easily to stretch presses, and are better equipped to deal with different types of block.

 

Did you watch the game? There were several moments when he was visible exhausted and his running was labored.

 

Fred, for now at the very least, deserves the benefit of the doubt. He's played 2 games for us in a deeper position in midfield and has acquitted himself very (and kind of surprisingly tbh) well in both occasions. Even in the game vs Wolves where he unfortunately made a mistake that directly led to a goal, he did pretty well overall.
Whether he's our long term solution there still remains to be seen, but if he keeps up on the same vein he has vs Wolves and Barca and even builds upon that, then why shouldn't we consider him for the job?
The sample size is small, but it can't be summarily dismissed either. Not yet at least...

 

There was a run in particular that he didn’t track and it created a chance for them. That’s what stood out to me.

 

For sure, but when I saw it, I immediately said to myself that he was tired.

 

I'm perfectly fine with Sancho still being our main target for the RW/RWF spot this summer. But all the same, and considering how much he will cost, plus the possibility that Dortmund will not want to do business, Lilles's Pepe is the guy I'd want us to look at, as our first alternative.
We've got issues at CF: Rashford looks to be the pick right now (in terms of fit in Ole's system) but he's not the finished article yet and obviously still needs work. Lukaku is a definite worry at this juncture: should be miles ahead and the clear, undisputed #1 at the position, but he's simply not and our way of playing does not seem to be working for him.
Point being, we need to add goals in our frontline and it's something that Pepe should be able to do for us. We can count on Martial to contribute his share. But with the 9 spot somewhat of a question mark, we need both flanks to contribute in that regard: Sancho has shown a knack to score in Germany. Aside from him, Pepe is looking like a very good alternative as well, especially if we're searching for a goalscoring threat from the wing.

 

I have reservations about him being good enough and 9 isn't s priority this summer, but Timo Werner is available and fits Oles style perfectly.

 

Nicolas Pepe is a player who can play anywhere across the front line like Sancho or Lozano. Which means he addresses our RW problems, but he's a high scoring one to boot, which is maybe what we might need considering our concerns at CF.
I like Werner a lot, so I'd have no issues bringing him in but the question is: will we have enough money to bring in a new 9, unless we sell Lukaku of course...

 

United are still scouting Bruno Fernandes and said to be in pole position to get sign him.

http://sportwitness.co.uk/manchester-united-official-portugal-saturday-club-pole-position-signing/

His name constantly comes up, and he's the one alleged target of ours I really do not know much about. Watched some clips of the guy, but that only tells so much. He looks intriguing though and his numbers are impressive and we could use some of that output on the team also, if he could replicate some of it into the Prem...

 

I think he's a contingency plan in case Pogba goes. Nowhere near the individual quality to replace him but would be part of a move to a no-stars team ethic IMO. His main thing is that he shoots from range and in particular puts accurate crosses into the box from deep. He tends to play with two other more defensive midfielders.

 

He's press resistant, can take set pieces and can open up defense's with clever positioning and clever passing.

 

De Ligt, Rice, Sancho and Wan-Bissaka please.

 

Forget De Ligt .. the ajax president has said its between Bayern and Barca..

 

Thats it? No Herrera replacement?

 

or Matic..