According to ESPN, the players Manchester United are targeting are: Raphael Varane, Tyrone Mings, Jules Kounde, David Carmo and Dayot Upamecano. Mirror Sport revealed last month that Manchester United are keeping tabs on £60million-rated Sevilla defender Kounde. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/man-utds-five-man-summer-23488224 Some fodder to start the thread.
Upamencano and Kounde would be at the top of my list of the guys mentioned. Not sure Mings is good enough, don't know much about Carmo, and I have reservations about Verane having played his whole career for a team that's dominant in a top heavy league. It's the same reason I think someone like Pique would struggle if he came to the PL at this point.
The last 3 mentioned make more sense from an age targeting perspective. Kounde is very small though. Too small imo.
Manchester United have never been in advanced talks to sign Upamecano - always been appreciated but ‘unlikely’. He’s the main target for Bayern Münich prepared to pay the release clause, Chelsea and Liverpool are still in the race. Also PSG interest now cooled down 🔴 #mufc— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 10, 2021 Also, Manchester United have not contacted Sergio Ramos agent as of today - they’ll decide for the real target as centre-back in the coming months.#PSG are interested [only if Sergio will leave the club as free agent, no decision yet - situation still open with Real]. 🇪🇸 #mufc— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 10, 2021 No making much at this time of the possible Ramos links (think he's using whoever to get himself a new deal with Real). But in the event he actually were to leave, a bit worried that Woodward would jump on the opportunity since he's a big name, available on a free. As good as he is, it's still a gamble to go for a 34yr old player who's never played in England. Kounde's height is irrelevant. Ake is about the same height and it hasn't proved an impediment for him in the Prem. Plus he's a very athletic player, who happens to be good in the air (just like Ake). His athleticism, on top of him being a good and dogged defender, are why he's a viable target to partner Mag in central defense. He's pretty much got most of the attributes to be a big time player at some point down the line. Jules Kounde 2019/20 - scout report (laligaanalysis.com)
I don’t know if anyone’s looked at FBRef.com recently but they’ve added a ‘Scout Report’ section to the player stat pages, which shows what percentile players are in vs other players in the Top 5 Leagues. It’s insanely good. Obviously you have to be careful not to just use it in isolation but it’s really cool. One of the things it shows us is that, yes, Kounde is really impressive for winning aerial battles for his height. He wins a higher % than Pau Torres, who is almost 6” taller! https://fbref.com/en/players/4d1666ff/Jules-Kounde This year he’s on 60% of aerials won in La Liga though, where last season he was on 74.9%. Personally I’d rather we went for Milenkovic as a RCB who can play in a 2 or a 3, but I’ve not seen nearly enough of either and I guess Kounde is a much more agile partner to Maguire and a more mobile alternative at RB.
Coming back to the example of Ake, he's listed at 157: they're virtually the same. Yet, his size has not been a problem for him being one of the top CBs in the league in recent seasons when he was with Bournemouth. The Prem is obviously different from La Liga but Kounde has not shown to have any problems with the physical side of the game.
That’s an outlier, not the norm. I think most people would prefer the athleticism and the size. Upe is 6’1” 200# sign me up for the latter.
Kounde stood out to me when we played Sevilla and lost in the EL semis last summer. He's the real deal and would gladly have him on this United team. Don't care about size if the talent is there to back it up and Kounde has the talent. Whoever we get, whether it's him, Upamecano, Konate or Badiashile (just to name those guys as an example), just want us to get someone who can improve our defense/the team and can compliment Maguire, as he's not going anywhere. The latter is why I'd favor those guys as opposed to other highly touted prospects (like Torres or Milenkovic among others)...
By the way, Dayot Upamecano will 100% leave RB Leipzig in the summer and he’s not joining Manchester United. Liverpool and Chelsea are interested but no official bid yet, Bayern are pushing and he’s the main target. Mohamed Simakan will be his replacement at RB Leipzig. 🔴— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 12, 2021 🚨 Upamecano va signer au Bayern Munich !✅ Malgré les sollicitations, le défenseur central français de 22 ans a choisi le géant bavarois.— RMC Sport (@RMCsport) February 12, 2021 Not official yet, but RMC tend to be pretty reliable by and large when it comes to French players (Falk running with it as well). When both Romano and Falk first reported that he was a top target for Bayern, always feared that Munich would be his eventual destination...
A lot of EPL teams are stacked for set-pieces, is just the nature of our league. Is why we often have to play Matic, is also why teams target Lindelof as the physical part of his game can be iffy. We already suck at set-pieces, so getting a 5’10 light CB in our league as one of our main CB pair would be stupid. Like Daley Blind at CB again (and we all know how that worked out). Ake is more than an inch taller, so not a valid comparison. Aside from pointing out that City havent been playing him at CB or pointing out that City chose Dias over Kounde... Kounde could be a good acquisition if we were to play him as a #6 (a lot of #6s can / have played CB) or in a back 3. But would have to be along with a main CB purchase. That guy cannot be Ramos. Ticks the box that is an alpha that Mag so clearly needs, but we need to build for the future and also Mag needs someone with pace alongside which tends to exclude getting an older guy anyway.
TRUE ✅ Chelsea and Liverpool expected in the last days the rejection of Dayot Upamecano and are now concentrating on Ibrahima Konaté @DieRotenBullen as a new candidate. Also @ManUtd is interested @LFC @ChelseaFC— Christian Falk (@cfbayern) February 12, 2021 Another guy who would come at a reasonable price. His release clause is said to be in the region of 40mil Es
No thanks. There are too many good young options that can develop into stars rather than pay 200k a week to someone who could be a liability towards the end of their contract.
Eventhough he appeared to be a lock to go to Real not so long ago (probably still the favorites at this time), Alaba still appears to be very much in play since he hasn't signed any time of (pre)agreement yet. And of course, there are lots of clubs interested in his services. Chelsea aim to hijack David Alaba's move to Real Madrid | Chelsea | The Guardian Saw elsewhwere that City could be readying a big offer for him, since Pep is a big fan.
Compared to other centre-backs across the top-five leagues, Jules Koundé ranks in the 90th percentile or above for aerial duels won, shots taken, dribbles attempted, carries into the attacking third/penalty area, and touches in the attacking third/penalty area. Different. pic.twitter.com/bzRiTvyaoD— SCOUTED (@scoutedftbl) February 12, 2021
Lord knows he probably would not have been bodied like Lindelöf was for the goal. Imagine being the guy that in every teams scouting report, they want to bully and pick on you.
People talk about Kounde's size like it'd be a problem obviously have never seen him play. Not only he's exceptionally good in the air for someone his size, but he's got that fighting mentality you want from a defender, he gets stuck in and does not shy away from contact in the least. And that's even before we consider the rest of his game... Granted, there are other options available to us as well but Kounde is definitely a viable option. One that would surely upgrade our backline as a whole.