What do we still need? Aka The never ending story

My guess is Cristiano stays and we go 2/3 at the obvious buys we need, which is to say a #8, a winger (appears we'll get Antony or Gakpo) and a RB.

Cristiano and McTominay have their last seasons here and we replace them next summer with big money buys.

If you assume we buy a winger, we probably need a RB more than an 8 because we could cobble together a season of Fred and Eriksen (and I guess McTominay in a few games where we defend deep if he does okay like under Mourinho) but Dalot has no real cover apart from Wan-Bissaka and I don't think his value is going to get higher here as a backup who plays 10-15 games assuming Dalot is healthy and struggles with the possession play we're trying to implement.

It's conceivable we could sign a winger and just one player to be a #8 and RB option like Fabinho, Kimmich, Lahm or someone like that but those guys are incredibly tough to find and probably difficult to move into 2 positions depending on the game. Timber might have been one. Tyler Adams has played both well, but he's all about running and tackling and not a creative enough passer to play next to Casemiro, and he's at Leeds now anyways.

So yeah, I'd say a winger and an RB are essential, and if we don't sign De Jong my guess is we'll let Fred, McTominay and Eriksen fight it out as the #8, but there's so few links to RBs that it might just be a winger in the next week and then De Jong or nobody.
 
NoPace said:
My guess is Cristiano stays and we go 2/3 at the obvious buys we need, which is to say a #8, a winger (appears we'll get Antony or Gakpo) and a RB.

Cristiano and McTominay have their last seasons here and we replace them next summer with big money buys.

If you assume we buy a winger, we probably need a RB more than an 8 because we could cobble together a season of Fred and Eriksen (and I guess McTominay in a few games where we defend deep if he does okay like under Mourinho) but Dalot has no real cover apart from Wan-Bissaka and I don't think his value is going to get higher here as a backup who plays 10-15 games assuming Dalot is healthy and struggles with the possession play we're trying to implement.

It's conceivable we could sign a winger and just one player to be a #8 and RB option like Fabinho, Kimmich, Lahm or someone like that but those guys are incredibly tough to find and probably difficult to move into 2 positions depending on the game. Timber might have been one. Tyler Adams has played both well, but he's all about running and tackling and not a creative enough passer to play next to Casemiro, and he's at Leeds now anyways.

So yeah, I'd say a winger and an RB are essential, and if we don't sign De Jong my guess is we'll let Fred, McTominay and Eriksen fight it out as the #8, but there's so few links to RBs that it might just be a winger in the next week and then De Jong or nobody.
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If Casemiro gets injured, then we’re done. I’d rather have a strong spine aka midfield than the rest. Look at Liverpool today, it was probably one of their weakest squad in years. It is one of the main reasons we won today.
 
reddevilz007 said:
If Casemiro gets injured, then we’re done. I’d rather have a strong spine aka midfield than the rest. Look at Liverpool today, it was probably one of their weakest squad in years. It is one of the main reasons we won today.
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Hence why we have to get this De Jong deal done whatever it takes to make it happen
 
reddevilz007 said:
If Casemiro gets injured, then we’re done. I’d rather have a strong spine aka midfield than the rest. Look at Liverpool today, it was probably one of their weakest squad in years. It is one of the main reasons we won today.
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Can't argue with that. The obvious move is to sell McTominay to like West Ham for 20M, loan Garner out to whichever Prem team will play him the most, which is probably Bournemouth who need quality of any kind really, or maybe Leicester if Tielemans is sold this week, or for me the best candidate is Crystal Palace as they're starting Schlupp in midfield right now and need a quality #8 to pass the ball and help Doucoure in midfield behind Eze who is playing as a #10, then sign a cheap backup #6 and have this as our midfield:

Bruno (VDB)
Eriksen(Fred)
Casemiro(DM)

With Eriksen probably the real backup #6

Brentford bought Norgaard for 3M from Fiorentina's bench and he's a quality player who I'm sure would have been excited to come here as Casemiro's backup. A buy like that would make sense but our scouts don't seem to find them or be trusted, whether it's by Ten Hag or the money people. Basically buy the best DM in a 3rd tier league like MLS, Denmark or for a non-giant team in Portugal or France, or a backup DM who hasn't settled at a club in a top league and is sitting on a Bundesliga or Serie A bench or even playing for a team in the bottom half. I haven't seen him but that giant Al-Musrati at Braga that Fulham were looking at before Paulinha is the kind of signing I'm talking about.

Guys like N'Zonzi move for 10M or so often enough, it shouldn't be beyond us to find a DM who likes tackling and cutting off attacks to backup Casemiro.
 
A midfielder in the mold of Frenkie de Jong. If there's a young FdJ out there, let's take a look. But the real deal himself is what's needed to elevate this squad from one that can pull magnificent performances out of its arse as we saw tonight to a squad that can win midfield battles.
 
lex talionis said:
A midfielder in the mold of Frenkie de Jong. If there's a young FdJ out there, let's take a look. But the real deal himself is what's needed to elevate this squad from one that can pull magnificent performances out of its arse as we saw tonight to a squad that can win midfield battles.
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Yeah you are absolutely bang on
 
Really what we need has been obvious now and remains the same... RW, CM (yes another after Casemiro) and RB.

So if by some miracle we sign FDJ and Antony it would be very hard to complain about the summer's business.

Casemiro pumped this window to a 6/10 but this teams still needs some significant parts.
 
lex talionis said:
A midfielder in the mold of Frenkie de Jong. If there's a young FdJ out there, let's take a look. But the real deal himself is what's needed to elevate this squad from one that can pull magnificent performances out of its arse as we saw tonight to a squad that can win midfield battles.
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Fabian Ruiz and Houssem Aouar are still available, at cheap pricess too, I honestly don't see why we aren't attemping to sign either of them
 
De Gea
Dalot Varane Martinez Malacia
De Jong Casemiro
Antony Eriksen Sancho
Martial

Subs
Heaton
AWB
Lindelof
Fred
Fernandes
Rashford
Etc
 
Could finally get a left footed RW and hopefully a RB similar to Malacia at LB. That just leaves modern GK progressive CM and number 9 to focus on next summer.
 
So if Ajax isn't stupid and the Antony transfer goes through, then I'd say the players we are happy with for the short/medium term who are in our squad and then the gaps (but where we have people filling them that need replacing) looks like this:

Position - Starter - Backup
GK - ??? - De Gea/Henderson/Dubravka??
RB - Dalot/??? - ???/Dalot (border line potential that he could turn into a worthwhile starter...)
CB - Varane - Lindelof
Ball playing CB - Martinez - Maguire
LB - Malacia - Shaw
Ball winning mid - Casemiro - McTominay
Deep playmaker - ??? - Eriksen/Fred
Attacking midfielder - Bruno/Eriksen - Bruno/Eriksen
RW - Sancho - Antony
LW - Rashford - Garnacho/Elanga
ST - Martial - ???

Antony of course wouldn't be backup, but it'd be any 2 out of Sancho/Rashford/Antony and all on an even level for the short/medium term at least. Martial is my bet that fitness dependent he'll be class under Ten Hag.

So I'd say we need:
  • Starting GK
  • RB (starting or backup, depending on what the view is on Dalot
  • Deep playmaker (fine for this season probably, but very shortly)
  • Striker (starter or backup, depending on Martial)
Even assuming the likely scenario that Antony is coming partially out of next years budget, should be able to get a GK, deep playmaker and a right back for 100m total.
 
are we still being linked to any RB at the moment? There was Gusto, but not heard much on him recently.
 
stepic said:
are we still being linked to any RB at the moment? There was Gusto, but not heard much on him recently.
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Think RB links pick up if AWB goes on loan, don't see us signing a playmaker CM though which is disappointing. Didn't have to be De Jong but needed someone to provide creativity.
 
We need another midfielder this summer. And on top, I'd argue we'll need another one next summer too.
 
25 man group for 22-23
De Gea, Dubravka, Heaton
Dalot, Bissaka
Varane, Martinez, Maguire, Lindelof
Malacia, Shaw
Casemiro, Mctominay
Eriksen, Fred, Iqbal
Bruno, Donny
Antony, Elanga
Tony, Ronaldo
Sancho, Rashford, Garnacho

25 man group for 23-24
De Gea, Dubravka, Youth Gk
Dalot, Laird
Varane, Martinez, Lindelof, Mengi/Backup signing
Malacia, Shaw
Casemiro, Mctominay
Eriksen, Iqbal, Fred
Bruno, Donny
Antony, Diallo/New attacker, Elanga
Tony, Rashford
Sancho, Garnacho

If we get Antony then it has been a terrific window. Next year I would hope the likes of Ronaldo, Maguire, Bissaka could be replaced by our young talent like Garnacho, Diallo, Mengi and Iqbal. If not we can go back into the market but hopefully from a position of strength after a good season.
 
I'd love to bring in another midfielder, but now that we have Casemiro it wouldn't be a disaster if we missed out on Frenkie and settled for Eriksen, Fred and Bruno in midfield and even Garner for spot cover when injuries and the like arise. McTominay can still provide cover in the safest of situations, but his play is so atrocious we would be best advised to find a club in Scotland for him.

If there is room in the transfer budget, and it seems there is, the move for Antony makes perfect sense. We're pretty thin in the front line, we don't know what's happening with Ronaldo and Martial is not far removed from a season of shocking indifference. If any two of Ronaldo, Martial, Rashford and Sancho are down with injury or out of form all we've got to turn to are Elanga and Garnacho. The move for Antony is the right move.
 
bosnian_red said:
So if Ajax isn't stupid and the Antony transfer goes through, then I'd say the players we are happy with for the short/medium term who are in our squad and then the gaps (but where we have people filling them that need replacing) looks like this:

Position - Starter - Backup
GK - ??? - De Gea/Henderson/Dubravka??
RB - Dalot/??? - ???/Dalot (border line potential that he could turn into a worthwhile starter...)
CB - Varane - Lindelof
Ball playing CB - Martinez - Maguire
LB - Malacia - Shaw
Ball winning mid - Casemiro - McTominay
Deep playmaker - ??? - Eriksen/Fred
Attacking midfielder - Bruno/Eriksen - Bruno/Eriksen
RW - Sancho - Antony
LW - Rashford - Garnacho/Elanga
ST - Martial - ???

Antony of course wouldn't be backup, but it'd be any 2 out of Sancho/Rashford/Antony and all on an even level for the short/medium term at least. Martial is my bet that fitness dependent he'll be class under Ten Hag.

So I'd say we need:
  • Starting GK
  • RB (starting or backup, depending on what the view is on Dalot
  • Deep playmaker (fine for this season probably, but very shortly)
  • Striker (starter or backup, depending on Martial)
Even assuming the likely scenario that Antony is coming partially out of next years budget, should be able to get a GK, deep playmaker and a right back for 100m total.
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I believe our biggest weakness is at RB and thus should be a priority for this transfer window, now that we have Casemiro at DM.

Before the the transfer window started, in order of priority, I had the following:

1. DM
2. RB
3. CM
4.CB

I’d always felt that there was the old Rashford somewhere in there. He was pretty damn good from 2016-2019 and excellent in the 19-20 and 20-21 seasons. I still think he can recapture that form. He can play striker, so I didn’t think we needed another striker to back up Cristiano. That goal vs Liverpool whenMartial put him through reminded me of the latter half 19-20 season when Martial was at striker and we had Greenwood and Marcus running off of him. That’s what makes Martial such a talent, and so important to this side. He’s always injured, but blimey, there are moments when he looks pure class.

I’ve always backed Sancho to come good.

Revised priority list after the transfer business so far:

1.RB, not close (Dalot is dreadful defensively).
2. FW/ST
3. GK (I’d almost rather wait til next summer to replace DeGea)
 
Olecurls99 said:
25 man group for 22-23
De Gea, Dubravka, Heaton
Dalot, Bissaka
Varane, Martinez, Maguire, Lindelof
Malacia, Shaw
Casemiro, Mctominay
Eriksen, Fred, Iqbal
Bruno, Donny
Antony, Elanga
Tony, Ronaldo
Sancho, Rashford, Garnacho

25 man group for 23-24
De Gea, Dubravka, Youth Gk
Dalot, Laird
Varane, Martinez, Lindelof, Mengi/Backup signing
Malacia, Shaw
Casemiro, Mctominay
Eriksen, Iqbal, Fred
Bruno, Donny
Antony, Diallo/New attacker, Elanga
Tony, Rashford
Sancho, Garnacho

If we get Antony then it has been a terrific window. Next year I would hope the likes of Ronaldo, Maguire, Bissaka could be replaced by our young talent like Garnacho, Diallo, Mengi and Iqbal. If not we can go back into the market but hopefully from a position of strength after a good season.
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Can't rely on all those youngsters we need to buy and hasn't been a terrific window either when you look at the holes
 
DSG said:
I believe our biggest weakness is at RB and thus should be a priority for this transfer window, now that we have Casemiro at DM.

Before the the transfer window started, in order of priority, I had the following:

1. DM
2. RB
3. CM
4.CB

I’d always felt that there was the old Rashford somewhere in there. He was pretty damn good from 2016-2019 and excellent in the 19-20 and 20-21 seasons. I still think he can recapture that form. He can play striker, so I didn’t think we needed another striker to back up Cristiano. That goal vs Liverpool whenMartial put him through reminded me of the latter half 19-20 season when Martial was at striker and we had Greenwood and Marcus running off of him. That’s what makes Martial such a talent, and so important to this side. He’s always injured, but blimey, there are moments when he looks pure class.

I’ve always backed Sancho to come good.

Revised priority list after the transfer business so far:

1.RB, not close (Dalot is dreadful defensively).
2. FW/ST
3. GK (I’d almost rather wait til next summer to replace DeGea)
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Need to find a taker for AWB then, in regards to FW/ST think we could get two IF Ronaldo does leave of course
 
Depends if we manage to offload Ronaldo. If we do then an attacker is definitely priority.

With less than a week left of the window
, we aren't doing gk, rb, cm, and attacker although we do need all 4.

I'd be very reluctant to increase the 90m euro offer for Antony I have to say.

Would have liked Sanchez & Caicedo from Brighton personally.

Hakimi from PSG at RB.

Leao from Milan upfront.

appreciate we aren't going to spend another £250m this window though.
 
croadyman said:
RB,CM,RW & ST (if Ronaldo leaves)
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Dalot keeps up that Liverpool form then we don't need a right back. Bissaka is backup.

We've just signed Casemiro and Eriksen. We don't need another midfielder.

I'm working under the idea that we'll get Antony and if we do we're sorted at RW.

Sure, if Ronaldo leaves we need a striker but I don't think he will.
 
Olecurls99 said:
Dalot keeps up that Liverpool form then we don't need a right back. Bissaka is backup.

We've just signed Casemiro and Eriksen. We don't need another midfielder.

I'm working under the idea that we'll get Antony and if we do we're sorted at RW.

Sure, if Ronaldo leaves we need a striker but I don't think he will.
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See if you still feel we don't need a quick passing and progressive CM after tomorrow
 
The priority must be a RW asap.
When a RW is signed then the priority should be in this order;
1. Goalkeeper
2. Right back
3. Striker (highest if Ronaldo/Martial) is sold
4. Central midfielder
5. CB

Let’s say this could be done within the start of next season and I would claim that we’re contenders in 22/23.
 
Leftback99 said:
So far I don't think I've seen a rumour that I think is likely to happen (Phillips, De Jong, Kamara, Timber, Nunez, Tchouameni, Rice, Neves, Torres, Antony). Going to be an interesting (and long) summer.
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It funny looking back on what people were expecting pre transfer window.
I'm a €100m+ bid for Antony away from a clean sweep on the above prediction. (which I also said was the most likely).
 
RedMilo said:
Depends if we manage to offload Ronaldo. If we do then an attacker is definitely priority.

With less than a week left of the window
, we aren't doing gk, rb, cm, and attacker although we do need all 4.

I'd be very reluctant to increase the 90m euro offer for Antony I have to say.

Would have liked Sanchez & Caicedo from Brighton personally.

Hakimi from PSG at RB.

Leao from Milan upfront.

appreciate we aren't going to spend another £250m this window though.
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Hakimi best out there but PSG won't sell
 
My hopes for the remainder of this window, in order of priority:

1. Maguire sold. It seems more and more obvious that this team needs addition by subtraction. Maguire will not and should not be a starter as things stand, and it just doesn't make sense to have your captain as a bench player. Also, there's got to be a break with past failures in order to move forward, and he's emblematic of that period. Also, we now have 6 CBs, which is absurd.

2. A forward in. It can be top shelf like Antony or second shelf like Gakpo, but it should be someone with some versatility, and who's good enough to play fairly frequently. For preference, someone who's an asset in developing the team over the next 3-4 seasons. It should not be a short term veteran, and above all it should not be the wrong kind of short term veteran (ie, someone like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang).

3. Ronaldo out. He just will not have a positive impact, and it's a really bad fit both for him and the club.

4. A starting quality RB. Dalot simply isn't good enough, and I don't see how this could be anything other than a problem area this season if nothing is done.

5. Backup GK. Not just in case De Gea gets injured, but also in case he can't cut it.
 
————————GK———————
RB—Varane—Martinez—Malacia
Casemiro — De Jong
Eriksen/Bruno
Anthony — Osimhen — Sancho

End of Summer 2023 we could be ready to challenge everything. De Jong to join if not now on January or next year. Osimhen the same. An RB in the mould of Malacia, if Dalot doesn’t step up. A GK who can keep possession and dominate aerially.
 
I would still like another striker to come in regardless if Ronaldo goes or not but looking rather unlikely now.

We need an upgrade at right back and another centre midfielder but those are for another window.
 
De Gea
Dalot Varane Martinez Malacia
Casemiro Fred
Eriksen
Antony Tony Sancho

That 1st team shouldn't be afraid of anyone in the league. Up to Teny to get them ticking now.

Dubravka
Bissaka Maguire Lindelof Shaw
Mctominay Donny
Bruno
Elanga Ronaldo Rashford

That second team has a lot to do to prove they can be part of a Ten Hag team.
 
United won’t get into the top 4 unless they sign another forward

Dalot having a good game against Southampton means he’ll continue to be backed, but he’ll cost us some points this season
 
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