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The Man Utd Thread

5R7

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feltmonkey

feltmonkey

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Martinez is an interesting one generally.  He's a centre-back, but he's only 5'9, so is he going to be easily beaten in the air?  Statistically though, he's pretty dominant in the air.  His main strength is his passing.  He'll be one of the better passing centre-backs in the league.  We already have Lindelof who is very good in that regard, but hopefully Martinez will have better concentration and fight defensively.  I don't think he's particularly fast or strong.  It's possible he will prove to be too small for the Premier League, but alternately if he makes up for his size with tenacity and technical ability he could be a massive asset.

 

He does have to overcome a trend regarding Argentinian players at United.  The previous ones are: 

 

Romero - A great back-up keeper, willing to play in the cups and never let us down.  No problems here.  What's this nonsense about a trend?

Rojo - A complete maniac, entertainingly violent, but generally useless on the field due to his tendency to undermine the efforts of the team by doing something insane every three or four games.  The most notable thing about his time at United is that he never got a red card, despite the fact that he should have had between ten and twenty.  Couldn't cook toast.

Veron - An enigma.  Supremely gifted, and had his moments, but ultimately a massive disappointment.

Tevez - A cunt.

Di Maria - Another cunt.

Heinze - Great for a while, then suddenly became a bit of a cunt as soon as a move to Real Madrid became a possibility.

Garnacho - Seems okay, but there's still time.

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spork

spork

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So that’s two confirmed signings and one that is pretty much done bar the official announcement. Assuming FDJ will happen at some point I’d say that’s not a bad transfer window.
 

Ideally we’ll also sell some more players and potentially bring in a right back or striker or whatever it is deemed we need and that would make it a pretty good window overall in my opinion.

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feltmonkey

feltmonkey

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Yeah, it isn't bad. With all the players leaving, we are very thin in certain areas of the squad though, notably centre-forward and central midfield.  Say McTominay does his cruciate ligament, what happens then?  What if on top of that, Fred gets sent off and is suspended for a couple of games.  We would be picking from Hannibal, Garner, and hopefully De Jong for the two number 6 positions.

 

Perhaps the plan is for Iqbal and Savage to play regularly, I don't know.  It's still not a disaster, just a bit of a worry. It's a similar situation up front. Let's face it, Ronaldo is on strike. He's played his last game for us.  We are pinning quite a lot on the Tony Martial redemption story. Personally, I love this, and would be cock-a-hoop if he suddenly turns in a thirty-goal season.  Players don't often massively improve at age 26, but it would be great if it happened. Same as it would be if Bailly plays 40 games this season and confines his Bailly behaviour to stuff that benefits the team, or at least confines the spectacular own goals to games we win anyway. It could happen, I suppose. After all, Luke Shaw looked like a wasted talent for years, then suddenly clicked, improved rapidly, and for six months at the end of the 20/21 season and the subsequent Euros, he was arguably the best left-back in the world.

 

If Sancho, Rashford, Fernandes, and one or two others get back to form, it's like suddenly having £200m worth of new signings, frankly. They're good players, they just need a coherent plan and a positive environment.

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Loik V credern

Loik V credern

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Thread has moved on now... forum saved my post about De Jong.. Just the way it's written the tweet, 'still no intention to leave', 'priority is to stay', not 'De Jong just waiting for the €17m owed'. It's not a secret he wants the deferred wages so why put it like that. 

 

I don't think being the lynchpin of a new project to restore a huge club with his previous manager he did well with is a big deal or overrides living in Barcelona and playing for a club in the champions league who every season have a chance to win 3 trophies. To be at a club that however shambolic is still the apex of a player’s career. He's reached the top and the only way is down. He's not an outcast who can't get in the side, frozen out, who must accept his time there is over. 

 

Is it inevitable that he gets the €17m if he stays? However long it takes? Barcelona's finances are so complex there's probably no point thinking about them. Yesterday read United are willing to go to the end of the transfer window on De Jong, even after the season starts. I forget..window closes for transfers between premier league clubs but as la liga's window closes later, can still buy from them? 

 

I'm not saying De Jong absolutely doesn't want to come, but the money owed is open now, it's not like a player who actually wants to stay but flirts with other clubs as leverage for a bigger contract. Unless I've completely confused myself. I don’t see why De Jong saying 'yeah, I want the United move' would jeopardise the money owed. 

 

Looking at Eriksen who I have always been a fan of and thinking..where will he play. If at City, it'd be a healthy amount of competition with them always competing for trophies and the desire Pep instills in his squad, but at United there's still a sense of clinging on to players because there's no recognised system. Thoughts seem to be Eriksen can play as a 6. I prefer him to Fernandes and Van De Beek tbh...I don't know how a Fred, Eriksen, Fernandes midfield works.

 

I think a player like De Jong is desperately needed and i can't believe there is no one else the club could go for. United wouldn't waste time and effort on a player who won't come, sure. Maybe they're hoping Barcelona reveal how poisonous they are to De Jong and that encourages him to leave. 

 

He's coming to peak years and is a professional, I'm not suggesting he won't perform, as long as he makes himself available and doesn't lose the ball I'll be happy. 

 

When 'personal terms were agreed' I was more confident, honestly now I'm not. Obviously I'm bored enough to be writing all this, but it's more that (to say again) without a ball playing central midfielder I think success next season will be limited. 

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Adrock

Adrock

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Yeah that's a very very strange metric, every United player obviously played in the style that ended up costing Rangnick his job and led to them appointing Ten Hag.

 

I'm sure if you look at Varane's stats at Madrid he'd have passed a lot more than last season. Poor, lazy journalism.

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tonymg

tonymg

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2 hours ago, Adrock said:

Yeah that's a very very strange metric, every United player obviously played in the style that ended up costing Rangnick his job and led to them appointing Ten Hag.

 

I'm sure if you look at Varane's stats at Madrid he'd have passed a lot more than last season. Poor, lazy journalism.

Doesn't look like it, 20/21 league season for Madrid 58.6 passes per 90, 21/22 season for Utd 56.7. Poor, lazy posting 😉

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feltmonkey

feltmonkey

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Martinez's Champion's League stats are impressive though.

 

Spoiler

0Cry5xh.png

 

Sorry, you're probably going to open that in a new tab and click it to zoom in.

 

He also played very well against Haaland and Nunez in the competition last season.  Nunez eventually scored the winner in the tie between Ajax and Benfica, but it was a header from a free-kick, and it was Timber who was outmuscled by Nunez.  Martinez had already flattened the guy he was marking as it happened - I just rewatched the highlights.  

 

His main strength isn't as a fast, high-energy defender, although he is a good one-to-one defender, but as a passer of the ball.  He was Ajax's playmaker last season, to a large degree.  He plays gorgeous, flighted diagonals behind oposition defenders.  He might prove to be unsuited to the Premier League, but he's a player who could be amazing if he clicks, and will surely help Ten Hag play how he wants us to.

 

 

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Adrock

Adrock

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Posted
4 hours ago, tonymg said:

Doesn't look like it, 20/21 league season for Madrid 58.6 passes per 90, 21/22 season for Utd 56.7. Poor, lazy posting 😉

 

It definitely was, my audience is about 10-15 United fans and whoever else wanders in. The BBC should have much higher standards.

 

Compare Van De Beek's Dutch league stats, or Dirk Kuyt's, to their times in England. I'd be interested to see how they both stand up to comparison.

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Gabzy

Gabzy

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When this whole De Jong saga is finally over, it’ll say a lot about our recruitment. If it ends in failure, after all this - they need to go. It would be the epitome of “bad at your job” to have spent all summer publicly chasing a player who ends up not wanting to come.

I still think it’ll work out and that DJ is doing this because of financial issues with Barça, but if not… 😑🔫

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fatbob

fatbob

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It's a tough one, a unique situation to deal with I think.

Under normal circumstances, United should have moved onto an alternative months ago. But I get why they'd want to get Ten Hag his number one target, they should get him everyone he wants. 

 

I suppose i'd question why it's De Jong or bust, given Ten Hag's proven ability to coach and tactical flexibility. I feel like an alternative should be adequate. But again, conversely I think he should get who he wants. 😁

United shouldn't have to pay his back wages at all, but to be honest - they should probably consider this if they want to get the deal done. I expect Barca are counting on this possibility themselves so maybe they are dragging it out because they know United are rich and desperate to close? Somewhat ironic given Barca's actual financial problems! 

It's all very confusing.

 

If De Jong doesn't get done and they don't get an alternative promptly, this'll be up there with some of the biggest recruitment failures. The rest of the recruitment seems very good I think, it all seems to ride on this one. They've gone all in and it's really risky!

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JPL

JPL

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25 minutes ago, fatbob said:

They've gone all in and it's really risky!

Which seems daft as it gives Barca the upper hand. It makes them look desperate, when they should really be in the driving seat given Barca’s current situation.

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fatbob

fatbob

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1 hour ago, fatbob said:

 

United shouldn't have to pay his back wages at all, but to be honest - they should probably consider this if they want to get the deal done. I expect Barca are counting on this possibility themselves so maybe they are dragging it out because they know United are rich and desperate to close? Somewhat ironic given Barca's actual financial problems! 


I guess this explains this wrinkle. 
 

i suppose if this is true, the only way you could say United are at fault for this dragging is that they haven’t walked away yet. 
 

I guess they haven’t purely because ETH wants De Jong and they’re going for him or bust.

 

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fatbob

fatbob

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It’s the kind of thing that should go to CAS really. 
 

But he’d be retired before a verdict finds in his favour.

 

Really got to question the advice he got over this. I get that he, the emotional being wanted to help out Barcelona any way he could. But his advisors are supposed to protect him from this kind of… basically exploitation.

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feltmonkey

feltmonkey

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Martial has scored again in today's friendly against Crystal Palace. 

 

Fortunately, that clause where we would have to pay Monaco a shedload of cash if Martial wins the Balloon Door has expired, so we don't have to worry about that.  👍

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