Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Vanbis wrote: »

Michael Carrick is the worst midfielder i have seeing play for Manutd in 15yrs

Ah now, steady on. Kleberson, Djemba x 2?

IvySlayer wrote: »

United need a creative CM, another brilliant winger, a new CB and a striker. I remember PHB writing a long post echoing this, complete agreement.

Left or right winger? CB seems to be covered with Vida/Rio/Evans/Smalling/Brown/JOS if needed. We cannot compensate for the injuries we've had in that position this season and imo we dont need to buy any more defenders.

p_larkin99 wrote: »

Left or right winger? CB seems to be covered with Vida/Rio/Evans/Smalling/Brown/JOS if needed. We cannot compensate for the injuries we've had in that position this season and imo we dont need to buy any more defenders.

Our selection of defenders is MAYBE the best in the world, when you consider the depth of quality. Please no more money on defenders!

IvySlayer wrote: »

Both feet

Atm with Valencia having a better season than Nani, a left one. Smalling, I really don't know enough about. Should Vidic leave or Rio have another injury which ruins another season, we need a new world class CB.

Im happy with how our wingers are doing. Maybe another one of the same style to compete and as ya say who can use both feet but this is not a priority.

And the point on the CB is like saying we should sign a LB in case Evra gets a long injury. There are players who can step in but who would not be world class as with Vida/Rio's replacements.


meh, enough from me tonight. bed time.

dont get too down lads. still a league to fight for.

Keep the red flag flying high!!!


edit: and FWIW headshot I dont think berba is suited to us but i cant be arsed debating that at this time.

IvySlayer wrote: »

Both feet

Atm with Valencia having a better season than Nani, a left one. Smalling, I really don't know enough about. Should Vidic leave or Rio have another injury which ruins another season, we need a new world class CB.

Should Rio & Vidic stay fit, is there a better world class pairing in the world? Would another world class CB agree to sit on the bench? I don't think so. Anyway, with Smalling's arrival, i'll be willing to bet any money that we won't sign another defender.

A central midfielder is a different matter however. If we don't get one and a world class playmaker, we'll be ****** next season

I'm fairly sad after tonight. I thought things were really looking up when they were three ahead. I really can't see Chelsea slipping up and moral is going to be quite low. I really do place most of the blame on Rafael for tonight. He was playing very good against Ribery and he is simply far too immature to play at this level at the moment.

Dave! wrote: »

Comical overreactions here gents

Sickening to go out though

Good match at least, and a peach of a first goal from Nani

How I wish our defense was as good as it used to be

Its Farcical tbh.

If we had won 4-0 (which was quite possible) everyone would be pulling themselves, saying how amazing we were.

Sometimes a bit of perspective is needed.

Bukman13 wrote: »

Its Farcical tbh.

If we had won 4-0 (which was quite possible) everyone would be pulling themselves, saying how amazing we were.

Sometimes a bit of perspective is needed.

Don't think many people are going mental bout it all (granted I haven't read the half a million pages in the match thread). We just got beat. It's annoying in that we were well good enough to win and it's always worse to go out that way. But surely no one is calling for massive changes (although I would send Carrick on his summer holidays early).

Mr Alan wrote: »

Wtf?

UnitedIrishman wrote: »

Don't think many people are going mental bout it all (granted I haven't read the half a million pages in the match thread). We just got beat. It's annoying in that we were well good enough to win and it's always worse to go out that way. But surely no one is calling for massive changes (although I would send Carrick on his summer holidays early).

I'm talking about some of the posts in the Match thread/The future of Man Utd thread basically saying "the majority of the players are terrible and the team is falling apart".

Complete overreation!

I was pointing out that had the result been in Utd's favour, the reaction in here would have been the complete opposite, and probably an overreaction in the opposite direction would have followed.

Bukman13 wrote: »

I'm talking about some of the posts in the Match thread/The future of Man Utd thread basically saying "the majority of the players are terrible and the team is falling apart".

Complete overreation!

I was pointing out that had the result been in Utd's favour, the reaction in here would have been the complete opposite, and probably an overreaction in the opposite direction would have followed.

Ah yeah, I'm guessing the OP in the "Future of MU" thread isn't a United fan though and some others aren't either.

Like I said, didn't get the chance to read the match thread in full. But any fan saying we're doomed would want to remember a few years back when we didn't even make it out of the group.

Fergie and the players will know themselves of the standards they've set themselves.

flahavaj wrote: »

I think a class midfielder and a class left winger would leave the squad looking very very healty. Do United need another striker if they're gonna play Ronney alone up front most of the time anyway? They'd want to be someone who's happy to sit out all the big matches for a start.

Sounds like a certain Bulgarian and very unlike a certain Argie.

Think last night showed we need new midfielders, and a striker Fergie trusts. Not putting Berbatov on shows a distinct lack of faith in the guy imo.

Gibson, despite his goal, isn't good enough for this type of game, and it is the type of game United desire to play in. Carrick was woefull last night. Giggs and Scholes, at this point in their careers are not reliable other options either. Hargreaves? Who knows how he will return and Anderson, despite the potential has been very disappointing this season in particular. For me, Fletcher is the only midfielder I would trust week in week out, but he is a player that needs others around him, he won't dominate on his own as his game is too 'all round' rather than amaziing in one particular area.

For what it is worth, I do think we should look to keep the midfielders we have if possible - the younger ones anyway (basically I wouldn't turf Carrick, Hargreaves and Anderson out in the summer) but they should all be secondary options to the better players in the first team. I would like to see us get a DM, and an AM if we are going to continue with 451 as the mainstay. Not sure who they should be, I would like Gourcuff as the AM personally, but I don't know who would be right for the DM role. Possibly Hargreaves can take that role next season but I feel Fergie may have put his eggs in that particular basket the summer gone, thinking Hargreaves would be back in October/November - and it has cost us imo. I don't want to see the same mistake happening again.

With regards strikers, I'm not sure what to do. I do like Berbatov but it looks like Fergie has lost faith in him. Kiko is promising and Diouf is a tough one to call. Welbeck... i dunno. If we persist with just the 1 up top, Rooney has proven himself capable of leading the line brilliantly, but if he gets injured we are going to struggle (as we have done). What can we really do about that though? We either have to accept that we can't really have two top class forwards or we have to radically rethink the midfield - I don't believe 442 is really workable in most big games (against Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona etc) so if we are going with two up front are we going to sacrifice wing play to compact the middle and use the full backs for width as Chelsea do, for example? Personally, I would doubt it - we will stick with the 451/533 formation that has served us well enough, and I believe that would be fine, with the right midfield additions as I have mentioned above. With that though, I do feel we have to look away from the likes of Villa and Dzeko - we can't afford to have players of their caliber for the bench, so we can really only go for them if we sacrifice Rooney back out to the wing, not sure I want that (or that we could get them anyway). Another thought would be that we could try Rooney in an AMC/SS role behind the Villa/Dzeko (for example) as Liverpool do with Gerrard off Torres. Rooney could be very effective in that role, and it would provide some flexibility in terms of covering for injuries. I dunno.

I think, regardless of anything else, central midfield is our priority - we need to replace Scholes and Giggs in the first team, and Carrick too imo.

Another interesting point though, is the young player we have coming through - and how much faith we have in them. Cleverly and James have both been impressive on their loan spells this year, Cleverly in particular. I don't know if either are really good enough for the first team at United, but maybe they deserve a chance to prove it either way. Any midfield signings would be a huge roadblock for them. Granted you can make the argument that even with midfield signings they could push themselves to a bench role at least anyway, ahead of Scholes, Giggs etc - which is probably what is the best hope for them next season anyway. Slightly further down the line we have Pogba for a DM/CM role - probably looking at the season after next for him to start looking at the first team. Petrucci looks freaking gifted as an AMC/SS - only his physique holding him back really imo, a wonderfully passer of the ball with great vision and a good finisher too. He should be looking at making some impact at first team level next season, either with United through the League Cup or on load at a Championship side - hopefully he is over the growth pain issues that plauged him last season and this. Ravel Morrison looks a great prospect too, if he can fulfill that potential he could be a massive star for us, either on the wing or through the middle.

We have a very good looking group of young players coming through over the next 12/24 months imo, so it is possible (maybe even probable given the apparent financial situation) that any signings we make, look to make or don't make is made/not made with the progress of those players in mind.

Whatever happens and whatever Fergie decides, this summer is massively important - we need Fergie to take a cold long term view of the squad and decide what needs to be done, who needs to go and who needs to be given a chance. I would argue this really should have been done last summer, and maybe it was, with Hargreaves, Anderson and Carrick given a chance to save themselves - it will be interesting to see how the summer pans out. In a way I wish it was not a World Cup year, as it always throws a spanner in the works of transfers.