Summer Transfer Window 25/26 *Sponsored by Bigpig*

manic111 said:
Wirtz and Szoboszlai as well, surely? Admittedly they're each 50% midfielder 50% forward, but between them you get the one forward we're "missing".
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Having flexible players is great but you can sometimes trick yourself into thinking you have more cover than you actually do. It's all good and well saying Wirtz and Szoboszlai can cover the front 3 but they're options for the midfield first and foremost. Likewise we'll have people saying Frimpong can cover Salah and it's alright because Gomez can cover RB but Gomez is currently our only backup CB. There's a bare minimum squad size you need, even accounting for utility players.

Last season we had 12 senior players for the front 6 positions. With it being a strong possibility that all of Nunez, Chiesa and Elloitt leave, we'd be down to just 9 players for those 6 positions and in Salah, one of those is going to be away from the busiest 6 weeks of the season. Maybe you don't need 12 players but (particularly due to afcon) imo you need 11.
 
inogen said:
Yeah to an extent but I don't think either of these replaces Diaz, and although Ekitike does somewhat, that still leaves Jota, Darwin and Chiesa to be replaced.

Also Salah played the most minutes last year. He played three times as many as Jota or Darwin. I don't think we'll see that again especially with the AFCON.
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Don't get me wrong, if we can get hold of another forward I'd be happy. But I wouldn't be panic buying, and I think the vast priority is the defence (and arguably DM as well).

To @BaZ87's point, I agree completely, but again I'd rather fill the clear holes we have. If we get another centre back (even better, one who can also play full back) that fills a significant gap. If we can get a genuine DM, that fills something which I still think we're missing in our skillset. And doing that frees up Frimpong, Macca, Jones, Szoboszlai, Wirtz to play further forward without that leaving us short on players towards the back half of the pitch. If we get a defender and a DM, and Chiesa, Nunez and Elliott all leave, I'd then ideally like a further forward (indeed I wouldn't expect us to sanction three departures without having one lined up), but with the cover further back I don't think it's essential.

In short, my view is that at present we look short further forward because we're actually short at the back. We fix that, and we look strong throughout. If we have more departures, then the question reopens but right now we need to fix the shortcomings in the squad as it stands (and those shortcomings won't be resolved by signing a further forward).
 
yeah we definitely need another CB. Quansah played a fair bit last season and we have to replace those minutes at least.

I don't think we need another midfielder. We've already got 4 players who will want to play all the minutes in 3 positions. Mac, Szoboszlai, Grav and Wirtz. Then there's Jones, Endo and Nyoni also looks to have grown. There's also some strong rumours about Wharton coming but not this season.
 
inogen said:
yeah we definitely need another CB. Quansah played a fair bit last season and we have to replace those minutes at least.

I don't think we need another midfielder. We've already got 4 players who will want to play all the minutes in 3 positions. Mac, Szoboszlai, Grav and Wirtz. Then there's Jones, Endo and Nyoni also looks to have grown. There's also some strong rumours about Wharton coming but not this season.
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Yeah I get that, but DM really worries me. Grav had a fantastic season there last year, but I don't think he's as desctructive as we need against the absolute best teams (and likewise against those teams I don't think Endo is good enough), and if he has another season that good again I'd be staggered (but very happy). If he goes off the boil or gets injured we're down to Mac, Szoboszlai and Wirtz plus Jones and Endo (and possibly Nyoni), and that suddenly looks like a midfield that teams will walk through.
 
yeah, it's important Grav stays relatively fit all season. It'd be hard to find anther player that's better than Jones, Endo or Nyoni who won't want to play most minutes though. And if Grav is fit, he plays.
 
inogen said:
yeah, it's important Grav stays relatively fit all season. It'd be hard to find anther player that's better than Jones, Endo or Nyoni who won't want to play most minutes though. And if Grav is fit, he plays.
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Again, largely agreed provided he's playing well. But equally, I think we're really talking about Grav and Mac for two spots as the double pivot. We then have Jones, Endo and Nyoni who are clearly less good. And I really think that Wirtz and Dom are competing for a different position - they're not going to drop into the pivot roles. They're going to play at 10(ish), or possibly rotate with the wide men from time to time.

So actually, we pretty much have two players for two spots, with a significant drop to our next best players. A couple of injuries / suspensions / loss of form, and we could quite feasibly be working around Jones and Endo as a double pivot, and our season could quite feasibly go off the rails.

You talk about getting someone who will want to play most minutes - of course that's a consideration - but then, we've got £70m Dom (who's been very good and was key last season despite some shortcomings) competing with £150m Wirtz further forward. And if rumours are to be believed we may have £75m Ekitike competing with £120m Isak up front. Why on earth would we not want competition of that quality in the pivot roles?

*please don't quote me on transfer fees, I know people get very heated about how much players have actually cost. I don't really care and it doesn't affect my point - basically throughout much of the team we have exceptional players competing for spots. We don't have that in the pivot.
 
manic111 said:
Don't get me wrong, if we can get hold of another forward I'd be happy. But I wouldn't be panic buying, and I think the vast priority is the defence (and arguably DM as well).

To @BaZ87's point, I agree completely, but again I'd rather fill the clear holes we have. If we get another centre back (even better, one who can also play full back) that fills a significant gap. If we can get a genuine DM, that fills something which I still think we're missing in our skillset. And doing that frees up Frimpong, Macca, Jones, Szoboszlai, Wirtz to play further forward without that leaving us short on players towards the back half of the pitch. If we get a defender and a DM, and Chiesa, Nunez and Elliott all leave, I'd then ideally like a further forward (indeed I wouldn't expect us to sanction three departures without having one lined up), but with the cover further back I don't think it's essential.

In short, my view is that at present we look short further forward because we're actually short at the back. We fix that, and we look strong throughout. If we have more departures, then the question reopens but right now we need to fix the shortcomings in the squad as it stands (and those shortcomings won't be resolved by signing a further forward).
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I don't think there's much prospect of us signing a DM. Other than some very weak links to Wharton, we've not been linked with a 6 since Zubamendi. It looks like the club have moved on and are more than happy to make do with 2 from Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Jones and Szoboszlai and then Endo coming on to kick people in the final 15 minutes.

We'll sign a CB but I don't think that changes much at all. You're still going to have 2 of your 4 CB's that have patchy injury records and more importantly Bradley likes an injury too. Until he can prove that he's capable of playing more than 2 months of football without an injury then it's a massive gamble to go into the season thinking Frimpong can be your Salah backup. For me Frimpong, from a RW point of view, is nothing more than a bonus option right now.

As mentioned, if all of Nunez, Chiesa and Elliott leave then I think we need two more attacking options, one isn't enough. Before a ball is kicked we know Salah is out for 4-6 weeks with Afcon and injuries will happen, even if it's just a few weeks here or there. 4 + Szobo and or Wirtz isn't enough. Wirtz and Szobo give you flexibility as to exactly which position(s) you target but you've got to sign two attacking players imo.
 
manic111 said:
Again, largely agreed provided he's playing well. But equally, I think we're really talking about Grav and Mac for two spots as the double pivot. We then have Jones, Endo and Nyoni who are clearly less good. And I really think that Wirtz and Dom are competing for a different position - they're not going to drop into the pivot roles. They're going to play at 10(ish), or possibly rotate with the wide men from time to time.

So actually, we pretty much have two players for two spots, with a significant drop to our next best players. A couple of injuries / suspensions / loss of form, and we could quite feasibly be working around Jones and Endo as a double pivot, and our season could quite feasibly go off the rails.

You talk about getting someone who will want to play most minutes - of course that's a consideration - but then, we've got £70m Dom (who's been very good and was key last season despite some shortcomings) competing with £150m Wirtz further forward. And if rumours are to be believed we may have £75m Ekitike competing with £120m Isak up front. Why on earth would we not want competition of that quality in the pivot roles?

*please don't quote me on transfer fees, I know people get very heated about how much players have actually cost. I don't really care and it doesn't affect my point - basically throughout much of the team we have exceptional players competing for spots. We don't have that in the pivot.
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I think Szoboszlai can do it and we might see more of him doing it now Wirtz is here. I also think one of Szoboszlai's jobs last season was to do some running for Salah who was told to stay out wide. That won't be so much of the case with Frimpong overlapping and although Bradley likes to underlap, that might be more instruction rather than preference. A midfield of Szoboszlai and Mac with Wirtz would be great I think. We've not seen it yet in the preseasons.

You might be right though and a couple of injuries in any position is never good.
 
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Have seen conflicting reports on this, but you can't say he wouldn't be an upgrade on Onana...

www.skysports.com

Gianluigi Donnarumma transfer: Man Utd interested in Paris St-Germain goalkeeper with uncertainty over Andre Onana future

Gianluigi Donnarumma has one year left on his PSG contract and Man Utd are interested in bringing him to Old Trafford; Champions League winners are close to signing Lilles Lucas Chevalier; current United keeper Andre Onana under pressure after errors
www.skysports.com www.skysports.com

Seems like they're working on Sesko too - he doesn't want to join Newcastle.
 
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