They will demand 100m I bet, i have never seen him play, but id only pay that amount for a finished article,
January Transfer Window 2017/18
- Thread starter Robbo
- Start date
Utd rumours appear to be based mainly on the US link with the owners also
Surely he would need another year in Germany at the very least before anyone gambles that much on him - the fees these days are so stupid its impossible to know
Trying to think who the last big US star was who made it big over here - Howard (question over whether he ever really made it big, but had a decent career at Everton after Utd kinda fizzled out )?
All the links Ive seen have mentioned him as a right winger - but seemingly a very good AM also.....I would have thought with Salah and Keita arriving , Loverpool are pretty well stocked to gamble that much although crazier things have happened
debatable whether any of those made it big apart from Friedel, and he was on the scene well before Howard (5 or 6 years by the looks of things) although they retired from the top level at approx. the same age
Friedel was dreadful for Liverpool. I'm not sure he was every as good as people made out when he left us either - granted he stopped making obvious mistakes but I always thought his lack of speed or agility prevented him making saves a lot of other keepers made.
Reports that Madrid are coming after Pogba as he’s unhappy at United. At least it will end up being for profit. You can understand why Pogba might hate playing such football. Then again he might just be trying to get a pay rise after hearing what Sanchez is on.
Pogba hasn't been playing well and looked upset on the bench, but beyond that it's likely just guesswork from the papers.
That said, there do seem to be problems between him and Mourinho, they will need resolving quickly or it's not good news. The issue seems to be that Mourinho wants him to be able to play in a 2, which requires a lot more discipline, and Pogba wants a free role as box to box (like at Juventus), meaning he has to play in a 3.
His positioning is gash. I think Mourinho should just play him in a 2 come win, draw or lose in the league until the end of the season, learn the hard way. Would the fans accept maybe coming 3rd or 4th though? doubt it.
How he's been used has been interesting to watch partly because Pogba's not your typical Mourinho player but also because what's best for Pogba isn't really what's best for Utd.
Mourinho likes disciplined, robotic players that play set positions - Pogba's anything but that. He's a kid in the playground that wants to run everywhere and do everything. That causes a problem when either the side isn't playing at it's best or when you're playing against the better sides because it leaves Matic exposed. The ideal solution for Pogba is a 3 man midfield with a more defensively minded 3rd midfielder to help Matic. Does that really suit Utd though? It's fair to say Utd are far from the most attack minded, creative side in Europe - can you justify dropping one of your forwards simply to accommodate another defensive player just to suit Pogba? I guess the answer to that rests on 2 things, whether Pogba can start scoring 15-20 goals per season (no sign of that) and or whether Utd can put a front 3 together that are all prolific scorers to ease the goal burden on their midfield.
Soldato
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What's best for united? Hardly what Mourinho is pulling together at the moment. The club has invested massively in the current squad of players, and will likely add a CM and a defender or two in the summer.
I think this is potentially the start of his exit. If Mourinho can't make it work by Christmas he'll be gone before well before Pogba.
I think this is potentially the start of his exit. If Mourinho can't make it work by Christmas he'll be gone before well before Pogba.
You have someone like Dembele playing deep next to Dier perfectly, he uses his body superbly to control the midfield and get the ball to people like Eriksen, occasionally breaking from deep to create an even better opening for the guys in space. Age will help Pogba pick the right moments, he's pretty dam good already. The difference between Pogba and Dembele without the ball is night and day though. Pogba needs to learn that I feel to become a top top midfielder who can influence all types of games.
Soldato
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Mourinho needs to stop being so stubborn and adjust the formation to suit Pogba. Maybe he simply doesn't think that Herrera or McTominay are up to playing alongside Matic and so he's asking Pogba to do that role until we can get somebody else in in the summer, but really Mourinho should have seen this coming and got someone last summer or in January. As I've said before, he needs to stick to the formation United played against Everton away, that was Pogba's best game of the season by a mile and in that game United played 4-3-3 (or a variation of that). Sanchez wants to play in the number ten role behind Lukaku, so you could even do a 4-2-3-1 as follows:
Lukaku
Pogba--Sanchez--Martial
Matic--Herrera
Shaw--Rojo--Jones--Valencia
De Gea
Spurs model of playing two DMs is something we need to copy, I think it's the way to get the best out of our attacking players and still stay defensively sound.
Lukaku
Pogba--Sanchez--Martial
Matic--Herrera
Shaw--Rojo--Jones--Valencia
De Gea
Spurs model of playing two DMs is something we need to copy, I think it's the way to get the best out of our attacking players and still stay defensively sound.
Two points:
1. Pogba left in a 4-2-3-1? Not sure about that. Martial on the right isn't great either.
2. The Spurs model/2 holding midfielders. Without taking the ****, do you really want to follow a model that's won Spurs nothing and has them below you in the League? 4-2-3-1 with 2 out and out defensive midfielders has so many limitations and can only get you so far imo. For Spurs it's fine - they don't have the budget to buy the very best attacking players, making it very difficult to blitz the League like City are doing. Spurs set-up is to be solid at the back and rely on 2-3 players to win them the game - it's a percentage play but you'll never reach the levels of the City's of this world playing like that.
1. Pogba left in a 4-2-3-1? Not sure about that. Martial on the right isn't great either.
2. The Spurs model/2 holding midfielders. Without taking the ****, do you really want to follow a model that's won Spurs nothing and has them below you in the League? 4-2-3-1 with 2 out and out defensive midfielders has so many limitations and can only get you so far imo. For Spurs it's fine - they don't have the budget to buy the very best attacking players, making it very difficult to blitz the League like City are doing. Spurs set-up is to be solid at the back and rely on 2-3 players to win them the game - it's a percentage play but you'll never reach the levels of the City's of this world playing like that.
You didn't see enough of him them, I watched every Rovers home game for 7 years and he was one of the best in the country no doubt about it.
Playing behind numpties like Chris Samba and still keeping clean sheets are reason enough for me to hold him in such high regard.
He was worth a lot of points a season to us, he really was that good. I seem to recall him being pretty damn good at Villa as well.
He was worth a lot of points a season to us, he really was that good. I seem to recall him being pretty damn good at Villa as well.
See my posts on Pickford, I'm harsh on keepers tbf. Too often we look at the mistakes a keeper makes rather than the saves they do and don't make. Give me a keeper that makes 1 howler but pulls of 5 great saves over a keeper that makes no mistakes but can't make those 5 saves any day of the week.