Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - Mod Note in OP, 25/08

Pro. F

RayCun wrote: »

Lads, I don't know. he's a great player and all, but shouldn't we be signing a midfielder? Do we really need Van Persie?

Yeah, signing RVP didn't bring us directly to this situation of having a poorly balanced attacking unit.

For the record, I think Di Maria makes more sense as a signing because at least we know he can play brilliantly on the wing if we need him.

Pro. F

Pro. F wrote: »

Mata would be a defensive weakness if he's played wide. He doesn't have the legs to get up and down the pitch. Barring a miraculous change in his physical abilities I wouldn't be happy seeing him on the wing.

Have we lost faith in Januzaj on the wings? He can surely play on the right and Di Maria possibly on the left. With maybe Mata & Herrera in the middle behind RVP Rooney??

Then play a back 3 with a DM in front?

3-1-4-2??

Just messing around with the players at disposal so am open to correction.

RobertKK

Reading today's Independent, and a nice article on Di Maria.

He comes from a poor background, where he and his family had to work hard. As a child having enough food was the main issue.
Angel was in a baby walker and one when he fell down a well and is lucky to be alive.
His father worked in a coal yard with his mother and Angel started working there aged 10 with his sister. He worked there till aged 15, said it was hard work and he did deliveries.

His mother would take him as a child to soccer training with the sister on the front of the bike, himself on the back and his mother cycling in the middle. They did that for seven years.

He says humility is important to him and he will continue to use the opportunities football has given him to help his family, he bought them houses and other nice things, and from reading the article they all certainly deserved it.
It is a good human story. Something great happening to good people.

Pro. F

Pro. F wrote: »

You could go with the diamond midfield, like in Your Airbag's post above, I'm just not sure it would work with the forwards we have.

If we did go with that formation, I think Januzaj could possibly get a lot of games by being first choice back-up in all of the front five positions.

`
So kinda like 2 formations and they switch depending on the situation? ah ok, get ya.

Pro. F

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Have we lost faith in Januzaj on the wings? He can surely play on the right and Di Maria possibly on the left. With maybe Mata & Herrera in the middle behind RVP Rooney??

Then play a back 3 with a DM in front?

3-1-4-2??

Just messing around with the players at disposal so am open to correction.

I'm hoping LVG goes with wingers and Januzaj gets loads of games. But I wouldn't fancy Di Maria and Januzaj as wing-backs myself.

TheDoc

Pro. F wrote: »

I'm hoping LVG goes with wingers and Januzaj gets loads of games. But I wouldn't fancy Di Maria and Januzaj as wing-backs myself.

Personally feel EPL teams comfortable with defending centrally.With no pace and movement,we will struggle to break teams with 3-5-2.

How Soon Is Now

Looks like Benatia is off to Munich seen around 30million mentioned on Twitter.

Your Airbag

Pro. F wrote: »

That's the Real Madrid formation that lots of people have been suggesting, based on Di Maria's success there. I'm sceptical about it because Real were using an extremely pacey and athletic front three. We'd be using the opposite of that.

Rooney and Januzaj still have pace to offer, If Mata is first choice then its a problem. Januzaj could work wonders as an impact player in that formation but Yeah nowehere near as fast as Madrid.

magnumbud wrote: »

there are 2 ways i can think of it going and i could be 100% wrong

a 442 diamond with someone sitting protecting the defence and ideally starting the ball going forward carrick or maybe even fellaini could do this role when fit or if a deal could be done for a certain chilean. then di maria on the left and herrera on the right of CM both have massive work rate engines and great passing and can get out wide when needed to help out the fullbacks(ideally shaw and rafa) then mata sitting on top of the diamond behind rooney and rvp.

The other way is a 433 but not in a typical way. same deal with someone sitting in a quarterback style role then herrera still on the right of a 3 but mata on the left but a bit more central then di maria on the left rvp central and rooney kinda central both more so on the right. in this di maria would be working back to help shaw allowing mata to focus on creating and going forward and herrera would help out the right back allowing rooney to stay forward almost like Villas role for barca a few years ago.

That 433 is not bad but the holding quaterback would be Carrick? with Mata and Herrera ahead of him, so that takes Mata deeper and out of the no.10 role. Di Maria LWF, RVP central and Ronney RWF then?

Its a 4123, good creation from the midfeild two but Herrera is box to box, Mata isn't so you lose something there. It will be interesting to see how LVG plays this.

Pro. F

Pro. F wrote: »

I'm hoping LVG goes with wingers and Januzaj gets loads of games. But I wouldn't fancy Di Maria and Januzaj as wing-backs myself.

Wonder why we couldn't revert back to a 4-4-2. (Other than us knowing it's not favoured by LVG).
I know a lot of concerns comes form having no DM but there's an argument to be made in the modern game if it's really needed in certain cases.

We could go with a back four with Shaw / Raphael respectively and making sure they get up to the to fitness levels required for attacking the flanks and covering defensively.

In that case it gives Di Maria / Januzaj a bit more freedom in regards to defensive cover.

In this case I would favour Smalling / Rojo as CB's because both like to play out form the backs.

Again just thrashing out ideas.

RobertKK

United midfield upwards?
In a 4-3-3.

---

New Midfielder

---

----Hererra

---

Di Maria----

---

Mata

---

---

RVP

---

Rooney

---

TheDoc

How Soon Is Now wrote: »

Looks like Benatia is off to Munich seen around 30million mentioned on Twitter.

Few outlets reporting Roma held us to ransom making an outragous demand.Worrying when it comes to Strootman.

How Soon Is Now

TheDoc wrote: »

Few outlets reporting Roma held us to ransom making an outragous demand.Worrying when it comes to Strootman.

No worries just get Vidal we be grand :-)

Copper_pipe

4-3-1-2

Herrera,Vidal,Di Maria
Mata
Rooney, RVP


We'll score for fun!

How Soon Is Now

How Soon Is Now wrote: »

No worries just get Vidal we be grand :-)

Or Blind; he's a midfielder. Although Gary / Jamie keep forgetting that.

Billy86

RobertKK wrote: »

Reading today's Independent, and a nice article on Di Maria.

...

Always good to sign good people
Reminds me a bit of Forlan who would have come from a better off upbringing (his dad was an international, but in an era before there was much money going around) but more or less dedicated his career and much of his earnings to his sister and various related charities after she was left in a wheelchair following a car accident. He would have actually prefer to play tennis, which he was pretty promising at (and he DOES look like a tennis player, oddly enough ).

Likewise for Ronaldo, funny how all the people who hate him so much never mention that he donates tons of money to charity and the really poor area of Funchal he grew up in that they have even made a 'CR7 museum' in his honour.

Both of those guys worked their asses off to improve when things weren't going well for them and never stopped working that hard when it all came good (unlike certain others who refused to go to the gym, constantly got free passes from the media for being the 'golden boy' and have began to suffer as a result), and once Ronaldo grew up from his strops at around 21/22, have had excellent attitudes on the pitch.

It just realised; is the thread heading towards a boards.ie record for a footie thread?
Holy ****balls it was only created on the 17th

Maximus Alexander

M!Ck^ wrote: »

It just realised; is the thread heading towards a boards.ie record for a footie thread?
Holy ****balls it was only created on the 17th

It's a big club, bound to happen.

Bleating Lamb

Everyone naturally interested with transfers in,esp with impending arrival of Di Maria but Its interesting that there seems to be feck all interest from other big clubs in our players!;(....
Would be nice to be able to balance the books slightly by getting concrete offers for Anderson,Cleverly,Fellaini(before he got injured..which didnt happen),Valencia,etc etc.
To me it shows for a big club we have a weak squad!
PS- and I don't mean silly loan deals like Nani's where we pay his bloody wages.

Rayne Wooney

Was pondering whether the club could draw up a complicated contract if they were worried about Vidal's knee, if you could get Juve to agree a fee of 30 million with 15 in add ons if he plays a certain amount of games without his knee acting up and then get Vidal to agree to a contract that would only pay out the first year if the club decide the injury will continue and effect his career the club would still lose around 45 million if he was crocked, and I'm sure it would be a long shot getting both parties to agree to that

Billy86

It'll be interesting too, to see if this signing takes us away from the 3412 we have been playing, and there's a lot of options. It might or might not be our best potential attacking unit, but playing a 4231 with two of Herrera/Carrick/(new guy) behind ADM/Mata/Kanaka with Rooney or RVP up front could be awesome to watch. Kanaka doesn't seem to be in great favour with Louis, but between the time the players appeared to stop listening to Moyes and his getting sacked last year, he and Matt had some excellent link up play and while I think RVPs skillset matches best with that, Rooney linked up very well with them in that time frame.

kstand

M!Ck^ wrote: »

It just realised; is the thread heading towards a boards.ie record for a footie thread?
Holy ****balls it was only created on the 17th

And that is without the gifs that will inevitably follow this afternoon once the signing has been confirmed and the pictures appear from Carrington.

geeksauce

Billy86 wrote: »

It'll be interesting too, to see if this signing takes us away from the 3412 we have been playing, and there's a lot of options. It might or might not be our best potential attacking unit, but playing a 4231 with two of Herrera/Carrick/(new guy) behind ADM/Mata/Kanaka with Rooney or RVP up front could be awesome to watch. Kanaka doesn't seem to be in great favour with Louis, but between the time the players appeared to stop listening to Moyes and his getting sacked last year, he and Matt had some excellent link up play and while I think RVPs skillset matches best with that, Rooney linked up very well with them in that time frame.

Who is Kanaka?

Kharrell

30M is good business by Bayern Munich for Benatia.

Rayne Wooney

.................DDG...........
.....Jones...Evans....Rojo...
..........Herrera...Carrick.........
Di Maria.......Mata...........Shaw
............Rooney....RVP............

Think we could see this for a while when everyone is fit

Billy86

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Would be nice to be able to balance the books slightly by getting concrete offers for Anderson,Cleverly,Fellaini(before he got injured..which didnt happen),Valencia,etc etc.
To me it shows for a big club we have a weak squad!
PS- and I don't mean silly loan deals like Nani's where we pay his bloody wages.

Not happening unfortunately, and it's because of the last part. We would be lucky for even a midtable team to take on Young or Anderson for a low fee on their footballing ability/age/form but both of them are on wages that are deal breakers. Giving Valencia a new contract remains inexplicable, means he isn't going anywhere for at least this season, and likely creates the same problem regarding wages. Same for Fellaini, could easily have sold him to a few lower/midtable or continental teams but not on that pay, and the same for Fletcher to Celtic or a lower/midtable with his wages.

Cleverly should be easier to offload in that sense though. As for the others, because of their wages and lack of talent, it is no exaggeration to say we would likely not even be able to give them away for free without them taking a pay cut (or us paying towards their wages, which would likely end up with us paying to get rid of them over the course of their remaining contracts).

Hococop

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Everyone naturally interested with transfers in,esp with impending arrival of Di Maria but Its interesting that there seems to be feck all interest from other big clubs in our players!;(....
Would be nice to be able to balance the books slightly by getting concrete offers for Anderson,Cleverly,Fellaini(before he got injured..which didnt happen),Valencia,etc etc.
To me it shows for a big club we have a weak squad!
PS- and I don't mean silly loan deals like Nani's where we pay his bloody wages.

Id easily let Anderson go for 2-3 million. At least you clear 70-80 k a week off the books

LostBoy101

Kharrell wrote: »

30M is good business by Bayern Munich for Benatia.

Yep is supposely really good and at his peak. Shame we were not in for him.

eioneill

Interestin snippet from the Beeb:

Fast forward to 2014, though, and Di Maria has made progress with the speed of one his forward surges.
The ever astute Jonathan Wilson, author of Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics, described him recently as "tactically probably the most important member of the Real Madrid side in 2013-14" in his deeper midfield role."He pulled wide when Cristiano Ronaldo went inside. He shuttled to provide the link between the midfield of Xabi Alonso (or Sami Khedira in the Champions League final) and Luka Modric and the forward line, [and] he sat in when Marcelo overlapped him from full-back," explained Wilson, who judges that Real's decision to let Di Maria go could prove as foolish as the similar blunder they made with Claude Makelele just over a decade ago.

Billy86

geeksauce wrote: »

Who is Kanaka?

... I've spent enough time correcting the autocorrect on my phone with 'midtable' (which it insists on changing to 'mistake' and/or 'Mintabie'?) and RVP (rsvp), gimme a break!

Antibac

TheDoc wrote: »

Few outlets reporting Roma held us to ransom making an outragous demand.Worrying when it comes to Strootman.

Maybe that's the reason for the reported push on Vidal now possibly?

Billy86

Hococop wrote: »

Id easily let Anderson go for 2-3 million. At least you clear 70-80 k a week off the books

Who would pay him 70-80k a week to play for them though, even if we gave him to them for free? If we call it 75k, that's 3.9mn a year!

redbaron_99

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

.................DDG...........
.....Jones...Evans....Rojo...
..........Herrera...Carrick.........
Di Maria.......Mata...........Shaw
............Rooney....RVP............

Think we could see this for a while when everyone is fit

Di Maria is left footed, so wouldn't like him playing as right wing back.
Personally I don't think you can fit Di Maria, mata, rvp and Rooney into the same team if there's three at the back.

redbaron_99

Billy86 wrote: »

Who would pay him 70-80k a week to play for them though, even if we gave him to them for free? If we call it 75k, that's 3.9mn a year!

Anyone know how long he has left on his contract?

Billy86

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

Vidal's knee, if you could get Juve to agree a fee of 30 million with 15 in add ons if he plays a certain amount of games without his knee acting up

Agree on the contract bit (but without being in Europe it does limit our negotiating ability somewhat), but there is no hope we get him for even close to that amount unfortunately. One downside to paying up for ADM (which I don't mind, as I said our negotiating position is poor as we are desperate and it is obvious, so no reason for us to pretend otherwise) is that Juve will likely look at it and increase what they want for Vidal accordingly. If they wanted 47mn before, I wouldn't at all be surprised for them to be looking for 60mn now.

Spazdarn

............RVP, Rooney
.................Mata
......Di Maria Herrera Januzaj
Shaw, Rojo, Evans/Jones, Rafael

This formation seems to appease all the stars, no faffing about with 3 at the back, and has pace and invention in both Di Maria and Januzaj running at people.

Hococop

redbaron_99 wrote: »

Anyone know how long he has left on his contract?

Wikipedia says end of this season

Crimson King

redbaron_99 wrote: »

Anyone know how long he has left on his contract?

Signed a new contract in 2010-11 to extend his stay till June 2015, according tot hat last bastion of truth that is wikepedia.

Anderson and Young have the club in a bind, no one wants them at the prices they are paid. i only recently realised Fellaini's wages are huge too, anywhere between £100-115K a week. Nobody will pay that without some assistance.

JimsAlterEgo

ToiletFusion wrote: »

............RVP, Rooney
.................Mata
......Di Maria Herrera Januzaj
Shaw, Rojo, Evans/Jones, Rafael

This formation seems to appease all the stars, no faffing about with 3 at the back, and has pace and invention in both Di Maria and Januzaj running at people.

that midfiled would be ripped to pieces, maybe chasing a game but not starting

Billy86

ToiletFusion wrote: »

RVP, Rooney
Mata
Di Maria Herrera Januzaj
Shaw, Rojo, Evans/Jones, Rafael

This formation seems to appease all the stars, no faffing about with 3 at the back, and has pace and invention in both Di Maria and Januzaj running at people.

Problem there is that the midfield would get torn to shreds on counters, or possibly in general by hardworking, compact, disciplined units, even with less talent. Could possibly work when Carrick is back if you put him in Herrera's place, and Herrera in Januzaj's though. Or if we get someone like De Jong/Vidal in the next few days and do likewise.

Billy86

Crimson King wrote: »

Signed a new contract in 2010-11 to extend his stay till June 2015, according tot hat last bastion of truth that is wikepedia.

Anderson and Young have the club in a bind, no one wants them at the prices they are paid. i only recently realised Fellaini's wages are huge too, anywhere between £100-115K a week. Nobody will pay that without some assistance.

This is a little old but I wasn't bothered looking more http://oldtraffordfaithful.com/manchester-united-contract-expiry-dates/

By the looks of it, yeah letting Anderson go for free next summer might be the best option (likewise for Fletcher). Young has two years left, Valencia has three since he resigned I think and Fellaini has FOUR! so with those guys we would almost certainly have to contribute to their wages for clubs who might be interested to be able to afford them, and consider ourselves lucky to just break even, e.g. getting them off the books for free.





ADM at Carrington.

advertsfox

SSN - "Our reporter Gary Cotterill’s on Angel di Maria watch at Manchester United’s Carrington training ground, and thinks the transfer could be about to be confirmed."

https://twitter.com/ManUtd

hufpc8w3adnk65

Jesus you can't miss this thread for then a few mins or you have pages and pages too read when you come back

Vic Vinegar

I think/hope that the Di Maria signing, coupled with another CM would mean we change to a 4-3-3 for the majority of games.

---

De Gea

---

Rafael----Jones

---

Rojo----Shaw

---

Carrick

---

---

Someone

---

Herrera

---

Januzaj

---

Di Maria

---

Rooney/RVP

---

That's a really good team imo.

geeksauce

Billy86 wrote: »

... I've spent enough time correcting the autocorrect on my phone with 'midtable' (which it insists on changing to 'mistake' and/or 'Mintabie'?) and RVP (rsvp), gimme a break!

I just thought they had signed some new fella I hadn't heard of!!!!

mufc1993

Still can't see a way that ADM, Mata, Rooney and RVP in the one team can work.

MagicIRL

IT'S HAPPENINGGGGGGGGGGGG

advertsfox

GIFS at the ready lads!

redbaron_99

mufc1993 wrote: »

Still can't see a way that ADM, Mata, Rooney and RVP in the one team can work.

Raf-jones-Evans-shaw

Herrera-carrick-Di Maria

Mata

Rooney-rvp

brinty

MagicIRL wrote: »

IT'S HAPPENINGGGGGGGGGGGG

WHATS
HAPPENINGGGGGGGGGGGG

irishfeen

MagicIRL wrote: »

IT'S HAPPENINGGGGGGGGGGGG

In work fcuk sake what's happening??