21 Jul 2025 07:39:03
{Ed's Note - Shappy has posted a new article entitled, Midfield Is The Biggest Conundrum For Manchester United

1.) 21 Jul 2025
21 Jul 2025 08:39:30
Shappy I like your optimism. But i think the biggest conundrum you guys face is the number of players you have who don't care that they are playing for ManU. I think you can be quietly happy that the recruiting staff have finally woken up to the fact that a players who hungers to paly for you guys is way better than someone who has come for the money.
And personally I don't rate casemiro anywhere near as highly as you do. Teams are clearly setting traps in the hope the ball will be passed to him so that they can press him. He is poor in possession and so slow. i'd go so far as to say we got the way deal buying Endo - not as flashy but way more effective (and cheaper)
However overall its hard to argue with your assessment that your midfield needs work. But i suspect your management will wait a year so they can find some more pennies down the back of the lounge (AKA sack a couple more low paid staff to free some money up) . Certainly there is little chance of them actually providing it out of their own pocket.
not trying to have a go at your guys btw. My brother has been a die hard manu fan since the 80's plus I hate seeing what scummy management has reduced you guys to (if only because i had to live through the Hicks and Gillet saga at my club) .

2.) 21 Jul 2025
21 Jul 2025 09:34:17
If Bruno is one of the two in midfield then the other one has to be an ‘avenger’ to cover all the holes he will leave in midfield when he inevitably goes wandering off.

3.) 21 Jul 2025
21 Jul 2025 10:47:23
Phil, I think we are working on shipping those guys out now.

Rashford and Sancho will sooner be gone, Garnacho will also follow them out the door. Antony and Malacia will also likely leave this summer.

That removes the problem players from the squad. We still have too many players who aren't good enough or struggle to stay fit.

We still need to move on Maguire, Shaw, Casemiro, Mount and Højlund, all of which are either not good enough or can't stay fit. Yet none of them have been flagged up as having serious attitude problems. Shaw can be lazy apparently, but I doubt the manager will let him get away with that. While Højlund is reported to have an "excess of confidence" shall we say.

However, if we can't move these players on this summer it will certainly be their last season at the club.

The issue with our midfield is finding that right balance, we have lots of players with various different skill sets but I'm not sure we have a pairing that fully compliment eachother.

We also have potentially 6 players for two positions (Casemiro, Bruno, Ugarte, Mainoo, Collyer, and Kone) . Which without European football means that at least 2 most likely 3 won't play each week. So I don't see us bringing in another player unless at least one of them leaves (likely Kone on loan), ideally Casemiro as he's declining and on massive wages (but this is unlikely) .

Casemiro in Europe last year was very good, but the slower pace (and in fairness weaker opposition) was a big part of that. In the EPL he's a good player for most games for around 60 minutes, after which he lacks the stamina to keep going.

However, he is exactly the type of player we need. Defensively strong, capable of playing both on the front and back foot, good in the air (a real weakness of ours), capable of driving through midfield with the ball and a underrated passer. The problem is his declining stamina and mobility. If we could sign a 24 year old Casemiro that would be ideal.

I think we should be seeing one of Casemiro or Collyer paired with one of Bruno or Mainoo most weeks, with Ugarte coming in alongside one of Casemiro or Collyer against top six sides where we won't have the majority of the ball.

The ideal signing for us would be Adam Wharton, but he would be far too much for us this summer. Maybe keeping Casemiro and giving Collyer chances to develop this season before making a big push for a player like Wharton next summer is the best plan. The other option would be to bring in a cheaper midfielder this summer and hope they can develop into a top level player.

Given the number of players we currently have in midfield, we shouldn't be signing players who just fill a gap, even on loan it doesn't make sense to pay the wages for a short term option while we just have extra players being pushed onto the bench. I'd rather give a youngster a chance than sign a short term loan option. At least at the end of the season either we know the youngster has stepped up and can be a regular part of the squad or we know they aren't going to be able to and we can safely sell them on to raise funds and allow them to continue their development by playing regularly elsewhere.

4.) 21 Jul 2025
21 Jul 2025 11:35:44
I'd wager that Utd haven't had a top central midfielder since Scholes (mk1). That's well over a decade without a midfield maestro pulling the strings in the middle of the pitch.
Last season you could see that as soon as the ball (eventually) found its way from our CBs to the midfield, things so often ground to a halt with lots of pedantic safe sideways passing. Of the course the addition of Cunha changes nothing in this regard and after the Leeds game RA was already talking about how slow we are.
Don't know what names are being banded about for midfield but it would be great to see some energy there. The lad Rios looks decent.

5.) 21 Jul 2025
21 Jul 2025 11:47:30
Bruno, despite being our best player could become problematic in the CM role. He does have a tendency to pig long balls when deeper, which tend to be abit hit and miss.

If the club doesn't sign a CF, he could play in the false 9 instead. His link up play with Cunha and Mbeumo would be perfect in the role.

6.) 21 Jul 2025
21 Jul 2025 17:39:39
We have needed a proper box to box midfielder for years. One who does the dirty defensive work but also attacks

McTom was prob the nearest we have had in the last decade apart from Casemeiro whose legs have gone.

Arsenal have Rice
Chelsea have Caicedo
Even slot recognised the need for one and made Gravenbach do that role.

{Ed077's Note - I wouldn't consider Caicedo or Grav as B2B.

7.) 21 Jul 2025
21 Jul 2025 17:52:23
I honestly think the biggest conundrum is Amorim.

We need strike a balance of getting him players who can fit his system but have the adaptability to play other styles if team performances continue to be as poor as last season.

I’m not concerned who they are just that they are signed sooner than later so Amorim has every chance to get this right.

8.) 21 Jul 2025
21 Jul 2025 20:20:17
I believe we need an energetic holding midfielder with presence who can break up play, dictate the tempo of the game and keep the kettle boiling. We have no one like that at the minute. A younger Casemiro could have done the job but none of the others are good enough for that role. Ederson, Nmecha, Wharton or Baleba would do the trick.

9.) 21 Jul 2025
21 Jul 2025 20:31:07
Spenno, I would class Carrick as a top midfielder, would jump at signing a prime Carrick to our midfield right now. He had great positioning, read the game well, solid passing short and long, could pick the ball off the back line. If only!

10.) 22 Jul 2025
22 Jul 2025 01:51:13
Carrick was class, Dodgy. Severely underrated because he makes things look extremely easy. It's a wonder that he didn't get more English caps.

But I would classify Shaw as anither problem player in the squad too. Doesn't put in effort, lazy, and constantly overweight and injured. The only times I've seen him put in effort is when his position in the team is under threat. Then when he wins over the fans and the media with that short burst of effort, he falls back to his old patterns again. His lack of effort is as bad as Rashford sometimes. Only difference is that he's constantly injured so people tend to only remember the good performances he gave just prior to his injury.

11.) 22 Jul 2025
21 Jul 2025 20:16:32
Ed would agree their main task is as a defensive shield breaking up opposition attacks but they def both do venture forward. Not that it's hard to do but Gravenbach scored more than our strikers last year.

{Ed077's Note - they're not your Makelele type, pure DM but I wouldn't say they're B2B either.

12.) 22 Jul 2025
22 Jul 2025 10:16:36
Get Conner Gallagher he is getting pushed out of AM for English qutoa reasons. Be ideal.

13.) 22 Jul 2025
22 Jul 2025 10:52:02
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if we sold Bruno a bit later in the window. The maths isn’t mathsing, we need a striker, midfielder, probably a couple in defence RWB and LCB plus a new goal keeper. The only place I see that cash coming from is Bruno.

We have Ugarte, Mainoo and Casemiro who are right footed. I’d suggest Ugarte is first choice as we don’t have another battling midfielder and Casemiro is a waining force. We need a left footed midfielder to compliment Ugarte and Mainoo, that player need to be able to play a more defensive role when with Mainoo and more box to box when with Ugarte.

Wharton is the stand out in the large to do the job, he’d be super expensive though. It would stop us getting run through midfield having him and Ugarte in the middle as they are both great on the defensive side with Wharton have a brilliant passing range and Ugarte liking to carry the ball forward. Also when teams are hard to break down you can bring in Mainoo for a bit more creativity.

14.) 22 Jul 2025
22 Jul 2025 13:41:10
A good engine with an intelligent footballing brain.

The days of relying on two CMs is over.

The no.10s should also be able to drop in and help. This idea of having a no.8 who can go up and down is over. Too many teams overload the midfield and we would get caught out playing that way.

15.) 22 Jul 2025
22 Jul 2025 15:56:56
Ugarte 1st choice. seriously he couldn’t even get 1st choice towards end of last season!, he can’t pass a ball 10 yards, if he plays next to Mainoo or Cass we are at pedestrian pace and the opposition just run round them.

Not a chance they sell Bruno, he will still outscore our 2 shiny new players we just bought, why would you add hopefully 30 goals between those 2 and lose 20, in a team that can’t score anyway, selling him would be one of the dumbest things United could do.