10 Dec 2019 23:09:26
What do people think of sancho?
A bit like maddison i was not totally sold on him at first but the more i watch him the better i like him.
He is always looking to get involved he goes on search of the ball. And is always trying to do something positive either on the ball or with his movement off it. He played spells on both wings tonight and was excellent on both. With a goal and ' true' assist.
Prices don't matter to me at all anymore. When maguire goes for 80m or dembele for 90m then the market is potty. We will pay over the odds but won't pay more than we can afford.
I do think we need some experienced players but sancho looks a bit special to me. We only have 3 snr attacker's and having sancho as a 4th who plays in a simialar way to our current 3 allows rotation, injury cover, loss of form, suspensions etc. Add an improving greenwood into that and possibly an old hand in the mould of Henrik Larson when he came in that is happy to play a supporting role but be an integral part of the squad for 18 months that you know you can rely on to come on and make an impact. Its tough to find the right sort of character or player that is motivated by that type of role. Is manzukic that man? I've no idea. But getting the right one could be invaluable to our young attackers.
Midfield is the the other area of main concern.
Matic a likely departure in jan and out in the cold anyway.
Pogba. Still wants to leave will be available for selection within 2 weeks.
Ed002 has said we will get an offer of manzukic and cann plus cash for pogba and chong.
Cann is pretty run of the mill for me. A bit of a nearly man. Solid enough, tecnically sound decent experience and would provide suitable rotation and competition with fred and mctom. Leaving room for a 4th and hopefully your 1st choice in the summer.
Saul would be my 1st choice SmS very different type of player. But he would be my second. Both young but great experience both have something classy about them.
A/ M (10)
Jesse andreas and mata the latter 2 for me i don't see any future for them at United.
So who? Maddison / erikson /.
11 Dec 2019 01:11:49
sancho for england looks prety ordinary. rather stick with james on right he looks like he is special and spend money elsewhere.
11 Dec 2019 04:34:06
Agree with you Ken.
Jadon Sancho has excellent end product. Always a goal threat and tries to make something happen.
First touch, technique, quick feet, dribbling in tight areas - all fantastic attributes.
Considering he is young, his decision making is also pretty good most of the time. He will be worth the investment imo as he is not even close to his peak.
Saul would be a dream signing. He will instantly elevate our quality in midfield.
Maddison will most probably be priced out by Leicester.
Ed002 stated that we are still interested in Bruno Fernandes. Christian Eriksen is also a possibility. Either of those 2 at no 10 would be a massive improvement on Lingard/ Mata/ Andreas.
11 Dec 2019 08:46:28
I will stay clear of sancho for now. The hype is more than the actual delivery. He is 19, will a move to utd stagger his growth (Depay comes to mind)? I'd wait till he is 23+ and try to get him, if possible.
11 Dec 2019 08:54:41
I'd definitely buy a right sided attacker ken, James has done well and its good to see us attack from both sides but one injury to rash or james and we are straight back to fill ins that have got us nowhere for years .
If you have no interest in the money side of it and just want a right sided attacker then why not Sancho it's only when you add the has he done enough for a sky high fee that you may pause .
Manzucic and caan I'd have no interest in personally I get the impression they are players juv happy to get rid of .
I'd like us to concentrate on players ready for the first team and not squad options.
11 Dec 2019 09:04:11
Sancho on the pitch for Dortmund looks already at an elite level, yet he hasn't as yet been able to transfer that form to playing with England.
We have seen several players look amazing for Dortmund in the past few years only for them to look not as good when they've moved elsewhere. I'm thinking Kagawa, Gotze, Mkhitaryan and Dembele. All similar attacking players. What I've loved about Dortmund in recent years is the teams ability to play beyond the sum of their parts. They have taken decent players, and made them look great, while also developing young players into world class players.
Alcacer, Witsel, Schmelzer, Kehl, Adrian Ramos, Weidenfeller, Subotic and Bender who all fit in the first category of good players who looked great at Dortmund. As does Kagawa and Mkhitaryan.
You then have young players who have developed to world class or very close to, such as Gundogan, Hummels, Lewandowski, Weigl and Reus.
Gotze and Dembele are interesting cases as they clearly had/ have world class talent, but they have struggled when they moved to a bigger club. Maybe they had the talent but not the mentality, although to be fair to both of them they did/ have suffered with injuries while at Bayern/ Barcelona.
The question is would Sancho be third time lucky for us or would we get our fingers burned again with a signing from Dortmund. Apparently Dortmund are happy enough to sell him, and he has shown on a few occasions to have a questionable attitude.
Player attitude is something that should be of vital importance to us when signing players as we have in recent years spent huge amounts of money on players with questionable attitudes, only for them to not work out as we had hoped.
A similar player but much less talked about is Dani Olmo the young Spanish international playing at Dinamo Zagreb. A hybrid winger/ No.10 who has pace along with intelligent passing and movement. Was the player of the tournament at the Under 21 euros last summer, works harder off the ball than Sancho as well from what I've seen. So there are other options out there.
Maddison though for me is the one we really need to go all out for. He is versatile, able to play as an 8, 10 or on the wing. Was the most creative player in the EPL last season as the only player to make more than 100 goal scoring chances for his team mates, works hard off the ball and has that nasty edge about him, which is something our side lacks currently.
I would choose Maddison over Sancho every day of the week.
If we signed Sancho I would feel much the same as I did when we signed Pogba, over the moon that we had signed a potentially world class player, but have a small niggle that he might lack the attitude required to achieve that potential. Only time will tell where Sancho's path takes him.
11 Dec 2019 10:16:44
You just never know if people will be a success. Look at Abraham, he looked ok last year in the Championship but he’s been tearing up the League this year. Did any of us expect James to be first choice and playing as well as he is.
I’m not sold on Sancho yet, and if we sign him whose place is he taking? Maddison looks good but the numbers being quoted at the moment are ludicrous.
Look at our squad, the most consistent performers right now are Rashford (academy), Scott (academy) and AWB (big money) . Also impressing is James (bargain) . Fred at £50M is just about getting it together after a long time and Maguire has been ok but not the dominant leader I was expecting. Min recent years we have signed so many players who arrived, disappointed, and left.
We bought pretty well last time and if we can add another 3 who can contribute the way the last 3 have then we will take another step up. As I said though, until they get here you just never know.
11 Dec 2019 11:36:02
What happens with James if we go for Sancho or are we looking to get 4 players of quality to fill the wide attacking roles. My only issue with this if if rotating does any of them get in a groove.
Also James brought cheap with massive upside is surely the model so why stunt it, and I say this as a fan of Sancho.
Spend on the AM/ 10 role if Pogba is gone.
11 Dec 2019 12:41:33
Brad, its a squad game and currently our biggest weakness is a lack of depth in our squad. We need more than 3 forwards if we are going to succeed at all.
11 Dec 2019 13:00:36
I would personally steer clear of Sancho for the price quoted, i would look elsewhere for squad depth. Adama Traore wouldn't be a bad option either. Can run, Dribble and Cross, not a bad player IMO.
11 Dec 2019 13:55:01
I like him Becks. He's starting to get clever and developing an end product.
11 Dec 2019 18:12:32
Daz and Brad. Do you expect rash and james to play every game. Very few players start more than 40 games a season if you have rash james plus 1 that's 40 starts a year each in a 60 game season.
If you would rather stick with what we have them we won't mount a league challenge as the squad is not strong enough.
Mmm why did city sign silva when they had mahrez sterling and sane?
11 Dec 2019 19:51:41
greenwood can come in and do a job. for the money being quoted rather fix midfield first and then look for another forward in the summer. see were we end up and then look for players who whant to join us.
12 Dec 2019 04:15:34
Yes Shappy.
City have 2 top options for every position.
Aguero and Jesus for striker.
Bernardo and Mahrez on right side of attack. Sterling and Sane on left side.
Moreover, these top players can come off the bench and change the game.
It also keeps the squad fresh when the team plays 2 matches in a week - League and Europe.