Football Season 2017/2018 & 2018 Summer Transfers

[Wezmon]

Goals weren't the only issue. If it wasn't for De Gea being godlike United definitely wouldn't have been 2nd. Defence needs reworking, I know United brought in Lindelof and Bailly etc (and now Dalot too) but they actually need to play instead of Smalling and Jones.

Yeah goals would have been fine if defence was better. Still makes me laugh (cry), the first year after fergie left was the first time a goalie won player of the year. That goalie has now won it 4 times from the last 5. If that doesn't say something about the defence I don't know what does.

[RobertoCarlos]

Main problem as I see it with last year apart from the sevilla choke and just in terms of general play,

utd started the season well and was winning 4-0 a lot, but a lot of that was from Mkhitaryan who was huge with linking up with lukaku and pogba. Then his form fell off a cliff, was dropped and then swapped for sanchez and it kinda fucked the system where he was placed out wide and replaced martial and rashford who were playing well.

Its not all sanchez fault though, I think the main problem is the quality of defenders, mainly their distribution. De gea as good as he is, isnt that great disturbuting. And lets face it, Smalling and phil jones passing is at championship level. So the build up play is very slow and a lot of attacks never start that well and the striker mainly lukaku is left isolated and marked out of the game. Thats when fellaini comes on and utd plays long ball trying to go direct. Also it means the system has to be rather defensive to cover the failures of the quality centerbacks. Thats why utd didnt concede many goals, because of mourinho's defensive system and structure, not because smalling is a good defender.

Most teams defend tight vs utd because utds main threat is counter attacking, so you saw when Sevilla defended well and didnt give much space, It ment utd couldnt come up with shit and eventually lost to ben yedder

[Zantera]

Some experienced players is exactly what man utd needs. Id love to see Willian/perisic/alderweireld at utd instead of waiting for younger stars to finally show "their potential". Man utd isnt a small club, they have fairly large expectations which is unfair pressure to put on early 20s players

I would actually dislike all 3 of those names at the club (as much as I dislike Sanchez) but I do agree a mix of seasoned players and younger ones is good. I still think those names are pushing it because I think we should then go for names who are in the 25/26 maybe just turned 27, not 29/30. Especially with the figures being thrown around. If Mourinho would honestly want to spend the figures reported for a 30 year old Willian that's enough ground to have him committed to the asylum.

Not just the initial price but I don't think Willian or Perisic would be flashy/attractive signings from a marketing side. I mean how many jerseys would either sell? You could laugh and say "why do you care about that?" and I don't, but I'm sure it's a factor for the board when investing money is how much they can get back. Even though I hate Sanchez and was against that signing, we got him fairly cheap since contract was running out and he was a popular PL player with some "best player of the season" mentions from the last 2-3 seasons at Arsenal and so the signing made some sense, at least compared to Willian/Perisic, both more expensive and far from as big names/performances as Sanchez had when joining.

In the end I think the lackluster summer window for us so far is a combination of Mourinho being too stubborn with his targets and the board not trusting him to make those signings. Even though I'm on the Mourinho-out train, I will give Mourinho this: You either support your manager OR you get a new manager. If your plans don't align (with signings, ambition, how to play, whatever) then it's only causing harm keeping a manager but not signing players he wants.

[RobertoCarlos]

Snip

Fred and Dalot are not flashy signings but they could end up being amazing. A technical, hard working brazilian. And one of Europe's best young full backs with dalot its nothing to snigger at already and its likely there will be one more signing. Im hoping its alderweireld and not harry 'slabhead' maguire. And you talk about shirt sales and sponsorships and all that jazz, thats kind of what holds utd back. Focusing on the marketing side rather than the strength of the squad.

[Zantera]

Fred and Dalot are not flashy signings but they could end up being amazing. A technical, hard working brazilian. And one of Europe's best young full backs with dalot its nothing to snigger at already and its likely there will be one more signing. Im hoping its alderweireld and not harry 'slabhead' maguire. And you talk about shirt sales and sponsorships and all that jazz, thats kind of what holds utd back. Focusing on the marketing side rather than the strength of the squad.

Definitely, it's a bit sad Man United has become more of a brand than a football club in the last few years. Though I think the shirt sales/star quality goes hand in hand with the insane influx in transfer costs of the last few years. You can go back just a few years and I think players like Willian and Perisic would have been available for half the price they're rumored for - if not more. But now it's a crazy world.

Fred and Dalot could both turn out great for us, at least we have to hope.

[Northern Goblin]

Alright folks, thank you for partaking this last season, but like all things it's time to put an end on another long thread.

The new thread can be found at https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...ason-2018-2019 .

Look forward to seeing you all partake.