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Is tomorrow a Jorginho-Rice game or a Rice-Havertz game? Assuming Odegaard and Jesus are both starting
I feel like Jorginho is the first choice 6 for the time being.
I’d start the Rice Havertz Ode midfield. I’d also start Tomi at LB as Brentford will look to hit the channels and will be a threat on set pieces too. Need the height and pace there.
Yes, good call on all counts
Toney hive we are down but we are not out!
Tumbleweed hive
“Toney hive”
TNAT also reported earlier in the season, that Toneys priority was Arsenal. The only reason I see us getting him, is with us getting some sort of “discount”, because we also bought Raya off of them. But it doesn’t seem feasible
Since Raya’s loan deal already converted we could do another loan for Toney.
Doesn’t mean we’re paying for him now though. Could just mean we agreed to exercise the option in summer.
Since when did this stop them?
Sensible from Chelsea, must be a lie.
28 more hours or so and it’s finally over and ‘propah’ footy is back
Mikel’s rosy trickshow returns, and all is right with the world.
We shouldn’t be going anywhere near Toney in January or otherwise.
His cost and age make it not worthwhile, and when you look at his non penalty goals he’s actually a very average (premier league quality) striker number wise, who wouldn’t be worth anywhere near what Brentford would (rightfully for them) value him at.
Well if you believe the recent transfer news, our focus has switched from a striker to a midfielder. I don’t even think Brentford want him to leave in Jan because their two other strikers are going to be at Afcon.
Yeah midfielder seems to be the initial need, which is the right play I think. Just hope we look at other striker options in the summer.
That’s good. My theory is that Arsenal were never really in for a striker and always looked at their midfield when reflecting on a solution for our attacking problem this season. We have changed 2/3rds of our midfield (Xhaka gone, Partey injured) and are not able to recreate the fluidity needed in our transitions.
We probably need a physical 8 with good passing range, I have to say I have no idea who is available that would fit this. Douglas Luiz? No way Aston Villa let him go in January…
statwise I’d go with guirassy or gimenez this season
Age? He’s only 27
Until he’s 28…
14 goals a season at a midtable side is very far from average.
The reported fee is 60 million and that is a very fair price considering that money is what Spurs spent on Richarlison and less than Utd played for Hojlund. An extra 14 goals a season would easily be worth 60 million
We’re not going to win the league with a 14 goal a season striker. It wouldn’t be an extra 14 goals if he’s replacing Jesus.
Hojlund cost more because united believe he has the potential to be more than that and he has the longevity along with the physical profiles of speed and strength already there.
We either need to be going for a world class striker (Oshimen) which probably won’t happen, or go for a striker playing well in a top league which still has potential growth (Sesko or Gyokeres as 2 quick examples) which can supplement Jesus and then take a lead role in a year or two.
And recent rumours are saying Brentford value him at £100m, so even with negotiating Toney will be more than £60m.
He’s a 14 goal a season striker by your criteria. He could score more or less joining a bigger and better club, logic would dictate he scores more. Why would Toney replace Jesus? We both know that if he was bought in it would be to replace Nketiah, not Jesus.
So Utd spent more on a player for potential (which he hasn’t lived up to), but spending less on a player who is actually proven at this level is a bad thing. You mention penalty goals like they don’t count. Haaland scored 7, Kane scored 5 last season, but you wouldn’t turn down those players. His NPG at a mid table club that scored 20 goals less than we did would put him as our third top goal scorer, one behind two players that had outstanding seasons.
Osihmen is a pipedream that isn’t happening. We’d have to comfortably win the league and the CL for him to consider us. Sesko would cost comfortably above 70 million and hasn’t exactly set the world alight in Leipzig. Gyokeres is nowhere near good enough for the . The time to buy him was 6 months ago for pennies, not in 6 months
Recent rumours being a rumour that only Sky sports reported on…
The brass tax of the matter is we need a striker in January that we know can score goals in this league. We do not have the time to write off players in the hopes we can buy others in the future
He wouldn’t get 14 extra goals because :
A) he wouldn’t consistently get the game time ahead of Jesus
B) He won’t score 14 goals more than Eddie would in his limited game time as Jesus backup
C) If he is our starting striker he’s not going to score 25 league goals (excluding penalties because Jesus doesn’t take our penalties and got 11 league goals last season even missing 3 months injured)
I take away his penalties because there’s no assumption he becomes our penalty taker or is on the pitch to take the penalties. If he comes, and starts, and then takes penalties then those extra goals become more valid.
Also we don’t need a striker in January, we have Jesus, Eddie and Trossard (maybe Gabi) and a midfielder or defender (without Partey and Tomi) are more priority areas in the short term.
Jesus is too injury prone to be relied on a main striker, and he’s too wasteful. That should not be up for argument. He is elite at everything in a forward except for putting the ball in the net.
He’s far better than Nketiah, is starting quality and allows us to rotate Jesus to the wings. He would get plenty of game time and score plenty of chances, especially in a team like ours. Nketiah has played nearly 3000 minutes between last season and this season and has 10 goals. Toney has 20 in a similar amount of time.
Scoring 25 NPG in a league campaign would make him one of the best strikers in the world jfc. That’s the level of players like Kane and better than players like Salah.
We certainly do need a striker. Not too sure what games you’re watching to think we don’t need someone to score us more goals, because its badly needed
The international break is over!
Players definitely going on strike in the coming seasons, maybe even this season.
Is White still out at the weekend?
We don’t know. And we won’t know until the line up is announced.
Well thats not true, Arteta has a press conference today so he might say something, or give a slight indication, and of course the lot on twitter who always post about stuff like this…
I’ll legit be scared if I’m a Madrid fan. Look at how many injuries they have, now Rodrygo could be the next victim
Need Benteke to go feed some kids to put this fraud in his place.
23.35 passes per 90 to Rashford’s 22.28, so he’d probably be able to hand out school meals about 10% faster.
Rshie is a good player. His form really bobs and weaves.
Lets be honest, we have had a few of those over tbe years.
If anythibg we have under rated benteke massive. Solid numbers and quite similar to Giroud
Obviously an overpay on Toney wouldn’t be ideal, but he would deffo cook in our team.
With Liverpool playing City & us having a better run of games after this one, a win tomorrow will be huge
Can anyone name a better alternative to Luiz and Toney?
They’re probably the two best players outside of the big 6 + PL experience
Luiz is getting mad overrated because he scored a few goals. Yes, good on the ball, but off of it he really isn’t good. If he looked like Jorginho rather than a jacked, tattooed, Brazilian, he’d be rated a lot closer to what he is. At this point, 60m isn’t great value although I really wanted him that one summer for 30m ish
If we are looking to bring in a similar profile to Jesus,Lautaro would be my pick.I watch a fair bit of Serie A on the side and I have been really impressed with him in the last 18 months or so.Some strikers step up their game around 25-27 and he seems to be in that phase and I wouldn’t be surprised if Madrid or even Chelsea snap him up next year.
He would offer the same kind of pressing,hold up play and defensive contributions as Jesus.His passing and dribbling may not be as good as Jesus,but its still good enough.I also rate his finishing higher than Jesus.He also has a bullet header and a very good shot from range.
Bringing in Lautaro would mean Jesus having to play out wide when the two of them play together (when one of Sakanelli is rotated/rested) which I don’t have a problem with,( I actually rate Jesus as wide player very highly)but I’m not sure something Jesus would be fond of( remember seeing something about him wanting to play through the middle as his reason for moving here).
He will have 2 years left on his contract come the end of the season and he could be tempted by a move to the EPL.
I am not an expert by any means and I have no stats to back up my claim,but purely from watching him play for the last couple of years,I can see him take the next step in the near future.He is already very good( think he has scored 20+ in the last 2 years),but I genuinely believe he is going to become even better very soon.
I would say him and Jesus have similarities
Martinez has been the 3rd best striker since the world cup
Its a gamble, but Khepren Thuram could be an option for us in midfield.
Luiz arguable but we missed the window. There are so many good alternatives as to where this isn’t a massive issue for me.
Toney doesn’t move the needle. It’s either Osimhen or we gamble on someone younger and cheaper with potential to grow.
I think luiz is a much better player now and could be the right fit
Of course he would come cheap probably 50m now
I do think Toney takes the pressure for Jesus so good value for 2-3yrs
Better than who?
I think he’s gonna cost £60m. There are good cheap alternatives that are younger.
What pressure? Goalscoring pressure. He’s about the same as a scorer. Arguably worse.
I meant luiz is better overall. Also, the market has no real stand out of mids available
You could bet on Fofana, Onana, Andre in Jan
I’m not sure Jesus and Eddie can carry the goal responsibility. Toney is probably a better finisher (assuming he gets the same chances )
Toney isn’t a better finisher. And he doesn’t get the same chances
Depends what you mean by ‘alternative’.
Camavinga is better than Douglas Luiz, outside the big 6, and ‘PL experience’ wouldn’t be a consideration.
What he isn’t is a reasonable target, which Douglas Luiz likely isn’t either.
As to Toney, there’s this Jesus lad who just featured for Brazil, and I hear we can get him for nothing more than his wages.
After a miserable interlull we’re in for what’s looking to be a great weekend of football. City v Liverpool, Newcastle v Chelsea and Spurs v Villa should all either be good games or at least have a team near us dropping points it’s so important we get the win tomorrow!
