This should be our line up:


We need to stop the leak as much as scoring goals

I want to post my team too but I don't know who should be LB, so I'm stuck

Mr Nick09 wrote:I want to post my team too but I don't know who should be LB, so I'm stuck

You have to be joking, its reguilon all day, until marcelo wakes the hell up

Could be a new signing. Regui looks good, but his offensive portion of his game isn't even on the same planet as Marcelo- so we should just stay in check a bit. Zidane likes attacking fullbacks.

I always wonder if with a more dynamic midfield, Marcelo would still be useful in the starting line up?!

That is the premise I am operating under. And doesn't even have to specifically be more 'dynamic' per se, I think Marcelo would look a totally different player if we just had a little more control, or more positionally/tactically aware players in the midfield.

Like i said i dont know what to do for left back...

1) GK: Sign De Gea when United flop to make the CL again, 1 year left of his deal, sell Thibuuu to PSG or something.
+40 mil for Courtois
-60 mil for De Gea

2) LB: let Marcelo walk, and sign a left back to compete with Reguilon
+25 mil for Theo
+20 mil for Marcelo
-40 mil for Mendy

3) CB: Nacho out, Hermoso in.
+20 mil Nacho
-15 mil Hermoso

4) CM/DM
+ 60 mil Kroos
+ 25 mil Llorente
- 65 mil Ndombele
-150 mil Pogba
-40 mil for another box to box

5) AM
+65 mil Isco
+30 mil Ceballos
-100 mil Hazard

6) wingers
+80 mil Bale
-75 mil Nicolas Pepe

7) Forwards
+30 mil Mariano
- 65 mil Jovic
-0 mil Raul de Tomas

so team looks like this



round up the team at 25 with Javi Sanchez, Valverde, de Tomas

That's a sexy team...  I'm not gonna lie.  But I don't think we even know who Pepe is unless we're talking about the CB.

What a game he had against PSG btw.

Yup Zidane should know and he should make it happen. If you can make a deal with Liverpool for Mane, do it so long as it's reasonable. But Pepe is great too, younger and a natural leftie.

I think the majority of those players will cost at least 30% more than the prices you've guessed, but the real question is what our budget is. We'll just have to wait and see.

Personally, I don't think Nacho needs to be replaced. I think he's been good for us when he's played regularly, and I don't blame him for looking rusty when he's utilized so rarely that I almost forgot he was still here. I've mentioned it before, and I genuinely think we should keep the likes of Nacho and Vasques, who are always ready and willing, even if they're treated like leftover dinner. Ideally, they would both slot in when we have no other options, not play every game like Lucas has been doing. I don't know if it's worth it to spend money on another bench player who might react differently to the same treatment. Lucas' shortcomings are blatantly obvious at this point in time, but the loyalty of both him and Nacho are unquestionable. Even if they're limited to a handful of games over the course of a season, they're valuable utility men who make the most of what they have.

I don't think Pogba is worth 150m. With his talent and atlethicism, the sky's the limit for him. I've seen periods of very good performances from him, but his inconsistency fucking bothers me. Unless, that magically changes as soon as he lands on Spanish soil, I'm really not convinced that he's worth that kind of money. When he's out of form, he reminds me of Bale during Ancelotti's last season. I'm sure Sports strongly disagrees, but I've watched pretty much all of his performances for Man United, and for all of his talents, I wouldn't sum him up as particularly reliable. Based on his body language and enthusiasm, I'd venture to guess that he's the type of player who only performs well when he's particularly motivated to do so. To sum up my impression of him, there's been times when I've watched him play and I've thought to myself that he would be a great asset to our team, yet there's been more times than I'm willing to admit where he looked like he'd prefer if someone else did all of the enthusiasm and competitive stuff. He may have rebelled against Mourinho, for all I know, but that mentality seems to be very much there, still.

As much as I'd love to have De Gea, I think the goalkeeper position is the least of our worries. We have too many other areas that are in much greater need of improvement. By all means, sell Courtois, but I can't make sense of replacing Navas with a jumbo signing between the sticks, when that money could be spent on replacements in positions that have looked far more worrying this season. If we can fix and upgrade like a manager in FIFAs campaign mode, then that's swell, but I don't think it's realistic that we'll witness another Galacticos renovation in the upcoming transfer window.

who gonna pay 80mil for bale ?

No one, no one is gonna 80 mil for Bale. We either take a much lower price or enjoy seeing him be paid whilst on the bench.

Also, Ndombele and Paul in a two man midfield would be delightful, in theory. In actuality, I have real reservations of Paul actually accepting such a role where he needs to be a rather dynamic. Sure, doing it for 7 games in the WC is fine but in a 50 game+ season is whole other scenario.

All in all, honestly like that team and as long as folks actually put in a proper defensive shift when required, that team should do good to great things.

I think Bale can go for 60m and at that price someone will pick him up.

Lol, Nick, have you ever thought about practicality of your dream list? Getting rid of over half (13 of 25) current squad and expecting last year’s golden boy to accept a backup role!! And expecting Pogba to come at initial offer price plus expecting him to be B2B. And isn’t Jovic turning down Barcelona because he doesn’t want to leave current situation to sit on bench!

I see a dream team, but not remotely achievable?

Oh a very minor point, but 25th spot is taken up normally by practice (3rd) portero.

vanDEEZ wrote:I think Bale can go for 60m and at that price someone will pick him up.

easily

Thimmy wrote:I don't think Pogba is worth 150m. With his talent and atlethicism, the sky's the limit for him. I've seen periods of very good performances from him, but his inconsistency fucking bothers me. Unless, that magically changes as soon as he lands on Spanish soil, I'm really not convinced that he's worth that kind of money. When he's out of form, he reminds me of Bale during Ancelotti's last season. I'm sure Sports strongly disagrees, but I've watched pretty much all of his performances for Man United, and for all of his talents, I wouldn't sum him up as particularly reliable. Based on his body language and enthusiasm, I'd venture to guess that he's the type of player who only performs well when he's particularly motivated to do so. To sum up my impression of him, there's been times when I've watched him play and I've thought to myself that he would be a great asset to our team, yet there's been more times than I'm willing to admit where he looked like he'd prefer if someone else did all of the enthusiasm and competitive stuff. He may have rebelled against Mourinho, for all I know, but that mentality seems to be very much there, still.

Another two disappointing legs, coming off the back of the last, two disappointing legs in the CL (red card in leg 2 against PSG). When was the last time Pogba performed against a top team that wasn't a national team? Natural talent aside, he has yet to convince me that he's a big game player, and even if he was, I struggle to justify spending 150m on a player as inconsistent as he clearly is. Do you still think he should be a priority signing, Sports? It's quite obvious that he wants to come, but I really don't see how he would improve us over the course of the season, unless he suddenly starts performing on a more consistent basis. When he doesn't, he's just dead weight. Expensive, dead weight. I don't even want to know what his wage demands would be. After watching him for some years now, I just get the impression that he's more of a luxury player than someone who improves the general quality of a team.

I'll buy Hazard, Pogba, Erriksen and a number 9. Sell Lucas, Bale, Nacho, James, Kovacic and our current number 7 lol. and Navas. Loan Brahim.

I think pogba would perform better with better players but he is rather inconsistent regardless. Most players are tbf

futbol_bill wrote:Lol, Nick, have you ever thought about practicality of your dream list? Getting rid of over half (13 of 25) current squad and expecting last year’s golden boy to accept a backup role!! And expecting Pogba to come at initial offer price plus expecting him to be B2B. And isn’t Jovic turning down Barcelona because he doesn’t want to leave current situation to sit on bench!

I see a dream team, but not remotely achievable?

Oh a very minor point, but 25th spot is taken up normally by practice (3rd) portero.

this is my perspective, all and all I think it's pretty achievable.

Modric is getting older but He can still bring value but in a back up role like iniesta did at barca. If he doesn't want a new role, more as a team player than a sure starter, bye. You keep Isco instead lol

150 mil for Pogba isn't bad, I don't care about the plus or minus, he plays B2B for France

I don't know anything about Jovic turning down barca, if he doesn't wanna be a back up, then you sign someone else lol

Pretty achievable to me, it just depends how much they want to turn over the squad. A lot of the players I mentioned that we should sell are deadweight and have pathetically failed this season when given the chance: Isco, Bale, Asensio, etc...

No way in hell Madrid sign pepe. Better chance of keeping bale and asensio tbh

The reports about the Jovic/Barca thing are that Barca backed out, not because Jovic turned them down. I do think that Jovic's agent will push for him to start, but they don't want to miss out on an opportunity to join one of the super clubs Bayern/Barca/RM. And let's face it, if he doesn't join one of those clubs this summer, they will sign someone else and he will have missed his chance.

Also, I'm pretty sure I am alone in this but I think if ZZ goes for him he will start here, or at least get the majority of the striking minutes. But that is just my perspective.

As for Pogba, he is obviously class and I would normally agree with the sentiment that if he is available we should go for him. But 1) I don't think United sell him, even 150m would not be enough, and 2) I don't see RM going into business with Raiola, and honestly I've seen no credible indications that we will go for him. So the realism factor just isn't there for me.

Mr Nick09 wrote:

150 mil for Pogba isn't bad, I don't care about the plus or minus, he plays B2B for France

Yeah, and as much as we all dream about an efficient, elite B2B that excels in his role and helps us regain domestic and European dominance, I just don't see him having the consistency to live up to such a massive price tag. Excluding his achiements with France in a relatively short world cup, I'm not convinced that he's a player you'd want to spend half of your budget on. We may not care about the price tag, it's not our money, but that's half of the club's reported transfer budget, and I'm sceptical that we even have such a sizeable budget.

If he doesn't improve subfuckingstantially on his level of club performances over the past few years, then his signing will be a shot in the foot. I'd honestly rather see Barca spending that money on gambling that he'll be able to replicate his world cup form, because he's never been a consistent performer, unless you count consistently disappearing when it matters. Do you remember when he played against us for Juventus? Me neither. I suppose he's haunted by teams that can't make him reach his hypothetical potential. I genuinely don't believe we're the solution to that

He got us to the Euro final too... and, when teamed up with top players at Juve, he was dominant.

I wouldn't let Man U's crap squad cloud your views on Pogba.  He's an immense player.  It's hard for him to compete for 4th place in EPL and underdog in CL (where making elimination rounds is an achievement for that squad) given his other achievements...  Man U isn't good enough for him.

I hardly ever watched him play when he was at Juventus. I agree that Man United aren't good enough for him, in the sense that there's a disparity between his level of talent and that of the rest of the team. I genuinely wish he would just be a fantastic, big game performer that would slot right into our midfield and everyone would live happily ever after, but that simply doesn't seem realistic, to me. Regardless of how poor United are, his individual performances and general effort over the course of an entire season have never quite looked sustainably elite to me. He always performs in spurts, and then he almost regresses to the level and effort of our Welsh winger after having just returned from an injury. I can't even confidently say that he's been among United's top 5 performers in the Champions League this season, and I genuinely think it's worrisome how underwhelming and insignificant he tends to look in big matches.

I can't help but be sceptical when I consider his general performance output. I find it a bit hard to believe that his lack of consistency and big game impact is all due to playing for an inferior team - but of course, I hope I'm completely wrong, we sign him, and he has a respectable number of notable performances behind him at the end of the season. I would eat my socks, applaud him for stepping up his game and justifying the hype that was massively inflated by his national team performances, and learn that several years of looking drastically over-hyped at club level means nothing if the club is holding back your true potential.

Problem with big games and this man u squad.... big games are against other elite teams.   In all those games except maybe Arsenal and Chelsea, Man U plays with a talent deficit.  

To me, stopping Man U on offense is pretty simple:  Close down Pogba and starve him of the ball since he's the only CM on that squad that can hurt you + pack the middle since the fullbacks (Young and Shaw) are utter shit.  

With Mourinho, Pogba wasn't allowed to attack much so teams didn't really have to plan for him.  Mourinho left and he got about 10-15 games where he had a free run... and dominated.  Opponents adjusted by planning against him now...  so it's on the other players to step into the open areas afforded to them.  Rashford is too wasteful, Martial has the IQ of a door knob, Lingard has no talent and Lukaku can't trap a ball.  I won't even mention Matic and Herrera this year.

To me, defending Man U is really simple:  Stop Pogba and gamble on the rest.  It's been working like a charm the past few weeks.  Until someone steps up, it's not going to change either.

vanDEEZ wrote:
First Team

Icardi - Jovic
Hazard
Ndombele - Casemiro - Eriksen
Marcelo - Ramos - Varane - Carvajal
Courtois

Second Team

Vinicius - Benzema - Asensio
Ceballos - Llorente - Rabiot
Regui - Nacho - Militao - Odri
Navas

Going to update with some of the new information that has come out:

First Team

Second Team

In:
Jovic - 60m
Hazard - 100m
Pogba - 150m
Rabiot - 0m
Ndombele - 80m
Militao - 50m
Mendy - 50m
RDT - 0m back from loan
In Total: 490m

Out:
Bale - 40m
James - 40m
Kovacic - 35m
Modric - 25m
Kroos - 60m
Isco - 60m
Mariano - 10m (I think we will give Frankfurt a cut price considering the deal we got)
Vazquez - 20m
Rodrygo - loan
Regui - loan
Vallejo - loan
Out Total: 290m

Net Spend: 200m

So 22 players listed up top + Diaz (I think given his performances, he will be given a shot), Fede, and Luca Zidane would give us the 25-man squad.