Rakitic is? ****** ****, that guys is anything but leader. He had drinking problems ( bet he still have), he was/is true party man, he would miss trainings.. I think he was involved even in a bar fight. And he has bad musical taste, but that irrelevant.
Kovacic offers drive and energy in midfield, someone who can run with the ball, but to make intelligent runs without it. I honestly don't remember last midfielder in United who was capable of doing so.
Rakitic is? ****** ****, that guys is anything but leader. He had drinking problems ( bet he still have), he was/is true party man, he would miss trainings.. I think he was involved even in a bar fight. And he has bad musical taste, but that irrelevant.
Kovacic offers drive and energy in midfield, someone who can run with the ball, but to make intelligent runs without it. I honestly don't remember last midfielder in United who was capable of doing so.
When? Where? Never heard of this before.
The cold fact is that we need a defence splitting CM to make the most of the periods when we are on top. That and and LB can push us on this season. Then re jig further in the summer. But we really need that CM
Mateo isnt ready to control and be a midfield general (in leadership as well), though I think he is a brilliant young talent. Rakitic is. We're going to lose a few senior heads in the next 12 months, need that next set. Rakitic suits it down to a tee
I said this last April and I will say this again, it was a big mistake to not even try and sign Kovacic for 10 Million. He is class and will go on to become very big player.
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/english-football/72998-manchester-united-thread-372.html#post1743731
I have to admit I was sceptical when I first saw Kovacic playing for Dinamo, he was 16 when I first saw him. You could saw glimpses of a true midfielder, but he was very raw, extremly raw. Even when I heard Dinamo was selling him for 10m, i thought he would be decent, nothing special. But how wrong was I?
And about Dinamo players. Halilovic, the winger, is good. There were some comparations with Messi (y'know, 'insert country here' Messi). But the guy we are interested in, Muric, is even bigger talent. He could be truly great.
IMO the answer to the first post is Kovacic. He is not fully ready to take the mantle but he is easily better than any player we have in midfield and I won't include Carrick as they both are completely different type of players.
We need someone to carry the ball forward and create space for other players, Kovacic fits the bill. It should have been Anderson but he is not getting chances anyways and also he is hardly fit so he is out of equation. So it all boils down to this. Do we have a single CM who can carry the ball forward? No.
I haven't watched Rakitic for Sevilla at all so I don't know how good he is but I have seen enough of Kovacic at Inter to tell he is easily good enough for us.
We also lack leadership. We're both in agreement about ability though, no disputing he has that in spades. But we need to create that powerful spine again for now and future. Putting a lot of pressure on Fletcher to become the midfield leader while regaining fitness.
Wasn't Halilovic to Spurs all but done this season? Something went wrong there.
Also Muric, are we interested in him? Any reliable links?
In the meantime, let's stop talking about our club for awhile and talk about something else. How do you guys think Solksjaer will do in Cardiff?
According to news we are interested in signing Muric and despite Dinamo rated him as a 6 million player, we can easily sign him on a pre-contract (something to do with Croatia or EU? youths not being allowed to sign a professional contract before 18 or something like that) with a compensation of mere 300k.
In the meantime, let's stop talking about our club for awhile and talk about something else. How do you guys think Solksjaer will do in Cardiff?
There's no doubt United produce a lot of top youngsters, but can this be seen as an entirely positive thing? Perhaps most of these players wouldn't cut it for the current squad, but some of them do - so surely it can also be a sign of letting good players go? Pogba, Piqu? and Rossi are the foreign examples, whereas the likes of Shawcross, Brady and Morrison are domestic examples. I'm not trying to put down the achievement of having produced so many top players, I'm just interested on your/other people's take on this.Just skimmed though all the PL teams and here is the list (may have left out some players)
Cardiff:
Campbell
Eikrem
Mats Moller
Everton:
Gibson
Fulham:
Richardson
Hull City:
Alex Bruce
Chester
Brady
Paul McShane
Joe Dudgeon
Cameron Stewart
ManUtd:
Rafael (Gary Neville tweeted that twins were with ManUtd since they were 14. (https://twitter.com/GNev2/status/414424527712821248)
Fabio
Evans
Giggs
Welbeck
Cleverley
Fletcher
Januzaj
Norwich:
Pilkington
Stoke:
Shawcross
Sunderland:
Bardsley
Brown
O'Shea
Tottenham:
Fryers
West Ham:
Morrison
Are we talking about the same Mateo Kovacic that isn't getting in the Inter team? Has he been injured?