The Manchester United Thread

DMF said:
Ron Vlaar to Manchester United is on.

Aston Villa demanding £12M for their captain, who's contract is up at the end of the season. ESPN (Miguel Delaney) say that we've already agreed personal terms. Also mentions Ryan Shawcross as a possible target too.

Aston Villa holding out for £12M for Manchester United target Ron Vlaar
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Think its BS imo. Could have signed him in the summer, and 12m for nearly a 30 yr old with a joke on his contract is just insane. Also goes against what LVG has said relating transfers. Plus in duckers article it says we have a right sided CB lined up for next summer. And the main thing Vlaar is wank!
 
That's what they want, not what we will pay. Think we'll pay considerably less tbh, could even use Cleverley as bait. Think it's bound to happen tbh..

Zzeezzyy will be happy.
 
I'd take shawcross at 10mil, english, more consistant, as good as Vlaar and scores a couple a season.

I was quite happy when City were looking at him for 10mil for our 3/4th choice.
 
I think there is about 10% this will happen. He is not even Utd quality plus we have McNair and Blackett that have stepped up + with Blackett getting his new contract and already having Evans,Smalling,Jones,Blackett,Rojo,McNair,Keane don't think we need him would defo be a downgrade. Villa were shipping goals like a sieve last season and ok he had a good WC he has been injured more often than not. Defo cant see it happening! We want quality Vlaar defo is not that!
 
Vlaar is way too short term, seriously doubt it happening. Hummels should ideally be our main transfer target defensively, he's also stated he 'could' move to a bigger club provided he likes the style of play.

Go all in for Hummels, sell Smalling and maybe get in Shawcross as backup? Although, if we get Hummels, Shawcross won't happen as it is not needed..
 
Sherkey said:
Vlaar is way too short term, seriously doubt it happening. Hummels should ideally be our main transfer target defensively, he's also stated he 'could' move to a bigger club provided he likes the style of play.

Go all in for Hummels, sell Smalling and maybe get in Shawcross as backup? Although, if we get Hummels, Shawcross won't happen as it is not needed..
Click to expand...

Why sell Smalling? Don't need to.
 
We have Rojo now who will take the LCB / LB role. He's been given responsibility to freshen up our back and whilst he has looked positionally unaware at times, he has a commanding nature which spreads to the others.

Against Leicester his positioning came into question as he seemed unsure as a LB as to when to get forward, when to distribute the ball and to who and it seemed he was positioning closer to his LCB to get extra protection but we were getting doubled up on that side. Leicester exploited this perfectly.

Against Everton he was excellent at CB. McNair and Blackett have done very well too.

Jones has a lot of talent there. He's also commanding, he's committed and has a strong mentality. However his versatility has stifled his development as a CB. He has all the tools but he hasn't been developed to learn that role to get to a consistent level.

In addition I get the feeling a lot of his injuries are caused by this "all action" character. The problem I have is we have from 2011 onwards lost the unity in our CBs once Ferdinand and Vidic were coming to their final stages. You can argue in hindsight we should have built our new CB pair after the CL Final defeat. Fergie in his book talked about Evans and Smalling. We added Jones in the summer. Three very talented defenders. H

However retaining the two senior defenders meant these three instead of playing together and building an understanding of their own game and each others to assert themselves as Manchester United's new CBs, they were often paired with one of Rio or Vidic. While this was not necessary a bad thing it meant we had to fit them in at RB (Smalling and Jones) to develop with experience. Also it meant rather focusing on their own game they had to look out for Rio and Vidic's weaknesses as their physical qualities declined with injuries and age.

All in all the three of them while showing in periods that they are individually gifted, they haven't made their stamp and they may be running out of time. It goes down to coaching too. Our defence in general really looks like they're doing their own thing as opposed to being a tight, compact unit. Evra in his latter years often getting caught in the middle of the pitch, so CBs being dragged to cover for him just one example.

We need to coach our defence to be mentally strong but also make themselves a proper defensive unit to stifle opponents as opposed to reacting to situations. This doesn't need money to be splashed around. Defending itself is an art and coaches like Mourinho and Pulis pride themselves on making their team a nuisance to break down. Moyes at Everton! Pulis as the example of getting a group of players who look depleted to then making them a force which can't be broken easily. Excellent coaching to the minute detail for the entire group of players.

There's no reason why that can't be attributed to Manchester United.
 
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