6 minutes ago, Englishman said:

Squad still seems unbalanced to me. We now have loads of defenders but are still short of attackers, including just two strikers, one injury and suspension prone and the other a 22 year old new to the club and the league. An Anelka type who can play as a winger or a striker would have been ideal.

Solanke is lurking around the squad now, hopefully we see him break into the team this season, even if it's just one foot in the door.

9 minutes ago, Englishman said:

Squad still seems unbalanced to me. We now have loads of defenders but are still short of attackers, including just two strikers, one injury and suspension prone and the other a 22 year old new to the club and the league. An Anelka type who can play as a winger or a striker would have been ideal.

Klose, Osvaldo, Adebayor and Berbatov are free agents... 

It looks like I'm in the minority here but I'd say we're set for forwards. Even if you only count Costa and Batshuayi as "first team" material, that's the best striking options we've had since Drogba and Anelka. 

Kante's an obvious improvement, Luiz too in my opinion and Alonso/Aina look very decent options at full back (I don't see either featuring often, but maybe I've grown so used to Ivan and Azpi it'd be strange to see either displaced).

You could argue we need an aerial/physical presence in central midfield, but there are 3/4 players in our registered squad with elements of the qualities needed. It'll actually be interesting to see who settles in that role alongside Kante and Oscar/Cesc.

In all I'd say we look better than we have in years, I really think this will be a great season for us.

No one's favourite but I'd Just bring in Adebayor. At least it's someone with a bit of experience and will be happy to be reserve striker.

(No, this is not a joke comment.)

 

3 hours ago, Kante Conte said:

No one's favourite but I'd Just bring in Adebayor. At least it's someone with a bit of experience and will be happy to be reserve striker.

(No, this is not a joke comment.)

 

He only ever puts effort into his first 10 or so performances for teams though, you ever notice that? I would only ever take him on loan and only if we were extremely desperate. 

31 minutes ago, MissouriBlue said:

He only ever puts effort into his first 10 or so performances for teams though, you ever notice that? I would only ever take him on loan and only if we were extremely desperate. 

Isn't he on a free? 

No use us crying out for our young players to be given a chance and then give the likes of Adebayor the place in preference to them. 

I'd get berbatov if we were going for a free agent to bulk the striker options, although I think conte has settled on 4141 as the dominant formation for the season so with Costa batschuyai and solanke you have it covered

Does anyone know how UTD managed to register Pogba as homegrown? He is listed as such in their squad submission, from what I understand he missed the cut-off point. Is there room for leniency on the cut off point or is old man Fergie still greasing the cogs behind teh scenes.   

5 hours ago, charierre said:

No use us crying out for our young players to be given a chance and then give the likes of Adebayor the place in preference to them. 

I think we would all have preferred Traore of course, and I'd be okay with Bamford (even though he hasn't been great since his derby loan). The thing is, Solanke has had one poor loan spell in Holland as his only real senior level football?

Do we really want to have him as the third striker for a manager who seems to be keen in having two strikers on the pitch quite frequently? 

(Costa is sure to be out with injuries given his record, probably suspensions as well, which makes it all the worse.)

1 minute ago, Kante Conte said:

I think we would all have preferred Traore of course, and I'd be okay with Bamford (even though he hasn't been great since his derby loan). The thing is, Solanke has had one poor loan spell in Holland as his only real senior level football?

Do we really want to have him as the third striker for a manager who seems to be keen in having two strikers on the pitch quite frequently? 

(Costa is sure to be out with injuries given his record, probably suspensions as well, which makes it all the worse.)

If it meant Adebayor not coming to us...yes!!!!!!!   Solanke training with the first team squad will improve. A quick look upto OT where Rashford was thrown into the action shows what can happen if you give a young lad a chance. Both Solanke and Abraham were rated higher at youth team level than Rashford, who wasn't even first choice with United youth.

On 02/09/2016 at 23:12, Davey Baby said:

 

Must admit I'm one of those who doesn't buy all the hype regarding Pep, but we will see. If he does do well at least it will irk Jose, and that'll be fun to watch.

 

Jose has bought well. Bailly is a brilliant defender, I'd noticed him before in Spain. I think he's possibly the best buy of the bunch. Along with Pogba and Ibrahimovic (and De Gea of course) they appear to have a very strong spine on paper. Mkhitaryan looks to be a top bit of business. Jose rejected the chance to buy Shaw and now he's fallen into his lap. Massive Chelsea fan, Shaw would have jumped at the chance to join us but it wasn't to be, and now it appears to be Jose's good fortune, although I suspect he will curtail Shaw's natural attacking instincts. Don't know how the injury has affected him but at Southampton he looked fantastic. I always suspected he passed on Shaw because he was young and because he was so attacking. Jose wanted Azpilicueta behind Hazard, because being right-footed, Azpilicueta gave us little going forward and tended to stay back, just as Jose liked.

 

Utd have a lot going forward, if you factor in Martial, Rashford, Rooney and Depay. That's a lot of talent. Oops, and I almost forgot Mata, another player Jose rejected. You may be right and Jose's only a short-term manager but he's given himself every chance of winning things in the short term.

Nothing will give me greater pleasure than to be wrong about Pep, purely because City would suffer, but I very much doubt it, the way he sets his team's up are something to behold, and gives the club the foundation for success even after he leaves.

Personally I think Shaw is better defensively and somewhat average going forward, I think Jose sees that too hence Valencia being the fullback doing most of the attacking.

Strikers dept is not right. We have two good strikers but only two. Ruben is not a striker no matter what Conte says. I dread the day both Diego and Michy gets injured and we are facing ManU. 

Midfield, keepers and defenders depts are fine.