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Football News: What Players Do Manchester United Need?

What Players Do Manchester United Need?
Image from: freelargeimages.com

Been looking at the Manchester United squad composition (max 25 registered + youth players) trying to guess the sorts of players we will need. Have assumed 4-3-3 and proposed composition of bench - obviously it flexes throughout the season with form / rotation / injuries.
If we plan with August 2020 in mind (start of next season) then I don't think the following is unreasonable:

1 1st choice keeper David de Gea
2 1st choice RB Aaron Wan-Bissaka
3 1st choice LB Luke Shaw
4 1st choice CB Harry Maguire
5 1st choice CB Axel Tuanzebe
6 1st choice CDM NEW SIGNING
7 1st choice RW NEW SIGNING
8 1st choice CM Scott McTominay
9 1st choice ST Marcus Rashford
10 1st choice CAM NEW SIGNING
11 1st choice LW Anthony Martial

12 Sub-Keeper Sergio Romero
13 Utility Full back Diogo Dalot
14 Centre back Eric Bailly
15 Def midfielder Fred
16 Creative midfielder NEW SIGNING
17 Pacey winger Daniel James
18 Target forward NEW SIGNING

19 3rd GK Dean Henderson
20 Squad player Jesse Lingard
21 Squad player Victor Lindelof
22 Squad player Timothy Fosu-Mensah
23 Squad player Andreas Pereira
24 Squad player POTENTIAL SIGNING
25 Squad player POTENTIAL SIGNING

Youth players (don't need to be registered)
Mason Greenwood
Brandon Williams
Tahith Chong
Angel Gomes
James Garner
Ethan Laird

So this is all assuming the following players are no longer at the club:
Chris Smalling - already on loan and looks settled
Ashley Young - Reported to have signed for Inter
Nemanja Matic - Ole clearly not a fan, enough pedigree to get a decent move
Paul Pogba - Doesn't want to be at MU
Juan Mata - Deserves more game time but Ole prefers pace which he doesn't have
Alexish Sanchez - loan extension or sale hopefully.
Lee Grant - what is the point?
Phil Jones - has had enough chances. Don't hate him just think he would benefit from a move and a reset at another club (bit like smalling)
Marcos Rojo - Similar to Matic - Ole not a fan, decent pedigree so should get an ok move
Joel Pereira - not better than the other 3 keepers, maybe another loan
Cameron Borthwick-Jackson - Surprised to hear he's still on the books at all.

So I count 7 spaces in our squad, 5 definitely required. I would prioritise them in the below order (have included rumoured players in brackets) :
1st choice CAM (Jack Grealish, James Maddison, Christian Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes)
1st choice RW (Federico Chiesa, Kai Havertz, Jadon Sancho, Gedson Fernandes)
Target forward (Pellegri, Moussa Dembele, Edinson Cavani, Arkadiusz Milik)
1st choice CDM (Sander Berge, Donny van de Beek, Declan Rice, Arturo Vidal, Sandro Tonali, Ruben Neves)
Squad Creative midfielder
Squad player x 2 (Free transfers: Layvin Kurzawa , Thiago Silva, Blaise Matuidi, Dries Mertens)
If we can get 1 or 2 this Jan (looking more and more unlikely) then we can continue in Summer.

Anyone disagree with this?

What else is the squad missing? (apart from a corner taker)
I feel like if all those suggested players leave (total of 447 international caps) then we will have to bring in some experienced players as the average age and experience will be too low? (e. g. Eriksen, Cavani, Vidal, Thiago Silva)
I know lots of people are calling for the likes of Lindelof, Fred, Lingard, TFM, Shaw, Pereira, Martial to leave, but it is very rare for so many to leave at once, and perhaps they could be upgraded in future windows.

Written by 01jamham January 10 2020 14:55:06

 

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