I think with the transfers made we're looking for two players for each position with SAF trying to blood in the youngsters
GK - De Gea/Lindegaard
RB - Rafael
CB - Rio/Smalling
CB - Vidic/Evans/Jones
LB - Evra/Fabio
RW - Valencia/Nani
CM - Fletcher/Jones
CM - Carrick
CM - Anderson/Giggs (Cleverley)
LW - Young/Park
FW - Rooney/Berbatov
ST - Hernandez/Owen (Welbeck)
Now this makes me think we're short on a RB. Even though Fabio can cover there, if not, even start there instead of Rafael, I think we should look to play Rafael as RB and Fabio as LB and buy Izaguirre from Celtic to be the main RB. He wont be too expensive and can teach Rafael a few things, while Evra can teach Fabio.
I was also thinking about Jones. He's a beast of a player, and looks to me as a younger, English version of a Vidic, however because he's so good on the ball do you think SAF will play him in the Fletcher role to give him gametime. I've hated it when SAF plays potentially good players out of position (Welbeck on the LW) but I think he could be good cover for when Fletcher eats a bad curry again.
We definitely need a playmaker sort of player, and I think Nasri could work in this role. An old Carrick that would actually go past the half way line.
I don't think SAF would let Neville, Brown Oshea go in the matter of months and only buy Jones who plays in CB. I think Fergies got 2 more signings up his sleave, with one being a RB. We'll just have to wait and see
United Squad
posted on 8/7/11
I kind of agree that we need a rb. People are saying we have fletcher, valencia, smalling etc that can play RB, but we dont want to have to do that. Lets face it rafael and fabio very rarely finish a game and rio is bound to get injured throughout the season, so i think we need a defender. But i cant see fergie buying someone to replace o'shea
posted on 8/7/11
i think you are right. but i look at it more as he is trying build the team above that can stay together for years (ie a young version) - so less the older generation who might retire or move on soon. so taking out rio, carrick (thank god), park, berba and giggs it wouold appear like this:
GK - De Gea / Lindegaard
RB - Rafael / ?
CB - Smalling / Jones
CB - Vidic / Evans
LB - Evra / Fabio
RW - Nani / Valencia
CM - ? / Fletcher
CM - ? / Anderson
LW - Young / ?
FW - Rooney / ?
ST - Hernandez / Welbeck
to me this implies aside from Nasri (supposedly) to take over the main attacking midfield role we need to purchase a first choice defensive midfielder (id love to have Wiltshire or Ya Ya toure), a back up second left winger, a back up right back and a back up forward funded mainly by sales of berbatov and carrick.
I thnk this season we will only see the first choice attacking mid come in, with Park remaining as he deserves it. Berba may be sold as part of a swap deal and Evans may play out on the right until rio fades away.