Rumours of a Pogba departure are swishing around for the forty-sixth time and I don't have the energy to think about how much truthiness there is around them this time. A more interesting question to me is what we'd do if he left.
I've regularly repeated my view that we need a DM to bring coherence to our team, but that's partly in the context of having to find a way to incorporate Pogba and offset his weaknesses (not very defensive minded, prone to lingering on the ball). If we lost Pogba, then we'd also be losing one of our main creative assets, and I think we'd need to bring in a CM who can at least bring some scheming ability / passing through the lines / ability to beat a man that surpasses that of McFredinay. With the right player, sufficiently defensively disciplined, it could be that you could play McT or Fred next to them. It could be you'd still ideally want a specialist DM in the squad.
Anyway, a name that hasn't been discussed much (though he has been very weakly connected with United in the gossip mills) is Lyon's Hossem Aouar. I have to say I haven't watched him other than in the 2019-20 Champions League, but he looked fantastic in that. A scampering, tricky, energetic midfielder with a great range of passing. Something of the Modric about him.
We're hearing a lot about Camavinga too (quite possibly because there's a high demand for Camavinga transfer news in the media market). I reckon he's another player who makes sense if we don't have Pogba, rather than as one who perfectly complements a squad that still contains Pogba.
Hossem Aouar
posted on 21/7/21
comment by Michael. (U1170)
posted 6 minutes ago
Henderson
Trippier Varane Maguire Shaw
Goretzka Camavinga Neves Auouauor Pogba Fernandes
Sancho Cavani Rashford
What a midfield.
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That's exactly what we need to free up Pogba
posted on 21/7/21
Neves is the Portuguese Darron Gibson.
posted on 21/7/21
comment by Diafol Coch 77 (U2462)
posted 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
comment by Pun (U21588)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by Gareth The King Southgate (U10026)
posted 6 minutes ago
Too many vowels in his name.
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Must have been a consonant pain for him in his life
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I think Aouar is one from the top.
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He’ll give away too many free-kicks with his persistent vowelling.
posted on 21/7/21
comment by Pun (U21588)
posted 31 minutes ago
comment by JonVeron (U6514)
posted 11 minutes ago
Today in the social media / paper gossip, I’ve seen that we’ve now pulled ahead of Arsenal in the race to sign Ruben Neves…
Wouldn’t be a bad signing I guess, if it happened. But he’s not a Pogba replacement - I still hope Pogba stays and signs a new deal
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See the earlier comments about Neves
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Ah sorry didn’t read the whole thread
posted on 21/7/21
comment by Clockwork Red (U4892)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 (U2462)
posted 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
comment by Pun (U21588)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by Gareth The King Southgate (U10026)
posted 6 minutes ago
Too many vowels in his name.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Must have been a consonant pain for him in his life
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I think Aouar is one from the top.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He’ll give away too many free-kicks with his persistent vowelling.
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He's noun for it.
posted on 21/7/21
comment by Michael. (U1170)
posted 1 hour, 4 minutes ago
Henderson
Trippier Varane Maguire Shaw
Goretzka Camavinga Neves Auouauor Pogba Fernandes
Sancho Cavani Rashford
What a midfield.
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Still lacks the mobile DM we need
posted on 21/7/21
comment by Diafol Coch 77 (U2462)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by Clockwork Red (U4892)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 (U2462)
posted 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
comment by Pun (U21588)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by Gareth The King Southgate (U10026)
posted 6 minutes ago
Too many vowels in his name.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Must have been a consonant pain for him in his life
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I think Aouar is one from the top.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He’ll give away too many free-kicks with his persistent vowelling.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He's noun for it.
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Please can we sign him now
posted on 21/7/21
comment by Michael. (U1170)
posted 4 hours, 49 minutes ago
Neves would definitely offer more than McT or Fred as one of the 2 if we still go with a ‘double pivot’ in a 4231 but he’s nothing like the kind of DM we need if we’re going to have just 1 there to allow for Pogba and Bruno to play ahead of them.
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This all day
And I desperately hope it’s the latter part of the analysis that is more pertinent to our upcoming season.
posted on 21/7/21
comment by Don Draper's dandruff (U20155)
posted 4 hours, 43 minutes ago
i'd support this signing, if only because we wouldn't need to bother to think up a new chant, we could just incorporate him into the cantona one
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Thanks Don, I believe I’ve just worked out how to say his name.
posted on 22/7/21
I've followed Aouar's career since he broke through at Lyon and I always hoped we would show an interest in him. He's exactly the type of midfielder we should be looking at, fantastic technically, great dribbler (we have so few of them at the club), works hard and still has room for improvement. I think he will be a fantastic addition to the squad.