Couldn't honestly see Ozil playing well as part of a CM pair. He'd naturally drift too far up the pitch, leaving De Rossi exposed and us being outnumbered and overrun in the centre of the park, as right now. He'd work in a 4-3-3 / 4-5-1, but that would essentially just become the 4-2-3-1 that Mano is proposing, albeit with different players from Rooney and Kagawa on the wings. And we'd still need a more creative spark in the centre imo. I reckon Julian Draxler might be a better option than Ozil if we're going that kind of money. Draxler and Carrick / De Rossi / Fellaini would really be outstanding in the centre, and Draxler is apparently available for around the same money as Ozil.
Draxler is an Arsenal player, its been confirmed, £34m strong rumour that Ladbrokes are taking Man United out of the champions league betting as quoting them is an insult to customers.
Like I said, horses for courses, so he wouldn't play in a 4 4 2 against opposition that are capable of over running that pair. The side is picked to play the opponents of that week, sorry if I'm not making this obvious enough. The idea that we shouldn't go for Ozil as we have Kagawa is nonsense in my opinion. Ozil is far superior, we go for him regardless as we want the best players and Kagawa can fight for his place or leave. I'm not interested in saving the Glazers money, I'm interested in us having a competitive squad. Seems a moot point anyway as BBC are now adamant it's Fellaini and Hererra we're chasing hard.
It's clear, but it doesn't make that much sense to me. So we wouldn't play Ozil in CM against Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, City etc. Which are precisely the matches we get overrun in midfield anyway! Doesn't seem much point spending £40m on a player who will complement an area we are already very strong, whilst not making a big difference to the area where we are very weak! I agree that in an ideal world we'd get Ozil and two CMs. And Bale and Ronaldo and Schweinsteiger and Xavi and Iniesta. And Fabio. But in general this isn't an ideal world and we aren't going to buy every one of the best players in the world. I think buying Ozil ahead of a proper CM like Draxler or Herrera, who can actually play in the big games without us getting overrun, would be a bit pointless if we are still going to be left short in the middle in the big games. That said, we could have made the same argument about RVP last year, and that seemed to work out ok. So Ozil may well be able to fix all our midfield problems, or at least paper over them very effectively for another year or two.
Anyway, he's off to Arsenal. All but confirmed. So, this brings me back to us not having competed to sign him. We'd better be in for someone.
Aye, but even Ozil plus De Rossi would still leave us a bit light in the centre imo. Our CM pair for any big match would have to be Carrick and De Rossi, and if one of them is injured then we are back to how we are now. If we're only buying two then I would have De Rossi / Fellaini plus Draxler / Herrera, and only add Ozil after we have gotten two proper CMs. Otherwise we run the risk of another Veron-esque situation where we have three or four players all competing for one or two AM slots whilst the CM weakness persists.
Well yes, like I said this morning, perm any two from four, preferably three! It's now from three as Ozil is a gonner! But my original point on Ozil and De Rossi as my preference is that those two are the best available. Both are class. Better than Fellaini and, like Sweats says, not an unknown like Hererra.
It was confirmed by matth. Who later unconfirmed it, confirmed it again, then told us it was all from twatter Twitter is saying that Gareth Bale is not actually in Madrid and it's all a massive conspiracy. He's currently hiding in the boot of Moyes' car.
No argument that Ozil is better than Fellaini or Herrera, but I'd rather we sign the players we need in CM, rather than just sign good players because they are available. Ozil in CM would smack too much of Gerrard in CM - a top quality player, but one that isn't a proper central midfielder, and thus would never be at the core of a truly top side. My preference would still be De Rossi and Draxler, for just that reason. Ronaldo's better than any of the players mentioned, but buy him and stick him in CM and we still wouldn't solve the problem. That said, CR's good enough that we probably would!
Keep repeating yourself Swarbs, it seems half the posters aren't quite getting your point! I agree, we can sign a great AM, Striker and GK, but the fact remains that we have a massive massive hole in midfield that needs to get plugged with a proper central midfielder (or TWO), not an AM.
Everton have agreed the £15million signing of Fernando of Porto, paving the way for Fellaini to join United
