Apparently Ibrahimovich was offered an extension to his contract, and he didn't take it, as he didn't feel it was right to take the money when he was injured. If this is the case then massive respect has to go to him. I think it also leaves the door open for him to return, as there's obviously still a big mutual respect between the club and Ibra himself. If he's doing his rehabilitation with us then I think it's a safe bet that he'll be back playing for us in the 2nd half of next season.
Well we now have 7 players who can play centre half, so 1 or 2 are surely gonna be on their way out. Blind, Smalling, Jones, Rojo, Bailly, Tuanzebe and Lindelof, all fighting for 2 spots isn't going to work. Unless he's going to play 2 of them as fullbacks, so he can easily switch from 451 to 631 everytime we play anyone half decent. My biggest fear is that young Tuanzebe is not going to get a look in next season. I still feel he was only given his chance last season through sheer desperation from Mourinho, because of injurys. But he was superb when he got his chance, and deserves some chances next season so he can develop as a player. I really think if Mourinho shows some faith in him we could have a real talent on our hands. We should probably keep Blind because of his versatility, as he's also a left back and a midfielder. I think we then need 4 of the others, and get rid of 2. Jones and Smalling would probably be the 2 I'd say should be sold. Bailly I think still has potential, whilst Rojo is just about marginally better than Smalling and Jones. Though admittedly there isn't a lot between them all. I think they are all solid, but I wouldn't say any are exceptional yet. Hopefully Lindelof will change that.
Jones has never really done it for me, Smalling had one good/great season where I thought he had finally reached a level but has seriously regressed this year (maybe due to injury). Rojo is pretty good and fully committed (maybe a red card waiting to happen) so a keeper for me. Bailly is superb but I have serious doubts about his knee, in the last two games he went down holding it three times and ended both limping badly, I hope the rest over the next few weeks sorts this out. I would have loved a pairing of Bailly and VvD as I think they would have been a very solid and talented partnership but again VvD ankle has thrown doubt on him for me. Never seen (or noticed) Lindelof so not really sure what to expect. In short, I will be happy with Bailly and Lindelof as starters with Rojo and Axel as back up but, given the last few years and our luck with CB injuries, would be quite happy to keep Jones and Smalling. That said, big Tim (Fosu-Mensah) can play a mean CB role as well.
I agree with most of that to be fair, whilst Smalling and Jones are good players, I just don't think they are quite good enough. Smalling did look good for a period, but it's no good blowing hot and cold from season to season. The injury thing has been a concern for a few years now, I remember LVG having his whole defence out injured to, with Carrick having to fill in at times. We seem to have signed a lot of injury prone sick note players, so maybe we need to look at players injury history before we sign them in future as we won't win titles without a settled backline. Even if we do stay on the cautious side, I think someone has to go, we either sell one of Smalling or Jones, or we loan out Tuanzebe for experience.
Was Jose right with his comments about playing with "a little pain"? The left back spot is bothering me much more than the CBs are at the moment, Shaw should be the answer but either doesn't have the discipline or motivation to take that spot.
Well it's hard to come back from a horror injury like he had, even when you are young, and it has to be said he doesn't quite look the same player. It'll be a real shame if he doesn't start showing more. I think Mourinho does need to give him more game time though, and hopefully he can play his way into form.
He has done well by us and he'll have the fans affection and respect. But having said that the facts and figures don't lie: the lowest number of goals at home and overall, the highest number of draws and lowest number of wins at home. It is quite right we should look at our strike force. We shouldn't overestimate the impact of the goal scoring however. If half of our draws at home had been wins, we would still had been third and nowhere near the title.
Statistically right, of course, but I suspect that had we been closer to a real fight for the title our results overall would have been better. Just a guess, of course, but I think the sniff of a chance at the title would have made us up our game overall.
That as may be but that wasn't down to Ibra. he did his bit. It was the rest of the side not chipping in that was the problem. Like I said though, can see him getting a short contract once he's fit as he would be an asset to have about. Who do want off the bench as plan B, him or Fellaini? Exactly. We do definitely need to buy a Morata though as it's been proven that, as yet, Rashford/Martial etc. cannot be relied on for the goals.
I think it is unfair to suggest that is down to Ibra, more down to Mourinho making our wingers play as full backs aswell. Did all the other sides Ibra has played for and won titles with have to many draws? I can't see Ibra being plan B for anyone, he'll want to play if he signs a contract.
You've got to take everything at its merit. If he gets fit after a long injury by say, mid February and United offer him a short term contract to the end of the season then I really can't see him kicking up a stink if he doesn't get picked every game. I would suggest he'd be more than happy playing as and when.
By that point in the season Ibra will not have been named in our CL squad so JM will use him exclusively in the PL and rest any new strikers.
True. Of course not all due to Ibra. But as long as Ibra was available JM was chanelling play to him almost exclusively. When he wasn't JM was forced to explore other options and the results without him were not that much poorer than with him. He did well but with our midfield and the chances that were created, we really should have scored more goals.
Price of Perisic is going down as it turns out that Inter need to balance their books by end of Jan otherwise they will be hit by FFP - transfer was €50M last week now is €40M.
Not necessarily - you can register up to three new players for the CL squad by the end of Jan. So if Ibra is training again and on track to return, and we have space in the squad, we could register him in the window. If we don't sign anyone else then we might as well, even if he won't be back to match fitness until Feb or even March.
