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Shortage of strikers could cost us, warns Phil Jagielka

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Dymak said:
If Martinez saves the money that is available this Summer, then he will have even more money to spend next January.
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:lol:

hahaha, we should go one fursther and save all our transfer money for the next 15 years so by that time we can go on a Man City-esk spending spree.
 
artetas_biggest_fan said:
We could have bought (or kept) a fit striker, wouldn't be much good if they aren't very good. The last top forward we bought was Lineker, and that was just before he became a star player (thanks to the season he had with us, and the subsequent WC). So in 29 years we have bought one top striker, which shows just how hard it is to do. You either have to pay big, or get lucky (either by getting a top forward on the cheap who hasn't reached their potential, or someone coming through the youth team). Given that it's very rare you get lucky, that means weave to pay big for a top forward, money we don't have.

You can strengthen any other area of the team without having to pay big money, but not upfront. United won the league last year with a pretty average side but a fantastic attack (ie. Van Persie). Upfront is the difference maker. Ability wise, if we bought James McCarthy's equivalent upfront he wouldn't get 10 league goals a season. To strengthen upfront means we have to go to a higher level than players in other areas of the field. Look at Fletcher, Carrick, Cleverly and the ilk this season without having the 'difference makers' Van Persie, Rooney winning matches for them. The top end of the field is the business end, wins games, requires the most talent; it's by far the hardest to adequately fill. So all this talk of "we just need a striker" completely overlooks the quality required that would actually strengthen the team, as opposed to just putting another body up there. The glass ceiling is upfront. Shane Long would have been the latest in a long line of average joes to play there for us. As an Ireland fan he's more talented than McCarthy, but again when it comes to upfront the level required increases and it's something we haven't done since Lineker.
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Very good post. The summer will be interesting, I just hope that the knee jerking doesn't staart on June 1st.
 

any team that does not have a true striker certainly needs one -
we have only scored 6 goals in our last 6 matches - very much mid table stuff
not surprizing at all with Naismith (Shane Long Light ) and Osman (Ozil extra light ) at the centre of things -
we are building a squad with a striker and a CM the two most desperate weaknesses
 
Toffe3m4n said:
Here's a crazy thought gents..

Perhaps Roberto was correct when he said we had plenty of money. Perhaps he was also correct when he said that he didn't like dealing in January, correct that the 'right' players weren't available, and correct that he chose not to spend now and save it for the summer...

... and perhaps Kenwright/the board will actually, you know, let our manager spend this money? Because, let's face it, as many detractors as they have amongst our fanbase they obviously aren't that stupid.
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The summer transfer window on that basis could be interesting, we will have to wait and see. If we get any players in I do hopw they are not injured and ready for the sick room but are able to play.
 
Dymak said:
If Martinez saves the money that is available this Summer, then he will have even more money to spend next January.
Click to expand...

And presuming he spends money in Summer, its unlikely we'll have a squad capable of getting through the whole season and still competing with other teams for 4th place.

So next Jan when we could do with strengthening with a few players extra to help us push on we won't becuase we saved all our money up and used it in one window.

And the Barkley money will disappear.................................
 
deathbyropeandglass said:
And presuming he spends money in Summer, its unlikely we'll have a squad capable of getting through the whole season and still competing with other teams for 4th place.

So next Jan when we could do with strengthening with a few players extra to help us push on we won't becuase we saved all our money up and used it in one window.

And the Barkley money will disappear.................................
Click to expand...

Apart from the Barkley bit, (insert Arteta, Felaini, etc etc), that could be a post from any year in the last god knows how many.

Flaming annoying.
 

As ive just said in Todays Football thread, it seems as tho a lot of teams are now playing with 2 Strikers, I think the "game" is changing to an updated version of 4-4-2.
 

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