[RedForceRising]

This thread might only be good for two days, but I have a been of time on my hands to spew some rhetoric.

So the scenario is that the 1st of September rolls by and Manchester United have not signed a striker.

It's a highly possible scenario:

- Even with Pavlyuchenko, Spurs would be light in the striker department.
- They want to hold out for more money, which Gill and Ferg aren't willing to cough up.
- Huntelaar seems to be happy with his decision to stay and learn from van Basten and Bergkamp
- Benzema is too expensive

What 's the season going to be like?

Well for one, we will need a lot of good work from our midfield players and improvement from Nani and Anderson.

Without Nani and Anderson, we lack a cutting edge. Carlos Tevez has been doing a magnificent job in pre-season and against Portsmouth, but we will need him more upfield, so Nani and Anderson will play a pivotal role of getting the ball to Carlos and Wayne.

We have good distributors of the ball in Carrick and Scholes, but not many in the team are adapt at carrying the ball forward at pace, especially with the slave still being injured.

Next, we will need Louis Saha to get back to being fit and staying fit.

He is seemingly a forgotten man, but with only days left in the transfer window will probably stay at OT.

A fit Louis Saha will be a definite boost for us. When we talk about the centre forward we need, a lot of us are describing a fit version of Louis Saha and it would be great to see him firing on all cylinders again.

Another player, who might play an important part in our season if we don't sign a striker is Manucho.

The Angolan striker looked strong in the ACON and displayed good finishing skills with his right foot and head.

His physique has drawn comparisons with Emanuel Adebayor and we will be very fortunate, if Manucho can adapt to the permier league in similar fashion.

So my main protagonists for the season, if we do not sign a striker are:

Nani, Anderson, Saha and Manucho.


Even if we sign a striker Nani's and Anderson's development are going to be vital to the team, but without a new striker even more so.

Well that's my two cents anyway....

 

[Dazza]

Good shout mate I'm looking towards the development of Nanu and Ando as the key to our season . But THE GLASS MAN . Don't be stupid he'll be injured every second week . Manucho also looks the part . I saw some of his skills on Youtube . He seems like a mix between Essien and Adebayor ...

 

[Ritesh MU]

well hope we get Manucho fit asap then

 

[dublin red]

I cant forsee too many problems with the squad we have at the moment . When we get Saha back , and from what I'm hearing in MUTV all the precautions to make sure he comes back properly this time are being made , it will be like a new signing.
When you look back over the years players who traditionally dont play outstanding in their first season go on to be fairly good in the seasons after that .
I think Nani and Anderson will shine this year as will Tevez who has another year under his belt in the premiership . If we dont bring in berbatov, and the fact we have not already , is maybe a sign that Fergie is still undecided on that situation.
I'm of the opinion that Sir Alex is hedging his bets on getting maybe two players back to fitness at a time . This will give the squad the confidence it needs to go on and claim another double.

 

[United_OG]

I have nooo problem with the squad we have now IF they all stay fit and sharp...i can see why people want a striker and i would love for us to get benzema though haha

 

[thekeanefella]

pesonally i think its imperative that we sign a proven marksman, somebody who can get 20+ goals a season.

manucho and campbell have potential but both are unproven at the top level , saha is potentially a 20+ goals man, unfortunately he cant stay fit.

with the players chavski have signed the bar has been raised yet again , this season they will be stronger than ever before.

now is the time to act ..

 

[Sownak27]

The most probable scenario is we wont sign one

 

[Sownak27]

Good shout mate I'm looking towards the development of Nanu and Ando as the key to our season . But THE GLASS MAN . Don't be stupid he'll be injured every second week . Manucho also looks the part . I saw some of his skills on Youtube . He seems like a mix between Essien and Adebayor ...

Essien and Adebayor ?

 

[RedForceRising]

I cant forsee too many problems with the squad we have at the moment . When we get Saha back , and from what I'm hearing in MUTV all the precautions to make sure he comes back properly this time are being made , it will be like a new signing.
When you look back over the years players who traditionally dont play outstanding in their first season go on to be fairly good in the seasons after that .
I think Nani and Anderson will shine this year as will Tevez who has another year under his belt in the premiership . If we dont bring in berbatov, and the fact we have not already , is maybe a sign that Fergie is still undecided on that situation.
I'm of the opinion that Sir Alex is hedging his bets on getting maybe two players back to fitness at a time . This will give the squad the confidence it needs to go on and claim another double.

In a way, if we don't sign Berba, it will give Manucho, Saha and Campbell to get some games and really stake their claim. With Berba, I don't think Saha could stay. That would just be too many strikers.

Either way it's going to be an interesting season. I hoping very good things for manucho and would love it, if he becomes as good as we hope he can.

If Berba comes and doesn't hit it off, it would be a big disappointment. If he doesn't, our expectations would be lower and the season would be more exciting cos we would be depending on these 'unproven' players to come thorugh.

It would be riskier, but more exciting.

 

[marty davidson]

we need a striker that has champions league experience Berbatov is the answer please sign this man

 

[RedForceRising]

pesonally i think its imperative that we sign a proven marksman, somebody who can get 20+ goals a season.

manucho and campbell have potential but both are unproven at the top level , saha is potentially a 20+ goals man, unfortunately he cant stay fit.

with the players chavski have signed the bar has been raised yet again , this season they will be stronger than ever before.

now is the time to act ..

The conundrum is that if berba joins, Campbell and Manucho may not get many chances to prove themselves.

The issue of Chelsea's squad strength almost necessitates the signing of a quality striker though doesn't it. Especially if they manage to sign Robinho.

See
http://www.manutdtalk.com/forums/man-utd-chat/13661-squad-strength-chelsea-man-utd.html?highlight=squad+strength

 

[thekeanefella]

The conundrum is that if berba joins, Campbell and Manucho may not get many chances to prove themselves.

The issue of Chelsea's squad strength almost necessitates the signing of a quality striker though doesn't it. Especially if they manage to sign Robinho.

See
http://www.manutdtalk.com/forums/man-utd-chat/13661-squad-strength-chelsea-man-utd.html?highlight=squad+strength

after reading that i am now even more concerned about the striker situation.

 

[manutdforever]

We need to get a proven striker in because with Ronaldo out, we are struggling to score goals, and that will cost us!

Well we are definitely now officially the only Premiership team who have not signed anybody.

 

[abojodeh]

i love to see Rooney and Tevez up in front again
and its not the striker who is important ts Fergie

 

[versa]

The Angolan striker looked strong in the ACON and displayed good finishing skills with his right foot and head.

How could you forget That Goal with his left foot from 40 yards?

Oops... that was Abo manifested. I mean .

Good thread as this scenario looks increasingly likely each day.

With our top scorer, Not Slave, out for either 4 weeks or 14 weeks, depending on which source you read, and from what we have seen so far into the season, the forward line does seem a concern.

Tevez is superb, dropping back deep and involving in everything offensive but leaving Rooney to tussle with burly central defenders often left him clearly frustrated, and high and dry.

And having an unlikely hero in Fletcher being our only scorer so far does not help either.

I don't think things are clear cut at all. I do think, however, that unless Saha or Manucho becomes fit, signing a proper outright striker may not be unnecessary and it is probably what Fergie has in mind and why United still bother to entertain a ridiculous and difficult Spurs. It may also well explain this temporary lull in the transfer market too that keep us at the edge of our chairs as I suspect Fergie is pondering should he or should he not seal the deal for Berbatov while he monitors the progress made by Saha and Manucho. [Notice he has also previously hinted that he may not sign anybody at all while acknowledging it would be good to have another striker.]

But in the event that we end up with no new signing, and Not Slave, Saha and Manucho remain sidelined, I do agree that having the midfielders, especially Anderson and Nani, to "carry the ball forward" would be utmost important if Tevez can be relieved, at least primarily of it, and to be more involved with Rooney at the forefront.

 

[R_9-Ronaldo]

we should sign usain bolt to play upfront for us, he looks solidly built and he's the quickest man on earth

 

[Jay007]

Well, if we don't sign a striker I'll be more than a tad worried.

 

[RedForceRising]

How could you forget That Goal with his left foot from 40 yards?

Oops... that was Abo manifested. I mean .

Good thread as this scenario looks increasingly likely each day.

With our top scorer, Not Slave, out for either 4 weeks or 14 weeks, depending on which source you read, and from what we have seen so far into the season, the forward line does seem a concern.

Tevez is superb, dropping back deep and involving in everything offensive but leaving Rooney to tussle with burly central defenders often left him clearly frustrated, and high and dry.

And having an unlikely hero in Fletcher being our only scorer so far does not help either.

I don't think things are clear cut at all. I do think, however, that unless Saha or Manucho becomes fit, signing a proper outright striker may not be unnecessary and it is probably what Fergie has in mind and why United still bother to entertain a ridiculous and difficult Spurs. It may also well explain this temporary lull in the transfer market too that keep us at the edge of our chairs as I suspect Fergie is pondering should he or should he not seal the deal for Berbatov while he monitors the progress made by Saha and Manucho. [Notice he has also previously hinted that he may not sign anybody at all while acknowledging it would be good to have another striker.]

But in the event that we end up with no new signing, and Not Slave, Saha and Manucho remain sidelined, I do agree that having the midfielders, especially Anderson and Nani, to "carry the ball forward" would be utmost important if Tevez can be relieved, at least primarily of it, and to be more involved with Rooney at the forefront.

Well,

I'm sitting on the floor somewhere at JFK airport in New York and just saw the highlights from our 2-1 loss and Scholesy's hillarious handball. It was like a volleyball spike and the American volleyball team would have been proud of that spike.

All of us were saying we don't need Ronaldo, but I'm not so sure now.

I've only seen the highlights, but we sure looked flat against Newcastle and although we did slighltly better against Pompey there was no real cutting edge.

And we need some cutting edge soon...

 

[stretty]

put it like this if no signings are made we will be potless

 

[mather23]

Last season we got 2 points from the first 3 games and we have already beaten that. Rooney and Saha were injured and Ronaldo was suspended. We got through with some hard-fought 1-0 wins and built from there. We have the same amount of players as last season and we didn't do too badly then did we. A typical slow start and everybody is moaning. Keep the faith.