Crazy results yesterday for Liverpool and Man Utd. Absolute massacres.
Big signing for Man Utd to get Cavani. I do not like the fit though. Wrong player at the wrong moment for the club. That said, he is still a wonderful footballer who will be very successful (individually) for Man Utd.
Why do I think he is the wrong player at the wrong moment? Because I disagree with the idea that Man Utd needed a big time #9 up front.
(1) I still believe - and have always believed - that Martial's best position is as a #9 and not out wide. He just had the best season of his career, his confidence is high and he is coming into his own as a player. This is absolutely the wrong time to put a player as good as Cavani (he is too good!) in Martial's way and end up playing Martial out of position (as a left winger) again where his talents are not as well used.
(2) Man Utd had a great run at the end of last season based around the attacking exploits of their front three - Rashford, Martial and Greenwood. None of these players are typical #9s or typical wingers. Instead, they are are more versatile forwards who are best compared to the fluid front 3 that Man Utd had 10+ years ago with Tevez, C.Ronaldo and Rooney. That by playing them together and giving them freedom to move around and cause trouble for defenses with their versatile attacking (not just penalty box strikers but dribblers, passers and creators as well). Rashford, Martial and Greenwood have similar qualities and are best utilized by playing in a similar style of football instead of playing off of with a typical #9 who wants to stay within the penalty box areas where he does his best work. A player who wants to be fed chances from teammates rather than create chances.
In summary, Man Utd had a much more effective team based attack with versatile forwards than an out and out #9 + the development of their young attackers (in particular Martial but also Rashford and Greenwood) was best served by maintaining this style of play.
Signing Cavani is a backwards move that stalls development.
I disagree. The idea of building a front three of "Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez" sounds nice until you realise your three lads are a massively overrated English youngster, a moody French talisman who is more of an opportunistic inside forward than the mobile striker in your mind who holds the ball up front and links up with other attackers and a very talented but young forward (FWIW I think Greenwood is fantastic, he has the potential to be the next great English forward, but he's not yet at that level rn).
I also think we can make a decent case that United's late season success last season was driven by their absurd amount of penalties more than actual quality up front, the Rashford/Martial/Greenwood front three doesn't create as many chances as most people would like to believe in open play against set defences. And before the point about this front three being "great" for counterattacking football is made, none of those lads can win aerial duels against quick and physical defenders (or any duel at all tbh unless they get a penalty called in their favour after flopping like a fish out of water
) to initiate those counterattacks unless Fernandes or Van De Beek (Ole isn't even playing the latter lol) personally carry the ball to them after bypassing an entire counterpress. I guess they can drop deep to receive the ball, but none of them are Harry Kanes who can splice open an entire defence in deeper positions. It's not like they can't create at all in open play, but they don't have as many options compared to the top front threes in the league.
To summarise, I think United's attack sucks right now and Cavani is a great signing who'll put them back into the mix as a striker who can actually hold up the ball and allow their pacey wingers to cut inside as inside forwards (can Martial be somewhat like Suarez next to Cavani as an inside forward? not the same system but I feel that United can play a lopsided 4-2-3-1 so Martial can be closer to Cavani ala what Inter did with Eto'o and Milito) and do massive damage with most of the defensive attention on Cavani. Sucks that they'll probably finish in the top 10 again this season after these signings (they're getting Telles as well iirc)
