Incoming and outgoing players for Manchester United

Erik Ten Haag will be doing a big overhaul of the Manchester United team. Today, we're going to look at six potential incoming and outgoing players and the impact they could make/ have had.

With the Eredivisie season over, Erik Ten Haag has now taken over his duty as the Manchester United manager. The first and most important piece of business he is getting around to is identifying who needs to go and who needs to come in.

Man United have flaws pretty much everywhere, so much so that they will need a fairly hefty overhaul of the team to sort something new out and improve to finish in the top four again.

They have a number of players who have contracts expiring this season, and there are also a number of players from other teams who will be free agents this summer.

Then there's the players they want to sell and the ones they want to buy.

Whatever it is, United feature in every transfer gossip these days, so we can get a good feel of who they are targeting.

Here are six players who they could look to bring in and let go of.

 

In - Frenkie de Jong, Barcelona

Xavi's job at Barcelona since taking over in the midseason is very similar to that of Ten Haag's. He is looking to rebuild the team and is offloading players he doesn't necessarily see a role for. One such player is Frenkie de Jong.

Why he wouldn't want the talent of this Dutch midfielder is dumbfounding, but whatever the reason is, he reportedly doesn't. But that plays right into Ten Haag's hands.

De Jong used to play under Ten Haag a couple years back at Ajax, when they made the Champions League Semi-Final. And along with a returning Donny van de Beek, and possibly Juventus' Matthijs de Ligt, Ten Haag would have the core of that Ajax squad at his disposal.

As for what makes De Jong so good, he has the qualities that make-up the best central midfielders. First, you need to understand he has played the fourth most minutes on the team this season.

He is exceptional on the ball. Barcelona are ranked top of the Spanish La Liga for successful dribbles, and De Jong ranks number two on the team for that stat from the players with the most 90 minutes played.

His passing is outstanding, too. He has an 89.9% pass completion rate. Nobody higher on the lit for the team has played as many 90 minutes as he has this season.

Frenkie has also created the fifth most shot-creating actions (72) and goal-creating actions (8).

 

Out - Dean Henderson

Dean Henderson showed his quality while on loan with Sheffield United in their first season in the Premier League.

Since returning to United, despite being told he is wanted and will get to compete for the number one shirt, he has been nothing more than a glorified bench warmer.

So he wants out. And there are teams that want him. But what will he bring to his possible new team?

First, let's clarify we are looking back at that season with Sheffield, since he has not played a single minute in the Prem this year.

Henderson played 36 of the 38 games that year. He had a 75.2% save percentage, which was the third highest in the league.

He also had 13 clean sheets that year, which was joint third most.

He also conceded the third least amount of goals with 33 and had the third best goals against rate with 0.92. Only Alisson and Ederson rank better than him for both of those.

 

In - Hakim Ziyech, Chelsea

Another player who played under Ten Haag at Ajax for that remarkable 2018/19 season, Hakim Ziyech might want to make a move happen to be with his old mates at United should they reunite there.

Ziyech moved to Chelsea in the summer of 2020, and since hasn't really shown too much.

He has played 21 games in the Prem this season, with 12 starts. He has scored four goals, up from two last year, and has three assists, which equals last season.

This year, he has the second highest shots total per 90 minutes rate on the team with 3.48 and the highest shots on target per 90 minutes rate with 1.19.

Yes, his numbers are skewed slightly given he has played only 12.7 90 minutes.

But the point is, he is a shooter. And getting back together with his old running mates would surely give him the boost to go back to the 16 goals and 13 assists Ziyech that we witnessed in his final season with Ajax.

 

Out - Paul Pogba

Paul Pogba is an almost guarantee goner. He is out of contract and all season long has been playing a game of will I won't I sign. It's stupid really.

But that will be over as he is more than likely going to move on, and that may be good and bad for United.

He has spent the majority of this season injured, and even when he was playing, he wasn't always the standout player that he really should be.

But on his day, he is world class. He started the season with seven assists in two games. He has the most goal-scoring actions on the team with 11, and the sixth most shot-creating actions with 51.

He has the highest expected goals plus/minus on the team with +7.7, meaning United would have gained an extra seven goals if he had played every minute of every game.

 

In - Sven Botman, Lille

Ten Haag is a Dutchman, and he is favouring Dutch targets for his side. Enter, Sven Botman from Lille.

You might recognise the name as Newcastle were pretty heavily trying to sign him in January. Obviously, that didn't happen, but reportedly the player wants to leave and United are in for him.

Botman did have an injury that sidelined him for 13 games. But around that, he has played every minute for Lille.

The Dutch defender utilises defensive pressure as the main part of his game. He ranks second in the team for presses and successful presses, but is number one among starters for successful pressure percentage with 40.4%.

And his tackling is solid, too. It's not towards the very top - understandably with the amount of games he has missed - but does still come in at eight with 36.

And with 25 of them being ball winning tackles, he has a very strong rate of 75.8% tackles won. 

 

Out - Jesse Lingard

Similar to Henderson, Jesse Lingard was promised more this season, but was given scraps. He has only played 16 games this season, with only two starts.

That's an absolute disgrace considering the second half of the season he was coming off of at West Ham last term.

What he did in those five months with West Ham should have been the catalyst for more game time with United. But alas, both Ole Gunnar Solksjaer and Ralph Rangnick sat him on the bench all year. They even denied him a move in January.

So judging what he could bring to a team based off of this season's stats wouldn't be right. Let's look at what he did when he was given a chance somewhere else last year.

Lingard popped off with West Ham, scoring nine goals and had four assists in 16 games. He also started all 16.

He had a 50% shots on target rate, with a second best on the team 2.53 shots per 90 minutes and team best 1.27 shots on target per 90 minutes.

Given the time in the squad, Lingard would have surely rivaled some of his teammates for leading in shots on target percentage.

But it wasn't all shooting. Considering he was only there for half a year, he ranked sixth for SCA with 61 and fifth for GCA with 11.