David Tutonda was red carded against Bromley (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)placeholder image
David Tutonda was red carded against Bromley (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
Man Utd will be looking to strengthen again in January and a move for a midfielder seems like a certainty.
Ruben Amorim’s side is threatening to break into the Champions League places with only a handful of points and a run of positive results stopping them from. The gap between the good days and bad days is still too big and winning when not at their best is a solution that the Red Devils’ boss is yet to discover.
With new signings in January though, he might just be able to close that gap.
Man United should target Romeo Lavia’s teammate
The young Belgian is a talented individual, however, with 71 games missed in two seasons, it isn’t difficult to see what his problem is. United were right to reject the offer although it is a position that they need to upgrade and Jason Wilcox could shop smart by targeting an international colleague of Lavia.
Nicolas Raskin has made the no.6 role his own for Belgium despite playing his football with Rangers in Scotland and having to compete with players who are in Europe’s top five leagues and who have transfer fees upwards of £50m to their name.
The diminutive midfielder is stocky and athletic, but almost in a throw-back kind of way rather than the modern Jude Bellingham physique and stature. What he lacks in height, he makes up in energy and aggression and is also and underrated threat from set-pieces thanks to an incredible leap and ability to time headers.
In last season’s Europa League encounter with Rangers, Raskin was one of the best players on the park and dominated an experienced United midfield with an all-action performance. He won 3/3 aerial duels, 7/11 ground duels and made five ball recoveries. Raskin isn’t a playmaker like Michael Carrick was in his peak, but what he does do, and why he starts for Belgium, is win the ball and give it to those who can cause problems. There are few better at putting out fires.
How much would Raskin cost United?
Lavia cost Chelsea over £50m, however, Raskin would only be in the region of £20m with Rangers said to only entertain selling one of their star assets for a club record fee. What is clear about the 24-year old, is that he will be on the plane to the USA, Canada and Mexico with Belgium boss Rudi Garcia being a huge fan.
"When you see Raskin's match in the return leg against Ukraine, you tell yourself that we've won a midfielder for the future,” Garcia said recently via the Glasgow Times.
"Because Nico has shown that he's able to be aggressive, defensive, win duels, he's able to propose himself because he likes to come search the balls. He played almost 100 balls during the game with more than 90 per cent pass accuracy, while playing forward, because it's easy to have nine per cent pass accuracy when you only play backwards."
As with United’s recruitment team, Garcia isn’t quite as convinced with Lavia though: “I'm being told from everywhere that he [Lavia] has talent. For now he's injured a lot. He finally played two matches with Chelsea. I almost started getting annoyed telling my medical staff 'If Chelsea isn't able to make him fit, we'd have to make him come to us to see what's the problem with a boy so young that's often injured'."
If United did will by dodging Lavia, picking up a Belgian bargain in Raskin would be equally as smart.
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