Richard Rios has re-emerged as a target for Man Utd. The Colombian is currently being scouted by MUFC whilst he was on duty at the Club World Cup with Palmeiras who were knocked out by Chelsea last night.
Caught Offside are saying that "Manchester United are eyeing Richard Rios and are considering a move for him.
Palmeiras is reportedly willing to let him go for £20m."
Rios is a 25 year old box-to-box midfielder who can also play as a no 6. He's the type of midfielder who is strong defensively but is also quite flamboyant going forward. An area of his game that one needs to take note of is his dribbling ability. In the 2024 Copa America, Rios completed more successful dribbles than any other player.
He averages around five ball recoveries and 1.2 tackles per game in the Brazilian league although his passing is seen as a slight weakness given that his accuracy sits at around the 80% mark.
As he can play as a no 8 or no 6, Rios could work in Ruben Amorim's system alongside the likes of Casemiro, Manuel Ugarte or Bruno Fernandes. We know that the United manager wants an athletic no 8 in his side (which is why I believe he wants to play the captain in that position as he sees Bruno as this type of player in the current squad) meaning that Rios would make sense for United to go and sign.
However, if United want to sign him they will be facing stiff competition as all of Spurs, AC Milan, Ateltico Madrid and even the likes of Nottingham Forest have an interest in the Colombian.
Final Thoughts
I'm not sure why we would be looking at a midfielder. The only way it would make sense to me to bring in someone like Rios is if we get rid of someone.
However, Casemiro looks to be staying, Ugarte is for me one of our best midfielders and only signed last season, Bruno isn't going anywhere and Amorim seems to want to use him as a no 8, Mainoo looks more likely to stay than leave and we still have Collyer. That is five midfielders for two positions.
Why would we need six? Who would be left out because Rios plays as a box-to-box midfielder and would ideally play next to Casemiro or Ugarte? Then where do you put Bruno? No 10 is his best position but we have Cunha, perhaps Mbeumo, Amad, Zirkzee, Mount and even Mainoo.
United are also playing fewer games this season with no European football which means we won't need as many players. Rotation in this type of season isn't as necessary as in others.
I feel like this would be too many players to play in the same positions.
This isn't me saying no to Rios and for just £21m, it would be a steal for a player of his quality and I'd certainly back him if he did join, but it's kind of like a 'too many cooks spoil the broth' type thing.
He is definitely a player we could use and would be ideal in this system given his attributes but we need to offload players if we were to do so. United also need to get this Mbeumo deal over the line and for me, bring in an experienced striker and new goalkeeper before looking at another midfielder, who is needed just not as high a priority for now in my opinion.
But would you like to see Richard Rios join United? Or are you like me and believe we have too many midfielders and other priorities to focus on?
Richard Rios has re-emerged as a midfield target for Man Utd | Richard Rios: Image credit: Getty Images via Goal