The Manchester United Club Thread

I’ve heard a story that United are due to make announcement that a club legend has passed away. I won’t add the name in case the story is false.
 
RIP Denis
The reason I support United. Law was my father's footballing hero therefore when I was choosing my English team it could only be United.
30 goals in 50 appearances for Scotland. United's third all time goalscorer and part of arguably the best front three in the game. There are legends and there are true legends.
 
I've been giving our current situation some thought today and I feel the club need to look long term and accept things are going to take a long time to term around.

Erik Ten Haag was just the most recent in a long line of no cohesive manager and squad vision. From 2013 after Sir Alex retired, I believe Woodward was involved in transfers until 2021 when Murtough and Fletcher became involved (Murtough under Head of Football development, and then Football Director).

The players brought in during the summer would have been brought in as players for ETH, and now find themselves in a completely different system e.g. Mazraoui as a wingback. It's pretty disastrous of INEOS really - they clearly didn't have faith in ETH considering they were actively looking, and ultimately chose him as they couldn't get who they wanted. Why they spent money on players for him makes even less sense, one can only assume Amorim wasn't being thought about back then as the players recruited don't fit his style.

Ultimately you can't recruit players successfully if you don't know what manager and style will be implemented, and you can't recruit a manager with a certain style with a squad completely unfit for said style.

You could ask "why recruit Amorim then?". It's either another terrible decision if they're expecting him to turnaround performances with that squad. Or they're drawing a line in the sand and will accept a couple of years of not getting into Europe whilst they recruit players over a few windows.

I'm hoping it's the latter, the continual swapping of managers and mismatched squad can't keep happening.

I mean honestly, our recruitment (including loans) since Sir Alex retired has been abysmal. Some of the below I'm even being kind with

Okay to good:
Mata
Luke Shaw (good player injuries aside)
Herrera
Romero (decent keeper imo)
Ibrahimovic
Matic
Maguire (massive rough patch aside)
Fernandes (first couple of seasons were strong, patchy now)
Diallo
Martinez (on the fence with him, poor this season)
Evans - FFS, we'll be digging up dead players next
Bayindir - €5m, can't grumble and not seen enough of him
Yoro - too early to write him off, especially after a bad injury
Ugarte - been one of our better players after a shaky start
De Ligt - has had some really good games, not directly at fault for many of our goals usually.
Mazraoui - On the fence, was one of our consistent performers when in a back four. Doesn't suit the wing back position

Bad:
Fellaini
Di Maria
Rojo
Blind
Falcao
Martial
Schneiderlin
Depay
Darmian
Schweinsteiger
Pogba
Mkhitaryan
Bailly
Lukaku
Lindelof
Sanchez
Fred
Dalot
Wan-Bissaka
James
Ighalo
Van de Beek
Telles
Cavani
Pellistri
Sancho
Ronaldo
Verane
Antony
Casemiro
Malacia
Weghorst
Sabitzer
Dubravka
Erikesen (on a free, good to have in the squad but it's like having Miss America in her 60s. Too late)
Hojlund (bad in terms of being brought in to lead the line, for 20 million to develop - sure)
Mount
Onana
Amrabat - only played well the last week of the season
Reguilon
Zirkzee - I don't see where he fits in, either in ETHs or Amorim's system. Can hold the ball up and build play but doesn't seem to contribute to goals
 
Fellaini getting hard done by here. I get it he was a bit of meme but he was also a great plan B to have in your back pocket. Belgium found that out with him too.

That list is pretty bleak though. Out of all of them Zlatan and Bruno have been the only decent signings really.
 
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Jeez we've burned through some talent.
I predict that Mount will do ok and Dalot has been ok (not a wing back but I can't fault his endeavour)
Lindelof has been a good pro and never let us down - he's just not elite. Varane was great when he was fit.
Cavani gave some good moments but we just don't make chances for strikers and haven't for 5/6 years.
 
Mekrel said:
I've been giving our current situation some thought today and I feel the club need to look long term and accept things are going to take a long time to term around.

Erik Ten Haag was just the most recent in a long line of no cohesive manager and squad vision. From 2013 after Sir Alex retired, I believe Woodward was involved in transfers until 2021 when Murtough and Fletcher became involved (Murtough under Head of Football development, and then Football Director).

The players brought in during the summer would have been brought in as players for ETH, and now find themselves in a completely different system e.g. Mazraoui as a wingback. It's pretty disastrous of INEOS really - they clearly didn't have faith in ETH considering they were actively looking, and ultimately chose him as they couldn't get who they wanted. Why they spent money on players for him makes even less sense, one can only assume Amorim wasn't being thought about back then as the players recruited don't fit his style.

Ultimately you can't recruit players successfully if you don't know what manager and style will be implemented, and you can't recruit a manager with a certain style with a squad completely unfit for said style.

You could ask "why recruit Amorim then?". It's either another terrible decision if they're expecting him to turnaround performances with that squad. Or they're drawing a line in the sand and will accept a couple of years of not getting into Europe whilst they recruit players over a few windows.

I'm hoping it's the latter, the continual swapping of managers and mismatched squad can't keep happening.

I mean honestly, our recruitment (including loans) since Sir Alex retired has been abysmal. Some of the below I'm even being kind with

Okay to good:
Mata
Luke Shaw (good player injuries aside)
Herrera
Romero (decent keeper imo)
Ibrahimovic
Matic
Maguire (massive rough patch aside)
Fernandes (first couple of seasons were strong, patchy now)
Diallo
Martinez (on the fence with him, poor this season)
Evans - FFS, we'll be digging up dead players next
Bayindir - €5m, can't grumble and not seen enough of him
Yoro - too early to write him off, especially after a bad injury
Ugarte - been one of our better players after a shaky start
De Ligt - has had some really good games, not directly at fault for many of our goals usually.
Mazraoui - On the fence, was one of our consistent performers when in a back four. Doesn't suit the wing back position

Bad:
Fellaini
Di Maria
Rojo
Blind
Falcao
Martial
Schneiderlin
Depay
Darmian
Schweinsteiger
Pogba
Mkhitaryan
Bailly
Lukaku
Lindelof
Sanchez
Fred
Dalot
Wan-Bissaka
James
Ighalo
Van de Beek
Telles
Cavani
Pellistri
Sancho
Ronaldo
Verane
Antony
Casemiro
Malacia
Weghorst
Sabitzer
Dubravka
Erikesen (on a free, good to have in the squad but it's like having Miss America in her 60s. Too late)
Hojlund (bad in terms of being brought in to lead the line, for 20 million to develop - sure)
Mount
Onana
Amrabat - only played well the last week of the season
Reguilon
Zirkzee - I don't see where he fits in, either in ETHs or Amorim's system. Can hold the ball up and build play but doesn't seem to contribute to goals
Click to expand...
So how many of the current players will you keep?
 
siumatfung said:
So how many of the current players will you keep?
Click to expand...

Hardly any of them.

I would keep Mainoo, Amad Diallo, Ugarte, Yoro, De Ligt and Collyer. Fernandes I'm on the fence, his performances are getting more infrequent. He had good games versus Liverpool and Arsenal but before then, hasn't been up to much.
 
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