Greenlizard0 PL & FA Cup SF Football Thread ** spoilers ** [20th - 25th April 2024]

Shamikebab said:
You've been weirdly emotional recently Robbo. Who is even firing him? Ratcliffe? Isn't that exactly what we want to move away from? Who are we putting in charge? Who is making that decision? I've been critical of ETH but it is weird to blame today on him, tactically we were fine but got punished by some defensive mistakes (understandable considering the ramshackle defence we had to put out today), a fluky deflection and a dodgy penalty. What could ETH have done different today to fix that? The only thing I can see is bringing on one of the kids in defence but it would have been a ridiculously huge gamble more likely to backfire.
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Not emotional at all, I am just fed up with going into every game expecting it to be awful - and it is. It's actually quite funny in some ways...

I think a bit of a reality check is needed here, you are trying to explain how we threw away a THREE GOAL LEAD against a Championship team :p How is it a ramshackle defence? We have the £80m Maguire, who is a reasonable defender at PL level. Casemiro who is vastly experienced when it comes to the defensive side of the game, and two decent full backs.

Just today specifically, his subs made things worse, and the fact the team play like they are not being coached at all - regardless of players on the pitch - is a wider issue. Everything ETH has done this season has been ridiculously poor, he should not be given another season, he's failed miserably at pretty much everything.

And no, it's not just his fault, but we need to decide if he's shown enough to be trusted with the rebuild of the club... he's obviously nowhere near good enough.
 
Robbo said:
Not emotional at all, I am just fed up with going into every game expecting it to be awful - and it is. It's actually quite funny in some ways...

I think a bit of a reality check is needed here, you are trying to explain how we threw away a THREE GOAL LEAD against a Championship team :p How is it a ramshackle defence? We have the £80m Maguire, who is a reasonable defender at PL level. Casemiro who is vastly experienced when it comes to the defensive side of the game, and two decent full backs.

Just today specifically, his subs made things worse, and the fact the team play like they are not being coached at all - regardless of players on the pitch - is a wider issue. Everything ETH has done this season has been ridiculously poor, he should not be given another season, he's failed miserably at pretty much everything.

And no, it's not just his fault, but we need to decide if he's shown enough to be trusted with the rebuild of the club... he's obviously nowhere near good enough.
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I noticed you avoided all the questions about who would be doing the hiring and firing..

How is it ramshackle? Dalot is our only first choice defender out there. AWB is playing out of position. Casemiro has never played Centre back for us, he's never played as a partnership for us with Maguire and they've never even trained together there! Maguire didn't train all week because he's clearly playing through injury. How is it not ramshackle?? His subs were limited by what we had available. Who else could he have brought on? The only players we had on the bench were kids who have never played.
 
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Shamikebab said:
I noticed you avoided all the questions about who would be doing the hiring and firing..

How is it ramshackle? Dalot is our only first choice defender out there. AWB is playing out of position. Casemiro has never played Centre back for us, he's never played as a partnership for us with Maguire and they've never even trained together there! Maguire didn't train all week because he's clearly playing through injury. How is it not ramshackle?? His subs were limited by what we had available. Who else could he have brought on? The only players we had on the bench were kids who have never played.
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I can't answer that as the club structure is not yet sorted, but Brailsford/Ratcliffe will surely be seriously considering their options? I think Ratcliffe will defer to him, and he will defer to Ashworth etc. Ashworth is the big sticking point as he's going to be in control, but when will that be? If it's not until next year, we can't throw away another season, someone will have to start making decisions now. Berrada can start in the summer so him + Wilcox might be hiring/firing the manager.

It's not an ideal defence, but we should not need Martinez and Shaw to hold a three goal lead in this situation. The fact this is even a discussion is crazy.

Did he need to make the subs? Garnacho for one didn't look happy to come off. His subs are generally to the detriment of the team, it's a particular weakness of his, in a vast sea of weaknesses!
 
Robbo said:
I can't answer that as the club structure is not yet sorted, but Brailsford/Ratcliffe will surely be seriously considering their options? I think Ratcliffe will defer to him, and he will defer to Ashworth etc. Ashworth is the big sticking point as he's going to be in control, but when will that be? If it's not until next year, we can't throw away another season, someone will have to start making decisions now. Berrada can start in the summer so him + Wilcox might be hiring/firing the manager.

It's not an ideal defence, but we should not need Martinez and Shaw to hold a three goal lead in this situation. The fact this is even a discussion is crazy.

Did he need to make the subs? Garnacho for one didn't look happy to come off. His subs are generally to the detriment of the team, it's a particular weakness of his, in a vast sea of weaknesses!
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Players never look happy coming off, Garnacho has played a crazy amount of football recently and the last thing we need to do is to burn him out like Barca have done with Pedri. I think he's started 35 matches in a row? You can't seriously be suggesting that one sub changed the entire game though. Antony did fine and is much better than Garnacho at defending for one. Are you seriously suggesting he should have gone the whole game without making subs? Isn't that what past managers have been criticised for?

I don't know about you but I don't want Ratcliffe or Brailsford deciding who should be manager, neither of them know more than you or me about football. We have to wait until we actually have footballing people in charge to make these decisions, it's crazy to want it to happen before then.

And no it's not about not having Martinez or Shaw, it's about not having Martinez, Shaw, Malacia, Varane, Evans, Kambwala or Lindelof. We have 7 players that can play CB (including the kid we just promoted), 6 of them were out today and the other one didn't train all week. If you're seriously arguing that is not ramshackle then you're arguing in bad faith.
 
Robbo said:
Not emotional at all, I am just fed up with going into every game expecting it to be awful - and it is. It's actually quite funny in some ways...

I think a bit of a reality check is needed here, you are trying to explain how we threw away a THREE GOAL LEAD against a Championship team :p How is it a ramshackle defence? We have the £80m Maguire, who is a reasonable defender at PL level. Casemiro who is vastly experienced when it comes to the defensive side of the game, and two decent full backs.

Just today specifically, his subs made things worse, and the fact the team play like they are not being coached at all - regardless of players on the pitch - is a wider issue. Everything ETH has done this season has been ridiculously poor, he should not be given another season, he's failed miserably at pretty much everything.

And no, it's not just his fault, but we need to decide if he's shown enough to be trusted with the rebuild of the club... he's obviously nowhere near good enough.
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to be fair to McGuire - He was £80million player 5 years ago..... He's probably been one of our only semi consistent players this season... Still not good enough but to be fair to him he's been "OK"

65 separate injuries this season in the squad.... That's a crazy amount for any team to deal with.

As for ETH - I really don't know what to make of him.. Squad is horrible, far to many passengers, he's doing what he can but appears to be out of his depth at times.

I would love to see a massive clear out but the wages of these players it's not going to happen - Martial is the prime example - 60 appearances in last 3 years with 12 goals in total.... Been injured for more time than he's played but we simply can't move him on. (rumoured to be on £250k as week)

Radcliffe has a lot of seriously big choices ahead - Sack ETH? Who's next in the door? Huge clear out of players and take a massive hit on the costs? Start over? Or new manager and same players etc?

One thing as a United fan at the moment - you never know what your going to get from one week to the next..... Insane time to support them
 
Shamikebab said:
Players never look happy coming off, Garnacho has played a crazy amount of football recently and the last thing we need to do is to burn him out like Barca have done with Pedri. I think he's started 35 matches in a row? You can't seriously be suggesting that one sub changed the entire game though. Antony did fine and is much better than Garnacho at defending for one. Are you seriously suggesting he should have gone the whole game without making subs? Isn't that what past managers have been criticised for?

I don't know about you but I don't want Ratcliffe or Brailsford deciding who should be manager, neither of them know more than you or me about football. We have to wait until we actually have footballing people in charge to make these decisions, it's crazy to want it to happen before then.

And no it's not about not having Martinez or Shaw, it's about not having Martinez, Shaw, Malacia, Varane, Evans, Kambwala or Lindelof. We have 7 players that can play CB (including the kid we just promoted), 6 of them were out today and the other one didn't train all week. If you're seriously arguing that is not ramshackle then you're arguing in bad faith.
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It feels like this would all be more relevant if we'd just lost to Man City. Not thrown away a 3 goal lead against a Championship side who have lost 3 of their last 4 games.

I agree they shouldn't be making the decisions, but other people will be involved. Berrada, Wilcox and perhaps some very limited input from Ashworth? I can't honestly imagine they are sat there thinking ETH has done a good job. Injuries provide some mitigation but it's nowhere near enough to matter.

It just feels like you are making lots of excuses - we still had a very strong team out there and if they and ETH were smart, things could have played out very differently. But no, as expected, the match was a total disaster.

booyaka said:
One thing as a United fan at the moment - you never know what your going to get from one week to the next..... Insane time to support them
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Not sure that's true, we know exactly what we're going to get, with the odd freak game (like the Liverpool games).
 
Robbo said:
It just feels like you are making lots of excuses - we still had a very strong team out there and if they and ETH were smart, things could have played out very differently. But no, as expected, the match was a total disaster.
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You've yet to say what he did wrong apart from make subs. You're seriously suggesting he shouldn't have made subs? Come on Robbo. Football fans always have the tendency to want one villain to blame everything on but I'm struggling to see what ETH could have done differently today even with the benefit of hindsight. He's made mistakes this season but today we had a good tactical plan that put us comfortably ahead (it could have been even more comfortable, both Rashford and Garnacho missed one on ones in the first half) The only thing you're saying he got wrong is taking Garnacho off? The only depth we have right now is wide players, it's natural the changes would be there. We have one striker, no left backs, one CB, our backup RB is playing LB. Our only depth in midfield is Eriksen with the rest out injured or playing CB. Our options were limited. Find me a side that is doing well with 7 of their 10 defenders injured.
 
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I think it's mad to believe that Ratcliffe, Braislford and co aren't already planning for next season and will know which manager(s) they're going to target when ETH's gone. They're not sitting on their hands waiting for the day they agree a compo deal with Newcastle and will then sit down with Ashworth. There's a lot that Ashworth can't do while on gardening leave but the one thing he can do (and no doubt has) is plan for life after ETH along with the ownership and lets be honest, we all know ETH's done for.
 
Shamikebab said:
You've yet to say what he did wrong apart from make subs. You're seriously suggesting he shouldn't have made subs? Come on Robbo. Football fans always have the tendency to want one villain to blame everything on but I'm struggling to see what ETH could have done differently today even with the benefit of hindsight. He's made mistakes this season but today we had a good tactical plan that put us comfortably ahead (it could have been even more comfortable, both Rashford and Garnacho missed one on ones in the first half) The only thing you're saying he got wrong is taking Garnacho off? The only depth we have right now is wide players, it's natural the changes would be there. We have one striker, no left backs, one CB, our backup RB is playing LB. Our only depth in midfield is Eriksen with the rest out injured or playing CB. Our options were limited. Find me a side that is doing well with 7 of their 10 defenders injured.
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I think none of this would be relevant if he actually managed to influence the team when it comes to coaching? Have you not watched any of our games this season? I think we're the worst performing team in the country, pound for pound. He's done everything wrong and it affects every minute of every game.

I am genuinely astounded you are trying to defend ETH & the team today given what happened. "We don't have our first choice defence so we can't stop Coventry City from scoring 3 times in the last 20 minutes" (without reply)...

I dislike most of our players too, I'm not just picking on ETH. :p

Ayahuasca said:
Say what you want about Maguire but he was the only one who immediately went over and shook the hands of the Coventry players.

Meanwhile, Antony was cupping his ears at Coventry fans :cry:
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I was going to mention that, one of the saddest things I've seen.
 
Should be pointed out that Wright was cupping his ear after Casemiro missed, Antony was just doing it back to him.

Robbo, you seem pretty set in your decision and are just avoiding answering actual questions so lets leave it there.
 
Shamikebab said:
Should be pointed out that Wright was cupping his ear after Casemiro missed, Antony was just doing it back to him.

Robbo, you seem pretty set in your decision and are just avoiding answering actual questions so lets leave it there.
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I think you need to send me some of whatever you're smoking and then I might agree with you! :p Let's see what happens in the summer.
 
ThestigGT999 said:
one where was his hand supposed to go?, Second look at the Grealish handball that wasn't given
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The Grealish one has been discussed to death, it’s a disgrace that someone watching that on a screen can’t see that. It’s also stupid as hell that the same bloke can’t say to the ref, oh and btw it’s a corner. We just want consistency!
 
Ayahuasca said:
Say what you want about Maguire but he was the only one who immediately went over and shook the hands of the Coventry players.
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To be fair he's shown more class and leadership that almost anyone else in the team. It's a shame he just isn't a modern centre back, has no pace and can't move the ball quickly. Considering ten Hag has demoted him and pretty much shown him the door he's been very professional and has arguably been our best centre back. He's changed my view on him so respect due.
 
He hasn't shown him the door, he's said multiple times he'd love Maguire to stay and be a part of the squad but he'd understand if he wanted to leave to find a regular place.

Nothing against Maguire as a person, he's shown he's an absolutely class professional this season. He just can't play a high line so needs to be moved on.
 
Vandle said:
Man Utd fans on here seem to moan about him constantly yet they'd be close to a relegation scrap without him.
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The problem with Fernandes is that despite being a very skilled footballer who has undoubtedly saved the teams bacon on many occasions, he’s also part of the rotten core of Man Utd - whiney, spiteful and petulant, the kind of player to fall over holding his face because a hand brushes his shoulder rather than keep battling to win a ball/challenge.
 
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