Greenlizard0 PL Football Thread Final Day ** spoilers ** [26th July 2020]

Hive said:
Points isnt a factor (IMO) as thats dictated by everyone around you too. The fact is, the status quo is that Man City and Liverpool are far ahead of everyone. Knowing that, finishing 3rd is as good a result as he could have achieved this season.
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Points isnt a factor? Ofcourse it is. City and Liverpool walked it last year aswell so why is this any different?
 
FrankJH said:
We already have an extra 15-20 points over this season without doing anything (given we had Martial, Rashford and McTominay missing for 2 months +, Pogba missing for 6 months and Bruno wasn't here for the first …..24 EPL games)

Its highly unlikely we have so many forward players out for such extended periods next season. Also the timing of Covid also made the Spurs game inparticular a lot more difficult given how many players they got back in the interim.

Even just considering the huge amount of drawn games before Bruno came in and Pogba and Rashford came back, we would be able to get significantly more points without any transfers.

Of course we will get injuries, but I don't it will be to such significant players for such long periods, and hopefully we will be able to at least get better quality cover for some of them during the window.

Mason will also be playing significantly more EPL minutes than he did before Feb-March this season - I think it was about 1/3 of the possible time , and most of that was sub appearances prior to the Covid intervention.


The 1st XI still isn't perfect, clearly still a few positions which need work, but the squad is pretty atrocious beyond that but we have already gotten rid of some of the dead wood, with hopefully 2 - 3 more to go this summer.
A dedicated right winger, an AM to be able to rest Bruno for CL games etc, and imo a proper DM /CM to assist in beating the press or a left footed centre half to partner HM

Ole isn't perfect but then neither was SAF, he certainly deserves a lot more time given the significant progress already made though. IMO we have made more significant progress since Ole came in than we have in the 6 years prior. Given who came before, I think that says it all.

A lot of pundits/journo's were thinking Utd would end down in 5-6 given they didn't expect Rashford or Martial to get >20 goals each (and that's with each missing over two months of the season), Mason's first season was way better than anyone could have hoped for (in the same ball park as other teenagers from yesteryear like Rooney, Fowler and Owen...with potentially 4 more games to play)…..and every single one of Ole's transfers have worked well within the team to different degrees. His success rate in the transfer market is degrees better than all of his predecessors since SAF.

Utd also beat City and Chelsea three times each this season (when there was still something to play for) , so we are on the right track.

Its also highly flawed argument to compare directly with City and Liverpool given how long those managers have been assimilating their preferred squads for seasons before Ole's arrival. Of course these teams are expected to do better given the depth of their squads in comparison. By the end of next summer Utd should hopefully have a squad comparable to what those teams have now (in regards to managerial preference).
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The first paragraph is just nonsense by the way.


Every single one of Oles transfers have worked well? I assume you havent seen Maguire this season then. AWB gets a nose bleed and passed it backwards when he gets in the opposing half.

Bloody hell youve also compared Greenwood to Micheal Owen. Micheal Owen scored 18 premier league goals in his first season...18 in his next. Not League cup or against pub sides you batter 5 nil. Premier league. Greenwood is good but lol.

United fans are something else. Standards are low to say the least.
 
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Interesting little statistic - since getting thumped 9-0 by Leicester, Southampton have actually scored more points than Leicester during the remainder of the season.

Certainly an argument to be made that getting embarrassed on that scale gave them the kick up the arse they needed to start turning things around
 
omnomnom said:
Is this a serious post? Despite these wonderful signings youve finished on the same points total as before you spent 200 million including a record breaking penalty haul. Leicesters short comings have got United CL football.
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You could argue their short comings were our short comings at the start of the season. Pogba had basically been out all season before the lock down. Martial had been out for 3 months, Rashford out for three months, McTominay out as well for a period of time when he was key to our team. Also even if Leicester didn't bottle it we would have still finished 4th.

One thing that has become evident is that when fresh and no pressure our first eleven is fantastic. You don't win 4 games in a row with a 3 goal margin by winging it. The pressure is something the players will grow into as they start to achieve and win things. Squad depth is a massive issue and we need a few players this summer.

This is where City at least dominate. Their ability to rest players and still have top quality on the bench keep the team competitive and fresh.

Martial, Rashford and Greenwood are 24, 22 and 18 respectively. None have yet to reach their peak and all three of them have had months off with injury/lack of game time. Scored 60 goals between them who Solskjaer has massively improved on. That's a front three that we have in our pocket for the next decade if they keep it up.
 
In the last 25 games of the season, Saints were 4th in the form table with 43 points. Only Liverpool, United and City took more points. Shows what can happen when you give the manager a chance.
 
Lets be honest, if we had the squad fit that finished the season at the start of the season we would have probably got another 20 points or so. Lets also be honest, Ole still isn't a good enough manager and relies entirely on the quality of his players to shine and win games and doesn't seem to have the ability to influence games or coach a team at the top level. As soon as we change the team personnel a bit we look crap. Players like Fred and McTominay who were doing really well for a while when Pogba was out and Fernandes wasn't here suddenly looked crap again.

I fear that we are just going to rumble on for a few more seasons sitting around the top 4 until Ole has a bad season and the board get rid of him with another completely managerial appointment that makes no sense. I would love to be proved wrong but I think thats how it will go.
 
fez said:
Lets be honest, if we had the squad fit that finished the season at the start of the season we would have probably got another 20 points or so. Lets also be honest, Ole still isn't a good enough manager and relies entirely on the quality of his players to shine and win games and doesn't seem to have the ability to influence games or coach a team at the top level. As soon as we change the team personnel a bit we look crap. Players like Fred and McTominay who were doing really well for a while when Pogba was out and Fernandes wasn't here suddenly looked crap again.

I fear that we are just going to rumble on for a few more seasons sitting around the top 4 until Ole has a bad season and the board get rid of him with another completely managerial appointment that makes no sense. I would love to be proved wrong but I think thats how it will go.
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I completely agree. You are far superior to City and would have finished above them comfortably.

#Oleisback
 
Utd just don't have the squad to challenge for the top spots at the moment. Martial, Greenwood, Fernandez, Shaw, Lindelof are the only (mostly) consistent top quality players at the moment. The team is significantly worse when any of them are missing.

Williams, Rashford, AWB, Maguire, McTominay, Fred, Pogba, Matic, Lingard are only top 6 players (although some of them are top class on their day, they're too inconsistent).
 
He's a liability for me. Him and De gea have been terrible. Needs to step it up next season.
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Way too error prone as a Manchester United CB captain. Also needs to cut out that thing where he dribbles past our CMs only to turn around and pass it sideways. You're a CB Harry. Other than that, good signing I guess ?
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Should our captain be someone who gets so nervous and visibly shaky?

I think we need a CB, and there are times where I question if its Lindelof we should be replacing or Mag
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His Iniesta impersonification, to only then pass to Lindelof ***** me off, but I thought that he was decent today. Made a stupid tackle at the beginning, but other than that was mostly fine.

He's not great, and neither is his partner, but there are 4-5 positions we need to upgrade before upgrading them. And the ability to stay fit is very underrated, but him and Victor are almost always fit, which meant that they have created a decent partnership, which is a big reason for our good defensive record. You kind of know what you get from them. Reliable players who consistently perform well, but not great. And that is fine for now.
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Yes, at times he can be agricultural and im
sure from time to time he will get skinned and the critics will be out in force
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You do wonder whether he's so slow to release the ball because he's playing on the left with no left foot. Whatever it is, someone needs to train it out of him.
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Thats all from one single page on Redcafe and its the latest page. No picking and choosing here. Even United fans dont rate him.
 
chroniclard said:
How many fans/clubs would take VVD? Like every club in the world. How many fans/clubs would take Maquire? Burnley maybe.....
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Comparisons with VVD are harsh as much as United fans would love to make it. He isnt in the same league.

Maguire is mid table at best. He literally changes the way United have to play because he cant turn around or pass.
 
Maguire needs to drop a couple of things from his game but he isn't a bad defender. Over half of the sides in the premier league would have him easily, just not for 80mil.

De Gea, on the other hand, looks like he needs the worlds best sports psychologist if he's ever to get back to his best.
 
omnomnom said:
Thats all from one single page on Redcafe and its the latest page. No picking and choosing here. Even United fans dont rate him.
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I do believe if we had kept Chris Smalling we would have most likely ended up in a similar position although won things in a different way. Maguire is far better on the ball which is what we need going forward. What maguire needs is someone next to him in the vein of Vidic to get us to that next level. This is all nit picking though. We let in 3 more goals than Liverpool and 1 more goal than City this season and second behind Liverpool in terms of losses. We let in 20 more goals last season and scored fractionally more too. This was without Pogba for 30 games, Rashford and Martial out for 3 months a piece and Mason's breakthough season which leads me to believe that a lot of those draws would have become wins otherwise as at one point we were completely toothless going forward.
 
Ayahuasca said:
De Gea, on the other hand, looks like he needs the worlds best sports psychologist if he's ever to get back to his best.
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Its bizarre. He just looks shot. Making really basic handling errors even on things that are the bread and butter of even the worst keepers in the league. He is still world class at times but utterly awful sometimes as well. There is no point saving that extra 5% of shots when you are letting in soft ones. Teams start to target keepers when they are having a poor time and that just makes it even worse. Fingers crossed he can sort it out by next season.
 
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