Greenlizard0 Premier League Football Thread ** spoilers ** [28th - 30th September 2024]

If I was Mainoo's agent I'd be looking to get him out of there this summer. The boys quality and his career will be wasted like Fernandes. All that will happen is another manager comes in and you have another period of shifting players about until he gets sacked. Any team that is deluded enough to be waiting on Luke Shaw (including England) as though he's a top quality left back is going to continue to tread water. For me they still continue to fail to make the tough decisions and move players on like Rashford and shaw in the hopes it clicks and they become 40 game consistent players.
He really isnt. Until he learns to pass forwards, he isn't "quality". He doesn't progress the ball at all and is partly at fault for how United are. He's good when pressed ill give him that but he doesn't run a game and doesn't get into a top 4 team.
 

If I was Mainoo's agent I'd be looking to get him out of there this summer. The boys quality and his career will be wasted like Fernandes. All that will happen is another manager comes in and you have another period of shifting players about until he gets sacked. Any team that is deluded enough to be waiting on Luke Shaw (including England) as though he's a top quality left back is going to continue to tread water. For me they still continue to fail to make the tough decisions and move players on like Rashford and shaw in the hopes it clicks and they become 40 game consistent players.
Funny how Shaw was fit for England...
 
He really isnt. Until he learns to pass forwards, he isn't "quality". He doesn't progress the ball at all and is partly at fault for how United are. He's good when pressed ill give him that but he doesn't run a game and doesn't get into a top 4 team.
How's he going to learn and develop at United though? That's the point, get out whilst you can/are still worth something. Every player who goes there gets worse (bar Bruno?). It's a poisoned chalice.
 
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He really isnt. Until he learns to pass forwards, he isn't "quality". He doesn't progress the ball at all and is partly at fault for how United are. He's good when pressed ill give him that but he doesn't run a game and doesn't get into a top 4 team.
This is exactly what people said about Henderson, but if you watched him frequently you knew they were wrong. I think Mainoo is class. He generally keeps the ball at the right time and takes risks at the right time, and in a young midfielder that's impressive
 
This is exactly what people said about Henderson, but if you watched him frequently you knew they were wrong. I think Mainoo is class. He generally keeps the ball at the right time and takes risks at the right time, and in a young midfielder that's impressive
And they were statistically completely incorrect. Mainoo doesnt pass forwards.
 
This is exactly what people said about Henderson, but if you watched him frequently you knew they were wrong. I think Mainoo is class. He generally keeps the ball at the right time and takes risks at the right time, and in a young midfielder that's impressive
Where do you think his best position is?
 
Where do you think his best position is?
Central midfield. Probably an 8. He's similar to Modric (nowhere near as good, obviously).

Edit: he's also hugely press resistant. His feet are generally excellent (aside from against Liverpool :D), and he's very good at getting out of a tight spot deep in the pitch, progressing the ball either at his feet or by passing short, moving, and going again. In that regard he reminds me of Gini.
 
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Central midfield. Probably an 8. He's similar to Modric (nowhere near as good, obviously)
Ahh, see i completely disagree, he lacks the ability to play in CM, he's further forward for me
In that regard he reminds me of Gini.
He's nothing like Gini, the defensive side of his game is horrible, doesnt track back, doesnt track runners, leaves gaping holes in midfield as he's constantly pulled out of position - you could argue the last one is due to his age but there are other young players that dont get pulled here there and everywhere.
 
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Ahh, see i completely disagree, he lacks the ability to play in CM, he's further forward for me
I don't agree at all. Getting a player who's comfortable receiving the ball under pressure in his own third, who can also put tackles in and win the ball deep, is like absolute gold. Number 10s are (relatively) easy to buy nowadays. You've only got to look at what decent midfielders were sold for over the summer to realise that deeper players are rare.

What's he lacking for central midfield to your mind? The stats suggest that he's more than capable there defensively (although as I've said, I wouldn't play him as a 6).

 
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I don't agree at all. Getting a player who's comfortable receiving the ball under pressure in his own third, who can also put tackles in and win the ball deep, is like absolute gold. Number 10s are (relatively) easy to buy nowadays. You've only got to look at what decent midfielders were sold for over the summer to realise that deeper players are rare.

What's he lacking for central midfield to your mind? The stats suggest that he's more than capable there defensively (although as I've said, I wouldn't play him as a 6).

Saw your edit after i posted, so I've edited my post. Basically, the defensive side of his game is ******* atrocious. As i said during the euro's, he isn't a 'progressive passer', what he is is a 'progressive ball carrier'. Play to his strengths which is further forward imo. Ideally he'd be playing the odd game off the bench as a sub or getting game time in cups/europa league as being a mainstay of this utd's midfield wont do him any good.
 
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Saw your edit after i posted, so I've edited my post. Basically, the defensive side of his game is ******* atrocious
I mean, the stats don't suggest that that's the case. Insofar as there are holes, do you not think that that's at least heavily down to ETH? He's had all sorts of midfielders and not been able to put anything together which is even slightly coherent
 
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I mean, the stats don't suggest that that's the case. Insofar as there are holes, do you not think that that's at least heavily down to ETH? He's had all sorts of midfielders and not been able to put anything together which is even slightly coherent
Stats on their own are largely useless, I do have eyes and the entirety of last season and now 6 league games and man utd's midfield is the poorest in the league, teams are literally able to get a 747 through the gaps because they are undisciplined and get moved all over the shop. Casemiro was broken trying to cover the space vacated by the guy, and Ugarte will be no different.
 
Mainoo is clearly a very talented player but at 19 he's no where near the finished article and has holes in his game, primarily the positional side of things. His biggest problem and why you get comments like @C Kent's is the fact he's being made the main man in midfield in a dysfunctional Utd side. He's not ready to be that and there's nobody alongside him capable of covering up his weaknesses. Two members of a large Utd YouTube outlet were ********s enough to suggest Souness was racist for pointing this out but Mainoo shouldn't be playing week in, week out for Utd at 19 years old. He should be getting dropped in and out of the side, with a stable midfield around him because they're seriously running the risk of running the kid into the ground before he turns 20.

I've always said that Fernandes causes Utd problems. He's been their best player since he signed but he unbalances the side and that's true both for their attacking players and midfield. If Utd played with a more orthodox 3 man midfield then Mainoo's positional issues wouldn't be exposed as much as they are now and Utd as a whole wouldn't be as easy to play through as they are. With Fernandes in the side, Mainoo still learning his position and huge question marks over Casemiro or Ugarte, it's no wonder Utd's midfield is wide open.
 
Mainoo is clearly a very talented player but at 19 he's no where near the finished article and has holes in his game, primarily the positional side of things. His biggest problem and why you get comments like @C Kent's is the fact he's being made the main man in midfield in a dysfunctional Utd side. He's not ready to be that and there's nobody alongside him capable of covering up his weaknesses. Two members of a large Utd YouTube outlet were ********s enough to suggest Souness was racist for pointing this out but Mainoo shouldn't be playing week in, week out for Utd at 19 years old. He should be getting dropped in and out of the side, with a stable midfield around him because they're seriously running the risk of running the kid into the ground before he turns 20.

I've always said that Fernandes causes Utd problems. He's been their best player since he signed but he unbalances the side and that's true both for their attacking players and midfield. If Utd played with a more orthodox 3 man midfield then Mainoo's positional issues wouldn't be exposed as much as they are now and Utd as a whole wouldn't be as easy to play through as they are. With Fernandes in the side, Mainoo still learning his position and huge question marks over Casemiro or Ugarte, it's no wonder Utd's midfield is wide open.

Will the new manager drop Bruno?
 
I can’t see how dropping Bruno improves that side although I suppose we’ll get to see it over the next three weeks. At least he tries, several times last season he was the difference between getting a result or not.
 
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