Add a new back 4 as well.
Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [11th - 15th January 2019]
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Add a new back 4 as well.
Caporegime
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Wenger’s free
Well 1/2 that is because the squad is so ****, I mean the only reason we put McTominay on at all is because Pogba could barely move to start with & Dalot isn't experienced enough as a defender so came on as (wide) midfield reinforcement
Utd could easily release / sell 6+ players in the summer, only get 3 or 4 replacements and be a lot better off.
Ole needs experience at this level for sure, but its also not all his fault Utd were so weak in the 2nd half - wasn't the right kind of game for Mata, Fred (who should come good but is struggling currently) - arguably I would have put on Pereira instead of McTominay but its debatable who would have been better.
DoF is required before the end of the season , really ASAP
In fairness a lot of what he was saying was accurate. His attitude stunk.
He certainly has to save them but they were poor finishes. I'd still take our lad over him to be honest.
Of course you would
It's not simply a case of his attitude but the fact that he wasn't playing to anywhere near his potential. I'm pretty sure I said at the time Utd signed Pogba that he was one of the most talented midfielders around but he hadn't performed consistently at the level that the best midfielders were and even Pogba's biggest fan couldn't argue that that changed in the past 2 and a half years.
I've read all sorts of stories about Souness's time as Liverpool manager and one of the things he couldn't deal with was players and particularly midfielders not being able to live up to what he expected of a Liverpool midfielder and that benchmark was set by him. If Pogba becomes 25% the midfielder Souness was, he'd have had an incredible career.
By "a lot of people" you mean Liverpool fans
And Neville
Seriously though, which save did he make that had it gone in you wouldn't have said the keeper should have done better?
Yes I would...because be in the last 12 months he's been superior.
That alright with you?
And Neville
Seriously though, which save did he make that had it gone in you wouldn't have said the keeper should have done better?
Pretty much any of the ones with his feet, the two near post Kane ones.
I know you've had Karius but damn, Alisson is being so overrated. Sure, he looks good, but De Gea is levels above IMO.
Caporegime
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People seem to forget that Spurs are an established team with a manager who has managed to make his mark on the club. Solskjaer's first real big test today. Only watched the first half as I was on break but we were easily an equal to spurs. I guess Solskjaer was just trying to hold on for the result for the second half. He changed his tactics for this game and it won him the game.
I am in the camp of giving him the job.
I am in the camp of giving him the job.
Caporegime
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Sorry Souness just hates anything positive with United. He has been so sour the past 30 years!
Caporegime
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Souness hates anything positive fullstop.
He’s been more than critical of Liverpool players over the years as well, many pundits still have bias, even Neville and Carragher can’t hide it at times.
Souness is just negative in general, most of the time he’s looking around the studio like he doesn’t want to be there.
Disagree on those saves. If he can kick them away then they clearly weren't very far away for him to reach. If you keep shooting nearly straight at a decent keeper you're not going to score many.
As for the overrated Alisson, he's massively out performed De Gea this season and pretty much every keeper in the league. De Gea's made 2.5 saves per goal conceded compared to 4.7 for Alisson. Of course that doesn't look at the difficulty of the shots they've faced/saves made - 64% of Alisson's saves have been within the 18 yard box with just under 11% in the 6 yard box compared to 55% and 6% for De Gea. You then have the statto's favourite xg stats where Alissons miles ahead too. I'm pretty sure Alisson was only 2nd to Oblak in Europe last season too. Not bad for an overrated keeper, especially when he's much better on the ball and has a far superior beard.
De Gea is the best goalie in the Premiership, no question.
Caporegime
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There is more to being a manager than early good performances through. The primary and immediate thing he changed was allowing players to attack in greater numbers, with less caution. This is riskier defensively except if you tell your players to never over commit as Mourinho pretty much always did, eventually your defence collapses because the other side applies relentless pressure due to lack of their own need to defend. When you attack at an insane pace you keep the opposition off balance and for the most part attack being the best form of defence holds true. Defend too much and you're begging for trouble.
But longer term maybe he's crap at training, can't handle players egos, players get upset at not being played and he sucks at dealing with that, terrible judge of players when it comes to transfer market, etc. All of that is relatively unknown. The main thing he's done so far is come in and release the offensive players to play their actual game rather than put a leash on them and place relentless pressure/negativity on them by insisting they defend all game.
Early signs are he's doing great, longer term he could be great or could be terrible. Short term uplifts by fixing the major issues holding a team back isn't rare, long term a new manager who got such a uplift actually making a team better is rarer.
First half though I think Spurs were crap more than Utd were actually great, their defence couldn't hold a line to save their lives, the CBs were playing with a monumental gap between them and they were getting caught out ridiculously often. Even then I think there were 4-5 counters that due to a significant numbers advantage Utd should have been 3-4 goals up by half time but they actually played pretty poorly upfront considering how bad Spurs were.
Second half and Spurs, outside of being unable to shoot directly at De Gea, were the far better team and even then I think Alli, Ericsson for much of the half, Lamela weren't playing well at all.
But that's the thing, if you're crap and refuse to attack, you'll definitely lose and under MOurinho Utd would absolutely have lost this game. If you're willing to attack regardless, then even if you're utterly outplayed for one half if you nick a goal you stand a chance of winning.
Personally I'd make zero decisions on Utd's long term manager before end of season, see if this form holds up or not because 2 months from now they might be **** again. As it stands though I'd be working under the assumption that if they continue playing as they have for the most part in the last 6 games and they improve the actual quality of football over time that he should get another year at least.