Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [9th - 11th November 2018]
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
He is a good goalkeeper. Much better suit he would be for Juventus.
Man City are quality, high quality
Caporegime
Because of his appalling attitude and workrate when things aren't going well for him. He's a similar risk to Balotelli and despite thinking it'll eventually turn sour I really hope he does well for us.
Caporegime
He is a good goalkeeper. Much better suit he would be for Juventus.
Man City are quality, high quality
They have spent plenty of money over the years and have the best current manager in the world. Man Utd have spent big as well but is crooked due to to Pogba and Lukaku being overpriced. The rest of the signings have been terrible. Man City have spent a lot better but also spent around 160 mil more on incoming signings! If Man Utd spent another 160mil on a couple of center backs and someone in midfield it might be a little different. Never the less City are in a different league and can continue spending how they are. Man Utd cannot afford to spend on Man City levels for ever.
Last edited:
It depends also on who wants to play for the dark red devils and who wants to play for the sky blue angels
And yet his attitude and workrate has been superior to all our front 3 so far this season. When we signed Wijnaldum there was talk about his attitude too and 2 and a half years later we've not had a single problem with him in that respect. I said when we signed him, playing for us and Stoke is completely different - he's not the big fish anymore, he can't walk about when he's got better players than him running themselves into the ground and still expect to get in the side and he hopefully will/has realised that this is probably his last chance at a top club. It makes me laugh watching him sometimes because you can actually see on his face how happy he is and it's showing in his performances too.
Who knows, maybe it's a false dawn but you cannot deny that things look promising.
Had Real not signed Courtois then I'd agree. I don't think it's a given that he'd leave Utd for any side that might be in for him though and I suspect Utd will end up paying him whatever it takes to get him to stay.
The same player who scored 7 and assisted 7 for Stoke? I can't remember any issues tbh
Or he doesn't know how to start one. Subs bailing him out again. Arsenal were by all accounts awful today.
Caporegime
Lol that’s what subs are for
. When things aren’t going so well, you make subs to try and get the game in your favour. Doesn’t work all the time but for us this season, it’s seeming to work. Yeh we were terrible but we didn’t lose which is a big big change from us in the last few season. 1pt is better than none as much as I wanted the 3 pts.
Caporegime
Terrible miss, but all strikers have one or two of those a season.
Still not as bad as Ronnie Rosenthal’s though
Chambers should have had an early bath for that challenge.
Soldato
The thing is, his squads have always been well drilled, disciplined and tactically astute. The board need to either:
A) Back him properly and get who he wants
B) sack him and we’ll get nobody better and sink further
Caporegime
When you buy lukaku for 80m and fred for 50m you can't say that you haven't been backed. Plus Sanchez at 500k per week.
Soldato
But then turn the taps off as everyone else continues to spend? He clearly wanted a defender and a winger, at least - nothing would’ve drastically helped.
Whilst I’m sure mourinho had some say, how do we know that it wasn’t Woodward? From runoueS, he gets a list of generally people he hasn’t picked and is told to select one.
Caporegime
He spent 30 on Bailey, 30 on lindleoff and 20 on dojo or whatever he's called.
Caporegime
I switch between having sympathy for Mourinho because certain players are completely letting him and the side down and getting really frustrated because a lot of our issues are due to poor coaching.
I don't know what a manager can do when players make really basic mistakes game after game (drop them would be my choice). Matic has cost us so may goals this season. I honestly don't think our defence (young excluded) has been that poor. They are just being screwed over by Matic massively. The number of times Matic just leaves his man boggles the mind. He will either completely ignore him and gently jog back 5 yards behind his man or he will mark him until his man moves and just completely lose him. When you are a defender and you look around you and see that every attacker is marked, what else can you do? 5 seconds later the ball is in the back of the net and you are wondering how an attacker suddenly was in 5 yards of space.
You can't do anything when players screw up the simple stuff. If your strikers are missing one on ones regularly etc. For Citys first goal yesterday we had about 4 players against Citys 2 and they still weren't marked and Silva taps it in. Second goal perhaps DDG should have done better but City have one of the top strikers in the world who will win you games on his own. Third goal Matic marks Gundogan a few yards from goal and then just stands there when the ball comes in and they tap it in.
2 of Citys goals are down to awful defending. People not doing the really simple job of marking a man, tracking a man or simply paying enough attention.
I think Mourinho could turn this team around but he will need to buy another 3 players for a lot of money and I think we should be spending that money with a manager who plays a better style of football. If we had someone like Kante as our DM we would look miles better than we are at the moment. Matic is literally causing half of the problems in the team with his awful defensive work and inability to transition into attack quickly. You can compensate for a DM that isn't there sometimes but you can't compensate for one that appears to be in the right places but doesn't act when they need to.
If he tries his past shenanigans when it turns sour , he will be in for a right shock. Players don't mess with Klopp, as Sakho found out.
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Mar 2007
- Posts
- 3,875
I agree regarding Matic, it's not until you start watching him that you realise his work rate and marking are atrocious. I'm concerned that his legs have gone and that Kante made him look great in his latter years at Chelsea. As pundits have said before, Kante does the work of two players so anyone would look incredible alongside him. Unfortunately Fred has looked pretty poor so far this season so unless Mourinho is willing to take a punt on him there aren't really a lot of potential replacements for Matic. He could try Fred, Herrera and Pogba in midfield but I fear that Herrera would be left exposed by Fred's lack of positional discipline.
It's hard to know what United can do to improve things. I don't believe that Mourinho is capable of overhauling Pep, other than one season at Real Madrid Pep has always had Mourinho's number. I think we're seeing common traits from City, Liverpool and Chelsea that United lack. We're seeing all three of those teams play with a high work rate, pressing aggressively to close down players all over the pitch, then having lots of movement, pace and interchange up front when attacking. To a lesser extent Arsenal and Spurs play a similar type of football as well. In that respect United look like the odd ones out. As Gary Neville said yesterday after the game, United rely on 'moments', individual brilliance from players, or the odd clever interchange between two players, and being a threat on set pieces. That type of football might get you by in games here and there, such as against Juventus during the week, and will probably mean that you have enough to beat the smaller teams, but you're not going to have enough consistently throughout the season to trouble the likes of City, and now Liverpool and Chelsea.
Having said that, I struggle to think of any managers out there who we might realistically be able to get and who would play the type of football that the other big teams play, and there's no point taking a punt on someone like Zidane in the hope that he might get more out of this squad. The other issue is that this squad has been built with Mourinho's style of football in mind. Even if we did get a manager in the style of the ones mentioned above they would probably want to get rid of quite a few of our squad and get in players that suited their type of football, which would mean another enormous outlay. I'm not sure United are able or willing to keep on spending at the level City can.
Caporegime
Associate
- Joined
- 10 Nov 2006
- Posts
- 1,261
I was fortunate enough to be invited to the game on Sunday. Through partners at work I was a guest in the Tunnel Club Premier. A fantastic experience for those that get a chance.
The level of hospitality was incredible. Lots of great food and wine. Pitch side during the warm ups, and great seats just above the dugouts.
As for the game itself, It actually made a nice change to watch a match live, where I had no preference on the result. It gave me a chance to look at the game from a different point of view. I actually thought city were going to run riot after scoring first, but they allowed Utd back into the game. For 15 minutes up to half time I though Utd were going to push on, but it never materialised. At times City were an absolute joy to watch, dare I say like the Utd teams I grew up watching on the TV. Quick passing and great movement, which you don`t always see on TV.
A very enjoyable day.
The level of hospitality was incredible. Lots of great food and wine. Pitch side during the warm ups, and great seats just above the dugouts.
As for the game itself, It actually made a nice change to watch a match live, where I had no preference on the result. It gave me a chance to look at the game from a different point of view. I actually thought city were going to run riot after scoring first, but they allowed Utd back into the game. For 15 minutes up to half time I though Utd were going to push on, but it never materialised. At times City were an absolute joy to watch, dare I say like the Utd teams I grew up watching on the TV. Quick passing and great movement, which you don`t always see on TV.
A very enjoyable day.