The Manchester United Club Thread **Sponsored by Comedy Central**

[Robbo]

Firstly, please read the below rules, they are very important:

1. These threads are for: tactical/player discussion inbetween weekend matchday threads, injury news, contract renewals, manager press conferences, and general minor news about your club that may not warrant its own thread. Anything that's not regarded as a minor news story must go in it's own thread.

2. No Spoilers! Please keep any discussion about weekend and midweek fixtures to the relevant matchday threads, at least until MOTD has been shown.

3. All transfer talk should be discussed in the dedicated transfers threads. Small rumours, signing of youth players etc outside the transfer window when the transfer threads aren't open are fine.

4. As per forum rules, keep it civil, supporters of any team are welcome to post in all club threads. If you have a problem with a post, RTM it. Trolling or accusations of trolling will not be tolerated.

While all the rules must be listened to, take particular care of the rule regarding spoilers. Any mention of the result or performance, even hinting at it, prior to MOTD will result in a suspension.

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Just to start things off...

Jose Mourinho has said of Wayne Rooney:

"Maybe he's not a striker any more. Maybe he is not a No 9 anymore but he will never, with me, be a No.6. He will never be 50 metres from the goal. For me he will be a No 9 or a No 10 or a nine-and-a-half, but with me he will never be a No 6 or even a No 8."​

Do you think we'll see him playing behind the striker, or rotating with Zlatan and Rashford up front?

Rooney is once again the elephant in the room, he doesn't excel at anything, he's just "quite good", but he's costing us a fortune. Could he leave?

 

[Robbo]

Might be worth putting **No Spoilers!** in the title too

 

[Robbo]

Who would realistically buy him and pay him the ludicrous wage he'd demand? Unfortunately, I think we're stuck with him until the end of his current contract. Then it could become interesting...

Chinese teams have been mentioned, but I genuinely think he'd refuse to go unless they were going to pay him a lot more than us (which I can't see happening).

 

[Robbo]

When does his contract run out?

Another three years or so...

Anyway, I think he'll stay for now and end up playing behind the striker or as the striker, depending on injuries. Assuming he's no good, he'll probably be benched, which won't go down well!

I don't think he's quite finished yet and he's certainly not useless, so maybe Mourinho can improve him...

 

[Robbo]

My view at the moment, no matter the formation is that we need someone who can get the ball forward with a purpose.

Carrick was good at this for a while (but never that great) but he's on the decline now, any remote pressure and he becomes useless. Schweinsteiger can do it but again, it's never been his speciality and he's also not quite the player he was.

I'm surprised we kept Carrick as I can only see him playing the odd game here and there. Herrera is more about movement than pure passing ability so he's not much good either. Schneiderlin is a more defensively minded box to box player and his passing isn't great.

I can see why we're after someone for central midfield. As for the no. 10 position, I think Mata is bound to go, and I suspect Rooney is likely to start there, whether he'll stay there is another matter. Perhaps Herrera could fill in there.

I'm very much looking forward to watching a front 3 of Martial - Zlatan - Mkhitaryan. A nice balance of power, pace and experience, with loads of technical ability.

 

[Robbo]

Is MUTV showing pre-season games for free again?

Build up I think, not much else. Keep any further comments to the pre-season thread please.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18739340

 

[Robbo]

I suspect he wanted to talk about Shaw's recovery from injury.

 

[Robbo]

Is it allowed?

Yes.

 

[Robbo]

Interesting that Martial has given up 9 (though pretty logical as he'll be a wide attacker)!

 

[Robbo]

Transfer discussion.

 

[Robbo]

Very optimistic. I think depending on availability, we may end up signing another player or two, as well as letting a couple go.

Darmian and Valencia aren't the worst right back options in the world (nor the best).

Jose won't be afraid to drop Rooney if he's messing up the team, he'll put winning ahead of anything else.

I'm not sure we'll win the league, but it will be very interesting.

 

[Robbo]

I'd play Pogba next to Schneiderlin, then add in Herrera/Carrick if we need more in midfield. We have plenty of options for the front four.

 

[Robbo]

That looks a very decent 11. Especially as there are big question marks over the effectiveness of both Rooney and Mata.

 

[Robbo]

I don't see how Fellaini will be a regular starter, maybe an impact player (when all else fails etc).

 

[Robbo]

Fellaini is playing a more limited role now, which means he's more effective. If he's always drifting forward he'll always be out of position. He's done OK so far.

Ultimately though, he's not a natural DM, he doesn't read the game that way, so good players will get past him without too much trouble.

 

[Robbo]

10 days ago most people had us down to beat City as they were without Aguero, and despite a poor start, in the second half we gave them a game.

Since then it's been very poor, admittedly, and there are worrying signs, but no conclusions should be jumped to yet. It's far too early.

 

[Robbo]

More people than not.

 

[Robbo]

You struggled against Hull, HULL ffs, and Utd fans were congratulating themselves and decided they could beat City.

City played the first half at a level we haven't seen out of Utd in the past 4-5 years. City made a huge error and gave Utd a goal out of nothing. That half could have been 8-2 if everyone took their best chances. City did that thing, when you dominate too easily then the team often takes their foot off the gas and then struggles to get back into top gear. Utd I wouldn't say had a poor start, they were, for 35-40 minutes, absolutely and completely abysmal but it was as much or more City's insane pace, movement and passing that made Utd play badly, Utd themselves I don't think played or tried anything different. They are just slow and uncreative. Against lesser teams it didn't get shown up but against a top team they got embarrassed.

Watford also played with more pace, more movement and again made Utd look embarrassing. City dropped towards Utd's level in the second half of that game, Utd absolutely did not raise their game towards City, nothing close to it.

Also those who thought Aguero being out was going to be massive haven't watch Iheanacho play, the guy is a phenomenal player for 19yrs old, as yet when they've subbed or had Aguero out for any reason, Iheanacho hasn't looked like a downgrade at all.

My point is that the media, and people in general, saw our performances prior to the City game as impressive - whether you believe they were or not.

I always had concerns as we hadn't played a good side and as it happens, we got taken apart when we did.

The new players will need time to bed in, and the damage from the LvG/Moyes era will take time to fix. Having said that, it isn't clear to me what Mourinho is trying to do, but it's more than reasonable to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

 

[Robbo]

What I mean by that is the players have been coached for 2 seasons by LvG with very peculiar methods and there may be lingering effects of that. It is then of course Mourinho's job to fix that and we know it shouldn't necessarily take months.

If he goes back to what he knows best then so be it, at this point we have to prioritise winning over attractive football. You can have both and I think that's something we can build towards, Chelsea when they most recently won the title were more than decent and there's no reason we can't have the same thing. Jose will be better off changing himself and his methods (if he can) from a position of strength.

I think Shaw is a good defender, I wouldn't say he's all about attacking, if anything his attacking isn't that great, and he's only 21.

Same applies to Martial, he's still very young and there's no reason he can't be made to track back. The problem is, the current squad is what it is, so he's got no choice but to adapt and use it, none of the attacking wide players will do a great job tracking back. As you said, this should have been fairly clear to him and he hasn't signed any other players.

At this point Rooney and Fellaini in midfield are two big problems, then there's the issue of the team playing with little to no intensity most of the time. Are the players lazy? Poorly coached? It's strange.

 

[Robbo]

Well, any kind of formula is better than what's being served up at the moment.

It will be very interesting to see where we go from here.