The Manchester United Club Thread **Sponsored by Comedy Central**
- Thread starter Robbo
- Start date
I think the formation will be fine but you need the right sort of players for it. He has to start Amad at RWB going forward, that’s the only thing that’s really worked so far. We have too many defenders on the pitch and it isn’t helping with defending, so why bother…
Caporegime
I think there is a tendency to think that teams "ease off" after going a few goals up but I think games ebb and flow. Plenty of games a team dominates from start to finish almost. Against any half decent side you don't ease off because they can punish you. Again, I didn't see the game but from the highlights we could have scored a couple in the second half.
Its a tricky one because we have had this issue for a number of years and Ten Hag had it a lot. Players just not doing the basics right. From what I have seen, defensively we are generally solid but we make shocking mistakes a few times a game and get punished for it. A player not being tracked. A cross that gets a lucky deflection and loops onto an attackers head. When you are struggling it feels like everything that can go against you does. When we had Ruud in charge for a few games we suddenly got a bit of luck in a few games. Magically things do a 180 despite performances being largely the same.
Martinez is currently out of his depth in this setup when asked to actually defend. Too slow, rash and not good enough in the air. Hes a great aggressive defender to get in the attackers space but when the game is fast paced and hes not doing that he really struggles.
We need to bring in a LWB in Jan really. No idea who though. There are some cracking ones in the PL we could look at in the summer but I would be amazed if any of the clubs would sell in Jan.
There’s been a really obvious tactic when playing us since ETH. Just go at us all guns blazing at the start of each half when we’re still dozing (who knows why) and we collapse. It’s not rocket science. The teams then tend to ease off as they’ve used a lot of energy, but then our toothless attack means there’s more reward than risk with teams taking this approach against us.
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I think the big difference between Man Utd and other clubs isn't mentioned enough - and that's pressure. The global pressure on our players is absolutely incredible and ultimately most of them don't have the mentality to handle it. We are still viewed as a defacto #1 club who should be winning every single game and that just isn't reality, and hasn't been for over a decade now.
A bad result means you're plastered all over every sports website/paper/whatever in the world. Even in the days of the class of 92 and onwards, the pressure wasn't even close to this.
Football is so much of a confidence game (see Man City) and we rarely manage to build any confidence. Tactics and everything else comes second to that.
Caporegime
Yeah I would say thats broadly correct. Hojlund, Garnacho and Mount could have a future at the club but Garnacho and Mount certainly have massive question marks over them for suitability and injury issues respectively. Maguire is a good guy to have around because he is so rarely injured and he is always dedicated. The rest of them are either too old or not anywhere near the quality required or in Shaws case, just never available.
The issue as has been the case for a long time with this though is that you cannot replace 10 players in a season. You do it piecemeal and you have to make do with sub-par players. The fact that 4 of the players in the "keep" bucket are from last summer should perhaps be seen as a good sign though. That "sell list" is also probably what you would replace if you want to be competing for things again whereas we should realistically be looking for a top 4 capable squad after next summer and all things going well, a push like Arsenal, Chelsea etc are having at the moment for the season after.
Quite a few of the "sell" players above are good enough to hang around until replacement but as Robbo says, they need some confidence and that comes from winning. After the Liverpool game we need to start doing that. We need to sign someone for the LWB position in Jan as well if possible.
Precisely. It’s going to take some time, and as you say, definitely need a LWB in Jan.
Good point with Maguire. He’s definitely worth keeping around as a squad player, but it’s whether he’d take a reduced contract. And I’d be perfectly happy with Mount if he was able to stay injury-free, but that doesn’t seem like it’ll ever be the case, sadly.
As has been touched upon, the media are loving the situation, and it really makes it all very frenzied when it’s in your face on social media etc all the time. If we’ve seen no improvement by the end of January, that’s when I’ll be a bit more disappointed as Amorim will have had some proper training time by then rather than the onslaught of games of the past month with no real time to get going with any proper sessions.
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Caporegime
Thats the only real issue with Maguire. Hes a great squad player to have around but squad players aren't on 200k/week.
Kind of agree. Hojlund could be a decent backup striker. Mount might make it if he can get over his injuries. Can't see Onana being replaced any time soon. Probably not going to get the kind of money we would hope for Bruno's output either so he will end up sticking around. The rest I can see being moved on.
Soldato
Think Hojlund has potential. Zirkzee is probably on his way out. Evans would have no resale value - I think he'll retire at the end of the season and start his coaching badges. Otherwise I agree with most of that list. Although Bruno/Garnacho could turn things around.
Caporegime
I would think so. £120k or something like that would suit all parties.
Don't know why Ineos and Sir Jim aren't getting more grief. They've been supposedly in charge of football matters for 12 months and all we have seen is an acknowledgement that we need a new stadium and a series of bodged appointments and commercial decisions that punish the fans and low level employees while allowing most of the players to steal a living. Frankly this is worse than the Glazers and that's saying something.
I'm right behind Amorim. He's the one to rip this all apart but I wonder if Ineos have the stomach to support him. Especially s they've pretty much bolloxed any other sporting endeavour they have taken on.
I'm right behind Amorim. He's the one to rip this all apart but I wonder if Ineos have the stomach to support him. Especially s they've pretty much bolloxed any other sporting endeavour they have taken on.
Soldato
Think that's fair. He shouldn't be first choice but a solid backup, like Lindelof was/is meant to be. Can't see any other PL teams offering him that kind of money.
Quite. Ineos have presided over one of our worst seasons.... so far. They made such a fuss getting Ashworth, waiting for him, paying out for him and then getting rid of him.
I remember reading something just over a year ago which said that the Glazers win both ways with Ineos coming in. If Utd improve, then the financial situation improvesd and the Glazers' shares are worth more. If Ineos come in and Utd get worse, then the Glazers can say, "Ineos are in charge of footballing operations... blame them!".
Ineos have to support Ruben. He's their guy. They paid out over £15m to pay off Ten Haag and his team and then over £11m to get Amorim out from his Sporting contract. Even if Ruben wasn't Ineos' choice, I still think he's the right guy... more so than EtH ever was.
Associate
with all the past managers you would have thought utd had slumped enough and started to make progress, its totally the opposite.
I get what you’re saying about the decisions on the fans and employees, it’s really not the right thing to be targeting right now considering the other decisions which have wiped out any of those cost savings, but what can they actually do about pre-existing player contracts exactly?
Caporegime
Our new appointments started in the summer, not 12 months ago.
One "bodged" appointment. And would you rather they kept him on when it was clear it wasn't working like the Glazers did with Woodward and later Murtough?
Sorry, how have they allowed players to steal a living? Players have a contract, they legally can't do anything to them.
Call me when INEOS take over a club with no debt and pile up insane debt on it. Then take out over a billion from the club over the space of a decade while letting a banker run it like disneyland. They've put us in this position, if you think Ineos somehow broke the squad in 6 months then you're being silly.
Soldato
Man Utd have the second most expensive squad in the league. Only Chelsea are ahead of them. They have spent over £800m putting it together.
Honestly they will be doing well to get a quarter of what they spent back. I just can't see how the club can turn this sort of mess around in the short term.
Honestly they will be doing well to get a quarter of what they spent back. I just can't see how the club can turn this sort of mess around in the short term.
Associate
its already been like 7 or 8 years or more