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

MeGaMaN said:
1) Rashfords numbers this season include a lot of penalties so are a bit misleading
2) Are you saying as a fan of the biggest club in English football you are happy to wait 2, 3, 4, 5 years and cross your fingers Rashford and / or Martial develop into top strikers :D

Of course you dont. You identify the weakness in your team and buy a replacement because you are a top club with big buying power, desperately trying to close the gap on Liverpool & Man City
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It's not about waiting nor was that what I was pointing out. You are comparing a peak berbatov to young players still to reach their peak.
 
adam cool dude said:
It's not about waiting nor was that what I was pointing out. You are comparing a peak berbatov to young players still to reach their peak.
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Incorrect.

This all started with me pointing out your lack of a top notch striker.

I then named some top notch Man U strikers from years gone by, one of which was Berbatov. I was then challenged on who I would drop from the current united lineup.

adam cool dude said:
Sorry I missed this post but it was fact at one point. Rashford and Martial's combined goals were bigger than the combined of Salah's and Mane's.
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And your point is what? I thought you were trolling as you can't seriously be suggesting Rashford & Martial are anywhere near the same level as Salah & Mane
 
MeGaMaN said:
Incorrect.

This all started with me pointing out your lack of a top notch striker.

I then named some top notch Man U strikers from years gone by, one of which was Berbatov. I was then challenged on who I would drop from the current united lineup.



And your point is what? I thought you were trolling as you can't seriously be suggesting Rashford & Martial are anywhere near the same level as Salah & Mane
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I never once said they were but the potential is easily there. Salah and Mane are 4-5 years further down their career than Rashford and Martial.

Also I would rather have a front three of Martial, Rashford and Sancho than your traditional number 9 of years gone by and two wide players. The greatness of the first option is the interchangeability of the front 3 during a game.
 
That's your prerogative but you are firmly in the minority. Name me some top teams in the Premier League who are successful without a "traditional number 9 of years gone by"? In Europe even?
 
Yep, a team with two absolute goal machine inside forwards supporting the false 9 in Mane & Salah, scoring obscene numbers of goals (not to mention the best goalkeeper, centre back, right back and probably left back in the league so defensively pretty sound).

Barcelona pre Suarez were another example but again, they had an absolute freak in Messi and goalscorers all over the pitch.

Reality is very few teams play this way because it just doesn't make sense.

Man City (Aguero)
Spurs (Kane)
Arsenal (Aubameyang)
Chelsea (Tammy Abrahams lol)
Barca (Suarez)
Real (Benzema)
Bayern (Lewandowski)
Juve (Higuain)
Paris (Icardi/Mbappe)
 
Re. Liverpool, and this is a really important point, worth noting that the Dortmund teams Klopp built his reputation managing always had a world class centre forward (Lewandowski then Aubameyang after the former left to Bayern).

So it's not like Klopp chose this formation without a traditional centre forward on purpose, the reality is in his first few seasons at Liverpool his squad contained at least 2 or 3 traditional centre forwards.

I'm not going to say he stumbled upon it by chance but the reality is, like all good managers, he tinkered with his system to accommodate / get the best out of the players he had at his disposal but crucially identified where the weaknesses in the squad were then went out and spent big and his signings have delivered.

Man U need to play to the strengths of the Rashfords & Martials of the squad by playing them in their strongest position and going out and buying proven quality for the other positions they lack. Unfortunately for Man U, both Rashford & Martial's best position is inside forward on the left hand side, cutting in onto their right foot.

For me, Rashford has big potential, Martial will never be more than a squad player at the top level.

The big positive for Man U is Solskjaers signings all look like great acquisitions

McGuire - easily your best DC
Wan-Bissaka - your best DR and massive potential
James - bargain, bags of work rate, great pace and potential
Fernandes - creativity you've been sorely lacking
 
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MeGaMaN said:
Yep, a team with two absolute goal machine inside forwards supporting the false 9 in Mane & Salah, scoring obscene numbers of goals (not to mention the best goalkeeper, centre back, right back and probably left back in the league so defensively pretty sound).

Barcelona pre Suarez were another example but again, they had an absolute freak in Messi and goalscorers all over the pitch.

Reality is very few teams play this way because it just doesn't make sense.

Man City (Aguero)
Spurs (Kane)
Arsenal (Aubameyang)
Chelsea (Tammy Abrahams lol)
Barca (Suarez)
Real (Benzema)
Bayern (Lewandowski)
Juve (Higuain)
Paris (Icardi/Mbappe)
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The system there is the Guardiola false 9 which is ways could be close to Ole diamond. When the CF is dropping into the hole to make it a 4 4 2 diamond you can also play an AMC in the hole who surges into the CF position. But you need a high goal scoring AMC which Bruno was. And the wide strikers L and R need to also be 20 goals a season players for it to be world class you want 60 from the front three ideally but would take 14 from the AMC and lots of assists.

You can be very very versatile with it you can play 433 and push for away goals then make a change and sit with a four man midfield diamond. United with a diamond is pretty scary on paper Bruno at the top Matic at the base? Or Fred? And two Shuttlers the funny thing about this too is Pogba played his best and i think said his best positon was a shuttler role on the exact same spot which was on the left of a three. Fred could also be the other shuttler. Add in Sancho and yea it really is fap time people should watch carefully if Sancho did slot in the only question is who partners Maguire in a pretty young team.
 
Looks like we've agreed to extend Ighalo's loan until January according to Romano and other reliables. Great news, I think it's fair to say he's exceeded everybody's expectations. (I assume this is ok here mods, we haven't got a transfer thread yet and it's just an extension)

Edit: Officially confirmed now.
 
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Shamikebab said:
Looks like we've agreed to extend Ighalo's loan until January according to Romano and other reliables. Great news, I think it's fair to say he's exceeded everybody's expectations. (I assume this is ok here mods, we haven't got a transfer thread yet and it's just an extension)

Edit: Officially confirmed now.
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Fantastic news. Hes the kind of player you need when struggling with Burnley or Wolves with 11 men behind the ball.
 
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De Gea and Maguire, yet again they were at fault for the team conceding a goal. Surely Ole should now be looking to drop a goalkeeper who seems to make as many mistakes as the likes of Barthez/Taibi. Fergie wouldn't have been so forgiving
 
Not covering the near post yesterday was unforgiving, De Gea's positioning was questionable to say the least.
I am sure he is kicking himself for it now.
 
I think the wider point/question here is: should de Gea be dropped?

It’s not like he’s making the occasional mistake. It seems to happen too often and has been like that since the start of last season.

I haven’t looked at the stats but I’m sure they’ll tell the story. Could it be that he’s making more saves/facing more shots therefore making more mistakes, due to the poor defence?

E: he’s not made the most saves but he’s also only made 3 errors apparently? Could have sworn it was more. I guess goals such as the most recent one he conceded aren’t technically classed as an error? To be fair the error is probably attributed to Maguire.
 
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sigma said:
I think the wider point/question here is: should de Gea be dropped?

It’s not like he’s making the occasional mistake. It seems to happen too often and has been like that since the start of last season.

I haven’t looked at the stats but I’m sure they’ll tell the story. Could it be that he’s making more saves/facing more shots therefore making more mistakes, due to the poor defence?

E: he’s not made the most saves but he’s also only made 3 errors apparently? Could have sworn it was more. I guess goals such as the most recent one he conceded aren’t technically classed as an error? To be fair the error is probably attributed to Maguire.
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Ederson is even worse. Just look at last night and the pundits get wet over him. I think the best option is to give De Gea one more season. If he doesn't cut it then sell him on and get Dean Henderson in. It also cannot be that bad he is only 3 clean sheets away from Alisson who has on paper a better defence in front of him.

De Gea is always expected to save everyone which is understandable as he has been our best player for 5 straight years when Fergie retired.

Everton was his bad full stop but the last two blunders were mainly slabheads fault.

Also goal against this season we are third in the league so not really sure what more people want from De Gea. I would argue he has saved us more points than lost us points.

I can think of Everton and Watford as the only times where De Gea has solely cost us points.
 
De Gea's made more errors leading to goals than any keeper in the PL over the last 2 seasons. That doesn't tell the whole story though because a number of goals conceded won't even be classed as errors. In terms of the number of goals conceded compared to the expected goals, based on the quality of chances conceded, Utd are pretty much par - condeding 33 goals from an xga of 33.04. That's the 12th best (or 8th worst) in the League. Last season was slightly worse with Utd actually conceding more goals than expected, 54 to 52.3.

In comparrison, Liverpool have conceded 25% fewer goals than expected based on the chances the opposition have had in each of the last 2 seasons. Then you have Chelsea, conceding over 20% more goals than they've been expected to this season.

In short, De Gea's gone from being an elite keeper to being bang average in the last 2 seasons. As I touched on in the weekend spoilers thread, being an average keeper at a big club attracts far more criticism than being an average keeper at a small club.
 
BaZ87 said:
De Gea's made more errors leading to goals than any keeper in the PL over the last 2 seasons. That doesn't tell the whole story though because a number of goals conceded won't even be classed as errors. In terms of the number of goals conceded compared to the expected goals, based on the quality of chances conceded, Utd are pretty much par - condeding 33 goals from an xga of 33.04. That's the 12th best (or 8th worst) in the League. Last season was slightly worse with Utd actually conceding more goals than expected, 54 to 52.3.

In comparrison, Liverpool have conceded 25% fewer goals than expected based on the chances the opposition have had in each of the last 2 seasons. Then you have Chelsea, conceding over 20% more goals than they've been expected to this season.

In short, De Gea's gone from being an elite keeper to being bang average in the last 2 seasons. As I touched on in the weekend spoilers thread, being an average keeper at a big club attracts far more criticism than being an average keeper at a small club.
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This is all theory though. Expected goals and all that isn't fact.

Fact is we have let in 33 goals which is 3rd best in the league and De Gea is only 3 away from top spot clean sheets with Liverpool's keeper in a better team.
 
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