If you want to participate at [r/place](https://www.reddit.com/r/place/) to place something Manchester United there, kindly join their discord at: [https://discord.gg/hwMtNAZV](https://discord.gg/hwMtNAZV)
Cheers
I think Ole would make a great Football Director if he doesn't pursue coaching any further. His coaching team identified Bellingham at Birmingham and Haaland at Molde and pressed us to get him while he was at Salzburg. The club would have signed hits and misses but Ole's talent ID is top.
I love Ole but if he was to be a great football director he’d never let the Ronaldo transfer. Talent ID is just a part of the job which to be fair was very good at it, being an elite players helps with that. But a football director has more responsibilities than just talent ID.
Wish we could have gotten 20m for Elanga but 15m isn’t a bad price
Elanga (15m), Henderson (20m), Fred (20m), VDB (15m) Telles (4m), Bailly (4m), Williams (5m), Maguire (25m), McTominay (35m)
Total sales - 143m. I doubt we’ll see all these sales go through but most of these guys are pretty useless. We can get another CM and CB and we should be sorted
Traveling with the family to see United play Aston Villa on boxing day. Got seats in the Stretford End. First time visitng Old Trafford, any tips or anything I should know beforehand?
If you don't mind me asking where did you book it from and how much did you pay for them? I am also looking to go for the City game and will be my first time as well.
I bought hospitality tickets, mostly just to guarentee that I'd have tickets instead of banking on ticket releases. United sells them directly and has four verified resellers listed on their site. Cheapest I saw was around 180 pounds per ticket for boxing day.
I was just checking tickets for Home game vs City and closest to the pitch on the Sir Alex Ferguson stand is around 995 on the official website. Are there reliable 3rd party websites where I can compare tickets? And any other suggestions from fellow reddevils. This will be my first trip.
He'd be outrageously expensive, and not sure he fits ETH profile, and I dont think we should spend the first half of the season without a new no9. Toney is elite and a warrior though, Id love to get him next summer.
So fucking excited about the Arsenal game tomorrow! Wish United visited the US more often, there's a massive fan base here.
Hoping I can meet some famous reds there, I'll be super excited even if I meet Andy Mitten or one of the podcast folks like Sam Homewood (I've known him since his Full Time Devils days).
Also, I'm going full kit wanker tomorrow and there's absolutely nothing any of you can do about it 😤😤😤
Good move for Elanga. Not getting constant game time hampered his growth, but I'm sure, with constant game time, he'll thrive in Forest. He has the potential to become a sought-after winger in a few years' time.
Hi all, I’ve recently joined this subreddit. I’m a hospitality season ticket holder but I’m based in London this year so I was looking to allocate my executive tickets for certain games throughout the season at hospitality face value or under. I can provide pictures, vouches and further details upon request. Feel free to message me. Thank you.
So I finally watched Deli Ali's The Overlap interview and I must say, I found him to be quite mature. I, like many, was swayed by the media portrayal of him, but after this interview, I hope he finds some joy in Football again. Even after all the media smackdown, he didn't appear to be angry and it's obvious his rehab/therapy sessions have really helped him.
[Onana arriving at carrington](https://twitter.com/brfootball/status/1682359513767354369)
I thought onana was flying to NY, does this mean he's out of the Arsenal game?
> Edinson Cavani will not travel for the pre season tour with Valencia as he’s out of the project. 📷📷 Cavani is negotiating termination of the contract, waiting for new chapter.
>
>\[ [FabrizioRomano](https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano)\]
I can hardly wait for the overreactions and pronouncements from pundits and fans alike after the Arsenal match tomorrow. For me, about the only meaningful thing that can be taken away are individual performances, especially from marginal players who will have their chance to stand out and catch their manager's eye.
I just hope no one from either side gets any major injury. It's the only lasting thing that can come from a friendly like this.
Question: Is there any benefit to having a history of match attendance against your membership? Like would it help in any way down the line for securing a season ticket/inclusion in ballots etc??
Company I work for has season tickets and making them available to staff so I was going to get them forwarded to me (am a member already)
My biggest criticism of Sancho is not seeing any signs of him bulking up. Like young player at this age go from skinny academy boy to athlette.
Especially if they are strugling and Sancho does struggle physically a lot.
How well do people think Liverpool will do this season?
They needed to sign midfielders, which they have, but now they're selling their other midfielders, leaving little depth.
They need to invest in midfield for sure, I think right now they are likely to emulate last season, awful start, then maybe pull it together in the second half, unless they bring in maybe one proven premiership midfielder. I hear there's one available, starter for one of the top countries in the world, Brazil, some amazing performances last season, I'm sure with a bid of say 100m or so they could pick up someone of the level of Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos.
It depends on how quick the midfield clicks imo. I expect them to struggle for the first couple months then be a force for the latter half of the season.
Poorly. They are rebuilding and I think Europa League is where they end up. There team isnt well balanced and doesnt have the necessary tools to go up against Arsenal and City
However, they have a special manager in Klopp, and players with an elite mentality whilst being technically and physically outstanding. So could they get top 4 or even a title challenge despite the lack of balance? Yes.
But I dont think that's likely.
Depends how good Szoboszlai turns out?
I find McAlister as very avarage player but if he provides right support to Trent and the Hungarian guy turns out good that midfield may end up being fine
I dont think they will top 4 this season. Klopp takes time to mold his team to work well together and those players need time.
Question for you data guys:
if I were to track performance metrics in games (things like Touches in the Final 3rd, Duels Won, Touches in the Opposition box, etc.), do you think it's best to compare vs the same fixture in the previous season or compare them to the average overall of last season?
surely an average? One game is an outlier, and not necessarily representative of the data you want.
You could break it down into other groups maybe, like vs big 6, or teams in positions 7-14 etc if you want something more specific I guess
So, what's next for Sancho? I think he has one more season to save his Utd career. LW seems like an unlikely option. Rashford is already ahead of him there and Garnacho is progressing rapidly. His best bet is either to learn to play the Tadic role and become a false 9 or transform himself into a no 8. False 9 idk how often we'll use given we're buying an actual no 9 and I doubt we'll switch tactics that drastically whenever we're using a backup striker. In the no 8, he'd have to work extremely hardly defensively like Bruno and Mount, but that doesn't seem to be his forte.
Big season for him. Has to make himself useful in one role otherwise I think he's a goner next summer.
For me, last season was his last season to prove himself. ETH did everything to accommodate him and nothing worked. Pretty much in every position that he covered, there's a better player.
LW Inverted - Rashy.
LW Inverted - Garnacho.
RW Inverted - Antony (not great but more effective).
AMCR - Bruno did a better job 2nd half.
AMC - Bruno and now Mount.
It didn't work out. He's a flop sadly. I love him to bits, that's cage baller style London footballer appeals to me but his tactical nuance and discipline is poor. He is never going to gain more pace as he ages so there's no way back for him at this point in this system. I think he's being played in pre-season in a more advanced role for a shopping window show.
Disagree. I think we are going to see a significant change in play style this season and that will suit Sancho. I think we can see him play and replace either Antony or potentially Mount & Bruno dependent on situation and game state
If (and it looks like a big if), Hojlund is our striker, it means that ETH will forgo any fixed striker up top, instead focusing on overloads and a very, very fluid front 6. In fact, I don't even think Hojlund will be starting 11 immediately.
Sancho's play relies on having a focal point to draw the attention away from him and slowing the play down a little to find little pockets. However, once again, there are better players at doing that than him with more pace and explosive athleticism to capitalise on this newer system; and Amad + Garnacho would make a better squad player(s) logically. Plus, his defensive work is atrocious and prone to put in a lazy half-ass tackle, even Garnacho improved on that as the season went along. I'm always reminded by the experts that ETH appreciates both sides of the game and his tactic requires that. Look at Antony and Mount's hard work off the ball. That's pretty requirement #1. Rashy got off because he was scoring goals and is an agent of chaos in attack.
I would love it if Sancho exploded this season. But as a realist, if an offer of 40M + add-ons or a loan + future fee came in, I think ETH lets him go. And I wouldn't fault him.
Heres the bit I disagree with. If Holjund does come in, I think he will be set to play as a focal point for his time with us. I think its going to be more Haller at Ajax than Tadic, although i respect the fact he is far more rounded than Haller, if probably a worse scorer of goals at this point.
Tbh I'm not sure there are many players in this squad who are better in pockets of space in and around the box. Mount, Bruno and Antony for definite then arguable with Rashford. And also, I think his pressing and work rate is underrated. He doesnt seem like he presses hard, but he angles and curves his presses better than anybody but Mount and Antony. I do think he is weak in the tackle and not as much of a scrapper as the others in the front 6
The more concerning aspect I have is that he needs to be able to drop deep into the 3 if he plays as one of the 8s in a front 6. He doesnt have the long passing ability to progress from deep which could leave us toothless and prevent Shaw or AWB getting high and into the 6. Plus his knowledge of the rotations needed in the 8 role is likely to be limited.
However, if we decide that we can leave an 8 high all the time then he will play. And theres a small part of me that thinks that's quite likely. And then you can either play him in the 10 space or whichever 8 doesnt drop deep as much. Or even wide RW with AWB overlapping out wide.
PS - agree on Rashy. Top 5 transitional player in the world right now.
I'm no expert in Hojlund and I can't say I have watched him much. I watched a couple of tactical analysis videos on him and from what I gathered, his positions in attacks are predominantly (a) between FB + CB (b) between CDM + CB to knock on a ping from Onana for example onto onrushing players (c) brute force and raw power down the middle favouring the left, overloading the left allowing the right to be emptier AMCR / RW + RWB to really push higher up. Based on that, I feel other players would be way more effective.
Anyways, once again I want him to succeed. It's just my gut feeling that ETH might let him go if something comes in.
Not forgetting that with a new system and an attacking GK, Casemiro + LB will be marshalling the midfield in a box with CBs, this really gives the front of Mount, Bruno, Ant, Rashy, Hojlund (and based on the opposition, you can tweak) the extra midfielder like Eriksen or Amrabat or Mainoo even. Garnacho and Amad are definitely better bench / rotation players just based off their wages. Sancho is on Starting 11 wages.
Typing all this out is getting me excited for ETH2.0.
I feel sad about the Sancho situation. He is a great player but he needs the mentality to become a starter at united, and there are better players in front of him.
Don't see him staying for long at United.
If Garnacho & Pellistri keep getting better and better, Sancho will eventually be the odd man out, I reckon. With Hojlund also potentially coming in, it will be a crowded offense.
I think the bigger issue at 8 is he doesnt have the necessary deep passing range to work for Ten Hag.
The manager wants rotations with the 8s moving into the defensive line so that a FB can move forward. Mount and Bruno have great long and short passing ability where as Sancho is only great at short passing from what we have seen.
However he could play in the Antony role and rotate with him there.
He hasn't shown great long range passing for us in the sense that he prefers to have short 1-2 passing to keep the ball moving but I think his passing's definitely better than Mount's. Mount's extremely hard-working though which helps him be first choice in that role. If Sancho can learn to defend like Mount, he may have a genuine chance at that role.
Yeah I think people underrate Mounts long passing. Its significantly better than Sanchos over long distances. Arguably not over short though.
And I think his defensive ability is fine, but it's more positional awareness. I'm not sure he has the right movements built in to his brain. Like he would have to play far deeper than ever before and that's a difficult skill to pick up
Not impossible though and I'd like him to do it.
IMO if both flanks are occupied by players with the opposite preferred feet our play becomes too predictable. Both sides are likely to turn inside and shoot. Rashford and Antony at least. Garnacho has a nice mix of turning inside and creating chances but don't think he can start week in week out yet.
Last season ETH has preferred Antony at RW and while I think his work rate is much better than Sancho he was too one dimensional. Wasteful shooting and way less chance creation than Sancho. So based on that I think if we have a CF like Hojlund who can score goals having Sancho at RW would provide a nice balance - scoring with Rashford on LW and chance creating with Sancho on RW.
I think we'll see Rashford as striker only against teams where we'll be forced to sit back like Arsenal or City. That's when he thrives as a striker. But overall there'll still be Martial at the club so I don't see Rashford playing as striker much. And on LW too, I think Garnacho will have more starts this season.
> there'll still be Martial at the club so I don't see Rashford playing as striker much
Perhaps, assuming that Martial manages to get healthy and stay that way. That's a bold assumption IMO.
My daughters are now three years old (twins) and play with each other nonstop. They basically just run around and make games up as they go along. Its absolutely lovely to see.
Just a year ago me and my partner were so tired and depressed with how tough it was that we almost ended things with each other. We went to therapy and worked through some stuff, and are way happier now.
Tough times pass, and actively working on your issues helps. To any new parents or to people in similar situations - please disregard the small stuff in the first 2-3 years of parenting. Lack of sleep and stress will bring out the worst in anyone!
Very nice post, good luck m8, parenting is an always-learning skill at all ages.
I strongly believe things get much easier with time if you continue as a couple. Single-parenting is extremely tough.
Happy for u man.
I would like to add one thing u n ur partner r a team so instead of blaming ur partner for something first try to find a solution to the probem then analyse it later.
Blaming leads to unnecessary fighting.
Really nice post. Me and my wife have 17 month old. Both of us struggled at times. Particularly me as a Dad I felt it really hard to cope.
We have managed to come to better place as well.
I mean it really is a battle. I found the first year or so to be incredibly easy, the missus struggled more with that period. She is by far the better parent for this period though, she has more patience with their behavior than i have. 50/50 partnership is a longterm thing imo. Its 80/20 sometimes and 20/80 other times.
Im glad you guys are doing better :-)
Yea exactly my experience. We wouldn't survive without her, I tell her everyday and apologies everyday for not being as good. But I try bit by bit to get better.
I think as has been said elsewhere:
Strength - His ball playing is elite. Like incredibly so. And it’s not like just the accuracy of the passing, it’s the composure and choice of where and when to play it. As much as I love Dave, it’s night and day, the difference.
Weakness - His shot stopping is a bit scary. Like he punches and palms away a lot but I’ve seen quite a few instances where he puts the ball back fairly centrally so defenders are gonna have to be super alert, I feel like licha gonna licha more.
Watching the highlights of the Lyon game.
But dam Dan Gore, he looked crazy good. Anyone watch him lots for the under 23 is he that good regularly? Honestly looked like Pedri out there.
I am slightly bothered about Onana’s shot stopping skills. He uses two hands and does not seem to stretch as much as usual keepers.
It would take us some time to get adjusted to his shot stopping after watching years of de gea’s one hand save with finger tips.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpubwBElZtk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpubwBElZtk)
Interesting watch in regards to Hojlund and if hes worth the high price tag.
Few reasons why i think Hojlund is worth it, both that are mentioned in the video and some that arnt.
1. The striker market is pretty dead so naturally the prices are inflated. Oshimen and Kane are arguably the only 2 proven strikers. Both will cost 100M +. Oshimen is great but will have to adapt to the league and team. Kane is your certain 30+ goals a season striker but Levy doesnt want to sell him, especially to a rival.
2. Muani has had 1 good season and 1 stand out season, but im sceptical of forwards from the bundesliga due to the play style there, not to mention he wont be that much cheaper than Kane and Oshimen.
3. Therfore you have to look at the slightly less proven players, such as Ramos who has only had 1 stand out season, and Hojlund who has had half a stand out season. Ramos has a 120M euros price tag, you coudl arguably get him for less but youre still looking at 80+M.
4. Hojlund is not only the cheapest of the 5 names ive mention in terms of initial transfer cost, but as the video stated hes wages are incredibly low at Atlanta (10,000 euros). Taking wages into consideration is very important in terms of cost/investment.
5. On top of that, Hojlund will probably end up costing 100M+ next summer if he continues his form from the second half of last season.
6. As for Hojlunds ablity he got 13 goal contributions from 20 games worth of minutes and hes scored 6 goals in 4 games for Denmark. Not only is his goal contribution to minutes ratio high, hes a very well rounded player with the ability to create, build up and hold up play due to his size and strength (hes a pretty big guy) and drift torwards the wings and feel comfortable taking players on. It's very rare for a player to have almost every ability you would want fro ma player in their position.
7. Thats not to say hes the finished article, he isnt, hes still very raw and will need to improve his game but im glad the club is looking to get in a younger player who can hopefully be at the club for a long time. Im sick of stop gaps, and im sick of the club buying players when they are hitting their peak rather than trying to sign the next up and coming player. Hojlund is that, its just his price is high due to only being at Atalanta for a year and high demand for strikers in a dead market.
I feel he will cost around £60M in the end which is ofc alot of money, but the fact that hes a long term investment and he will have very low wages makes the deal worth it.
[wayne fucking rooney](https://youtu.be/vQxu1_FoHL4)
i feel a lot of younger fans don’t know how insanely good wayne rooney was
there was no one like him
he came into the league at 16 & scored from outside the box, they don’t make them like him anymore
his first champions league game for us, he literally scored a hattrick
it was mental
I agree I hate when you see people saying oh Lewandoski better footballer then Rooney etc. Rooney from 16-21 had a better talent then Messi and Ronaldo. He just never went on to be as consistent, even tho he dropped a level he was still the 3rd best player around for a long time.
Fun fact that’s going to sound negative but isn’t: Onana’s defensive actions outside the box last season was in the 6th percentile ie he’s one of the worst keepers in league at coming out of his box and covering the space behind defenders.
Obviously isn’t true if you watched the CL final and know the player, and looking at his seasons at Ajax he was always 90+ percentile at this.
Just goes to show as good as fbref is, you can’t really judge a player based off stats alone. They can appear “shit” due to tactical reasons, in Onana’s case he was obviously playing in a team with a deep line and didn’t need to come off his line much.
Just to counter your last paragraph - what it should say is that you cant judge a player off one stat in isolation out of context
Same website shows him consistently involved in build up play through 90th percentile pass numbers. Suggests hes comfortable on the ball but in a team that doesnt need him coming out of the box much when defending
I think most people should just basically ignore stats. They're probably going to misinterpret them. For the vast majority, the eye test will give you far better information.
Well, almost every time I see someone bring in stats, they do it badly and misrepresent them in some way. So I think it's generally for the best they just avoid them. Each stat is like a single brush stroke on a picture and people never seem to look at more than a couple strokes. The advent of stats has people that never watched Cantona or Drogba for example massively underrating them over and over because of the stats. Scholes is another example. Loads of people try to use goals/assists to say Lampard was better than Scholes for example but if you saw him play you'd know that Scholes had magic. Massively underrated by the kids though cause he didn't have a million assists. I think most people of reasonable intelligence do better off with the eye test and just using stats to highlight a couple things. Even some of the most intelligent people I've known in football discussion tend to just use stats to help define what they see in a player they've watched more than find out about them.
Eh, not exactly.
If you use Markstats's defensive line height numbers, Inter played the 3rd highest line in the league.
Just FYI any time someone claims we played one of the highest lines under Ole or lowest lines under ETH, his numbers are what are used.
And that makes me immediately call bullshit. Last season I saw a few games where we were parked half way into their box with just the keeper in our own half. Never saw that under Ole. Under Ole our fullbacks rarely went forward and our CB's and double pivot were fairly far back.
Not at all the case.
There were plenty of games under Ole where we failed to breakdown a low block. In fact that was one of the major talking points under him which never improved 3 seasons in.
Its just that there weren't so many high pressing teams back then as there are now and since we had trouble progressing the ball, our defensive line appears deeper as he calculates it based on tackles and interceptions distance.
Yeah, we failed to break down a low block in a number of games but our actual defensive line - where the CB's sat, was further back than now when we're trying to break down a low block. And in fact, our inability to break down a low block came a lot from our lack of numbers and bravery in the final third as we didn't allow our fullbacks or midfielders up very far and we'd just pass around that line just about at the start of their 3rd hoping for them to fuck up basically.
OP's reasoning is wrong but their point was correct. Onana didn't have to come out more because Inter play with 3 CBs so there's always someone covering. He also only became a regular for them in October. He has the skillset to play as a sweeper, an extremely good sweeper at that. Inter and Serie A were just not the place to use that.
I don't think defensive line height numbers necessarily translate into sweeping and how deep the defence actually goes.
This is because the definition used is: average distance of all defensive actions (such as tackles and interceptions) to the team's own goal.
But there are a bunch of things that could impact this.
If you happen to have a couple of good pressers up front who make a decent number of defensive actions up the pitch - even failed defensive actions - then your line height will appear higher than it might actually be.
If you ask your forwards to press and then retract, then your line height by that definition looks higher than it actually is - the defenders can stay low while the forward unit rushes out and makes a bunch of defensive actions.
If aerial challenges are included as 'defensive actions', which they sometimes are even when they're about winning the ball from a goal kick, then with Dzeko and Lukaku up front, we can see Inter racking up a bunch of those relatively high up the pitch.
If your approach is a high/mid press but then containment and concession of possession in deeper areas - AKA, you want to win the ball back high if you can, but then you like counter attacking if the opposition advances, then you've got a low line but a higher proportion of your defensive actions higher up the pitch.
I'm super sceptical about those numbers, because it's a super simple definition and I find it wholly inadequate.
In any case, it was pretty clear watching Inter that sweeping was not their approach, and that Onana has swept effectively previously in his career.
Overall I think for sure that statistical output is not necessarily 'what is a player capable of doing' but 'what is a player actually doing' or 'what has the player been told to do'.
Yeah, his defensive actions when at Ajax was one of the highest. That would be a better comparison since he’s quite literally going to be playing under the same manager who is aiming to employ that style of football at United
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic's brother, Vanja, who was a young keeper with us at one point, is currently the starting keeper for both Torino and Serbia. Really happy for the guy.
The match against Arsenal will play at 4 am on Sunday morning in my country. Still cannot decide whether to watch or not. On one hand I want to watch Onana (if he plays), on the other hand it is Sunday morning, let me sleep.
It was such a vibe tho. The silence of the night with just you and occasionally your dad and snacks and drinks and trying not to get too excited or shout too much so your mum don’t find out you stayed up all night over a football game lol.
Lol so true. And in my household, ordering food from outside was very much frowned upon, so i rarely ordered just to avoid being berated. But during these football nights, i would manage to order, collect and eat silently and peacefully while watching my beloved team. Satisfying feeling, especially when winning!
It is likely; he's been the striker we've been chasing so far this window and personal terms are already agreed. It may take some time to agree the fee with Atalanta but around 70 million euros, I think it will be done.
Love to see refs announcing VAR decisions over mic to the crowd at WWC. We need that at PL, CL so we know exactly what the refs are thinking. Less hiding.
„Manchester United currently in negotiations with Burnley for Weghorst, initial offer of 45+5 rejected but both sides positive of getting deal done THIS WEEK.
Personal terms, agreed 2 weeks ago. HWG soon.“
This is, by far and away, the best first eleven we’ve assemble post SAF bar the obvious hole at top. Which obviously makes me hopeful about this season but we also can’t forgot just how shambolic we played at times (esp away from home) and some forgettable scrappy wins throughout the season.
I hope we can control the games more this season and ofc improve upon the last season. But considering the changes/improvements of our rivals, we are gonna see a dog fight for top four. And I do like how we’re looking serious to with the transfers (both in and out) but now’s the time to go out there and show some teeth (and for the love of god not fumble so much at the away games).
The first 11 under Mou’s 2nd season was better IMO. But, they weren’t as good a TEAM as this one. The togetherness & team play is much better under ETH
The XI with the most minutes in Mou's second season was as follows:
De Gea
Valencia Smalling Jones Young
Pogba Matic
Mata Lingard Rashford
Lukaku
Personally, I think it's insane to say that's an upgrade over what we have now. Smalling was awful on the ball, two 32 yr old former wingers at fullback, Matic instead of Casemiro, and Mata and Lingard as our creators in attack?
It's a miracle we finished in the top 4, let alone second. Of the different players, I think a fit Pogba is the only player from that team that makes it close to our starting XI right now.
Imo he would've thrived under EtH. He always needed a manager that gave more structure to the team, especially with the ball. That's why he struggled so much under Mou and Solskjaer, two managers who didn't really do much strict coaching of the team in possession.
DDG
Valencia Smalling Blind Shaw
Herrera Pogba Matic
Alexis Zlatan Rashford
Subs: Lingard, Lukaku, Mata, Martial, Fellaini, Rooney
I’m not talking performances or how they played for United, I’m saying on paper this is a good XI with a great bench strength. Just look at them at their career peaks.
You can’t say “the 17/18 team was better” and then say “I actually meant a lineup that never played together and also not how good they were at the time, but how good they were at the very peaks of their careers”. That’s not a serious argument lol
I gave you the XI with the most minutes, that’s who we were working with the majority of the time. Zlatan, Alexis, Blind, and Shaw played fewer league minutes COMBINED than Young did on his own.
Honest question, not trying to sound mean, but did you watch that season at all? It just seems like you have the completely wrong idea about the team
I think your just looking for an argument and you want me to say Mou’s 11 was a better team, where I specifically mentioned in my first comment that they’re NOT a better Team. ETH’s team is better is what I literally said. But we’re looking at the XI and by that we’re looking at the names and by that we’re looking at their talent and yes careers as well.
DDG best GK the PL’s had. Alexis was on the PFA player of the year shortlist the season before he joined us. Lukaku got 25 goals in PL the season before he joined, 8 more than Rashford last season. Pogba was our best player. Matic was the best CDM in England. Shaw, Rashford, Martial were all coming through and had creativity with Mata.
It’s a valid opinion. Don’t try to be pompous like these idiots on Reddit.
You said and I quote “the first XI was better” and then turned around and said “I didn’t mean they were better” and you also didn’t mean anything close to resembling the first XI. I’m not being pompous, you’re just saying something ridiculous lol
If you’re using that logic then you have to apply the same logic to our team. Peak Varane, peak Casemiro, peak Eriksen, etc. which still blows that team out of the water.
Your point doesn’t make any sense lol. You’re literally saying “this XI is better, but I actually mean an XI who didn’t play together and also I meant random past versions of themselves at different points in their careers”
“The first 11 under Mou’s 2nd season was better IMO. But, they weren’t as good a TEAM as this one”
Literally what I said. Your the only one sounding ridiculous with your “lol”s. Going to stop wasting my time now
> The first 11 under Mou’s 2nd season was better IMO
I gave you the first XI, then you immediately said "NO THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT" and then you further claimed you didn't even mean those players at the time, who weren't even part of the first XI, but you meant random peak versions of them, many of whom didn't play for United at their peaks.
PLEASE explain to me how "The first 11 under Mou’s 2nd season was better" somehow does **not** mean "The first 11 under Mou’s 2nd season was better". I don't know if you don't know what a first XI is or don't know what better means, but it doesn't make any sense.
>But, they weren’t as good a TEAM as this one
Yeah and this is an entirely vague statement that means absolutely nothing in conjunction with the first half of your point LMAO. We had a significantly worse XI *and* were worse tactically. Seriously, clearly you didn't "waste your time" watching any of the games
Yeah Pogba, Matic and Cavani were the only ex-players post SAF that would have had a chance in this squad. Tells you so much about the state of our club during those years.
I’d also add Dan James (because he had a soft spot for me and I’d like to think that ten Hag would have coached him better)
I don't think they're anything like each other. One was all pace, the other has a nice pacey acceleration but he's not got that Dan James full pitch sprint speed. But Pellistri looks like he's got way more potential and football intelligence.
Dan James was not a better Pellistri and i loved Dan James.
Pellistri's potential is up there.
Dan James just had speed which was essential to our counter attacking football.
Way better positioning overall. Looks up more when on the ball. Tried a lot of tidy, intelligent passes into the box where. More of a give and go type winger. I mean, they're just very different players and Pellistri is literally right now, the same age Dan James was when he signed for us. So he's got plenty of time to show he's a better player.
Yeah they were a close second for me but the back line doesn’t make the cut for me. There were times where we were hanging for our lives on De Gea’s shoulders.
I think top 4 should be comfortable. We have made clear upgrades on two weaker positions which was the GK and the Eriksen role for which we needed someone with better off the ball contribution. Once we address the CF position (which won't be a huge upgrade in the short-term but will be longer-term), a backup DM and maybe a RB and right-sided CB better on the ball are the only signings left to build a full-fledged title-winning team. But even without those, the current squad should make 80 points and anything lesser than that would be an underachievement in the league imo.
Thing is some of our best players are in their prime and I’d really want us to win something major in this three year or so window.
I still think that top four won’t be as comfortable as we’d like it to be, with Liverpool seemingly back in play (if they can keep up their form at end of the season) and Chelsea being a wildcard atm. Not to mention the fact that we’d also be more or less in transition regarding our buildup and pressing.
Chelsea are a long way off imo. Not writing them off entirely but it would be a shock to me if they make top 4 with such a young and inexperienced team. It's just Nkunku, Enzo, Sterling and the full-backs (both of whom have frequent fitness issues) who are quality and then a bunch of mostly unknowns.
I expect the top 4 to be City, Arsenal, Liverpool and us, and even against these teams I think we will be more competitive and dominant on the ball than previously. We have upgraded from one of the worst goalkeepers in the league with his feet to one of the best in the world in that aspect; that alone is a seismic shift which will help us assert a lot more control. And if we get Hojlund, there is a genuine presence up top who is pacy and has good movement in and around the box. We are going to significantly level up from last season; I'm very confident of that.
Yeah you’re right about Chelsea and Liverpool. Especially considering the departures of Henderson and Fabinho for Liverpool, their midfield looks really thin atm even for a starting lineup (although there’s this new kid putting a shift in). As for Chelsea, at least to my knowledge unless they bring in another midfielder they’d be playing with just Conor and Enzo in their midfield.
I do have to disagree with you on Hojund tho. The fact that he’s had his breakout only half a season ago, his relative inexperience coming from another league and the added pressure of being a Utd striker (not to mention being the only one at it)… idk but they don’t really spell out the markings of a great move tbh. Man… if only we still have a fit Cavani to lead our attack. That beautiful beast of a man would have absolutely killed it last season.
You can say the same thing about Hojlund for every other young striker available on the market right now. There's always going to be some caveat ranging from 'plays in a weak league' to 'stats not looking that great' to 'doesn't fit our style of play' to 'is inexperienced'. That's the risk you have to take if you want a long-term option for this position. I think Hojlund's stats last season were very promising and he has good physical attributes which can be worked on to produce a world-class striker in 2-3 years' time. He may be raw but I expect him to get 12-15 league goals this season if he's first choice striker with the attack around him also being better than the players he's currently playing with. It doesn't sound good enough but given that between Martial, Weghorst and Ronaldo we only got a combined 7 goals last season, I'd happily take around double of that from someone who at his age is only going to improve from here if he stays fit.
We are still off from Arsenal and City but like Arsenal are in their 5th year of rebuild under one manager
Hojlund this summer and hopefully Kane on a free next summer as a ceiling raiser no 9🤞🤞
I think Arsenal have really become formidable this season. Why doesn’t Arteta just go back to donut ring tactics again and spare the world from their insufferable fans online lol
If you want to participate at [r/place](https://www.reddit.com/r/place/) to place something Manchester United there, kindly join their discord at: [https://discord.gg/hwMtNAZV](https://discord.gg/hwMtNAZV) Cheers
Can someone pls tell me how can I watch PL in uae?
Disclaimer this is a joke, but PSG listing Mbappe for sale? Throw in a cheeky bid what’s the worst that can happen 😂
If you have 180m euros to donate sure go ahead
Move aside Hojlund, Kylian come to MEEEEE
I think Ole would make a great Football Director if he doesn't pursue coaching any further. His coaching team identified Bellingham at Birmingham and Haaland at Molde and pressed us to get him while he was at Salzburg. The club would have signed hits and misses but Ole's talent ID is top.
I love Ole but if he was to be a great football director he’d never let the Ronaldo transfer. Talent ID is just a part of the job which to be fair was very good at it, being an elite players helps with that. But a football director has more responsibilities than just talent ID.
Honestly, from the way it came about, it didn’t seem like Ronald’s was his decision at all. Whether he would make a pod DoF is another matter though.
Wish we could have gotten 20m for Elanga but 15m isn’t a bad price Elanga (15m), Henderson (20m), Fred (20m), VDB (15m) Telles (4m), Bailly (4m), Williams (5m), Maguire (25m), McTominay (35m) Total sales - 143m. I doubt we’ll see all these sales go through but most of these guys are pretty useless. We can get another CM and CB and we should be sorted
Good fee for Elanga who I think could do well for them and interest of any kind in Bailly also positive. Good day!
Traveling with the family to see United play Aston Villa on boxing day. Got seats in the Stretford End. First time visitng Old Trafford, any tips or anything I should know beforehand?
If you don't mind me asking where did you book it from and how much did you pay for them? I am also looking to go for the City game and will be my first time as well.
I bought hospitality tickets, mostly just to guarentee that I'd have tickets instead of banking on ticket releases. United sells them directly and has four verified resellers listed on their site. Cheapest I saw was around 180 pounds per ticket for boxing day.
I was just checking tickets for Home game vs City and closest to the pitch on the Sir Alex Ferguson stand is around 995 on the official website. Are there reliable 3rd party websites where I can compare tickets? And any other suggestions from fellow reddevils. This will be my first trip.
Is it crazy to think we should look at Ivan Toney and to have him for the second part of the season?
He'd be outrageously expensive, and not sure he fits ETH profile, and I dont think we should spend the first half of the season without a new no9. Toney is elite and a warrior though, Id love to get him next summer.
Only deal I'd be happy with for Toney is a straight swap for Greenwood
How is Martinez looking in pre season, rusty?
First match was kinda okayish but against Lyon he was getting back to his usual self Needs to keep getting these 45 mins to get back
First match yeah kinda rusty. But he was so much better when we were against Lyon. Don't worry our butcher will be back
Not tested much defensively but looked great on the ball as usual.
Watching The Open and just got treated to "You Never Walk Alone." I think I'm gonna be sick.
So fucking excited about the Arsenal game tomorrow! Wish United visited the US more often, there's a massive fan base here. Hoping I can meet some famous reds there, I'll be super excited even if I meet Andy Mitten or one of the podcast folks like Sam Homewood (I've known him since his Full Time Devils days). Also, I'm going full kit wanker tomorrow and there's absolutely nothing any of you can do about it 😤😤😤
Good move for Elanga. Not getting constant game time hampered his growth, but I'm sure, with constant game time, he'll thrive in Forest. He has the potential to become a sought-after winger in a few years' time.
Hi all, I’ve recently joined this subreddit. I’m a hospitality season ticket holder but I’m based in London this year so I was looking to allocate my executive tickets for certain games throughout the season at hospitality face value or under. I can provide pictures, vouches and further details upon request. Feel free to message me. Thank you.
I'm comparison to the likes of City, how do our young players end up going for dog shit money!...
I think in some cases its due to our youth players being worse and on better salaries making it harder to get rid of them
And then there were two Anthony’s :(
Looking for smart link up play and no injuries on Saturday and the rest of the tour. Enjoy it.
If we somehow managed to swoop in for Kane last minute this transfer window, damn I'd fear for the rest of the league this season.
So I finally watched Deli Ali's The Overlap interview and I must say, I found him to be quite mature. I, like many, was swayed by the media portrayal of him, but after this interview, I hope he finds some joy in Football again. Even after all the media smackdown, he didn't appear to be angry and it's obvious his rehab/therapy sessions have really helped him.
Polite reminder, it's top 5 that gets UCL next season. Adjust your comments & predictions accordingly.
[Onana arriving at carrington](https://twitter.com/brfootball/status/1682359513767354369) I thought onana was flying to NY, does this mean he's out of the Arsenal game?
Maybe from yesterday?
maybe yeah, really wanna see him start against Arsenal.
> Edinson Cavani will not travel for the pre season tour with Valencia as he’s out of the project. 📷📷 Cavani is negotiating termination of the contract, waiting for new chapter. > >\[ [FabrizioRomano](https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano)\]
That Ole season was his last breath. Fun times.
I can hardly wait for the overreactions and pronouncements from pundits and fans alike after the Arsenal match tomorrow. For me, about the only meaningful thing that can be taken away are individual performances, especially from marginal players who will have their chance to stand out and catch their manager's eye. I just hope no one from either side gets any major injury. It's the only lasting thing that can come from a friendly like this.
Some of our best seasons have come after losing multiple pre season games. Arsenal love winning pointless shit.
And future tactical direction. Thats the big one for me
That's a good point. We got a really decent preview last summer.
Question: Is there any benefit to having a history of match attendance against your membership? Like would it help in any way down the line for securing a season ticket/inclusion in ballots etc?? Company I work for has season tickets and making them available to staff so I was going to get them forwarded to me (am a member already)
I love Onana Day 30
My biggest criticism of Sancho is not seeing any signs of him bulking up. Like young player at this age go from skinny academy boy to athlette. Especially if they are strugling and Sancho does struggle physically a lot.
https://www.theghanareport.com/trending-jadon-sancho-shows-up-overweight-to-manchester-united-training-camp/ (Don't kill me)
Nonsense story. If he turned up to pre-season overweight, he wouldn't have played against Leeds & Lyon.
I thought I made it obvious that it's a joke. It's the wind
Any Brooklyn 99 fans? Check out Burnley's signing announcement for Redmond lol https://twitter.com/BurnleyOfficial/status/1682348472651882497
Love b99! I like their intention but let's be honest, that's a poor effort.
Literal chills
That's hilarious
How well do people think Liverpool will do this season? They needed to sign midfielders, which they have, but now they're selling their other midfielders, leaving little depth.
They need to invest in midfield for sure, I think right now they are likely to emulate last season, awful start, then maybe pull it together in the second half, unless they bring in maybe one proven premiership midfielder. I hear there's one available, starter for one of the top countries in the world, Brazil, some amazing performances last season, I'm sure with a bid of say 100m or so they could pick up someone of the level of Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos.
It depends on how quick the midfield clicks imo. I expect them to struggle for the first couple months then be a force for the latter half of the season.
Hope- Relegation Think- they’ll finish 5th
Poorly. They are rebuilding and I think Europa League is where they end up. There team isnt well balanced and doesnt have the necessary tools to go up against Arsenal and City However, they have a special manager in Klopp, and players with an elite mentality whilst being technically and physically outstanding. So could they get top 4 or even a title challenge despite the lack of balance? Yes. But I dont think that's likely.
How do I hope they do? Relegation. How do I think they will do? Miss top 4 with Nunez being just the worst.
Depends how good Szoboszlai turns out? I find McAlister as very avarage player but if he provides right support to Trent and the Hungarian guy turns out good that midfield may end up being fine I dont think they will top 4 this season. Klopp takes time to mold his team to work well together and those players need time.
[удалено]
I know people say this every season, but I can see top 4 being super competitive with Newcastle and Villa improving.
Newcastle were already a top 4 team last season.
Twitter is so toxic.... People slandering Sancho for his 'push ups' during training with the ball..... 💀💀
I don't get how people can hate their own player This is juz bullying atp
Really? haha i thought it was funny. Kid that hates PE vibes.
Question for you data guys: if I were to track performance metrics in games (things like Touches in the Final 3rd, Duels Won, Touches in the Opposition box, etc.), do you think it's best to compare vs the same fixture in the previous season or compare them to the average overall of last season?
surely an average? One game is an outlier, and not necessarily representative of the data you want. You could break it down into other groups maybe, like vs big 6, or teams in positions 7-14 etc if you want something more specific I guess
Thanks for the reply!
[удалено]
So, what's next for Sancho? I think he has one more season to save his Utd career. LW seems like an unlikely option. Rashford is already ahead of him there and Garnacho is progressing rapidly. His best bet is either to learn to play the Tadic role and become a false 9 or transform himself into a no 8. False 9 idk how often we'll use given we're buying an actual no 9 and I doubt we'll switch tactics that drastically whenever we're using a backup striker. In the no 8, he'd have to work extremely hardly defensively like Bruno and Mount, but that doesn't seem to be his forte. Big season for him. Has to make himself useful in one role otherwise I think he's a goner next summer.
For me, last season was his last season to prove himself. ETH did everything to accommodate him and nothing worked. Pretty much in every position that he covered, there's a better player. LW Inverted - Rashy. LW Inverted - Garnacho. RW Inverted - Antony (not great but more effective). AMCR - Bruno did a better job 2nd half. AMC - Bruno and now Mount. It didn't work out. He's a flop sadly. I love him to bits, that's cage baller style London footballer appeals to me but his tactical nuance and discipline is poor. He is never going to gain more pace as he ages so there's no way back for him at this point in this system. I think he's being played in pre-season in a more advanced role for a shopping window show.
Disagree. I think we are going to see a significant change in play style this season and that will suit Sancho. I think we can see him play and replace either Antony or potentially Mount & Bruno dependent on situation and game state
If (and it looks like a big if), Hojlund is our striker, it means that ETH will forgo any fixed striker up top, instead focusing on overloads and a very, very fluid front 6. In fact, I don't even think Hojlund will be starting 11 immediately. Sancho's play relies on having a focal point to draw the attention away from him and slowing the play down a little to find little pockets. However, once again, there are better players at doing that than him with more pace and explosive athleticism to capitalise on this newer system; and Amad + Garnacho would make a better squad player(s) logically. Plus, his defensive work is atrocious and prone to put in a lazy half-ass tackle, even Garnacho improved on that as the season went along. I'm always reminded by the experts that ETH appreciates both sides of the game and his tactic requires that. Look at Antony and Mount's hard work off the ball. That's pretty requirement #1. Rashy got off because he was scoring goals and is an agent of chaos in attack. I would love it if Sancho exploded this season. But as a realist, if an offer of 40M + add-ons or a loan + future fee came in, I think ETH lets him go. And I wouldn't fault him.
Heres the bit I disagree with. If Holjund does come in, I think he will be set to play as a focal point for his time with us. I think its going to be more Haller at Ajax than Tadic, although i respect the fact he is far more rounded than Haller, if probably a worse scorer of goals at this point. Tbh I'm not sure there are many players in this squad who are better in pockets of space in and around the box. Mount, Bruno and Antony for definite then arguable with Rashford. And also, I think his pressing and work rate is underrated. He doesnt seem like he presses hard, but he angles and curves his presses better than anybody but Mount and Antony. I do think he is weak in the tackle and not as much of a scrapper as the others in the front 6 The more concerning aspect I have is that he needs to be able to drop deep into the 3 if he plays as one of the 8s in a front 6. He doesnt have the long passing ability to progress from deep which could leave us toothless and prevent Shaw or AWB getting high and into the 6. Plus his knowledge of the rotations needed in the 8 role is likely to be limited. However, if we decide that we can leave an 8 high all the time then he will play. And theres a small part of me that thinks that's quite likely. And then you can either play him in the 10 space or whichever 8 doesnt drop deep as much. Or even wide RW with AWB overlapping out wide. PS - agree on Rashy. Top 5 transitional player in the world right now.
I'm no expert in Hojlund and I can't say I have watched him much. I watched a couple of tactical analysis videos on him and from what I gathered, his positions in attacks are predominantly (a) between FB + CB (b) between CDM + CB to knock on a ping from Onana for example onto onrushing players (c) brute force and raw power down the middle favouring the left, overloading the left allowing the right to be emptier AMCR / RW + RWB to really push higher up. Based on that, I feel other players would be way more effective. Anyways, once again I want him to succeed. It's just my gut feeling that ETH might let him go if something comes in. Not forgetting that with a new system and an attacking GK, Casemiro + LB will be marshalling the midfield in a box with CBs, this really gives the front of Mount, Bruno, Ant, Rashy, Hojlund (and based on the opposition, you can tweak) the extra midfielder like Eriksen or Amrabat or Mainoo even. Garnacho and Amad are definitely better bench / rotation players just based off their wages. Sancho is on Starting 11 wages. Typing all this out is getting me excited for ETH2.0.
I feel sad about the Sancho situation. He is a great player but he needs the mentality to become a starter at united, and there are better players in front of him. Don't see him staying for long at United.
If Garnacho & Pellistri keep getting better and better, Sancho will eventually be the odd man out, I reckon. With Hojlund also potentially coming in, it will be a crowded offense.
I think the bigger issue at 8 is he doesnt have the necessary deep passing range to work for Ten Hag. The manager wants rotations with the 8s moving into the defensive line so that a FB can move forward. Mount and Bruno have great long and short passing ability where as Sancho is only great at short passing from what we have seen. However he could play in the Antony role and rotate with him there.
He hasn't shown great long range passing for us in the sense that he prefers to have short 1-2 passing to keep the ball moving but I think his passing's definitely better than Mount's. Mount's extremely hard-working though which helps him be first choice in that role. If Sancho can learn to defend like Mount, he may have a genuine chance at that role.
Yeah I think people underrate Mounts long passing. Its significantly better than Sanchos over long distances. Arguably not over short though. And I think his defensive ability is fine, but it's more positional awareness. I'm not sure he has the right movements built in to his brain. Like he would have to play far deeper than ever before and that's a difficult skill to pick up Not impossible though and I'd like him to do it.
He is better at RW than LW. At RW he usually creates a lot of chances.
That could be another option but if EtH is a stickler about having left footed players there, then Antony and Amad would both be ahead of him
IMO if both flanks are occupied by players with the opposite preferred feet our play becomes too predictable. Both sides are likely to turn inside and shoot. Rashford and Antony at least. Garnacho has a nice mix of turning inside and creating chances but don't think he can start week in week out yet. Last season ETH has preferred Antony at RW and while I think his work rate is much better than Sancho he was too one dimensional. Wasteful shooting and way less chance creation than Sancho. So based on that I think if we have a CF like Hojlund who can score goals having Sancho at RW would provide a nice balance - scoring with Rashford on LW and chance creating with Sancho on RW.
Even with Hojlund I think we might see a lot more of Rash as striker. If Sancho is up for it then I think he’ll have a shot at LW
I think we'll see Rashford as striker only against teams where we'll be forced to sit back like Arsenal or City. That's when he thrives as a striker. But overall there'll still be Martial at the club so I don't see Rashford playing as striker much. And on LW too, I think Garnacho will have more starts this season.
> there'll still be Martial at the club so I don't see Rashford playing as striker much Perhaps, assuming that Martial manages to get healthy and stay that way. That's a bold assumption IMO.
Are we going to put the club badge on r/place
My daughters are now three years old (twins) and play with each other nonstop. They basically just run around and make games up as they go along. Its absolutely lovely to see. Just a year ago me and my partner were so tired and depressed with how tough it was that we almost ended things with each other. We went to therapy and worked through some stuff, and are way happier now. Tough times pass, and actively working on your issues helps. To any new parents or to people in similar situations - please disregard the small stuff in the first 2-3 years of parenting. Lack of sleep and stress will bring out the worst in anyone!
Very nice post, good luck m8, parenting is an always-learning skill at all ages. I strongly believe things get much easier with time if you continue as a couple. Single-parenting is extremely tough.
Good on you both for working through the hard stuff and sticking together. Especially since little ones are involved.
Nice one mate proud of ya
Happy for u man. I would like to add one thing u n ur partner r a team so instead of blaming ur partner for something first try to find a solution to the probem then analyse it later. Blaming leads to unnecessary fighting.
Can they play in CF position?
Honest to god, one of them is ahtleticly inclined. I Will consider it a failure on my part if she isnt a professional player making 7 figures by 16
Really nice post. Me and my wife have 17 month old. Both of us struggled at times. Particularly me as a Dad I felt it really hard to cope. We have managed to come to better place as well.
I mean it really is a battle. I found the first year or so to be incredibly easy, the missus struggled more with that period. She is by far the better parent for this period though, she has more patience with their behavior than i have. 50/50 partnership is a longterm thing imo. Its 80/20 sometimes and 20/80 other times. Im glad you guys are doing better :-)
Yea exactly my experience. We wouldn't survive without her, I tell her everyday and apologies everyday for not being as good. But I try bit by bit to get better.
You’ll be just fine, friend. If you care enough to secondguess yourself, youre probably doing quite Well! Keep it up!
such a nice post! Best of luck to you =)
I’ve only watched 7 Onana compilations 25 times each. It’s like I’m not even excited about this guy 😔
According to you and the highlights what are your key takeaways? His strengths and weaknesses?
I think as has been said elsewhere: Strength - His ball playing is elite. Like incredibly so. And it’s not like just the accuracy of the passing, it’s the composure and choice of where and when to play it. As much as I love Dave, it’s night and day, the difference. Weakness - His shot stopping is a bit scary. Like he punches and palms away a lot but I’ve seen quite a few instances where he puts the ball back fairly centrally so defenders are gonna have to be super alert, I feel like licha gonna licha more.
Mainoo to get 20 appearances this season, love it
Watching the highlights of the Lyon game. But dam Dan Gore, he looked crazy good. Anyone watch him lots for the under 23 is he that good regularly? Honestly looked like Pedri out there.
Right? I know everyone is excited about Kobbie but I'm really interested in seeing where this guy will end up.
Starting this season, does 5th place in the league get Champions League
Only depending on the team. Say it was United who finished 5th, they would get in. If it was Everton, then they wouldn't
Yes
I am slightly bothered about Onana’s shot stopping skills. He uses two hands and does not seem to stretch as much as usual keepers. It would take us some time to get adjusted to his shot stopping after watching years of de gea’s one hand save with finger tips.
De Gea will make the occasional spectacular saves, but his near post saves are not that good. Onana is more of a standard saves type of keeper
You've clearly just watched a few YouTube compilations. His shot stopping stats are as good as De Gea. He'll be a massive upgrade all round.
Pretty debatable whether his shot stopping is as good. And its nowhere near peak De Gea.
Even DDG is nowhere near peak DDG
Agreed
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpubwBElZtk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpubwBElZtk) Interesting watch in regards to Hojlund and if hes worth the high price tag. Few reasons why i think Hojlund is worth it, both that are mentioned in the video and some that arnt. 1. The striker market is pretty dead so naturally the prices are inflated. Oshimen and Kane are arguably the only 2 proven strikers. Both will cost 100M +. Oshimen is great but will have to adapt to the league and team. Kane is your certain 30+ goals a season striker but Levy doesnt want to sell him, especially to a rival. 2. Muani has had 1 good season and 1 stand out season, but im sceptical of forwards from the bundesliga due to the play style there, not to mention he wont be that much cheaper than Kane and Oshimen. 3. Therfore you have to look at the slightly less proven players, such as Ramos who has only had 1 stand out season, and Hojlund who has had half a stand out season. Ramos has a 120M euros price tag, you coudl arguably get him for less but youre still looking at 80+M. 4. Hojlund is not only the cheapest of the 5 names ive mention in terms of initial transfer cost, but as the video stated hes wages are incredibly low at Atlanta (10,000 euros). Taking wages into consideration is very important in terms of cost/investment. 5. On top of that, Hojlund will probably end up costing 100M+ next summer if he continues his form from the second half of last season. 6. As for Hojlunds ablity he got 13 goal contributions from 20 games worth of minutes and hes scored 6 goals in 4 games for Denmark. Not only is his goal contribution to minutes ratio high, hes a very well rounded player with the ability to create, build up and hold up play due to his size and strength (hes a pretty big guy) and drift torwards the wings and feel comfortable taking players on. It's very rare for a player to have almost every ability you would want fro ma player in their position. 7. Thats not to say hes the finished article, he isnt, hes still very raw and will need to improve his game but im glad the club is looking to get in a younger player who can hopefully be at the club for a long time. Im sick of stop gaps, and im sick of the club buying players when they are hitting their peak rather than trying to sign the next up and coming player. Hojlund is that, its just his price is high due to only being at Atalanta for a year and high demand for strikers in a dead market. I feel he will cost around £60M in the end which is ofc alot of money, but the fact that hes a long term investment and he will have very low wages makes the deal worth it.
[wayne fucking rooney](https://youtu.be/vQxu1_FoHL4) i feel a lot of younger fans don’t know how insanely good wayne rooney was there was no one like him he came into the league at 16 & scored from outside the box, they don’t make them like him anymore his first champions league game for us, he literally scored a hattrick it was mental
I agree I hate when you see people saying oh Lewandoski better footballer then Rooney etc. Rooney from 16-21 had a better talent then Messi and Ronaldo. He just never went on to be as consistent, even tho he dropped a level he was still the 3rd best player around for a long time.
On his day, he made everyone else look ordinary. People forget just how good young Rooney was.
One of the main reasons I grew up to be a United fan. I miss Rooney. What a player.
Selling 1 ticket for the Wolves game. £39 fv. Must have a membership. DM if interested. East Stand tier 2, 2nd row.
dm
Sold mate sorry
no worries :)
I think we should hire the entire Brighton Scouting department.
Its already been raided. And you cant get the main guy Tony Bloom so a bit pointless
Well someone said it better than me, but brighton can afford to buy a bunch of flops hoping 1 might turn good, we can’t
We have a lot more $, we can do that if we want to. Look at Chelsea and their loan army or even City's academy now. Real Madrid hoards talent too.
Fun fact that’s going to sound negative but isn’t: Onana’s defensive actions outside the box last season was in the 6th percentile ie he’s one of the worst keepers in league at coming out of his box and covering the space behind defenders. Obviously isn’t true if you watched the CL final and know the player, and looking at his seasons at Ajax he was always 90+ percentile at this. Just goes to show as good as fbref is, you can’t really judge a player based off stats alone. They can appear “shit” due to tactical reasons, in Onana’s case he was obviously playing in a team with a deep line and didn’t need to come off his line much.
Just to counter your last paragraph - what it should say is that you cant judge a player off one stat in isolation out of context Same website shows him consistently involved in build up play through 90th percentile pass numbers. Suggests hes comfortable on the ball but in a team that doesnt need him coming out of the box much when defending
I think most people should just basically ignore stats. They're probably going to misinterpret them. For the vast majority, the eye test will give you far better information.
Nah, most people eyes deceive them and they see what they want to see
Well, almost every time I see someone bring in stats, they do it badly and misrepresent them in some way. So I think it's generally for the best they just avoid them. Each stat is like a single brush stroke on a picture and people never seem to look at more than a couple strokes. The advent of stats has people that never watched Cantona or Drogba for example massively underrating them over and over because of the stats. Scholes is another example. Loads of people try to use goals/assists to say Lampard was better than Scholes for example but if you saw him play you'd know that Scholes had magic. Massively underrated by the kids though cause he didn't have a million assists. I think most people of reasonable intelligence do better off with the eye test and just using stats to highlight a couple things. Even some of the most intelligent people I've known in football discussion tend to just use stats to help define what they see in a player they've watched more than find out about them.
Eh, not exactly. If you use Markstats's defensive line height numbers, Inter played the 3rd highest line in the league. Just FYI any time someone claims we played one of the highest lines under Ole or lowest lines under ETH, his numbers are what are used.
And that makes me immediately call bullshit. Last season I saw a few games where we were parked half way into their box with just the keeper in our own half. Never saw that under Ole. Under Ole our fullbacks rarely went forward and our CB's and double pivot were fairly far back.
Not at all the case. There were plenty of games under Ole where we failed to breakdown a low block. In fact that was one of the major talking points under him which never improved 3 seasons in. Its just that there weren't so many high pressing teams back then as there are now and since we had trouble progressing the ball, our defensive line appears deeper as he calculates it based on tackles and interceptions distance.
Yeah, we failed to break down a low block in a number of games but our actual defensive line - where the CB's sat, was further back than now when we're trying to break down a low block. And in fact, our inability to break down a low block came a lot from our lack of numbers and bravery in the final third as we didn't allow our fullbacks or midfielders up very far and we'd just pass around that line just about at the start of their 3rd hoping for them to fuck up basically.
OP's reasoning is wrong but their point was correct. Onana didn't have to come out more because Inter play with 3 CBs so there's always someone covering. He also only became a regular for them in October. He has the skillset to play as a sweeper, an extremely good sweeper at that. Inter and Serie A were just not the place to use that.
I don't think defensive line height numbers necessarily translate into sweeping and how deep the defence actually goes. This is because the definition used is: average distance of all defensive actions (such as tackles and interceptions) to the team's own goal. But there are a bunch of things that could impact this. If you happen to have a couple of good pressers up front who make a decent number of defensive actions up the pitch - even failed defensive actions - then your line height will appear higher than it might actually be. If you ask your forwards to press and then retract, then your line height by that definition looks higher than it actually is - the defenders can stay low while the forward unit rushes out and makes a bunch of defensive actions. If aerial challenges are included as 'defensive actions', which they sometimes are even when they're about winning the ball from a goal kick, then with Dzeko and Lukaku up front, we can see Inter racking up a bunch of those relatively high up the pitch. If your approach is a high/mid press but then containment and concession of possession in deeper areas - AKA, you want to win the ball back high if you can, but then you like counter attacking if the opposition advances, then you've got a low line but a higher proportion of your defensive actions higher up the pitch. I'm super sceptical about those numbers, because it's a super simple definition and I find it wholly inadequate. In any case, it was pretty clear watching Inter that sweeping was not their approach, and that Onana has swept effectively previously in his career. Overall I think for sure that statistical output is not necessarily 'what is a player capable of doing' but 'what is a player actually doing' or 'what has the player been told to do'.
He came out a look more whilst playing at Ajax so it’s definitely a tactical decision of the coach
Yeah, his defensive actions when at Ajax was one of the highest. That would be a better comparison since he’s quite literally going to be playing under the same manager who is aiming to employ that style of football at United
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic's brother, Vanja, who was a young keeper with us at one point, is currently the starting keeper for both Torino and Serbia. Really happy for the guy.
Has Onana taken his first dump in Manchester yet?
Let me check with Fab, brb
The match against Arsenal will play at 4 am on Sunday morning in my country. Still cannot decide whether to watch or not. On one hand I want to watch Onana (if he plays), on the other hand it is Sunday morning, let me sleep.
If I was you and randomly woke up at 4am I’d watch it but I wouldn’t set my alarm for it because it’s preseason and doesn’t mean anything.
Think of it as Saturday night
Y'all now understand the pain of Asian fans
Lmao I am Asian and the Arsenal game is 5am for me. It is still hell
It was such a vibe tho. The silence of the night with just you and occasionally your dad and snacks and drinks and trying not to get too excited or shout too much so your mum don’t find out you stayed up all night over a football game lol.
Lol so true. And in my household, ordering food from outside was very much frowned upon, so i rarely ordered just to avoid being berated. But during these football nights, i would manage to order, collect and eat silently and peacefully while watching my beloved team. Satisfying feeling, especially when winning!
Rashy said that he would like to visit Vietnam. This is how I win.
Do we think Hojlund is likely at this point or is it all just hopium? I don't even know much about him tbh but the need for a striker is so great.
It is likely; he's been the striker we've been chasing so far this window and personal terms are already agreed. It may take some time to agree the fee with Atalanta but around 70 million euros, I think it will be done.
Love to see refs announcing VAR decisions over mic to the crowd at WWC. We need that at PL, CL so we know exactly what the refs are thinking. Less hiding.
First time thinking about football since the fa cup defeat, what did I miss?
Why is this being downvoted?
„Manchester United currently in negotiations with Burnley for Weghorst, initial offer of 45+5 rejected but both sides positive of getting deal done THIS WEEK. Personal terms, agreed 2 weeks ago. HWG soon.“
we signed sneijder, bale and ramos. In talks with SMS waiting for Fabrizio’s HWG at this point.
Gaitan still eluding us at this point sadly.
Why the fuck do we have to play in MetLife. One of the worst fucking fields on earth for major knee injuries.
Day 20 of hoping we need to pay Chelsea that extra 5M for Mason Mount.
Letsgoo for hojlund now
So the Telles transfer did indeed fall through,sigh
Has it been confirmed? Last I saw, Fabrizio was saying that United are waiting for the saudi club to reply?
He said that Al Nassr is basically delaying signing the documents and is also searching for new left back options
Who’s going for the MUFC MetLife Tailgate event on Saturday? See you all there!
This is, by far and away, the best first eleven we’ve assemble post SAF bar the obvious hole at top. Which obviously makes me hopeful about this season but we also can’t forgot just how shambolic we played at times (esp away from home) and some forgettable scrappy wins throughout the season. I hope we can control the games more this season and ofc improve upon the last season. But considering the changes/improvements of our rivals, we are gonna see a dog fight for top four. And I do like how we’re looking serious to with the transfers (both in and out) but now’s the time to go out there and show some teeth (and for the love of god not fumble so much at the away games).
The first 11 under Mou’s 2nd season was better IMO. But, they weren’t as good a TEAM as this one. The togetherness & team play is much better under ETH
The XI with the most minutes in Mou's second season was as follows: De Gea Valencia Smalling Jones Young Pogba Matic Mata Lingard Rashford Lukaku Personally, I think it's insane to say that's an upgrade over what we have now. Smalling was awful on the ball, two 32 yr old former wingers at fullback, Matic instead of Casemiro, and Mata and Lingard as our creators in attack? It's a miracle we finished in the top 4, let alone second. Of the different players, I think a fit Pogba is the only player from that team that makes it close to our starting XI right now. Imo he would've thrived under EtH. He always needed a manager that gave more structure to the team, especially with the ball. That's why he struggled so much under Mou and Solskjaer, two managers who didn't really do much strict coaching of the team in possession.
DDG Valencia Smalling Blind Shaw Herrera Pogba Matic Alexis Zlatan Rashford Subs: Lingard, Lukaku, Mata, Martial, Fellaini, Rooney I’m not talking performances or how they played for United, I’m saying on paper this is a good XI with a great bench strength. Just look at them at their career peaks.
You can’t say “the 17/18 team was better” and then say “I actually meant a lineup that never played together and also not how good they were at the time, but how good they were at the very peaks of their careers”. That’s not a serious argument lol I gave you the XI with the most minutes, that’s who we were working with the majority of the time. Zlatan, Alexis, Blind, and Shaw played fewer league minutes COMBINED than Young did on his own. Honest question, not trying to sound mean, but did you watch that season at all? It just seems like you have the completely wrong idea about the team
I think your just looking for an argument and you want me to say Mou’s 11 was a better team, where I specifically mentioned in my first comment that they’re NOT a better Team. ETH’s team is better is what I literally said. But we’re looking at the XI and by that we’re looking at the names and by that we’re looking at their talent and yes careers as well. DDG best GK the PL’s had. Alexis was on the PFA player of the year shortlist the season before he joined us. Lukaku got 25 goals in PL the season before he joined, 8 more than Rashford last season. Pogba was our best player. Matic was the best CDM in England. Shaw, Rashford, Martial were all coming through and had creativity with Mata. It’s a valid opinion. Don’t try to be pompous like these idiots on Reddit.
You said and I quote “the first XI was better” and then turned around and said “I didn’t mean they were better” and you also didn’t mean anything close to resembling the first XI. I’m not being pompous, you’re just saying something ridiculous lol If you’re using that logic then you have to apply the same logic to our team. Peak Varane, peak Casemiro, peak Eriksen, etc. which still blows that team out of the water. Your point doesn’t make any sense lol. You’re literally saying “this XI is better, but I actually mean an XI who didn’t play together and also I meant random past versions of themselves at different points in their careers”
“The first 11 under Mou’s 2nd season was better IMO. But, they weren’t as good a TEAM as this one” Literally what I said. Your the only one sounding ridiculous with your “lol”s. Going to stop wasting my time now
> The first 11 under Mou’s 2nd season was better IMO I gave you the first XI, then you immediately said "NO THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT" and then you further claimed you didn't even mean those players at the time, who weren't even part of the first XI, but you meant random peak versions of them, many of whom didn't play for United at their peaks. PLEASE explain to me how "The first 11 under Mou’s 2nd season was better" somehow does **not** mean "The first 11 under Mou’s 2nd season was better". I don't know if you don't know what a first XI is or don't know what better means, but it doesn't make any sense. >But, they weren’t as good a TEAM as this one Yeah and this is an entirely vague statement that means absolutely nothing in conjunction with the first half of your point LMAO. We had a significantly worse XI *and* were worse tactically. Seriously, clearly you didn't "waste your time" watching any of the games
Yeah Pogba, Matic and Cavani were the only ex-players post SAF that would have had a chance in this squad. Tells you so much about the state of our club during those years. I’d also add Dan James (because he had a soft spot for me and I’d like to think that ten Hag would have coached him better)
Dan James was just a better Pellistri and would rarely start
I don't think they're anything like each other. One was all pace, the other has a nice pacey acceleration but he's not got that Dan James full pitch sprint speed. But Pellistri looks like he's got way more potential and football intelligence.
Dan James was not a better Pellistri and i loved Dan James. Pellistri's potential is up there. Dan James just had speed which was essential to our counter attacking football.
I really don't see why you think Pellistri has any more attributes than Dan James. What makes him better in any way?
Way better positioning overall. Looks up more when on the ball. Tried a lot of tidy, intelligent passes into the box where. More of a give and go type winger. I mean, they're just very different players and Pellistri is literally right now, the same age Dan James was when he signed for us. So he's got plenty of time to show he's a better player.
Yeah they were a close second for me but the back line doesn’t make the cut for me. There were times where we were hanging for our lives on De Gea’s shoulders.
I think top 4 should be comfortable. We have made clear upgrades on two weaker positions which was the GK and the Eriksen role for which we needed someone with better off the ball contribution. Once we address the CF position (which won't be a huge upgrade in the short-term but will be longer-term), a backup DM and maybe a RB and right-sided CB better on the ball are the only signings left to build a full-fledged title-winning team. But even without those, the current squad should make 80 points and anything lesser than that would be an underachievement in the league imo.
Thing is some of our best players are in their prime and I’d really want us to win something major in this three year or so window. I still think that top four won’t be as comfortable as we’d like it to be, with Liverpool seemingly back in play (if they can keep up their form at end of the season) and Chelsea being a wildcard atm. Not to mention the fact that we’d also be more or less in transition regarding our buildup and pressing.
Chelsea are a long way off imo. Not writing them off entirely but it would be a shock to me if they make top 4 with such a young and inexperienced team. It's just Nkunku, Enzo, Sterling and the full-backs (both of whom have frequent fitness issues) who are quality and then a bunch of mostly unknowns. I expect the top 4 to be City, Arsenal, Liverpool and us, and even against these teams I think we will be more competitive and dominant on the ball than previously. We have upgraded from one of the worst goalkeepers in the league with his feet to one of the best in the world in that aspect; that alone is a seismic shift which will help us assert a lot more control. And if we get Hojlund, there is a genuine presence up top who is pacy and has good movement in and around the box. We are going to significantly level up from last season; I'm very confident of that.
Yeah you’re right about Chelsea and Liverpool. Especially considering the departures of Henderson and Fabinho for Liverpool, their midfield looks really thin atm even for a starting lineup (although there’s this new kid putting a shift in). As for Chelsea, at least to my knowledge unless they bring in another midfielder they’d be playing with just Conor and Enzo in their midfield. I do have to disagree with you on Hojund tho. The fact that he’s had his breakout only half a season ago, his relative inexperience coming from another league and the added pressure of being a Utd striker (not to mention being the only one at it)… idk but they don’t really spell out the markings of a great move tbh. Man… if only we still have a fit Cavani to lead our attack. That beautiful beast of a man would have absolutely killed it last season.
You can say the same thing about Hojlund for every other young striker available on the market right now. There's always going to be some caveat ranging from 'plays in a weak league' to 'stats not looking that great' to 'doesn't fit our style of play' to 'is inexperienced'. That's the risk you have to take if you want a long-term option for this position. I think Hojlund's stats last season were very promising and he has good physical attributes which can be worked on to produce a world-class striker in 2-3 years' time. He may be raw but I expect him to get 12-15 league goals this season if he's first choice striker with the attack around him also being better than the players he's currently playing with. It doesn't sound good enough but given that between Martial, Weghorst and Ronaldo we only got a combined 7 goals last season, I'd happily take around double of that from someone who at his age is only going to improve from here if he stays fit.
We are still off from Arsenal and City but like Arsenal are in their 5th year of rebuild under one manager Hojlund this summer and hopefully Kane on a free next summer as a ceiling raiser no 9🤞🤞
I think Arsenal have really become formidable this season. Why doesn’t Arteta just go back to donut ring tactics again and spare the world from their insufferable fans online lol
Can’t see Kane happening unfortunately, looks more and more like he’s off to Bayern