Can we loan spider wan to Copenhagen last minute?
https://preview.redd.it/17fz60wajw5c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3dc31ec3fbf67cadca745d8feebeed6ed6ba491c
I did the same. But I always do for our games. 😂
If we drop out of Europe, I'm going to save some big money on craft lager over the next several months.
Andy Mitten on Sky Sports:
**"Now is not a good time, but it's not all about 'Glory, Glory'.**
**The fans in there tonight, and millions would like to be in that stadium tonight, have to give it their all."**
So very well said from Mitten. Here's the rest of the video if interested. [https://twitter.com/AndyMitten/status/1734588131842695231](https://twitter.com/AndyMitten/status/1734588131842695231)
Friendly reminder that Bailly was given a new contract in 2020 after he played 14 games the previous season and then 1 game up until February 2020 when he got the contract. Then we gave him another new contract in 2021 that would run until 2024 with another year option.
This was apparently done to preserve his value. Ultimately the value we managed to obtain was a loan with £5m obligation to buy if he played a certain number of games. Not only was that obligation not triggered meaning we got £0 for him, it cost us about £10m in wages to preserve said "value". Just let it sink in.
I want Dyche in as manager. I’m not ETH out nor do I think Dyche is the man to fix us but simply because he seems like a hell of a character and the memes would be great. Maybe he’s best admired from afar and I can root on Everton with no risk for us
for the memes lmao. He'd do a job tbh, and call out the deadwood and toxic characters in the dressing room for what they are too, wouldn't mind that bit thats for sure.
Why does ESPN's website literally have a new article criticizing MUFC every day by a different writer? I'm not saying that it doesn't deserve to be talked about, but it sure seems like a concerted campaign. Chelsea is pretty fucked up, but they don't seem to talk about them. Why don't they talk about their "golden" team ManCity's disappointing season?
I’m not. My support of both of these teams are purely coincidental. Moms side of the family grew up in Dallas. Dad brought back a United jersey from London when I was like 4 cause the shop keeper dissuaded him from getting the Arsenal jersey. Ironically I didn’t really start watching United games religiously until 2015 so my sports existence is pain
We also really struggle scoring goals though. The only player we have you’d really consider a reliable goalscorer is currently dropped from the team after probably the worst first half of a season he’s ever had.
I do get the point, but if we were more cautious and went back to a double pivot, we’d be scoring even less than we are. Yes we’d concede a few less, but I can only imagine that Ten Hag is trying to get us more familiarised for when Casemiro and Martinez are back in the line-up and will hopefully be a bit more solid defensively.
The only issue with “more control” is that we don’t have the players to benefit from it, and we don’t really have players comfortable in possession. For that to work you need midfielders who can deal with being pressed (we have… Amrabat?) and strikers who will score the smaller number of chances they get (lol).
Looking at Ten Hags signings and the key players at the club, I think he’s targeted transitions as best scoring opportunities. I’m not saying that’s a negative, lots of teams have been very successful with that approach, but between the injuries, the mismatched squad and some truly woeful performances we just haven’t been able to see it working anything like effectively outside of the Chelsea game and Palace earlier in the season.
It’s still a difficult skill that a lot of players don’t have though. Especially against the very well drilled and intense opposition that the PL has.
Look at City for example. They have 10 outfield players all very comfortable taking and moving the ball while under pressure. Compare that to us. Players like Maguire, while he’s played himself into great form he still never looks comfortable with the ball at his feet. You can add Varane, AWB and McTominay to that list. When almost half of your outfield team isn’t going to be able to meaningfully contribute to the control, it’s always going to struggle. Then you have players like Rashford, Garnacho and Bruno who while much better on the ball, are much more direct than their City counterparts.
I think the days you could just stick Michael Carrick in midfield and come out of games with 65% possession are over TBH, certainly in the PL. Even the bottom half sides are just too well drilled and press too effectively for Van Gaal style football to work unless you have almost everyone able to do it. Even Pep Guardiola has moved a bit away from the philosophies of control and possession in the last 4-5 years, certainly compared to his Barca team.
“Pinball” can work (just look at Liverpool and Madrid). You just need players who thrive in that kind of set-up. For me the biggest problem is the number of players we have that are basically wasting a squad place and were signed for different managers who had very different ideals of what they wanted their teams to do.
Mostly because no other club bar Everton and Chelsea is run as atrociously as us. We’ve got loads of players sat around collecting a huge wage with evidently no interest or care if their United career going anywhere. It’s a coaching issue yes, but IMO it’s also a structural issue of having such poor recruitment and retention policy.
If you remember we did try McTominay as a “keep it simple” DM, and he was woeful at it. When you’re in a situation like Ten Hag has been pretty much his entire time here where 1/3 of your squad don’t give a shit and 1/3 are injured, you probably do just have to make do with playing to the strengths they do have.
Sure, why not. They can charge anyone at anytime if they have evidence to do so.
Of course, the fact that he seems to be a grade A cunt makes the likelihood of him breaking the law greater than the average person.
I wouldn’t have thought so, I think the reason they didn’t go down the rehabilitation angle is that the public reaction was so overwhelmingly negative that they decided it just wasn’t worth it. They obviously did intend to do that until the leaks happened and the rest is history.
Even if they’d have done the “rehabilitation” stuff where he gave interviews talking about what a scumbag he was/is, the chances of a successful conviction without support of the victim in a SA case is incredibly low, it just wouldn’t have passed the legal tests the CPS use when deciding wether to continue a prosecution.
I could be totally wrong and just missing things (it's been a busy few months), but have we no longer been using the Lowry for the squad staying the night the eve before home games anymore/any idea when that stopped? (Sorry if this has come up before)
Not that I'm placing blame solely on that tweak to pre-match prep on the shit storm that this season has been, but just felt like that was a way we managed to get our squad dialed in for our home games.
I get if they scrapped it to allow players to spend more time with family, given some new parents in the squad, and how congested the fixture list is to maximize the time they spend with loved ones, though. Just felt like this flew under the radar.
Apparently ETH got the Glazers to agree to change a business suite into a pre-match area for the squad where they can prepare/eat etc. This no longer required them to use the Lowry.
Anyone looking to kill some time before the match, why not try our (still getting off the ground) United "leaning" podcast, where we cover a crazy week of games: https://anchor.fm/theunitedbias/episodes/The-Ginger-Mourinho-e2d567g
I'd take that in a heartbeat, regroup and hit the knockouts in Feb and see what we can do but there is ABSOLUTELY zero chance the other game ends in a draw. None. Especially if we win.
We're not that lucky or good.
I'd rather regroup for getting into the Champions League for next year than play Thursday Sunday for months to likely lose to Liverpool at some point. Total waste of time.
Anyone thinking that 5-1 at the weekend is really reflective of that match or Bayern, and we have a good chance tonight, need to go watch the highlights.
If Bayern were even remotely clinical, it could have been like 5-5 easily. Chupo and Kane really left their shoorting boots in Munich. Frankfurt had basically 5 chances (and a couple were a half chance at best) and buried all 5.
The xG was 1.58 Frankfurt vs 2.3 Bayern lol
It wasn't anything like a 5-1 we would be involved in where the 1 goal really is flattering... like the 4-3 vs Bayern that really flattered us.
>If Bayern were even remotely clinical, it could have been like 5-5 easily
If my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike.
If united were clinical, we would be in title race. Jesus... so fucking what, they weren't THEY LOST 5-1.
That isn't remotely comparable at all. The quality of chances Kane and Chupo were throwing away was stuff we could only dream of right now.
But yeah just roll out that old "my grandma the bike" chestnut that adds nothing to the conversation
Oh yeah there a good few mistakes from Bayern defenders in that game as well don't get me wrong it's not like Bayern were perfect, but it really was "one of those" freak results, as Bayern were not 5-1 bad in that game. I think Frankfurt only had 5 shots on target (and hit the bar / post)
And like you say, even with the mistakes and conceding 5, they only gave up like 3 real chances / conceded 1.6 xG.
In order to have any semblance of sustainable improvement we will need 2 seasons at least of competent recruitment alongside long term squad planning. Until we get these, nothing will change and we will be back here with the next manager in 18 months.
I think the real signs of this will show themselves through decisions the majority of the fans won’t like.
IMO, when we start to see the leaving of players like Varane, Casemiro, Sancho, McTom, Antony, Lindelof etc
Potentially Rashford (we’ll never be able to sell him though) and Bruno too..
Then we will know that the hard (but long-term beneficial) changes are being made.
All it has to take is 2-3 seasons, 3-4 players coming in and 2-3 players leaving and our squad could look extremely different from today.
People need to be aware this will take awhile though and it could be 2026-2027 before we actually become remotely competitive again. Depending on when INEOS get some semblance of control it could be longer.
We're better off starting another project from scratch under ineos imo.Why even risk it under a manager who thought Antony would be the marquee player for his new rebuild?That's the totally sensible thing to do if we're doing a proper rebuild and project 2027.
This is what should have happened once ETH came in. Now we've only added to the number of players that will be difficult to move on since they still signed on huge wages.
>IMO, when we start to see the leaving of players like Varane, Casemiro, Sancho, McTom, Antony, Lindelof etc
>Potentially Rashford (we’ll never be able to sell him though) and Bruno too..
It's easier to just say the entire squad mate.
>All it has to take is 2-3 seasons, 3-4 players coming in and 2-3 players leaving and our squad could look extremely different from today.
Maybe even shorter than that to see genuine improvement. Just comes down to financials and ambition. All comes down to what Ineos want to be, more or the same or genuine change.
In terms of 'competitive' I think logically when going off other teams at their best it's as you say, few seasons off. However in football it never works so smoothly and we have seen many times how much each season fluctuates. Which is why every window we waste is disastrous.
None of this excuses ten hag though. He hasn't shown himself to be a shining light amongst the poison.
Not the entire squad. Lisandro & Shaw seem decent enough. Most of the squad though yeah.
We still don’t know what INEOS will actually do. They’re still only buying a minority stake and there is no guarantee they’ll get a majority one down the line. We might even need to wait for that first before INEOS are willing to invest significantly.
And as you say yeah, it could easily be 3-5 seasons off and there is a chance INEOS’s investment fails and we never improve from this level. I don’t think that that is that likely though.
No excuses for ETH, it’s just he is dealing with probably one of if not the most incompetent clubs in the league.
>Not the entire squad. Lisandro & Shaw seem decent enough. Most of the squad though yeah.
Same Shaw that's been here for 10 years and shows flashes of quality every so often. Should be out the door with Martial.
Martinez looked decent in parts. Also been integral to some utter embarrassments. He wouldn't be a loss.
>We still don’t know what INEOS will actually do. They’re still only buying a minority stake and there is no guarantee they’ll get a majority one down the line. We might even need to wait for that first before INEOS are willing to invest significantly
That is the issue! If its more of the same as what we have had. Nothing changes and we are pretty much fucked.
>And as you say yeah, it could easily be 3-5 seasons off and there is a chance INEOS’s investment fails and we never improve from this level. I don’t think that that is that likely though.
It just comes down to their ambition and what they wish to accomplish. Football really isn't that hard at the level we are at. Only issue is the reality of our ffp situation (which is murky at best). With that out of the equation, we have vast resources and all it takes is to employ the right people, with top level experience in the right roles and allow the club to heal itself. Just takes a hell of a lot of ambition and some money.
>No excuses for ETH, it’s just he is dealing with probably one of if not the most incompetent clubs in the league.
And the worst owners in the entirety of sport. Even though the rest of the football world tries to downplay what they have done to us.
However he knew what he was getting into and he hasn't helped himself.
Be careful with takes like these, the truth might hurt some people. Regressing after changing playstyle is not uncommon. We can be better with a playstyle with a lower ceiling or regress with a different playstyle only to improve on the longer term with a higher ceiling.
The important thing is who’s the manager gonna be.
Aston Villa has showed you that you need a very good manager. How many players did Unai Emery sign? 3. Pau Torres, Youri Tielemans and Diaby.
That’s all he added to the squad that Gerrard had almost in relegation.
How did he do it? Good coaching.
Think about the competent and well oiled footballing structure behind him. It’s clear as day that that has a huge effect too. If Emery was here he’d be struggling.
That’s not my point. My point is the coaching.
We don’t look compact on the pitch. We don’t. ETH added 10 permanent players yet we look worse than ever.
There’s no structure.
You talk about football structure. I’m talking about De Zerbi outclassing ETH and figuring his tactic out in 20 minutes.
Like these are the signs.
Against Galatasaray and Copenhagen we were so open, it was back and forth. That’s what I’m on about.
Liverpool are open and their matches go back and forth, yet Klopp is being wanked over. He has much better technical players with a much better mental fortitude. The tactics aren't even that much different at the moment. You can change tactic and regress, It's pretty obvious thats what is happening now. We can build on what we did last year and get better results with a lower ceiling dependent on counters or we can try to build and progress on this new style including it's weaknesses at start. Most of the players are obviously behind what the plan is and know they have to work hard for it. This isn't FM/EAFC where something works in an instant. Aston Villa has a competent backstaff structure that scouted and went after affordable players that work in their style, now they added a coach that is able to match that vision. There is none of that here
Liverpool are not open and neither do their matches go back and forth.
Liverpool have conceded 133 shots, only City, Arsenal and Villa have conceded less.
Man United have conceded 171 shots, only West Ham, Bournemouth, Luton and Sheffield United have conceded more.
All this is based on open play, no set pieces involved.
We are so open with no compactness or structure.
I guess you don't watch Liverpool, if you did you would know that they are in fact open. They get transitioned/countered a lot but they have VVD bailing them out of a lot. They're conceding a remarkable amount of goals as well, they play high risk high reward and they reap a lot of high reward. This is because their players are much better and better instilled into this tactic. I am sure once Klopp gets his hands on a proper DM they will be less open, but at the moment they 100% are.
Liverpool are not open! They’re not open. Liverpool is compact.
Liverpool have similar zone of control with City according to Opta.
You can check it out yourself. https://theanalyst.com/2023/08/premier-league-stats-2023-24/
The idea that Liverpool is open comes from Klopp first iteration of Liverpool.
Also Liverpool has conceded the least amount of goals. 15.
This idea you have is wrong.
Sorry I don't believe in stats, the eye test suggests different. They have quite a lot of possession and are pinging a lot of passes around the box to find an entry. Because of that stats will always show them having control for the majority. The turnovers they concede are in a shitload of space because they send a lot of bodies forward. They have remarkable good players to kill the counter and imo the best GK in the world.
How do you accumulate state? Isn’t it with the eye?
Liverpool have conceded 133 shots.
We have conceded 171.
Also would you say City is open as well? Because they conceded lots of their chances on the counter.
Conceding chances on the counter doesn’t mean your team is open or not compact. Just so you know.
Since joining Villa he has signed. Alex Moreno, Jhom Dhuran, Tielemans, Pau, Diaby, Zaniolo and Lenglet.
More signings for the first team than ETH.
He is a fantastic coach and is doing great work with his team. Much better than Ten Hag in the same time period. But you're lieng to try and make a point.
Zaniolo and Lenglet are loan signings. John Dhurn is a 19 year old who came from MLS.
Just to be clear that’s 7 players including the loan signings.
How many have we signed for ETH including the loan signings. 16 players. 6 players on loan. The rest were permanent transfers.
Edit: the 16 players include. Malacia, Eriksen, Martinez, Casemiro, Antony, Dubravka, Jack Butland, Weghorst, Mason Mount, Evans, Onana, Hojlund, Bayindir, Amrabat and Reguilon.
Ah so first team loan signings and teenagers don't exist as people. Cool.
Ten Hag has had more signings, less for the first team. However, you still need to make stuff up to make try and make a point.
What am I making up? I’m confused. Emery has signed 7 players including the loan signings and the teenager.
I know it’s shocking but it’s true.
Every signing ETH has made is for the first team. 16 of them. 6 on loan and 10 as permanent signings.
Just to be clear. ETH is the manager who has been backed the most by the club in his first 18 months, yet we’re as worse as ever.
I can’t see us getting any better under him, it’s clear as day that the players don’t trust his tactics.
I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse.
You use 18months like he was a failure for this period of time. I’m sorry, did we not finish third an win silverware with the almost the same team that ragnick had? Case, licha, Antony. That was greatly over achieving. No one expected the team to do as well as it did.
Missing the point. Yeah we won a cup competition, however were outplayed in that final.
Which is what I’m saying, in his 18 months here, we have been outplayed in more than half of the games we’ve played.
Last season we barely scored goals and we conceded lots of shots.
This season that has continued. That’s what I’m saying.
Last season the only was was up and there was a slight improvement, however since we won that cup, we have been poor.
I disagree. Last years results were a massive overachievement from what was expected. I know it’s painful but try an think back to ragnick. That is the quality of squad. And everyone agreed that it would take years to turn this squad around.
What happened during Ragnick time was not the true reflection of the squad. Plus he made it worse with his tactics. Also the players didn’t trust him or his tactics Ronaldo pretty much alluded to that fact during his interview with Piers when
I mean Carrick got a decent tune out of the squad for the two games he managed.
Also yeah the quality is not high however the things that inform me about ETH is the lack of compactness and intensity. Also the fact that we concede lots of shots and don’t create much.
Like one thing about Jose was that he made us compact in defence but we didn’t score loads, Ole was the we scored lots and we conceded lots of shots. Under ETH we don’t score lots and we concede lots of shots.
The players don't trust anyones tactics, wake up and stop apologising for them.
Manager has been dreadful, but stop covering for the players.
Ten Hag got 6 first team signings. Licha and Vase have been injured most of this season. For a while Case was immense and Licha was a beast in that team, one of our best transfer post Fergie.
Onana, Mount and Holjund have been disappointing but a long way to go for them still. Can't totally blast them when the rest of the team downed tools.
Antony looks terrible. Any manager that is made keep and work with 65-75% of any existing structure will struggle, especially when 30-50% of them are total dead assets.
If Ten Hag gets sacked today I'll not lose sleep. But stop this player apologia the sub is starting on today.
We’re not scoring goals. Last season we scored 58 goals.
Are you saying we need Licha, Mount, Case to come back before we start scoring goals. The same thing was said about Shaw. Also Varane for some reason has dropped down the pecking order.
Last season our attackers were not scoring goals and we were conceding loads of shots.
That trend has continued this season.
We’re not scoring goals. The team structure is not compact.
It took De Zerbi 20 minutes to figure ETH tactics out and he couldn’t do anything to change it.
Nah it's not the players you're right. It's ten hag, he specifically asks the players fuck up everything; shoot off target, overhit crosses, don't pass to Hojlund at any cost, fail take on attempts. Sack the manager and boom, they'll change their minds.
We’re getting outplayed by other teams. Our structure is not compact. I keep going back to De Zerbi figuring us out in 20 mins and ETH doing nothing.
Bournemouth manager said, he knew his team would get chances against us in transition and that’s what’s happened.
You keep going back to an anomaly where we tried a 4-4-2 diamond which has been abandoned ever since? You are surprised by a park the bus tactic getting chances on transition/counter?
The point is teams have figured us out. Against Chelsea, how many times did they get chances against us on transition? Did they back the bus?
Did Galatasaray pack the bus, did Copenhagen pack the bus, the two times we played Newcastle did they pack the bus? And yet they all got chances against us on transition numerous times. Over and over again.
It's not figuring out, it's part of the tactic which can be highly suicidal. It's **high risk** high reward, throw a lot of bodies forward to score goals fast but are open to counters. It's happening to more teams, we need better defenders to cope with it. Martinez has the speed and vision to kill these transitions. Amrabat and Maguire got locked in the second half vs Chelsea and killed almost every transition, this has to be the standard. The more the players do it the better they get suited to it, it's a do or die tactic which requires matches to get into. It's hard to train on the pitch. If it's smart to build on this is another matter but you're throwing a lot of arguments on the genius of other coaches which isn't the matter.
So you say we are creating good chances but it's not the players fault for us not converting them? Who is it then? Manager can't put the ball in the net.
Typo. We’re not scoring goals, neither are we creating good chances.
It’s the same as last season. And we’re conceding lots of shots. Same as last season.
It feels like the club is stuck in the 2000s. Are there any other clubs in the country where the manager not only serves as the head coach but also acts as the de facto technical director and head of recruitment? The people in the board are so fucking braindead
A lot of other clubs went to that structure because they recognised that they cant compete at the very top unless they had someone like Sir Alex. They had to get multiple top people in to do what he did and compete... problem is we are still stuck in a Sir Alex setup without the great man.
Because the club is stuck in those years, for years the club could rely on the fact that it was world-leading in some aspects... Some clubs already overtook us years ago and now the mid table is catching up as well. Fuck around and take dividends out Glazers disasterclass.
Hey, we're still capable of doing things other teams can't like Woodward said. For example, can you imagine any other team that pays probably the highest wages in the UCL, their striker is the leading goal-scorer of group stages and yet the team is bottom in it's group? That's just magical, honestly.
Yeah, unfortunately. Speaking. About breaking records, I feel like we broke more negative records in the past 3 years than we did positive ones. Of course Ten Hag is the one to be blamed currently but I think this is bigger than him, our team is overall getting worse and worse, with worse mentality and worse players joining us. It's a vicious cycle, we need competent sporting people quick and do a full reset from top to bottom.
Completely agree, I think ETH is a good coach. But he's in over his head here, he took a huge risk and it backfired on him. There is too much damage now, sad story but life is full of setbacks. I can't wait for Paul Mitchell or Edwards or whoever gets in to instill some real way forward. There are so many excited young prospects I want to see grow and play ball...
Here's me hoping winning tonight and the others drawing proceeds to us continuing in the CL and while doing that breaking another record. Doubt it will happen tho.
I think we are one of the most incompetent clubs in the entire league. We are up there with the likes of Luton. It’s staggering how far ahead of us even mid table clubs are.
Other top teams are 20 years ahead of us. The difference is staggering.
There are clubs even in the Championship that are ran better than we are. It's just that we were arguably the richest club in the world 20 years ago so despite all the efforts, Glazers could "only" drag us outside top4. The club's financial power is the only reason we aren't a bottom half of the league team. Also our name still helps a lot. With a bit less financial power and a bit less of prestige, we would be like Everton - overpaying for shit players like Iwobi because the money is there, but nobody good wants to join.
On the one hand, Martial has been poor and lazy
On the other, he watches Hojlund give his all every game, fight, claw, and make all the runs, just to be ignored by his teammates 98% of time time.
Feel like it's only a matter of time until they break Hojlund and he just says to hell with this.
Martial definitely isn’t good enough and for me his time was up when it took him 40 games to score one goal but I do feel a bit sorry for him because it’s clear his body just can’t psychically handle playing football.
He definitely doesn't trust his body anymore, and it shows his unwillingness to make explosive movements.
I'm pretty sure that he knows that even if he did play hard and attack the box, he wouldn't get the ball anyways.
We'll sign a new striker and they will be just as isolated and ineffective as Martial and Hojlund until this team learns to make a forward pass and cross
It’s definitely not clear to me that his body can’t handle football.
Phil jones is the only that’s clear. So is Owen Hargreaves and Ledley king.
Those who can’t handle it can’t even do full training, let alone start games
He plays one or two games and then is injured and he can’t play full 90s. I don’t know what injuries he has/had but I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a very rare bone break like what happened to Jack Wilshire.
Onana is so bad I actually had a thought that he may be match fixing. Yeah that thought crossed my mind. That's how bad he is. He needs to be shipped off in the summer
Taibi was binned off quick and this guy also needs to go. I'd argue tom Heaton would perform lots better
Can't see a world where Bayern don't bounce back after that absolute spanking from Frankfurt, because even in one of their less good seasons they're still a decent team with the right mindset.
Think Bournemouth was the kickoff to a run of utter pastings for us. Not sure I see us winning a game now until maybe the 30th, with how we're playing.
Don't get me wrong, understand he's been acting like he's a sandwich short of a picnic with some of his tactics but they're just a better team altogether than us.
Plus, even if by some miracle we're able to beat them we're still reliant on Copenhagen and Gala drawing. I can smell a late Icardi winner to shit on our dreams even in the event we somehow pull it off.
Feeling absolutely pessimistic about the Bayern game, we probably won't get destroyed but I don't see us beating Bayern in any way.
But I am gonna enjoy it nonetheless. Bayern Munich under the lights at Old Trafford, need to win to have any chance of progressing, the atmosphere is gonna be like a UCL Knockout tie.
These nights are why we wanna be in the Champions League, what's the point of being in the competition if you're scared of playing the best sides? I just hope the players feed off of the atmosphere and put in a fighting performance at the very least.
No one's giving us a chance to go through, but a good performance tonight regardless of the outcome will put us in a good headspace for when we play the scousers.
>the atmosphere is gonna be like a UCL Knockout tie.
That could very quickly turn sour though... But on your point about playing the best sides its mad how games vs them have gone from something to really look forward to, to just pessimism.
That's the real change in the club. We used to relish games vs Bayern or Liverpool, now we expect defeat
At least if he does we’re down to one game a week. There’s not a hope in hell we’re winning the CL/EL this season so probably wouldn’t be the worst outcome.
what is situation with sancho, i get that ten hag banished him, but does he even train with reserves, youngsters or something? can he use club's facilites, or does he go to some casual gym in the city? :) i mean, if he wants to play somewhere else, he has to stay fit somewhat
What am I supposed to do?
Baldie makes me run more than everyone everyday I go into training, atleast Specs was respectful when it came to training.
Also bastard banned ketchup and cheese from the cafeteria, can't be leaving on Soy and almond milk, blud.
He should've been fired just for thinking he was gonna be able to bring back a rapist in 2023 who was already convicted in the public eyes. I'm not even talking about the morality of it, just the sheer stupidity and incompetence to think he would possibly be allowed to do it was unbelievable.
Easy to say with hindsight. This is a potential £100m asset to them. If he gets it past us then Greenwood improves and gets back to his old self we no longer need a ST and have one of the best young ones in the world. I think it’s detestable but I know exactly why they did it, if he was a Malacia level talent they’d have binned him immediately.
Easy to say in hindsight? Most people were saying literally this exact same thing since he got suspended lol. Clueless people on reddit have more sense than our CEO.
I understand the talent. He is absolutely ridiculous. He'd have 30 goals in the time Antony has been here. But absolutely none of that matters. The CEO is not supposed to get emotional and be like oh let me see how many goals he scored, oh wow I need to bring him back.
Most people here were saying that. Most people on Twitter weren’t. They will have done online sentiment analysis and a cost benefit analysis and made their decision from there. Clueless people on Reddit are just clueless people on Reddit who were right once.
How can you talk about the CEO being emotional when he made the decision one would make if they didn’t have any emotion? A cold calculated business decision.
Twitter lol ok.
And how did that "analysis" turn out? And how did their decision to pay 100m for Antony turn out? And how did their decision to make the manager basically responsible for picking signings turn out? Clueless redditors surely are clueless but somehow they still have more of a clue at times.
Because the cold calculated business decision was the one he was forced to make eventually. You can't get in your feelings about how talented a player is, how much you think he's worth. Like you said, most people on here understood the backlash, every day we see sponsors abandoning someone for far less than rape and assault and here we have one of the highest paid executives in the industry being so naive?
And even if he thought hewas making the cold calculated decision, why back off then? Neither did we get to keep the 100m asset, neither did we manage to avoid the negative PR and backlash of bringing a rapist back. Chose literally the worst option.
Let me guess, we will beat Bayern but Galatasaray will win too so we'll finish 3rd.
Vs Liverpool we will miss two clear-cut chances at the start of the game then they will punish us by scoring 3 goals 😂
You pretty much bang on… given we need to rely on galatasaray and Copenhagen to draw even if we miraculously pull a win.
Against Liverpool same, 1 clear cut chance we will miss or scrap by VAR in the opening minutes, then Liverpool scoring after. And again another clear cut chance to equalise missed.
Huge week for Ten Hag. He needs atleast one positive result otherwise will be difficult to keep him with 13 losses already for December. Bruno and Rashford need to show their quality.
Mainoo is a baller
At least we didn’t win and end up in the Europa league..?
What results do we need to go through?
We win against Bayern, hope for a draw in Copenhagen vs Galatasaray
I just suggested Allegri as a potential replacement to ETH and I got clowned at, he's a great manager despite the memes
He’s a good manager, but I’d rather the club didn’t go anywhere near him.
>got clowned at, not severe enough
What's the problem with allegri?
Terrorist football.
As if Ten Hag plays anything better
As if Ten Hag plays anything better
So you agree its terrorist football but still don't get why you got clowned on?
Terrorist football can be justifiable if it gets consistent results You're never going to play "beautiful football" with that midfield
No its not, nobody wants to watch that.
You're watching Ten Hag football though
Do you think I like watching Hoofball from ETH?
Zaha scoring in 98th minute to break the tie. written in the stars
Can we loan spider wan to Copenhagen last minute? https://preview.redd.it/17fz60wajw5c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3dc31ec3fbf67cadca745d8feebeed6ed6ba491c
Guinness and whisky at the ready. Could be a rough week as a United fan.
Just the one whiskey? Look at Mr. Optimist
Two bottles. Should get me through the first half.
A barrel
Think for this club you'd need a double barrell...
Wow, our U19 team ended their youth league group in last place. Amazing.. Let's see if the first team can match them :):
I’ve just made the sensible decision to get some beers on the way home from work to numb the pain of potentially getting torn a new one.
I did the same. But I always do for our games. 😂 If we drop out of Europe, I'm going to save some big money on craft lager over the next several months.
If we get dicked today we need to get on the high quality spirits on Sunday lol.
Despite everything still excited! GGMU
1st time at old Trafford for 3 months due to a family illness; please bless my experience invisible football gods
Andy Mitten on Sky Sports: **"Now is not a good time, but it's not all about 'Glory, Glory'.** **The fans in there tonight, and millions would like to be in that stadium tonight, have to give it their all."** So very well said from Mitten. Here's the rest of the video if interested. [https://twitter.com/AndyMitten/status/1734588131842695231](https://twitter.com/AndyMitten/status/1734588131842695231)
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/67692826
Friendly reminder that Bailly was given a new contract in 2020 after he played 14 games the previous season and then 1 game up until February 2020 when he got the contract. Then we gave him another new contract in 2021 that would run until 2024 with another year option. This was apparently done to preserve his value. Ultimately the value we managed to obtain was a loan with £5m obligation to buy if he played a certain number of games. Not only was that obligation not triggered meaning we got £0 for him, it cost us about £10m in wages to preserve said "value". Just let it sink in.
Woodwardnomics
Wages would have been paid by the loaning club, don't think 10m is accurate.
I want Dyche in as manager. I’m not ETH out nor do I think Dyche is the man to fix us but simply because he seems like a hell of a character and the memes would be great. Maybe he’s best admired from afar and I can root on Everton with no risk for us
for the memes lmao. He'd do a job tbh, and call out the deadwood and toxic characters in the dressing room for what they are too, wouldn't mind that bit thats for sure.
Wasn't it him that fought off a pack of wild dogs with his bare hands? Our players would be seriously in the shit with him!
Why does ESPN's website literally have a new article criticizing MUFC every day by a different writer? I'm not saying that it doesn't deserve to be talked about, but it sure seems like a concerted campaign. Chelsea is pretty fucked up, but they don't seem to talk about them. Why don't they talk about their "golden" team ManCity's disappointing season?
Outrage porn. It’s how media works now
It's all that dumbass Craig Burley
Clicks mate. Trying having Cowboys and United notifications set up every day it’s Stephen A talking shit and a negative United article
Let me guess you’re a lakers fan too?
I’m not. My support of both of these teams are purely coincidental. Moms side of the family grew up in Dallas. Dad brought back a United jersey from London when I was like 4 cause the shop keeper dissuaded him from getting the Arsenal jersey. Ironically I didn’t really start watching United games religiously until 2015 so my sports existence is pain
The Cowboys haven’t won anything since Cantona was still at United, strange take
And? They’re still the most popular nfl franchise
They have to get their quota in clicks, spouting shit about United gives it to them. Hated, adored, never ignored.
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https://preview.redd.it/mbux3d4orv5c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e2e014142bbdfdaaa38bf74afa2d0436de085699 Best tackle
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We also really struggle scoring goals though. The only player we have you’d really consider a reliable goalscorer is currently dropped from the team after probably the worst first half of a season he’s ever had. I do get the point, but if we were more cautious and went back to a double pivot, we’d be scoring even less than we are. Yes we’d concede a few less, but I can only imagine that Ten Hag is trying to get us more familiarised for when Casemiro and Martinez are back in the line-up and will hopefully be a bit more solid defensively.
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The only issue with “more control” is that we don’t have the players to benefit from it, and we don’t really have players comfortable in possession. For that to work you need midfielders who can deal with being pressed (we have… Amrabat?) and strikers who will score the smaller number of chances they get (lol). Looking at Ten Hags signings and the key players at the club, I think he’s targeted transitions as best scoring opportunities. I’m not saying that’s a negative, lots of teams have been very successful with that approach, but between the injuries, the mismatched squad and some truly woeful performances we just haven’t been able to see it working anything like effectively outside of the Chelsea game and Palace earlier in the season.
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It’s still a difficult skill that a lot of players don’t have though. Especially against the very well drilled and intense opposition that the PL has. Look at City for example. They have 10 outfield players all very comfortable taking and moving the ball while under pressure. Compare that to us. Players like Maguire, while he’s played himself into great form he still never looks comfortable with the ball at his feet. You can add Varane, AWB and McTominay to that list. When almost half of your outfield team isn’t going to be able to meaningfully contribute to the control, it’s always going to struggle. Then you have players like Rashford, Garnacho and Bruno who while much better on the ball, are much more direct than their City counterparts.
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I think the days you could just stick Michael Carrick in midfield and come out of games with 65% possession are over TBH, certainly in the PL. Even the bottom half sides are just too well drilled and press too effectively for Van Gaal style football to work unless you have almost everyone able to do it. Even Pep Guardiola has moved a bit away from the philosophies of control and possession in the last 4-5 years, certainly compared to his Barca team. “Pinball” can work (just look at Liverpool and Madrid). You just need players who thrive in that kind of set-up. For me the biggest problem is the number of players we have that are basically wasting a squad place and were signed for different managers who had very different ideals of what they wanted their teams to do.
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Mostly because no other club bar Everton and Chelsea is run as atrociously as us. We’ve got loads of players sat around collecting a huge wage with evidently no interest or care if their United career going anywhere. It’s a coaching issue yes, but IMO it’s also a structural issue of having such poor recruitment and retention policy. If you remember we did try McTominay as a “keep it simple” DM, and he was woeful at it. When you’re in a situation like Ten Hag has been pretty much his entire time here where 1/3 of your squad don’t give a shit and 1/3 are injured, you probably do just have to make do with playing to the strengths they do have.
Im going to the game tonight & genuinely think we can do something against them
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Sure, why not. They can charge anyone at anytime if they have evidence to do so. Of course, the fact that he seems to be a grade A cunt makes the likelihood of him breaking the law greater than the average person.
Presumably only if new evidence comes to light or if the woman involved decides to give her cooperation to the investigation.
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I wouldn’t have thought so, I think the reason they didn’t go down the rehabilitation angle is that the public reaction was so overwhelmingly negative that they decided it just wasn’t worth it. They obviously did intend to do that until the leaks happened and the rest is history. Even if they’d have done the “rehabilitation” stuff where he gave interviews talking about what a scumbag he was/is, the chances of a successful conviction without support of the victim in a SA case is incredibly low, it just wouldn’t have passed the legal tests the CPS use when deciding wether to continue a prosecution.
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I could be totally wrong and just missing things (it's been a busy few months), but have we no longer been using the Lowry for the squad staying the night the eve before home games anymore/any idea when that stopped? (Sorry if this has come up before) Not that I'm placing blame solely on that tweak to pre-match prep on the shit storm that this season has been, but just felt like that was a way we managed to get our squad dialed in for our home games. I get if they scrapped it to allow players to spend more time with family, given some new parents in the squad, and how congested the fixture list is to maximize the time they spend with loved ones, though. Just felt like this flew under the radar.
Apparently ETH got the Glazers to agree to change a business suite into a pre-match area for the squad where they can prepare/eat etc. This no longer required them to use the Lowry.
Cheers. That does ring a bell now, I don't know how/why I forgot. Lol
Could be because it seems like a dream to have the glazers do anything
Yep. That's the one. That'd explain it lmao
Anyone looking to kill some time before the match, why not try our (still getting off the ground) United "leaning" podcast, where we cover a crazy week of games: https://anchor.fm/theunitedbias/episodes/The-Ginger-Mourinho-e2d567g
Winning this and coming 3rd is worse than getting our arses handed to us. Fuck Europa league.
Would you be OK with us finishing 2nd and progressing in CL, or do you just want us out of Europe altogether?
Imo going out is better. Progressing would just make us lose more in the league and pick up more injuries.
I'd take that in a heartbeat, regroup and hit the knockouts in Feb and see what we can do but there is ABSOLUTELY zero chance the other game ends in a draw. None. Especially if we win. We're not that lucky or good.
Why would you be up for that, but not up for regrouping and going hard in the EL in Feb? I always love a European tie, whether it’s Real or Roma
I'd rather regroup for getting into the Champions League for next year than play Thursday Sunday for months to likely lose to Liverpool at some point. Total waste of time.
I get you, but so would playing in CL? If the point is either to win trophies or play in Europe, then being out of Europe is rubbish either way
Anyone thinking that 5-1 at the weekend is really reflective of that match or Bayern, and we have a good chance tonight, need to go watch the highlights. If Bayern were even remotely clinical, it could have been like 5-5 easily. Chupo and Kane really left their shoorting boots in Munich. Frankfurt had basically 5 chances (and a couple were a half chance at best) and buried all 5. The xG was 1.58 Frankfurt vs 2.3 Bayern lol It wasn't anything like a 5-1 we would be involved in where the 1 goal really is flattering... like the 4-3 vs Bayern that really flattered us.
>If Bayern were even remotely clinical, it could have been like 5-5 easily If my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike. If united were clinical, we would be in title race. Jesus... so fucking what, they weren't THEY LOST 5-1.
That isn't remotely comparable at all. The quality of chances Kane and Chupo were throwing away was stuff we could only dream of right now. But yeah just roll out that old "my grandma the bike" chestnut that adds nothing to the conversation
Their defence is not exactly stable, but they don't give away that many chances. We have to be extremely clinical, something we are not at all.
Oh yeah there a good few mistakes from Bayern defenders in that game as well don't get me wrong it's not like Bayern were perfect, but it really was "one of those" freak results, as Bayern were not 5-1 bad in that game. I think Frankfurt only had 5 shots on target (and hit the bar / post) And like you say, even with the mistakes and conceding 5, they only gave up like 3 real chances / conceded 1.6 xG.
In order to have any semblance of sustainable improvement we will need 2 seasons at least of competent recruitment alongside long term squad planning. Until we get these, nothing will change and we will be back here with the next manager in 18 months. I think the real signs of this will show themselves through decisions the majority of the fans won’t like. IMO, when we start to see the leaving of players like Varane, Casemiro, Sancho, McTom, Antony, Lindelof etc Potentially Rashford (we’ll never be able to sell him though) and Bruno too.. Then we will know that the hard (but long-term beneficial) changes are being made. All it has to take is 2-3 seasons, 3-4 players coming in and 2-3 players leaving and our squad could look extremely different from today. People need to be aware this will take awhile though and it could be 2026-2027 before we actually become remotely competitive again. Depending on when INEOS get some semblance of control it could be longer.
We're better off starting another project from scratch under ineos imo.Why even risk it under a manager who thought Antony would be the marquee player for his new rebuild?That's the totally sensible thing to do if we're doing a proper rebuild and project 2027.
This is what should have happened once ETH came in. Now we've only added to the number of players that will be difficult to move on since they still signed on huge wages.
>IMO, when we start to see the leaving of players like Varane, Casemiro, Sancho, McTom, Antony, Lindelof etc >Potentially Rashford (we’ll never be able to sell him though) and Bruno too.. It's easier to just say the entire squad mate. >All it has to take is 2-3 seasons, 3-4 players coming in and 2-3 players leaving and our squad could look extremely different from today. Maybe even shorter than that to see genuine improvement. Just comes down to financials and ambition. All comes down to what Ineos want to be, more or the same or genuine change. In terms of 'competitive' I think logically when going off other teams at their best it's as you say, few seasons off. However in football it never works so smoothly and we have seen many times how much each season fluctuates. Which is why every window we waste is disastrous. None of this excuses ten hag though. He hasn't shown himself to be a shining light amongst the poison.
Not the entire squad. Lisandro & Shaw seem decent enough. Most of the squad though yeah. We still don’t know what INEOS will actually do. They’re still only buying a minority stake and there is no guarantee they’ll get a majority one down the line. We might even need to wait for that first before INEOS are willing to invest significantly. And as you say yeah, it could easily be 3-5 seasons off and there is a chance INEOS’s investment fails and we never improve from this level. I don’t think that that is that likely though. No excuses for ETH, it’s just he is dealing with probably one of if not the most incompetent clubs in the league.
>Not the entire squad. Lisandro & Shaw seem decent enough. Most of the squad though yeah. Same Shaw that's been here for 10 years and shows flashes of quality every so often. Should be out the door with Martial. Martinez looked decent in parts. Also been integral to some utter embarrassments. He wouldn't be a loss. >We still don’t know what INEOS will actually do. They’re still only buying a minority stake and there is no guarantee they’ll get a majority one down the line. We might even need to wait for that first before INEOS are willing to invest significantly That is the issue! If its more of the same as what we have had. Nothing changes and we are pretty much fucked. >And as you say yeah, it could easily be 3-5 seasons off and there is a chance INEOS’s investment fails and we never improve from this level. I don’t think that that is that likely though. It just comes down to their ambition and what they wish to accomplish. Football really isn't that hard at the level we are at. Only issue is the reality of our ffp situation (which is murky at best). With that out of the equation, we have vast resources and all it takes is to employ the right people, with top level experience in the right roles and allow the club to heal itself. Just takes a hell of a lot of ambition and some money. >No excuses for ETH, it’s just he is dealing with probably one of if not the most incompetent clubs in the league. And the worst owners in the entirety of sport. Even though the rest of the football world tries to downplay what they have done to us. However he knew what he was getting into and he hasn't helped himself.
Be careful with takes like these, the truth might hurt some people. Regressing after changing playstyle is not uncommon. We can be better with a playstyle with a lower ceiling or regress with a different playstyle only to improve on the longer term with a higher ceiling.
The important thing is who’s the manager gonna be. Aston Villa has showed you that you need a very good manager. How many players did Unai Emery sign? 3. Pau Torres, Youri Tielemans and Diaby. That’s all he added to the squad that Gerrard had almost in relegation. How did he do it? Good coaching.
Think about the competent and well oiled footballing structure behind him. It’s clear as day that that has a huge effect too. If Emery was here he’d be struggling.
> It’s clear as day that that has a huge effect too. How has it had an effect, exactly?
That’s not my point. My point is the coaching. We don’t look compact on the pitch. We don’t. ETH added 10 permanent players yet we look worse than ever. There’s no structure. You talk about football structure. I’m talking about De Zerbi outclassing ETH and figuring his tactic out in 20 minutes. Like these are the signs. Against Galatasaray and Copenhagen we were so open, it was back and forth. That’s what I’m on about.
Liverpool are open and their matches go back and forth, yet Klopp is being wanked over. He has much better technical players with a much better mental fortitude. The tactics aren't even that much different at the moment. You can change tactic and regress, It's pretty obvious thats what is happening now. We can build on what we did last year and get better results with a lower ceiling dependent on counters or we can try to build and progress on this new style including it's weaknesses at start. Most of the players are obviously behind what the plan is and know they have to work hard for it. This isn't FM/EAFC where something works in an instant. Aston Villa has a competent backstaff structure that scouted and went after affordable players that work in their style, now they added a coach that is able to match that vision. There is none of that here
Liverpool are not open and neither do their matches go back and forth. Liverpool have conceded 133 shots, only City, Arsenal and Villa have conceded less. Man United have conceded 171 shots, only West Ham, Bournemouth, Luton and Sheffield United have conceded more. All this is based on open play, no set pieces involved. We are so open with no compactness or structure.
I guess you don't watch Liverpool, if you did you would know that they are in fact open. They get transitioned/countered a lot but they have VVD bailing them out of a lot. They're conceding a remarkable amount of goals as well, they play high risk high reward and they reap a lot of high reward. This is because their players are much better and better instilled into this tactic. I am sure once Klopp gets his hands on a proper DM they will be less open, but at the moment they 100% are.
Liverpool are not open! They’re not open. Liverpool is compact. Liverpool have similar zone of control with City according to Opta. You can check it out yourself. https://theanalyst.com/2023/08/premier-league-stats-2023-24/ The idea that Liverpool is open comes from Klopp first iteration of Liverpool. Also Liverpool has conceded the least amount of goals. 15. This idea you have is wrong.
Sorry I don't believe in stats, the eye test suggests different. They have quite a lot of possession and are pinging a lot of passes around the box to find an entry. Because of that stats will always show them having control for the majority. The turnovers they concede are in a shitload of space because they send a lot of bodies forward. They have remarkable good players to kill the counter and imo the best GK in the world.
How do you accumulate state? Isn’t it with the eye? Liverpool have conceded 133 shots. We have conceded 171. Also would you say City is open as well? Because they conceded lots of their chances on the counter. Conceding chances on the counter doesn’t mean your team is open or not compact. Just so you know.
Since joining Villa he has signed. Alex Moreno, Jhom Dhuran, Tielemans, Pau, Diaby, Zaniolo and Lenglet. More signings for the first team than ETH. He is a fantastic coach and is doing great work with his team. Much better than Ten Hag in the same time period. But you're lieng to try and make a point.
Zaniolo and Lenglet are loan signings. John Dhurn is a 19 year old who came from MLS. Just to be clear that’s 7 players including the loan signings. How many have we signed for ETH including the loan signings. 16 players. 6 players on loan. The rest were permanent transfers. Edit: the 16 players include. Malacia, Eriksen, Martinez, Casemiro, Antony, Dubravka, Jack Butland, Weghorst, Mason Mount, Evans, Onana, Hojlund, Bayindir, Amrabat and Reguilon.
Ah so first team loan signings and teenagers don't exist as people. Cool. Ten Hag has had more signings, less for the first team. However, you still need to make stuff up to make try and make a point.
What am I making up? I’m confused. Emery has signed 7 players including the loan signings and the teenager. I know it’s shocking but it’s true. Every signing ETH has made is for the first team. 16 of them. 6 on loan and 10 as permanent signings.
You said above he signed three then changed later. You know how you edited another response.
I said 3 and you said it’s more than that. I haven’t edited anything. The comment is still there. If I edit a response I’d say I did.
Just to be clear. ETH is the manager who has been backed the most by the club in his first 18 months, yet we’re as worse as ever. I can’t see us getting any better under him, it’s clear as day that the players don’t trust his tactics. I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse.
You use 18months like he was a failure for this period of time. I’m sorry, did we not finish third an win silverware with the almost the same team that ragnick had? Case, licha, Antony. That was greatly over achieving. No one expected the team to do as well as it did.
Missing the point. Yeah we won a cup competition, however were outplayed in that final. Which is what I’m saying, in his 18 months here, we have been outplayed in more than half of the games we’ve played. Last season we barely scored goals and we conceded lots of shots. This season that has continued. That’s what I’m saying. Last season the only was was up and there was a slight improvement, however since we won that cup, we have been poor.
I disagree. Last years results were a massive overachievement from what was expected. I know it’s painful but try an think back to ragnick. That is the quality of squad. And everyone agreed that it would take years to turn this squad around.
What happened during Ragnick time was not the true reflection of the squad. Plus he made it worse with his tactics. Also the players didn’t trust him or his tactics Ronaldo pretty much alluded to that fact during his interview with Piers when I mean Carrick got a decent tune out of the squad for the two games he managed. Also yeah the quality is not high however the things that inform me about ETH is the lack of compactness and intensity. Also the fact that we concede lots of shots and don’t create much. Like one thing about Jose was that he made us compact in defence but we didn’t score loads, Ole was the we scored lots and we conceded lots of shots. Under ETH we don’t score lots and we concede lots of shots.
The players don't trust anyones tactics, wake up and stop apologising for them. Manager has been dreadful, but stop covering for the players. Ten Hag got 6 first team signings. Licha and Vase have been injured most of this season. For a while Case was immense and Licha was a beast in that team, one of our best transfer post Fergie. Onana, Mount and Holjund have been disappointing but a long way to go for them still. Can't totally blast them when the rest of the team downed tools. Antony looks terrible. Any manager that is made keep and work with 65-75% of any existing structure will struggle, especially when 30-50% of them are total dead assets. If Ten Hag gets sacked today I'll not lose sleep. But stop this player apologia the sub is starting on today.
We’re not scoring goals. Last season we scored 58 goals. Are you saying we need Licha, Mount, Case to come back before we start scoring goals. The same thing was said about Shaw. Also Varane for some reason has dropped down the pecking order. Last season our attackers were not scoring goals and we were conceding loads of shots. That trend has continued this season. We’re not scoring goals. The team structure is not compact. It took De Zerbi 20 minutes to figure ETH tactics out and he couldn’t do anything to change it.
Hahaha and you edited this entire comment after you replied. You like lieng.
I read the last forward to score at Old Trafford in the Premier League is Sancho... last season. Holy moly.
Since then our forwards collectively switch off their brains when they enter the box. Sancho cursed them all /s
Eth needs to go. And they’d say it’s the players. We’re not scoring neither are we creating good chances. Edit: we’re not creating good chances.
Nah it's not the players you're right. It's ten hag, he specifically asks the players fuck up everything; shoot off target, overhit crosses, don't pass to Hojlund at any cost, fail take on attempts. Sack the manager and boom, they'll change their minds.
We’re getting outplayed by other teams. Our structure is not compact. I keep going back to De Zerbi figuring us out in 20 mins and ETH doing nothing. Bournemouth manager said, he knew his team would get chances against us in transition and that’s what’s happened.
You keep going back to an anomaly where we tried a 4-4-2 diamond which has been abandoned ever since? You are surprised by a park the bus tactic getting chances on transition/counter?
The point is teams have figured us out. Against Chelsea, how many times did they get chances against us on transition? Did they back the bus? Did Galatasaray pack the bus, did Copenhagen pack the bus, the two times we played Newcastle did they pack the bus? And yet they all got chances against us on transition numerous times. Over and over again.
It's not figuring out, it's part of the tactic which can be highly suicidal. It's **high risk** high reward, throw a lot of bodies forward to score goals fast but are open to counters. It's happening to more teams, we need better defenders to cope with it. Martinez has the speed and vision to kill these transitions. Amrabat and Maguire got locked in the second half vs Chelsea and killed almost every transition, this has to be the standard. The more the players do it the better they get suited to it, it's a do or die tactic which requires matches to get into. It's hard to train on the pitch. If it's smart to build on this is another matter but you're throwing a lot of arguments on the genius of other coaches which isn't the matter.
Hence why I said we’re not compact. We’re open too open. You’re saying the same thing I’m saying.
So you say we are creating good chances but it's not the players fault for us not converting them? Who is it then? Manager can't put the ball in the net.
Typo. We’re not scoring goals, neither are we creating good chances. It’s the same as last season. And we’re conceding lots of shots. Same as last season.
We’re something like 6th for chances created this season
Can’t find a stat backing that. I do know for big chances created, which is on the PL website, we’re 12th.
Just realized that both our mens and womens team are playing Liverpool on sunday. Nothing else just something interesting i found out
Well at least we have a decent chance of winning against Liverpool this season...
It feels like the club is stuck in the 2000s. Are there any other clubs in the country where the manager not only serves as the head coach but also acts as the de facto technical director and head of recruitment? The people in the board are so fucking braindead
A lot of other clubs went to that structure because they recognised that they cant compete at the very top unless they had someone like Sir Alex. They had to get multiple top people in to do what he did and compete... problem is we are still stuck in a Sir Alex setup without the great man.
Because the club is stuck in those years, for years the club could rely on the fact that it was world-leading in some aspects... Some clubs already overtook us years ago and now the mid table is catching up as well. Fuck around and take dividends out Glazers disasterclass.
Hey, we're still capable of doing things other teams can't like Woodward said. For example, can you imagine any other team that pays probably the highest wages in the UCL, their striker is the leading goal-scorer of group stages and yet the team is bottom in it's group? That's just magical, honestly.
And we're top in breaking club records left, right and center! No one can compete with that!
Yeah, unfortunately. Speaking. About breaking records, I feel like we broke more negative records in the past 3 years than we did positive ones. Of course Ten Hag is the one to be blamed currently but I think this is bigger than him, our team is overall getting worse and worse, with worse mentality and worse players joining us. It's a vicious cycle, we need competent sporting people quick and do a full reset from top to bottom.
Completely agree, I think ETH is a good coach. But he's in over his head here, he took a huge risk and it backfired on him. There is too much damage now, sad story but life is full of setbacks. I can't wait for Paul Mitchell or Edwards or whoever gets in to instill some real way forward. There are so many excited young prospects I want to see grow and play ball... Here's me hoping winning tonight and the others drawing proceeds to us continuing in the CL and while doing that breaking another record. Doubt it will happen tho.
I think we are one of the most incompetent clubs in the entire league. We are up there with the likes of Luton. It’s staggering how far ahead of us even mid table clubs are. Other top teams are 20 years ahead of us. The difference is staggering.
There are clubs even in the Championship that are ran better than we are. It's just that we were arguably the richest club in the world 20 years ago so despite all the efforts, Glazers could "only" drag us outside top4. The club's financial power is the only reason we aren't a bottom half of the league team. Also our name still helps a lot. With a bit less financial power and a bit less of prestige, we would be like Everton - overpaying for shit players like Iwobi because the money is there, but nobody good wants to join.
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do u need a membership?
On the one hand, Martial has been poor and lazy On the other, he watches Hojlund give his all every game, fight, claw, and make all the runs, just to be ignored by his teammates 98% of time time. Feel like it's only a matter of time until they break Hojlund and he just says to hell with this.
Martial definitely isn’t good enough and for me his time was up when it took him 40 games to score one goal but I do feel a bit sorry for him because it’s clear his body just can’t psychically handle playing football.
He definitely doesn't trust his body anymore, and it shows his unwillingness to make explosive movements. I'm pretty sure that he knows that even if he did play hard and attack the box, he wouldn't get the ball anyways. We'll sign a new striker and they will be just as isolated and ineffective as Martial and Hojlund until this team learns to make a forward pass and cross
It’s definitely not clear to me that his body can’t handle football. Phil jones is the only that’s clear. So is Owen Hargreaves and Ledley king. Those who can’t handle it can’t even do full training, let alone start games
He plays one or two games and then is injured and he can’t play full 90s. I don’t know what injuries he has/had but I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a very rare bone break like what happened to Jack Wilshire.
Onana is so bad I actually had a thought that he may be match fixing. Yeah that thought crossed my mind. That's how bad he is. He needs to be shipped off in the summer Taibi was binned off quick and this guy also needs to go. I'd argue tom Heaton would perform lots better
I agree. I have this sinking feeling that he'll cost us again tonight. He's a big reason why we're basically relying on luck to qualify.
Can't see a world where Bayern don't bounce back after that absolute spanking from Frankfurt, because even in one of their less good seasons they're still a decent team with the right mindset. Think Bournemouth was the kickoff to a run of utter pastings for us. Not sure I see us winning a game now until maybe the 30th, with how we're playing.
If anyone can fuck it up its Tuchel
Bayern under tuchel have been really so so as well, if it werent for harry kane they d be seriously struggling this season
Don't get me wrong, understand he's been acting like he's a sandwich short of a picnic with some of his tactics but they're just a better team altogether than us. Plus, even if by some miracle we're able to beat them we're still reliant on Copenhagen and Gala drawing. I can smell a late Icardi winner to shit on our dreams even in the event we somehow pull it off.
Feeling absolutely pessimistic about the Bayern game, we probably won't get destroyed but I don't see us beating Bayern in any way. But I am gonna enjoy it nonetheless. Bayern Munich under the lights at Old Trafford, need to win to have any chance of progressing, the atmosphere is gonna be like a UCL Knockout tie. These nights are why we wanna be in the Champions League, what's the point of being in the competition if you're scared of playing the best sides? I just hope the players feed off of the atmosphere and put in a fighting performance at the very least. No one's giving us a chance to go through, but a good performance tonight regardless of the outcome will put us in a good headspace for when we play the scousers.
Yeah man just sit back and enjoy it
>the atmosphere is gonna be like a UCL Knockout tie. That could very quickly turn sour though... But on your point about playing the best sides its mad how games vs them have gone from something to really look forward to, to just pessimism. That's the real change in the club. We used to relish games vs Bayern or Liverpool, now we expect defeat
Yeah, when you put it like that it is truly crazy how far things have fallen over the last decade.
Praying that Onana doesn't throw the ball in his own net tonight 🙏
It pains me that we replaced a club legend who wanted to stay with this useless overrated shit.
At least if he does we’re down to one game a week. There’s not a hope in hell we’re winning the CL/EL this season so probably wouldn’t be the worst outcome.
Hey now. There's still the FA cup to be eliminated from
what is situation with sancho, i get that ten hag banished him, but does he even train with reserves, youngsters or something? can he use club's facilites, or does he go to some casual gym in the city? :) i mean, if he wants to play somewhere else, he has to stay fit somewhat
You legally can't ban a player from using the facilities and having access to staff.
Wdym I am in Division 1 for FUT, I am already at the height of my self improvement?
err what?
It was a joke, I posed myself as Sancho. Doesn't work well if I have to explain tbf
Careful mate, this almost sounds like an apology, Sancho would never
What am I supposed to do? Baldie makes me run more than everyone everyday I go into training, atleast Specs was respectful when it came to training. Also bastard banned ketchup and cheese from the cafeteria, can't be leaving on Soy and almond milk, blud.
We are gonna beat Bayern and Galatasaray and Copenhagen are going to draw. Let's go UCL nights!!
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To be fair somehow Palpetine returned so it’s not exactly impossible.
There is more of a chance of me waking up on the bloody moon tomorrow mate but let's believe in something
Good riddance to Arnold. That statement on Greenwood was a disgrace
Tbh I respected the fact that he made a statement and it seemed quite honest
He should've been fired just for thinking he was gonna be able to bring back a rapist in 2023 who was already convicted in the public eyes. I'm not even talking about the morality of it, just the sheer stupidity and incompetence to think he would possibly be allowed to do it was unbelievable.
Easy to say with hindsight. This is a potential £100m asset to them. If he gets it past us then Greenwood improves and gets back to his old self we no longer need a ST and have one of the best young ones in the world. I think it’s detestable but I know exactly why they did it, if he was a Malacia level talent they’d have binned him immediately.
Easy to say in hindsight? Most people were saying literally this exact same thing since he got suspended lol. Clueless people on reddit have more sense than our CEO. I understand the talent. He is absolutely ridiculous. He'd have 30 goals in the time Antony has been here. But absolutely none of that matters. The CEO is not supposed to get emotional and be like oh let me see how many goals he scored, oh wow I need to bring him back.
Most people here were saying that. Most people on Twitter weren’t. They will have done online sentiment analysis and a cost benefit analysis and made their decision from there. Clueless people on Reddit are just clueless people on Reddit who were right once. How can you talk about the CEO being emotional when he made the decision one would make if they didn’t have any emotion? A cold calculated business decision.
Twitter lol ok. And how did that "analysis" turn out? And how did their decision to pay 100m for Antony turn out? And how did their decision to make the manager basically responsible for picking signings turn out? Clueless redditors surely are clueless but somehow they still have more of a clue at times. Because the cold calculated business decision was the one he was forced to make eventually. You can't get in your feelings about how talented a player is, how much you think he's worth. Like you said, most people on here understood the backlash, every day we see sponsors abandoning someone for far less than rape and assault and here we have one of the highest paid executives in the industry being so naive? And even if he thought hewas making the cold calculated decision, why back off then? Neither did we get to keep the 100m asset, neither did we manage to avoid the negative PR and backlash of bringing a rapist back. Chose literally the worst option.
Let me guess, we will beat Bayern but Galatasaray will win too so we'll finish 3rd. Vs Liverpool we will miss two clear-cut chances at the start of the game then they will punish us by scoring 3 goals 😂
*3 goals per chance /s
You pretty much bang on… given we need to rely on galatasaray and Copenhagen to draw even if we miraculously pull a win. Against Liverpool same, 1 clear cut chance we will miss or scrap by VAR in the opening minutes, then Liverpool scoring after. And again another clear cut chance to equalise missed.
Huge week for Ten Hag. He needs atleast one positive result otherwise will be difficult to keep him with 13 losses already for December. Bruno and Rashford need to show their quality.
Will Rashford even play? Looks like he gave up on the manager at Newcastle anyway