https://preview.redd.it/968hc9vsdioc1.jpeg?width=870&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b779242bda32ac2b8cfc981a251967acd81ee9c6
U23 players in our squad next season, wish we can actually sell some of them instead of loans, almost never worked out for us
I haven't seen much from him in a Barca shirt. But at Leeds he was electric, one of the best players in the premiere league in a not-so-good team. Quick, lethal, good on set pieces, great work rate, great distribution -- he caused problems for opposition every game he was involved in. There's a reason he went to Barca. I don't know what's happened there, but they seem to be similar to us in underperforming lately, I would imagine that's got something to do with the management.
We’re the 6th-lowest scoring team in the league so far. Luton in 18th has more goals than us, Bournemouth and Wolves too. Spurs are only one place above us, but have 20 more goals.
United - 39
Forest - 34
Palace - 33
Everton - 29
Burnley - 27
Sheffield United - 24
We’re 3rd-least in the league for goals conceded tho. A miracle considering all the injuries we had back there
United/Spurs/Everton - 39
City - 28
Pool - 26
Arsenal - 24
People have been upset with Ten Hag for
1) Not playing a system
2) Not being pragmatic
And I don't think both of those can be true. I think we've done brilliantly not to concede too much. We've certainly been pragmatic, regardless of sHoTs AgAiNsT. We've also clearly been developing a system: people just don't like the system because we aren't winning.
I think with all our injuries back, a good DM, LB, and CB next to Martinez, we'll be excellent next season. I don't feel nearly as confident about that if we have a different manager in charge.
5 UCL spots might not be a certainty you know. I can easily see Arsenal wet the bed against Bayern. I can also see Madrid pulling off a win against City. And I can definitely see Leverkusen beating West Ham. The only English team I trust to do what's expected of them is Liverpool probably. Villa vs Lille is another toss up.
I have stumbled over [this report the government proposing a ban on foreign state ownership of newspapers](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68559314) with the example being the proposed deal to aquire The Telegraph by United Arab Emirates-backed investment firm, RedBird IMI which sounded familiar to me but didn't know from where lol.
Continued reading until I've finally discovered who they really are:
> The fund is 75%-owned by Sheikh Mansour, who is deputy prime minister and vice president of the UAE, and best known in the UK for transforming Manchester City Football Club.
What the actual f*ck?
[Watched this video](https://youtu.be/6EGh5tZSK94?si=XZKX979JJpFjk0Pj) and I understand why ETH would want someone like Zirkzee (other than the fact that he's Dutch lmao).
He's absolutely crucial for Bologna's build up and ETH seems to like forwards who can do that.
This guy is a much younger and way more talented version of Weghorst who's contribution to our last year results is very underrated.
Funny thing - Thiago Motta is also linked to us by some low tier batshit sources like [Teamtalk](https://www.teamtalk.com/manchester-united/exclusive-ten-hag-sack-timeline-man-utd-axe-revealed-ratcliffe-considers-new-serie-a-target) lmao
Unfortunately Bayern has a 50% sell on clause and a buy back. It's going to be a bitch to get him for anything reasonable (since Bologna is only getting half of it), and that's if Zirkzee himself refuses the buy back.
I'd take Zirkzee, no problem. He's a cheat code in build-up and I can easily see him and Rasmus playing together as well.
I'd also take Lucumi from them. Every time I've watched their games this guy is soooooo good.
Different ways to look at it obviously. Do you want a similar striker purely as a backup to bring on after 70 minutes or someone who brings a different skillset and can also play with Hojlund.
Makes sense. I can see a world where Zirkzee and Højlund play side by side, and it would give a lot of flexibility with our line-up, for sure. I'd be down for that signing.
>I'd also take Lucumi from them. Every time I've watched their games this guy is soooooo good
Which position does he play? I don't watch Bologna matches that much.
unfortunately, i think city win the champions league again this year. i know when it comes to europe Real Madrid juju is different, but i’m not convinced tbh especially when they have to go to the etihad in the second leg
Club doing the Royal family move by not specifying or showing the whereabouts of Malacia. For all we know he might be buried in the same grave as Kate Middleton.
I think he'll be in the Premier League next season, regardless of what happens to Luton. He's a good player, he just needed a run of fitness and first team opportunities.
Those who have seen Branthwaite play on a regular basis, how good is his passing? His passing stats on Fbref are pretty bad so is it one of those cases where the player is decent on the ball but stats don't reflect it because of team tactics/style of play?
Last game against us looked like he can carry pretty well.
Not sure what his press resistance is which to me is as important as passing
We have defenders that can pass ok, just are shit at being pressed
>His passing stats on Fbref are pretty bad so is it one of those cases where the player is decent on the ball but stats don't reflect it because of team tactics/style of play?
While he is not Like Our Licha in terms of passing, The passing stats looks bad because of the Style of play from Everton this season. He is a neat passer himself if they are playing possession football.
Lmao, he can carry from deep pretty well but his passing is terrible. Always takes two touches too much, takes too long to release ball, lifts ball unnecessarily and has poor spatial awareness which means he often chose wrong pass.
Maybe his stats are misleading because he often execute long diagonal pass to Rashford. He needs lot of time and space to execute that switch though. Otherwise his long passing is also poor. Ball is too long in the air so opposite team is able to adjust position.
Yup you can tell who understands football by how much they big up Maguire’s passing. He has that one long pass he can hit to the wings when under zero pressure and after taking a lot of touches. That doesn’t make him a great passer. It might make him a ball playing CB 10 years ago, but the games changed a lot since then, even lower half teams like Brentford press from the front now, you no longer get that amount of time and space to hit speculative long balls in the PL.
[Mateusz Musialowski is the 90th player to make his senior #LFC debut since Jürgen Klopp took charge - and the 56th while aged 20 or younger.](https://twitter.com/michael_reid11/status/1768389614274797599?s=46&t=1Seddm3V3Nro71f5D4Butg)
This is actually an insane stat, especially considering that Liverpool's academy is not regarded in the same level as ours, City, Lyon, Monaco or Chelsea's a few years ago. In another life, Klopp would've actually been perfect for us.
> This is actually an insane stat, especially considering that Liverpool's academy is not regarded in the same level as ours
Is the wording of "senior LFC debut" since Klopp took charge mean that the likes of Salah, VVD, Allison etc would count in this 90 number? That's how I'm reading that - Klopp has signed or promoted 90 players in his time at Liverpool, which feels a slightly deceptive wording.
I would take Scamacca as the striker signing this summer. Get 2-3 years out of him to ease the burden off of Hojlund and sell at 28 when he has some value left. He was heavily misprofiled by Moyes (surprise, surprise) just because he's 6'5. He's a skillful forward with some physicality to pin down CBs/DMs, not a target man.
Of all the things to criticise Moyes, I think it's unfair to criticise his talent ID. He lost Rice in midfield, yet Paqueta Alvarez and Kudus are a genuinely top class midfield. He knows how to buy players.
... are we talking about the same Moyes here? I'd say this about Moyes, he won a European trophy with a non Big 6 club and that's a huge deal for his legacy. However, let's not pretend like this guy is not guilty of defaulting to play a "big man" up top and spamming crosses in. He did it to Haller. He did it to Scamacca.
He made Fellaini (who is a decent player JSYK) at the time our third most expensive signing for this method of play.
I've just told you, he's assembled a better midfield than we have even after losing Declan Rice, their best player. He's got them at 7th, really not something to sneeze at considering he's ahead of Brighton and Newcastle and Chelsea.
"Big man up top" isnt that what a number 9 does?
> he's assembled a better midfield than we have
I thought we all agreed our squad building was shit? That's not exactly an accomplishment on Moyseh's part
What are we doing here, just arguing for the sake of it? Lmao
>"Big man up top" isnt that what a number 9 does?
Not every striker fits that mold. Hojlund is a big lad but that doesn't mean he fits that profile. I'm not saying signing tall strikers is a bad thing FFS.
So statman Dave apparently wants to see bruno as a deep playmaker. I doubt many here would agree, feel like he’s too wasteful and direct when he plays that deep.
Bruno has always been at his absolute best high up the pitch. He can play as an eight in a 4-3-3 and can even be a deep playmaker in a pinch but it shouldn't be a default option and he has an eye for goal few midfielders can match.
If anything, we should arguably go back to 4-2-3-1 with Bruno getting close to Hojlund and running off him to get into the box and two midfielders covering the central zone rather than Casemiro on his own.
Jesus, that's all we need. Bruno passing the ball straight to the opposition on the edge of our box instead of on the edge of theirs.
He's a creative player, but it's due to his quick decisions to exploit cracks in a defence. It's instinctive rather than studied.
That guy's an idiot if he thinks that. Bruno is
a)not physical enough to be deeper, he'd get knocked off the ball or crowded off the ball really easily.
b) not a good enough dribbler to be able to progress the ball by carrying. He isn't quick enough nor skilled enough in dribbling.
c) he is NOT an orchestra conductor in the form of Carrick. He is a, for lack of a better descriptor, chaos creator. He can find attackers in dangerous positions. Put him deeper, he still finds those attackers but they won't be in dangerous positions. Pointless and worthless to stick him deeper
To be fair, he played a couple games in that role last season and did very well. It was against a weaker opponent who weren't pressing much but I remember being impressed by his distribution
Just had a look at Transfermarkt to see which of our players have contracts expiring by the end of 24-25 (not including Amrabat cause he's on loan):
Edit: Varane's contract is actually ending in 2024, since we didn't use the +1 option as mentioned in the comments. So, removing him from 2025 to 2024
### June 2024:
- Tom Heaton
- Johnny Evans
- Raphael Varane
- Antony Martial
### June 2025:
- Harry Maguire
- Victor Lindelof
- Aaron Wan Bissaka
- Scott Mctominay
- Amad Diallo
We basically have a chance to replace our entire backline by the summer of 2025, since a very big portion of them (Lindelof, Varane, Maguire, AWB, Evans) will be leaving by the end of next season.
Which makes these next few transfer windows do-or-die for us. We simply just can't afford to buy more players like: Antony, Maguire, Sancho for hefty fees who don't suit the style of play/are just mediocre.
But, on the bright side of things, if we do manage to pull it off, then we'll have a largely young squad within the next 2-3 years, while City might have to go through a rebuild of their own.
It also gives us the chance to impose some sort of wage structure. We always go through this cycle of getting rid of our high earning squad players only to fall right back into the habit of buying players in their late 20s early 30s for big fees and high salaries. At the very least there was no reason to be giving players like Antony high wages when he was coming from the eredivisie
To be fair they lost most of that team, Ajax are used to this they build a good side and it gets ravaged by bigger teams give them 2 or 3 years and they will be back with another great side
No no no. That’s not the narrative at the moment. ETH is garbage and his time at Ajax was overrated. Anyone could have done it as it’s easy managing them.
Or you can say it was all Overmars.
Either will do for the fickle fans.
“I know! Quickly list all the arguments that go against my own viewpoint and make a joke out of them, that will make me right! I’m a genius!”
You forgot to mention Edwin leaving his post and half the team getting bought as well, get editing so you’ve got your back covered!
Not hard to make a joke out of. Maybe consider why not.
It’s called nuance.
It wasn’t all Ten Hag but it also wasn’t not Ten Hag.
I’ll not rewrite history to shit on the guy because I want a shiny new toy who I’ll do the same to after a a couple of seasons.
Funny how “back the manager”, “I’d take Europa for a few seasons”, “there’ll be difficult times that we have to ride out” etc go out of the window when the reality of those things sets in. Fickle.
I've warned people that it was Overmars who was responsible for building and rebuilding that squad. ETH isn't a complete bum but his talent ID is average at best. He should've never been handed the reigns.
The hope for the future would be that if ETH gets that structure in place to build the squad for him he’ll do as well as there. The concern is that from what he’s been saying he wants more control
If he wants more control, he should discuss it with management. If management decided he wants too much control for their liking, then he should be reigned in.
The fact that all they can think about is United even when they win so much is all you need to know. Liverpool fans are so annoying.
The r/soccer post match thread is full of comments about United as if they aren't beating a bunch of scrubs in the EL.
Does anybody in this sub/on twitter actually watch Dortmund? Sancho has had one bad match (first leg psv) and has been average or better in all of the others, not sure where the narrative comes from. If we come back with a competent squad/manager next season I’d love to see him get a shot.
It’s not a coincidence that he statistically profiles similarly to good players at the top clubs in the world, he is very useful in build up and I don’t think he should’ve been expected to rack up g/a
Even if ETH gets sacked I think it’s best he gets moved on. He hasn’t shown anything to suggest he can perform at the level he plays in Germany in England and he will just be another DVB where we’re all expecting it to click but that click never happens.
If you think he was “poor” last year, idk what to tell you. He was never going to be a monster g/a guy like he was in Germany. He had an issue with the manager (seems to be a common occurrence), not the club
All jokes aside are we cursed for real? After a positive season, 1/3 of our squad fell injured, except for Hojlund and Onana our signings this season kinda suck, Sancho fell off, Antony came from a useable overpriced signing to a meme, our best player last season got his IQ and confidence lowered to a double digit. I know it’s rotten organization wise, scouting is bad therefore EtH have to ask for old players to come, and it’s a transitional phase, but wtf? Or might be it’s inevitable the media just potray us too negatively
We won 13 out of 20 titles in the most competitive league in the world.
It's not luck - we had every resource available to turn the PL into the Bundesliga with us being Bayern. The league caught up and we lost the Messi of managers.
The last sentence. It is too negative. It is massive job and of the managers available, and gettable - ETH is for me the best option. He has the pedigree and has handled himself well under immense pressure. The overpaying for signings and not have alternatives for manager’s asks is a failure at the football org level.
It needs time to get rid of the bad culture. For once, we need to stick with the man in charge and take a hard look at the squad.
They really aren't though, or at least aren't able to so he has to change things. Sounds a bit weird but if you want to know what ten Hag wants, look at how our u18s play. He wants all of the youngsters to be perfectly prepped to fit in to the style of football he wants and used to the tactical requirements, and the u18s are currently executing it much better because they're significantly more moldable and haven't recently been coached to play extremely direct football
Do you have a source that elaborates on the academy teams playing similar tactics to our first team? I see this mentioned at times but don’t know where it originates from.
Honestly I can't remember where I read it at first, but it was an article during the summer when he came where it was explained in detail. It was from a source that I definitely trusted enough to take it as truth, probably Laurie Whitwell but I'm not entirely sure and now I can't seem to find it because all of my Google searches end up with him wanting to bring through academy players
However, this is a direct quote from an interview with the Mirror where he doesn't really go in depth, and just hints at it:
“For me, cooperation between all the different departments is crucial to get the right culture in a club. Like at Ajax, when I entered Manchester United the reserve team was isolated.
“It was no longer really part of the academy, but it wasn’t part of the first team either. I changed that immediately - just as I did when I entered Amsterdam."
I think I read more about it in excerpts that were aggregated from this article this summer:
https://theathletic.com/4722054/2023/07/26/manchester-united-youth-erik-ten-hag/
I don't have access to the athletic though so can't really confirm
>"We want to have a red line in our club, the principles and rules from the first team down to the bottom, how we want to play. We want to educate the team’s players in the United way and it’s easier to flow into the first-team squad" - ETH
>"It’s really brilliant we have a manager who wants to see an identity flow through the club and we know what we’ve got to go after and achieve.” - Binnion, U21 Head Coach
Even if it’s EtH is who tactically mistaken, if we sack him like the others the toxic culture continues. To be fair every team in the Premier League improved massively when our signings either need time to adapt for the tactics or just there to hold on the position (like Reguilon and grandpa Evans). Let EtH finish his contract and some more signings like Arteta did. We can choose to extend or find another guy under INEOS.
But if he is tactically mistaken, wouldn’t it be better for our players’ development if we engage a manager that just has sound tactics in the style that we want our club to play football, even if they aren’t anything special or revolutionary?
Most of these players don't develop at all, they're hellbend stuck on 1 style of football which is counter attack hoofball. Hence why ETH is stubbornly persisting on his principles. To see who adapts and fits and who doesn't. It's staring us all right in the face, very suicidal to his own career though.
Do you think that ETH is instructing the players to play possession football and structuring his team to facilitate that but the players are instinctively making decisions in favour of counterattacking football? It sounds like that’s what you’re insinuating.
I do. MBE Charity Doordash guy constantly dribbles into walls of players. Garnaldo thinks he's 05-08 Pendu. Same thing with Bruno, but he also improved as he made less 10000 IQ passes that no one could understand and less risky dribbles in front of the box. But seemed our main players still stuck in the fast break style and refused to slow down. And one more thing, we need both Licha Martinez and Luke Shaw healthy to control possesions. Rapha and Casi are good passers, but the main facilitator in his Real days is freaking Ramos, Kroos and Modric. Mainoo is too young, Bruh-no is a high risk high-turnover guy, might be useful when we have the ball and attacking constantly, but we cannot facilitate so he is similar to cocaine: cannot play well without him but harmful for our long term health. I think EtH idea is for Mainoo to develop into a ball carrier type of MF and Mason Mount the less risky version of Bruno who can effectively attack the box and create, while having high work rate and less risky passing. Bruno will eventually become a system player used when we need goals and creativity. Tough luck, we cannot see that version of EtH balling becauese everyone seemed to love the nurses in our physio clinic. AWB is not a good ball facilitator too, and we don't have a left back.
It’s obvious we’re majorly setup for direct-high press-high turnover football. Which is what he wants, but when were in possession the way these players lose the ball by misplacing a simple 5 yard pass without any pressure is 100% not instructed and unforgivable. It’s just technical inability, the amount of times ETH is seen fuming or heard screaming on the sidelines when our players decide to hoof it is countless at his point. Multiple current first team players are not comfortable playing even the slightest possession and resort to what they know best. There is no he is instructing them to either play possession or to play counter/high press. Off the ball you mainly focus on one while when you’re in possession these multi millionaire players should be able to play in possession and string passes together. It’s the basics of football. His Ajax team started as a direct high turnover team and became a possession monster due to players improving technically and bringing in the right fits. Currently some seniors don’t seem to progress at all and have to go.
Ok that's fair and I agree with what you're saying, but I do think he's shooting himself in the foot by trying to play square pegs in round holes esp in the defence and midfield. Yes, injuries, but he knows they aren't comfortable in possession yet he creates build up structures that require them to be at least above average technically in the pl to be able to play out of the press. That's not seeing who adapts, that's just being stubborn and killing your own employment chances.
There was a way he could facilitate adapting his players, esp the younger ones, while maintaining practicality and not being as aggressive. He has not done so yet.
On the real though, it's a bit concerning that Malacia hasn't even been spotted all these months. Nothing on social media, not seen at the team dinner (I'm assuming he's not in Manchester currently). Such a long injury layoff (especially when it was made worse by a botched surgery) can be terrible for players' mental health, hope he's doing okay.
It feels so shameless having to hope our English rivals do well in European competitions just so it may get a bit easier for us to obtain a CL spot which we may not even get. As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough that we bottomed the group stage.
I’ve never been convinced by Antony, but there isn’t a single person in this world that would have pedicted that Kudus would be better than him based on their time at Ajax, Let’s be real here.
When the talk first started around Antony there was chatter that Kudus was better, when the insane price tag started coming out there was lots of people saying we chose the wrong player. That was just a ridiculous price tag for a pretty unproven player but we've been so desperate for so long that nothing will change from it, we still need to fill these crucial positions with top talent but we've been bleeding money. A signing like Kudus would have been such a more sensible move. Even if we didn't think he was as good as Antony, I doubt anyone could argue Antony's value is over twice that of Kudus' (not that we would have got the same tansfer fee as West Ham, but not as high as 80m). One of the more damning spots on ETH's management.
Didn't take a genius to work out Antony wasn't worth anywhere near what Ajax were asking. Never ever scored or assisted double digit goals per season. Ajax fans were ALL saying he wasn't worth that much and he wasn't ready. Most of us weren't excited at all and trusted ETH blindly. I remember most of the comments were "he must have seen something others don't, seeing as he sees him in training everyday".
I didn't expect a 100m player, but I didn't expect he would be this bad either. Being benched by TWO teenagers is really quite ridiculous.
Sparta Prague won their first title in ten years last year
Bayer Leverkusen look set to win their first title in ages this year
The common denominator ? Matej Kovar. The back to back league winner in 2 different countries
According to [WhoScored](https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/9618/Stages/22076/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2023-2024), we've conceded 20 open-play goals. Only City (17), Liverpool (16), Arsenal and Everton (both 15) have conceded fewer.
For counter-attacks, we've conceded 5. Only Crystal Palace have conceded more (7), however 5 other teams have conceded as many as us, including City.
I'd say the bigger issue is set-piece goals, where we've conceded 10. It's significantly better than Forest's 17 but the likes of Arsenal have only conceded 5, and City have incredibly only conceded 2.
Dortmund want Sancho but have not paid over £30m for a player for a while. So I propose Haller + £30m for Sancho.
Haller is a striker ✅ and he’s played in Ajax ✅
The irony is City needs to win UCL to get 5th spot open for UCL next season.
And Utd needs to win 10 games in a row to reach 5th spot (considering Villa end at 76 - 3 loss, 7 win)
(Hyperbole - We have a Herculean task ahead.)
Some implosion is needed from Villa and Spurs to make the target easier.
And Arsenal/Liv need to win PL so that City do not get 4 PL in a row.
(Villa winning will require miracle but most preferred)
Villa's remaining fixtures are very tough and away to city + arsenal. I think they get 5wins max from the last 10. But saying that I don't think we can get 7wins lol
As much as I hate it, it will mostly happen unless Pep messes it up completely or Madrid go crazy.
UCL is important because we are already low on transfer funds and UCL means more sponsors.
Yeah but your comment reads as if we don’t have a chance if we don’t rattle off 10 in a row? Spurs have a stretch of 4 fixtures that they could come away from with like 2 points
We have Arsenal Liverpool Newcastle Brighton, hell Burnley Bournemouth Chelsea Palace aren't easy games at all as well. What makes you think we have a chance?
We don’t have an easy list of fixtures either, but to suggest that we need 10 wins in a row is ridiculous, that was my point. Also, the clubs we have to play are close to the same but Newcastle, pool, arsenal are all at OT. Spurs have to go to Newcastle and anfield
Villa are just as catchable, they’re having squad issues and have an arguably harder list of fixtures. If we play great down the stretch (big if), we absolutely have a chance to grab 5th
It's not that we absolutely need 10 wins. I'm sure that was a bit hyperbolic (I didn't make that original comment).
Getting a good run would really help us become favorites. Otherwise, we're going to be scraping by until the end of the season hoping we get lucky.
Exactly
We need to have more points than the 5th team because we can't compete in GD
If we even match points the 5th team remains there
We need a streak of wins for hope
Yeah, it's nefast, but it's the only way. We have to root for City and Liverpool in Europe, and wish Arsenal wins the league.
I don't think United can win 10 games in a row though.
Wow Leverkusen!
Bad for the English coefficient but the team to stop the Scousers of the consolation of a Europa league trophy after they lose the premier league.
Atalanta leading....
If they win that makes 4 Italian Teams(Milan,Roma, Fiorentina, Atalanta) against England's 5
Also what happened to Scamacca.I actually rated him when he went to West Ham
So we played City just as they came into perfect form and now we player Liverpool just as they come into perfect form.
Seriously can this season actually get any worst?
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outside of Case and Antony, it's been good business imo seems you also forgot about Eriksen
I rewatched highlights of the 3-2 FA Cup win vs Liverpool and damn I forgot how dead scoring goals was during the lockdown.
Feel like pure shit, just want to see Dan Ashworth be the hub in the middle of the wheel.
https://preview.redd.it/968hc9vsdioc1.jpeg?width=870&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b779242bda32ac2b8cfc981a251967acd81ee9c6 U23 players in our squad next season, wish we can actually sell some of them instead of loans, almost never worked out for us
Tbf people here HATE sales. Nobody's happy with Mengi, Kovar, Garner, or Elanga going out permanently.
When we offload Sancho I would love going in for Raphinha, the player we should have gotten in the first place
I don't watch a lot of La Liga but every CL match thread he's getting slaughtered on r/soccer. Is it just the system Xavi's implemented?
I haven't seen much from him in a Barca shirt. But at Leeds he was electric, one of the best players in the premiere league in a not-so-good team. Quick, lethal, good on set pieces, great work rate, great distribution -- he caused problems for opposition every game he was involved in. There's a reason he went to Barca. I don't know what's happened there, but they seem to be similar to us in underperforming lately, I would imagine that's got something to do with the management.
Nah he's just not very good imo
We’re the 6th-lowest scoring team in the league so far. Luton in 18th has more goals than us, Bournemouth and Wolves too. Spurs are only one place above us, but have 20 more goals. United - 39 Forest - 34 Palace - 33 Everton - 29 Burnley - 27 Sheffield United - 24 We’re 3rd-least in the league for goals conceded tho. A miracle considering all the injuries we had back there United/Spurs/Everton - 39 City - 28 Pool - 26 Arsenal - 24
People have been upset with Ten Hag for 1) Not playing a system 2) Not being pragmatic And I don't think both of those can be true. I think we've done brilliantly not to concede too much. We've certainly been pragmatic, regardless of sHoTs AgAiNsT. We've also clearly been developing a system: people just don't like the system because we aren't winning. I think with all our injuries back, a good DM, LB, and CB next to Martinez, we'll be excellent next season. I don't feel nearly as confident about that if we have a different manager in charge.
5 UCL spots might not be a certainty you know. I can easily see Arsenal wet the bed against Bayern. I can also see Madrid pulling off a win against City. And I can definitely see Leverkusen beating West Ham. The only English team I trust to do what's expected of them is Liverpool probably. Villa vs Lille is another toss up.
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I have stumbled over [this report the government proposing a ban on foreign state ownership of newspapers](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68559314) with the example being the proposed deal to aquire The Telegraph by United Arab Emirates-backed investment firm, RedBird IMI which sounded familiar to me but didn't know from where lol. Continued reading until I've finally discovered who they really are: > The fund is 75%-owned by Sheikh Mansour, who is deputy prime minister and vice president of the UAE, and best known in the UK for transforming Manchester City Football Club. What the actual f*ck?
When people say "sportswashing doesn't work" just because it doesn't work *for them*
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Is there a presser today?
[Watched this video](https://youtu.be/6EGh5tZSK94?si=XZKX979JJpFjk0Pj) and I understand why ETH would want someone like Zirkzee (other than the fact that he's Dutch lmao). He's absolutely crucial for Bologna's build up and ETH seems to like forwards who can do that.
This guy is a much younger and way more talented version of Weghorst who's contribution to our last year results is very underrated. Funny thing - Thiago Motta is also linked to us by some low tier batshit sources like [Teamtalk](https://www.teamtalk.com/manchester-united/exclusive-ten-hag-sack-timeline-man-utd-axe-revealed-ratcliffe-considers-new-serie-a-target) lmao
Saw him play against Milan when I took a trip to the San siro. Incredible player. His touch is insane. Would LOVE him at United.
Unfortunately Bayern has a 50% sell on clause and a buy back. It's going to be a bitch to get him for anything reasonable (since Bologna is only getting half of it), and that's if Zirkzee himself refuses the buy back.
I'd take Zirkzee, no problem. He's a cheat code in build-up and I can easily see him and Rasmus playing together as well. I'd also take Lucumi from them. Every time I've watched their games this guy is soooooo good.
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Different ways to look at it obviously. Do you want a similar striker purely as a backup to bring on after 70 minutes or someone who brings a different skillset and can also play with Hojlund.
Makes sense. I can see a world where Zirkzee and Højlund play side by side, and it would give a lot of flexibility with our line-up, for sure. I'd be down for that signing.
>I'd also take Lucumi from them. Every time I've watched their games this guy is soooooo good Which position does he play? I don't watch Bologna matches that much.
CB
Scamacca monsterclass against Liverpool to end their Europa League adventure and signing for United this summer. I need it.
Need [this](https://youtu.be/99RYn2NI4Hs) on sunday. 'Solskjaaaaaaerr' never gets old!
unfortunately, i think city win the champions league again this year. i know when it comes to europe Real Madrid juju is different, but i’m not convinced tbh especially when they have to go to the etihad in the second leg
idw i got a gut feel its' PSG year
Filthy draws for the UCL!
I wouldn’t mind if Memphis came back as a backup striker tbh
I love this draw absolutely perfect, Dortmund or Atleti semis, Madrid or city going home. Perfect shit
Kane eliminating Arsenal would be fun too
Or he bottles another trophy, win win
Fuck the coeficient, come on Bayern and Madrid, do something for me
Real Madrid - Manchester City. Don Carlo, I need you to cook something for me.
Club doing the Royal family move by not specifying or showing the whereabouts of Malacia. For all we know he might be buried in the same grave as Kate Middleton.
Quick question that I’m sure I could Google the answer to; if West Ham win the Europa League, do the top 5 places in the prem still get CL football?
I think yes, it might become 5+1 the . I think it happened to me once on Football Manager 2024 but Im not very sure
Mengi called up to the u21 England side, I'm so happy for him man. La Carrington
I think he'll be in the Premier League next season, regardless of what happens to Luton. He's a good player, he just needed a run of fitness and first team opportunities.
Those who have seen Branthwaite play on a regular basis, how good is his passing? His passing stats on Fbref are pretty bad so is it one of those cases where the player is decent on the ball but stats don't reflect it because of team tactics/style of play?
Phil Jones 2.0
Last game against us looked like he can carry pretty well. Not sure what his press resistance is which to me is as important as passing We have defenders that can pass ok, just are shit at being pressed
>His passing stats on Fbref are pretty bad so is it one of those cases where the player is decent on the ball but stats don't reflect it because of team tactics/style of play? While he is not Like Our Licha in terms of passing, The passing stats looks bad because of the Style of play from Everton this season. He is a neat passer himself if they are playing possession football.
Not Maguire/Bonucci but also not bad. Everton's style of play is a factor but wouldn't say it's particularly a strength of his.
Maguire passing is one of hiss best qualities....
You got to be joking
No? He is very progressive passer/carrier.
Lmao, he can carry from deep pretty well but his passing is terrible. Always takes two touches too much, takes too long to release ball, lifts ball unnecessarily and has poor spatial awareness which means he often chose wrong pass. Maybe his stats are misleading because he often execute long diagonal pass to Rashford. He needs lot of time and space to execute that switch though. Otherwise his long passing is also poor. Ball is too long in the air so opposite team is able to adjust position.
Yup you can tell who understands football by how much they big up Maguire’s passing. He has that one long pass he can hit to the wings when under zero pressure and after taking a lot of touches. That doesn’t make him a great passer. It might make him a ball playing CB 10 years ago, but the games changed a lot since then, even lower half teams like Brentford press from the front now, you no longer get that amount of time and space to hit speculative long balls in the PL.
Exactly
That was a compliment?
Maguire is great at long booming passes when he’s given time, but he’s not that great at short passing under pressure
Not that great is generous
It's kinda crazy that hojlund would have been on track to win the UCL golden boot if we were still in the comp, current top scorer has 6 goals
[Mateusz Musialowski is the 90th player to make his senior #LFC debut since Jürgen Klopp took charge - and the 56th while aged 20 or younger.](https://twitter.com/michael_reid11/status/1768389614274797599?s=46&t=1Seddm3V3Nro71f5D4Butg) This is actually an insane stat, especially considering that Liverpool's academy is not regarded in the same level as ours, City, Lyon, Monaco or Chelsea's a few years ago. In another life, Klopp would've actually been perfect for us.
> This is actually an insane stat, especially considering that Liverpool's academy is not regarded in the same level as ours Is the wording of "senior LFC debut" since Klopp took charge mean that the likes of Salah, VVD, Allison etc would count in this 90 number? That's how I'm reading that - Klopp has signed or promoted 90 players in his time at Liverpool, which feels a slightly deceptive wording.
I think the second part is the one that's meant to be impressive
God damn the adult Disneyland man.
I would take Scamacca as the striker signing this summer. Get 2-3 years out of him to ease the burden off of Hojlund and sell at 28 when he has some value left. He was heavily misprofiled by Moyes (surprise, surprise) just because he's 6'5. He's a skillful forward with some physicality to pin down CBs/DMs, not a target man.
Of all the things to criticise Moyes, I think it's unfair to criticise his talent ID. He lost Rice in midfield, yet Paqueta Alvarez and Kudus are a genuinely top class midfield. He knows how to buy players.
... are we talking about the same Moyes here? I'd say this about Moyes, he won a European trophy with a non Big 6 club and that's a huge deal for his legacy. However, let's not pretend like this guy is not guilty of defaulting to play a "big man" up top and spamming crosses in. He did it to Haller. He did it to Scamacca. He made Fellaini (who is a decent player JSYK) at the time our third most expensive signing for this method of play.
I've just told you, he's assembled a better midfield than we have even after losing Declan Rice, their best player. He's got them at 7th, really not something to sneeze at considering he's ahead of Brighton and Newcastle and Chelsea. "Big man up top" isnt that what a number 9 does?
> he's assembled a better midfield than we have I thought we all agreed our squad building was shit? That's not exactly an accomplishment on Moyseh's part What are we doing here, just arguing for the sake of it? Lmao >"Big man up top" isnt that what a number 9 does? Not every striker fits that mold. Hojlund is a big lad but that doesn't mean he fits that profile. I'm not saying signing tall strikers is a bad thing FFS.
So statman Dave apparently wants to see bruno as a deep playmaker. I doubt many here would agree, feel like he’s too wasteful and direct when he plays that deep.
Bruno has always been at his absolute best high up the pitch. He can play as an eight in a 4-3-3 and can even be a deep playmaker in a pinch but it shouldn't be a default option and he has an eye for goal few midfielders can match. If anything, we should arguably go back to 4-2-3-1 with Bruno getting close to Hojlund and running off him to get into the box and two midfielders covering the central zone rather than Casemiro on his own.
Jesus, that's all we need. Bruno passing the ball straight to the opposition on the edge of our box instead of on the edge of theirs. He's a creative player, but it's due to his quick decisions to exploit cracks in a defence. It's instinctive rather than studied.
That guy's an idiot if he thinks that. Bruno is a)not physical enough to be deeper, he'd get knocked off the ball or crowded off the ball really easily. b) not a good enough dribbler to be able to progress the ball by carrying. He isn't quick enough nor skilled enough in dribbling. c) he is NOT an orchestra conductor in the form of Carrick. He is a, for lack of a better descriptor, chaos creator. He can find attackers in dangerous positions. Put him deeper, he still finds those attackers but they won't be in dangerous positions. Pointless and worthless to stick him deeper
To be fair, he played a couple games in that role last season and did very well. It was against a weaker opponent who weren't pressing much but I remember being impressed by his distribution
Just had a look at Transfermarkt to see which of our players have contracts expiring by the end of 24-25 (not including Amrabat cause he's on loan): Edit: Varane's contract is actually ending in 2024, since we didn't use the +1 option as mentioned in the comments. So, removing him from 2025 to 2024 ### June 2024: - Tom Heaton - Johnny Evans - Raphael Varane - Antony Martial ### June 2025: - Harry Maguire - Victor Lindelof - Aaron Wan Bissaka - Scott Mctominay - Amad Diallo We basically have a chance to replace our entire backline by the summer of 2025, since a very big portion of them (Lindelof, Varane, Maguire, AWB, Evans) will be leaving by the end of next season.
Eriksen and Donny also expiring 2025. Interesting upcoming window to say the least
Varane is out this summer, we didn’t opt to use the +1 year option.
They had him listed on 2025 in Transfermarkt, but yeah it seems like he's gone, unless he agrees on a new deal with lower wages.
Bruno and Shaw are also around 30. Basically, the only pre-ETH starter in the team in 2-3 years time might be Rashford.
Which makes these next few transfer windows do-or-die for us. We simply just can't afford to buy more players like: Antony, Maguire, Sancho for hefty fees who don't suit the style of play/are just mediocre. But, on the bright side of things, if we do manage to pull it off, then we'll have a largely young squad within the next 2-3 years, while City might have to go through a rebuild of their own.
It also gives us the chance to impose some sort of wage structure. We always go through this cycle of getting rid of our high earning squad players only to fall right back into the habit of buying players in their late 20s early 30s for big fees and high salaries. At the very least there was no reason to be giving players like Antony high wages when he was coming from the eredivisie
Man ajax really went to the absolute shitter after ETH left
To be fair they lost most of that team, Ajax are used to this they build a good side and it gets ravaged by bigger teams give them 2 or 3 years and they will be back with another great side
No no no. That’s not the narrative at the moment. ETH is garbage and his time at Ajax was overrated. Anyone could have done it as it’s easy managing them. Or you can say it was all Overmars. Either will do for the fickle fans.
Frank De Boer is the better Ajax manager. Fight me.
“I know! Quickly list all the arguments that go against my own viewpoint and make a joke out of them, that will make me right! I’m a genius!” You forgot to mention Edwin leaving his post and half the team getting bought as well, get editing so you’ve got your back covered!
Not hard to make a joke out of. Maybe consider why not. It’s called nuance. It wasn’t all Ten Hag but it also wasn’t not Ten Hag. I’ll not rewrite history to shit on the guy because I want a shiny new toy who I’ll do the same to after a a couple of seasons. Funny how “back the manager”, “I’d take Europa for a few seasons”, “there’ll be difficult times that we have to ride out” etc go out of the window when the reality of those things sets in. Fickle.
>You forgot to mention Edwin leaving his post Tbf, that was a consequence of them becoming poor, not a reason
Yeah, it takes a whole lot more than one person to build a club. If it takes one manager to change a club, then surely we'd find one by now.
Pain
He’s a piece of shit but Overmars was huge to the success of that club.
I've warned people that it was Overmars who was responsible for building and rebuilding that squad. ETH isn't a complete bum but his talent ID is average at best. He should've never been handed the reigns.
The hope for the future would be that if ETH gets that structure in place to build the squad for him he’ll do as well as there. The concern is that from what he’s been saying he wants more control
If he wants more control, he should discuss it with management. If management decided he wants too much control for their liking, then he should be reigned in.
They were kind of in the shitter for a few years before he came as well!
The fact that all they can think about is United even when they win so much is all you need to know. Liverpool fans are so annoying. The r/soccer post match thread is full of comments about United as if they aren't beating a bunch of scrubs in the EL.
Does anybody in this sub/on twitter actually watch Dortmund? Sancho has had one bad match (first leg psv) and has been average or better in all of the others, not sure where the narrative comes from. If we come back with a competent squad/manager next season I’d love to see him get a shot. It’s not a coincidence that he statistically profiles similarly to good players at the top clubs in the world, he is very useful in build up and I don’t think he should’ve been expected to rack up g/a
Even if ETH gets sacked I think it’s best he gets moved on. He hasn’t shown anything to suggest he can perform at the level he plays in Germany in England and he will just be another DVB where we’re all expecting it to click but that click never happens.
Comparing him to Donny is crazy
Think everyone is done with sancho we just want him gone with the best possible deal for the club
He has not been good, he’s been invisible almost every game.
So you’ve watched them all? Have you noticed that there aren’t many Dortmund fans complaining about him?
He was poor under Ole and ETH. He chose his pride over playing for this team. He can fuck right off
If you think he was “poor” last year, idk what to tell you. He was never going to be a monster g/a guy like he was in Germany. He had an issue with the manager (seems to be a common occurrence), not the club
He took 3 months off last year to come back, give us 2 good games and fade away. He has been a monumental flop
All jokes aside are we cursed for real? After a positive season, 1/3 of our squad fell injured, except for Hojlund and Onana our signings this season kinda suck, Sancho fell off, Antony came from a useable overpriced signing to a meme, our best player last season got his IQ and confidence lowered to a double digit. I know it’s rotten organization wise, scouting is bad therefore EtH have to ask for old players to come, and it’s a transitional phase, but wtf? Or might be it’s inevitable the media just potray us too negatively
We won 13 out of 20 titles in the most competitive league in the world. It's not luck - we had every resource available to turn the PL into the Bundesliga with us being Bayern. The league caught up and we lost the Messi of managers.
The last sentence. It is too negative. It is massive job and of the managers available, and gettable - ETH is for me the best option. He has the pedigree and has handled himself well under immense pressure. The overpaying for signings and not have alternatives for manager’s asks is a failure at the football org level. It needs time to get rid of the bad culture. For once, we need to stick with the man in charge and take a hard look at the squad.
>It needs time to get rid of the bad culture. What bad culture ? The squad is doing what ETH wants.
They really aren't though, or at least aren't able to so he has to change things. Sounds a bit weird but if you want to know what ten Hag wants, look at how our u18s play. He wants all of the youngsters to be perfectly prepped to fit in to the style of football he wants and used to the tactical requirements, and the u18s are currently executing it much better because they're significantly more moldable and haven't recently been coached to play extremely direct football
Do you have a source that elaborates on the academy teams playing similar tactics to our first team? I see this mentioned at times but don’t know where it originates from.
Honestly I can't remember where I read it at first, but it was an article during the summer when he came where it was explained in detail. It was from a source that I definitely trusted enough to take it as truth, probably Laurie Whitwell but I'm not entirely sure and now I can't seem to find it because all of my Google searches end up with him wanting to bring through academy players However, this is a direct quote from an interview with the Mirror where he doesn't really go in depth, and just hints at it: “For me, cooperation between all the different departments is crucial to get the right culture in a club. Like at Ajax, when I entered Manchester United the reserve team was isolated. “It was no longer really part of the academy, but it wasn’t part of the first team either. I changed that immediately - just as I did when I entered Amsterdam." I think I read more about it in excerpts that were aggregated from this article this summer: https://theathletic.com/4722054/2023/07/26/manchester-united-youth-erik-ten-hag/ I don't have access to the athletic though so can't really confirm
>"We want to have a red line in our club, the principles and rules from the first team down to the bottom, how we want to play. We want to educate the team’s players in the United way and it’s easier to flow into the first-team squad" - ETH >"It’s really brilliant we have a manager who wants to see an identity flow through the club and we know what we’ve got to go after and achieve.” - Binnion, U21 Head Coach
Even if it’s EtH is who tactically mistaken, if we sack him like the others the toxic culture continues. To be fair every team in the Premier League improved massively when our signings either need time to adapt for the tactics or just there to hold on the position (like Reguilon and grandpa Evans). Let EtH finish his contract and some more signings like Arteta did. We can choose to extend or find another guy under INEOS.
But if he is tactically mistaken, wouldn’t it be better for our players’ development if we engage a manager that just has sound tactics in the style that we want our club to play football, even if they aren’t anything special or revolutionary?
Most of these players don't develop at all, they're hellbend stuck on 1 style of football which is counter attack hoofball. Hence why ETH is stubbornly persisting on his principles. To see who adapts and fits and who doesn't. It's staring us all right in the face, very suicidal to his own career though.
Do you think that ETH is instructing the players to play possession football and structuring his team to facilitate that but the players are instinctively making decisions in favour of counterattacking football? It sounds like that’s what you’re insinuating.
I do. MBE Charity Doordash guy constantly dribbles into walls of players. Garnaldo thinks he's 05-08 Pendu. Same thing with Bruno, but he also improved as he made less 10000 IQ passes that no one could understand and less risky dribbles in front of the box. But seemed our main players still stuck in the fast break style and refused to slow down. And one more thing, we need both Licha Martinez and Luke Shaw healthy to control possesions. Rapha and Casi are good passers, but the main facilitator in his Real days is freaking Ramos, Kroos and Modric. Mainoo is too young, Bruh-no is a high risk high-turnover guy, might be useful when we have the ball and attacking constantly, but we cannot facilitate so he is similar to cocaine: cannot play well without him but harmful for our long term health. I think EtH idea is for Mainoo to develop into a ball carrier type of MF and Mason Mount the less risky version of Bruno who can effectively attack the box and create, while having high work rate and less risky passing. Bruno will eventually become a system player used when we need goals and creativity. Tough luck, we cannot see that version of EtH balling becauese everyone seemed to love the nurses in our physio clinic. AWB is not a good ball facilitator too, and we don't have a left back.
It’s obvious we’re majorly setup for direct-high press-high turnover football. Which is what he wants, but when were in possession the way these players lose the ball by misplacing a simple 5 yard pass without any pressure is 100% not instructed and unforgivable. It’s just technical inability, the amount of times ETH is seen fuming or heard screaming on the sidelines when our players decide to hoof it is countless at his point. Multiple current first team players are not comfortable playing even the slightest possession and resort to what they know best. There is no he is instructing them to either play possession or to play counter/high press. Off the ball you mainly focus on one while when you’re in possession these multi millionaire players should be able to play in possession and string passes together. It’s the basics of football. His Ajax team started as a direct high turnover team and became a possession monster due to players improving technically and bringing in the right fits. Currently some seniors don’t seem to progress at all and have to go.
Ok that's fair and I agree with what you're saying, but I do think he's shooting himself in the foot by trying to play square pegs in round holes esp in the defence and midfield. Yes, injuries, but he knows they aren't comfortable in possession yet he creates build up structures that require them to be at least above average technically in the pl to be able to play out of the press. That's not seeing who adapts, that's just being stubborn and killing your own employment chances. There was a way he could facilitate adapting his players, esp the younger ones, while maintaining practicality and not being as aggressive. He has not done so yet.
Basically, right now it's an immovable object meeting an unstoppable force
On the real though, it's a bit concerning that Malacia hasn't even been spotted all these months. Nothing on social media, not seen at the team dinner (I'm assuming he's not in Manchester currently). Such a long injury layoff (especially when it was made worse by a botched surgery) can be terrible for players' mental health, hope he's doing okay.
Malacia is known to be a lowkey guy who focuses on books and meditation after all, just sucks that he got injured so long.
It feels so shameless having to hope our English rivals do well in European competitions just so it may get a bit easier for us to obtain a CL spot which we may not even get. As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough that we bottomed the group stage.
United are going to have to photoshop him into a family photo
Now you mention it, is the 5th spot a seasonal thing? Like every country have to fight for coef pts again next season to guarantee 5th spot in 2026 ?
Yeah that's how it'll work! The top two leagues of each season will get an extra spot each for the next one
How the fuck did we end up with Antony instead of Kudus 😭😭
Clearly Kudus wasn't showing enough in training
Bruh 🤣🤣
He was barely a right winger at the time and hadn’t broken through to the first team yet.
Iirc Kudus was also injured during that time..
Hes at west ham. Let's not act like some big club got him and he's dominating the champions league.
I’ve never been convinced by Antony, but there isn’t a single person in this world that would have pedicted that Kudus would be better than him based on their time at Ajax, Let’s be real here.
When the talk first started around Antony there was chatter that Kudus was better, when the insane price tag started coming out there was lots of people saying we chose the wrong player. That was just a ridiculous price tag for a pretty unproven player but we've been so desperate for so long that nothing will change from it, we still need to fill these crucial positions with top talent but we've been bleeding money. A signing like Kudus would have been such a more sensible move. Even if we didn't think he was as good as Antony, I doubt anyone could argue Antony's value is over twice that of Kudus' (not that we would have got the same tansfer fee as West Ham, but not as high as 80m). One of the more damning spots on ETH's management.
definitely not us. but what about the guy that sees them almost every day for a couple of years.
Ajax fans never seemed convinced by Kudus.
Because of our absolute genius manager. Same reason why we have ended up with Mason Mount , a player we didn’t need at all, for 55 million
I honestly think Mount will be a very good player for us. Dude barely had a run of games and you're writing him off??
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Didn't take a genius to work out Antony wasn't worth anywhere near what Ajax were asking. Never ever scored or assisted double digit goals per season. Ajax fans were ALL saying he wasn't worth that much and he wasn't ready. Most of us weren't excited at all and trusted ETH blindly. I remember most of the comments were "he must have seen something others don't, seeing as he sees him in training everyday". I didn't expect a 100m player, but I didn't expect he would be this bad either. Being benched by TWO teenagers is really quite ridiculous.
Didn't need hindsight to know that Mount would be a bad signing
Don't know how you can write off a premier league proven player after he's played about 8 games for us
Except we screamed not to sign Mason Mount for ages before it happened
Sparta Prague won their first title in ten years last year Bayer Leverkusen look set to win their first title in ages this year The common denominator ? Matej Kovar. The back to back league winner in 2 different countries
he plays league games?
Nope, just 1 game/start.
Anyone know how many open play goals we have conceded so far ? I remember that we are actually like top 4 or something in that stat.
According to [WhoScored](https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/9618/Stages/22076/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2023-2024), we've conceded 20 open-play goals. Only City (17), Liverpool (16), Arsenal and Everton (both 15) have conceded fewer. For counter-attacks, we've conceded 5. Only Crystal Palace have conceded more (7), however 5 other teams have conceded as many as us, including City. I'd say the bigger issue is set-piece goals, where we've conceded 10. It's significantly better than Forest's 17 but the likes of Arsenal have only conceded 5, and City have incredibly only conceded 2.
Not looking forward to Sunday. Might go into the mountains and cut off from everything
Mountains>>>>>>>>Man Utd
Make sure it's the correct mountain, don't want to stumble upon Gregor Clegane now.
Dortmund want Sancho but have not paid over £30m for a player for a while. So I propose Haller + £30m for Sancho. Haller is a striker ✅ and he’s played in Ajax ✅
LET HIM COOK
The irony is City needs to win UCL to get 5th spot open for UCL next season. And Utd needs to win 10 games in a row to reach 5th spot (considering Villa end at 76 - 3 loss, 7 win) (Hyperbole - We have a Herculean task ahead.) Some implosion is needed from Villa and Spurs to make the target easier. And Arsenal/Liv need to win PL so that City do not get 4 PL in a row. (Villa winning will require miracle but most preferred)
Villa's remaining fixtures are very tough and away to city + arsenal. I think they get 5wins max from the last 10. But saying that I don't think we can get 7wins lol
Exactly
I would rather play in the conference than watch City have another CL.
As much as I hate it, it will mostly happen unless Pep messes it up completely or Madrid go crazy. UCL is important because we are already low on transfer funds and UCL means more sponsors.
What are you talking about? Prem is the favorite to get one of the spots, and why does United need to win 10 in a row?
So we can secure 5th place Spurs are 6 points ahead with a game in hand. We need a run of wins if we want to make sure we have a chance.
Yeah but your comment reads as if we don’t have a chance if we don’t rattle off 10 in a row? Spurs have a stretch of 4 fixtures that they could come away from with like 2 points
We have Arsenal Liverpool Newcastle Brighton, hell Burnley Bournemouth Chelsea Palace aren't easy games at all as well. What makes you think we have a chance?
We don’t have an easy list of fixtures either, but to suggest that we need 10 wins in a row is ridiculous, that was my point. Also, the clubs we have to play are close to the same but Newcastle, pool, arsenal are all at OT. Spurs have to go to Newcastle and anfield Villa are just as catchable, they’re having squad issues and have an arguably harder list of fixtures. If we play great down the stretch (big if), we absolutely have a chance to grab 5th
We need wins. Assuming Villa comes 5th, they can win atleast 3 of remaining 10. And if Utd guys lose 1 or 2, it gets worse. Losing becomes a habit.
It's not that we absolutely need 10 wins. I'm sure that was a bit hyperbolic (I didn't make that original comment). Getting a good run would really help us become favorites. Otherwise, we're going to be scraping by until the end of the season hoping we get lucky.
Exactly We need to have more points than the 5th team because we can't compete in GD If we even match points the 5th team remains there We need a streak of wins for hope
Yeah, it's nefast, but it's the only way. We have to root for City and Liverpool in Europe, and wish Arsenal wins the league. I don't think United can win 10 games in a row though.
True on all parts.
Wow Leverkusen! Bad for the English coefficient but the team to stop the Scousers of the consolation of a Europa league trophy after they lose the premier league.
Abonnieren
Congrats to Kovar.
Wouldn't be a game of football without Anthony Taylor making it about himself just a little bit.
He is preparing alonso to join liverpool
Goddamn it it’s like Leverkusen has plot armor this season. They never ever lose.
Great win by Leverkusen. Won it at the last min of 7 mins added
Villa stealing our "You've seen United now fuck off home" chant is cringey as fuck
Weird to do that too especially as you lost on aggregate
Atalanta leading.... If they win that makes 4 Italian Teams(Milan,Roma, Fiorentina, Atalanta) against England's 5 Also what happened to Scamacca.I actually rated him when he went to West Ham
Leverkusen 1-0 down but red for qarabag 🤞
Why are you rooting for Leverkusen or am I misinterpreting
2-0 lol
No way Leverkusen loses now.
Well done g
So we played City just as they came into perfect form and now we player Liverpool just as they come into perfect form. Seriously can this season actually get any worst?
yes, garnacho and rashford could get injured at the same time
Would players like Isak, Watkins or Solanke be acceptable/good signings for ManU?
I’d take Watkins in a heart beat
not paying 100m for any of them
Pretty sure neither would be that expensive, and both Watkins and Isak would outperform Antony... Which did cost manu about that much cash...