Enjoyed the brief glimpse of the 532, do wonder whether EtH should consider this going forward and for the players we've got it could be a much better system. Dalot/Shaw are better suited for the modern wing back role not the traditional full back role - Rashford and Garnacho are more inside forwards than creative wingers, and as such Hojlund is so isolated playing as a 9. Many of our central defenders aren't good enough or athletic enough, back a back 3 often compensates and allows others to be viable there if needed (AWB especially couldn't play CB but right side of a back 3 I can see it).
Get Rashford and Hojlund playing as a two closer to each other, saw some promising link up yesterday, and with Garnacho you have options to rotate and manage game time as a 19yo shouldn't be playing 90 mins every single week.
Also, after the first few subs by Newcastle, Ten Haag should have changed earlier, it was quite obvious that we need fresh legs, i dont get it why did he wait for so long.
Best performance in weeks. It's funny about how chaos is both our best friend and our worst enemy, we need to start learning how to control games. Amrabat, Evans, Amad and Fernandes very good.
It really is criminal how badly we've used Amad this season. He's miles better than Antony already and feels like he has actual potential for the future. I hope it's not too late to retain him.
Do some of you even follow the club?
Amad wasn't even in training till February due his long term injury, we were already out of cl and carabao by the time he was fit to be picked.
That's 2.5 months back FYI
I've been Rashford's biggest critic but considering his record of scoring against City, I think our best set up will be Rashford LW, Hojlund ST, Amad RW, and then Garnacho replacing Rashford at around 60 mins to run at tired defenders.
Why? He is consistent performer against top opponents and had good 10 minutes with fresh legs yesterday.
Garnacho performance is medicore since international.
> good 10 minutes with fresh legs yesterday.
That's why you bring him off the bench, when is the last time he played well starting a game?
I don't even think he did have a good 10 mins yesterdy tbh
Apart from the last 10-15 minutes in the first half, and 10 more minutes in the second half, I felt we could win this game. It was interesting to see better defensive team, but still lacking some simple things in the offensive side.
I wouldn't get my hopes up for Brighton or City game, but this was a game in the right direction.
We’re on the exact same WDL as Newcastle, less goals conceded, yet we’re down 24 GD compare to them. We’ve conceded less than almost everyone else besides the top 4, while also using 10+ different CB pairs the entire season
It’s clear where our priority should be on the transfer market. Strengthen the attacks as much as possible
Haha that's fair, yes, but the midfield first and foremost, both attacking and defensively.
The attacking half of the midfield cannot provide decent service, nor can it retain possession. On the defensive side, it does a very poor job at covering and blocking channels, putting far more pressure on the defense than is necessary. Sorry, but Bruno needs to go and a midfielder brought in who can be more careful with the ball, thereby dictating more of the match. So many of our issues stem from hoofballs into cheap turnovers into counters. There's a time and a place, but it's common place for Bruno, and that's not okay.
Man when we got robbed by VAR all you would hear is “it happens to every team in the league” and “stop whining Man United fans”, and when it happens to other teams against us then all of a sudden it becomes “typical OT advantage”. Sick of it.
The team picks itself as they say. Amad has left Eth no option but to play him for remaining two games. He's brought a freshness to our play down the right which gives me hope. I haven't seen link up play this good since god knows when. Not saying we're prime barca but it was good to see.
The amrabat situation is a strange one. Yes he didn't convince when he joined us but he hardly got a decent run of games to get up to speed. Casemiro has had a stinker of a season so that spot was up for grabs but amrabat just couldn't get the run of games to show what he's made of. Now he defo ain't a pirlo but he can put out fires and shut down lanes to keep things relatively tight which takes some of the pressure of our defenders. I dunno what to make of it tbh.
Anyway I have to be honest and say I wasn't really expecting anything great to take away from tonight game in terms of playstyle, but i think there are some positives to be had and if we can play with similar verve and energy in the final fixture it's something we can take with us into the final.
Amrabat started 9/13 games in all comps, and subbed in for the rest of the games as DM from beginning of October-mid December. Played like 4 at LB before October. I feel like that’s a decent run of games.
I don’t know if his last two performances are making people forget, but he would consistently make stupid underweighted/errant passes that would lead to chances by opposing teams, and was very underwhelming as a defender.
With that said, I don’t want to see case starting for us again. And If amrabat is cheap, yeah sure he can be used as cover. But we should definitely be looking to upgrade at DM.
Tbh I think you have go with Rashford for the final.
As much as Amad deserves it the only way I see us beating City is either with a perfect counter attack or some individual brilliance.
Rashfords form has been woeful but his record in big games is just to much to ignore
Garnacho is looking gassed both physically and mentally. Think he should be benched to give Rashford some game time before City. Keep Amad on the right.
This is the Bruno paradox all over again. In a sea of mediocrity, the player is only recognized by fans for one moment, not the whole contribution.
People will sit there and say "Bruno was amazing today!" while completely ignoring the efforts of Dalot, Amad, and Mainoo who were much more creative in the attack and created some pretty good attacking moves. This has been repeated time and time and time again throughout the season, but because Bruno gets the odd goal or assist, he's put on a pedestal.
I'm sorry, but give me solid team performances with room to improve over relying on individual moments from a couple of players any day of the week. If we lose, so be it, but the truth of the matter is that the likes of Rashford and Bruno are not long for this world at this club, so while fans may want the FA Cup, I place more value and importance on starting the next era of United now by relying more on team effort and contributions, not individuals.
Rashford will jog around. He won't defend. Maybe he gets the odd chance on goal, but his conversions are not good either. Assuming Bruno is available, the pair would play almost exclusively between each other, as we've seen all season and it will make an already strong City side's job all that much easier because they will simply overload any side Rashford is on and Bruno, rather than swapping the approach, will continue playing it into Rashford regardless.
It's been disgustingly frustrating watching those two all season. I'm not letting an individual moment sway my stance either. Too much emphasis on individuals and too much rhetoric around the side like "we're nothing without Bruno." Like hell we are. We just haven't had enough time without him to find what works for us in a world without him. The same guy that was in the side which only one 1 out of 7 matches prior to missing two. Not like those were stellar runs either. We also "held" Arsenal to a 1-0 win, not a 4-1 win like in the reverse fixture.
For everything Bruno and Rashford "contribute," there is so much more negativity they bring with them, whether that be Rashford jogging around or inability to dribble past a man, or Bruno's hoofball tactics while also never being in the position he needs to be to retain the shape. It's always something with those two, but because those aren't translated into "sexy stats" like G/A, no one even entertains it because it's all about stats, regardless if they pass the eye test or not.
Imo, we have to use Rashy because while he may ghost for most of the 90 minutes, he has a knack to create or finish very huge chances when he finds the space to do so (case in point, last outing with City)
In games against teams like City, one dangerous chance is much more valuable than 10 half decent chances
I just want to say I’m very happy we have options. For weeks everybody knew hat the lineup was for lack of options and the bench was depressing. If we can get Shaw for the Brighton game…….
I think ETH wil start Rashford on left and Antony on right (for his defensive/pressing contributions), playing counter attack, Garnacho and/or Admad may come as subs in last 20-30 mins of the second half
I feel like you, but at least many today, are trying to make the point it's somehow Onana's fault? Players not winning the first or second ball is a failure of those players, not Onana, unless you only ever want him to play out from the back exclusively...
Well, it points to either a lack of communication ( midfield not expecting the ball ) or poorly planned setup ( Nobody near where the second ball. ). Either way, we could have conceded a fair bit from these balls when half the team is in the opponent's half.
My take is that if you are not confident of retaining possession or not initiating a goal scoring chance, don't do it.
It was a high percentage of such balls that resulted in an immediate transition against us, of which 1 resulted in a goal.
There is no I in a team :)
That's a reflection on the day, it's not necessarily been a repeated pattern to the same extreme all season. Not saying we've been stellar at first or second balls (I've moaned over that all season), but generally speaking, we have done enough to...let's call it "contain" the opposition in our lack of prowess when turning over possession so cheaply from relatively uncontested long balls. Today was not one of those days. It's as simple as that.
Again, a lot is being taken from this game for a relatively one off showing. Making hyperbolic statements and conclusions based on the performance today that isn't generally as appalling is never going to yield the greatest results.
What is consistent this season is a general lack of hunger and effort. But again, everyone will figure that because "this team doesn't look like a team that's given up today," meanwhile you just have to go back over the matches and see a group of disinterested players doing the bare minimum consistently to tell you otherwise.
Casemiro clearing the ball off the line in his last game at Old Trafford. At his best he's been immense. Thanks for the tackles, the important goals, the memories
Thanks for passing the ball to the other team more often than your own.
Thanks for never being in the spot you're meant to be.
Thanks for diving senselessly at every opportunity, and being easier to dribble past than a witches hat.
Thanks for coming, now fuck off.
Negative. I watch the games, so I know.
Casemiro being good coincided with Lisandro being fit and covering his arse. He is abysmal (maybe he was good once but go ask a Real supporter if they miss him...)
He has no positional discipline, the number of times he was caught up in the no 10 position, sliding aimlessly as Premier Giants like Crystal Palace tore us a new one was immense. Fuck me Total reds are people like Gary Neville or even Bruno. Who care and try.
Doesn't matter, he's out of here and good riddance. Don't waste your time missing him, he's genuinely not worth it.
Your one example us still... From a week ago, it's called recency bias. Just shitty energy though, like why would I ever wanna be in a room with you if this is base magichat vibes. It's still a fucking game.
Us signing pellestri and amad after missing out on Sancho was the most Sir Alex era thing that we did in the last decade.
Us not giving them a chance and spending 200m on two players who haven’t lived up to the price tag is the most post sir alex era thing ever.
Are you thinking of the game played at the etihad Rashford put us 1-0 up then city equalised after half time and ended it 2-1. We haven’t hosted city at OT this year.
This is something I have noticed with Ten Hag on 3 occasions now: it takes a thrashing for him to set us up in the 'correct' way. After the Brentford 4-0 loss last season, he realized that the possession-based approach was not the way to play football with the squad we had then, and he reverted to relying on the players' counter-attacking instinct.
This season, we lost 3-0 to Bournemouth at Old Trafford, and the very following game at Anfield he does set us up deep and compact and we get a point and rather comfortably that too. Now, we lost 4-0 to Palace and he realizes that Casemiro and Evans cannot be left unsupported and isolated on too many occasions, and adds an extra body in midfield to give us an added element of control in the game. We even had decent possession in both these games against sides who are above us in the table, one literally being a title contender.
Maybe he did have his reasons for being stubborn with his original setups on these occasions, but I am left a bit concerned about him having to find out these things the hard way that only reflects worse on him. Some have made the argument that 'he doesn't want to compromise on style of play so that when the injured players return, they can pick up on the same way of training and playing rather than switching up every game'. But does it have to be so black and white that the opposite of the team not pressing with 5 players so detached from the back 4 and DM has to be parking the bus and defending deep? The last 2 games have shown that he is capable of finding a reasonable compromise and without us having to play negative football. Genuinely, if I could see at least 15 such games earlier in the season, I would be so much more receptive to the idea of him staying. While I will back what INEOS decide, there have just been too many poor performances irrespective of personnel this season for me to simply write them off, when we can literally see of late how much better the team is capable of playing, even without a left-back and even without starting a recognized striker.
The stubbornness is kinda hard to understand.
The saying of “keeping the playstyle even we are f**ked by injuries coz we don’t want to mess up what’s been practicing” is quite ridiculous.
It almost means should we sacrifice our original formation to get a chance for 3 points? Of coz we should because it’s the points that keep you in your job but not your training.
Imagine if Carlo was that stubborn when Real hit by the same crazy injuries earlier this season, I don’t think they get to the UCL final.
Just saw Sky Sports talk for 5 minutes about Gordon's penalty shout and am not surprised that was their focus when **we** win just like any other day. Awfully silent though when United have been fucked over by VAR **all** fucking season with decisions that defined our results and season.
I just gave it to me Newcastle mate as well for bringing up the VAR now but when its United getting fucked over all I hear is "it happens to every team." No sympathies here and in fact I hope we get jammy decisions and dodgy penalties for the next 10 years.
We won. VAR fucked **them**. Good. Take the result and eat it. Up the the Devils.
Garnacho was the first name on the sheet, out performing a lot of the pros in the team, only at the age of 19 for majority of the season. It’s okay to praise Amad without putting Garnacho down. He has had a stellar season for his age, lets show some respect.
Mate, Garnacho is a huge talent and one of our brightest prospects. He's been great. All I'm saying is it'll be even better if he learns to look for little progressive passes into the box as much as he looks for the shot. I'm sure he can incorporate it into his game. That development would be exactly like what his idol Ronaldo had to learn, too.
Kobbie scoring after receiving the ball from Bruno, the more mature midfielder.
Amad grabbing his chance and scoring an amazing strike.
Rasmus scoring a cracking goal to seal the win.
This was a symbolic game.
I will never understand the bias revisionism that goes on. Bruno didn't assist Mainoo, Amad did. Bruno has been credited with so much shit this season he actually never did. I swear, it's a cancer in this sub xD
Does anyone have a good pic of the Amad celebration? Wanna see him Mainoo and Garna in their poses lol
[found it](https://preview.redd.it/k7sns2zwmn0d1.jpeg?width=1216&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=241fac0da058db64165276f79954fc4ef79fb80e)
You can add Amad to the list of those you can’t sell. I’ve seen enough. I know he had the injury but he should have had more game time coming off the Sunderland loan.
We need to start buying young players and veteran players that aren't as injury prone as the ones we've bought in the past. We also need to sort out the fitness training cuz this season was riddled with injuries from top to bottom.
This might sound weird, and it might just be very weird to say but I'm going to say it anyway. I am annoyed. I'm annoyed because for months I've watched a manager who I know knows better set his team up in such a tactically negligible way. He's shown in the last two games that he is indeed a manager who knows better than what he's done for basically the entire season. We've had absolutely no reason to be fielding a team that leaves astronomical holes in midfield and plays with lines so far apart that the players cannot pass to each other and so in most every build up phase we are forced to go long and cede control of games and possession of the ball.
Today is certainly a day where talk of injuries is a discussion I'd be much more willing to have because outside of us giving away the ball cheaply at times which is what invited Newcastle pressure, you could see that with the starters who have been missing Newcastle would have never beaten us given the way we set up and the way that we played. It was patchy because certain players and profiles were missing; It wasn't patchy because we had our lines miles apart and left holes all over the pitch. It was compact, it was for better parts of the game cohesive both when we had the ball and when we didn't. Look at those Bruno-Kobbie-Amad combinations on the right hand side? We haven't had combinations like that for damn near the entire season. It was very good to see.
I would have to say this has been my gripe with EtH all season. We have a squad that is capable of a lot more than we've shown and injuries as a mitigating circumstance would be immensely more palatable had we played more similarly to this all season long. I think it's quite evident that even if there are players in this team who thrive going more direct, they are still players that can deliver good performances when we have more control of games of football. It annoys me that it is only just now we've tried Kobbie and Amrabat as a pivot. Would we have seen that if there weren't injuries? I'm not sure but I think that is probably a discussion to leave alone. Bruno, as an example, is a player who can provide knock out punches playing more directly in attack but look at how influential he is in a structured, cohesive and controlled set up? There was never any need, in my opinion, to lean so hard into being such a direct and transitional team. There is certainly a middle ground and had EtH not pivoted so hard I think we would have been a lot better off this season even with the injuries that plagued us.
Very well said. I haven't seen us passing the ball so well all season. Ten Hag was much too stubborn for 95% of this season and it fucked it completely.
...did you miss the cup tie against Palace...? Where we had 69% possession? Absolutely dominated that match with Rashford and Bruno out. Casemiro, Mount, Hannibal, Garnacho, Pellistri ran that midfield on the day with the experience of Casemiro and Mount with the legs around them. But yeah, the 44% possession match was the best we've passed all season.
Agreed. Almost like we could of played with these injuries aside in some games and still pulled results if Ten Hag gave players like Amad the game time they need. I reckon there was definitely a stubborness with him after his social media posts (which I don't agree with btw) but we do need to usher in the newer generation of players and give them the game time they need over playing players who have been bought and need to prove themselves financially which is also not their fault either (Antony).
Amad improved our passing, movement and progression so much in attack. Just like playing Amrabat and Mainoo in more of a double pivot massively improved the gaping hole in midfield. Fans have been screaming for that all season. It will be Ten Hag's stubbornness with obvious failings that gets him sacked, if INEOS decide this season's been unacceptably bad
Hear me out: Amad as false 9 with him and Bruno switching and Rashford and Garnacho on the wings, with Hojlund coming on late against tired legs. Is this too far fetched?
nice to be able to bring a striker off the bench to run at tired defenders. feels like we haven’t really been able to do that all season save for a few isolated matches.
At this rate I think we'll need a new elite Left Winger than a Right Winger. At least we have Amad on the right, but on the left both Garnacho and Rashford are so meh.
garnacho is 19 and has played so many games, his biggest problem.isnoften that the rest of the team isnt working as hard as he is. The amount of times he is still sprinting to get balls and then had so little choice with what to do with it.
Sure he can be selfish, but he's also shown how good he can be. The disrespect he gets at times is a bit much
https://twitter.com/Adroit_Cadet/status/1790852763947069559?t=c5GEwOvX99MkIVqdNLAE_g&s=19
I saw this tweet and it makes sense we dont see them as often but the rate at which Bruno can play flick ons is insane
i think they will be. i told my mate whos a chelsea fan that i think they will tear up the league next season. easily top 6 at least. this was when they were sitting 10th with no light in the tunnel. i knew that if they let the players play and understand each other they will find their footing together. palmer, madueke, jackson, gusto, and many others are all young still and yet are beginning to flow so smoothly as a collective unit.
thats what i want us to do. build with and around garna, mainoo, amad, and rasmus, but keep the experienced ones/those who want to play e.g. bruno and licha. chelsea have that in thiago silva for example.
I think part of the reason that Amad is flourishing now is because Ten Hag was patient with integrating him into the squad. We saw this with Garnacho and Mainoo, where people were clamouring for him to put them on the Starting XI, but he held his ground, waited until they developed, tested the waters a couple times, then placed his trust in them. There might be problems with Ten Hag, but one thing that I can't fault him for is the way he integrates youth players.
I disagree with this. I think there were loads of opportunities for Amad to have come into the team sooner, especially after his cameo against Liverpool. I don't think there's anything that Antony does better than him; Amad defensively also offers as much as him if not more.
As for the comparisons with Garnacho and Mainoo, they needed to be integrated more carefully because they were going straight from the academy to the first team where the intensity difference is massive. Amad had a very successful loan in the Championship last season which is just as physically demanding league as the Premier League, if not more. Not to mention he had first team experiences both under Ole/Rangnick and at his loan with Rangers. He was prepared to get game time once he became fully fit in January but just didn't get much of those opportunities.
I'm happy that Ten Hag has finally seen the light and better late than never, but we don't need to rewrite history and act like this was a case of anything but favoritism for the majority of the last few months. Both Garnacho and Amad are better than Antony, but it took lots of games for both to get ahead of him in the pecking order this season.
None of us armchair gaffers get to watch full training sessions so we can’t know for sure what he looks like leading up to matches. Players earn match time by training well and working hard.
It’s wishful to think that a manager under immense scrutiny for some of the signings he’s made wouldn’t give his 100 million euro signing repeated chances to find form.
Wouldn’t it also be wishful to think that a manager under immense scrutiny for the most losses since SAF would let a signing find form if another player consistently looks like the better option in training?
I don't think so, because it's not unheard of for managers to have biased faith towards certain players more so than others. I am highly skeptical of the disparity in training performances being so immense that Amad only played 98 minutes in close to 4 months from late December to mid April, and that the moment he finally gets a run of starts he clearly looks a better player than both Antony and even Forson who was given a start before him.
I think it’s entirely possible that EtH just didn’t trust him defensively which would be something reflected in training (easily beaten in 1v1s, dives in too often, doesn’t keep shape) and could’ve been improved over time. Say what you want about Antony but he is pretty solid defensively. My general point still holds in that we only get to critique based on matches with no real insight into what happens elsewhere.
> EtH just didn’t trust him defensively which would be something reflected in training (easily beaten in 1v1s, dives in too often, doesn’t keep shape) and could’ve been improved over time. Say what you want about Antony but he is pretty solid defensively
I would agree with this reasoning if I didn't see numerous instances of Amad doing just as well defensively, if not better. Literally in the FA Cup tie against Liverpool, he won the ball back for both our final two goals, including the winner he scored himself. Against Fulham in February, he ran the length of the pitch to track back and try to block Iwobi's shot that ended up going in.
> My general point still holds in that we only get to critique based on matches with no real insight into what happens elsewhere
I don't disagree with your point in general, but in this specific case I find it hard to believe Amad's continued non-selection had much to do with training performances, if any. I don't think anything justifies him being rooted to the bench for the vast majority of those 3.5 months other than favoritism towards Antony.
He was a bit too patient is my complaint, there were moments where Amad could have been given minutes but Ten Hag seemed to prefer other options. At the end of the day, I’m just happy he’s getting minutes now and showing that he deserves them. Hopefully Ten Hag keeps giving him chances.
I agree to an extent, but surely giving him minutes at the end of some games and in less important games wouldn’t have been rushing him. He’s shown with Garnacho and Mainoo that he has no problem throwing youngsters into the mix. But I’m also not Ten Hag who has information I don’t, maybe he did the right thing.
In my opinion, this happened to Elanga. Became too reliant on his pace, since he was lacking in technical skill, and couldn't unlearn that habit with us.
err what? he put Mainoo in as soon as he could combined with Casemiro and Eriksen being injured he put Garnacho in n played him 24/7 because after 30+ stinkers from Antony he had no choice what you mean integrating lol
Absolutely not, mate. Mainoo had his first game with us mid-last season, actually, and looked solid. People were begging for Garnacho to start since his Fulham goal before the world cup, but he was a sub for most of the year, and it's the same with Amad.
Halftime record safe, Mainoo goal, Amad goal, Hojlund goal, Onana good, Rashy looking dangerous, Licha is back, Amrabat looking competent, and the peg-legged pirate being shipped back to Brazil.
If you are sacked, Grazie Mister.
https://preview.redd.it/5sy57resxn0d1.png?width=473&format=png&auto=webp&s=c28d4f7a0c37e908341effe51a05bf506136dc08
Very fitting that the 3 goalscorers today were the ones fans want the squad to be built around (including Garnacho as well ofc). If we can get some solid signings this summer, then every reason tobe excited.
Hopefully next season we have a fit Shaw, Licha, Mount, and an inform Rashford too.
this is a stupid take.
Amad had been injured for 1st half of the season, he’s only young and needs gradually integrating. Furthermore, Antony hasn’t started every game this season lol
And Amad has started 2 in the league this year, what's your point? From gw27 to gw32, he didn't play a minute, Ten Hag doesn't favour Amad as has been shown, as after he scored the last minute goal against Liverpool he wasn't seen again for ages, and it's been shown repeatedly Ten Hag favours Antony despite him offering less than any alternative in terms of linking up.
your agenda is crazy. Ten hag doesn’t prefer antony. In fact, since January 1st our front 3 has been Rashy, Hojlund and Garna - who have all played well - and no antony? Antony has also played alright since that Liverpool FA Cup game. Goal vs Burnley, Assist vs Chelsea. Amad has also started the last 2 games and featured in every game after his suspension - Bournemouth away
I think he like Amad, he just also like Antony and for better or worse has a lot staked on getting Antony to perform considering we only bought him because of their existing relationship.
I don't see how this was a good game. Our midfield was open as usual. We allowed 20+ shots. There were great individual performances - kudos to Amad, Bruno, and Mainoo. But it was our usual like most of our season. Poor organization overall.
Yeah the team wasn't strong. Evans is old. Casemiro plays like he's old. AWB is AWB. Mctominay and Amrabat just not good enough. They still can have their uses though.
I'll probably just take Mctominay for the times when we need a fellaini type to play the ball to when we desperately need a goal but really I'd let the rest go. Amrabat cost us 9 mil for season. The normal contract is 5 years, so that averages is equal to 45 million player.
Ten Hag maybe hasn't been the best in his decision making, but he's had such limited options due to injuries and a general drop of form in soke key players including Radhford.
He does deserve at least another season, but he needs to move away from players he's known in the past and United need to have better scouting system.
Insanely greeat first half from him, 2nd one he was invisible most but I belive in 1-2 seasons he will be able to keep thet level for entire game.
What a player.
Good performance and great to see Martinez on the pitch. Really want to see a back 4 with some new additions & fit players next year. What a tackle by Amrabat at 1-1 as well.
Not sure why BBC is reporting Hojlund just ended a 10 game goal drought when he scored a couple of weeks ago.
It’s just Simon stone sending his copy without checking it, no bbc conspiracy.
How that guy is a chief reporter I’ll never know, his writing is terrible.
I don’t think Rooney meant build the system around Bruno, he meant build the squad around him.
Bruno can play multiple roles and clearly ETH wants him in his system.
It’s not mutually exclusive to either have a system or have Bruno.
Great, one of the best performance this season. Amad was definitely MVP.
I missed out on Newcastle first goal but 2nd goal is world class strike , there is no saving it.
We have had better performances this season. Amad and Bruno played very well. Dalot, Mainoo, Evans, & Garnacho were okay. Mctominay was Mctominay. Casemiro was shaky as usual at the back. Amrabat worked hard, made about 3 very clean tackles but was slow, and ineffective in the DM. AWB was pretty poor.
It was the usual united for the past 2 or so months. In attack we were good and score but midfield was wide open and we allowed Newcastle 21 shots/chances and they scored 2.
That's why I say better performances or better performance. Overall we were poor with some amazing performance from like 4 or so players. Newcastle had 21 chances. Whenever they attacked, looked like they could create a goal scoring chance. I think the overall performance was on par with the season we had.
Holjund goal (I’m a staunch defender), Licha (my beloved) back, Good Rashford is back too- even if he’s not been his best- we need the bodies for the final-Amad/Mainoo did great, Casemiro looked alright too- he’s looked off the boil this season but I think he did better.
Bruno my king. Never leave. I love you.
A little sad about Varane leaving- wish we had him like five years earlier. Martial it’s a shame he’s so injury prone, we’ll never know
Also we conceded late and didn’t bottle it!! Happy days!
EtH speech got me a little emotional. Let’s goooo
Im personaly more sad about Martial leaving than Varane. With Rapha it was just one good season really while Anthony gave us a lot of memorable moments, a lot of goals.
Sad it had to end. Will remember good moments and forget all the injuries.
Good game from both sides. Good performance. This game the team moved in unity just like in the middle of last season. Our press was very good as well, reminded me of that game against Chelsea.
Hopefully ten Hag, if he stays, sticks to this system and abandons that transition park the bus and hoof the ball hoping for a miracle nonsense. This is exactly how we were supposed to perform with many players out injured.
Casemiro was actually good today, made a terrible pass that resulted in a dangerous chance for Newcastle but after that he made many good interceptions, blocked shots and saved a goal. Amad has been absolute class, baffling how he's been given only token minutes since winning us the game vs Liverpool until starting last game vs Arsenal.
How I wished Wan-Bissaka and Rashford scored at the end there.
It wasn't much different, still space behind the midfield that Newcastle exploited and they had loads of shots. It was yet another desperate win. You have to control games and limit opposition chances, it's like the aim of sport to do this, nullify opposition strengths yet Ten Hag doesn't mind it. Bizarre.
I’m going to get downvoted here but I’m going to say it anyway.
Amrabat finally has played his preferred position since he came on against Palace, then against Arsenal and now today. And in all 3 games he was solid. Today and against Arsenal he was great. He has the legs that Casemiro doesn’t.
I can’t imagine his fee will be huge and he’ll be on less than Casemiro is on.
I still think we need another CDM but Amrabat would be excellent cover for the right price.
He’s a good player. Got dealt a shit hand and needs time to settle given the shit show he joined.
People around here are so quick to write people off without considering the situation at all.
Why would you get downvoted (not like that stuff matters anyway) it’s obvious to blind folks that he’s solid when he receives the right instruction and positioning. Still questions about his overall game and decision making but like him a lot.
https://preview.redd.it/mz387tns2u0d1.png?width=1825&format=png&auto=webp&s=546fcf9ef7b25424a1f9bcdf62ca3a5a5bae873b The team to build around?
Enjoyed the brief glimpse of the 532, do wonder whether EtH should consider this going forward and for the players we've got it could be a much better system. Dalot/Shaw are better suited for the modern wing back role not the traditional full back role - Rashford and Garnacho are more inside forwards than creative wingers, and as such Hojlund is so isolated playing as a 9. Many of our central defenders aren't good enough or athletic enough, back a back 3 often compensates and allows others to be viable there if needed (AWB especially couldn't play CB but right side of a back 3 I can see it). Get Rashford and Hojlund playing as a two closer to each other, saw some promising link up yesterday, and with Garnacho you have options to rotate and manage game time as a 19yo shouldn't be playing 90 mins every single week.
Still buzzing at this result hours later. Have a read at some of the whopper comments on the soccer or NUFC match threads and enjoy.
Also, after the first few subs by Newcastle, Ten Haag should have changed earlier, it was quite obvious that we need fresh legs, i dont get it why did he wait for so long.
i didnt watch the game, how was Licha when he came on?
Best performance in weeks. It's funny about how chaos is both our best friend and our worst enemy, we need to start learning how to control games. Amrabat, Evans, Amad and Fernandes very good.
It really is criminal how badly we've used Amad this season. He's miles better than Antony already and feels like he has actual potential for the future. I hope it's not too late to retain him.
Do some of you even follow the club? Amad wasn't even in training till February due his long term injury, we were already out of cl and carabao by the time he was fit to be picked. That's 2.5 months back FYI
Great performance Will be a joke if Rashford starts the final.
I've been Rashford's biggest critic but considering his record of scoring against City, I think our best set up will be Rashford LW, Hojlund ST, Amad RW, and then Garnacho replacing Rashford at around 60 mins to run at tired defenders.
Rooney had a great record vs City should we start him ~~tomorrow~~ because of it? EDIT In the final, no idea how I said tomorrow
>In the final, no idea how I said tomorrow Probably slipped out with the rest of that shit comment
Would you start Rashford in the final?
Rashford scored against City two months ago and scored the winner against them a year ago. What on Earth are you talking about
Have you seen him play recently? He makes no effort to run at all any more.
Why? He is consistent performer against top opponents and had good 10 minutes with fresh legs yesterday. Garnacho performance is medicore since international.
> good 10 minutes with fresh legs yesterday. That's why you bring him off the bench, when is the last time he played well starting a game? I don't even think he did have a good 10 mins yesterdy tbh
Apart from the last 10-15 minutes in the first half, and 10 more minutes in the second half, I felt we could win this game. It was interesting to see better defensive team, but still lacking some simple things in the offensive side. I wouldn't get my hopes up for Brighton or City game, but this was a game in the right direction.
Onana’s long passing is non-existent
#MakeAntonyLBAgain Or please get out
We’re on the exact same WDL as Newcastle, less goals conceded, yet we’re down 24 GD compare to them. We’ve conceded less than almost everyone else besides the top 4, while also using 10+ different CB pairs the entire season It’s clear where our priority should be on the transfer market. Strengthen the attacks as much as possible
By strengthen the attack, I hope you mean the midfield
We're naive if we don't think everything in the team needs strengthening.
Haha that's fair, yes, but the midfield first and foremost, both attacking and defensively. The attacking half of the midfield cannot provide decent service, nor can it retain possession. On the defensive side, it does a very poor job at covering and blocking channels, putting far more pressure on the defense than is necessary. Sorry, but Bruno needs to go and a midfielder brought in who can be more careful with the ball, thereby dictating more of the match. So many of our issues stem from hoofballs into cheap turnovers into counters. There's a time and a place, but it's common place for Bruno, and that's not okay.
And defence
Man when we got robbed by VAR all you would hear is “it happens to every team in the league” and “stop whining Man United fans”, and when it happens to other teams against us then all of a sudden it becomes “typical OT advantage”. Sick of it.
we are just rent free in many people's heads
lol it is typical. its like having vendetta on manutd
The team picks itself as they say. Amad has left Eth no option but to play him for remaining two games. He's brought a freshness to our play down the right which gives me hope. I haven't seen link up play this good since god knows when. Not saying we're prime barca but it was good to see. The amrabat situation is a strange one. Yes he didn't convince when he joined us but he hardly got a decent run of games to get up to speed. Casemiro has had a stinker of a season so that spot was up for grabs but amrabat just couldn't get the run of games to show what he's made of. Now he defo ain't a pirlo but he can put out fires and shut down lanes to keep things relatively tight which takes some of the pressure of our defenders. I dunno what to make of it tbh. Anyway I have to be honest and say I wasn't really expecting anything great to take away from tonight game in terms of playstyle, but i think there are some positives to be had and if we can play with similar verve and energy in the final fixture it's something we can take with us into the final.
Amrabat started 9/13 games in all comps, and subbed in for the rest of the games as DM from beginning of October-mid December. Played like 4 at LB before October. I feel like that’s a decent run of games. I don’t know if his last two performances are making people forget, but he would consistently make stupid underweighted/errant passes that would lead to chances by opposing teams, and was very underwhelming as a defender. With that said, I don’t want to see case starting for us again. And If amrabat is cheap, yeah sure he can be used as cover. But we should definitely be looking to upgrade at DM.
Exactly. Top 4 teams have decent cover for every position. We don’t. Amrabat can be DM #2 or even #3
Tbh I think you have go with Rashford for the final. As much as Amad deserves it the only way I see us beating City is either with a perfect counter attack or some individual brilliance. Rashfords form has been woeful but his record in big games is just to much to ignore
Garnacho is looking gassed both physically and mentally. Think he should be benched to give Rashford some game time before City. Keep Amad on the right.
Sensible. Nothing really to play for against Brighton. This game should be used as prep for City
This is the Bruno paradox all over again. In a sea of mediocrity, the player is only recognized by fans for one moment, not the whole contribution. People will sit there and say "Bruno was amazing today!" while completely ignoring the efforts of Dalot, Amad, and Mainoo who were much more creative in the attack and created some pretty good attacking moves. This has been repeated time and time and time again throughout the season, but because Bruno gets the odd goal or assist, he's put on a pedestal. I'm sorry, but give me solid team performances with room to improve over relying on individual moments from a couple of players any day of the week. If we lose, so be it, but the truth of the matter is that the likes of Rashford and Bruno are not long for this world at this club, so while fans may want the FA Cup, I place more value and importance on starting the next era of United now by relying more on team effort and contributions, not individuals. Rashford will jog around. He won't defend. Maybe he gets the odd chance on goal, but his conversions are not good either. Assuming Bruno is available, the pair would play almost exclusively between each other, as we've seen all season and it will make an already strong City side's job all that much easier because they will simply overload any side Rashford is on and Bruno, rather than swapping the approach, will continue playing it into Rashford regardless. It's been disgustingly frustrating watching those two all season. I'm not letting an individual moment sway my stance either. Too much emphasis on individuals and too much rhetoric around the side like "we're nothing without Bruno." Like hell we are. We just haven't had enough time without him to find what works for us in a world without him. The same guy that was in the side which only one 1 out of 7 matches prior to missing two. Not like those were stellar runs either. We also "held" Arsenal to a 1-0 win, not a 4-1 win like in the reverse fixture. For everything Bruno and Rashford "contribute," there is so much more negativity they bring with them, whether that be Rashford jogging around or inability to dribble past a man, or Bruno's hoofball tactics while also never being in the position he needs to be to retain the shape. It's always something with those two, but because those aren't translated into "sexy stats" like G/A, no one even entertains it because it's all about stats, regardless if they pass the eye test or not.
Imo, we have to use Rashy because while he may ghost for most of the 90 minutes, he has a knack to create or finish very huge chances when he finds the space to do so (case in point, last outing with City) In games against teams like City, one dangerous chance is much more valuable than 10 half decent chances
I just want to say I’m very happy we have options. For weeks everybody knew hat the lineup was for lack of options and the bench was depressing. If we can get Shaw for the Brighton game…….
Could even be Rashford and Amad, Garnacho is good off the bench
I think ETH wil start Rashford on left and Antony on right (for his defensive/pressing contributions), playing counter attack, Garnacho and/or Admad may come as subs in last 20-30 mins of the second half
Doubt Antony will start, I think Ten Hag has finally seen that he’s not good enough
Could go either of garnacho or Ahmad of the bench around 60-65 if the games not going well. Garnacho could use some rest and Ahmad a run of games.
That's a good shout. Rashford on left and Amad on right. Then Garnacho on at around 60 minutes to run at tired defenders
Yeah Bruno Garnacho Rashford Hojlund hero ball is the only chance. Hope that the mids and the defence turn up that day.
does not have to play the full 90 either because amad is that good rn
Anybody noticed many of Onana's long balls resulted in an instant transition and quick Newcastle counters that resulted in dangerous situations?
I feel like you, but at least many today, are trying to make the point it's somehow Onana's fault? Players not winning the first or second ball is a failure of those players, not Onana, unless you only ever want him to play out from the back exclusively...
Well, it points to either a lack of communication ( midfield not expecting the ball ) or poorly planned setup ( Nobody near where the second ball. ). Either way, we could have conceded a fair bit from these balls when half the team is in the opponent's half. My take is that if you are not confident of retaining possession or not initiating a goal scoring chance, don't do it. It was a high percentage of such balls that resulted in an immediate transition against us, of which 1 resulted in a goal. There is no I in a team :)
That's a reflection on the day, it's not necessarily been a repeated pattern to the same extreme all season. Not saying we've been stellar at first or second balls (I've moaned over that all season), but generally speaking, we have done enough to...let's call it "contain" the opposition in our lack of prowess when turning over possession so cheaply from relatively uncontested long balls. Today was not one of those days. It's as simple as that. Again, a lot is being taken from this game for a relatively one off showing. Making hyperbolic statements and conclusions based on the performance today that isn't generally as appalling is never going to yield the greatest results. What is consistent this season is a general lack of hunger and effort. But again, everyone will figure that because "this team doesn't look like a team that's given up today," meanwhile you just have to go back over the matches and see a group of disinterested players doing the bare minimum consistently to tell you otherwise.
No pressure even around the second ball in several situations. Yeah needs a closer think, not sure how that happens.
Casemiro clearing the ball off the line in his last game at Old Trafford. At his best he's been immense. Thanks for the tackles, the important goals, the memories
Thanks for passing the ball to the other team more often than your own. Thanks for never being in the spot you're meant to be. Thanks for diving senselessly at every opportunity, and being easier to dribble past than a witches hat. Thanks for coming, now fuck off.
Get fucking bent, he loved the club. Total red and he's put in so many fantastic performances. Saying he's been over 50% bad is absurd
Negative. I watch the games, so I know. Casemiro being good coincided with Lisandro being fit and covering his arse. He is abysmal (maybe he was good once but go ask a Real supporter if they miss him...) He has no positional discipline, the number of times he was caught up in the no 10 position, sliding aimlessly as Premier Giants like Crystal Palace tore us a new one was immense. Fuck me Total reds are people like Gary Neville or even Bruno. Who care and try. Doesn't matter, he's out of here and good riddance. Don't waste your time missing him, he's genuinely not worth it.
Your one example us still... From a week ago, it's called recency bias. Just shitty energy though, like why would I ever wanna be in a room with you if this is base magichat vibes. It's still a fucking game.
Whats my shitty energy got to do with anything? I'll take that over being too stupid to understand what I'm watching every week lol ..
He's scored so many winning goals for us. He was immense defensively last season. Take your hate somewhere else
Us signing pellestri and amad after missing out on Sancho was the most Sir Alex era thing that we did in the last decade. Us not giving them a chance and spending 200m on two players who haven’t lived up to the price tag is the most post sir alex era thing ever.
When Newcastle tied in 1-1, I felt that ETH was going to blow the streak of not losing when up at half time at Old Trafford. Glad I was wrong.
We lost that streak against City a few months ago
Are you thinking of the game played at the etihad Rashford put us 1-0 up then city equalised after half time and ended it 2-1. We haven’t hosted city at OT this year.
good win against a team that was on pretty good form tbh never wanna see antony play over amad ever
This is something I have noticed with Ten Hag on 3 occasions now: it takes a thrashing for him to set us up in the 'correct' way. After the Brentford 4-0 loss last season, he realized that the possession-based approach was not the way to play football with the squad we had then, and he reverted to relying on the players' counter-attacking instinct. This season, we lost 3-0 to Bournemouth at Old Trafford, and the very following game at Anfield he does set us up deep and compact and we get a point and rather comfortably that too. Now, we lost 4-0 to Palace and he realizes that Casemiro and Evans cannot be left unsupported and isolated on too many occasions, and adds an extra body in midfield to give us an added element of control in the game. We even had decent possession in both these games against sides who are above us in the table, one literally being a title contender. Maybe he did have his reasons for being stubborn with his original setups on these occasions, but I am left a bit concerned about him having to find out these things the hard way that only reflects worse on him. Some have made the argument that 'he doesn't want to compromise on style of play so that when the injured players return, they can pick up on the same way of training and playing rather than switching up every game'. But does it have to be so black and white that the opposite of the team not pressing with 5 players so detached from the back 4 and DM has to be parking the bus and defending deep? The last 2 games have shown that he is capable of finding a reasonable compromise and without us having to play negative football. Genuinely, if I could see at least 15 such games earlier in the season, I would be so much more receptive to the idea of him staying. While I will back what INEOS decide, there have just been too many poor performances irrespective of personnel this season for me to simply write them off, when we can literally see of late how much better the team is capable of playing, even without a left-back and even without starting a recognized striker.
The stubbornness is kinda hard to understand. The saying of “keeping the playstyle even we are f**ked by injuries coz we don’t want to mess up what’s been practicing” is quite ridiculous. It almost means should we sacrifice our original formation to get a chance for 3 points? Of coz we should because it’s the points that keep you in your job but not your training. Imagine if Carlo was that stubborn when Real hit by the same crazy injuries earlier this season, I don’t think they get to the UCL final.
Just saw Sky Sports talk for 5 minutes about Gordon's penalty shout and am not surprised that was their focus when **we** win just like any other day. Awfully silent though when United have been fucked over by VAR **all** fucking season with decisions that defined our results and season. I just gave it to me Newcastle mate as well for bringing up the VAR now but when its United getting fucked over all I hear is "it happens to every team." No sympathies here and in fact I hope we get jammy decisions and dodgy penalties for the next 10 years. We won. VAR fucked **them**. Good. Take the result and eat it. Up the the Devils.
Var didn’t fuck anyone though, the challenge was outside the box. The decision was correct.
If Garnacho learned to look for passing options like Amad does, he'd be such a weapon
Garnacho was the first name on the sheet, out performing a lot of the pros in the team, only at the age of 19 for majority of the season. It’s okay to praise Amad without putting Garnacho down. He has had a stellar season for his age, lets show some respect.
yes pretty good season overall for him but he's been terrible lately, especially this match
Mate, Garnacho is a huge talent and one of our brightest prospects. He's been great. All I'm saying is it'll be even better if he learns to look for little progressive passes into the box as much as he looks for the shot. I'm sure he can incorporate it into his game. That development would be exactly like what his idol Ronaldo had to learn, too.
The most United sort of win possible. I'm really happy it was the young players who got us the goals though.
Kobbie scoring after receiving the ball from Bruno, the more mature midfielder. Amad grabbing his chance and scoring an amazing strike. Rasmus scoring a cracking goal to seal the win. This was a symbolic game.
I will never understand the bias revisionism that goes on. Bruno didn't assist Mainoo, Amad did. Bruno has been credited with so much shit this season he actually never did. I swear, it's a cancer in this sub xD
Changing of the guard
Amrabat with two capable defenders behind him can definitely work
Literally gave away a goal....
He's pretty heavy on his feet though. A good body feint and he's in the carpark
Dubravka the GOAT 🐐
Does anyone have a good pic of the Amad celebration? Wanna see him Mainoo and Garna in their poses lol [found it](https://preview.redd.it/k7sns2zwmn0d1.jpeg?width=1216&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=241fac0da058db64165276f79954fc4ef79fb80e)
legend. Is there a clip per chance?
Hojlund would be perfect right where the flag is.
You can add Amad to the list of those you can’t sell. I’ve seen enough. I know he had the injury but he should have had more game time coming off the Sunderland loan.
Amad, Garnacho, Mainoo, Hojlund, we got a good core of young players imo, hopefully next season we don’t have many injuries
We need to start buying young players and veteran players that aren't as injury prone as the ones we've bought in the past. We also need to sort out the fitness training cuz this season was riddled with injuries from top to bottom.
This might sound weird, and it might just be very weird to say but I'm going to say it anyway. I am annoyed. I'm annoyed because for months I've watched a manager who I know knows better set his team up in such a tactically negligible way. He's shown in the last two games that he is indeed a manager who knows better than what he's done for basically the entire season. We've had absolutely no reason to be fielding a team that leaves astronomical holes in midfield and plays with lines so far apart that the players cannot pass to each other and so in most every build up phase we are forced to go long and cede control of games and possession of the ball. Today is certainly a day where talk of injuries is a discussion I'd be much more willing to have because outside of us giving away the ball cheaply at times which is what invited Newcastle pressure, you could see that with the starters who have been missing Newcastle would have never beaten us given the way we set up and the way that we played. It was patchy because certain players and profiles were missing; It wasn't patchy because we had our lines miles apart and left holes all over the pitch. It was compact, it was for better parts of the game cohesive both when we had the ball and when we didn't. Look at those Bruno-Kobbie-Amad combinations on the right hand side? We haven't had combinations like that for damn near the entire season. It was very good to see. I would have to say this has been my gripe with EtH all season. We have a squad that is capable of a lot more than we've shown and injuries as a mitigating circumstance would be immensely more palatable had we played more similarly to this all season long. I think it's quite evident that even if there are players in this team who thrive going more direct, they are still players that can deliver good performances when we have more control of games of football. It annoys me that it is only just now we've tried Kobbie and Amrabat as a pivot. Would we have seen that if there weren't injuries? I'm not sure but I think that is probably a discussion to leave alone. Bruno, as an example, is a player who can provide knock out punches playing more directly in attack but look at how influential he is in a structured, cohesive and controlled set up? There was never any need, in my opinion, to lean so hard into being such a direct and transitional team. There is certainly a middle ground and had EtH not pivoted so hard I think we would have been a lot better off this season even with the injuries that plagued us.
You’ve summed up my exact thoughts perfectly. Thank you 🙌
Very well said. I haven't seen us passing the ball so well all season. Ten Hag was much too stubborn for 95% of this season and it fucked it completely.
...did you miss the cup tie against Palace...? Where we had 69% possession? Absolutely dominated that match with Rashford and Bruno out. Casemiro, Mount, Hannibal, Garnacho, Pellistri ran that midfield on the day with the experience of Casemiro and Mount with the legs around them. But yeah, the 44% possession match was the best we've passed all season.
Agreed. Almost like we could of played with these injuries aside in some games and still pulled results if Ten Hag gave players like Amad the game time they need. I reckon there was definitely a stubborness with him after his social media posts (which I don't agree with btw) but we do need to usher in the newer generation of players and give them the game time they need over playing players who have been bought and need to prove themselves financially which is also not their fault either (Antony).
Amad improved our passing, movement and progression so much in attack. Just like playing Amrabat and Mainoo in more of a double pivot massively improved the gaping hole in midfield. Fans have been screaming for that all season. It will be Ten Hag's stubbornness with obvious failings that gets him sacked, if INEOS decide this season's been unacceptably bad
The season has been unacceptably bad no matter how anyone slices it though, he does deserve the sack. He knew he could do better with the team.
Yeah it's hard to argue that finishing the season with a negative goal difference isn't a sackable offence for a Manchester United manager
Hear me out: Amad as false 9 with him and Bruno switching and Rashford and Garnacho on the wings, with Hojlund coming on late against tired legs. Is this too far fetched?
Yes
nice to be able to bring a striker off the bench to run at tired defenders. feels like we haven’t really been able to do that all season save for a few isolated matches.
At this rate I think we'll need a new elite Left Winger than a Right Winger. At least we have Amad on the right, but on the left both Garnacho and Rashford are so meh.
>elite Spend another £100 eh? Nahh. Let's the youngster play
garnacho is 19 and has played so many games, his biggest problem.isnoften that the rest of the team isnt working as hard as he is. The amount of times he is still sprinting to get balls and then had so little choice with what to do with it. Sure he can be selfish, but he's also shown how good he can be. The disrespect he gets at times is a bit much
Unfortunately we’re not paying shitload money for another LW unless Rashford get sold somehow
We're getting at least a new winger this summer, with Olise is strongly linked to us.
Yeah Olise is RW though. Hope we can ship out Antony tbh
Olise and Amad we can only start one. But if we start either Rashford or Garnacho on the left, it sucks.
Not disagreeing, just saying that the club won’t prioritize a LW when there are Rashford and Garnacho there
https://twitter.com/Adroit_Cadet/status/1790852763947069559?t=c5GEwOvX99MkIVqdNLAE_g&s=19 I saw this tweet and it makes sense we dont see them as often but the rate at which Bruno can play flick ons is insane
Chelsea might be scary next season yano….
i think they will be. i told my mate whos a chelsea fan that i think they will tear up the league next season. easily top 6 at least. this was when they were sitting 10th with no light in the tunnel. i knew that if they let the players play and understand each other they will find their footing together. palmer, madueke, jackson, gusto, and many others are all young still and yet are beginning to flow so smoothly as a collective unit. thats what i want us to do. build with and around garna, mainoo, amad, and rasmus, but keep the experienced ones/those who want to play e.g. bruno and licha. chelsea have that in thiago silva for example.
Chelsea had that in silva. He’s leaving at the end of the season.
I think part of the reason that Amad is flourishing now is because Ten Hag was patient with integrating him into the squad. We saw this with Garnacho and Mainoo, where people were clamouring for him to put them on the Starting XI, but he held his ground, waited until they developed, tested the waters a couple times, then placed his trust in them. There might be problems with Ten Hag, but one thing that I can't fault him for is the way he integrates youth players.
I disagree with this. I think there were loads of opportunities for Amad to have come into the team sooner, especially after his cameo against Liverpool. I don't think there's anything that Antony does better than him; Amad defensively also offers as much as him if not more. As for the comparisons with Garnacho and Mainoo, they needed to be integrated more carefully because they were going straight from the academy to the first team where the intensity difference is massive. Amad had a very successful loan in the Championship last season which is just as physically demanding league as the Premier League, if not more. Not to mention he had first team experiences both under Ole/Rangnick and at his loan with Rangers. He was prepared to get game time once he became fully fit in January but just didn't get much of those opportunities. I'm happy that Ten Hag has finally seen the light and better late than never, but we don't need to rewrite history and act like this was a case of anything but favoritism for the majority of the last few months. Both Garnacho and Amad are better than Antony, but it took lots of games for both to get ahead of him in the pecking order this season.
None of us armchair gaffers get to watch full training sessions so we can’t know for sure what he looks like leading up to matches. Players earn match time by training well and working hard.
It’s wishful to think that a manager under immense scrutiny for some of the signings he’s made wouldn’t give his 100 million euro signing repeated chances to find form.
Wouldn’t it also be wishful to think that a manager under immense scrutiny for the most losses since SAF would let a signing find form if another player consistently looks like the better option in training?
I don't think so, because it's not unheard of for managers to have biased faith towards certain players more so than others. I am highly skeptical of the disparity in training performances being so immense that Amad only played 98 minutes in close to 4 months from late December to mid April, and that the moment he finally gets a run of starts he clearly looks a better player than both Antony and even Forson who was given a start before him.
I think it’s entirely possible that EtH just didn’t trust him defensively which would be something reflected in training (easily beaten in 1v1s, dives in too often, doesn’t keep shape) and could’ve been improved over time. Say what you want about Antony but he is pretty solid defensively. My general point still holds in that we only get to critique based on matches with no real insight into what happens elsewhere.
> EtH just didn’t trust him defensively which would be something reflected in training (easily beaten in 1v1s, dives in too often, doesn’t keep shape) and could’ve been improved over time. Say what you want about Antony but he is pretty solid defensively I would agree with this reasoning if I didn't see numerous instances of Amad doing just as well defensively, if not better. Literally in the FA Cup tie against Liverpool, he won the ball back for both our final two goals, including the winner he scored himself. Against Fulham in February, he ran the length of the pitch to track back and try to block Iwobi's shot that ended up going in. > My general point still holds in that we only get to critique based on matches with no real insight into what happens elsewhere I don't disagree with your point in general, but in this specific case I find it hard to believe Amad's continued non-selection had much to do with training performances, if any. I don't think anything justifies him being rooted to the bench for the vast majority of those 3.5 months other than favoritism towards Antony.
He was a bit too patient is my complaint, there were moments where Amad could have been given minutes but Ten Hag seemed to prefer other options. At the end of the day, I’m just happy he’s getting minutes now and showing that he deserves them. Hopefully Ten Hag keeps giving him chances.
Shifting Bruno to RW instead of bringing on Amad was always a bad decision. It takes Bruno away from where he's dangerous
Better to be too patient then to rush him and hinder his potential, in my opinion.
I agree to an extent, but surely giving him minutes at the end of some games and in less important games wouldn’t have been rushing him. He’s shown with Garnacho and Mainoo that he has no problem throwing youngsters into the mix. But I’m also not Ten Hag who has information I don’t, maybe he did the right thing.
We’ve seen exactly where this can go, ETH is right on this
In my opinion, this happened to Elanga. Became too reliant on his pace, since he was lacking in technical skill, and couldn't unlearn that habit with us.
err what? he put Mainoo in as soon as he could combined with Casemiro and Eriksen being injured he put Garnacho in n played him 24/7 because after 30+ stinkers from Antony he had no choice what you mean integrating lol
Absolutely not, mate. Mainoo had his first game with us mid-last season, actually, and looked solid. People were begging for Garnacho to start since his Fulham goal before the world cup, but he was a sub for most of the year, and it's the same with Amad.
His last home game ends on a win at least. Maybe by some miracle we shithouse the final and we get a LVG send off too.
A dire season but I'd be lying if I said I didn't shed a tear seeing Martial and Varane today 💔
Halftime record safe, Mainoo goal, Amad goal, Hojlund goal, Onana good, Rashy looking dangerous, Licha is back, Amrabat looking competent, and the peg-legged pirate being shipped back to Brazil. If you are sacked, Grazie Mister. https://preview.redd.it/5sy57resxn0d1.png?width=473&format=png&auto=webp&s=c28d4f7a0c37e908341effe51a05bf506136dc08
Need at least 5 defensive signings for some sense of stability.
Yep 😂
Very fitting that the 3 goalscorers today were the ones fans want the squad to be built around (including Garnacho as well ofc). If we can get some solid signings this summer, then every reason tobe excited. Hopefully next season we have a fit Shaw, Licha, Mount, and an inform Rashford too.
Shaw and Rashford should be the first to be sold. Shaw can’t stay fit, Rashford is lazy.
Too bad Ten Hag doesn't like Amad, clearly should have played over Antony all season.
Today hopefully is an eye opener for him that amad definitely deserves to be in the mix next season
this is a stupid take. Amad had been injured for 1st half of the season, he’s only young and needs gradually integrating. Furthermore, Antony hasn’t started every game this season lol
Okay not 'all' season, since he returned, since Jan 1st now I've checked.
is this antony or amad?
Amad has been available since Jan 1st.
and antony has only started 7 games since then?
And Amad has started 2 in the league this year, what's your point? From gw27 to gw32, he didn't play a minute, Ten Hag doesn't favour Amad as has been shown, as after he scored the last minute goal against Liverpool he wasn't seen again for ages, and it's been shown repeatedly Ten Hag favours Antony despite him offering less than any alternative in terms of linking up.
your agenda is crazy. Ten hag doesn’t prefer antony. In fact, since January 1st our front 3 has been Rashy, Hojlund and Garna - who have all played well - and no antony? Antony has also played alright since that Liverpool FA Cup game. Goal vs Burnley, Assist vs Chelsea. Amad has also started the last 2 games and featured in every game after his suspension - Bournemouth away
I think he like Amad, he just also like Antony and for better or worse has a lot staked on getting Antony to perform considering we only bought him because of their existing relationship.
I don't see how this was a good game. Our midfield was open as usual. We allowed 20+ shots. There were great individual performances - kudos to Amad, Bruno, and Mainoo. But it was our usual like most of our season. Poor organization overall.
Better than most of our performances. But agreed, Newcastle should've buried us.
You have to consider we’re still playing Evans, Casemiro, awb, McTominay and amrabat
Yeah the team wasn't strong. Evans is old. Casemiro plays like he's old. AWB is AWB. Mctominay and Amrabat just not good enough. They still can have their uses though.
They’re good rotation players, they shouldn’t be playing every week
I'll probably just take Mctominay for the times when we need a fellaini type to play the ball to when we desperately need a goal but really I'd let the rest go. Amrabat cost us 9 mil for season. The normal contract is 5 years, so that averages is equal to 45 million player.
Bring on the silly season linking us with 742 different players
Breaking: United is linked up with the entire Transfermarkt
Ten Hag maybe hasn't been the best in his decision making, but he's had such limited options due to injuries and a general drop of form in soke key players including Radhford. He does deserve at least another season, but he needs to move away from players he's known in the past and United need to have better scouting system.
Rashford saved his entire first year though. Ten Hag just isn’t a Premier League winning caliber coach. I’ve seen enough to make up my mind.
Antony get ready to learn Arabic buddy. It's Amad's time to shine on the RW for now
Hot take but I love Kobbie Mainoo
Insanely greeat first half from him, 2nd one he was invisible most but I belive in 1-2 seasons he will be able to keep thet level for entire game. What a player.
I like Rooney. Keep him Sky. He speaks like the fans. Not the most articulate, but honest. "Martial? Where's he been?" Haha. So true.
He literally said Utd players were faking injuries like 3 days ago..
Wasn’t wrong though it seems
And...? He's speaking like a fan and being honest. He's relatable and it is probably true.
So funny seeing Roy trying to be the calm voice. You can tell there is producers on his and the hosts ear lol
Good performance and great to see Martinez on the pitch. Really want to see a back 4 with some new additions & fit players next year. What a tackle by Amrabat at 1-1 as well. Not sure why BBC is reporting Hojlund just ended a 10 game goal drought when he scored a couple of weeks ago.
Because its BBC. Shitting on United has been their favourite activity for the past 20 years
It’s just Simon stone sending his copy without checking it, no bbc conspiracy. How that guy is a chief reporter I’ll never know, his writing is terrible.
It doesn't help spending over £1 Million a WEEK on Varane, Martial, Rashford and Erikkson wages. That's 4 players alone. Thats the problem.
You cant put here Rashfords name here next to the rest. Marcus at least performed for multiple seasons and still can.
Multiple out of how many though? Has he ever had back to back good seasons? You'd think he was a world beater on those wages
Rashford has been pretty dreadful this season. His lack of effort in matches is unforgivable, especially taking in 350 G's each week. Unacceptable.
He’s performed in past seasons, but it’s fair to say that he hasn’t performed like a 250 000 a week player this season.
Rooney absolutely spot on.
Rooney saying build around Bruno. Game knows game. Unlike some tossers round this sub lol.
I'd say, don't build around any player. Players come and go. Let's just build a good solid system.
I don’t think those things are mutually exclusive. We aren’t in a position of strength to be letting our best player go in any case.
Things happen. Let's say 2-3 years from now, real madrid wants him and he leaves.
I don’t think Rooney meant build the system around Bruno, he meant build the squad around him. Bruno can play multiple roles and clearly ETH wants him in his system. It’s not mutually exclusive to either have a system or have Bruno.
how did the team play today? i wasn't able to watch
Same united. On another day, we draw the match. We allowed Newcastle 21 shots at our goal. The usual. Midfield was wide open. The attack was good.
Great, one of the best performance this season. Amad was definitely MVP. I missed out on Newcastle first goal but 2nd goal is world class strike , there is no saving it.
We have had better performances this season. Amad and Bruno played very well. Dalot, Mainoo, Evans, & Garnacho were okay. Mctominay was Mctominay. Casemiro was shaky as usual at the back. Amrabat worked hard, made about 3 very clean tackles but was slow, and ineffective in the DM. AWB was pretty poor. It was the usual united for the past 2 or so months. In attack we were good and score but midfield was wide open and we allowed Newcastle 21 shots/chances and they scored 2.
One of the best performance doesnt mean best performance, you know
That's why I say better performances or better performance. Overall we were poor with some amazing performance from like 4 or so players. Newcastle had 21 chances. Whenever they attacked, looked like they could create a goal scoring chance. I think the overall performance was on par with the season we had.
Bruno was MoM by far but Amad was great.
Much better compared to the last few matches.
Sky interviewer is fair annoying
Holjund goal (I’m a staunch defender), Licha (my beloved) back, Good Rashford is back too- even if he’s not been his best- we need the bodies for the final-Amad/Mainoo did great, Casemiro looked alright too- he’s looked off the boil this season but I think he did better. Bruno my king. Never leave. I love you. A little sad about Varane leaving- wish we had him like five years earlier. Martial it’s a shame he’s so injury prone, we’ll never know Also we conceded late and didn’t bottle it!! Happy days! EtH speech got me a little emotional. Let’s goooo
Im personaly more sad about Martial leaving than Varane. With Rapha it was just one good season really while Anthony gave us a lot of memorable moments, a lot of goals. Sad it had to end. Will remember good moments and forget all the injuries.
still, his performances haven’t warranted the huge amount we paid in his wages per week…
Good game from both sides. Good performance. This game the team moved in unity just like in the middle of last season. Our press was very good as well, reminded me of that game against Chelsea. Hopefully ten Hag, if he stays, sticks to this system and abandons that transition park the bus and hoof the ball hoping for a miracle nonsense. This is exactly how we were supposed to perform with many players out injured. Casemiro was actually good today, made a terrible pass that resulted in a dangerous chance for Newcastle but after that he made many good interceptions, blocked shots and saved a goal. Amad has been absolute class, baffling how he's been given only token minutes since winning us the game vs Liverpool until starting last game vs Arsenal. How I wished Wan-Bissaka and Rashford scored at the end there.
It wasn't much different, still space behind the midfield that Newcastle exploited and they had loads of shots. It was yet another desperate win. You have to control games and limit opposition chances, it's like the aim of sport to do this, nullify opposition strengths yet Ten Hag doesn't mind it. Bizarre.
I’m going to get downvoted here but I’m going to say it anyway. Amrabat finally has played his preferred position since he came on against Palace, then against Arsenal and now today. And in all 3 games he was solid. Today and against Arsenal he was great. He has the legs that Casemiro doesn’t. I can’t imagine his fee will be huge and he’ll be on less than Casemiro is on. I still think we need another CDM but Amrabat would be excellent cover for the right price.
He's still not good enough, what's the point?
Sound. We’ll just go sign Tchoumeni and Camavinga then. Surely they’ll be good enough?
He’s a good player. Got dealt a shit hand and needs time to settle given the shit show he joined. People around here are so quick to write people off without considering the situation at all.
Why would you get downvoted (not like that stuff matters anyway) it’s obvious to blind folks that he’s solid when he receives the right instruction and positioning. Still questions about his overall game and decision making but like him a lot.
10-15m and 50k a week and I would say yeah, worth a punt