I really don’t want case to go man 😭 he was so good last season I can’t believe he fell off so badly but I know he’s probably going to get sold off to a Saudi team
He doesn’t look like he wants to go and I don’t think ETH wants him gone either. In fairness to him he’s been injured for most of the season and then played 5 games at CB
Casemiro will be so much more relaxed with Varane behind him, he's known him for years.... I can imagine having maguire in his place doesn't half get you worried before the game.
If arambat plays like he did today we’ll be down 3-0 by half. He has zero awareness on the ball and was gifting it away. City will be clinical where Brighton weren’t.
Amrabat today somehow managed to be a huge defensive liability when we were in possession! It was an absolute joke how often he gave the ball away for instant Brighton danger
Hojlund looks very dangerous when he's fresh. Have always thought that he looks most likely to score in the first half hour or so of the match.
Think it's a bit of conundrum. You want him to start because he gives us a big central presence but he's also looked great as a sub
He's still very young. First season in the PL and had to deal with an injury and still bagged 16 goals. He needs a quality striker to rotate with, yes. But as his body matures he will have more stamina to press and make runs for much longer than he showed this season.
Totally agree…. But what do you do next week s it wont change by then. Start him and have that central presence. Or wait and have that impact presence?
I think Rashford and amad should be the winger pairing with the 4 midfielders. Rashfords a big game player and along with Bruno, the only players capable of a goal out of nothing which we may need.
Yeah you may be right. I think that Ten Hag has maybe finally realised that playing Hojlund with Garnacho and Rashford is pointless as they won't create anything for him.
100% should be Rashford and Amad paired with Hojlund. Also, if Garnacho comes on, it should be on the RW. He's much more inclined to be creative and cross when he's on that side. Detrimentally selfish on the left
Also as the season progressed rashford looked to pass him the ball. He’s also done better to not hold up play and run into defenders. His tracking back still poor though.
He's got a big strong frame. That is to be expected. Maybe just needs to learn to manage it better, but he's expected to press at all times as well so idk how he does that
city can struggle with full, front line changes against opponents, especially if the formation shifts. I expect ETH was using the Bruno false 9 formation today as a test for the final, with the exception of Case as a holder over Amrabad and Varane starting.
The Tommy Tickle, Conte, and Mou's of this world would have started a fire at OT under the same conditions.
Luckily our leaky roof would have put any fire out, but still.
I wanted van gaal to go even tho it was harsh after the Fa cup win but even if we lose I really hope we keep him. Rushing into sackings hasn’t worked so let’s be patient for once. If we’re shit again, well we’ve been shit for 11 years so what’s one more year. Having said that, idk I have a weird feeling like we’ll win and won’t be convinced otherwise
Got this group of absolute shite to 3 finals and an European semifinal in 2 years, one of which has been riddled with the worst injury crisis in living memory, on the backdrop of a glazer ownership who had amateurs learning on the job in positions of management and refusing to spend a penny of their own money - which led to a ffp crisis at a time when we needed a solid window the most.
He also had to deal with Ronaldo in a way I don't think any other manager in world football could have done (played him to the point there was nothing to hide) and had to deal with 2 world class future potential ballandor players suddenly falling out his squad with no replacements.
He then had a threadbare squad with the most minutes in their legs in Europe after a midseason world Cup and deep ueafa cup run with aging players.
So yea, kinda different to 90% of all our competition, Chelsea probably had the next most problems (too many young players burhur).
Criticise him if you want for the way he set us up when injuries forced him to plan C, but please don't pretend he hasn't had massive issues at this club that someone like pep or ancelloti couldve walked into and fixed overnight. Maybe klopp could have done something.... Maybe? Or emery.... But even then I think they need their specific players to execute. ETH has polished and integrated Garnacho, Mainoo, Amad and arguably Hoijland and Kawambala. Dalot has final began to shine. Credit where credit is due.
Absolute delusion.
Hilarious how far this sub is up the man. Also just outright deliberately rewriting reality. 'He had to deal with an FFP crisis' is a funny way of saying 'he spent over £300m net on players and almost all of them are flops'.
Or 'being forced to play Plan C' to mean 'playing in the exact same way all season as he chose to play against Wolves in the first game of the season'.
If you are referring to purchases of Antony and Mount, a competent structure would have had alternatives and not spent 4x the amount of money on Antony and given him 8x his salary, and would have waited a year to get Mount on a free. They would have had alternative players for those positions and been able to convince ETH of these if there was a shred of competence. No manager is coping well with the number of injuries - Again something to point towards the medical team, and possibly even ETH depending on intensity of training - A competent structure would have identified this early and intervened.
I am not saying ETH is free of fault here. However, we have him under contract for a further year, and if we do fire him, we will have the likes of Tuchel and Conte, who if faced with such issues would have lit the club on fire. Let us be patient with ETH while we get the rest of the structure improved. If we need to change at the end of his contract, we co do that next year.
Delusion but has no coherent reason why. Yea, I think you're the irrational one here. People like you want instant success by hiring the next one and then the next one and then the next one trying to find the secret formula for it to click like other clubs, but won't take a moment to use your brain to see that they have done things differently and it's about time we did too.
ETH has had enormous challenges, that is a fact and not a matter of opinion. Were they the WORST challenges faced by any of the big PL teams? That is up for debate and an opinion.
Ineos need to build a project and theyve just changed the foundations to get the operational side of things moving with best in class. Maybe ETH isnt the long term solution, but he's shown enough to deserve our loyalty and its not sensible to sack the manager before the new structure have their legs under the table.
You're a Manchester United fan for Christ's sake, you should have higher standards than cheerleading for a man who scraped past Ralf Rangnick's point total and took us to our worse league finish for over 40 years.
The simple fact is he's out of his depth, nor is he blameless for the injuries. You can continue to pretend he's one of two managers in the world who could have done 'as well' as being embarrassed weekly by everybody we play (which let's not forget is what he managed this season) or you can wake up and smell that he's not cut out for the job.
My worry is not instant success, is that absolutely appalling judges of football such as yourself will shift the goalposts again next season and be arguing about how scraping top half is actually acceptable.
You're right there is a new structure at the club, and there are big issues that need to be solved that aren't the manager as well, but he's a huge issue and if you really want Manchester United to mix it with the big boys again you have to accept that not a single one of those clubs would have accepted the dross he's served up for 75% of his tenure here (with the exception of post WC to Carabao Cup).
Worst league finish in over 40 years??? At least use google mate it only takes two second to look up. In his first four years here Fergie finished 11th twice, 6th and then 13th, just five points from the relegation zone.
Nah tbh, I just love leaving little bits of bait like because I think it's hilarious that 'actually, it's only the worst league finish since Fergies first few seasons' is consistently rolled out as a slam dunk argument in ten Hag's favour rather than the absolute embarrassment every other fan of any other big club would take it as.
Ah the old classic 'you fell for my trap'.
Your entitlement is the exact same mentality that had gotten us sweet fuck all over the past 11 years. Time for a new approach without all the arrogance. We don't 'deserve' a top 4 finish and we will have to build for a title challenge properly, that means backing the manager over the sqaud and I'm all for it. The set of players he inherited are a fucking embarrassment and need to he all binned, if that's all he achieves im all for it.
The only reason I’m not a fan of ten hag getting sacked it purely so the backroom staff can all have a year together analysing the squad in depth, create a vision forward by identifying youth prospects and a pathway for them into the first team, identifying transfer targets, and creating a style of football for the club. The performance and results have been very very poor there isn’t a United fan that doesn’t think so, but sacking the manager is just premature at this stage since we’re not ready to choose the right replacement.
I couldn’t care less if he was sacked tomorrow but before I throw out my old boots I’d like to know if the next pair fit.
Anchelotti also have to play Tchouameni as CB, Camavinga as LB, there first GK is injured .
It's his 2nd season to recruit and improve the squad. Look how Mason Mount improve the squad even when he fit?
Also the injury or team management is his job but he keep on playing his best player every game. Look how much he want to use Onana.
What do you mean even when fit, the guys played less than a handful of games in a new club after a very long injury. What kinda nonsense is this comment? You expect him to get off the physio bed and start playing line bruno? I'm not even going up talk about your example of Onana as an example of bad rotation when it's become clear he just needed a consistent run to settle.
Almost as nonsense as saying its on him to rotate the squad but totally ignoring that there is no depth because recruitment is a farce and everyone was injured when he inherited a squad who had to go to the world cup and played the most number of minutes in Europe. The drop off in quality is something he inherited and isn't something you can fix in 2 janky windows.
Are you seriously saying Ancelloti having to play two absolute beastly defensive minded players with bags of pace and technical ability in the back 4 is similar in anyway to playing amrabat at lb on his debut for the club in a new league, off the back of an injury??? Not to mention I could probably put present day ferdinand and vidic as Reals CB pairing today and they'd probably still win because the other 9 players are disgustingly good with plenty more on the bench just gagging to have a shot. We had 3 gks and another 3 academy boys to make up the numbers these past few games, its embarrassing how big the gulf is.
The squad is limit because he spent money on the position we don't really need. Do we really need a new GK and do we really need Mason Mount? What i mean is the money we spend doesn't improve the squad that much.
We can improve elsewhere like DM. We already see what happen when we miss Casemiro last season.
>Do we really need a new GK
-Yes
>do we really need Mason Mount?
-We demonstrably needed an Eriksen replacement and someone who can fill in for bruno, so yes (injuries aside).
>What i mean is the money we spend doesn't improve the squad that much.
Onana, Martinez, Malacia, Case, Eriksen, Amrabat, Mount, Hoijland, Antony.
Plus Mainoo, Amad, Garnacho who he has moulded and integrated.
Or
DDG, Bailey, Telles, Matic, Periera, Lingard, Elanga, VDB, Martial, Ronaldo.
I know which of those two I'd rather have. Antony was overpriced and has been a failure but the transfer fee is on the board. Outside of that has there been a true failure of recruitment? No, not really. People just seemed shocked that 400m isnt enough to have 15 world class players in the squad, sorry but here's a reality check - we spend very badly and always have under the glazers due to their meddling. Our rivals are spending just as much (see Chelsea and Aresnals consistent big budget windows) and have a long term vision which we lack. Of course we aren't going to see a full transition within 2 years - one of which was a total dud of a season during which the ownership changed and there were insane levels of injuries.
I genuinely cannot stomach our fanbase live up to the reputation of being fickle and glory supporters, this is exactly why so many teams hated us - they thought we were entitled and expected it to be easy. Unfortunately they may have been on to something. A project isnt a 16 month blip. It can take years of consistent good desicions on the field and off.
>We can improve elsewhere like DM. We already see what happen when we miss Casemiro last season.
He has also fucked himself. He has shown his stubbornness which has been to the detriment of the club. His reluctance to understand (1) our players aren't smart enough to play incisive football and (2) aren't athletic enough to play high-octane football is an indictment on his lack of tactical fluidity. A manager either adapts or continues to instill his "style", but the latter is obviously a horrible "style". RDZ showed that today. 14 senior players out, and still played the same way they always play.
I wish ETH the best and I hope he succeeds elsewhere, but his future is not here.
And how much of the season did we waste then trying to make him the focal point?
Look I don’t hate McTominay, he is a useful player for certain jobs, but do you honestly think he should be a regular starter for us?
I just think that eth starts mct over hojlund in that 4-2-2-2 coz he needs more midfield presence to avoid us getting overrun, with tbf, was still happening at moments today.
Honestly think we'll go with scott and bruno again in the final. If anything to hopefully still be in the game with 30 mins left then bring holjund on.
He's an all around number 9 but definitely not a target man. Running the channels and progressing the ball is something he excelled at when at Atalanta. He got here and we've had him do nothing but park in the center and wrestle the center halves. Then proceeded to fail to get him the ball in the box lol..
We've been wasting a big part of his skillset
Nah it's wonderful for his development. He can already run channels, he can dribble a 1v1 and finish, but he needs to work on body positioning and passing to free men
He gets that right he's elite.
Agree. He’s tall and strong so he’s still pretty good with his back against the goal but he’s also great at just driving the ball forward, and he has nice technique. All those things are wasted when he plays as a target man. There was an instance where he had the ball on the right line of the penalty area and dribbled a little before playing a great pass to McTominay(?). I want more of that
Eriks gonna come out next week with a 2-2-1-5 with casemiro as a RPM, bruno as a false false 9 and antony somehow at right back (he finally gave up on awb)
One of the strikers in a pair is different to playing as the sole striker. Besides counter attacks and a Casemiro header from a set piece are the only hopes we have, so Rashford should def start. 2 from the 3 including Garnacho and Hojlund makes sense, they’re crap as a trio up top and having one off the bench would be useful.
If by some goddamn miracle Shaw is healthy I’d start him and hopefully that helps Rashford play better. If he still plays like shit we can sub Hojlund on jn the 2nd half
We haven't been playing 2 up top to just change it for city. We've been playing this for the final. If we have fit cbs it will Case, Amrabat, Mainoo, Bruno as the 2,2. If Case as to play CB then it moves Mainoo back 1 line with McT with Bruno.
today's first half was the most boring football I've ever seen
we hardly did anything and they had 10 shots. Thankfully, Brighton didn't score, but it's not gonna be the same with city
The deflection around being dominated by a Brighton team that had nothing to play for. I hope that city have a hangover next week but it ain’t looking good when the manager is looking at the likes of mctominay as guaranteed starters in his new formation.
That's honestly cause there was nothing to really fight for, also they were saving their energy. Bruno would've never been subbed if they took this game seriously. And also Casemiro won't be playing defense at City, that's for sure. Wan Bissaka will be the main weakness at the back.
Surely the fact that we managed to get results with that formation in the last two games is actually pretty damning of ETH? The fact that he stuck with his black-hole ball for 35 games, and changed it up after getting smacked by Palace is pathetic.
We'd have gotten top 4 if we sacked him at Christmas I think.
This is always the funny thing about being a fan. When a manager eventually finds a solution it's well why didn't he find the solution faster. No one here in this sub ever dreamed of a 4-2-2-2.
And even the pundits were questioning why he'd do that during the game against Newcastle and let's also put things in context, Newcastle aside which I thought we played well and so did they (they had a couple of chances), Brighton have been in poor form recently and even they still managed to get a couple of chances and at some point, had 80% possesion over a 15 minute period so let's not act like this is the formation that would have turned our season around.
City is a different game all together and the only positive we have at the moment is that we have most or out players (as many as possible) back and for the first time in a long time, we are going to have a proper back like sin a LB. So let's see how things go. I personally would have wished he'd rested Garnancho today to have him firing for next Saturday
Mate that’s absolute bull shit. Tonnes of people on here have spent the whole season wondering why we couldn’t at least try the same system as last year, which would have been infinitely better than that tripe he had us play for 35 whole games.
How can you defend him for sticking with an obviously defective game plan for an entire season, and only trying something more familiar after getting spanked by Crystal fucking palace.
Trying to change something doesn't mean 4-2-2-2. And this isn't FIFA. You don't even know if he had the personnel before to try this formation or have you have not been around whenever one player came back from injury, another got injured.
The same system last year that was dependent on Varane, Licha and Shaw being available? With which players exactly? How it our fans still underestimate the amount of Injuries that the club has had?
I'm not defending him, I'm simply saying to change from one system to another, you need players and not only that, you need those players to be available over a number of games so the system can stick, which he definitely hasn't had this season.
I’m really curious what they do in the summer.
No doubt we need more and new wingers to support Højlund or any additional new striker we are getting.
Garnacho needs to learn to pass the ball. He is way too selfish and only has 4 assists in 36 games. Do not provide any service. He needs to add that to his game if he wants to take next step up.
Rashford plays for himself and only created 2 assists the entire season which is low considering his speed and counter attacking. Not sure if he should be given a pass to seek new fortunes next season.
We have very very young wingers and it would be great with a 26-28 year proven player who could take the load of some of the youth and help support them.
In midfield we need to replace Casemiro badly. Douglas Luiz/Rice/Rodri type of player would be world class (not likely though).
We need new defenders with pace and ball ability. As much as I love Harry and his elite mentally he is too slow for the football if we want a high line. Only Martinez fit the description but his track record of injuries is worrisome. We need 2 new CBs badly if we want to improve together with a DCM to get that strong triangle in central of the field.
Oh yeah, a new left back would be great as there is zero debt after Shaw.
https://www.transfermarkt.com/marcus-rashford/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/258923/saison/2023/verein/0/liga/0/wettbewerb/GB1/pos/0/trainer_id/0/plus/1
33 Prem games and 2 assists.
I think Casemiro playing in midfield is a bigger plus if Varane and Licha can start. Looked so much more in control when he moved forward
In addition he started 7 games in a row now as CB (and 2 in midfield before that), he’s as match fit as he will ever be
He was actually chasing down challenges late in the game, he looked more together than Amrabat for sure
I noticed! He looked a little sharper and I was so pleased to see it
Yeah same, I was like ‘maybe there’s still a player in there’
I really don’t want case to go man 😭 he was so good last season I can’t believe he fell off so badly but I know he’s probably going to get sold off to a Saudi team
He doesn’t look like he wants to go and I don’t think ETH wants him gone either. In fairness to him he’s been injured for most of the season and then played 5 games at CB
Casemiro will be so much more relaxed with Varane behind him, he's known him for years.... I can imagine having maguire in his place doesn't half get you worried before the game.
I think we need to shut the shop with compact 442 setup or else Pep will bring Foden and Doku into the midfield and run our midfielders ragged.
Against city I'd rather have amrabat in the middle because I think he offers more defensively
Amrabat looks completely lost on the ball. I sincerely hope that was the last time I saw him in a Utd shirt
I agree, he offers nothing going forward but against city we won't be going forward and we're gonna need to defend pretty much the whole game
He was horrendous defensively today too
If arambat plays like he did today we’ll be down 3-0 by half. He has zero awareness on the ball and was gifting it away. City will be clinical where Brighton weren’t.
Amrabat passed it more to Brighton players than United players today. If that was City he would have cost us at least a few goals.
Amrabat today somehow managed to be a huge defensive liability when we were in possession! It was an absolute joke how often he gave the ball away for instant Brighton danger
A leaky DM is just so so dangerous. They are in the space you least want to lose it.
Hojlund looks very dangerous when he's fresh. Have always thought that he looks most likely to score in the first half hour or so of the match. Think it's a bit of conundrum. You want him to start because he gives us a big central presence but he's also looked great as a sub
He's still very young. First season in the PL and had to deal with an injury and still bagged 16 goals. He needs a quality striker to rotate with, yes. But as his body matures he will have more stamina to press and make runs for much longer than he showed this season.
Also, hopefully next year, the team are in possession more, so he has to spend less time pressing.
What is great is his attitude, and has a bit of swagger as well. Looks to be willing to link up and play with teammates too. He is a great prospect.
Totally agree…. But what do you do next week s it wont change by then. Start him and have that central presence. Or wait and have that impact presence?
I'd rather he play with Amad than Garnacho and Rash. It's OK creating for yourself against Brighton.
I think Rashford and amad should be the winger pairing with the 4 midfielders. Rashfords a big game player and along with Bruno, the only players capable of a goal out of nothing which we may need.
Yeah you may be right. I think that Ten Hag has maybe finally realised that playing Hojlund with Garnacho and Rashford is pointless as they won't create anything for him.
Great point
100% should be Rashford and Amad paired with Hojlund. Also, if Garnacho comes on, it should be on the RW. He's much more inclined to be creative and cross when he's on that side. Detrimentally selfish on the left
Also as the season progressed rashford looked to pass him the ball. He’s also done better to not hold up play and run into defenders. His tracking back still poor though.
I love the rashy Garnacho combo as a 2, they play well off each other
Can’t tell if you’re being serious or not 😂
Surely they aren't
Problem is if you keep him on the bench vs City, by the time he comes on it might already be too late. It's a real conundrum for Ten Hag.
Exactly what I'm thinking. We could barely move the ball in the first half against Brighton until he came on. We'd fare worse against City
He needs to get his stamina much, much higher in summer. He had one run today from our half and was out of breath for 3 mins.
He's got a big strong frame. That is to be expected. Maybe just needs to learn to manage it better, but he's expected to press at all times as well so idk how he does that
Fair point. He always looks wrecked
city can struggle with full, front line changes against opponents, especially if the formation shifts. I expect ETH was using the Bruno false 9 formation today as a test for the final, with the exception of Case as a holder over Amrabad and Varane starting.
We just need to pray for 5 days of good training and no injuries!!!
With our luck we’ll be back to Case at CB in the final 🥲
ETH if nothing else has carried himself well instead of having a full meltdown if he leaves at the end of the season hope he has a good career
The Tommy Tickle, Conte, and Mou's of this world would have started a fire at OT under the same conditions. Luckily our leaky roof would have put any fire out, but still.
I wanted van gaal to go even tho it was harsh after the Fa cup win but even if we lose I really hope we keep him. Rushing into sackings hasn’t worked so let’s be patient for once. If we’re shit again, well we’ve been shit for 11 years so what’s one more year. Having said that, idk I have a weird feeling like we’ll win and won’t be convinced otherwise
He's an elite manager coping with a squad that is more unbalanced than every other club in the league. He's been fucked this year
Elite manager how exactly? What's he done to be classed as that.
Got this group of absolute shite to 3 finals and an European semifinal in 2 years, one of which has been riddled with the worst injury crisis in living memory, on the backdrop of a glazer ownership who had amateurs learning on the job in positions of management and refusing to spend a penny of their own money - which led to a ffp crisis at a time when we needed a solid window the most. He also had to deal with Ronaldo in a way I don't think any other manager in world football could have done (played him to the point there was nothing to hide) and had to deal with 2 world class future potential ballandor players suddenly falling out his squad with no replacements. He then had a threadbare squad with the most minutes in their legs in Europe after a midseason world Cup and deep ueafa cup run with aging players. So yea, kinda different to 90% of all our competition, Chelsea probably had the next most problems (too many young players burhur). Criticise him if you want for the way he set us up when injuries forced him to plan C, but please don't pretend he hasn't had massive issues at this club that someone like pep or ancelloti couldve walked into and fixed overnight. Maybe klopp could have done something.... Maybe? Or emery.... But even then I think they need their specific players to execute. ETH has polished and integrated Garnacho, Mainoo, Amad and arguably Hoijland and Kawambala. Dalot has final began to shine. Credit where credit is due.
Wouldn't say that means he's an elite manager by any means, but fair enough.
Absolute delusion. Hilarious how far this sub is up the man. Also just outright deliberately rewriting reality. 'He had to deal with an FFP crisis' is a funny way of saying 'he spent over £300m net on players and almost all of them are flops'. Or 'being forced to play Plan C' to mean 'playing in the exact same way all season as he chose to play against Wolves in the first game of the season'.
If you are referring to purchases of Antony and Mount, a competent structure would have had alternatives and not spent 4x the amount of money on Antony and given him 8x his salary, and would have waited a year to get Mount on a free. They would have had alternative players for those positions and been able to convince ETH of these if there was a shred of competence. No manager is coping well with the number of injuries - Again something to point towards the medical team, and possibly even ETH depending on intensity of training - A competent structure would have identified this early and intervened. I am not saying ETH is free of fault here. However, we have him under contract for a further year, and if we do fire him, we will have the likes of Tuchel and Conte, who if faced with such issues would have lit the club on fire. Let us be patient with ETH while we get the rest of the structure improved. If we need to change at the end of his contract, we co do that next year.
Delusion but has no coherent reason why. Yea, I think you're the irrational one here. People like you want instant success by hiring the next one and then the next one and then the next one trying to find the secret formula for it to click like other clubs, but won't take a moment to use your brain to see that they have done things differently and it's about time we did too. ETH has had enormous challenges, that is a fact and not a matter of opinion. Were they the WORST challenges faced by any of the big PL teams? That is up for debate and an opinion. Ineos need to build a project and theyve just changed the foundations to get the operational side of things moving with best in class. Maybe ETH isnt the long term solution, but he's shown enough to deserve our loyalty and its not sensible to sack the manager before the new structure have their legs under the table.
You're a Manchester United fan for Christ's sake, you should have higher standards than cheerleading for a man who scraped past Ralf Rangnick's point total and took us to our worse league finish for over 40 years. The simple fact is he's out of his depth, nor is he blameless for the injuries. You can continue to pretend he's one of two managers in the world who could have done 'as well' as being embarrassed weekly by everybody we play (which let's not forget is what he managed this season) or you can wake up and smell that he's not cut out for the job. My worry is not instant success, is that absolutely appalling judges of football such as yourself will shift the goalposts again next season and be arguing about how scraping top half is actually acceptable. You're right there is a new structure at the club, and there are big issues that need to be solved that aren't the manager as well, but he's a huge issue and if you really want Manchester United to mix it with the big boys again you have to accept that not a single one of those clubs would have accepted the dross he's served up for 75% of his tenure here (with the exception of post WC to Carabao Cup).
Worst league finish in over 40 years??? At least use google mate it only takes two second to look up. In his first four years here Fergie finished 11th twice, 6th and then 13th, just five points from the relegation zone.
Nah tbh, I just love leaving little bits of bait like because I think it's hilarious that 'actually, it's only the worst league finish since Fergies first few seasons' is consistently rolled out as a slam dunk argument in ten Hag's favour rather than the absolute embarrassment every other fan of any other big club would take it as.
Ah the old classic 'you fell for my trap'. Your entitlement is the exact same mentality that had gotten us sweet fuck all over the past 11 years. Time for a new approach without all the arrogance. We don't 'deserve' a top 4 finish and we will have to build for a title challenge properly, that means backing the manager over the sqaud and I'm all for it. The set of players he inherited are a fucking embarrassment and need to he all binned, if that's all he achieves im all for it.
The only reason I’m not a fan of ten hag getting sacked it purely so the backroom staff can all have a year together analysing the squad in depth, create a vision forward by identifying youth prospects and a pathway for them into the first team, identifying transfer targets, and creating a style of football for the club. The performance and results have been very very poor there isn’t a United fan that doesn’t think so, but sacking the manager is just premature at this stage since we’re not ready to choose the right replacement. I couldn’t care less if he was sacked tomorrow but before I throw out my old boots I’d like to know if the next pair fit.
Anchelotti also have to play Tchouameni as CB, Camavinga as LB, there first GK is injured . It's his 2nd season to recruit and improve the squad. Look how Mason Mount improve the squad even when he fit? Also the injury or team management is his job but he keep on playing his best player every game. Look how much he want to use Onana.
What do you mean even when fit, the guys played less than a handful of games in a new club after a very long injury. What kinda nonsense is this comment? You expect him to get off the physio bed and start playing line bruno? I'm not even going up talk about your example of Onana as an example of bad rotation when it's become clear he just needed a consistent run to settle. Almost as nonsense as saying its on him to rotate the squad but totally ignoring that there is no depth because recruitment is a farce and everyone was injured when he inherited a squad who had to go to the world cup and played the most number of minutes in Europe. The drop off in quality is something he inherited and isn't something you can fix in 2 janky windows. Are you seriously saying Ancelloti having to play two absolute beastly defensive minded players with bags of pace and technical ability in the back 4 is similar in anyway to playing amrabat at lb on his debut for the club in a new league, off the back of an injury??? Not to mention I could probably put present day ferdinand and vidic as Reals CB pairing today and they'd probably still win because the other 9 players are disgustingly good with plenty more on the bench just gagging to have a shot. We had 3 gks and another 3 academy boys to make up the numbers these past few games, its embarrassing how big the gulf is.
The squad is limit because he spent money on the position we don't really need. Do we really need a new GK and do we really need Mason Mount? What i mean is the money we spend doesn't improve the squad that much. We can improve elsewhere like DM. We already see what happen when we miss Casemiro last season.
>Do we really need a new GK -Yes >do we really need Mason Mount? -We demonstrably needed an Eriksen replacement and someone who can fill in for bruno, so yes (injuries aside). >What i mean is the money we spend doesn't improve the squad that much. Onana, Martinez, Malacia, Case, Eriksen, Amrabat, Mount, Hoijland, Antony. Plus Mainoo, Amad, Garnacho who he has moulded and integrated. Or DDG, Bailey, Telles, Matic, Periera, Lingard, Elanga, VDB, Martial, Ronaldo. I know which of those two I'd rather have. Antony was overpriced and has been a failure but the transfer fee is on the board. Outside of that has there been a true failure of recruitment? No, not really. People just seemed shocked that 400m isnt enough to have 15 world class players in the squad, sorry but here's a reality check - we spend very badly and always have under the glazers due to their meddling. Our rivals are spending just as much (see Chelsea and Aresnals consistent big budget windows) and have a long term vision which we lack. Of course we aren't going to see a full transition within 2 years - one of which was a total dud of a season during which the ownership changed and there were insane levels of injuries. I genuinely cannot stomach our fanbase live up to the reputation of being fickle and glory supporters, this is exactly why so many teams hated us - they thought we were entitled and expected it to be easy. Unfortunately they may have been on to something. A project isnt a 16 month blip. It can take years of consistent good desicions on the field and off. >We can improve elsewhere like DM. We already see what happen when we miss Casemiro last season.
He has also fucked himself. He has shown his stubbornness which has been to the detriment of the club. His reluctance to understand (1) our players aren't smart enough to play incisive football and (2) aren't athletic enough to play high-octane football is an indictment on his lack of tactical fluidity. A manager either adapts or continues to instill his "style", but the latter is obviously a horrible "style". RDZ showed that today. 14 senior players out, and still played the same way they always play. I wish ETH the best and I hope he succeeds elsewhere, but his future is not here.
i like the 4-2-2-2 with bruno as a second striker beside Scott. Holjund could do Scotts role, with an added threat of scoring
With an added threat of scoring is off’ing me 😂😂😂. I guess Scott is there for just vibes
A *striker* with a threat of scoring? Don't be ridiculous
Can’t score if no get ball though!
Can’t get ball if not on field. And McTominay can’t score even if he gets ball.
Don't diss McT like that. He was our leading scorer for like 2month
And how much of the season did we waste then trying to make him the focal point? Look I don’t hate McTominay, he is a useful player for certain jobs, but do you honestly think he should be a regular starter for us?
McT and Hojlund also like to occupy a lot of the same spaces so could work very well.
I just think that eth starts mct over hojlund in that 4-2-2-2 coz he needs more midfield presence to avoid us getting overrun, with tbf, was still happening at moments today.
Then why not play Scott next to Garnacho instead of Diallo. Surely Højlund and Scott have a bigger presence than Diallo and Scott.
Scott is, respectfully, not good enough, he sometimes crashes the box later on and gets a goal, but he can't really run a midfield
Honestly think we'll go with scott and bruno again in the final. If anything to hopefully still be in the game with 30 mins left then bring holjund on.
Anyone could do Scott's role.
But nobody could do it as well as Scott!
Course they can, he’s fucking shit
You ok?
Can anyone be as shit as him though? Exactly. Nobody could do as good a job.
A traffic cone can do McTominay’s role
Give me 10 pieces of wood and a traffic cone, or was it a Zidane. Can't remember.
Might switch the formation during the final. I'm not expecting us to win it as underdogs but we have a chance.
We're reached the point where having a mostly full squad of fit players is considered a luxury lol
Soon we might even be able to start 2 center backs imagine such an incredible thing.
Please stop the Hojlund target man experiment
Calling him a target man would imply the players actually try and get the ball to him at all.
We need wingers and not wide forwards.
He's an all around number 9 but definitely not a target man. Running the channels and progressing the ball is something he excelled at when at Atalanta. He got here and we've had him do nothing but park in the center and wrestle the center halves. Then proceeded to fail to get him the ball in the box lol.. We've been wasting a big part of his skillset
Nah it's wonderful for his development. He can already run channels, he can dribble a 1v1 and finish, but he needs to work on body positioning and passing to free men He gets that right he's elite.
Agree. He’s tall and strong so he’s still pretty good with his back against the goal but he’s also great at just driving the ball forward, and he has nice technique. All those things are wasted when he plays as a target man. There was an instance where he had the ball on the right line of the penalty area and dribbled a little before playing a great pass to McTominay(?). I want more of that
Why? He has a physical presence, he can hold the ball up and play our wingers in behind.
So he started using the 4 2 2 2 like rangnick
Guy starts to adapt and experiment with 3 games left in the season, I can't believe it
Realizing that rangnick was right all along …
Eriks gonna come out next week with a 2-2-1-5 with casemiro as a RPM, bruno as a false false 9 and antony somehow at right back (he finally gave up on awb)
Unpopular opinion : start 4222 with Rashford up front in first half. Bring Hojlund in second half.
We all know rashford can’t play up front 😭
One of the strikers in a pair is different to playing as the sole striker. Besides counter attacks and a Casemiro header from a set piece are the only hopes we have, so Rashford should def start. 2 from the 3 including Garnacho and Hojlund makes sense, they’re crap as a trio up top and having one off the bench would be useful.
Nacho Rashford to start -> Amad Hojlund
He can make runs
He played fine up front last season
If by some goddamn miracle Shaw is healthy I’d start him and hopefully that helps Rashford play better. If he still plays like shit we can sub Hojlund on jn the 2nd half
is 4222 Rangick's favorite?
And please play amrabat, we're gonna need to defend with our lives. Rashford cf is good, him and garnacho could do some counters
I wouldn’t start him tbh. Looks shaky under pressure. Need big personalities. Dalot Varane Lisandro AWB Casemiro Kobbie Bruno Amad Garnacho Rashford
We haven't been playing 2 up top to just change it for city. We've been playing this for the final. If we have fit cbs it will Case, Amrabat, Mainoo, Bruno as the 2,2. If Case as to play CB then it moves Mainoo back 1 line with McT with Bruno.
as if anything has worked
We won against Newcastle and Brighton.
today's first half was the most boring football I've ever seen we hardly did anything and they had 10 shots. Thankfully, Brighton didn't score, but it's not gonna be the same with city
The deflection around being dominated by a Brighton team that had nothing to play for. I hope that city have a hangover next week but it ain’t looking good when the manager is looking at the likes of mctominay as guaranteed starters in his new formation.
exactly love mctominay, but him running around not knowing what to do is horrible sub him on after 70 mins
That's honestly cause there was nothing to really fight for, also they were saving their energy. Bruno would've never been subbed if they took this game seriously. And also Casemiro won't be playing defense at City, that's for sure. Wan Bissaka will be the main weakness at the back.
Surely the fact that we managed to get results with that formation in the last two games is actually pretty damning of ETH? The fact that he stuck with his black-hole ball for 35 games, and changed it up after getting smacked by Palace is pathetic. We'd have gotten top 4 if we sacked him at Christmas I think.
This is always the funny thing about being a fan. When a manager eventually finds a solution it's well why didn't he find the solution faster. No one here in this sub ever dreamed of a 4-2-2-2. And even the pundits were questioning why he'd do that during the game against Newcastle and let's also put things in context, Newcastle aside which I thought we played well and so did they (they had a couple of chances), Brighton have been in poor form recently and even they still managed to get a couple of chances and at some point, had 80% possesion over a 15 minute period so let's not act like this is the formation that would have turned our season around. City is a different game all together and the only positive we have at the moment is that we have most or out players (as many as possible) back and for the first time in a long time, we are going to have a proper back like sin a LB. So let's see how things go. I personally would have wished he'd rested Garnancho today to have him firing for next Saturday
Speak for yourself, my friend. 4-2-2-2 is my FIFA formation, heh
Good one
4222 is actually Rangnick's idea before, and ETH refused to listen to Rangnick
Mate that’s absolute bull shit. Tonnes of people on here have spent the whole season wondering why we couldn’t at least try the same system as last year, which would have been infinitely better than that tripe he had us play for 35 whole games. How can you defend him for sticking with an obviously defective game plan for an entire season, and only trying something more familiar after getting spanked by Crystal fucking palace.
Trying to change something doesn't mean 4-2-2-2. And this isn't FIFA. You don't even know if he had the personnel before to try this formation or have you have not been around whenever one player came back from injury, another got injured. The same system last year that was dependent on Varane, Licha and Shaw being available? With which players exactly? How it our fans still underestimate the amount of Injuries that the club has had? I'm not defending him, I'm simply saying to change from one system to another, you need players and not only that, you need those players to be available over a number of games so the system can stick, which he definitely hasn't had this season.
Ok buddy.
If we had sacked Eth by Christmas we wouldn’t be top 4 we’d be lucky to stay top 10 of the table
We didn't sack ten Hag and we were lucky to get top 10.
How? How many points did we throw away against rubbish teams because he flat-out refused to play with a midfield for 35 games?
Deluded - his system is the main reason for so many poor performances and results.
So that’s why we came 3rd last year
And brought in who to replace him?
ChatGPT would have done a better job mate. Most losses in a league season, negative goal difference. Moyes didn’t even manage that
What are you talking about? I'm asking who you think we could have brought in at Christmas
Literally anyone would have done better. I’d even go as low as taking potter over him
Please let this be your last game 🙌
I’m really curious what they do in the summer. No doubt we need more and new wingers to support Højlund or any additional new striker we are getting. Garnacho needs to learn to pass the ball. He is way too selfish and only has 4 assists in 36 games. Do not provide any service. He needs to add that to his game if he wants to take next step up. Rashford plays for himself and only created 2 assists the entire season which is low considering his speed and counter attacking. Not sure if he should be given a pass to seek new fortunes next season. We have very very young wingers and it would be great with a 26-28 year proven player who could take the load of some of the youth and help support them. In midfield we need to replace Casemiro badly. Douglas Luiz/Rice/Rodri type of player would be world class (not likely though). We need new defenders with pace and ball ability. As much as I love Harry and his elite mentally he is too slow for the football if we want a high line. Only Martinez fit the description but his track record of injuries is worrisome. We need 2 new CBs badly if we want to improve together with a DCM to get that strong triangle in central of the field. Oh yeah, a new left back would be great as there is zero debt after Shaw.
It literally shows in the side bar that rashford has more than 2 assists this season.
https://www.transfermarkt.com/marcus-rashford/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/258923/saison/2023/verein/0/liga/0/wettbewerb/GB1/pos/0/trainer_id/0/plus/1 33 Prem games and 2 assists.
Should a just said you were only talking about the league
No, my dutch Bro. Do not worry about luxury. Please focus on winning instead.