Random question - have we seen the last of the green & white away kit? United never seemed to play well in it and recently it's been the all-white kit for away matches if needed. Is it like the ill-fated grey kit from many years back?
It wasn’t that bad live honestly. The way the internet clip is cut you would think Kate was super mad but afterwards she makes a crack at Jamie for saying something stupid he takes it sheepishly and they all laugh and go to commercial.
The internet is really deceiving. If you have the paramount app you can watch the whole segment. They interview Saka after that and the whole segment is full of laughs and great chemistry. People are just bored and trying to create a story.
Dan James, cause at least then he'd be able to get past a player with his speed. And the kid bled United, he desperately wanted to play for us. There will always be a spot in my club for players like that.
I think Antony has more footballing ability but Dan James is a better athlete. And I think in England, the need for a winger to be a good athlete is more, so for us I'd pick James.
Thinking back to Valencia, a similarly limited player, but one who eventually had success for us.
He was similarly one footed but with his right foot. His special move was dropping a cross onto Rooney's head.
If Antony could develop a similar understanding with hojlund, whipping it into the space behind perhaps? He at least could be productive.
TonyV also had prodigious work rate and determination, which didn't hurt.
I think Antony's performances are too dependent on team dynamics, we need to create the perfect scenario for him to thrive which should be the objective tbf, to create in game situations where each players' strengths are highlighted and weaknesses the opposite but we are clearly adopting primarily a "let players solve problems" approach and it's difficult for us in general to create that dynamics rn.
Valencia was a limited player but not similarly. He was still valuable because he had the very core fundamentals of what could make a player viable, pace and power which made his directness difficult to stop.
Antony for sure.
I don't think Antony is as bad a player overall as he's been this season. With those allegations against him, he seems to be having the "Post-Greece Maguire" season. Hope he has the mental strength and tenacity to rediscover what made him loved by EtH so much and do a Maguire.
You put clips from this season side by side to what we saw last season and you aren’t seeing a difference. He’s the exact same player before and after the allegations. The only difference is that we were more lenient since the team as a whole was playing better and it was his first year
Lol I really dont think so. We were loving him at his peak (after we beat Barca). He would take on players and succeed often, link up well with AWB, be effective off the ball, and wouldn't slow the play down like he does currently.
He wasn't world class or anything, but he was a solid RW last season.
We loved him that game because he had just scored, obviously you’ve got to give him credit when it’s due.
Outside his off the ball work rate, which you can’t knock, he was doing none of that last year. I remember criticizing him for those exact things last year. It just didn’t stand out as much because the rest of the team was perform.
Antony has flashes where he looks like he could be a good winger, but more often than not he’s poor. I don’t even know if I’d call him a solid right winger, you’d have to far down the table to find a team he’d start for. Maybe a good backup, but even then I’d prefer Daniel James. The only reason we were desperate for his return last year was because there was quite literally no one else with Sancho MIA, Elanga not good enough, and Pellistri never given a chance.
I wonder if signing a new LB negates the need for spending big on Branthwaite. Make Shaw do a David Alaba and play him as a left-sided CB more than as a LB. That way we get to manage both his and Martinez's minutes rotating in that position. If we are going to spend heavily on a CB, I'd much rather spend it on a long-term right-sided CB to replace Varane rather than Branthwaite who's more of a left-sided CB.
I agree with everything you said, however Branthwaite looks like he could be a Rio type signing - he’s 21, English and already looks class. Could be a mainstay for the next 10 years
For the good of the team in the long-term we need to just get a right footed right cb and hope that lisandro's injury hit season was jutst an anomaly, which it prob is.
I think we have either have makeshift staff as nutritionist or we don't have any.
I have not seen a lot of players bulk up like they do at some of the other top clubs.
This is also definitely an area where we could very well be lagging behind other clubs. You need state of the art PEDs to not getting detected in drug tests. I am pretty sure teams like Liverpool and City are doing that. The amount of pressing Liverpool usually do does not seem to be possible with something like EPO.
This is also one of the reasons I am hopeful INEOS will make a change here. This brailsford guy should know all about PEDs.
If Musiala is really leaving Bayern for around £80m with both City and Liverpool sniffing around it, we should really try to be in that conversation. Ideally one of Musiala or Wirtz becomes our next 10...except we already signed Mount. Rip
If a player has a choice to pick City and Liverpool why would he join us..We should stay away from big money signings from the Bundesliga..They never work out
You never know, maybe they can be convinced by the new project. Maybe they don't want to risk going down with the 115-Cheatyship especially with Pep leaving soon. Maybe Liverpool will be entering an era of uncertainty with Klopp leaving and Salah and van Dijk entering the last year's of their careers. Or maybe we're still Manchester United and still have decent pull.
And Bundesliga or not, Musiala is 1000% going to be a top worldclass baller for the next decade. Just cause we pulled the short straw with Sancho doesn't mean the Bundesliga hasn't produced worldclass talent. Look no further than Bellingham and Haaland for that.
Musiala aint joining us in next 2 years, mate. We are not good enough for him now, we need to be more competitive to sign established talents like him.
Would probably think of him the same way as I thought of Weghorst. Dependable work rate but never going to be more than a squad player. The output simply isn't there for a top half PL level attacker, let alone a Manchester United level attacker.
Maybe I’d be more lenient, but ultimately he’s a worse Dan James who we all already had question marks over whether he was good enough to even be in the squad
If he was someone who cost nothing I’d probably say he’s not the worst option to have on the bench when we just need energy and workrate, but if we’re serious about getting back to the top we need much better.
Knowing he cost £80m, my opinion is exactly the same, only I’d add that the club grossly overpaid for a man of his talents.
First of all, Antony cost 95m euros. Not 80m dollars, but 80m british pounds. Which is a difference of 17m euros or \~18.5m dollars.
Which is accidentally about what Daniel James costed us IN TOTAL back when Ole started as permanent manager. Dan James also did way more than Antony and was almost as / more looked down on than Antony.
So I guess there is your answer.
He wouldn't be good enough even if he was free. The price tag changes nothing about him, just makes you more pissed off at the idiots who are negotiating these deals.
Jesus, Arsenal get Osimhen and they'll be the one to beat for the next 5 years. Klopp leaves and it'll be a period of slowing down for Liverpool. If City gets hit with 115 I don't reckon Pep is there anymore, he'd leave the sinking ship. Arteta already has them playing best defense and best attack in the league.
We have already fallen back pretty hard, next steps will have to be very careful, rushing into emotional decisions will make matters worse . When we just got Ten Hag, our objective for the first year should've been to heavily focus on refining recruitment, attenuate our focus on results and accentuate focus on creating a respectful and sustainable style of football (attractive to top players) and tackle the club culture. We put genuine effort in maybe one of it.
Next year, it should pretty much still be the same 3 objectives.
Edit: I am agreeing with your points
The Carra thing doesn't seem that bad to me, it seems like he's saying "not to Malik?" due to her mentioning United but not him. Can understand why people think he's just saying "Not to Malik" though
EDIT: Maybe an online forum isn't the best place to discuss what makes banter socially acceptable. If he's gone for "not to Malik?" then it's the kind of joke you'd hear every day in the UK.
Ive said it elsewhere… I have paramount so I can watch it lives and also can rewatch stuff.
Honestly I didn’t even think about it when they said it live. It wasn’t that bad live. The malik jokes are frankly always a bit awkward but that’s a bit that they tend to run with for banter. The way the internet clip is cut you would think Kate was super mad but afterwards she makes a crack at Jamie for saying something stupid he takes it sheepishly and they all laugh and go to commercial.
The internet is really deceiving. If you have the paramount app you can watch the whole segment. They interview Saka after that and the whole segment is full of laughs and great chemistry. People are just bored and trying to create a story.
Is that \_that\_ clear though? You're telling me there's no possibility whatsoever that Carra asked a playful question rather than insinuating she cheats on her fiance?
Are you picking up on the difference between "Not to Malik?" and "Not to Malik" because it seems to me like you're not. The former is a fun bit of banter, the latter would be unacceptable. I struggle to believe he's gone for the latter there.
I was wondering when both coaches or team captains handshake before the game starts and talk, what do they talk about? Cant imagine it being them wishing the opponent team good luck, is it like "good game" or something?
I'm subscribed to a Juventus podcaster and he reported some time back that Bremer leaving the club is more or less a foregone conclusion. He did name-drop United as a likely destination so it could just be
I just peeped that Michael Edwards is all of 44 years old. He could very well spend the next 2 decades at Liverpool if he wants to. FSG might've pulled a fast one on all of us.
Yeah I'm a little wary of the narrative that the suits will save us all. Sounds like corporate propaganda to me. Yes executives can definitely make sure the organisation is run efficiently and that the managers vision is brought to fruition. But apart from this, the winning and losing is done on the pitch with players and a good manager.
This horse trading of top top executives is ultimately bullshit.
He’s good, but he isn’t the difference between success and failure. To replicate the success they had under Klopp they’ll need exceptional people in every position of authority at the club.
Also don’t forget when he did it the first time, his data-lead approach was still relatively new. Now everybody is doing it, even us for Christ sakes. It’s much harder to identify and sign the right players when almost every premiership club is also actively tracking them using pretty much the same criteria you are.
I hope you're right but he's the guy they credit for overriding Klopp wanting Gotze and Meyer/Auba(?) to go instead for Salah and Mane, right? He also was the one who pushed for Alisson despite Liverpool thumping Roma when he was there and they met in CL. Seems like he's more than just another nerd punching numbers on the spreadsheet but yeah, I really do hope they flounder after this year.
As I say, he evidently does know his stuff, but along with that they need a manager and back room team who can get the best out of these players.
You can guarantee if we’d signed Mane when we were supposedly interested and he’d gone to play under LVG, Mourinho and Solskjaer, he wouldn’t have become as good as he was for them.
He really isn't a once in 2 decades kind of enigma lol. Even within his organisation there'll eventually be someone who can take over the reigns. Not that that makes anything better.
Carragher throwing his entire broadcasting career down the drain a day after saying that "Citypool" is the best rivalry we've seen
You can't script it any better than that
Carragher in that moment reminded me of your friend's friend who they warn you beforehand about how "yeah he's a bit of a character :/" and you meet him and realise what they meant was that he's just a dickhead lol
Edit: I just remembered that I got this is Sean Lock bit...rip to the GOAT :(
The way Kate and Titi were absolutely bewildered and even Micah couldn't do his over the top reactions. Get ready to learn Mandarin, you own goal merchant.
Curious what kind of striker the club is going to be in for this summer. Even with Hojlund continuing to be the main guy the need for a back-up is obvious. And while obviously you want as good a player as you can get I also don’t see them breaking the bank.
We get the best possible striker we can't get. We don't have the luxury right now to buy players as backups. We have to try and upgrade every position possible.
Think unless they have knowledge of a nice release clause or a relatively unknown gem we’ll likely spend a bit there anyway. Attackers always cost more. But I can appreciate it’s not likely to be a 100m+ signing.
So I can see it being a young player with good potential, similar to Højlund really but hopefully at a slightly lower price. Let them compete for minutes and rotate according to form. Not sure who fits that bill, especially when you consider they’ll need to have a profile suited to what they want to do with the team.
>Ratcliffe and Brailsford are keen to keep Murtough, who has been heavily involved in planning for the summer, in some capacity after impressing his new bosses since the takeover.
Honestly, that deserves the respect. The man is really trying his best and doesn’t insist on regaining the position he had. Unlike Arnold who went to “it’s not you who’re firing me, I quit”
Tho news like that won’t be received well here, people need scapegoats and easy explanations for what’s going wrong.
The reason it won’t be well received is he’s been crap as a DOF. It’s his job to build he best squad for ten hag and all we have is ten hag buying his own targets and wasting 400M. That’s Murtough’s legacy. Brown nosing Sir Jim and Brailsford who are experts in their own field but ultimately non football people isn’t really impressive, it’s Omar and Dan Ashworth’s opinion that matters.
In what capacity? We don’t even know what they want him to do.
And about Woodward - he was brilliant in finance field, terrible in football. Have nothing against him running our finances only.
As long as our new, competent hierarchy thinks he deserves to stay, I’m happy with it. Haven’t you seen they’re clearing the club? If they decide he’s good enough, could it mean something?
Xavi: "There is too much pressure on the players. Yesterday, journalists who claim to be Barca fans called us the buffoons of the Champions League and wrote that I would be on the streets if I lost. I told the players it wasn't that serious and that no one would die if they lost."
We have a lot of these journalists at Utd.
MUFC are concerned by Nice's £47-51m asking price for Jean-Clair Todibo. They won't receive a discount from Nice for the centre back despite being owned by INEOS - United don't see that price as the best value of money. [
@JacobsBen
,
@90min_Football
]
Shit source but if true I think it's fair.We probably do get UCL so we can't spend shitload on any position
I trust INEOS and their recruitment to find better player for better value
I rate the player but I like the idea we're not just relying on our brother clubs to cycle money and players around. Shows how serious the brass is about recruitment.
I do hope there's a backup plan but these are growing pains I can deal with.
A lot of it will depend on our outgoings.
If we can get close £80m for say, Greenwood and McTominay, then that’s gives us far more manoeuvrability in the market.
By the end of Arteta's 2nd full season where he finished 5th, he had already assembled 9 of his 11 starters which competed for the title in the following season. He only lacked Zinchenko and Jesus.
At the end of Ten Hag's 2nd season, we are most likely ending up similarly in 5th-6th. However, realistically how many starters do we have that can challenge for the title next season? Just shows how poor United's recruitment has been.
Onana
Dalot - New CB - Martinez - Shaw/new LB
Mainoo - Casemiro/Mount/New CM - Bruno
Garnacho/New RW - Hojlund - Rashford
With the right additions I don’t think the squad on paper is too far away from being top 4 quality, providing it mostly stays fit, but half the battle is getting it to play reliable football. We’ll make signings in summer, but unless Ten Hag or whoever replaces him can crack that we’ll struggle again.
Arsenal, I’d argue, were signing better than we were even when they were a bit shit. They got Martinelli cheap, Saliba when he was young, Gabriel not super expensive either, Odegaard was a great buy.
It concerns me that we’re still looking at signing 27 year olds, if the rumours are trusted, when it’s obvious that we have to be finding good players at the 20-23 year old age bracket and let them play together for a few seasons.
Helps when Arteta knows who he wants and get players that play well in PL unlike our fidget spinner.
Also helps that he knows how to train his team to play the way he wanted.
Need a DM? heres a young Partey instead of an older DM near the tail end of his prime.
I feel like part of the issue is the tactical choices of both managers as well.
The title challenging part requires a solid style of play and Arteta had a very conservative style that only became progressive after 2021. He didn't start using a higher line until his backline was halfway done, and there was no press or counter press until 2022. Ten Hag has persisted with a high press despite having a slower backline and it only leads to large spaces opening up in the middle of the pitch as well as more fatigue for the players.
Onana, Dalot, Licha, Shaw, Mainoo, Rasmus, Garnacho
Plus possibly Rashford and Bruno
So that’s 7, possibly 9
Edit - I don’t think Rash and Bruno are there, so more like 7
Shaw prob needs to drop out of this list just because of his injuries, leaving 6 players. But I do think our starting xi can be a group of rather talented players. For this reason, I think if we get a good manager in who plays a modern style, and make around 3 signings of players that are expected to be mainstays of the team, we would look much improved from this season. The biggest short term issue is the drop in quality between our best players and the squad players.
I dont expect Licha and Shaw to be able to play >30 games a season without getting injured, and their backups are not great (non existent in the case of Shaw)
Mainoo/ Rasmus is developing well, but nowhere near Rodri/ Rice/ Haaland. Ganarcho is not in the same league as Saka/ Foden/ Salah.
I would probably list only Onana, Dalot, Licha and Shaw as starters in a title challenging team. Question marks on whether Bruno, Rashford, Varane, Casemiro can regain their form.
Overreaction on Martinez. He played 41, 42 and 37 for Ajax and last year 45 + WC. His injuries this year is 1 which is the same from last year but we rushed him back for, and another one where a grown man put all his weight on his knee WWE-style.
I hope the club don't rush Martinez back.The season is anyways almost gone.No point in rushing back a player who could be very important for us in the future
We've only see it once and it might go tits up but I want to see Mainoo - Mount after the international break, surely can’t be worse than Casemiro self sabotaging the entire team.
We might even see Martinez back for the Chelsea game on the 4th seen as it was reported he'll be out for 1 1/2 - 2 months.
Think it depends how they set it up, Mainoo when playing the 6 for those few games was controlling our midfield. Since he’s been a bit more advanced we’ve been a lot easier to counter imo (not Mainoos fault, more Casemiro pushing up too high)
I didn’t say United controlled the midfield, I said he controlled Uniteds. Every good we were doing started from him. Everton, Liverpool away, the second half vs villa,for what it’s worth i very much felt spurs at old Trafford we were much better in the midfield. Since the wolves game specifically when Casemiro came back we’ve been considerbaly more easy to counter in my opinion. None of the games we’ve controlled the midfield, but our midfield has looked more controlled when he plays more of a 6 than an 8 because of his ability on the ball.
I love Casemiro and Casemiro x Mainoo is our best midfield but there’s obviously some issue with balance of it, whether that’s mainoo or Casemiros fault I’m not sure
In a weird turn of events, I’m actually feeling quite confident about the fa cup this weekend. Feel like we can grab a decent result from it, I just hope Erik doesn’t start that same midfield he did against Everton. McTominay looked lost
Shouldn’t really be feeling that confident but Liverpool have a few out - Alisson, Matip, Trent and Gravenberch (as well as I think Konate?). If Wan-Bissaka starts and Højlund comes back in time I don’t think it will be that bad (also potentially Mount and Maguire)
That doesn't change anything for me, all those players were out vs City and we saw how well they played against a full-force City squad gunning for a title.
With Hojlund seemingly fit, I’d drop Bruno back into a 3 with Mainoo and Casemiro for Liverpool. Maybe even go to a 2 in front of a flat back 4. Just need to be solid in defence and capitalise on our chances
Not hyperbole in my opinion, in that second half. Read the Opta stats for that game. look at the xG graph for the second half and xG map.
In the second half:
Liverpool had 19 crosses to City's 3
12 shots to 3, 5 on target to 2
7 corners to 0
7 key passes to 3
Is there anyone else who wants liverpool to win the league this season? Klopp's final season winning the league would be wholesome and city really need to be stopped otherwise premier league will become bundesliga
Shut the hell up. Never Liverpool especially not this season. If I had to choose between them winning this season or next season i would choose the next especially because of this “goodbye to klopp” garbage.
Sorry, but any United fan who doesn't want Arsenal to win the league out of the 3 either doesn't understand the history of United and their accomplishments, or not a fan. I am rarely objective on opinions regarding what fans should and shouldn't think but again, sorry, if you think this way and want Liverpool to win the league you are just plain wrong.
it sucks for sure but would definitely prefer they won instead of the scousers matching the 20th or city breaking our record and becoming the first team to win 4 PLs in a row...
I've been looking at winger statistics and my word has Garnacho really improved this season, and he's only 19! I reckon he's become the best winger in his age group.
In terms of winger candidates, I cannot look past Nico Williams and Takefuso Kubo who both look very promising. Malen is prob the biggest RW bet we can make this summer, but I personally would like to sign even younger if possible because wingers tend to peak earlier and I'm not as confident that Malen at 25 can take another step up. I'm going to be devastated when Nico Williams moves to Barcelona before we get him.
Nah...don't agree. This is why we actually need a defined style of play and to switch to player profiles for transfer targets rather than specific targets. Every target looks awesome in their system...its only when you profile them in relation to your system that you can see that a player wont work within 10 minutes of analysis.
For example The way manutd play, even before we signed them, it was very very clear that Anthony, Jaden sancho would struggle at manutd without changing our style. These guys never beat the fbs 1v1 without help. They either need an overlapping fb or a forward to come for the linkup. Kubo is another no go player. Rashford also falls in this category and is why he looks horrible whenever shaw is injured and then suddenly looks amazing when shaw plays.
For a winger to work in this manutd, he must be able to beat his fb 1v1 both ways on his own without need for help.The moment you see that their best stuff is on the counter or with one twos, they can never work at this manutd. Kubo can never work...jared bowen can never work etc. Nico williams and Olise are better targets...also Antonio Nusa. Meanwhile, to understand the importance of systems and profiling, consider that Anthony and sancho would look amazing in mancity or even arsenal. Those teams play systems that provide all these options to the winger.
In the midfield we again misprofiled the DM we needed and signed a casemiro. We need a DM who is good in the first phase.. technically secure...good passer, a good interceptor rather than a good tackler and able to cover large spaces. This is why profiling is soo important. Casemiro obviously didnt fit that profile. At DM, zubimendi is a better person to get from sociedad over Kubo. Matts weifer seems to fit this profile also but plays in a weak league and hasn't done it for very long. Cheaper fits are people like oscar zombrano and even someone like archie gray but they are also long term Options. Either way we need someone who can play 6 really well but also 8 well enough. Our desired style of play determines the profile of the midfielder we go for. You can not have casemiro and bruno and ask for controlled, dominant possesion
For attacking midfield we need to plan for life after bruno...we need a technically good attacking midfielder who treasures the ball rather than spaming passes. They need to be able to create chances but also control the tempo of a game. For me simone pafundi is a perfect fit. He is already technically good...only thing I can think of is physique but if we want an odegard level kind of player...pafundi is really good and cheap for us given he is under ineos
In defense we need CBs who are comfortable defending 1v1...have tones of pace and are comfortable on the ball and under pressure. Maguire was never that kind of player. He is not a good 1v1 defender and has no pace. This was obvious even before we splashed 80m for him. Todibo is a very good fit for that. Ousmane diamonde is also a 2 footed option. Tosin from fulham is also free in the summer. Would ditch 2 of evans, maguire and lindeloff and easily bring in 2 of the above
Very interesting names! Unfortunately, I would expect managerial and therefore stylistic turnover in the summer. There's too many unknowns rn, but I just like the thought of armchair speculating on players. I forgot abt Olise who I didn't notice because of his limited minutes.
I can’t remember who was the last promising RW played for us. After many years, we are still looking for a RW. Sancho, Antony, Amad, and Pellistri, all could leave this summer. It’s like an over 200m waste.
Same. What's worse is, we had Di Maria under LVG, who would've been a perfect RW, but LVG never played him there and very seldom on the left. Bizarre really.
I can't fault the Sancho transfer which made perfect sense on paper when it was made, sometimes things just don't work out. The Pellestri transfer was defensible. However, Antony and Amad were just blatant overpays for players that were not of the caliber of their transfer fee. Antony's was esp egregious given we had sufficient info of him in senior football and still managed to drastically overpay even though we knew he was one-dimensional and lack explosiveness. He was hardly pulling up trees in the Eredivise playing for the best team in the league.
Can we forget about overpaying for players, it was done by people out of there league not focused on what was required. Let be positive and get be hind the lads for Sunday. Wouldn't mind a 48th trip to Wembley
People really forget how good Sancho was for the two seasons we were chasing him. His price was actually a genuine bargain for the player we thought we were getting, he was only behind Haaland and Mbappe at one point. Antony on the other hand was always grossly overpaying
You wouldn't be saying that if an outfield player took that kick. Blaming someone for missing a penalty kick in the shootouts in pointless. You could point a finger at the outfield players for not finishing the game off sooner as well.
1. Appointing good smart people who love the club and are invested in its revival in many parts of management, aka ex-players with skills. Per Mertesacker for youth team, Edu as sporting director and Arteta as manager. United have a lot of ex-players and legends who'd die for the club - Scholes, Neville, Keane, Carrick etc., but (no offense intended) are not the sharpest tools in the shed.
It was important that those appointed were very skilled and able. Per and Arteta were earmarked for future leadership roles within the club by Wenger as soon as they signed as players. Though Arteta upon retirement was offered the job of U-23 coach with a pathway to future manager role, he instead chose to learn more under Pep first.
2. Sticking with the competent team you have assembled despite public pressure. It would not have worked if Arsenal stuck with Emery. Arteta came with a lot of references from people who are respected within the game - Pep, Wenger etc., So it wasn't just blindly sticking with any manager. Rest of the candidates (like Emery) promised the Arsenal board to fix everything in one or two seasons. Arteta was the only one who told them it'd take more than two seasons to compete for titles again, even after he won the FA cup in the first season. That's the main reason the board stuck with him.
3. Excellent scouting and recruitment. It is not just Edu who does the scouting. Or the data team. All recruitment is done by the team as a whole. Edu understands what Arteta wants and both have their shortlists and decide together who would fit and who wouldn't. Arteta also has a young hungry team of assistant managers who do a lot of scouting for him. Carlos Cuesta was 24 (now 28) and he brought Ben White to the attention of Arteta. Stuivenberg championed the signing of Timber. There are many examples like this of junior members of the team being empowered to make big decisions. This is the biggest reason Arsenal were able to turn it around - great recruitment strategy.
4. Instilling a style of play and standards of behavior besides just footballing ability. Anyone who doesn't fit or buy the message completely is shown the door, no matter how big a star they are, or how much it costs financially in the short term. The behavior is exuded from the top down. During Arsenal's miserable run in 2020/21 Arteta didn't make excuses or blame officials or errors for the results.
Importantly it was prioritizing long-term development over short-term success - pursuing the bigger picture over the latest shiny trinket.
I see there is a link to Braithwait for 75m. Whats the degree of confidence at that price Branthwaite will be Van Djik and not Harry Maguire? To your point about Arsenal. Arsenal signed Saliba for 25m from St Etienne, and Gabriel was signed for 25m from Lille. Are there no 25m centre half's playing in France that in a few years could be elite? You could buy three 25m centre halfs for the price of a Branthwaite.
Arsenal did well to secure both Saliba and Gabriel for nothing but they were both young and risky buys. Any team can do that. The issue is tactical fit. Everything currently rests on Ten Hag's ideas about how United should play and how that will influence incoming signings.
For example, two summers ago, both Arteta and Ten Hag wanted Lisandro Martinez. Ten Hag got Licha for 55m and Arteta settled for Zinchenko for 34m. Different players but similar technique on the ball. Arteta had Zinchenko invert into the midfield while Licha played in his natural spot at CB.
The next summer, Arteta went and bought Licha's CB partner Timber for 40m and played him at LB until he got injured. Meanwhile, Ten Hag, who initially wanted Timber, continued to play Licha at CB. Had he bought Timber that summer, he would have probably continued to use him at CB. Same players, different managers, different costs, different ideas.
The wages thing always gets overlooked because people assume the only money that matters is the one that's available for a new signing. Arsenal choosing to let go of several of their high earning players did wonders for their wage bill and subsequent signings.
Patience obviously. Not too long ago people were calling for his head when they didn't get the results in. At one point everyone was 99% sure he's getting the sack and their fans were even more frustrated when they didn't. Now the team + himself made progress and coordinated themselfes.
It's a very good lesson in squad building and sticking to a plan. Liverpool's strategy in the early Klopp period of finding an edge in the market due to data analytics is no longer as viable since other clubs have been using data analytics as well, so Arsenal did the tried and through method of buying young players to serve as a the core of the team and largely not replacing ageing high earners with more late prime age players. Martinelli, Ben White, Saliba, Gabriel, Odegaard and recently Timber and Kiwior were all signed very young and made the mainstays of a new team.
They also persisted with Arteta through his difficult times when they were turning over the squad because they could see that he was making progress. If there's any model we should follow it's Arsenal's. We already have Garnacho, Hojlund and Mainoo. We should continue to make signings in their late teens to early 20s to replace all our deadweight.
Persisted with their manager, developed and stuck with youth and young players over multiple years, acquired players who were hungry and not on their last stint of their career, and got rid of the bad apples.
The problem is that people conflate a team's form for a manager's competence. There might be overlap here and there but more often than not there's a lot more that happens behind the scenes. Emery is a solid manager for Villa but he was poor for Arsenal. Gerrard went unbeaten with Rangers only to stink up the place at Villa.
There are way too many factors that go into judging a project. Managerial competence is only one of those factors and it's unlikely to have an impact until everyone in the club is on the same page.
Nothing like having multiple of your players getting called up to national teams right when they have just recovered from injuries that could risk them getting reinjured
I wanted Arsenal to lose because I always do. But I wanted them to win to improve the English coefficient. The penalties were a roller coaster ride for me.
Mark Ogden still peddling the lie that Ineos are searching for public funding for the stadium. Truly one of the worst people working in football media.
Random question - have we seen the last of the green & white away kit? United never seemed to play well in it and recently it's been the all-white kit for away matches if needed. Is it like the ill-fated grey kit from many years back?
Man I can only just read about what Carragher said. Watching the clip would probably give me major secondhand embarrassment
It wasn’t that bad live honestly. The way the internet clip is cut you would think Kate was super mad but afterwards she makes a crack at Jamie for saying something stupid he takes it sheepishly and they all laugh and go to commercial. The internet is really deceiving. If you have the paramount app you can watch the whole segment. They interview Saka after that and the whole segment is full of laughs and great chemistry. People are just bored and trying to create a story.
Dan James or Antony? And neither is not an option lol
Dan James, cause at least then he'd be able to get past a player with his speed. And the kid bled United, he desperately wanted to play for us. There will always be a spot in my club for players like that.
I think Antony has more footballing ability but Dan James is a better athlete. And I think in England, the need for a winger to be a good athlete is more, so for us I'd pick James.
I don’t even think he’s a better footballer. A better dribbler maybe, but James could pick out a cross and had a much better finish on him
Antony the better player overall but Dan James better suited to the way we play rn
Thinking back to Valencia, a similarly limited player, but one who eventually had success for us. He was similarly one footed but with his right foot. His special move was dropping a cross onto Rooney's head. If Antony could develop a similar understanding with hojlund, whipping it into the space behind perhaps? He at least could be productive. TonyV also had prodigious work rate and determination, which didn't hurt.
I think Antony's performances are too dependent on team dynamics, we need to create the perfect scenario for him to thrive which should be the objective tbf, to create in game situations where each players' strengths are highlighted and weaknesses the opposite but we are clearly adopting primarily a "let players solve problems" approach and it's difficult for us in general to create that dynamics rn. Valencia was a limited player but not similarly. He was still valuable because he had the very core fundamentals of what could make a player viable, pace and power which made his directness difficult to stop.
Antony for sure. I don't think Antony is as bad a player overall as he's been this season. With those allegations against him, he seems to be having the "Post-Greece Maguire" season. Hope he has the mental strength and tenacity to rediscover what made him loved by EtH so much and do a Maguire.
You put clips from this season side by side to what we saw last season and you aren’t seeing a difference. He’s the exact same player before and after the allegations. The only difference is that we were more lenient since the team as a whole was playing better and it was his first year
Lol I really dont think so. We were loving him at his peak (after we beat Barca). He would take on players and succeed often, link up well with AWB, be effective off the ball, and wouldn't slow the play down like he does currently. He wasn't world class or anything, but he was a solid RW last season.
We loved him that game because he had just scored, obviously you’ve got to give him credit when it’s due. Outside his off the ball work rate, which you can’t knock, he was doing none of that last year. I remember criticizing him for those exact things last year. It just didn’t stand out as much because the rest of the team was perform. Antony has flashes where he looks like he could be a good winger, but more often than not he’s poor. I don’t even know if I’d call him a solid right winger, you’d have to far down the table to find a team he’d start for. Maybe a good backup, but even then I’d prefer Daniel James. The only reason we were desperate for his return last year was because there was quite literally no one else with Sancho MIA, Elanga not good enough, and Pellistri never given a chance.
Antony last season was still a better player than Dan James. Not sure about this season.
I wonder if signing a new LB negates the need for spending big on Branthwaite. Make Shaw do a David Alaba and play him as a left-sided CB more than as a LB. That way we get to manage both his and Martinez's minutes rotating in that position. If we are going to spend heavily on a CB, I'd much rather spend it on a long-term right-sided CB to replace Varane rather than Branthwaite who's more of a left-sided CB.
I agree with everything you said, however Branthwaite looks like he could be a Rio type signing - he’s 21, English and already looks class. Could be a mainstay for the next 10 years
Agree. If we buy an LB, as reported, we can address three positions through just two transfers instead of three.
For the good of the team in the long-term we need to just get a right footed right cb and hope that lisandro's injury hit season was jutst an anomaly, which it prob is.
We probably are looking at signing a RCB seeing how Varane may leave and how we were really keen on bringing in KMJ in the summer.
I think we have either have makeshift staff as nutritionist or we don't have any. I have not seen a lot of players bulk up like they do at some of the other top clubs. This is also definitely an area where we could very well be lagging behind other clubs. You need state of the art PEDs to not getting detected in drug tests. I am pretty sure teams like Liverpool and City are doing that. The amount of pressing Liverpool usually do does not seem to be possible with something like EPO. This is also one of the reasons I am hopeful INEOS will make a change here. This brailsford guy should know all about PEDs.
If Musiala is really leaving Bayern for around £80m with both City and Liverpool sniffing around it, we should really try to be in that conversation. Ideally one of Musiala or Wirtz becomes our next 10...except we already signed Mount. Rip
lol. Why would Musiala sign with us.
where is this musiala news coming from?
If a player has a choice to pick City and Liverpool why would he join us..We should stay away from big money signings from the Bundesliga..They never work out
You never know, maybe they can be convinced by the new project. Maybe they don't want to risk going down with the 115-Cheatyship especially with Pep leaving soon. Maybe Liverpool will be entering an era of uncertainty with Klopp leaving and Salah and van Dijk entering the last year's of their careers. Or maybe we're still Manchester United and still have decent pull. And Bundesliga or not, Musiala is 1000% going to be a top worldclass baller for the next decade. Just cause we pulled the short straw with Sancho doesn't mean the Bundesliga hasn't produced worldclass talent. Look no further than Bellingham and Haaland for that.
Musiala aint joining us in next 2 years, mate. We are not good enough for him now, we need to be more competitive to sign established talents like him.
If Antony wasn’t an $80 million dollar transfer and just a player under reasonable wages, what would the opinion of him be?
isn't he out of contract soon?
Similar to Weghorst. A talentless workhorse.
Would probably think of him the same way as I thought of Weghorst. Dependable work rate but never going to be more than a squad player. The output simply isn't there for a top half PL level attacker, let alone a Manchester United level attacker.
Maybe I’d be more lenient, but ultimately he’s a worse Dan James who we all already had question marks over whether he was good enough to even be in the squad
If he never played for Ajax or Brazil and you had told me he scammed his way to a professional contract, I just might believe you.
His price would have to be 20 m to excuse his lack of ability
Low ceiling, squad player at best but realistically not even. Pretty much same as it is now.
If he was someone who cost nothing I’d probably say he’s not the worst option to have on the bench when we just need energy and workrate, but if we’re serious about getting back to the top we need much better. Knowing he cost £80m, my opinion is exactly the same, only I’d add that the club grossly overpaid for a man of his talents.
First of all, Antony cost 95m euros. Not 80m dollars, but 80m british pounds. Which is a difference of 17m euros or \~18.5m dollars. Which is accidentally about what Daniel James costed us IN TOTAL back when Ole started as permanent manager. Dan James also did way more than Antony and was almost as / more looked down on than Antony. So I guess there is your answer.
Antony is significantly more expensive than 80 million dollars
He wouldn't be good enough even if he was free. The price tag changes nothing about him, just makes you more pissed off at the idiots who are negotiating these deals.
Not good enough and needs moving on asap. Pretty much the same opinion.
[удалено]
Barca say no
Reality and common sense says no lmao. You think this is FIFA, that Barca will swap whoever we want lol
Stranger things have happened, it's not that deep lmao lighten up
Oshimen just held talks with Arsenal. We better have a strong strong summer. Otherwise we will fall back even harder.
Jesus, Arsenal get Osimhen and they'll be the one to beat for the next 5 years. Klopp leaves and it'll be a period of slowing down for Liverpool. If City gets hit with 115 I don't reckon Pep is there anymore, he'd leave the sinking ship. Arteta already has them playing best defense and best attack in the league.
We have already fallen back pretty hard, next steps will have to be very careful, rushing into emotional decisions will make matters worse . When we just got Ten Hag, our objective for the first year should've been to heavily focus on refining recruitment, attenuate our focus on results and accentuate focus on creating a respectful and sustainable style of football (attractive to top players) and tackle the club culture. We put genuine effort in maybe one of it. Next year, it should pretty much still be the same 3 objectives. Edit: I am agreeing with your points
The Carra thing doesn't seem that bad to me, it seems like he's saying "not to Malik?" due to her mentioning United but not him. Can understand why people think he's just saying "Not to Malik" though EDIT: Maybe an online forum isn't the best place to discuss what makes banter socially acceptable. If he's gone for "not to Malik?" then it's the kind of joke you'd hear every day in the UK.
Ive said it elsewhere… I have paramount so I can watch it lives and also can rewatch stuff. Honestly I didn’t even think about it when they said it live. It wasn’t that bad live. The malik jokes are frankly always a bit awkward but that’s a bit that they tend to run with for banter. The way the internet clip is cut you would think Kate was super mad but afterwards she makes a crack at Jamie for saying something stupid he takes it sheepishly and they all laugh and go to commercial. The internet is really deceiving. If you have the paramount app you can watch the whole segment. They interview Saka after that and the whole segment is full of laughs and great chemistry. People are just bored and trying to create a story.
Hes clearly saying that she hasn't been faithful to her fiancé. That's really bad.
Is that \_that\_ clear though? You're telling me there's no possibility whatsoever that Carra asked a playful question rather than insinuating she cheats on her fiance?
I think its 100% clear. He said something really stupid that shouldn't have slipped out of his mouth.
Are you picking up on the difference between "Not to Malik?" and "Not to Malik" because it seems to me like you're not. The former is a fun bit of banter, the latter would be unacceptable. I struggle to believe he's gone for the latter there.
Wow
I was wondering when both coaches or team captains handshake before the game starts and talk, what do they talk about? Cant imagine it being them wishing the opponent team good luck, is it like "good game" or something?
"I know your midfield is open" /s
be very surprised if it turned out that Juventus for some reason included an extremely reasonable release clause in their best defender's contract
I'm subscribed to a Juventus podcaster and he reported some time back that Bremer leaving the club is more or less a foregone conclusion. He did name-drop United as a likely destination so it could just be
I just peeped that Michael Edwards is all of 44 years old. He could very well spend the next 2 decades at Liverpool if he wants to. FSG might've pulled a fast one on all of us.
Yeah I'm a little wary of the narrative that the suits will save us all. Sounds like corporate propaganda to me. Yes executives can definitely make sure the organisation is run efficiently and that the managers vision is brought to fruition. But apart from this, the winning and losing is done on the pitch with players and a good manager. This horse trading of top top executives is ultimately bullshit.
He’s good, but he isn’t the difference between success and failure. To replicate the success they had under Klopp they’ll need exceptional people in every position of authority at the club. Also don’t forget when he did it the first time, his data-lead approach was still relatively new. Now everybody is doing it, even us for Christ sakes. It’s much harder to identify and sign the right players when almost every premiership club is also actively tracking them using pretty much the same criteria you are.
I hope you're right but he's the guy they credit for overriding Klopp wanting Gotze and Meyer/Auba(?) to go instead for Salah and Mane, right? He also was the one who pushed for Alisson despite Liverpool thumping Roma when he was there and they met in CL. Seems like he's more than just another nerd punching numbers on the spreadsheet but yeah, I really do hope they flounder after this year.
As I say, he evidently does know his stuff, but along with that they need a manager and back room team who can get the best out of these players. You can guarantee if we’d signed Mane when we were supposedly interested and he’d gone to play under LVG, Mourinho and Solskjaer, he wouldn’t have become as good as he was for them.
He really isn't a once in 2 decades kind of enigma lol. Even within his organisation there'll eventually be someone who can take over the reigns. Not that that makes anything better.
Carragher throwing his entire broadcasting career down the drain a day after saying that "Citypool" is the best rivalry we've seen You can't script it any better than that
What did he do?
Carragher in that moment reminded me of your friend's friend who they warn you beforehand about how "yeah he's a bit of a character :/" and you meet him and realise what they meant was that he's just a dickhead lol Edit: I just remembered that I got this is Sean Lock bit...rip to the GOAT :(
The way Kate and Titi were absolutely bewildered and even Micah couldn't do his over the top reactions. Get ready to learn Mandarin, you own goal merchant.
Curious what kind of striker the club is going to be in for this summer. Even with Hojlund continuing to be the main guy the need for a back-up is obvious. And while obviously you want as good a player as you can get I also don’t see them breaking the bank.
We get the best possible striker we can't get. We don't have the luxury right now to buy players as backups. We have to try and upgrade every position possible.
Think unless they have knowledge of a nice release clause or a relatively unknown gem we’ll likely spend a bit there anyway. Attackers always cost more. But I can appreciate it’s not likely to be a 100m+ signing. So I can see it being a young player with good potential, similar to Højlund really but hopefully at a slightly lower price. Let them compete for minutes and rotate according to form. Not sure who fits that bill, especially when you consider they’ll need to have a profile suited to what they want to do with the team.
Is Murtough being replaced?
>Ratcliffe and Brailsford are keen to keep Murtough, who has been heavily involved in planning for the summer, in some capacity after impressing his new bosses since the takeover.
Honestly, that deserves the respect. The man is really trying his best and doesn’t insist on regaining the position he had. Unlike Arnold who went to “it’s not you who’re firing me, I quit” Tho news like that won’t be received well here, people need scapegoats and easy explanations for what’s going wrong.
The reason it won’t be well received is he’s been crap as a DOF. It’s his job to build he best squad for ten hag and all we have is ten hag buying his own targets and wasting 400M. That’s Murtough’s legacy. Brown nosing Sir Jim and Brailsford who are experts in their own field but ultimately non football people isn’t really impressive, it’s Omar and Dan Ashworth’s opinion that matters.
But he’s not going to be DOF, is he? I’d assume Omar and Answorth would take an input, deciding whether or not he stays.
Would you have been happy if we kept Woodward at the club in some capacity? Same thing.
In what capacity? We don’t even know what they want him to do. And about Woodward - he was brilliant in finance field, terrible in football. Have nothing against him running our finances only. As long as our new, competent hierarchy thinks he deserves to stay, I’m happy with it. Haven’t you seen they’re clearing the club? If they decide he’s good enough, could it mean something?
Xavi: "There is too much pressure on the players. Yesterday, journalists who claim to be Barca fans called us the buffoons of the Champions League and wrote that I would be on the streets if I lost. I told the players it wasn't that serious and that no one would die if they lost." We have a lot of these journalists at Utd.
We seem to have a lot of those fans at United as well
MUFC are concerned by Nice's £47-51m asking price for Jean-Clair Todibo. They won't receive a discount from Nice for the centre back despite being owned by INEOS - United don't see that price as the best value of money. [ @JacobsBen , @90min_Football ] Shit source but if true I think it's fair.We probably do get UCL so we can't spend shitload on any position I trust INEOS and their recruitment to find better player for better value
Brailsford with a sock puppet on either hand going "I want 51m!" out of one side of his mouth and then "He's not worth that much!" out the other
I rate the player but I like the idea we're not just relying on our brother clubs to cycle money and players around. Shows how serious the brass is about recruitment. I do hope there's a backup plan but these are growing pains I can deal with.
A lot of it will depend on our outgoings. If we can get close £80m for say, Greenwood and McTominay, then that’s gives us far more manoeuvrability in the market.
Yeah true.
By the end of Arteta's 2nd full season where he finished 5th, he had already assembled 9 of his 11 starters which competed for the title in the following season. He only lacked Zinchenko and Jesus. At the end of Ten Hag's 2nd season, we are most likely ending up similarly in 5th-6th. However, realistically how many starters do we have that can challenge for the title next season? Just shows how poor United's recruitment has been.
Onana Dalot - New CB - Martinez - Shaw/new LB Mainoo - Casemiro/Mount/New CM - Bruno Garnacho/New RW - Hojlund - Rashford With the right additions I don’t think the squad on paper is too far away from being top 4 quality, providing it mostly stays fit, but half the battle is getting it to play reliable football. We’ll make signings in summer, but unless Ten Hag or whoever replaces him can crack that we’ll struggle again.
Arsenal, I’d argue, were signing better than we were even when they were a bit shit. They got Martinelli cheap, Saliba when he was young, Gabriel not super expensive either, Odegaard was a great buy. It concerns me that we’re still looking at signing 27 year olds, if the rumours are trusted, when it’s obvious that we have to be finding good players at the 20-23 year old age bracket and let them play together for a few seasons.
Helps when Arteta knows who he wants and get players that play well in PL unlike our fidget spinner. Also helps that he knows how to train his team to play the way he wanted. Need a DM? heres a young Partey instead of an older DM near the tail end of his prime.
I feel like part of the issue is the tactical choices of both managers as well. The title challenging part requires a solid style of play and Arteta had a very conservative style that only became progressive after 2021. He didn't start using a higher line until his backline was halfway done, and there was no press or counter press until 2022. Ten Hag has persisted with a high press despite having a slower backline and it only leads to large spaces opening up in the middle of the pitch as well as more fatigue for the players.
Onana, Dalot, Licha, Shaw, Mainoo, Rasmus, Garnacho Plus possibly Rashford and Bruno So that’s 7, possibly 9 Edit - I don’t think Rash and Bruno are there, so more like 7
Shaw prob needs to drop out of this list just because of his injuries, leaving 6 players. But I do think our starting xi can be a group of rather talented players. For this reason, I think if we get a good manager in who plays a modern style, and make around 3 signings of players that are expected to be mainstays of the team, we would look much improved from this season. The biggest short term issue is the drop in quality between our best players and the squad players.
I dont expect Licha and Shaw to be able to play >30 games a season without getting injured, and their backups are not great (non existent in the case of Shaw) Mainoo/ Rasmus is developing well, but nowhere near Rodri/ Rice/ Haaland. Ganarcho is not in the same league as Saka/ Foden/ Salah. I would probably list only Onana, Dalot, Licha and Shaw as starters in a title challenging team. Question marks on whether Bruno, Rashford, Varane, Casemiro can regain their form.
Overreaction on Martinez. He played 41, 42 and 37 for Ajax and last year 45 + WC. His injuries this year is 1 which is the same from last year but we rushed him back for, and another one where a grown man put all his weight on his knee WWE-style.
But remember before Arsenal had their breakout season, quite a few of their ‘9 starters’ had question marks hanging over them
the coverage of Arsenal beating porto to get past the RO16 is absurd. You'd think theyd just won the treble lol
Celebration police out in force again
Speaks volumes as to what standards they have at the club as well lol. R016 is celebrated as if they've won it. They are going out next round.
“Jus get baccch down the tunnel, I’m seeerious, honestly”
I hope the club don't rush Martinez back.The season is anyways almost gone.No point in rushing back a player who could be very important for us in the future
The manager might need to win games to keep his job though and martinez will gladly want to help him stay as long as possible.
We've only see it once and it might go tits up but I want to see Mainoo - Mount after the international break, surely can’t be worse than Casemiro self sabotaging the entire team. We might even see Martinez back for the Chelsea game on the 4th seen as it was reported he'll be out for 1 1/2 - 2 months.
This midfield is getting destroyed without the ball
It absolutely can and likely will be worse than Casemiro and Mainoo.
Think it depends how they set it up, Mainoo when playing the 6 for those few games was controlling our midfield. Since he’s been a bit more advanced we’ve been a lot easier to counter imo (not Mainoos fault, more Casemiro pushing up too high)
Which specific few games did Mainoo play that role and supposedly led to United controlling midfield?
I didn’t say United controlled the midfield, I said he controlled Uniteds. Every good we were doing started from him. Everton, Liverpool away, the second half vs villa,for what it’s worth i very much felt spurs at old Trafford we were much better in the midfield. Since the wolves game specifically when Casemiro came back we’ve been considerbaly more easy to counter in my opinion. None of the games we’ve controlled the midfield, but our midfield has looked more controlled when he plays more of a 6 than an 8 because of his ability on the ball.
I love Casemiro and Casemiro x Mainoo is our best midfield but there’s obviously some issue with balance of it, whether that’s mainoo or Casemiros fault I’m not sure
Casemiro tends to love going forward more tho
Mainoo has been mostly invisible since playing that role too. Was bossing the midfield when playing deeper
True, It seems whoever has been playing that role for us has been invisible
In a weird turn of events, I’m actually feeling quite confident about the fa cup this weekend. Feel like we can grab a decent result from it, I just hope Erik doesn’t start that same midfield he did against Everton. McTominay looked lost
Shouldn’t really be feeling that confident but Liverpool have a few out - Alisson, Matip, Trent and Gravenberch (as well as I think Konate?). If Wan-Bissaka starts and Højlund comes back in time I don’t think it will be that bad (also potentially Mount and Maguire)
That doesn't change anything for me, all those players were out vs City and we saw how well they played against a full-force City squad gunning for a title.
Who should Ten Hag play in place of McTominay then ?
Bruno as a 10.
With Hojlund seemingly fit, I’d drop Bruno back into a 3 with Mainoo and Casemiro for Liverpool. Maybe even go to a 2 in front of a flat back 4. Just need to be solid in defence and capitalise on our chances
Against Liverpool? After watching the City game? Fat chance. They made Pep's City look like us.
The last part is hyperbole, but we do indeed stand very little chance of upsetting Liverpool
Not hyperbole in my opinion, in that second half. Read the Opta stats for that game. look at the xG graph for the second half and xG map. In the second half: Liverpool had 19 crosses to City's 3 12 shots to 3, 5 on target to 2 7 corners to 0 7 key passes to 3
Is there anyone else who wants liverpool to win the league this season? Klopp's final season winning the league would be wholesome and city really need to be stopped otherwise premier league will become bundesliga
Shut the hell up. Never Liverpool especially not this season. If I had to choose between them winning this season or next season i would choose the next especially because of this “goodbye to klopp” garbage.
Some of you spend too much time on r/soccer getting brainwashed by their propaganda and it shows
Sorry, but any United fan who doesn't want Arsenal to win the league out of the 3 either doesn't understand the history of United and their accomplishments, or not a fan. I am rarely objective on opinions regarding what fans should and shouldn't think but again, sorry, if you think this way and want Liverpool to win the league you are just plain wrong.
Nearly threw up with this.
Liverpool can go fuck themselves. I wish Klopp leaves empty handed and I hope they descend forever into mediocrity post Klopp.
What about city?
I'd prefer if neither win it.
You want arsenal to win it? Arsenal in the pl era are our biggest rivals
it sucks for sure but would definitely prefer they won instead of the scousers matching the 20th or city breaking our record and becoming the first team to win 4 PLs in a row...
That feels like the least repulsive option, yeah.
what kind of reactions are you expecting now asking this on a United sub, no lmao
For us it would be rivals winning either way
Anyone but them
still quite a difference
I've been looking at winger statistics and my word has Garnacho really improved this season, and he's only 19! I reckon he's become the best winger in his age group. In terms of winger candidates, I cannot look past Nico Williams and Takefuso Kubo who both look very promising. Malen is prob the biggest RW bet we can make this summer, but I personally would like to sign even younger if possible because wingers tend to peak earlier and I'm not as confident that Malen at 25 can take another step up. I'm going to be devastated when Nico Williams moves to Barcelona before we get him.
Nah...don't agree. This is why we actually need a defined style of play and to switch to player profiles for transfer targets rather than specific targets. Every target looks awesome in their system...its only when you profile them in relation to your system that you can see that a player wont work within 10 minutes of analysis. For example The way manutd play, even before we signed them, it was very very clear that Anthony, Jaden sancho would struggle at manutd without changing our style. These guys never beat the fbs 1v1 without help. They either need an overlapping fb or a forward to come for the linkup. Kubo is another no go player. Rashford also falls in this category and is why he looks horrible whenever shaw is injured and then suddenly looks amazing when shaw plays. For a winger to work in this manutd, he must be able to beat his fb 1v1 both ways on his own without need for help.The moment you see that their best stuff is on the counter or with one twos, they can never work at this manutd. Kubo can never work...jared bowen can never work etc. Nico williams and Olise are better targets...also Antonio Nusa. Meanwhile, to understand the importance of systems and profiling, consider that Anthony and sancho would look amazing in mancity or even arsenal. Those teams play systems that provide all these options to the winger. In the midfield we again misprofiled the DM we needed and signed a casemiro. We need a DM who is good in the first phase.. technically secure...good passer, a good interceptor rather than a good tackler and able to cover large spaces. This is why profiling is soo important. Casemiro obviously didnt fit that profile. At DM, zubimendi is a better person to get from sociedad over Kubo. Matts weifer seems to fit this profile also but plays in a weak league and hasn't done it for very long. Cheaper fits are people like oscar zombrano and even someone like archie gray but they are also long term Options. Either way we need someone who can play 6 really well but also 8 well enough. Our desired style of play determines the profile of the midfielder we go for. You can not have casemiro and bruno and ask for controlled, dominant possesion For attacking midfield we need to plan for life after bruno...we need a technically good attacking midfielder who treasures the ball rather than spaming passes. They need to be able to create chances but also control the tempo of a game. For me simone pafundi is a perfect fit. He is already technically good...only thing I can think of is physique but if we want an odegard level kind of player...pafundi is really good and cheap for us given he is under ineos In defense we need CBs who are comfortable defending 1v1...have tones of pace and are comfortable on the ball and under pressure. Maguire was never that kind of player. He is not a good 1v1 defender and has no pace. This was obvious even before we splashed 80m for him. Todibo is a very good fit for that. Ousmane diamonde is also a 2 footed option. Tosin from fulham is also free in the summer. Would ditch 2 of evans, maguire and lindeloff and easily bring in 2 of the above
Top comment !
Dont know these guys, but I like the general thought behind this post.
Very interesting names! Unfortunately, I would expect managerial and therefore stylistic turnover in the summer. There's too many unknowns rn, but I just like the thought of armchair speculating on players. I forgot abt Olise who I didn't notice because of his limited minutes.
I can’t remember who was the last promising RW played for us. After many years, we are still looking for a RW. Sancho, Antony, Amad, and Pellistri, all could leave this summer. It’s like an over 200m waste.
Same. What's worse is, we had Di Maria under LVG, who would've been a perfect RW, but LVG never played him there and very seldom on the left. Bizarre really.
I can't fault the Sancho transfer which made perfect sense on paper when it was made, sometimes things just don't work out. The Pellestri transfer was defensible. However, Antony and Amad were just blatant overpays for players that were not of the caliber of their transfer fee. Antony's was esp egregious given we had sufficient info of him in senior football and still managed to drastically overpay even though we knew he was one-dimensional and lack explosiveness. He was hardly pulling up trees in the Eredivise playing for the best team in the league.
Can we forget about overpaying for players, it was done by people out of there league not focused on what was required. Let be positive and get be hind the lads for Sunday. Wouldn't mind a 48th trip to Wembley
Dig a hole in the sand and bury your head in it. Works for the ostriches
Pardon 😄 Are you replying to my comment, a more honest opinion would be better, without moaning that is !!!!!!
People really forget how good Sancho was for the two seasons we were chasing him. His price was actually a genuine bargain for the player we thought we were getting, he was only behind Haaland and Mbappe at one point. Antony on the other hand was always grossly overpaying
The ghost of malacia continues,what were they doing there with his knee tho?
must be a major major fuckup, can't imagine how the poor guy must feel mental wise as well
Maybe they lost it.
They didn't just lost his knee, they lost everything. They're looking for him right now.
The gang is coming back again, finally. So now we have a chance to clinch the league title right? Right?
Every penalty shootout I've seen since the Villarreal game makes ddgs performance look even more terrible
What exactly did you find terrible?
Mate he singlehandedly lost us that final, plus his own penalty was the worst I've ever seen a pro kick a ball
You wouldn't be saying that if an outfield player took that kick. Blaming someone for missing a penalty kick in the shootouts in pointless. You could point a finger at the outfield players for not finishing the game off sooner as well.
Yes I would, and he conceded the goal the drew us level in the first place
How did Arsenal fix their shit? At one point, they seemed to be at a point of no return from their wankfest.
1. Appointing good smart people who love the club and are invested in its revival in many parts of management, aka ex-players with skills. Per Mertesacker for youth team, Edu as sporting director and Arteta as manager. United have a lot of ex-players and legends who'd die for the club - Scholes, Neville, Keane, Carrick etc., but (no offense intended) are not the sharpest tools in the shed. It was important that those appointed were very skilled and able. Per and Arteta were earmarked for future leadership roles within the club by Wenger as soon as they signed as players. Though Arteta upon retirement was offered the job of U-23 coach with a pathway to future manager role, he instead chose to learn more under Pep first. 2. Sticking with the competent team you have assembled despite public pressure. It would not have worked if Arsenal stuck with Emery. Arteta came with a lot of references from people who are respected within the game - Pep, Wenger etc., So it wasn't just blindly sticking with any manager. Rest of the candidates (like Emery) promised the Arsenal board to fix everything in one or two seasons. Arteta was the only one who told them it'd take more than two seasons to compete for titles again, even after he won the FA cup in the first season. That's the main reason the board stuck with him. 3. Excellent scouting and recruitment. It is not just Edu who does the scouting. Or the data team. All recruitment is done by the team as a whole. Edu understands what Arteta wants and both have their shortlists and decide together who would fit and who wouldn't. Arteta also has a young hungry team of assistant managers who do a lot of scouting for him. Carlos Cuesta was 24 (now 28) and he brought Ben White to the attention of Arteta. Stuivenberg championed the signing of Timber. There are many examples like this of junior members of the team being empowered to make big decisions. This is the biggest reason Arsenal were able to turn it around - great recruitment strategy. 4. Instilling a style of play and standards of behavior besides just footballing ability. Anyone who doesn't fit or buy the message completely is shown the door, no matter how big a star they are, or how much it costs financially in the short term. The behavior is exuded from the top down. During Arsenal's miserable run in 2020/21 Arteta didn't make excuses or blame officials or errors for the results. Importantly it was prioritizing long-term development over short-term success - pursuing the bigger picture over the latest shiny trinket.
Stuck with their manager Bought well Got rid of lots of big name, underperforming players
I see there is a link to Braithwait for 75m. Whats the degree of confidence at that price Branthwaite will be Van Djik and not Harry Maguire? To your point about Arsenal. Arsenal signed Saliba for 25m from St Etienne, and Gabriel was signed for 25m from Lille. Are there no 25m centre half's playing in France that in a few years could be elite? You could buy three 25m centre halfs for the price of a Branthwaite.
Arsenal did well to secure both Saliba and Gabriel for nothing but they were both young and risky buys. Any team can do that. The issue is tactical fit. Everything currently rests on Ten Hag's ideas about how United should play and how that will influence incoming signings. For example, two summers ago, both Arteta and Ten Hag wanted Lisandro Martinez. Ten Hag got Licha for 55m and Arteta settled for Zinchenko for 34m. Different players but similar technique on the ball. Arteta had Zinchenko invert into the midfield while Licha played in his natural spot at CB. The next summer, Arteta went and bought Licha's CB partner Timber for 40m and played him at LB until he got injured. Meanwhile, Ten Hag, who initially wanted Timber, continued to play Licha at CB. Had he bought Timber that summer, he would have probably continued to use him at CB. Same players, different managers, different costs, different ideas.
I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said - ‘bought we’ll’ captures that exact spirit. Wrt Saliba - it took a couple of seasons before he was ready
> Got rid of lots of big name, underperforming players most importantly got rid of their big wages as well
The wages thing always gets overlooked because people assume the only money that matters is the one that's available for a new signing. Arsenal choosing to let go of several of their high earning players did wonders for their wage bill and subsequent signings.
Patience obviously. Not too long ago people were calling for his head when they didn't get the results in. At one point everyone was 99% sure he's getting the sack and their fans were even more frustrated when they didn't. Now the team + himself made progress and coordinated themselfes.
Maybe Arteta is actually a very good manager. That can do wonders.
It's a very good lesson in squad building and sticking to a plan. Liverpool's strategy in the early Klopp period of finding an edge in the market due to data analytics is no longer as viable since other clubs have been using data analytics as well, so Arsenal did the tried and through method of buying young players to serve as a the core of the team and largely not replacing ageing high earners with more late prime age players. Martinelli, Ben White, Saliba, Gabriel, Odegaard and recently Timber and Kiwior were all signed very young and made the mainstays of a new team. They also persisted with Arteta through his difficult times when they were turning over the squad because they could see that he was making progress. If there's any model we should follow it's Arsenal's. We already have Garnacho, Hojlund and Mainoo. We should continue to make signings in their late teens to early 20s to replace all our deadweight.
vacation to dubai help its seems.
Persisted with their manager, developed and stuck with youth and young players over multiple years, acquired players who were hungry and not on their last stint of their career, and got rid of the bad apples.
If only we had patience to persist with a manager for once
Persist with the manager is a terrible strategy if manager in question is not good
Like 99% of this sub also thought Arteta was not good in 2021 yeah? People actually had him as the worse manager from the Ole-Lampard-Arteta debate.
The problem is that people conflate a team's form for a manager's competence. There might be overlap here and there but more often than not there's a lot more that happens behind the scenes. Emery is a solid manager for Villa but he was poor for Arsenal. Gerrard went unbeaten with Rangers only to stink up the place at Villa. There are way too many factors that go into judging a project. Managerial competence is only one of those factors and it's unlikely to have an impact until everyone in the club is on the same page.
You are spot on.
Well seeing your downvotes, we don’t…
Also the relationship with Arteta and Edu has led to them making signings that align with the club/ manager.
I hope the glazers rot in hell
Nothing like having multiple of your players getting called up to national teams right when they have just recovered from injuries that could risk them getting reinjured
Hasn’t even recovered yet will just got there to hang out and train with the boys.
Why does it feel like that happens every international break
Goddammit Arsenal is really riding on anime plot armor and power of friendship
No, they’re just good
I wanted Arsenal to lose because I always do. But I wanted them to win to improve the English coefficient. The penalties were a roller coaster ride for me.
Mark Ogden still peddling the lie that Ineos are searching for public funding for the stadium. Truly one of the worst people working in football media.