The Official Manchester United Thread (Vol 10)

[200Plus Club]

Poch looks to be heading back there ? He's a proven winner now. Funny old game this footy lark..

[ORD]

We can’t play like that because our CBs aren’t good enough. If they push up or don’t have lots of protection, they get skinned (Maguire) or bullied (Lindelof).

Pep absolutely bottled the final. Disastrous tactics and team selection. He’s nowhere close to how good he and others think he is.

[franki68]

I think some credit to Chelsea ,they had some very good individual performances and were set up perfectly .

[ChocolateFrog]

franki68 said:

I think some credit to Chelsea ,they had some very good individual performances and were set up perfectly .

And that's 3 wins in a row against City so can't even be called a fluke.

[ORD]

franki68 said:

I think some credit to Chelsea ,they had some very good individual performances and were set up perfectly .

Agreed. A very impressive performance. But I can’t get over Pep’s bizarre team selection and tactics. It’s like he panics when he knows the other manager will have a plan.

[200Plus Club]

ORD said:

franki68 said:

I think some credit to Chelsea ,they had some very good individual performances and were set up perfectly .

Agreed. A very impressive performance. But I can’t get over Pep’s bizarre team selection and tactics. It’s like he panics when he knows the other manager will have a plan.

We turned them over quite easily on their ground with our tactically hopeless manager and his bunch of no hopers/ naer do wells also... perhaps there's more to this game than we think lol.

[200Plus Club]

Nice to see though that despite unlimited budgets and by far the best squad in depth that it's not a certainty by any means. Fair play to the Chelsea manager who turned round an existing squad in no time, some result to be fair.

[anonymous-user]

200Plus Club said:

Nice to see though that despite unlimited budgets and by far the best squad in depth that it's not a certainty by any means. Fair play to the Chelsea manager who turned round an existing squad in no time, some result to be fair.

They could be very dangerous next season

[Gone a bit AMG]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

They will be very dangerous next season. Whoever finishes above Chelsea will probably win the league.

Funny isn’t how Tuchel set his team up to stop city and hit them on the break. That’s apparently genius but it’s also exactly what Emry did on Wednesday but it was Ole’s naivety that cost us!

[unident]

Gone a bit AMG said:

They will be very dangerous next season. Whoever finishes above Chelsea will probably win the league.

Funny isn’t how Tuchel set his team up to stop city and hit them on the break. That’s apparently genius but it’s also exactly what Emry did on Wednesday but it was Ole’s naivety that cost us!

Those games couldn’t have been any different in terms of football on display. I know the stats show only 3 shots on target in each game and not many goals, but the match last night was flowing and, but for some poor finishing on both sides, should have seen a high scoring match. Our match was slow paced and quite dull. At least both teams last night tried to win the match and made changes to their gameplan as and when needed.

Whether Emery set out to stifle the game means nothing to me, we should have changed tactics to counteract it and we didn’t.

[ORD]

Emery just parked the bus. No genius there. Sam Allardyce has done it plenty.

[unident]

ORD said:

Emery just parked the bus. No genius there. Sam Allardyce has done it plenty.

And somehow that means we are incapable of beating those sides, but loads of other teams manage to deal with it.

[ORD]

It’s not that surprising. 2 of our 3 best attackers (Rashford and Bruno) have been exhausted / half fit for months. Our thin squad did for us.

[unident]

ORD said:

It’s not that surprising. 2 of our 3 best attackers (Rashford and Bruno) have been exhausted / half fit for months. Our thin squad did for us.

I won’t disagree with that, but someone else mentioned that we were very reliant on a player producing a moment or two of brilliance in every game. When that moment of genius stopped happening in games we struggled. Either way, it was a weird season and I’m looking forward to some normality next year where we can properly assess where we are as a team / squad

Edited by unident on Sunday 30th May 19:33

[200Plus Club]

Lots of talk about Ronaldo coming back yet again. Brilliant as he still is would you want him back ?

[unident]

200Plus Club said:

Lots of talk about Ronaldo coming back yet again. Brilliant as he still is would you want him back ?

I’ve said no already. I don’t think he will be able to work hard enough as a member of the team to be able to justify his position. He might be a luxury we can roll out for a few matches every year, but I don’t think his ego will let him become a bit part player. He needs to be the centre piece of the team to flourish and I can’t see that working in the PL.

[Wombat3]

unident said:

200Plus Club said:

Lots of talk about Ronaldo coming back yet again. Brilliant as he still is would you want him back ?

I’ve said no already. I don’t think he will be able to work hard enough as a member of the team to be able to justify his position. He might be a luxury we can roll out for a few matches every year, but I don’t think his ego will let him become a bit part player. He needs to be the centre piece of the team to flourish and I can’t see that working in the PL.

You don't keep banging in 25+ goals a year without some effort. Hes got at least 2 more decent seasons in him IMO. Him & Cavani would be terrifying together & Rashford & Greenwood might learn something. I'd take him tomorrow& if it means PP goes back to Juve then with the right amount of cash to spend on Grealish, that's fine.

[unident]

Wombat3 said:

You don't keep banging in 25+ goals a year without some effort. Hes got at least 2 more decent seasons in him IMO. Him & Cavani would be terrifying together & Rashford & Greenwood might learn something. I'd take him tomorrow& if it means PP goes back to Juve then with the right amount of cash to spend on Grealish, that's fine.

The problem is the Spanish & Italian leagues are far less competitive than the PL, once you get beyond the household name teams, the standard drops considerably. A lot of the lesser teams in those leagues turn up to limit the damage and consider losing 2-0 to be acceptable, whereas the lesser teams in the PL up their game when they play United and (rightly) give it their all to get something out of the game.

The main point I was making is that a player can’t stand around waiting to score goals at the top of the pitch. They will have another role to play in the team and I’m not sure Ronaldo will be either as keen to do the donkey work, or be able to cope with not having as much protection as the European refs seem to give.

I might be wrong, I often am, I just don’t see him being a step in the direction we should be going. Another player in their mid-30s isn’t going to be a medium, or long term solution. As much as Cavani has helped this year we’ve only signed him for another year, so he’s not a long term solution either. It just means we’re constantly having to renew / replace key positions as we’re filling them with players with 1, 2 or maybe 3 years at most in them.

[Wombat3]

unident said:

Wombat3 said:

You don't keep banging in 25+ goals a year without some effort. Hes got at least 2 more decent seasons in him IMO. Him & Cavani would be terrifying together & Rashford & Greenwood might learn something. I'd take him tomorrow& if it means PP goes back to Juve then with the right amount of cash to spend on Grealish, that's fine.

The problem is the Spanish & Italian leagues are far less competitive than the PL, once you get beyond the household name teams, the standard drops considerably. A lot of the lesser teams in those leagues turn up to limit the damage and consider losing 2-0 to be acceptable, whereas the lesser teams in the PL up their game when they play United and (rightly) give it their all to get something out of the game.

The main point I was making is that a player can’t stand around waiting to score goals at the top of the pitch. They will have another role to play in the team and I’m not sure Ronaldo will be either as keen to do the donkey work, or be able to cope with not having as much protection as the European refs seem to give.

I might be wrong, I often am, I just don’t see him being a step in the direction we should be going. Another player in their mid-30s isn’t going to be a medium, or long term solution. As much as Cavani has helped this year we’ve only signed him for another year, so he’s not a long term solution either. It just means we’re constantly having to renew / replace key positions as we’re filling them with players with 1, 2 or maybe 3 years at most in them.

Agree with all of that but we are not going to be good enough for a title next year, even if we add Sancho and/ or Grealish IMO ( we won't pay Levys price for HK)..

The future is the likes of Greenwood & Rashford, we just need to get them playing like Cavani & Ronaldo. Who better to teach them?!

[unident]

Wombat3 said:

Agree with all of that but we are not going to be good enough for a title next year, even if we add Sancho and/ or Grealish IMO ( we won't pay Levys price for HK)..

The future is the likes of Greenwood & Rashford, we just need to get them playing like Cavani & Ronaldo. Who better to teach them?!

I’m not sure about the amount of midfield players we seem to be chasing, Rice is in there too and I just can’t see Ole moving away from 2 defensive midfielders, so it’s a case of trying to find a spot for Pogba (or Ronaldo), Bruno, DVB, Rice, Sancho, Grealish, as well as Cani, Rashford and Greenwood. I know they won’t all play every game and I know there’s the subs to consider, but can’t see big money players wanting to sit on the bench. Not everyone has the patience that DVB has shown.

I still struggle with Rashford being the future. He’s six years in and at that point you’d think he’s developed into the player he’s going to be, although I accept that at 23 he’s still got a lot of time ahead of him

Greenwood excites me a lot. I want to see him kick on next season, as he really could be something special.

I’m not convinced that Cavani and Ronaldo are teachers as such. Players may learn off them and that might be enough, but forwards are by definition selfish

Reading that back it seems like I’m disagreeing with everything. I hope it reads better than that though, it’s more about a note of caution. I certainly agree we aren’t going to be winning the PL any time soon, but worry that we chase it with ageing players rather than building the foundations for potential longer term success.