The Official Manchester United Thread (Vol 9)

[BMW A6]

GTO-3R said:

Team for me:

DDG

Bisakka Maguire Lindelof Shaw

McTominay Pogba

Lingard

James Martial Rashford

That team should have too much power, pace, guile and defensive solidity for Wolves.
Just need to apply some cohesiveness and bonding.
I find naked male mud wrestling is good for that.

[GTO-3R]

Challo said:

200Plus Club said:

Interesting change to Pogbas role from OGS who seems adamant he's not letting him go anytime soon..
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/1178...

He needs someone next to him to help with defensive cover, and I think McTom and Fred could do that this season. Last year with Matic we looked stretched all the time as he has no mobility.

Can deffo see Ole sticking with McTominay next to Pogba this season as they work well together and McT's higher energy will be much better than Matic slower style.

Forget my 2nd place prediction, we're going to be Champions

[Gadgetmac]

GTO-3R said:

Challo said:

200Plus Club said:

Interesting change to Pogbas role from OGS who seems adamant he's not letting him go anytime soon..
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/1178...

He needs someone next to him to help with defensive cover, and I think McTom and Fred could do that this season. Last year with Matic we looked stretched all the time as he has no mobility.

Can deffo see Ole sticking with McTominay next to Pogba this season as they work well together and McT's higher energy will be much better than Matic slower style.

Forget my 2nd place prediction, we're going to be Champions

Are you selling it by the kilo...if so I'll take 2.

[57Ford]

Challo said:

200Plus Club said:

Interesting change to Pogbas role from OGS who seems adamant he's not letting him go anytime soon..
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/1178...

He needs someone next to him to help with defensive cover, and I think McTom and Fred could do that this season. Last year with Matic we looked stretched all the time as he has no mobility.

I agree with your point about Matic, all it took was a one-two around him and he had no option but to impede the runner. Resulting in a yellow card and our DM effectively on a tightrope for the remainder of the game.
Regarding Pogba, remember his throwing toys out of the pram during the game? It wasn’t purely down to having to defend, it was because he felt he had to do it all. He’d get the ball looking for options or an opportunity to play one of his sublime passes and find nothing. With our new mobility across the front, I think he’s fine sitting deeper with four finding the spaces ahead of him. Add two highly mobile fullbacks into the mix and the safety net of two footballing centre backs and things are looking good. I think he’ll enjoy his football more in this team.

[Challo]

57Ford said:

Challo said:

200Plus Club said:

Interesting change to Pogbas role from OGS who seems adamant he's not letting him go anytime soon..
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/1178...

He needs someone next to him to help with defensive cover, and I think McTom and Fred could do that this season. Last year with Matic we looked stretched all the time as he has no mobility.

I agree with your point about Matic, all it took was a one-two around him and he had no option but to impede the runner. Resulting in a yellow card and our DM effectively on a tightrope for the remainder of the game.
Regarding Pogba, remember his throwing toys out of the pram during the game? It wasn’t purely down to having to defend, it was because he felt he had to do it all. He’d get the ball looking for options or an opportunity to play one of his sublime passes and find nothing. With our new mobility across the front, I think he’s fine sitting deeper with four finding the spaces ahead of him. Add two highly mobile fullbacks into the mix and the safety net of two footballing centre backs and things are looking good. I think he’ll enjoy his football more in this team.

Its similar to how he plays for France. Has Kante next to him to do his running, but they have 2 full backs that push on and always have the outlet of Mbappe behind the back line.

[GTO-3R]

Gadgetmac said:

GTO-3R said:

Challo said:

200Plus Club said:

Interesting change to Pogbas role from OGS who seems adamant he's not letting him go anytime soon..
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/1178...

He needs someone next to him to help with defensive cover, and I think McTom and Fred could do that this season. Last year with Matic we looked stretched all the time as he has no mobility.

Can deffo see Ole sticking with McTominay next to Pogba this season as they work well together and McT's higher energy will be much better than Matic slower style.

Forget my 2nd place prediction, we're going to be Champions

Are you selling it by the kilo...if so I'll take 2.

[Alpinestars]

Two problems with him sitting deep are;

- his work rate, so has to have someone covering for him, and
- his desire to do fancy things, so he will get disposed often, in dangerous positions, which is going to lead to opposition goals.

He was st against Chelsea for most of the game, but the journos are going mad because of one fantastic pass, and a good run. He’ll need to do a lot more in that position before he and Ole are lauded as geniuses. He has no excuses this season with the runners ahead of him.

[GTO-3R]

We could even go 3 at the back tonight with WB and Shaw as wing backs?

DDG
Tuanzebe Maguire Lindelof
Bisakka McT Pogba Shaw
Lingard
Martial Rashford

Looks a decent team to me

[GTO-3R]

Alpinestars said:

Two problems with him sitting deep are;

- his work rate, so has to have someone covering for him, and
- his desire to do fancy things, so he will get disposed often, in dangerous positions, which is going to lead to opposition goals.

He was st against Chelsea for most of the game, but the journos are going mad because of one fantastic pass, and a good run. He’ll need to do a lot more in that position before he and Ole are lauded as geniuses. He has no excuses this season with the runners ahead of him.

Pogba gets on the ball more playing deep, which is a good thing...but he needs to stop all the fancy st and keep it simple at times. Too often he gets caught out in a bad position and puts us under pressure.

[200Plus Club]

There's a style and a team in there, it's a case of making it click somehow. Time playing together will help massively, and whereas last year our defense was all over the place at least with the 2 signings (if fit) we might get a solid backbone to allow pogba to play. McTom for me is the future as well and I haven't written Fred off yet if playing in front of a stable back line.

[Alpinestars]

GTO-3R said:

Pogba gets on the ball more playing deep, which is a good thing...but he needs to stop all the fancy st and keep it simple at times. Too often he gets caught out in a bad position and puts us under pressure.

Precisely. So he needs to engage his brain, and figure out when he can make a YT video, and when he needs to do a Kante.

[ORD]

Alpinestars said:

GTO-3R said:

Pogba gets on the ball more playing deep, which is a good thing...but he needs to stop all the fancy st and keep it simple at times. Too often he gets caught out in a bad position and puts us under pressure.

Precisely. So he needs to engage his brain, and figure out when he can make a YT video, and when he needs to do a Kante.

I agree completely. I thought he was poor against Chelsea. A couple of genuinely world class moments (and we shouldn’t forget the huge value of those in a team that lacks creativity), but he was generally poor.

I am not yet persuaded that playing him deeper is the best idea.

[BMW A6]

Nothing against Wolves or the fair people of the city of Wolverhampton.
It's a truly beautiful place, rivaling Paris or St Petersburg for architectural elegance.

But we got to smash their fking backdoors right in tonight.

[franki68]

Alpinestars said:

Two problems with him sitting deep are;

- his work rate, so has to have someone covering for him, and
- his desire to do fancy things, so he will get disposed often, in dangerous positions, which is going to lead to opposition goals.

He was st against Chelsea for most of the game, but the journos are going mad because of one fantastic pass, and a good run. He’ll need to do a lot more in that position before he and Ole are lauded as geniuses. He has no excuses this season with the runners ahead of him.

He was lauded for stuff that no other united player can do,and probably very few in the current game can do.
I don’t disagree he needs to improve his timing of when he can indulge in fancy tricks ,but we need him to have a big season because we always look clueless when he doesn’t play .

[Alpinestars]

franki68 said:

He was lauded for stuff that no other united player can do,and probably very few in the current game can do.
I don’t disagree he needs to improve his timing of when he can indulge in fancy tricks ,but we need him to have a big season because we always look clueless when he doesn’t play .

That’s because we don’t have a midfield. It’s not because he’s an amazing player. An amazing player needs to control and contribute to the game much much more than he does.

[selym]

Alpinestars said:

franki68 said:

He was lauded for stuff that no other united player can do,and probably very few in the current game can do.
I don’t disagree he needs to improve his timing of when he can indulge in fancy tricks ,but we need him to have a big season because we always look clueless when he doesn’t play .

That’s because we don’t have a midfield. It’s not because he’s an amazing player. An amazing player needs to control and contribute to the game much much more than he does.

Agreed. One pass and a few skills in non-impact areas doesn't make you world class. Those skills plus a football brain and especially an idea of risk management makes you world class. There are players all over that have those skills in abundance - he's got a lot of learning to do.

[Gone a bit AMG]

Alpinestars said:

franki68 said:

He was lauded for stuff that no other united player can do,and probably very few in the current game can do.
I don’t disagree he needs to improve his timing of when he can indulge in fancy tricks ,but we need him to have a big season because we always look clueless when he doesn’t play .

That’s because we don’t have a midfield. It’s not because he’s an amazing player. An amazing player needs to control and contribute to the game much much more than he does.

He is an amazing player but he is like marmite. I really like a bit of marmite. But after one game where in the entire side looked nervous in the first half he still had the balls to be creative. In the second half when it all started to knit together, Pogba was the centre of everything good and created 2 goals against one of our top 4 rivals.

He does need to have a big season and I’m happy to be ridiculed by stating he will. By the end of the season he’ll be in the league team of the year again and will have united on the way back to the top.

Anyway I hate waiting for the Monday night game but it’s not long now!

[franki68]

Alpinestars said:

That’s because we don’t have a midfield. It’s not because he’s an amazing player. An amazing player needs to control and contribute to the game much much more than he does.

you lose this argument because selym agrees with you.

[SaggyOstrich]

Pogba is world class no doubt, but he does need to control games more. Like KDB does for City or even Maddison at Leicester.

[GTO-3R]

franki68 said:

Alpinestars said:

That’s because we don’t have a midfield. It’s not because he’s an amazing player. An amazing player needs to control and contribute to the game much much more than he does.

you lose this argument because selym agrees with you.