The Official Manchester United Thread (Vol 11)

[G-wiz]

[Challo]

57Ford said:

Dylano said:

I'm not entirely sure lumping the ball into the penalty area for the last 4 or 5 minutes technically qualifies as a "phase" of a match, but you cling on to them straws if it what's you need to do to get by.

You've nothing to be ashamed of overall, you really tried, even if if City didn't get out of 2nd gear for the whole match.

It is nice when teams get to enjoy their little moments in the limelight even if ultimately they are are just there to make up the numbers.

Classy and graceful as ever. Thanks for letting us be a part of your journey, you must be so proud.

Don’t worry he is an idiot, and no doubt a plastic fan.

[franki68]

Better team won but it wasn’t the parade most thought would happen .
Shame garnacho didn’t start ahead of sancho he just offered so much more threat .

[and31]

Dylano said:

You've nothing to be ashamed of overall .

No we haven’t.we haven’t cheated our way to anything-there it is ,I’ve bitten.
City deserved to win today I’d say.
Sod off back to your own thread with two posts a month you sad little Bertie.

[Wacky Racer]

City just about deserved to win, but they were not at their best, Haaland (for him) missed a couple of sitters, and the penalty was dubious. I never thought it would be the walkover, some anticipated.

However, United fans should look to next season with confidence, ETH has made a huge improvement.

[Challo]

Wacky Racer said:

City just about deserved to win, but they were not at their best, Haaland (for him) missed a couple of sitters, and the penalty was dubious. I never thought it would be the walkover, some anticipated.

However, United fans should look to next season with confidence, ETH has made a huge improvement.

Agree with that. City are a class above everyone at the moment, but I think we have lots to look forward to next season.

Now it’s onto silly season with us being linked to every played ever to have kicked a ball.

[franki68]

I hope whoever takes over if someone does they give ETH the tools he needs player wise .
Our forward line is shocking , a centre forward is a must and sancho needs dropping (in a bin) or selling but not sure anyone else will pay his wages .

[Frimley111R]

I felt it was an OK match. Fairly static and slow a lot of the time. They had 'one of those goals' at the start but didn't have too many chances and Haaland was pretty quiet in it. The penalty was stupid but happy to take it.

We're not walkovers and I think Citeh were being careful with us, they couldn't just go at us.

I seems a shame that it took us the final few mins to put any concerted effort into trying to score though.

[franki68]

Frimley111R said:

I felt it was an OK match. Fairly static and slow a lot of the time. They had 'one of those goals' at the start but didn't have too many chances and Haaland was pretty quiet in it. The penalty was stupid but happy to take it.

We're not walkovers and I think Citeh were being careful with us, they couldn't just go at us.

I seems a shame that it took us the final few mins to put any concerted effort into trying to score though.

We had no threat up front , we generally defended well and actually passed through their midfield fine but the forwards offered nothing until garnacho came on .

I think it was summed up by the guardian ,city took off de bruyne and brought on foden ,we brought on weghurst and mctomminey ,which sums up the difference in the quality .

[LF5335]

franki68 said:

I hope whoever takes over if someone does they give ETH the tools he needs player wise .
Our forward line is shocking , a centre forward is a must and sancho needs dropping (in a bin) or selling but not sure anyone else will pay his wages .

The big problem with transfers is we seem to go out and buy someone that the papers are hyping up as the next big thing (when they’re not) after having a decent season or two. Equally, we always, always have to pay massive fees due to the United tax, yet other clubs seem to avoid this. We are poor at negotiating, or at least have been, whereas others appear to be much cleverer in their business. The real challenge we face when trying to attract anyone now is that City will more or less guarantee big trophies, have a world-renowned manager and will always pay as well, or better than what we can manage. Add to that you’re playing in the same city, then there’s no geographical advantage for us, there is a potential disadvantage if we’re competing with a London club though.

What we need is a solid plan of what areas need fixing, prioritisation of those areas in terms of which gets fixed and when, get some proper scouting done around Germany, Holland, Portugal, even Turkey top divisions & clubs and around some of the lower level Spanish & Italian leagues, as well as into the other European / Scandinavian countries for the younger prospects. City are happy to spend a lot of money on a player, but send them into the B squad for a season until they get up to scratch, then use them. Ours are expected to come in and transform us instantly into Treble winners. The upcoming financial constraints if we don’t sell are really going to hamstring us and could screw up the next decade even more. We need to stop shopping at the top table and go and find the up and coming player, or the one who can fit our system, but isn’t a player that everyone else wants.

ETH has worked wonders this season, but I’m nervous about next season as we will have to step up, Chelsea & Liverpool will definitely improve, Tottenham probably will if they find a manager, only Newcastle and Arsenal will worsen, but not sure both will fall away.

[57Ford]

The Foden thing highlights a bit of a puzzle to me. How are City managing to keep their multitude of decent players who make up the second string? I know they will be earning decent money but many other clubs have had problems with restless players. Can someone like Foden really be happy with his bit-part?
I’m hoping we’re going to start having that problem in a few years once ETH is into his tweaking phase rather than the current rebuild.

[LF5335]

Where can he go? He’s winning the league every year, other cups too and now on the cusp of a CL medal. He could easily become the most decorated British player ever and he’ll be earning more than any other team can afford to pay him. To force a move he’d have to stand up against Guardiola who is worshipped by the press and global football. Look at Cancelo to show how that works out for your career, he’ll end up at a big name team, but with very little chance of winning much.

[G-wiz]

What did John Stones have for breakfast, he looked imperious in the play-making midfield role; thought he was plodding centre-back with hoofing capacity only.

Looks transformed now.

Hope for slabhead Maguire yet?

[simon800]

LF5335 said:

We need to stop shopping at the top table and go and find the up and coming player, or the one who can fit our system, but isn’t a player that everyone else wants.

I don't think this would be a new approach, or something we haven't tried though.

Over the last 10 years we've bought the likes of Rojo, Darmian, Depay, Bailly, Lindelof, Dalot, Fred, Telles, Bruno, Van De Beek, Amad, Malacia etc etc.

All are/were lesser known names, all came from the better clubs in worse leagues, all were slightly "out there names". And barring the odd exception all were absolutely st.

It makes you wonder if it's simply a case of our scouts being st, because whilst we've been signing those complete duds from those leagues other teams have been signing Luis Diaz, Rodri, Bentancur, Joao Paulinha etc etc etc.

[simon800]

G-wiz said:

What did John Stones have for breakfast, he looked imperious in the play-making midfield role; thought he was plodding centre-back with hoofing capacity only.

Looks transformed now.

Hope for slabhead Maguire yet?

Stones has always been a ball playing defender, even back in his Everton days he was lauded for it. If memory serves he also used to be a bit error prone as a youngster, but has nicely ironed out the flaws.

Amazing watching the difference in composure between us and City yesterday. When our players have the ball everything is very rushed. As if there is a sense of dread that they have the ball, and they are desperate to offload it to someone else.

When city players had the ball there was complete calm, no rush, and a sense that the right decision would be executed rather than just giving it to anyone.

Obviously this stark contrast was at it's greatest when comparing the worlds best paid goalkeeper compared to city's reserve keeper, but felt it ran through the whole side really.

[LF5335]

simon800 said:

I don't think this would be a new approach, or something we haven't tried though.

Over the last 10 years we've bought the likes of Rojo, Darmian, Depay, Bailly, Lindelof, Dalot, Fred, Telles, Bruno, Van De Beek, Amad, Malacia etc etc.

All are/were lesser known names, all came from the better clubs in worse leagues, all were slightly "out there names". And barring the odd exception all were absolutely st.

It makes you wonder if it's simply a case of our scouts being st, because whilst we've been signing those complete duds from those leagues other teams have been signing Luis Diaz, Rodri, Bentancur, Joao Paulinha etc etc etc.

Fair point. We really do seem to struggle identifying talent in the first place. When you look at Brighton you can see how their model works, but wouldn’t for any of the top teams here, as none could take the risk on their players in the first place. There must be some sort of mid-ground that we can work with though. Ajax seem to be very good at this. Got to ask if we’re back to needing to start again with youth, although again City seem to be hoovering that up nicely.

I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom, but I am really concerned where we can go and whether we all really are fighting for second place in all the cups, barring the odd major surprise upset.

[G-wiz]

What's your end of year report for ETH like?

Professor.

Solid B+ from me. Domestic trophy and 3rd positioning in league, very close to 2nd.

Lots of potential, promise for year ahead.

[Cie]

G-wiz said:

What's your end of year report for ETH like?

Professor.

Solid B+ from me. Domestic trophy and 3rd positioning in league, very close to 2nd.

Lots of potential, promise for year ahead.

Shocked you didn’t want to give him a solid D

I’m very happy with our season and excited for the next… but nervous for the summer. We need the ownership sorting so it doesn’t scupper transfers.

[LF5335]

I gave us a 9/10 a few weeks ago and stand by that. What ETH has done is way beyond what we expected. I’m worried the higher ups will stifle his progress though.

[simon800]

I'd give EtH a B for this season.

Plus points;

Home form superb
Trying to implement a style of play, something we've not had for ages
Handled Ronaldo situation superbly
Qualified for top 4, which met expectations (6th place previous year and £250mn spent should = top four)
Won the league cup, which exceeded expectations
Improvements to Shaw and Rashford in particular
Management of Garnacho who seems to be a bit of a troublesome character in some ways that we don't have full visibility of

Negative points;

Away form against big sides absolutely woeful. We got 1 point more than an under 8's girls team would get.
Overall highly questionable (to poor?) record in the transfer market, so far
Massive lack of goals
That 7-0 is a big black mark
Bit of a mini collapse at the end of the season
Stubborn persistence with things that are clearly proven not to work (Wout at 10, Bruno on the right wing)