That's nice. Maybe better to take a hike and give up football.
I totally agree mate. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Insanity.
Same goes for believing the same thing over and over. I've seen these players under 3-4 different managers - I have seen more than enough to know their limitations and capabilities. I don't expect anything different because I am not insane.
Maguire, James and AWB have my utmost respect and support though. However, these three won't make up for our deficiencies in midfield and attack.
If I was picking a team I'd go with something like:
De Gea
Wan Bissaka Maguire Lindelof Shaw
McTominay Fred
Lingard Pogba Rashford
Martial
However, I expect Matic and Pogba to start as the midfield
Think we will win this comfortably. Think we will show our pace and power built upon our new stability. Our midfield is weaker in personnel but stronger due to the better back 4. I can’t see anything in this Chelsea team to concern us
I agree but they will think the same. What do we have to concern them? Double-mark Pogba out of the game, and we're basically hamstrung, as we showed for the vast majority of last season.
Our biggest hope in my opinion, is to hope they are as fecked as it seems for CBs on Sunday. Target them with Maguire's massive head, see where the chips fall. I don't see us creating an awful lot from open play.
I feel the same about hiking as I do about Opera and fishing, I'm sure I'll be fine though.
It's like a dog running into an electric fence over and over and over again, thinking somehow the result will be different, there's zero reason to expect Rashford or Martial to be any different, both have poor attitudes and both lack any kind of consistency,
They're 21 and 23 years old. Young players improve, it's the way of things, and is certainly not madness to see it as, if not a certainty, then a significant possibility.
We've been down this same bullshit road for the last 6 seasons with the same phony optimism of trying to convince ourselves it's not a shit show. Ole looks out of his depth to me and Woodward is a clown, the midfield is pathetic and I'm sick of Rashford and Martial letting us down, there's only so many times you can get bitten before you need to realize someone can't be trusted and I'm at that point with those 2, especially given both displayed rotten attitudes in the latter half of last season. Add to that we'll be starting Mata who is finished and Lingard who is mediocre at best, and I see zero reason to pretend like this will be any different to the last 6 seasons of incompetence at every level.
It's like a dog running into an electric fence over and over and over again, thinking somehow the result will be different, there's zero reason to expect Rashford or Martial to be any different, both have poor attitudes and both lack any kind of consistency, Mata is finished and Lingard is.........well, he's Lingard, how anyone can think that front 4 with a Championship winger, another has-been in Sanchez and 2 kids as back-up is going to get the job done is beyond me, but the same set of posters that attack anyone who see's through the bullshit at the start of each season change their tune by Christmas when reality sets in.
What do we do, when Eriksen, Fekir, Havertz, Jovic, Joao Felix and Sancho aren't signing for us this summer? Which is likely due to no CL football and a lot of teams being interested in those players.
If it were up to me? I'd just give the academy players in those positions a chance as we'd be finishing outside the top 4 either way, just strengthen the defense and midfield, because I'll stick my neck out now and say Pepe, Zaha, Bruno Fernandes and Lozano will take us nowhere and if we start the season with Rashford or Lukaku as our main striker we wont get top 4 so I'd keep the powder dry and test the 4 or 5 from the academy that are so highly rated.
I disagree, Arsenal have a clear direction and way of playing and they have 2 quality strikers, Chelsea will get their ban held up long enough to get another window in and given Poch has gotten Spurs to a CL final on nothing I think they will invest to keep him and they already have a comfortably better side than us. My view is 5th is our outcome at best, I'd rather just get that or lower with the academy players than buy these middle of the road players and still fail, they just aren't good enough. I would say we could be 3 or 4 seasons away from getting any kind of real progress, I'd rather do it from within than buy average players and hope to scrape a 4th place finish, longer term I'd finish 7th and see what we have with the likes of Greenwood and Gomes in these forward roles, midfield and defense I think that we'll recruit decently.
So what happened to this:
Your response to me suggesting Pepe would be a good signing considering our situation:
Honestly, I think you are a good poster, but your opening post in this thread is disappointing. I can understand your anger, but you are also getting want you wanted, since we didn't get the players you wanted.
It's not what I wanted, it's simply that I think had we bought Pepe we'd be no better off, same as I think the 2 defensive players we have brought in are minor rather than major talents.
What I wanted was for us to get the job done, pay what Dybala wanted, offer £90M for Eriksen, players move for money, do you think City and PSG have their players because they'd "Die for the badge" and that rubbish? No, they went there for money and performed because the coaching is good, if Ole is a good coach he'd have got Dybala playing well once he was here.
On top of that since you've been digging through my posts, find the one where I said I could see the sense in not addressing RW and waiting for Sancho, but also I don't know when the dates of the posts you've dug up are from but my patience with Rashford and Martial ran out towards the end of last season, arrogant, overinflated ego's on way too much money for players that have produced so little.
Also if you dig around some more you'll see that I don't think for a second it'll be Greenwood on the RW and Gomes in the #10, it'll be Mata and Lingard, who are both crap. I also didn't expect Ole to ludicrously opt for a system that has Pogba in a midfield 2 so I thougth at last one of those liabilities would be out of the way.
Bottom line is I still never would have wanted Pepe or Zaha or Lozano, but we had an opening with Juve to get someone like Bernadeschi and Bentancur and did nothing, we have zero midfield and yet all we did all summer was chase a player with 8 PL games to his name, which is insane. The truth was I said what I said because I don't rate the players we were talking about but I foolishly thought the club would get the job done this summer, and yet again we've been fecked over and are getting the usual media briefings about youth and finding a DOF, just more lies to string us along and I'm frankly tired of it.
You missed the point. We didn't get the players you wanted, nor the players I wanted for that matter, but we are going to see more of Tuanzebe, Gomes and Greenwood this season, which is what you wanted, if we don't get de Ligt, Dybala or Eriksen for example. Obviously not getting those top players is disappointing and I am far from happy with what we did this summer, but I am also excited to see more of the aforementioned 3 in the EL and the other cups. There's also no Mourinho anymore, which is helping as well.
Ole came third over his 21 games (he also managed to get past Arsenal, Chelsea and PSG in the cups) with a squad that has very obvious flaws as you pointed out. We saw two extremes over the second half of the season. He's identified issues with us and has addressed some of them, he was never going to fix everything in one summer. Mainly fitness and the defence. If de Gea returns to his usual self that could give us a very solid foundation. I am not saying all is well, but to write us off before the season has even started is a bit premature.
I didn't really need to dig through your posts, since this has been a discussion between us that I still remembered and I usually enjoy our discussions. So my point is, what happened with having patience and trusting the young players, if we don't get what we want?
On the flip side, a good performance and a lot of our worst fears will start to subside.Anything other than a win in this match, and it will be carnage on here.
I think our midfield is as good as what they will field on Sunday. Kante is Injured so it would be Jorginho, Barkley and Kovacic. Not exactly terrifying. Their strike force and defence isn't that great either. Really should be beating this lot2-0 to Chelsea. The midfields are incomparable and their overall balance superior also
So what happened to this:
Your response to me suggesting Pepe would be a good signing considering our situation:
Honestly, I think you are a good poster, but your opening post in this thread is disappointing. I can understand your anger, but you are also getting want you wanted, since we didn't get the players you wanted.
It's not what I wanted, it's simply that I think had we bought Pepe we'd be no better off, same as I think the 2 defensive players we have brought in are minor rather than major talents.
What I wanted was for us to get the job done, pay what Dybala wanted, offer £90M for Eriksen, players move for money, do you think City and PSG have their players because they'd "Die for the badge" and that rubbish? No, they went there for money and performed because the coaching is good, if Ole is a good coach he'd have got Dybala playing well once he was here.
On top of that since you've been digging through my posts, find the one where I said I could see the sense in not addressing RW and waiting for Sancho, but also I don't know when the dates of the posts you've dug up are from but my patience with Rashford and Martial ran out towards the end of last season, arrogant, overinflated ego's on way too much money for players that have produced so little.
Also if you dig around some more you'll see that I don't think for a second it'll be Greenwood on the RW and Gomes in the #10, it'll be Mata and Lingard, who are both crap. I also didn't expect Ole to ludicrously opt for a system that has Pogba in a midfield 2 so I thougth at last one of those liabilities would be out of the way.
Bottom line is I still never would have wanted Pepe or Zaha or Lozano, but we had an opening with Juve to get someone like Bernadeschi and Bentancur and did nothing, we have zero midfield and yet all we did all summer was chase a player with 8 PL games to his name, which is insane. The truth was I said what I said because I don't rate the players we were talking about but I foolishly thought the club would get the job done this summer, and yet again we've been fecked over and are getting the usual media briefings about youth and finding a DOF, just more lies to string us along and I'm frankly tired of it.
You missed the point. We didn't get the players you wanted, nor the players I wanted for that matter, but we are going to see more of Tuanzebe, Gomes and Greenwood this season, which is what you wanted, if we don't get de Ligt, Dybala or Eriksen for example. Obviously not getting those top players is disappointing and I am far from happy with what we did this summer, but I am also excited to see more of the aforementioned 3 in the EL and the other cups. There's also no Mourinho anymore, which is helping as well.
Ole came third over his 21 games (he also managed to get past Arsenal, Chelsea and PSG in the cups) with a squad that has very obvious flaws as you pointed out. We saw two extremes over the second half of the season. He's identified issues with us and has addressed some of them, he was never going to fix everything in one summer. Mainly fitness and the defence. If de Gea returns to his usual self that could give us a very solid foundation. I am not saying all is well, but to write us off before the season has even started is a bit premature.
I didn't really need to dig through your posts, since this has been a discussion between us that I still remembered and I usually enjoy our discussions. So my point is, what happened with having patience and trusting the young players, if we don't get what we want?
Seeing them in the EL and the cups, I don't give a shit about either competition, I want to see them the PL and we wont, and when I said what I said it was me puffing my chest out because I thought the club would get the deals done and it wouldn't come to relying on children, also as I said I'm fecking sick of Rashford, Lingard and Martial, so that soured me even further and so did re-signing Mata as he's dead food. As for Tuanzebe, we have 7 CB's, he'll barely get a kick, and my view on him was a season on loan at Villa playing every week made more sense when it's clear we can't shift the crap we have cluttered up at CB.
You can say it's premature but I say it's realistic, we have no midfield and are trying to play Pogba in a 2, it's pure stupidity that we didn't buy at least one CM, and tactically Ole got found out in the last 15 games or so, no real vision, swapping formations all of the time, blaming fitness for everything.
My patience ran out, 6 seasons of bullshit, Ole exposed but we gave him the job after saying no one would be appointed until the season was over, which was amateur hour, the attitudes of Rashford, Lingard and Martial finally getting to me, and then we go into the season playing a system that needs a #10 we don't have, playing Pogba in a role he isn't good at, and relying on 3 players I'm sick of the sight of.
Either get a room or take it to the transfer threads.
It's not what I wanted, it's simply that I think had we bought Pepe we'd be no better off, same as I think the 2 defensive players we have brought in are minor rather than major talents.
What I wanted was for us to get the job done, pay what Dybala wanted, offer £90M for Eriksen, players move for money, do you think City and PSG have their players because they'd "Die for the badge" and that rubbish? No, they went there for money and performed because the coaching is good, if Ole is a good coach he'd have got Dybala playing well once he was here.
On top of that since you've been digging through my posts, find the one where I said I could see the sense in not addressing RW and waiting for Sancho, but also I don't know when the dates of the posts you've dug up are from but my patience with Rashford and Martial ran out towards the end of last season, arrogant, overinflated ego's on way too much money for players that have produced so little.
Also if you dig around some more you'll see that I don't think for a second it'll be Greenwood on the RW and Gomes in the #10, it'll be Mata and Lingard, who are both crap. I also didn't expect Ole to ludicrously opt for a system that has Pogba in a midfield 2 so I thougth at last one of those liabilities would be out of the way.
Bottom line is I still never would have wanted Pepe or Zaha or Lozano, but we had an opening with Juve to get someone like Bernadeschi and Bentancur and did nothing, we have zero midfield and yet all we did all summer was chase a player with 8 PL games to his name, which is insane. The truth was I said what I said because I don't rate the players we were talking about but I foolishly thought the club would get the job done this summer, and yet again we've been fecked over and are getting the usual media briefings about youth and finding a DOF, just more lies to string us along and I'm frankly tired of it.
We don't have enough midfield options for this to be a thing.No more Matic, Lingard and Mata please.
We don't have enough midfield options for this to be a thing.
I agree.On the flip side, a good performance and a lot of our worst fears will start to subside.
Anything other than a win in this match, and it will be carnage on here.
Would love that . Not going to happen thoughJust play this team:
AWB Tuanzebe Maguire Shaw
De Gea
McTominay PogbaGreenwood Martial Rashford
Pereira
Would love that . Not going to happen though
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Marcus Rashford
Paul Pogba
Victor Lindelof
Anthony Martial
Scott McTominay
David de Gea
Harry Maguire
Andreas Pereira
Anthony Taylor
replaced by Juan Mata
replaced by Daniel James
replaced by Mason Greenwood
