Are we ready for the start of the season?

A significant midfield reinforcement so Casemiro is nowhere near the starting XI, at least 3 of the clingy deadwood sold (AWB, Lindelof etc) and at least one of Rashford or Sancho to reverse last seasons disastrous form scoring 20 plus goals and the foundations are there for a more solid season which might surprise a few.

If little to none of the above happens, it’s another season of frustration and a battle for europa league football at best for me.
 
No, we're nowhere near ready to start the season strong. In fact I think we're worse off going into this season than we were going into last season, when expectations were very low right out of the gate.

Important players haven't been around for training, many haven't had any time in actual matches, and our summer business has been very underwhelming.

I expect poor showings in our first two matches and a right rogering at the hands of Liverpool. By Christmas it'll be ETH out and slim hopes of being competitive for a CL spot.
 
I'd say no,but I guess we'll have our answer Friday week. We need to get some deals done this week though. So many wasters or unsuitable players still here,aaron,victor,casemiro,scot,Christian,jadon,pellistri,Anthony,hannibal all should and need to go. And a rb,cb and at 2 midfielders needed.
 
Nowhere near ready.
Some players look like they’re still on holiday even while playing. Onana has me particularly worried,. Not that I expected him to fix all his deficiencies in one summer, but he’s even worse than last season so far.

No Bruno, no party.
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
Stop crying because of the Liverpool result. 5 of the outfield starting back 6 are not even the team that will play the majority of the season.

Dalot and Mazraoui replace AWB, Shaw replaces Amass, all of Martinez, De Ligt, Maguire, Yoro replace Evans and Lindelof, Mainoo replaces Collyer, Hojlund and Zirkzee replace Sancho.

Garnacho and Bruno will also be in the team.

Why are you all ignoring the fact that most of the starting team vs Liverpool are no where near to the main team?
Click to expand...
You’ve got two players who haven’t even signed yet, mention a further two players who are injured for 6 weeks to 10 weeks (Rasmus, Yoro), Mainoo replacing Collyer when they don’t play the same position and Collyer was one of the few who looked good on tour, and talk about Maguire playing as a reason to not be worried.

Further we don’t know if Zirkzee will sink or swim, and there’s no guarantee Sancho doesn’t play a handful of games. Casemiro starting every match, no striker, sure , everything is rosy.

Give your post and re-read, you should be worried.
 
A promising start to the window is now looking like becoming very stagnant.

We desperately need a CB and CM.

We desperately need to shift players out.

Lack of Casemiro talk is worrying - he cannot be the focal point of our midfield or we will simply get overrun game after game.

So many dilemma's in terms of outgoings.
 
INEOS have a lot to do. Sending Ten Hag into the season with the likes of Evans, Maguire, Casemiro and McTominay to choose from is neglectful.

A week before the season starts…
 
I get that we need reinforcements, De Ligt and perhaps a CM/DM are necessary, but what I want to see this season is elevated levels of individual performances, players need to perform at much higher level, regardless of tactics and style of play, which are very important for Ten Hag not to repeat his suicidal style, but we need the key players to bring another level to their game, Rashford, Mount, Shaw, Onana, Bruno, Hojlund, Amad, etc..., these players must perform or we are doomed regardless of new signings/style of play, etc...
 
crossy1686 said:
We’ll lose the first couple of games and INEOS will pay up whatever Bayern and PSG want.
Click to expand...

Yup, the fears of old pattern returning are becoming more prominent with each passing day. Hopefully, INEOS are more astute and won't panic like the previous guys. I rather go into the new season with the current dross rather than get more expensive dross at the end of the window like we always do.
 
If we go into the first game of the season hoping that Maguire, Casemiro, McTominay, Eriksen, Sancho, Rashford etc will somehow have undergone a renaissance then ETH will be gone by Christmas. We need 2 new defensive bodies in midfield to stop us being ripped apart by opposition teams.

At this stage I'd even take us playing younger players in midfield rather than trying to repeat the same failures as before.
 
Ali Dia said:
Aren’t we usually awful after we beat everyone in preseason?
Click to expand...
are we? I can only remember LvG's first season where we beat everyone incl UCL champion.
Otherwise shit preseason = shit season, more often than not. Mourinho's 3rd season comes to mind, he visibly frustrated during preseason but caf told us, team was going to be fine.
 
Last edited:
Our defending is worrying. That includes midfield, the defence itself and the keeper.

Keeper-wise, I just feel we can do better than Onana. I was thinking the other day, a really good keeper would have shown some things by now (bar ball control) that give you a certain comfort that they'll settle. E.g. when Liverpool bought Alisson or when we bought VDS there was an instant sense of security that level of keeper brought. Still feels like a gamble with Onana when anyone takes a shot. It might be because I don't watch Kovar week-in, week-out and I might be overrating him, but even with the sprinkling of games he played for us, you got the sense he was solid.

With the defence, this is obviously not our ideal first choice, but if we don't get the options in, it could be till Martinez, Shaw, and Yoro return.

In DM, EtH has sung Casemiro's praises in at least one interview, so I'm hoping he's not getting carried away by a worldie of a pass in training or a good showing against the slower pace of Betis! The thing with great players that are past it is they can still pull out pieces of magic, however, those are few and far between and not worth it.
 
Glorio said:
Our defending is worrying. That includes midfield, the defence itself and the keeper.

Keeper-wise, I just feel we can do better than Onana. I was thinking the other day, a really good keeper would have shown some things by now (bar ball control) that give you a certain comfort that they'll settle. E.g. when Liverpool bought Alisson or when we bought VDS there was an instant sense of security that level of keeper brought. Still feels like a gamble with Onana when anyone takes a shot. It might be because I don't watch Kovar week-in, week-out and I might be overrating him, but even with the sprinkling of games he played for us, you got the sense he was solid.

With the defence, this is obviously not our ideal first choice, but if we don't get the options in, it could be till Martinez, Shaw, and Yoro return.

In DM, EtH has sung Casemiro's praises in at least one interview, so I'm hoping he's not getting carried away by a worldie of a pass in training or a good showing against the slower pace of Betis! The thing with great players that are past it is they can still pull out pieces of magic, however, those are few and far between and not worth it.
Click to expand...

Completely agree about Onana
 
King7Eric said:
It's been pretty standard fare so far. Despite all the hype about Ineos coming in and the mythical "structure" being in place, we've had 2 signings coming into August, with a lot of players we're trying to offload still here. It's been quite similar to recent years, where we get a couple of signings early, but then struggle to progress further until the latter weeks of the window.

Of course, most rational people would understand that the likes of Ashworth, Wilcox etc are still getting their feet under the table and we won't be seeing any concrete results for at least a couple of years.

I assume we'll get a couple more players at least before the Fulham game and likely 1/2 more before the transfer deadline. Which again would be keeping in with how we've done our business the last few years.

In terms of style of play, while our press seems more coordinated, the big issue of wide spaces across the midfield still seems to be there. The likes of Eriksen and Casemiro don't help with it despite their other qualities.

Plus, at least for me, Yoro and De Ligt aside, our signings/transfer targets don't really fill me with great excitement. I reckon it'll be a season where we'll have a few purple patches but ultimately won't finish higher than 3rd/4th.
Click to expand...
I think most rationale people just understand negotiating with clubs isn't easy. We know we want and have identified them early. Negotiations takes time and fans just can't wrap their heads around it.
 
We are not ready, I feel a Wolves type opener with Fulham controlling the game but we nick a winner. City will dispose of us quite easily at Wembley I’m sure of that. Our defence is a shambles at present and we really don’t need a terrible start to the season.
 
As long as we still have the bulk of those who have been here too long, are too old, too highly paid, not good enough and couldn't give a damn I'm afraid it'll be much the same as the last few seasons.
It'll still be a couple of years and a few more windows before the lads we already have (Garnacho, Hojland, Diallo, Mainooo, Yoro, Zirkzee etc.) are the backbone around which a new team is settled.
I doubt it'll be until then that we can become a regular contender for the PL and CL again and whether or not EtH is the manager that takes us to that point is neither here nor there.
 
no where near ready. we have 2weeks to get the others back and get them up to scratch. and the injuries we picked up, if theyre not available come the fulham game, we are in big trouble at the back. We are just one Martinez injury away from absolute disaster and another absolute panic start to the season.

I wish we would just get on with wrapping up these other transfers, Ugarte / Rabiot / DeLigt etc, but from what we hear theres simply no money. I have no faith in Casemiro to redeem himself this season if im being honest.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Basically; so far we did:
1. Replaced Varane.
2 Bought one player for rotation in attack.

We didn't (yet):
1. Buy another defender (Yoro is just replacement for Varane)
2. Sell players who we wanted to sell like Maguire, AWB, Lindelof, McT and Sancho
3. We didn't buy new DMC
4. We didn't buy proven striker
5. We didn't buy backup for Dalot

We have one month to do all this which is great but we all know how important is to enter into season more ir less ready.
Click to expand...
Yeh, im not feeling it at the moment.

The injuries to Yoro and Hoijland in particular make it worse. Having Pool at home game in 4 weeks aswell is not ideal. They are in honeymoon faze and like spurs last year, could start very strong while we are still finding our feet.

I asked this somewhere else but is it normal
For us and other clubs to not have our main starting outfield players back until less then 2 weeks before the start of the league ? Has it been getting later and later each summer cause I didn’t think major players used to miss entire pre season!!
 
Hernandez - BFA said:
I haven’t ruled out saying bye to Sancho too.
Click to expand...
I think you can safely rule it out. No club that would want him would be willing to pay his wages. We won't ever be able to sell him. At best he'll be loaned out for practically nothing, and we are stuck paying his wages until his contract expires.
 
Not quite ready, and it's concerning to say the least. I think we need to close on a CB, LB, and DM before our game against Fulham, and somehow integrate them into the team before the match. We might not have all of those pieces by the first couple of games but we need those pieces before the 31st if we are to have a top-4 season.

We have a great foundation with Garna, Amad, Kobbie, Rasmus, Zirkzee, Yoro, Martinez, Rashford, Bruno, Onana, Mount, Dalot, Shaw. But we need those 3 pieces on the defensive side of things to play like a coherent team and get into the top 4 convincingly without having to rely on other teams having a bad season (And the chances of that are slim in the PL where there are quite a few good teams that can make top 4).

Forget challenging for the highest honours, signing up those 3 players by the end of the window could be the difference between us finishing 4th and 8th again I'm afraid.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
You’ve got two players who haven’t even signed yet, mention a further two players who are injured for 6 weeks to 10 weeks (Rasmus, Yoro), Mainoo replacing Collyer when they don’t play the same position and Collyer was one of the few who looked good on tour, and talk about Maguire playing as a reason to not be worried.

Further we don’t know if Zirkzee will sink or swim, and there’s no guarantee Sancho doesn’t play a handful of games. Casemiro starting every match, no striker, sure , everything is rosy.

Give your post and re-read, you should be worried.
Click to expand...

Not worried at all. You like the rest of this thread are just being dramatic. The only reason so many of you are crying is because we lost to Liverpool, in a friendly, with 2 weeks before the league season starts.
 
Last edited:
Predictably we're nowhere near. We have essentially the same team as last season. If anything we're a bit weaker now with Varane gone and Casemiro continuing to age terribly.

We'll get battered by City, and people will point to the cup final and say that we're still bringing players in etc. We'll give away dozens of chances against Fulham and the excuses will continue. I expect that by Christmas we'll finally have figured out that Ten Hag hasn't suddenly become competent and he'll be sacked.

Then we will just have to get rid of half the squad again and the actual rebuild can happen.
 
It's been an underwhelming pre-season apart from a few of the young lads putting their hand up for squad selection but the make up of the squad is fairly unchanged from last season and we'll be starting the season without a natural striker, we can't seem to move players on thus far and our big CB signing is out for months.

I'm usually buzzing for the new season but not this time, unless we get off to a strong start the negative noises will arrive about Ten Hag. Hopefully I'm proven completely wrong and we can shift a good few of our surplus requirements like Lindelof, Wan Bissaka, Casemiro, Eriksen, I would go on but I know it's going to take a few years! How many times have we heard that the past decade.
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
TB


Not worried at all. You like the rest of this thread are just being dramatic. The only reason so many of you are crying is because we lost to Liverpool, in a friendly, with 2 weeks before the league season starts.
Click to expand...
Crying? Dude, get a grip. Your argument is fallacious and makes no sense. You posit a lineup with players we don't even have, and with players everyone wants rid of, to bolster your "argument".
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
Crying? Dude, get a grip. Your argument is fallacious and makes no sense. You posit a lineup with players we don't even have, and with players everyone wants rid of, to bolster your "argument".
Click to expand...
Of course my argument made sense. Everyone I named will be playing in time for the Liverpool game. Just because most of them wont be ready for Fulham doesnt mean the team is weak for long.

Anyway, if we play how we did in the first 30 mins against Liverpool, that should be enough to beat the almighty Fulham at Old Trafford even with a weakened side.

Stop having a hissy fit and being melodramatic. It's not that bad.
 
Kinda understand now, why the likes of Tuchel pulled out. If this was the project sold to him.
 
Isotope said:
Kinda understand now, why the likes of Tuchel pulled out. If this was the project sold to him.
Click to expand...
With the guys who returned to training it doesn't look that bad at all. Bruno, Martinez, Garnacho, Shaw, Mainoo & Dalot are all starters and will be the first names in the XI when fit. Add to that Zirkzee who should see a lot of game time with Rasmus out and Rashford, Amad, Mount & Amass who performed well in the preseason. We have a decent set of 14-15 players who can compete at a very high level. The main issue is the central defense where we were unfortunate with the Yoro injury and the defensive midfield position. Rest of the squad doesn't look bad at all and should be good enough for a top 4 position, which likely is our goal for the next season.

Onana/Bayindir
Dalot/AWB Yoro/Maguire Martinez/X1 Shaw/Amass
X2/Casemiro Mainoo/X3
Garnacho/Amad Bruno/Mount Rashford/Sancho
Rasmus/Zirkzee
​
That may not be a title winning squad but it's not as bad as being made out. We need three signings (four if AWB goes) - A CB and 2 CM's & we'd we good to go. The main challenge will be too keep the defensive four fit and playing consistently.
​
 
Last edited:
Andycoleno9 said:
Basically; so far we did:
1. Replaced Varane.
2 Bought one player for rotation in attack.

We didn't (yet):
1. Buy another defender (Yoro is just replacement for Varane)
2. Sell players who we wanted to sell like Maguire, AWB, Lindelof, McT and Sancho
3. We didn't buy new DMC
4. We didn't buy proven striker
5. We didn't buy backup for Dalot

We have one month to do all this which is great but we all know how important is to enter into season more ir less ready.
Click to expand...
Yes this shows pretty well what we can expect.

With current team we will be lucky to get 6th.

By the way you did forget:
6. We didn't buy a LB
 
I was cautiously optimistic a few weeks ago. However, our inability to shift deadwood means we are probably weaker as a squad than we were last season when we finished 8th! Unfortunately I can only see us finishing midtable presently.

Ineos have alot of work to do.
 
Godfather said:
Yep. I am quite sure the reason he didn't join were gurantatees on squad investment and he didn't get them.
Click to expand...
Insanity said:
With the guys who returned to training it doesn't look that bad at all. Bruno, Martinez, Garnacho, Shaw, Mainoo & Dalot are all starters and will be the first names in the XI when fit. Add to that Zirkzee who should see a lot of game time with Rasmus out and Rashford, Amad, Mount & Amass who performed well in the preseason. We have a decent set of 14-15 players who can compete at a very high level. The main issue is the central defense where we were unfortunate with the Yoro injury and the defensive midfield position. Rest of the squad doesn't look bad at all and should be good enough for a top 4 position, which likely is our goal for the next season.

Onana/Bayindir
Dalot/AWB Yoro/Maguire Martinez/X1 Shaw/Amass
X2/Casemiro Mainoo/X3
Garnacho/Amad Bruno/Mount Rashford/Sancho
Rasmus/Zirkzee
​
That may not be a title winning squad but it's not as bad as being made out. We need three signings (four if AWB goes) - A CB and 2 CM's & we'd we good to go. The main challenge will be too keep the defensive four fit and playing consistently.
​
Click to expand...

And probably the project of need to sell before buying task. It's hard to attract those type of managers with limited fund as a start, no matter how "doesn't look that bad" the current squad is.
 
Isotope said:
And probably the project of need to sell before buying task. It's hard to attract those type of managers with limited fund as a start, no matter how "doesn't look that bad" the current squad is.
Click to expand...
The need to sell before buy thing looks a bit exaggerated to me. It's not like the money we are going to generate by selling Lindelof is going to allow us to buy de Ligt or someone else. Lindelof money will probably buy one of his legs. Same with the money from selling McTominay to buy a new CM, who is going to cost atleast double of what we can get for McTom.

I think it's just a negotiation tactic. Also, maybe it has little to do with creating squad space. I don't think we should not add a CM if for some reason we are not able to sell one. Also, we are already one short with Amrabat gone, for now.
 
Absolutely not. An 18 year old CB and a rather unproven striker haven't strengthen us all that much.
 
I'm not worried about how we start the season. I just want us to have the players we want come the end of the window. Then I don't expect things to slide into place before November. But after that I expect a run of form similar to whoever wins the league
 
I feel like preseason games these days are less about getting fit and prepared for the upcoming season and more about exposure. We're playing league rivals to give people the "rival experience", packed schedules, and lots of travelling on the tour.
Sure we'd travel to Asia and Africa and such before to get exposure. But we'd playing smaller teams mostly and I had feeling match fitness and introducing new players to the team were more important. The US is such a horrible place to do preseason. I'm not sure how much the players went about different time zones this year. But so much travel.

I don't think the players are as prepared and fit as we'd hope for. We probably won't hit form until 7-10 games into the season. Especially with so many key players missing the entire preseason. Was that a thing before? I don't recall players missing the entire tour.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.