Are we ready for the start of the season?

Not sure how anyone could possibly answer yes to this question - we haven’t resolved the LB issue, the left footed CB issue, the backup CB issues, the Casemiro issue or the Sancho/Antony issue. We have a competitive first 11 (that’s actually worse than last season due to Varane leaving) that will go to shit if any of Shaw, Martinez or even Dalot get injured and we aren’t going to score enough goals unless rashford returns to form. I think it’s been a piss poor summer and none of the players we’re linked to inspire me.
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
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.
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Haven’t heard the use of “hissy fit” in a long time.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
What project was sold to him? Someone told him we’d sign two players in pre-season and one of them would fracture a metatarsal?
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How much fund available, what's the CLub shorter timeline ambition, how aggressive the Club on chasing trophies, what's the immediate transfer targets, etc.

I don't see anything attractive so far, if i were Tuchel. Do you?
 
I still think that we need a CB, CM and goal scoring winger if we want to have any chance of challenging for the title this season or the next. If the goal is to get top 4 then we just need to prevent injuries and not be complete donkeys.

Realistic and decent scenario:

---------------------- Onana* -------------------
Dalot - New CB - Martinez - Shaw*
----------- Mainoo - New CM ------------
--- Garnacho - Bruno - Rashford* --
---------------------- Højlund ------------------

Bench:
Bayandir, AWB**, Yoro, Casemiro**, Mount*, Amad, Zirkzee

* Last chance. Sell next summer if they don't improve.
** Sell anyways
 
RatPack said:
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
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Buying another LB would be an unnecessary luxury. Shaw is undisputed no1 choice, we have Malacia who will be fit in November, we have Dalot who can play that very well and, most important, we have Amass. When you have talented player on some position then he can be a backup at least.
Another LB would be a waste of money.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Buying another LB would be an unnecessary luxury. Shaw is undisputed no1 choice, we have Malacia who will be fit in November, we have Dalot who can play that very well and, most important, we have Amass. When you have talented player on some position then he can be a backup at least.
Another LB would be a waste of money.
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Luke Shaw should be nothing more than a backup for us at this point, his time as a top LWB has passed and his body can no longer handle the demands of the high paced physically demanding Premier League.
 
I don't know what everyone is going on about. We were told incessantly all last season by ETH and all the ETH inners that we only failed to get top 4 because of injuries. Hence if we have less injuries we should get top 4 with no extra signings. Yes we needed to replace Varane which we did and a few signings to consolidate our 4th place like Zirksee but if we get extra new signings they are to improve on our should be 4th and get us 3rd/2nd. No?
 
Of course we're not. We need a DM and we need a LB/CB because already we have lost the CB we bought.
 
Midfield is our most pressing concern IMO and so far we got a CD and a striker. Surely, ETH knows he can't rely on Casemiro and Eriksen for a long season.
 
Not a hope we're ready. Should be so much far along with outgoings especially at this point. Looking like another mess of a window.
 
We are surely better off than last season considering improved structure and some additions to the squad, but we still lack the goal scorers and it seems like we will continue with the tactics that didn’t work for the last two season, hoping that by some miracle repeating the old mistakes will prove to be a maverick strategy. So yeah, not really ready.
 
Its the same squad as last season.... plus yoro (injured) and zirkzee

Of course we arent ready
 
Of course we're not. The squad is an absolute shambles. Its unbalanced, injury-prone and there are huge gaps.

It's going to take 5 windows + to get it to were it needs to be, given nothing much ever happens in January windows.

At least we're now fronting up and embracing the pain rather than looking for quick fixes. If we'd done this in 2015 we wouldn't be in this mess.
 
UpWithRivers said:
I don't know what everyone is going on about. We were told incessantly all last season by ETH and all the ETH inners that we only failed to get top 4 because of injuries. Hence if we have less injuries we should get top 4 with no extra signings. Yes we needed to replace Varane which we did and a few signings to consolidate our 4th place like Zirksee but if we get extra new signings they are to improve on our should be 4th and get us 3rd/2nd. No?
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There's always a new excuse, always room to contradict previous opinions. It happens every season, all that's important is certain folk can complain about criticism.

We should be fine getting top 4 with the squad we have now. AWB, Maguire, McTominay aren't in desperate need of replacing although they will need to go to move us towards a title winning team.
 
We needed to sign 3 CMs. We signed none and are now linked to 26 year old a championship player.

We have a keeper in goals who regularly makes howlers.

Luke Shaw will get inevitably get injured and we have no back up.

Our attack won't score enough goals.

It's as big a mess as any Glazer summer.
 
We are NOT yet situated to come out of the gate flying with 9 points from our first 3 PL matches. 4 points of the 9 is doable even if a tad optimistic.

We’ve done far too little in terms of players in, injuries continue to mount, and we have no cohesion in the final third at all based on pre-season play.

What we can cling to as a basis for hope at this point in time is great performances in pre-season by Amad, Amass, Collyer and Oyedele, but among those four one would expect only Amad to be a regular starter.

There is a basis for optimism about this season, but as of right now we are not ready to take 3 points match after match.
 
We are relying on improvement from current players, and a reduction in injuries in order to get in the top 4. Signings thus far are not really going to impact the first 11, so will need improvements of existing players. If we can keep a consistent back 4 for the majority of the season, including Shaw and Martinez that will be a big help to maintaining form. Rashford will definitely need to do more going forward, along with Hojlund.

Hoping things can go our way and we can get a run of results together but there are still major concerns with goalscoring and giving the opposition too many opportunities.
 
Chumpsbechumps said:
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!!
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It should have been stated they had 3 weeks from when their team was knocked out, not 3 weeks when iit ended.Bruno and Dalot would have been back earlier at least.
 
TH could even try saying to Casemiro and Eriksen you are not in my plans and will only play in extreme circumstances. See if that will get them to willingly go.
 
Not a single club that finishes the season in top 6, will start the season with 9 points out of 3 games. You can quote me on that, seemingly how many players are just started their "pre season" now or just done individual work, without a team.
 
Not everyone who's feeling pessimistic is a doom and gloom merchant. Not everyone who's feeling optimistic is high as a kite. Both sides are valid for different reasons.
 
Ya it’s not looking good. Unfortunately we’ve seen it happen before. It’s crazy we are starting the season with the same midfield minus Amrabat. Yoro & holjund being injured is not helping the case
 
Our two first games league games are Fulham at home and Brighton away.

Even last season, bad as we were, we won in those two fixtures.

And as it stands we're currently in a better position in terms of injuries than we were for much of last season, with multiple notionally key players who were injured for extended periods last season currently fit (Martinez, Shaw, Mainoo, Mount, Casemiro, etc.). And where Hojlund being injured last season meant no striker, we've added one in the shape of Zirkzee.

Obviously we're not fully up to speed in terms of fitness due to the curtailed pre-season for many players, but that's the same with many clubs. We should still be prepared enough for an opening pair of games we won in worse conditions last season, certainly enough for it not to be an excuse if we lose.

The hope is that we've strengthened a bit more beyond that by the time we face Liverpool on September 1st.
 
SparcMac said:
Not a single club that finishes the season in top 6, will start the season with 9 points out of 3 games. You can quote me on that, seemingly how many players are just started their "pre season" now or just done individual work, without a team.
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It's an interesting position but the last time that happened was 2007. Even If there's some big games at the start chances are they'll be a top 6 club with 9pts.
 
Blood Mage said:
We have the same squad and manager as last season, what the feck are you expecting?
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We have the same squad but most of it was injured all season and rarely available to us. We've also got a new coaching setup. So more players available being coached better is certainly not the same.
 
The biggest of our many problems last year was the inability of the midfield to cover the space between a low defence and pressing attack. We were pretty much the most porous side in the PM, forever chasing the game and bossed for control of matches by just about everyone.
And here's what we have done so far to improve that............





So no, we are not ready. I mean, I live in hope. But as yet, no.
 
Lentwood said:
Of course we're not. The squad is an absolute shambles. Its unbalanced, injury-prone and there are huge gaps.

It's going to take 5 windows + to get it to were it needs to be, given nothing much ever happens in January windows.

At least we're now fronting up and embracing the pain rather than looking for quick fixes. If we'd done this in 2015 we wouldn't be in this mess.
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5 more windows!!!!
 
No. Unless the youngsters all suddenly step up and do a Mainoo, we will be blowing hot and cold. Hoping for no more injuries, especially in defense. I have low hope. Will be eager to be proved wrong
 
I’m weirdly optimistic. We have a very favourable, in my opinion, first five games or so. Midfield just needs to addressed urgently and it looks like we’ve moved onto Fofana.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
I’m weirdly optimistic. We have a very favourable, in my opinion, first five games or so. Midfield just needs to addressed urgently and it looks like we’ve moved onto Fofana.
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Luckily the season ends after 5 games, lel.

We have shit the bed. It started off well but Yoro got injured right away and we've not really seen Zirkzee at all. I predict he will pick up an injury too before the first International break much like Mount did last year.

INEOS finding out the hard way what an absolute shit show Woody, Arnold and Murtough left us in I suppose. Not optimistic at all.
 
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