Agree. If you'd have told me at the end of last season that we'd have the same manager and the only 'upgrade' to the first XI would be De Ligt I'd have only expected more of the same as last season.
Are we ready for the start of the season?
- Thread starter Chicharo
- Start date
Over the last several years this has become a trend with United that I very much detest. I cant see how anybody is ok with United stalling on pretty much any chance to improve the team before the start of the season. Doesnt it make more sense to bring talent in as early as possible so that we can have time to gel. Last season we dicked around the first 3-5 games while we were still putting a team together. We are on pace to do the same thing this year... except with even less. (when you factor in points lost/ needed at the end of the season, its worrisome)... You cant say points matter at the end of the season but give a shite less at the start.
We can't get rid of the likes of McTominay, Casemiro, Bisakka, Lindelof and Maguire due to them being on the last year of the contract and ridiculous wages that nobody in their right mind would pay... except us.
Ineos spend the better part of last season and early summer compiling data and the best they can come up with is ..... Terminate the staff around the club and ground and lets keep the dead wood....
Ass backwards!!!!!
ETH is being set up to fail!
We can't get rid of the likes of McTominay, Casemiro, Bisakka, Lindelof and Maguire due to them being on the last year of the contract and ridiculous wages that nobody in their right mind would pay... except us.
Ineos spend the better part of last season and early summer compiling data and the best they can come up with is ..... Terminate the staff around the club and ground and lets keep the dead wood....
Ass backwards!!!!!
ETH is being set up to fail!
Disagree here. It's more a fitness thing than a current level thing though.
At CB we have:
- Yoro - out for 3 months minimum, but fair chance he's not actually adapted to the league til Christmas as he wasn't someone we were planning of throwing in as a key player asap
- Martinez - missed pretty much all of last season
- Maguire - increasingly picking up more and more injuries and can't really stay fit and not good enough to be more than 3rd choice, if he was actually fit
- Lindelof - can't stay fit and not good enough to be more than 4th choice if he was actually fit
- Evans - always injury prone and really shouldn't be playing that much
- Mainoo - will play whenever fit and fresh
- Bruno - will play whenever fit and fresh
- Casemiro - needs replacing but is more reliable IMO than Maguire/Lindelof/Evans. Slight hope he's not as bad as last season and it wasn't a permanent decline but I'd rather replace
- Mount - good player but too many injuries. We'll see if he can stay fit this season, in which case he'll cover for Bruno and possibly Mainoo more often
- Eriksen - won't play much but is available more often and is basically just a Mainoo backup after Mount
- McTominay - probably Lindelof level but for midfield, stays fit more often, provides physicality and workrate but positionally is shit and on the ball a bit shit, but as a squad player in the "backup 11" there's worse things
At this point it looks like we will battle for Europa League places. I count on a couple more players coming in to strengthen midfield and defense.
We changed complete football structure, signed "best in the class" football people and we still ended in the same place as we were last few seasons under Ed and Murtough.
The fact that "other clubs not doing great" should not be our excuse.
I get the fact that we want to maximise sales and not overpay new signings but we are (again) in danger starting a season with many issues and then dealing transfers ad hoc.
The fact that "other clubs not doing great" should not be our excuse.
I get the fact that we want to maximise sales and not overpay new signings but we are (again) in danger starting a season with many issues and then dealing transfers ad hoc.
We are going to find it tough this season. Our midfield is actually weaker without reinforcements and age has already caught up with Erickson and Casemiro, nevermind Bruno will also begin to decline as he is hitting his 30s this year.
Martinez being injury prone is one of the newest meme on the Caf. 
I think that is spin personally.
- Yoro is injured for 3 months. The season hasn’t even started yet and the clock is running. You don’t sign a player to cover 6 PL matches, and his injury should be inconsequential to any transfer business. Also, the idea that he was not intended to be thrown in immediately has little basis to me. He’s come off the back of a season playing weekly, and cost a huge amount of money. I imagine he was very much under immediate consideration.
- Maguire is a footballer who has gotten injured. There is nothing at all to suggest that he has any sort of injury problem, and his injury record is generally amongst the best out there, so again, I see that as spin. He’s not an elite centre half, but he’s a good one, an England first XI regular when fit and good enough to form part of a senior rotation. He could be any centre half at a top club except their VDV or Saliba.
- Lindelof is definitely a back up player, and might still leave anyway, which would mean we would need another.
- Martinez - missed pretty much all of last season, however, thankfully it is not last season anymore.
- Evans - good injury record last season, and 5th choice in any case.
Of the centre halves we have, all are international starters (Lindelof being captain) and one is the best prospect in world football in his role.
In midfield, to make it short, Mainoo, Fernandes and Mount are all good/top players who we can expect a top season from. Casemiro is not trending in the right direction, although I also hope he can improve upon last season. Eriksen is finished, McTominay is rubbish and importantly, Amrabat has left. So thatts clear numerical issue right there even before we get to the question marks of quality. We also play 3 of them at a time as opposed to two centre halves, so we need more options by default.
We literally have a worse squad than we had at the start of last season so…
After suffering through last season I had high hopes that things would be improved over the summer. It was a good start with changes being made behind the scenes in terms of new personnel coming in, new coaching staff and the two player additions (3 month injury to Yoro has put a dampener on the enthusiasm). However, since then its been very disappointing. Why can we never prioritise the midfield? Its been like this at the club for well over a decade since the likes of Scholes and Carrick finished. We needed much better level of players in the middle of the park. The best teams usually have the best midfield. We need a 3 man midfield to control the game both defensively and offensively. We only have Mainoo as a sure starter in the team. No one else fills me with any confidence in that area. Am I confident going into the new season? Not at all, I'm instead hoping we get off to a decent start and play some decent football. Pre season hasn't filled me up with any confidence either. Please God, do something and let us hope again.
Just bad luck PSG are buttholes. Bruno is a nailed on starter btw. Mount will probably be good too.
We are working on it but teams are overvaluing their players. And, our players refuse to move on. So we have to be patient.
It's very, very strange.Martinez being injury prone is one of the newest meme on the Caf.
The good news, is that none of the other top teams seem quite ready either.
I guess the injuries can be blamed partly on bad luck but we seem to be always cursed in recent times. PSG are obviously going to try to take as much as they can from us so you cant really blame them. I think we should have multiple targets for each position. Its high time our scouting department does its job and actually finds hidden gems. Why is it that other teams manage to pick up these highly talented kids from the likes of Europe and South America etc? Bruno is a starter I agree but I was referring to the midfield, I don't consider Bruno as someone who can play there unless you are playing two others next him who are highly energetic and can cover for him. A 3 man midfield of Bruno, Mainoo and a classy number 6 would be ideal. We've always had to pay over the top for players, some were worth doing but others not so much. This is why having multiple targets for the positions we need to improve on is paramount. We shouldn't let teams play us for stupid amount of money. We are a week away from the new season, I genuinely thought we'd have key positions filled by now. Moving on certain players has been a major issue for far too long now. Hopefully the new structure will remedy that going forward. We need to stop giving big contracts to ordinary players who haven't earned it yet.
Guess you can spin it both ways. For me, Yoro is 18 and I don't think we should expect him to be a key player from day 1. Maguire, from what I felt, was picking up more and more injuries. Was last season a one off, or was it a progression? Last few seasons he seemed to be missing 2 months per season, while last season that increased and he never got momentum. Lindelof again as backup is fine, but only fine if he stays fit which he seemingly can't. If a player can't stay fit for 3 months without getting knocks, then it just destabilizes the team as we saw. Our backups were getting injured without even being overused, and that was the big frustration. We're still in pre season and already had Lindelof come off as a precaution, Maguire not played as a precaution, yoro pick up his injury, etc etc. I just see our CBs at the point in their careers where the injuries are progressing and it's not one offs.
We definitely need a midfielder, don't get me wrong. But I think our CB's are still a mess and we really need to bring in someone who we can expect to start and mentor Yoro.
The difference being that the other teams already have a successful system in place with players who are performing. Last season the football being played by us was so bad it wasn't even funny. Don't let the FA cup win fool you. We needed major major improvements for this season and thus far it hasn't quite happened. Here's hoping we have a really strong end to the window and get key transfers over the line and get rid of certain players for decent fees.
From the general tone of this thread, it appears like we have a reasonable (but no better than that) starting 11, but below that, our squad is pretty weak.
However, there are a few promising young players starting to come through and so they will have the opportunity to break into the senior ranks.
Yes I know that is not what most of us want. But Ten Hag has the opportunity to get us playing like a team rather than last season where far too often we were relying on individual brilliance.
However, there are a few promising young players starting to come through and so they will have the opportunity to break into the senior ranks.
Yes I know that is not what most of us want. But Ten Hag has the opportunity to get us playing like a team rather than last season where far too often we were relying on individual brilliance.
Mainoo, Shaw, Licha, and Pellistri back in training
If ETH wins the Shield on Sunday, does he get another contract extension regardless of the league results and performances?
What makes you think that?
I couldn‘t care less about the shield. It‘s a friendly we can use to get minutes into first team players and practice tactics.
We were horrible at Craven Cottage as well to be fair, just very lucky to fluke a win.
I just don’t think it’s practical to sign a top quality ‘mentor’ for Yoro. It would have been akin to signing one for Ronaldo or Rooney. These players are signed to play from a young age, and we won’t, or shouldn’t sign a senior international to be ‘the guy that starts’. You may as well sign Fofana to mentor Mainoo and be the regular starter too. It doesn’t work like that.
If you’re argument was to sign a left-sided centre half specifically, I think it would have more legs as you could more reasonably make an argument to discount Evans and then say that while we have numbers - we only have one option for the left side. But I don’t think Yoro, Maguire and Lindelof as right centre backs is a situation that requires some sort of urgent address. They may well be injured at times, but of the three we only really need one at a time to play. It’s no secret we’re open to letting one go, but all I’m saying is that should be the prerequisite for bringing someone in. The situation isn’t such that we need to urgently bring someone in at present. I don’t think Maguire is injury prone at all. Him being an aggressive footballer who did not get injured for 5 years would be the anomaly. By sheer probability, he’s been due a few and has now had them. I also think that De Ligt is only marginally better and also an unknown quantity here, not to mention having a chequered injury record of his own.
I think in midfield the maths is more simple. We had two DMs and one left. There’s a clear need there.
ETH still do not have the CB to play a high line unless we get every single player fit which I do not think happened once last year. Further we lack a CDM even more than last year as Casemiro is just getting worse.
Currently the team is in worse shape compared to last year. Further we cannot sell any players and therefore we cannot afford new players.
Ineos is just setting ETH up to fail. Maybe that was the plan.
Not it is not ,ETH is on INEOS now. They have made the decision to keep him , he is now their man.
If ETH fails they fail.
Just to make sure we don't miss your negativity in the matchday thread and the post game one, the game is on Saturday!
Players who get injured often will get that reputation and his track record last three seasons is really not looking so good. Let’s see how this season goes, hopefully he’s out of the injury cycle.Martinez being injury prone is one of the newest meme on the Caf.
| 23/24 | Calf strain | 29 days |
| 23/24 | Knee injury | 54 days |
| 23/24 | Foot injury | 105 days |
| 22/23 | Metatarsal fracture | 77 days |
| 21/22 | Muscle injury | 62 days |
| 21/22 | unknown injury | 10 days |
It’s turning into one of the worst summers in recent memory. A squad rotation striker and a young CB?
Some false 9 guy, who is yet to be seen on grass, as the single new available addition to the team isn't how I imagined this season would start. Especially after the nightmare last season and the fanfare around INEOS.
Yup. And after a hugely disappointing season.
This. The last couple of summers we at least signed top players (on paper). At this moment it just feels like the club is doing everything to not sign expensive players regardless. Guess this season will be an in between season to figure out how to get rid of players and get everything sorted elsewhere not squad wise.
Hell no, we are not ready.
‘Man falling onto knee’ is the injury that worries me with Martinez. Once that happens, a player is always waiting for it to go again.Martinez being injury prone is one of the newest meme on the Caf.
I love Martinez, but he is absolutely injury prone.Martinez being injury prone is one of the newest meme on the Caf.
His injury record speaks for itself. That's not a diss on Martinez, that's just the unfortunate reality.
Or nothing to be done and teams simply don't have that much money due to massive amounts spent last year. Us, yourselves for instance are two examples. Where any further buys would only happen after some sales.
You're comparing teams that already have good squads with a well defined playing style... to us.
Not trying to burst your bubble, but our rivals could have signed no players this season, and still be better off than we would after signing even 3-5 players. The gap in tactical preparedness and squad depth/quality is considerable.
That's not to say some of our rivals can't have a poor season. They absolutely can. But I wouldn't call that chance good news.
We massively needed to improve our squad and tactics before the start of the season, and that doesn't look like it's going to happen. At least not to the degree we need.
Just saw an article about Ten Hag's first game for United with us playing Ericksen as a false 9 at home to Brighton...
Following year we bought Hojlund but he wasnt fit for start.
Third season running we start without a fit number 9
Crazy really
Following year we bought Hojlund but he wasnt fit for start.
Third season running we start without a fit number 9
Crazy really
We bought Zirkzee. And give him a 2 week holiday.
That's a fair comparison, but I'd argue it suggests more than anything that PSR and FFP has finally caught up to most teams, and that the spending spree is going down.
The days of spending money like drunken, landlocked naval officers simply isn't sustainable any longer, because teams will now be deducted points if they're not careful.
There will still be massive spending, but nothing suggests it's going to match that level. You can see that in the transfer market. Before prices like 100-150 million pounds were considered ludicrous.
Now 60-80 is considered massive spending by the big clubs.
I don’t know if I agree. Not making huge financial transfer mistakes is a big part of the improvement we need. I’d like more signings but Yoro and Zirkzee seemed considered and reasonable value. Not overpaying is important .