If Rashford plays through the middle (where he’s consistently been not very good) who plays out wide?
7
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 16
- Goals
- 3
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Status
If Rashford plays through the middle (where he’s consistently been not very good) who plays out wide?
ETH was hardly going to come out and say, "he was crap, we don't want him anymore" What managers say in public and behind the scenes are 2 completely different things.
People are in denial about Ten Hag and Ronaldo. Most of us here like him and only wish to see his football implemented as quickly as possible hence why we don't like seeing Ronaldo on the pitch.
But the reality is Ronaldo has proven too big for Ten Hag despite what we want to believe and tell ourselves ("ETH doesn't care about Ronaldo's ego, he does what he wants").
Ten Hag clearly came in with the intention to lay down the law and initially did by dropping Ronaldo or subbing him out when he felt he was detrimental to our play. However since the incident and all the media drama, Ten Hag is trading carefully now and indulging Ronaldo.
People using injuries as an excuse yet even when opportunities to sub Ronaldo out present themselves, ETH won't do it. This game was the perfect example. Martial should have come in for Ronaldo and an actual midfielder like Fred should have replaced Dony but instead Ten Hag put Martial in Dony's role and kept Ronaldo as the CF.
This is 3 games in a row now players have been shuffled around in less optimal positions to them and consequently the team as well just to accommodate Ronaldo.
In the last 3 games we've seen Bruno shafted on the right, Rashford shafted on the right then put in the hole, we've also seen Martial put in the hole, positions where they are less effective. All of that just to accommodate Ronaldo.
Yes but that was before he refused to come on and do his job a few weeks ago. Doing it under these circumstances seemed odd and was a mistake in my opinion.
Can one of you conspiracy theorists please explain how Ronaldo is bending ETH to his will, the way you seem to think he is? Compromising photos? Hypnotism? Straight up threats of violence?
I hope it’s because nobody is fit and he’s trying desperately to just keep the peace until the World Cup when he’ll be booted out the door head first. I desperately hope it’s not because he still thinks he can win the games required to finish top 4 with Ronaldo being a key part of the team and he’s trying to reform him into being a leader. I’m very much in the “he’s lucky to be playing again for us given his shocking lack of respect and the fact he’s utter shite” camp so to also compound that by making him captain has pissed me right off though.
Ronaldo captained us a few times last season even with de Gea on the pitch. Eriksen just signed for us. Martinez and Casemiro just signed for us. You don't make someone captain after 2 months. Ole made that mistake with Maguire. I really think Ronaldo was just the 3rd captain from before and that's it.
The only thing clear as day is that we had 3 of our first 4 choice attackers out/unavailable to start. So that means our 5th choice attacker was going to start. That's all it is. All I see is complaints from you, without any actual logical alternative? Who in their right mind starts Garnacho on his PL debut and Elanga, a championship footballer, as the wing options to Rashford in a tough away game? It was always going to be Ronaldo, and the facts are that before the injuries to the others, he was a Europa League player and impact sub in the league at best. And then fined and dropped altogether in the Chelsea game. After which, all the others got injured/ill. So Ronaldo goes in, as is his place as the 5th choice attacker. Rocket science.
Elanga, I know some don't rate him but he has pace to burn.
I'd rather him have gone with Elanga and Garnacho in the wide positions than Ronaldo today. He's been terrible, beyond terrible for weeks.
If you read my post further down, you'd see a whole list of players who been captain for us or their country who have demonstrated better leadership qualities and not behaved unprofessionally as has ronaldo has done.
As for the battle, it's a battle of ego and will, on who is the top dog. Ronaldo obviously feels he's bigger than the manager and took calculated decision to storm off the pitch and refuse to obey orders against Spurs to stir a reaction so pressure would mount on the manager.
We all had thought ETH would take the mantle and stand up to ronaldo so he understands his position as being subservient to his demands, and not the other way round. After the media backlash which sided and favoured with ronaldo, ETH has now caved in and allowed Ronaldo to exercise dominance over him. That's the pivitol battle which has been lost and now other players may well not see the manager in the same authoritarian light as they once did, after witnessing their own manager cower down to a player.
Then explain to us why Martial came in as a number 10 essentially putting him in Bruno's usual role instead of coming on as the CF for Ronaldo while an actual midfielder in Fred replaces DVB?
Who wears the captain’s armband is right up there with which team wins the coin toss in stuff I don’t care about. But if I had to take a guess about why Ronaldo got the nod it might have been a desperate effort to get him to play a little better than he has been? To work a little harder and generally put himself about a bit more. It didn’t work but maybe it was worth a shot?
All of them moved to plug gaps because the natural players in those roles are injured. Pretty clearly. Keep drinking the Kool aid though...
Class and quality player, but doesn't have the strength to bully the defenders. Nor does he have the pace to outrun them. He is pure tekkers.
In a physical league it's not the best way to be a Cfwd. If he put weight on he will probably blow gas out of his ass by the end of the first half, so I'm not sure how he will be good for us again in a Cfwd job.
In a physical league it's not the best way to be a Cfwd. If he put weight on he will probably blow gas out of his ass by the end of the first half, so I'm not sure how he will be good for us again in a Cfwd job.
WTF?Also “allowed Ronaldo exercise dominance over him”. What are we talking here? Chinese burns? Purple nurple? Vulcan mind meld?
I think he's just always been our 3rd choice captain. Captained us a few times last season when Bruno and Maguire weren't there. Ten Hag hasn't done anything with the captaincy yet, though I do think he should have said Ronaldo won't get it after what he did, but whatever, not a big deal anyway.
I can only imagine Fred must have had some sort of a knock, for me there was no reason at all why he wouldn't have replaced DVB today allowing Eriksen further forward
I see your points and tbh I can't say I disagree.
However imo we should wait til the next PL game before jumping into any conclusion. If Martial is fit and Ronaldo still starts then ...
Sponsor/board/media pressure?
Elanga or Eriksen/DvB (with one of McFred playing) or Pellestri, or change shape and play a diamond or 3-5-2. Anything.
You're comparing "not very good" to an actively harmful influence over the entire setup.
@Santoryo and @Luka Mora are having fecking mare's here. Take a break guys, you are embarassing yourselves in this thread 
Because when you’re two goals down it’s obviously preferable to have two goalscorers up there instead of 1+Fred.
And yes, “goalscorer” is a stretch for current day Ronaldo but it’s still a better fit for him than it is for Fred.
Depends on if Martial is fit to actually start. Last time he got injured right away. Fair chance Ten Hag wants to build his fitness. These were his first minutes post injury. And then it depends on if Sancho and Antony are fit.
Before people go overboard, wait and see what happens when the players ahead of him in the pecking order are actually fit. Because otherwise, the alternative is an 18 year old not ready for the league and Elanga who isn't good enough for the league.
Yeah you don't care and evidently Ronaldo didn't either. Just sends a bad message.
Look I'm sure Ten Hag would love to never play Ronaldo again. But when the alternative is Garnacho and Elanga starting, it's kind of pointless to argue. No manager is going to start them together on the wings, as neither are ready for the premier league. Ronaldo for all his shit at least you have hope he can put in a decent performance or be a target man or get a goal.
Not when you ended up having Martial play much deeper to accommodate Ronaldo. Like Rashford as the 10 midweek.
Besides, late goals aren't necessarily about overloading the box, it's about maintaining a siege with repeated attacks. Throwing on all the attackers (like the second half at Sociedad and today) can be counterproductive, since when the first ball is lost, you don't have a midfield, and the opponents get time to counter/time-waste.
He's crap and he makes those around him crap too.
Oh come on. Pull the other one.
How about playing Maguire as a striker? He’s tried an out there solution to our lack of cutting edge as recently as Thursday. Trying to come back from two goals down by keeping all your most likely goalscorers on the pitch at once was hardly an outrageous decision. If nothing else, Ronaldo is a hell of a lot more likely than any of the rest of them to win some headers in the opposition box. The hysteria about how we finished the game today is ludicrous.
Yeah, Eth lost this battle and lost some credits for sure. Among fans and probably among players.
He fecked up
It can be, yes. It’s also a tried and trusted tactic since forever. And always will be. Repeatedly used by every manager under the sun. Including Manchester United’s best ever manager. Fergie even replicated ETH’s Thursday evening Hail Mary a few times Sticking Nemanja Vidic up top when we we’re desperate for a goal.
Ronaldo has his cult inside our team. Garnacho, Antony, Rashford, Dalot, Bruno all look at him as idol. Ronaldo also has friends among our ex players who make pressure in media on ETH. Ronaldo also is loved by owners and our biggest manager ever.
With all that in mind, ETH decided to surrender (and i guess pray that Ronaldo leaves in January).
I must admit that ETH disappointed me a lot about this.
But we just had 45 minutes worth of evidence of it not working! With a pretty similar setup too, Ronaldo as the 9 and someone out of place as the 10...
You can argue that it is normal, the point is, it has proven (twice now) to be ineffective. Something else might have been tried this time around, but that would involve substituting the captain who doesn't like being substituted.
C’mon mate, you’re not even trying to hide your waders and stinky bait box!
Pellistri or Elanga are a part of the squad. I’m using squad here because ETH keeps referencing squad in every presser.
People are underestimating the insane pressure Ten Hag was put under after the Spurs game. It's not a conspiracy theory, I have never seen such a campaign for an underperforming player to get back on the team from almost everywhere in the media and especially after what he did. It wouldn't have been different at the club. The only one who didn't follow was Neville and we saw what happened last week with him.
Well he didn’t stick a centre back up front so no, this wasn’t a repeat of Thursday’s tactics. And it all keeps coming down to the very simple fact that he must have thought Ronaldo is a player who maybe, just maybe, might come up with a clutch (God I hate myself for using that word) goal when we need one. Wherever did he get that impression?!
It’s ok. You don’t need to justify using the word squad. We all know what it means. Maybe the manager doesn’t think Pellistri or Elanga are good enough? If so, I haven’t seen enough of Pellistri to disagree with him and I’ve seen enough of Elanga to think he’s probably right.
Just stick to discussion and addressing the posts instead of trying to go after people because you don't hold the same opinions. I mean what is this post about?@Santoryo and @Luka Mora are having fecking mare's here. Take a break guys, you are embarassing yourselves in this thread
You're being a drama queen and having a meltdown on stupid conspiracy theories with no backing. Take a breath, look at the situation and realize that Ten Hag was playing the 5th choice attacker because 3 of the 4 ahead of him were unavailable. You're going on and on about some nonsense just to be dramatic.
You can dress it up how you want but 2 non PK goals in 16 games is an appalling return for anyone playing up front.
Rashford gets pelters and he has actually scored a few goals this season.
Rashford gets pelters and he has actually scored a few goals this season.
Wish he had the tekkers to put the ball in the net. Because despite these supposed physical deficiencies, he’s had plenty of chances this season and taken very few.
And after that game despite the pressure, he dropped Ronaldo from the squad and fined him. It's nonsense.
At least wait for players to return from injury before starting conspiracy theories. At this point, all it is is that players are injured and he is sadly the next best that we can play. So he plays.
- Status