Do the players not trust each other?

Skills

Snitch
Joined
Jan 17, 2012
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One of the more frustrating things to watch today was us just playing the obvious pass when it was on.

Sancho when he got through, should've played Ronaldo in rather than just carry the ball into a dead end and a resulting weak shot.

Rashford after he got played in by Pogba, had Dalot overlapping and just ignored him and played the ball back.

Dalot later in the game had Elanga wide open on the outside, but again held onto the ball for no reason then tried to play him in with a much more difficult through ball.

Just play the fecking pass. The next guy might feck it up, but at least he'll feck it up in a better position.
 
Skills said:
One of the more frustrating things to watch today was us just playing the obvious pass when it was on.

Sancho when he got through, should've played Ronaldo in rather than just carry the ball into a dead end and a resulting weak shot.

Rashford after he got played in by Pogba, had Dalot overlapping and just ignored him and played the ball back.

Dalot later in the game had Elanga wide open on the outside, but again held onto the ball for no reason then tried to play him in with a much more difficult through ball.

Just play the fecking pass. The next guy might feck it up, but at least he'll feck it up in a better position.
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That Rashford one was mad. Sancho had a small window and since he didn't pass it early, he had to make a shot. I would say he didn't trust his passing ability
 
I doubt many trust Luke Shaw after he allegedly was the press leaker and also tried flogging his NFTs during training sessions.
 
We've got a squad filled with players that are clearly overpaid and overrated and which is under some serious pressure. The 'put the blame on the manager' trick is not working anymore. Meanwhile our captain is clearly renouncing any shred of blame on either him or the defence. Its evident that its every man for himself at this point.
 
I think you underestimate how unintelligent our attackers are. From what I've seen Sancho is probably the smartest and least impulsive. Never seen so many attacks fail over unwillingness to make 3 yard passes. We will never rival the likes of City in control because this lot insist on overstepping the boundaries of any creative freedom.

Just keep making the right passes, the potency will come eventually. Before you know it we'll be carving teams with passing combinations. City's players didn't stop making the right passes when they encountered hiccups in Pep's first season and it paid dividends the next year. This is why it's important for a player like Bruno to stop hijacking attacks to spam low percentage balls. Give him no marks for trying passes that were never even on.
 
It’s all about the profiles of players we’ve recruited. They’re not complementary to each other. Not one single player in an attacking sense acts as foil to another player.

At Liverpool, for example, Henderson normally plays RCM and plays like a RB so Trent can get forward as basically a playmaker on the right side of the field. Who, in turn is an excellent crosser for Mane and Jota (two of the best headers of the ball in the league for their respective heights). When Firmino plays he’s normally there to buzz around and dribble so Salah can push higher with less risk.

Where are those combinations for us? By having so many players who do not wish to alter their game for the sake of other players in the side, we end up with the awful decision making we get in the final third all the time.

Or… it’s an even bigger competency based issue and the players simply cannot playing in that way.
 
Every pass is a risk. When your confidence is low, you tend not to take that risk and instead go for the easy option.

It's so blatantly obvious. United's confidence is so fragile that we can go from good to shit in the space of a few minutes. All it takes is one bad moment and you can literally see the players' heads drop.
 
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100% Agree with the OP with regards to the panic nature of our attack. Unsure if it was the level of expectancy or the general form of the team. A complete lack of confidence.
But the simple passes were avoided in many circumstances. The speed of build up was also an issue. You don’t score slow goals against well drilled teams.

The crowd were willing the passes, that should have been simple to see. For whatever reason, they weren’t.
 
Dante said:
Every pass is a risk. When your confidence is low, you tend not to take that risk and instead go for the easy option.

It's so blatantly obvious. United's confidence is so fragile that we can go from good to shit in the space of a few minutes. All it takes is one bad moment and you can literally see the players' heads drop.
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I agree. Every pass is a risk because we are nothing like compact enough. And we continually fail to support the man with the ball.
So too many passes are either 50/50 at best and hence we are not able to string passes together.
It is school boy stuff.
Pass and move. But for United, it is pass and stand still.
 
I've said it before but this team don't communicate. Nobody takes control of the game and dictates play off the ball. There are no calls on the pitch so the players essentially play with their heads down and try to do their own thing. It's why we continue to try impossible passes and have players who hijack attacks. It has been a continuous problem this season and it cant be down to players being completely devoid of understanding.

If nobody communicates on the pitch you are left to fend for yourself. Hence the frustrated faces of Ronaldo and Bruno nearly every game. We need some leaders on the field to ensure the gameplan is executed and to plug the gaps when we lose shape etc through constructive communication.
 
Skills said:
One of the more frustrating things to watch today was us just playing the obvious pass when it was on.

Sancho when he got through, should've played Ronaldo in rather than just carry the ball into a dead end and a resulting weak shot.

Rashford after he got played in by Pogba, had Dalot overlapping and just ignored him and played the ball back.

Dalot later in the game had Elanga wide open on the outside, but again held onto the ball for no reason then tried to play him in with a much more difficult through ball.

Just play the fecking pass. The next guy might feck it up, but at least he'll feck it up in a better position.
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That will be part of the issue for sure. In the majority of football teams, at any level, you'll have players on a team who other players just don't rate or trust. Doesn't matter whether you're in the park with your mates, playing semi-pro or in the Premier League. Believe me, some of our players will be chatting away to each other saying "Fred is fu**ing sh**e" etc....

It's also about being on the same wavelength. You have to remember, our team haven't really been drilled in an attacking-sense for a few years. You can see that our players just don't really connect on the pitch. They are unsure of each other's movements. Very often, you'll see two of our players, one with the ball, one without, doing two completely different things, whilst the other gesticulates at them wildly to do the opposite. For example, Dalot looks up and see's Elanga making a forward run, but actually wants him to come to feet for the ball.

On the Sancho one you reference though, I don't think that was greed, I just think the Southampton defender recognised that letting Sancho get closer to goal on his left foot was a better outcome than just letting him roll the ball across for an easy tap-in for Ronaldo
 
I also think there is no leadership on the pitch. This allows the players to do the same feck up over and over again with no consequence. We would be different I think if we had a Robbo, Bruce, Keane even Neville type of player out there, to bollock them and make them think more
 
We need to appoint ETH and trust him in the transfer window with ins and outs. This group of players are not bad, but it’s not great either.
 
Acquire Me said:
We need to appoint ETH and trust him in the transfer window with ins and outs. This group of players are not bad, but it’s not great either.
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Ralf needs to really bang the drum to Arnold and his cronies then and get their minds off Pochettino completely
 
Remember that time Rashford didn’t go for the rebound against Villa? It was a case of him having givenup his run already when he knew Greenwood would never pass it. That’s a clear sign of distrust among the squad.

The players are clueless in attack and not on the same wavelength because the only thing they’ve been taught to do for the last two seasons is pass the ball to Bruno. Bruno probably realises most of his teammates are incapable of constructing an attack and goes for those Hollywood balls.
 
I'd have trust problems as well if I were playing in this United squad.

I don't trust the keeper to come out and deal with aerial threats.
I don't trust the defence to be able to deal with pacey attacks and pressing.
I don't trust the midfield to be able to control the game.
I don't trust the attackers to pass to each other to create high quality chances instead of shooting on sight everytime.

Massive trust issues all round.
 
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