Maybe it does, and evidently signing Onana is a big step, but it then makes you wonder what the plan was last year if he needed such a different player in goal to make his system work? Why persist with De Gea who patently can't do that?
I admire your optimism and perhaps I'm unduly pessimistic, but we've had a number of managers who have come in and torn up what the old manager did, signed tens of millions of pounds worth of players who weren't good enough, failed, and then the next manager has the problem of what to do with them all while wanting another 7 or 8 of his own. He fails, then it's rinse and repeat. That is evidently, in part, a problem caused by the structure of the footballing side of the club, but it's heading worryingly towards a point where we're being asked to trust what the new man is doing without really seeing a significant improvement over a year down the line.
Time will tell I suppose.
I've decided to be mostly optimistic this season.
Except towards players like Martial, Sancho, McT, Maguire and all those players who just have a long list of being mostly disappointing.
It's also mostly because I think this has to be one of those squads where the technical levels are just too low and have been for a long time, that this process will just take longer. ETH has been addressing that by bringing in players rhat improve the baseline. It's why Linfelof, Maguire, Fred, McT, AWB etc found themselves sitting on the bench for most of last year.
If you look back at SAF teams and squads, every single player was capable of playing quick 1 and 2 touch football, with crisp presice passing and movement. Every player had to be at least capable of that, if you couldn't do it you were out. It's why he was able to win leagues and cups with Cleverly and Anderson playing in midfield. They weren't great players but they could play with quick precise passing and movement.
Most of this squad just seemed to play slowed down 4 and 5 touch football, with slow passing and movement. It's a struggle to get them to improve on that, when they just don't have technical abilities to do so, players like McT and Maguire just aren't fluid enough in their body movements, it's obvious just by looking at them.
I think there's still a bit to go, I think Lindelof and AWB should be next for the chop, their ball playing and movement is not up.to scratch. You'll never have success playing out from the back with those two playing. The footballing structure in the background picked ETH because of his style and way of playing. Now they need to double down and start working better to replace the rest of the squad that isn't good enough and start looking at long term replacements for the likes of Varane, Casemiro, Eriksen, Shaw, AWB, Dalot.
