Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

[didz]

Why?

Because he doesn't have the unblemished charm and decorum of the likes of Mikel Arteta and Jürgen Klopp.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

As I said last month, we need to kick the can down the road till the end of the season and then see where we end up.
Results are extremely vital now.

With every problem around us…. Wow must be some manager!

 

[gaffs]

It should lead to buying experienced prolific goalscorer as soon as winter window opens.

With what money? Were right up against FFP.

 

[Kellyiom]

The fundamental issue are too many of these players have been on the end of too many big losses, takes its toll.

We need to ship people on pronto.

Aye, yeah, you've got a good point there, I didn't think about that. The psychology behind winning can make a huge difference. I've never studied it but in football the physical gaps between all the players in the EPL won't be great in my estimation. In the Tour de France there's a cutoff for each stage depending on how hard it is and is usually between 15% and 25% of the stage winner's time.

So if there's a massive climb and the winner does it in 2 hours exactly, everyone, whether they're pure sprinters, rouleurs or domestiques need to get to the line by 2 hours 30 minutes if it's a 25% cutoff. Cycling is much less skill oriented than football so maybe it's not a great example but I think it shows how fit they all are considering the size of climbs and stage lengths they have to face.

The team does look to be not as fit as it could be to my eyes though and I'm a bit sceptical whether they're using technology to the fullest to gauge fitness and tailor fitness programs individually. Ideally you'd want to spend as little time as possible getting fit as long as it was sufficient to keep you competitive in every position. Then you could afford to spend more time on skills and tactics training.

 

[Daydreamer]

As I said last month, we need to kick the can down the road till the end of the season and then see where we end up.
Results are extremely vital now.

That is pretty amazing - incredibly efficient.

 

[MackRobinson]

Can't even think about sacking him at this point, regardless of the football. Too close to 4th

 

[gaffs]

Dont think anyone can take a pop at the manager today. We created a bunch of changes and each of our forward 3 missed great opportunities.

Luton were abject. As were Fulham before. The test will be Everton away who are on a bit of a run.

 

[ti vu]

With what money? Were right up against FFP.

And the prolific experienced striker is unlikely available however much we have to pay. Even Bayern had to break their club record to sign Harry Kane 30 year old on his last year of contract at Spurs. No doubt they would have got the comparable alternative if given the chance. Just there were no alternative. Hojlund fee is what it it, even when everyone know we can't expect consistent prolific goal return for him this season

 

[Keanes Magic Hat]

Dont think anyone can take a pop at the manager today. We created a bunch of changes and each of our forward 3 missed great opportunities.

Luton were abject. As were Fulham before. The test will be Everton away who are on a bit of a run.

Completely agree we were very wasteful likely due to our lack of confidence. It was a pretty controlled display and builds on the first 40 mins against Copenhagen. I'm more encouraged today than I have been since the season began other wins we didn't deserve them it looks like we are settling down a bit.

Hopefully can kick on from here.

 

[Jed I. Knight]

As I said last month, we need to kick the can down the road till the end of the season and then see where we end up.
Results are extremely vital now.

It's funny, but anyone's who has played CM/FM over the years recognise this pattern. First you're inexplicably shit. Then you scrape a few results together from nearly nothing, before the ball starts rolling in earnest and you put together a Solskjær-esque run of form.

Life imitates art. Hopefully.

 

[gaffs]

My feeling concerning Ten Haag and United attacking is that his systems don't actually work well in England. At Ajax he relied on two things, the quick transition attacks and overloading the flanks. The pace of the league was slower, the intensity was less, and Ajax had far superior players than any other team in the league. This meant that Ajax could camp out in the opposition half more regularly. Their defenders, Blind, Martinez, Timber and Mazraoui were the players who actually were involves in the build up and progression phases. As a result, they were also fluid and were constantly in areas of the pitch you would not expect a defender to be. Due to the league being slower and Ajax having more physical midfielders than other teams in the league, teams didn't take advantage of this reckless play at the back. He could also afford to push numbers up due to this and have about 4 players working for overloads on the flanks. In England, these patterns would have been broken down quickly and created opportunities for transitions that could easily be exploited. In fact, even in the Eredivisie, this did occur quite frequently. But due to their lack of physicality in midfield and lower levels of quality in the build up phases of other teams, Ajax could easily get away with this. I also think Ten Haag realized this. Which is why he starting discussing moving to a more transition based approach, because this was essentially what helped him do well in the Champions League in 2019. However, there were a few profiles he had then, that we currently don't have that were paramount for this to work. De Jong's transition play from midfield was fantastic and Ziyech was also having the best run of games in his life. However the transition game can't be used against teams like Luton, Everton or the like. So in games like this, where we're expected to create chances, we're falling short because Ten Haag may not actually have a clear plan that has succeeded outside of reverting back to complicated wide overloads that require too many steps to work successfully in an intense, fast paced league. I'm starting to reach the conclusion that Dutch managers may not work in England for this very reason.

Good post, a lot of good points.

To your points, we are missing Martinez who is the one center back who was getting involved in our build up play.

It is kind of strange to me that he hasn't focused on adding more physical central midfielders and a ball player, like De Jong, who was comfortable taking the ball off the center backs facing his own goal and turning, to progress the ball from defense to attack.

Agree, we do struggle breaking down team who low block. Yet, equally, we struggle against team that presses effectivly from the front and has strong ball players in the midfield. This means we only look good against a poor pressing team who allow us room to run into - like Galatasaray for Hojlands two goals.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Hasn't he not long returned from a lengthy injury?

You don't just throw a kid into senior football as soon as he's back on his feet.

He’s now played 3 full 90’s and been training with the first team for almost a month. It’s not “throwing him in” and he’s probably our most talented midfielder at the moment considering what we’ve been trotting out there for weeks.

 

[Kellyiom]

My feeling concerning Ten Haag and United attacking is that his systems don't actually work well in England. At Ajax he relied on two things, the quick transition attacks and overloading the flanks. The pace of the league was slower, the intensity was less, and Ajax had far superior players than any other team in the league. This meant that Ajax could camp out in the opposition half more regularly. Their defenders, Blind, Martinez, Timber and Mazraoui were the players who actually were involves in the build up and progression phases. As a result, they were also fluid and were constantly in areas of the pitch you would not expect a defender to be. Due to the league being slower and Ajax having more physical midfielders than other teams in the league, teams didn't take advantage of this reckless play at the back. He could also afford to push numbers up due to this and have about 4 players working for overloads on the flanks. In England, these patterns would have been broken down quickly and created opportunities for transitions that could easily be exploited. In fact, even in the Eredivisie, this did occur quite frequently. But due to their lack of physicality in midfield and lower levels of quality in the build up phases of other teams, Ajax could easily get away with this. I also think Ten Haag realized this. Which is why he starting discussing moving to a more transition based approach, because this was essentially what helped him do well in the Champions League in 2019. However, there were a few profiles he had then, that we currently don't have that were paramount for this to work. De Jong's transition play from midfield was fantastic and Ziyech was also having the best run of games in his life. However the transition game can't be used against teams like Luton, Everton or the like. So in games like this, where we're expected to create chances, we're falling short because Ten Haag may not actually have a clear plan that has succeeded outside of reverting back to complicated wide overloads that require too many steps to work successfully in an intense, fast paced league. I'm starting to reach the conclusion that Dutch managers may not work in England for this very reason.

thanks for @tjb , interesting post and insight; makes a lot of sense.

 

[Raoul]

As I said last month, we need to kick the can down the road till the end of the season and then see where we end up.
Results are extremely vital now.

This is probably correct. 12 out of 15 points and only 3 points off 4th place, despite most wanting the manager sacked.

I suspect this will be similar to last year - a very bumpy ride that concludes with a strong push for top 4, which is a very realistic possibility given that Spurs, Villa, and Newcastle will likely fade over time.

That said, we're still underperforming significantly and lacking in self confidence, which is ominous.

 

[Toshey]

Not one penny more will be spent for this manager. Let him sell Antony and Mount for 140 mils and invest it in Osimhen.

Erm, Sancho and VDB are goners in January. If we have any brain up top, we'll be looking to get rid of Martial aswell. We should take like 40 mil for Sancho and maybe 6-7 for VDB and Martial each.
Surely we can secure a competent striker for 50ish million?

 

[Appletonred]

He's a good manager and I had full confidence in him, until he signed Antony and Mount....

 

[cyberman]

Consistently being shit against relegation fodders and barely getting a win via one goal doesn't happen so often for big teams in the league as well. These aren't even midtable sides. These are the worst teams in the league. United is supposed to defeat them 9 times out of 10. Get over it.



What example ? As I said it's fine to have a one off game against a bad opposition from time to time or getting a bad result in a game you're supposed to win. It happens. What doesn't happen is being shit consistently against these teams and winning because these teams are worse than you not because you actually played well. One time is fine, every time means you're terrible. It's not a surprise once we meet any semi decent team we get thrashed when we're playing like this against relegation fodders.



There's nothing to be content about. The only thing I'm feeling is a relief we managed to get the needed points, not any sense of content with the team's form or any good signs for the future. It's what I saw against Fulham, Brentford, Burnley and Nottingam Forest, before getting thrashed immediately after by the first good team we faced. There's no reason to act like we turned a corner when that's how this season has been going.

And again, these are relegation fodders, not even midtable sides.

Bournemouth 1-0 Newcastle as I type this. It’s simply not easy to consistently win these games never mind win them well, there’s nothing to argue otherwise apart from picking a sue and stubbornly digging your heels in

 

[ti vu]

Erm, Sancho and VDB are goners in January. If we have any brain up top, we'll be looking to get rid of Martial aswell. We should take like 40 mil for Sancho and maybe 6-7 for VDB and Martial each.
Surely we can secure a competent striker for 50ish million?

What if the other clubs are smart and only loaning those 3, instead of committing to expensive contracts? If it were easy to sell players, we would have been able to rid Martial, VdB and a host other players last summer or season before, instead losing a bunch as free agents.

You underestimate the incompetency of this club especially on players sale.

 

[pablo__p]

My feeling concerning Ten Haag and United attacking is that his systems don't actually work well in England. At Ajax he relied on two things, the quick transition attacks and overloading the flanks. The pace of the league was slower, the intensity was less, and Ajax had far superior players than any other team in the league. This meant that Ajax could camp out in the opposition half more regularly.

Their defenders, Blind, Martinez, Timber and Mazraoui were the players who actually were involved in the build up and progression phases as the team played mostly in the opposition half. As a result, the defenders positioning was fluid. They were constantly in different areas of the pitch and did not need to move back into their regularly positions as opposition teams didn't have the defensive or transitional qualities to take advantage of this chaos. This isn't like Pep having Stones step up into City's midfield or centre backs covering spaces on the left or right. This was almost suicidal. Timber would be in attacking midfield positions for a large share of minutes. There were games where Blind, the left back, would be the only defender actually in the back line. He could afford to play this way because it was the Eredivisie. The physicality and pace of the league was low enough that these actions could take place with little consequence. Ajax' midfield was also far more physical than any other team in the Eredivisie, so second chance disadvantages borne from gaps in midfield were recoverable.

He could also afford to push numbers up the pitch, particularly around the flanks when in possession. These patterns to break the opposition down on the flanks were complicated and required numbers. So you could have 4 players from Ajax on one flank, whilst still having a presence in the middle. That's a lot of bodies to commit to an attack and a priviledge that can hardly occur in England. City, even when attacking are not nearly as adventorous. Thieir structure around Rodri is sold and can facilitate those overloads on the pitch. Ten Haag's Ajax team did not have that structure. In England, these patterns would have been broken down quickly and created opportunities for transitions that could easily be exploited. In fact, both this season and last season, us trying to use those principles he had at Ajax resulted in us getting decimated. Yet everyone blamed our players when in actuality, these were tactical errors.

In fact, even in the Eredivisie, Ajax were punished quite frequently for this adventorous approach, but they scored enough goals to cover for this. Teams in England are far too good for that to occur. They would easily break up the complex combinations. They would also either quickly transition or keep possession of the ball (taking advantage of the space in the middle brought by the team shape). Losing the ball in the middle of the pitch with the fluid defensive line would result in us conceding goals ( similar to what we saw earlier in the season).

I actually think Ten Haag noticed that he would not be able to attack in this way in England due to how much we struggled with creating from wide combinations last season.. Which is why he started the season discussing about moving to a more transition based approach. This was essentially what helped him succeed in the Champions League in 2019. However, there were a few player profiles that he had then, that we currently don't have that allowed this to work. De Jong's transition play from midfield was very important and Ziyech was also having the best run of games in his life. Additionally they had Schone who was very energetic. However this transition game can't be used against teams like Luton, Everton or the like. In addition, we don't have a physical enough midfield to take that on or a strong enough defence to deal with the pressure since Shaw and Licha have been injured. So in games like today's, where we're expected to create chances, we're falling short because Ten Haag may not actually have a clear plan in attack. The complicated wide overloads that require too many steps to work successfully may require more bodies that we can't afford to use.

I'm starting to reach the conclusion that Dutch managers may not work in England for this very reason. The fluidity of total football may not work in this league.

Brilliant post. Kind of eye opener for me as I've been struggling to understand how come ETH is not delivering us football we thought he would.

 

[UnitedSofa]

Not good enough panic signings.

Mount was signed at the start of the transfer window.

Reguillon is/was emergency loan

And you could argue about Amrabat but we were chasing him all summer and could not afford to buy him until we sold, got to the last week until we explored a loan deal to get around it.

Hardly “panic”

 

[Andycoleno9]

Amrabat
Reguilon
Mount

Constantly benched after being injured. They are back now and have been for some time, so why aren’t they being put back in the 11?!?

Because he is in saving his job mode. Whatever his plans were for this team and signings, he is only interested in grinding wins. He realised that this 11 scrape wins so he is playing them. Overall play, patterns in play, philosophy.......all that is on the bench now and waiting for better days. Which is a problem because against better teams (Pool, City, Arsenal) it will be very ugly.

 

[Maluco]

My feeling concerning Ten Haag and United attacking is that his systems don't actually work well in England. At Ajax he relied on two things, the quick transition attacks and overloading the flanks. The pace of the league was slower, the intensity was less, and Ajax had far superior players than any other team in the league. This meant that Ajax could camp out in the opposition half more regularly.

Their defenders, Blind, Martinez, Timber and Mazraoui were the players who actually were involved in the build up and progression phases as the team played mostly in the opposition half. As a result, the defenders positioning was fluid. They were constantly in different areas of the pitch and did not need to move back into their regularly positions as opposition teams didn't have the defensive or transitional qualities to take advantage of this chaos. This isn't like Pep having Stones step up into City's midfield or centre backs covering spaces on the left or right. This was almost suicidal. Timber would be in attacking midfield positions for a large share of minutes. There were games where Blind, the left back, would be the only defender actually in the back line. He could afford to play this way because it was the Eredivisie. The physicality and pace of the league was low enough that these actions could take place with little consequence. Ajax' midfield was also far more physical than any other team in the Eredivisie, so second chance disadvantages borne from gaps in midfield were recoverable.

He could also afford to push numbers up the pitch, particularly around the flanks when in possession. These patterns to break the opposition down on the flanks were complicated and required numbers. So you could have 4 players from Ajax on one flank, whilst still having a presence in the middle. That's a lot of bodies to commit to an attack and a priviledge that can hardly occur in England. City, even when attacking are not nearly as adventorous. Thieir structure around Rodri is sold and can facilitate those overloads on the pitch. Ten Haag's Ajax team did not have that structure. In England, these patterns would have been broken down quickly and created opportunities for transitions that could easily be exploited. In fact, both this season and last season, us trying to use those principles he had at Ajax resulted in us getting decimated. Yet everyone blamed our players when in actuality, these were tactical errors.

In fact, even in the Eredivisie, Ajax were punished quite frequently for this adventorous approach, but they scored enough goals to cover for this. Teams in England are far too good for that to occur. They would easily break up the complex combinations. They would also either quickly transition or keep possession of the ball (taking advantage of the space in the middle brought by the team shape). Losing the ball in the middle of the pitch with the fluid defensive line would result in us conceding goals ( similar to what we saw earlier in the season).

I actually think Ten Haag noticed that he would not be able to attack in this way in England due to how much we struggled with creating from wide combinations last season.. Which is why he started the season discussing about moving to a more transition based approach. This was essentially what helped him succeed in the Champions League in 2019. However, there were a few player profiles that he had then, that we currently don't have that allowed this to work. De Jong's transition play from midfield was very important and Ziyech was also having the best run of games in his life. Additionally they had Schone who was very energetic. However this transition game can't be used against teams like Luton, Everton or the like. In addition, we don't have a physical enough midfield to take that on or a strong enough defence to deal with the pressure since Shaw and Licha have been injured. So in games like today's, where we're expected to create chances, we're falling short because Ten Haag may not actually have a clear plan in attack. The complicated wide overloads that require too many steps to work successfully may require more bodies that we can't afford to use.

I'm starting to reach the conclusion that Dutch managers may not work in England for this very reason. The fluidity of total football may not work in this league.

This is a really good post!

 

[Amsterdam Devil]

https://x.com/theathleticfc/status/1723391308050415790?s=46&t=rCzfqHU34OjempvauqIwHw

 

[SER19]

Dont know why people are refusing so much to accept just how bad our injuries are and what that does to rhythm. Look at newcastle now that theyve had something even close to our level. Spurs too. We simply don't have a talented enough squad to lose our back 4 and deal with it without it affecting our play. Im not saying it excuses everything, but to be so close to top 4 with the level of absences weve had is something I'll take, assuming we hit some sort of form as martinez, shaw, casemiro return.

 

[Oranges038]

Grinding out another 1-0 win with a depleted sqaud.

No idea how anyone can complain really, anyone else and it would be seen as positive to be getting these wins while not playing well and having several key players out.

Job done, 3 pts and move on to the next one.

 

[JediSith]

ETH review:
Reason for optimism.
Looking at the league table I think we’re not in a bad place considering the horrendous injuries we’ve had. We really don’t know how much lower we could have been. I think the fact that we’re only 6 points off of the top is actually very promising. Basically it could be a lot worse.

Reason for pessimism:
There’s been no improvement in style of play. Football is often crap. This could of course be mitigated by our injuries, but the peak of the crisis is over. More cornering is ETH poor decision making during matches. And the fact that he appears to be falling out with some of our best players (If the reports of him falling out with Varane and Casemiro are true).

Going forward:

The return of Martinez, partnering Varane is key. As is Luke Shaw who is actually not just a great LB but also a very good footballer. These 3 usually allow us to play out from the back and seamlessly transition from defence to midfield. Then our problem is usually the final 3rd on the edge of the opposition box where we run out of patience and or ideas and usually just resort to wasteful shots or thoughtless crosses and dribbles

 

[NLunited]

We won't get a structure with the Glazers. This is the point that has been made now ad-nauseum, but that you're clearly too dense to understand.

You seem to believe that nothing else at the club has to change, we just need to keep sacking managers and hiring new ones, and eventually we'll find another Fergie.

Fergie took four years to get the squad going. This guy would never find a Fergie, would have sacked him the first year.

 

[VP89]

Dont know why people are refusing so much to accept just how bad our injuries are and what that does to rhythm. Look at newcastle now that theyve had something even close to our level. Spurs too. We simply don't have a talented enough squad to lose our back 4 and deal with it without it affecting our play. Im not saying it excuses everything, but to be so close to top 4 with the level of absences weve had is something I'll take, assuming we hit some sort of form as martinez, shaw, casemiro return.

It's just easier to ignore.

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

Dont know why people are refusing so much to accept just how bad our injuries are and what that does to rhythm. Look at newcastle now that theyve had something even close to our level.

Because it only goes so far.

Newcastle beat you 0-3 a little over a week with a starting lineup that had very little PL minutes, a few of them didn't have a single start.

 

[city-puma]

I think it becomes more and more obvious why we had so many injuries. ETH overplayed the players.

 

[SER19]

Because it only goes so far.

Newcastle beat you 0-3 a little over a week with a starting lineup that had very little PL minutes, a few of them didn't have a single start.

and united had 2, maybe 3 starters starting wheras they had maybe 5 or 6

 

[AndyMUFC]

I'm optimistic with the position we're in considering how poorly we've played so far this season, but if we're planning on playing this way for another couple of months until the likes of Casemiro and Martinez are back, results could get seriously ugly fast.

 

[NLunited]

My feeling concerning Ten Haag and United attacking is that his systems don't actually work well in England. At Ajax he relied on two things, the quick transition attacks and overloading the flanks. The pace of the league was slower, the intensity was less, and Ajax had far superior players than any other team in the league. This meant that Ajax could camp out in the opposition half more regularly.

Their defenders, Blind, Martinez, Timber and Mazraoui were the players who actually were involved in the build up and progression phases as the team played mostly in the opposition half. As a result, the defenders positioning was fluid. They were constantly in different areas of the pitch and did not need to move back into their regularly positions as opposition teams didn't have the defensive or transitional qualities to take advantage of this chaos. This isn't like Pep having Stones step up into City's midfield or centre backs covering spaces on the left or right. This was almost suicidal. Timber would be in attacking midfield positions for a large share of minutes. There were games where Blind, the left back, would be the only defender actually in the back line. He could afford to play this way because it was the Eredivisie. The physicality and pace of the league was low enough that these actions could take place with little consequence. Ajax' midfield was also far more physical than any other team in the Eredivisie, so second chance disadvantages borne from gaps in midfield were recoverable.

He could also afford to push numbers up the pitch, particularly around the flanks when in possession. These patterns to break the opposition down on the flanks were complicated and required numbers. So you could have 4 players from Ajax on one flank, whilst still having a presence in the middle. That's a lot of bodies to commit to an attack and a priviledge that can hardly occur in England. City, even when attacking are not nearly as adventorous. Thieir structure around Rodri is sold and can facilitate those overloads on the pitch. Ten Haag's Ajax team did not have that structure. In England, these patterns would have been broken down quickly and created opportunities for transitions that could easily be exploited. In fact, both this season and last season, us trying to use those principles he had at Ajax resulted in us getting decimated. Yet everyone blamed our players when in actuality, these were tactical errors.

In fact, even in the Eredivisie, Ajax were punished quite frequently for this adventorous approach, but they scored enough goals to cover for this. Teams in England are far too good for that to occur. They would easily break up the complex combinations. They would also either quickly transition or keep possession of the ball (taking advantage of the space in the middle brought by the team shape). Losing the ball in the middle of the pitch with the fluid defensive line would result in us conceding goals ( similar to what we saw earlier in the season).

I actually think Ten Haag noticed that he would not be able to attack in this way in England due to how much we struggled with creating from wide combinations last season.. Which is why he started the season discussing about moving to a more transition based approach. This was essentially what helped him succeed in the Champions League in 2019. However, there were a few player profiles that he had then, that we currently don't have that allowed this to work. De Jong's transition play from midfield was very important and Ziyech was also having the best run of games in his life. Additionally they had Schone who was very energetic. However this transition game can't be used against teams like Luton, Everton or the like. In addition, we don't have a physical enough midfield to take that on or a strong enough defence to deal with the pressure since Shaw and Licha have been injured. So in games like today's, where we're expected to create chances, we're falling short because Ten Haag may not actually have a clear plan in attack. The complicated wide overloads that require too many steps to work successfully may require more bodies that we can't afford to use.

I'm starting to reach the conclusion that Dutch managers may not work in England for this very reason. The fluidity of total football may not work in this league.

Some good points here, but you are incorrect on many points.

We are committing lots of players in attack: we often have a line of six players in the front line. Defenders are often contributing in attack like Maguire today playing as a left winger at one point. We are not holding back players, that is bollocks.

Ten Hag’s plan: pressing and forcing turnovers. We create the most in the league. The part that is not working is scoring goals from them.

Flank attacking play: Hag’s plan is to set up Rashford and Garnacho to be able to make a decisive action. We have a lack of fluidity in attack that is holding us back. On top of that we are bad at converting chances. It has little to do with league strength.

It has everything to do with form, following rules, concentration, decision making (Antony and Rashford have been poor in that aspect) and confidence.

We need to see quicker passing, more give and go’s all executed with fluidity and with good decision making. Not giving the ball away needlessly would be a great start.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Fergie took four years to get the squad going. This guy would never find a Fergie, would have sacked him the first year.

The fecking Fergie argument again!

 

[NLunited]

The fecking Fergie argument again!

Don’t mention ‘find a Fergie’ if you are willing to sack managers as soon as they hit a dip.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

Fergie took four years to get the squad going. This guy would never find a Fergie, would have sacked him the first year.

Time + Blind Faith = Fergie

The only manager United have sacked in ‘the first year’ is Moyes post Fergie btw.

 

[Shark]

I think it becomes more and more obvious why we had so many injuries. ETH overplayed the players.

How dare he try and field his best eleven whenever possible. Our injury situation has been horrendous, going back to even SAF's later years. No matter the manager we always face a ridiculous amount compared to other big clubs.

 

[mu4c_20le]

How dare he try and field his best eleven whenever possible. Our injury situation has been horrendous, going back to even SAF's later years. No matter the manager we always face a ridiculous amount compared to other big clubs.

He never rotated which probably led to the Martinez and Shaw injuries.

 

[Ronaldo's Love Child]

I've resigned myself to thinking that the shit show we've been served so far this season in ALL competitions is terminal and yet when I look at the PL table we are only 6 points behind 2nd place Arsenal.

My depression over United has become like a warm, fleecy blanket that I cover myself with and I'm worried I've been deluded and we're not as bad as I thought we were.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Don’t mention ‘find a Fergie’ if you are willing to sack managers as soon as they hit a dip.

Feel free to look for any post where I call for "finding a Fergie". Quite the opposite - our insistence on clinging onto the past is a big reason why we continue to be in this mess.