It's not about dominating the league, that is something that is so far from our reach now that it's not even worth talking about. It's about being able to play decent football consistently, even while facing some adversity, injuries etc. There is going to be inevitable decline in results when you have some of your key players unavailable, that happened during Fergie days as well despite our team being much stronger in general, but the depths that we reached last season are simply unacceptable.
Erik ten Hag | 2024/25 | Sacked
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Some aren't ready to consider that as a possibility just yet it seems.
Not to give a disservice to what you’ve said and whilst there is merit and some truth to it I don’t think it applies strictly here because the likes of Watkins, Isak, Bailey and Gordon are actually very good players. I didn’t mention players like Murphy, Almiron, Wilson, Duran who also play for those clubs.
You’re implying it’s mostly playing under those managers that make those players what they are but I hugely disagree. If you watch Gordon, Isak, Bailey, Watkins etc they are very expressive players. I don’t watch Isak finish the way he does and think “oh that’s Eddie Howe coaching that, he’d be terrible under Ten Hag”.
Eddie Howe was a league one defender, I don’t think he has the facilities to teach Isak to finish with the finesse he does. In the same way Emery can’t teach Bailey how to run very very fast and dribble.
Newcastle also did not accumulate more points than Man United last season, nor did they the season before. So I don’t think Eddie Howe’s “philosophy” to be that efficient in the grand scheme of things.
Ten Hags system evidently doesn’t get the best out of attackers but he is also terrible at identifying good attackers as per his signings. Newcastle paid 40 million for Anthony Gordon, we paid 80 million for Antony. Gordon could play for United and he’d still be miles ahead of Antony.
I think the extent of the change compared to last season has actually been disappointingly little. I didn't watch any of our pre-season games so can't comment on those but I thought we played really well against City in the Community Shield and also in the first half vs Fulham. The team looked more compact, were pressing better etc. We actually had the second highest defensive line in the league on the opening weekend. But against both Brighton and Liverpool, a lot of the same issues have resurfaced. Even against Brighton, where I do think there were positive signs in the first half, we mostly struggled to move the ball into their defensive third. Again, a constant issue for Ten Hag's United over his 2 seasons, we just don't seem to be able to progress the ball with any conviction and often resort to bypassing the midfield entirely by playing long from our defensive third.
And the stats are already starting to reflect the same much dissected problems with United's system - pressing structure is poor, struggle to get the ball into the opposition's defensive third, struggle to sustain pressure once if we do manage to get the ball into the opposition's defensive third because if we lose the ball there, our pressing structure is too poor to win it back or pin the opposition/defend transitions, defensive line is too deep and drops off too readily even when their starting position is high leaving a massive gap for the midfield to cover etc. Over three games (admittedly a very small sample but when it is repeating the same patterns as the 38 games last season, it isn't unreasonable to worry) -
For reference, field tilt measures the relative number of touches in your defensive third vs the oppositions defensive third. Meaning, if you exclude all the touches by both teams in the middle third, if roughly 75% of all remaining touches happen in the opposition final third, then you have a field tilt of 75% in your favour. Now obviously, this needs to be contextualized - if you are keeping the ball in your own defensive third in the hopes of baiting the opposition press (think De Zerbi's Brighton), you will have a lower field tilt. Plus, obviously quality of opposition also matters. We've played Liverpool and Brighton - both excellent teams who we were never going to pin back and dominate for 90 mins - but again, this is a continuation of a pattern from last season. And it is interesting in the above graphic that both us and Arsenal have roughly the same field tilt (around 50%) but combining this stat with our average defensive line height does highlight familiar failings for United, in my view. Add the context of what % of our possession happen in our own half -
And again, our field tilt of ~50% is not necessarily because we are successfully baiting the opposition press. In fact, we spend relatively little time in possession in our own half. Also interesting how high Spurs are on both the % of possession in their own half and field tilt - suggests their possession structure works much better at getting the ball in the opposition third than ours does, and is also much better at sustaining pressure in the final third through their pressing structure. Again, the data clearly shows this (both the positive for Spurs and the issues for us -
Again, I'd add the caveat that Spurs being so good at these metrics does not equate to their impending glorious season or our impending doom. For one, Spurs cannot defend for shit. But the data does reveal a lot about tactical structures and intent. Guardiola and Postecoglou's teams (for instance) have a clear and visible tactical identity - they build patiently from the back, keep possession and move patiently through the thirds, if they lose the ball in the final third, they mostly press in an organized manner to pin teams back, and they play a high defensive line to compress the pitch to make their press more effective. Tactical intent is also clearly visible for Southampton (even though they seem, at least to me, to be in for a LONG season with how they are playing) - they are the lower table side most visibly trying to implement the Guardiola blueprint. Again, the usual caveats of only a three game sample size and we have to account for quality of opposition faced - it's not a coincidence that Leicester's field tilt and defensive line height are the exact mirror of Spurs'. Or that Ipswich, having faced City and Liverpool are among the teams with the poorest field tilts and deepest defensive line.
But again, our numbers are a continuation of last season's. I don't expect Ten Hag to ever fix our defensive issues. A while back, there was a video doing the rounds of Ruud Gullit and Ten Hag debating his Ajax side's transition defending (and how much space they leave in midfield) and while Ten Hag conceded some points, his basic stance of 'these are risks you have to take to play an aggressive, entertaining style of football' is quite revealing about his coaching principles. He, much like everyone else in the world, sees the issues with our transition defending, he just thinks the risk is worth the reward if you can get the attack clicking. Problem is, we've not improved in possession nearly enough to justify this structure, yet. I would give him till the next international. We have a relatively comfortable fixture list coming up, which should give him ample opportunity to show the improvements in possession. If the numbers still look terrible, we should thank him for the two trophies and move him on and start assessing the tactical structures (and their fit to the Premier League) of the likes of Ruben Amorim, Sebastian Hoeness and Simone Inzaghi.
I'd also add that I think the issues with defensive line height are largely an issue with how direct play rather than the pace (or lack thereof) of our backline but this post is already much longer than I intended so I will leave you to it.
Bonus graph for the 'our players are too lazy/not inclined to press/unwilling to engage with the physicality of the league' crowd -
Damning stuff, but obvious to anyone who's watched us play.
ETH has been absolutely horrible.
Field tilt? feck off 
File that with xG, assists and forward passing stats as complete bollocks.
File that with xG, assists and forward passing stats as complete bollocks.
This is a great articulation of how we are playing, hopefully helps a LOT of others who are struggling to join the dots behind what their eyes are seeing. Thanks for taking the time to post.I think the extent of the change compared to last season has actually been disappointingly little. I didn't watch any of our pre-season games so can't comment on those but I thought we played really well against City in the Community Shield and also in the first half vs Fulham. The team looked more compact, were pressing better etc. We actually had the second highest defensive line in the league on the opening weekend. But against both Brighton and Liverpool, a lot of the same issues have resurfaced. Even against Brighton, where I do think there were positive signs in the first half, we mostly struggled to move the ball into their defensive third. Again, a constant issue for Ten Hag's United over his 2 seasons, we just don't seem to be able to progress the ball with any conviction and often resort to bypassing the midfield entirely by playing long from our defensive third.
And the stats are already starting to reflect the same much dissected problems with United's system - pressing structure is poor, struggle to get the ball into the opposition's defensive third, struggle to sustain pressure once if we do manage to get the ball into the opposition's defensive third because if we lose the ball there, our pressing structure is too poor to win it back or pin the opposition/defend transitions, defensive line is too deep and drops off too readily even when their starting position is high leaving a massive gap for the midfield to cover etc. Over three games (admittedly a very small sample but when it is repeating the same patterns as the 38 games last season, it isn't unreasonable to worry) -
For reference, field tilt measures the relative number of touches in your defensive third vs the oppositions defensive third. Meaning, if you exclude all the touches by both teams in the middle third, if roughly 75% of all remaining touches happen in the opposition final third, then you have a field tilt of 75% in your favour. Now obviously, this needs to be contextualized - if you are keeping the ball in your own defensive third in the hopes of baiting the opposition press (think De Zerbi's Brighton), you will have a lower field tilt. Plus, obviously quality of opposition also matters. We've played Liverpool and Brighton - both excellent teams who we were never going to pin back and dominate for 90 mins - but again, this is a continuation of a pattern from last season. And it is interesting in the above graphic that both us and Arsenal have roughly the same field tilt (around 50%) but combining this stat with our average defensive line height does highlight familiar failings for United, in my view. Add the context of what % of our possession happen in our own half -
And again, our field tilt of ~50% is not necessarily because we are successfully baiting the opposition press. In fact, we spend relatively little time in possession in our own half. Also interesting how high Spurs are on both the % of possession in their own half and field tilt - suggests their possession structure works much better at getting the ball in the opposition third than ours does, and is also much better at sustaining pressure in the final third through their pressing structure. Again, the data clearly shows this (both the positive for Spurs and the issues for us -
Again, I'd add the caveat that Spurs being so good at these metrics does not equate to their impending glorious season or our impending doom. For one, Spurs cannot defend for shit. But the data does reveal a lot about tactical structures and intent. Guardiola and Postecoglou's teams (for instance) have a clear and visible tactical identity - they build patiently from the back, keep possession and move patiently through the thirds, if they lose the ball in the final third, they mostly press in an organized manner to pin teams back, and they play a high defensive line to compress the pitch to make their press more effective. Tactical intent is also clearly visible for Southampton (even though they seem, at least to me, to be in for a LONG season with how they are playing) - they are the lower table side most visibly trying to implement the Guardiola blueprint. Again, the usual caveats of only a three game sample size and we have to account for quality of opposition faced - it's not a coincidence that Leicester's field tilt and defensive line height are the exact mirror of Spurs'. Or that Ipswich, having faced City and Liverpool are among the teams with the poorest field tilts and deepest defensive line.
But again, our numbers are a continuation of last season's. I don't expect Ten Hag to ever fix our defensive issues. A while back, there was a video doing the rounds of Ruud Gullit and Ten Hag debating his Ajax side's transition defending (and how much space they leave in midfield) and while Ten Hag conceded some points, his basic stance of 'these are risks you have to take to play an aggressive, entertaining style of football' is quite revealing about his coaching principles. He, much like everyone else in the world, sees the issues with our transition defending, he just thinks the risk is worth the reward if you can get the attack clicking. Problem is, we've not improved in possession nearly enough to justify this structure, yet. I would give him till the next international. We have a relatively comfortable fixture list coming up, which should give him ample opportunity to show the improvements in possession. If the numbers still look terrible, we should thank him for the two trophies and move him on and start assessing the tactical structures (and their fit to the Premier League) of the likes of Ruben Amorim, Sebastian Hoeness and Simone Inzaghi.
I'd also add that I think the issues with defensive line height are largely an issue with how direct play rather than the pace (or lack thereof) of our backline but this post is already much longer than I intended so I will leave you to it.
Bonus graph for the 'our players are too lazy/not inclined to press/unwilling to engage with the physicality of the league' crowd -
Also, a post is never too long if it’s informative and well written.
This.
A manager should be able to set up a system to suit the players he has available. Not have a system and then try to force players who are clearly unsuitable for the system.
It’s not just Casemiro, I think that any player would struggle as a single DM in a gaping midfield. There's a reason why many top teams play with 2 DMs.
Usually a team that can't attack is pretty good in defence to balance the play so that they concede less. It's extremely rare to find a top team that can't defend and can't attack. The worst part is we also don't have a midfield too. This is unacceptable after spending more than 600 mil and in his 3rd year
This would be more understandable 6-12 months into a managers reign. But we're a 3rd season into this project now after 5 transfer windows.
Some people have a different vision and would say being able to attack, defend and having a functional midfield isn't necessary in modern football.
Those people also think that (regularly) winning isn't important.
I think AWB was brilliant defensively, but he somehow negated that side of his game also. In the brief bits he's played for West Ham, he has actually looked decent. Even in attack!
Martial got worse somehow under ETH in my opinion, he became absolutely useless whenever he played. I look at both players and I can say that I would have took their pre-ETH version/form over what they showed under him. Whether that is entirely his fault is another matter, but it's probably not Ten Hag's great coaching that has made Dalot look better either.
Winning in the league is just about ego. One off cup matches are where it's at.
Bruno looks less effective as well in Ten Hag’s tactics than before Ten Hag.
Totally agree, it's absolutely relative to what you want to do with the team. If you're going to play out to bring the other team on and beat the press then Onana is probably good for that. It needs to be effective though, and see us actually successfully playing out more often than not and mounting good attacks to make that worthwhile.
As it is in reality, we struggle when pressed, make mistakes and give up a lot of chances. We now have a keeper who isn't a very good shot stopper trying to keep them out.
I think the extent of the change compared to last season has actually been disappointingly little. I didn't watch any of our pre-season games so can't comment on those but I thought we played really well against City in the Community Shield and also in the first half vs Fulham. The team looked more compact, were pressing better etc. We actually had the second highest defensive line in the league on the opening weekend. But against both Brighton and Liverpool, a lot of the same issues have resurfaced. Even against Brighton, where I do think there were positive signs in the first half, we mostly struggled to move the ball into their defensive third. Again, a constant issue for Ten Hag's United over his 2 seasons, we just don't seem to be able to progress the ball with any conviction and often resort to bypassing the midfield entirely by playing long from our defensive third.
And the stats are already starting to reflect the same much dissected problems with United's system - pressing structure is poor, struggle to get the ball into the opposition's defensive third, struggle to sustain pressure once if we do manage to get the ball into the opposition's defensive third because if we lose the ball there, our pressing structure is too poor to win it back or pin the opposition/defend transitions, defensive line is too deep and drops off too readily even when their starting position is high leaving a massive gap for the midfield to cover etc. Over three games (admittedly a very small sample but when it is repeating the same patterns as the 38 games last season, it isn't unreasonable to worry) -
For reference, field tilt measures the relative number of touches in your defensive third vs the oppositions defensive third. Meaning, if you exclude all the touches by both teams in the middle third, if roughly 75% of all remaining touches happen in the opposition final third, then you have a field tilt of 75% in your favour. Now obviously, this needs to be contextualized - if you are keeping the ball in your own defensive third in the hopes of baiting the opposition press (think De Zerbi's Brighton), you will have a lower field tilt. Plus, obviously quality of opposition also matters. We've played Liverpool and Brighton - both excellent teams who we were never going to pin back and dominate for 90 mins - but again, this is a continuation of a pattern from last season. And it is interesting in the above graphic that both us and Arsenal have roughly the same field tilt (around 50%) but combining this stat with our average defensive line height does highlight familiar failings for United, in my view. Add the context of what % of our possession happen in our own half -
And again, our field tilt of ~50% is not necessarily because we are successfully baiting the opposition press. In fact, we spend relatively little time in possession in our own half. Also interesting how high Spurs are on both the % of possession in their own half and field tilt - suggests their possession structure works much better at getting the ball in the opposition third than ours does, and is also much better at sustaining pressure in the final third through their pressing structure. Again, the data clearly shows this (both the positive for Spurs and the issues for us -
Again, I'd add the caveat that Spurs being so good at these metrics does not equate to their impending glorious season or our impending doom. For one, Spurs cannot defend for shit. But the data does reveal a lot about tactical structures and intent. Guardiola and Postecoglou's teams (for instance) have a clear and visible tactical identity - they build patiently from the back, keep possession and move patiently through the thirds, if they lose the ball in the final third, they mostly press in an organized manner to pin teams back, and they play a high defensive line to compress the pitch to make their press more effective. Tactical intent is also clearly visible for Southampton (even though they seem, at least to me, to be in for a LONG season with how they are playing) - they are the lower table side most visibly trying to implement the Guardiola blueprint. Again, the usual caveats of only a three game sample size and we have to account for quality of opposition faced - it's not a coincidence that Leicester's field tilt and defensive line height are the exact mirror of Spurs'. Or that Ipswich, having faced City and Liverpool are among the teams with the poorest field tilts and deepest defensive line.
But again, our numbers are a continuation of last season's. I don't expect Ten Hag to ever fix our defensive issues. A while back, there was a video doing the rounds of Ruud Gullit and Ten Hag debating his Ajax side's transition defending (and how much space they leave in midfield) and while Ten Hag conceded some points, his basic stance of 'these are risks you have to take to play an aggressive, entertaining style of football' is quite revealing about his coaching principles. He, much like everyone else in the world, sees the issues with our transition defending, he just thinks the risk is worth the reward if you can get the attack clicking. Problem is, we've not improved in possession nearly enough to justify this structure, yet. I would give him till the next international. We have a relatively comfortable fixture list coming up, which should give him ample opportunity to show the improvements in possession. If the numbers still look terrible, we should thank him for the two trophies and move him on and start assessing the tactical structures (and their fit to the Premier League) of the likes of Ruben Amorim, Sebastian Hoeness and Simone Inzaghi.
I'd also add that I think the issues with defensive line height are largely an issue with how direct play rather than the pace (or lack thereof) of our backline but this post is already much longer than I intended so I will leave you to it.
Bonus graph for the 'our players are too lazy/not inclined to press/unwilling to engage with the physicality of the league' crowd -
The volume of defending our players need to do is ridiculous. It is a consequence of high risk approach and no actual clue how to move the ball to the final third apart from being "direct".
I think ETH should be on his way soon as well but still, leaning on statistics like this without context makes them less useful. Which Newcastle players were out vs which united players? For how long were their key players out? As for Chelsea, they have about 500 players so is it really a surprise that they'd come through an injury 'crisis' more easily?
Again, I think we need a change from ETH at this point, but to say that we were hampered by injuries more than most is just the reality.
Yes, but you see, it’s not his fault…or something
Here’s the thing, we might just do that. You know why? Southampton so far are the worst team in the league and look like they won’t a scratch card competition to play in the PL this season. The problem is we’ll be right back to this shite as soon as we come up against a semi decent team from the top half of the table.
Do you have those stats yourself?
Nope, but like I said, those facts mean very little in isolation. And they also confirm that we were unusually injury hit last year.
Fair enough but if you don't have those stats yourself, that you say are needed to contextualize which team was affect by injuries most. Then how can you say it's just reality that United were the most affected by injuries compared to the likes of Chelsea and Newcastle?
I think the extent of the change compared to last season has actually been disappointingly little. I didn't watch any of our pre-season games so can't comment on those but I thought we played really well against City in the Community Shield and also in the first half vs Fulham. The team looked more compact, were pressing better etc. We actually had the second highest defensive line in the league on the opening weekend. But against both Brighton and Liverpool, a lot of the same issues have resurfaced. Even against Brighton, where I do think there were positive signs in the first half, we mostly struggled to move the ball into their defensive third. Again, a constant issue for Ten Hag's United over his 2 seasons, we just don't seem to be able to progress the ball with any conviction and often resort to bypassing the midfield entirely by playing long from our defensive third.
And the stats are already starting to reflect the same much dissected problems with United's system - pressing structure is poor, struggle to get the ball into the opposition's defensive third, struggle to sustain pressure once if we do manage to get the ball into the opposition's defensive third because if we lose the ball there, our pressing structure is too poor to win it back or pin the opposition/defend transitions, defensive line is too deep and drops off too readily even when their starting position is high leaving a massive gap for the midfield to cover etc. Over three games (admittedly a very small sample but when it is repeating the same patterns as the 38 games last season, it isn't unreasonable to worry) -
For reference, field tilt measures the relative number of touches in your defensive third vs the oppositions defensive third. Meaning, if you exclude all the touches by both teams in the middle third, if roughly 75% of all remaining touches happen in the opposition final third, then you have a field tilt of 75% in your favour. Now obviously, this needs to be contextualized - if you are keeping the ball in your own defensive third in the hopes of baiting the opposition press (think De Zerbi's Brighton), you will have a lower field tilt. Plus, obviously quality of opposition also matters. We've played Liverpool and Brighton - both excellent teams who we were never going to pin back and dominate for 90 mins - but again, this is a continuation of a pattern from last season. And it is interesting in the above graphic that both us and Arsenal have roughly the same field tilt (around 50%) but combining this stat with our average defensive line height does highlight familiar failings for United, in my view. Add the context of what % of our possession happen in our own half -
And again, our field tilt of ~50% is not necessarily because we are successfully baiting the opposition press. In fact, we spend relatively little time in possession in our own half. Also interesting how high Spurs are on both the % of possession in their own half and field tilt - suggests their possession structure works much better at getting the ball in the opposition third than ours does, and is also much better at sustaining pressure in the final third through their pressing structure. Again, the data clearly shows this (both the positive for Spurs and the issues for us -
Again, I'd add the caveat that Spurs being so good at these metrics does not equate to their impending glorious season or our impending doom. For one, Spurs cannot defend for shit. But the data does reveal a lot about tactical structures and intent. Guardiola and Postecoglou's teams (for instance) have a clear and visible tactical identity - they build patiently from the back, keep possession and move patiently through the thirds, if they lose the ball in the final third, they mostly press in an organized manner to pin teams back, and they play a high defensive line to compress the pitch to make their press more effective. Tactical intent is also clearly visible for Southampton (even though they seem, at least to me, to be in for a LONG season with how they are playing) - they are the lower table side most visibly trying to implement the Guardiola blueprint. Again, the usual caveats of only a three game sample size and we have to account for quality of opposition faced - it's not a coincidence that Leicester's field tilt and defensive line height are the exact mirror of Spurs'. Or that Ipswich, having faced City and Liverpool are among the teams with the poorest field tilts and deepest defensive line.
But again, our numbers are a continuation of last season's. I don't expect Ten Hag to ever fix our defensive issues. A while back, there was a video doing the rounds of Ruud Gullit and Ten Hag debating his Ajax side's transition defending (and how much space they leave in midfield) and while Ten Hag conceded some points, his basic stance of 'these are risks you have to take to play an aggressive, entertaining style of football' is quite revealing about his coaching principles. He, much like everyone else in the world, sees the issues with our transition defending, he just thinks the risk is worth the reward if you can get the attack clicking. Problem is, we've not improved in possession nearly enough to justify this structure, yet. I would give him till the next international. We have a relatively comfortable fixture list coming up, which should give him ample opportunity to show the improvements in possession. If the numbers still look terrible, we should thank him for the two trophies and move him on and start assessing the tactical structures (and their fit to the Premier League) of the likes of Ruben Amorim, Sebastian Hoeness and Simone Inzaghi.
I'd also add that I think the issues with defensive line height are largely an issue with how direct play rather than the pace (or lack thereof) of our backline but this post is already much longer than I intended so I will leave you to it.
Bonus graph for the 'our players are too lazy/not inclined to press/unwilling to engage with the physicality of the league' crowd -
Excellent post! Nothing really to add. The issues are clearly mostly tactical and less so about personnel. It's disappointing and demoralising to see this manager kept despite all of this. I have stated this before but I firmly believe a proper manager would have this team perform noticeably better in a month's time.
Ten Hag just isn't it. Far from it, in fact. He was always a risk and appointing him was worth trying, but it's obviously not going to happen and persisting with him is just utterly pointless. There isn't going to be this moment of epiphany, recruitement, or anything, when everything clicks together and this team suddenly goes from utter shit to world class.
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My take on the injury front is that the losses of Martinez and Shaw for virtually the w tire season did significantly impact our overall team performances, but that’s no excuse for our ineptitude at the keeper position and the lack of goals that contributed to us only managing 8th place in the PL.
I didn't say that, did I?Fair enough but if you don't have those stats yourself, that you say are needed to contextualize which team was affect by injuries most. Then how can you say it's just reality that United were the most affected by injuries compared to the likes of Chelsea and Newcastle?
It definitely did. I think with Onana, we haven't got the use that was intended from him. He might be too reliant on a very specific style of play and the right players in front of him which hasn't been the case. It will be interesting to see if we have a solid fit defence for the season how everything will work.
Well we gotta back him for a few months first right? Anyway, INEOS already only extended his contract by a year. We probably wouldn't have to sack him but if we don't further extend him, he would know he is a lame duck manager and walk anyway.
If this is true, I'll be shocked if he's here at the start of next season. Could possibly be gone as early as Nov/Dec too IMO.
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There is no substitute for individual brilliance. The best teams have the best players it’s quite often that simple. The best players allow you to play better systems and play better football because of the consistency in their ability to execute the simple and their ability to execute the sublime.
A great example of this is Salah last game. He made a simple run, a perfect right footed cross to the back post and Liverpool scored. He executed the correct pass at the correct time. Decision and precision = goal.
We are actually doing tactically the right things, or at least the things other managers get lauded for. So I find it amusing this season at least when people say we have no plan, we do, or that we aren’t doing X Y Z. I think we’ve been on the wrong side of errors and variance. Over the season I expect this to balance out. Think about the Garnacho goal etc.
For example watch 13mins in. It’s a really lovely and honest critique and bit of analysis of the difference between us and Liverpool. It’s decision making not the principles themselves that are going wrong here:
Fewer shots on goal would definitely help Onana, but he needs to improve every aspect of his play -- positioning when under threat, shot stopping itself, command of the box, organizing his back line, short and long ball distribution. There's no aspect of his game about which one could plausibly argue meets the standard of what is expected of a United keeper. Or even a Spurs keeper.
That just isn't true at all, though, is it. His distribution is probably at least top 5 in the world.
If this is true, I cant believe why we kept him, even if we had a fine season,, He has to go, better now than tomorrow.. If not true, it still better now than tomorrow
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He's got 4 very winnable games coming up to build a bit of momentum (Southampton, Barnsley, Palace & Twente) then comes Spurs, Porto and Villa leading into the next international break. If we are still struggling in the next 4, I think Spurs and Villa could be the tipping point of him going.
If he can build up a head of steam and get some decent results across those 3 games I think he'll be here until at least Christmas.
His contract runs for another two years. It would be quite remarkable to just keep him for the duration of it with similar performance.
Well, I think he basically threw last season away in order to make his philosophy work, and to build the physical level of the squad. If that doesn't bear fruit this season, and the style of play still cedes possession and concedes 20 shots per game even to lower league level opposition, I don't think he'll survive, even if the results are acceptable.
For example, somehow fluking 4th with minimal improvement on last season's performances will not save his job IMO, whereas getting unlucky and ending up 5th or 6th, but with an effective, working tactical system, would save it IMO.
No, no you don't get it. Having any of our key players injured means that we are unable to defend or attack. Having any defender out also means that our midfield can't function, obviously. You see, ETH's system is special and injuries clearly impact us greater than other teams since the system is so advanced. Duh
Have to disagree. I could take over right now and ask the team to play 2011 Barca style tiki-taka with Casemiro playing the Messi role. Same principles that Pep gets lauded for. Not sure I'd be offered the same praise after getting walloped by a cricket score at home to Ipswich.
Either ETH has to coach a system that the players at his disposal can competently execute or he teaches them to play his complex but rewarding system or he signs players who arrive already knowing the 'ETH way' and can hit the ground running from day one.
Considering he seems to be pretty shit at the first two, we can hardly blame the club for going with option 3 and signing a bunch of players who already know him and his so-called style.
I'm not so sure. Sheffield united were beyond terrible last season, and in the away game vs them last year we looked pretty shite. There was large periods of the game where they were the better team.
Hope we "stick to the plan" in next 3 games.
What credibility does this handle have?
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