FrankDrebin
Don't call me Shirley
I know age doesn't really matter regarding management but I had Tuchel (50) older than ETH (54).
He’s a solid player and compared to our other acquisitions he’s miles better than any of them but I agree that he’s not absolutely world class and that his reputation has really taken a significant leap during his absence (as we tend to do often with players who are out injured).Yeah, I never understood the overhyping of Martinez. He is okay, a Heinze-like CB who can do a good job in a title winning team as a deputy but not good enough to be a starter. As I said would he fifth-sixth choice at City, a team we should aspire to. He has some very good attributes (being vocal, passing) but also some serious weaknesses (aerial duels, being weak and slow and drinkable). The way how Caf was acting last year it was like he is the second coming of Baresi, when I though he was just an ok CB, for whom we overpaid significantly and won’t be a starter of a title-winning team.
I’m getting the feeling that everything you post is sarcastic
He's not but you're welcome to your opinion, I won't at it as if it was nonsensical like you did - even though others agreed with me.I actually do think he is better than Gabriel and Ake (not Dias though)Top 6 is not a movement of goal posts since PL XI do not distinguish between rcb and lcb when picking the XI
Hes been injured for a year last season he was one of the best cbs in the PL
And yet we’ve spent more than anybody so that really doesn’t make sense does it? I’d agree if we’d been asset stripped but we’ve invested more in the playing squad than we’ve ever done in the history of our existence. The Glazers have been very hands off but the people they placed in charge have tolerated and accepted mediocracy because they knew they were lucky to even be where they ended up, and they weren’t about to flag that they were out of their depth.I don't agree. It's whether you are willing and able to offer the characteristics that bring success. I don't tolerate my continued inability to date Dua Lipa but it has little bearing on how I actually spend my friday night. The Glazers have spend 20 years filling their pockets rather than seeking success and that will not be easy to fix.
I don’t think we need to use terms like infant to describe a section of fans fed up with this season
Ironically only an infant needs to see an specific scenario play out under specific conditions before knowing whether that person is up for it. Fortunately we pay millions of dollars to professionals who's job is to analyze the facts and data to make these decisions so we don't have to waste another year and hundreds of millions just to see if "ETH is good enough".This is of course true but also begs the question.The reality is that we don't know if ETH is good enough to succeed at a well organised top club because he has only ever operated in England in a badly failing dysfunctional top club. You might argue we need a manager suitable to that environment but no such person exists because it is an impossible task. My hunch, and it is only that, is that he is good enough coach if he has the right club structure supporting him. That latter is the hard bit, not sacking the guy on the bench to appease the infant like screaming of the fans for goals and wins right now.
Mate, injuries.Heading towards our lowest ever PL points total and lowest ever PL position in the table.
Season has been a complete and utter fecking shambles and it would be ludicrous if ETH isn't sacked.
Mate, injuries.
Forget Ferguson, Eddie Howe is going to have Newcastle finish above us and they’ve been dealing with as bad an injury crisis if not worse.I’m reading some incredibly insane stuff on here. Fergie would have struggled to get top 4 due to injuries? We had an insane number of injuries in 2009/10 season where we had to play Carrick and Fletcher as centre backs for a while and we still did fairly well. It’s ridiculous to think good managers can’t be able to adapt to extenuating circumstances and do what’s best for the team.
See, this comes back to a post I made earlier today. Insisting on playing a certain way only works if either that is the specific way he wants us to play in the future (if so, I highly doubt it can work no matter what players we have), or if it's at least a similar style which allows our players to develop and get used to a way that will benefit us in the future (in which case I feel like Dalot is the only player in the entire squad that this is working for).I think I'm in group 4. Injuries and the poor club structure have a big impact and any manager will have struggled to some extent. We could have done a lot better if the manager had compromised more than he did, but that would have come at the unacceptable price of backsliding on the core mission of insisting that we try to play a certain way. Even if we fail miserably.
I'm therefore willing to overlook just how incredibly bad things have been this season to some extent. Where I think ETH is culpable is in over training players and bringing them back from injury too soon when he needed to keep them fit given how thin the quality in the squad is. But this is also most likely a reflection of a heavy pre-season tour, bad medical, poor training facilities and too many old or fragile players for a high intensity game, none of which ETH can control. Sure you can say let's not play high intensity. But then what? There are ten teams in the EPL who will trash you a whole different way. Ultimately it comes down to the idea that we have to build things in a certain way and in a certain order to achieve the ultimate objective of being competitive.
Heading towards our lowest ever PL points total and lowest ever PL position in the table.
Season has been a complete and utter fecking shambles and it would be ludicrous if ETH isn't sacked.
And yet we’ve spent more than anybody so that really doesn’t make sense does it? I’d agree if we’d been asset stripped but we’ve invested more in the playing squad than we’ve ever done in the history of our existence. The Glazers have been very hands off but the people they placed in charge have tolerated and accepted mediocracy because they knew they were lucky to even be where they ended up, and they weren’t about to flag that they were out of their depth.
Ironically only an infant needs to see an specific scenario play out under specific conditions before knowing whether that person is up for it. Fortunately we pay millions of dollars to professionals who's job is to analyze the facts and data to make these decisions so we don't have to waste another year and hundreds of millions just to see if "ETH is good enough".
When ETH was hired, the contract term is three years as I remember. It’s not difficult to see why he insists to play the way this season.
The grand plan of the project is three-year timespan. Steady the ship in the first year, make the transition to the envisioned system in second year, and start challenging major titles in the 3rd year.
Unfortunately, the two transfer windows have proved both short-termism and money wasting in great scale. Combined with injury issues, the second year is completely off track. The grand plan fails already.
We are 8th now. And in the last 2 weeks of the season.Potential to finish 8th. Sobering for all the wrong reasons.
Absolutely disgraceful if there is no European football next season
Completely agree. I remember I said here a few months ago, “the question now is how to make this system work?”. It’s a puzzle. It seems to me we should push a CB up during the build up phase. Our transfers doesn’t target that but waste huge amount of budget on other positions. If those budgets can be used more efficiently, we can have both depth and quality added. We signed Amrabat but don’t really use him. The details of the plan seems lack of thought. Judgements in many aspects are profoundly failures.The weird part is we also went for a style that seems completely contrary to the style we all hoped he might bring here. We have turned into a kick and rush team straight from the 80s. I get that rebuilds take time but as you said our transfers seemed to be so contrary to what we actually wanted to achieve. We were looking for a player to carry the ball through midfield and break a press like de Jong and we got Casemiro, Amrabat and Mount who aren't that type of player. Mainoo these days looks like he is the closest to that role but for all his talent he clearly isn't quite up there with the best yet. As a result we now have to lump the ball forward, because we have no reliable way to bring the ball out of midfield. How much of these transfers is on EtH I don't know, but I know if Ineos can't fix the way we identify targets we will remain fecked for the foreseeable future.
Heading towards our lowest ever PL points total and lowest ever PL position in the table.
Season has been a complete and utter fecking shambles and it would be ludicrous if ETH isn't sacked.
Sitting in 8th and it was very predictable by January just by watching us play that the league table would soon catch up with performances.
I'm not necessarily EtH in but I do appreciate that this season, not last, he's trying to get us to play a more pro active, pressing game.Absence really does make the heart grow fonder. Since our last open and destructive performance, ETH has gone from being behind in this vote to being ahead, and Martinez has gone from been a good defender to one of the best in the league whilst not playing. I’m sure clarity will be restored tomorrow night after we gift Palace 25+ attempts on our goal.
For the ETH fans who think he needs another season - what defining element of United’s performances this last two seasons will you miss when he’s sacked?
Emery would’ve. He’s just done it with the majority of Stevie Me and Dean Smiths squad.Agree to disagree. No manager in the world would've gotten us a top four position with this squad.
Would take that over the Conference League.Potential to finish 8th. Sobering for all the wrong reasons.
Absolutely disgraceful if there is no European football next season
Not really. Better no European football than the Thursday night rubbish which would derail our top 4 challenge. ETH should have been sacked by now. Ineos make me uncomfortable and Ratcliffe is so out of touch with his Stadium of the North rubbish to be funded by tax payers. Whole club is a shambles , worse I've ever seen and I've been supporting since 1977.Potential to finish 8th. Sobering for all the wrong reasons.
Absolutely disgraceful if there is no European football next season
Had the likes of Bayern had a season like this, they'd be on their 3rd managerAs usual, we're so hesistant to get things done. Bayern, Liverpool and Barcelona have all announced what they'll be doing next season.
Maybe ten Hag and the board already know, and everything has been discussed behind closed doors. If that's the case, then it's fine. If not, then we need to make something happen, as we should really be prepping for next season.
Had the likes of Bayern had a season like this, they'd be on their 3rd manager