I think the bigger concern is the lack of progress on planned, sensible alternatives. I've been relatively positive this summer, and remained so (even if mildly troubled by the Dutch tunnel vision strategy) until the likes of Arnautovic and Rabiot started popping up.
Demolition can't save this club.
The Arnautovic bid has fecked everyone's confidence and rationality. One of the most damaging PR moves, from a fan perspective, I've seen from a "top" club.
Sigh. We really have not been playing "a purely counterattacking style" under any of our previous managers, however convenient that might be to explain recent and present shortcomings.This was kind of the warning sign for me early on that not much would change structurally and that EtH would be expected to work miracles with existing players who had been drilled into playing a purely counter attacking style of football for years
It's better to accept mistake and correct it rather than pushing their agenda, right ?
Eriksen can already do that, it's not a big deal. But both those guys have good technique and can carry the ball, thats a huge upgrade on what we have.
Strange view that- Rabiot has excelled in that role . I don't watch Serie A or Ligue 1 but going by the experts who watch, he is exactly that player.
I think we did. Mourinhos style has been destroying the opponents game plan and then trying to cash in on mistakes, Ole himself said he wants attack, as fast as possible. Direct and Vertical attacks. That we haven't seen that all time isn't down to the manager changing their opinions every so often but it is down to our opponents getting to learn how to play against us.
Some of our players are better suited to counterattacking. Its a mismash of a squad where you cant put out 11 players suited to any one style.
I dont know, i think by and large this squad is much more suited to and built for a low block, counterattacking team. Our attempts to play more progressive are reliably awkward and dysfunctional.
You are right I guess - depends on how you define a purely counter attacking style. I'd say, we didn't really have any intended style, it was just that Ole was a pragmatic coach, trying to achieve the most with basic tools. Defending is the easiest when you do it as a deep block where your players are close to each other. Attacking is the easiest when you have room to make use of. So When you combine that, you defend deep and attack fast against teams that failed to penetrate you deep defense. That is what counterattacking is - and this was what Ole did to some success. But as time went by, opponents noticed that their chances for points would be low when they tried to attack us. So many decided to defend deep themselves against us - it was a viable plan because a) we weren't particularly good defending against counters (not many teams are), b) we were especially tame when in possession and not able to create chances and c) smaller teams were happy to take a point from a draw. (you can see this development in a microcosm in the games against City, we won when Pep underestimated us or our capabilities in terms of counter attacks, but in 2021 he didn't give us room in all the games that really mattered and shut us down with it).
Maybe it is, what I am pointing out is it hasn't been a low blocking team for quite a while. And we've had our best runs playing differently.
If we can get Savic I would be happy with him for De Jong replacement but I still don't know about Rabiot. He could be trouble. We would still need a CF and we should look outside europe now.
Stop gap solutions are fine as long as we realise they’re just for that purpose and don’t offer them a contract renewal.
Murtough doesn't have the necessary transfers lined up for the positions which United needed and suggested by Ralf. ETH is late to the scene as the better players are scooped by clubs which were working on it from last season while United didn't and started from scratch 2 months back.
EtH is not available to takeover mid season. The amount of time Murtough and co had to do their own assessment of this squad to prepare for this window after writing off last season is astonishingly generous. That is if they disregard Rangnick's opinion. It now looks like they just sat idle the whole time, and now EtH has to do everything, which of course is too late.
Sure, meanwhile the club continues to play players who’ve been useless for nearly 2 years now because we’re too good for stop gap solutions.
Getting in a better player to improve the squad is making the problem worse now
Getting in a better player to improve the squad is making the problem worse now
Ffs, this isn’t a team that won a treble last season, this is a team that’s has Scott and Rashford starting even when they’re contributing feck all.
We just don’t have to be idiots and give Rabiot a 5 year deal or extend him after his current deal is up unless he performed so well that it warrants it.
