Happy New year! See y’all in the Championship!
Half way through the season. How are you feeling?
- Thread starter Irrational.
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran discuss a horrific month of December and a depressing FOUR defeats in a row - the latest coming against Wolves and Newcastle.
They discuss how much blame is on Ruben Amorim and rank our squad against other Premier League teams.
Do we have any chance of avoiding defeat at Anfield?
I’m not sure you even understand how betting odds work, to be honest. Needless to say, United won’t be getting relegated, so I wouldn’t worry.
I would think if we somehow were to not take 3 points from Southampton, after obviously losing to Liverpool, there could be some real worry. None of these players have been in this situation and I highly doubt many of these overpriced divas would have the fight for it
I don't gamble so I probably don't have an in depth knowledge of betting odds, but I checked William Hill's website and they have us at 20/1 to go down, level with West Ham, which sounds about right.
Unlikely but not impossible, given our form and squad profile.
Would have never dreamt the season would be as bad as this and I was expecting a poor season.
1. Anthony needs to go.
2. Unlikely Maguire will stay if not offered a longer term contract.
3. Eriksen is out of contract.
4. It will take a couple windows to move out the others.
As Amorim gets more time on the training pitch with these players, I’m optimistic we’ll show some improvement.
Watching games expecting a defeat
And when the likely defeat is confirmed, complete apathy
Joyless when it’s a draw
Even a win feels a bit meh…because who knows what the next game brings
Longing for better days
And when the likely defeat is confirmed, complete apathy
Joyless when it’s a draw
Even a win feels a bit meh…because who knows what the next game brings
Longing for better days
We must go all out for the Europa League - that’s the only hope for this season.
Transfers in and outs are key but just getting some training time and improved performances will bring more hope later this season.
And a total collapse by Liverpool would be just great…..
Transfers in and outs are key but just getting some training time and improved performances will bring more hope later this season.
And a total collapse by Liverpool would be just great…..
Resigned, frustrated, reflective...listening to Gary Neville's comments on how we seem to have gone backwards and, despite splurging, £500m+, now have a worse squad than the one under OJS, got me thinking 'why?' In other words, how have we hacked back the previous 'deadwood' - which we all wanted to get rid of - only to replace it with a new raft of players who most people here agree need to be dumped? Sooner rather than later.
So many of our problems - all now magnified by PSR - are a product of years of disastrous transfer business, all of that enabled by manager churn, the absence of any coherent long-term playing strategy, and the failings of second-rate executives appointed under the Glazers.
And this is still manifest in our current mess, where ETH (a manager who was over-promoted and very quickly out of his depth after only a few months) was allowed too much influence in bringing in too many of his former players (Martinez, Antony, and Onana are all out of their depth in the PL and, though they hadn't played for him, Malacia and Zirkzee are in the same category), whilst the previous executive is massively culpable in scandalous deals, where we have effectively thrown millions away (a competently run club would never have brought in any of Casemiro, Anthony or Mount on the fees we've paid).
Even by my very quick maths, this is ~£300m in systemic failure, where even the best in exit deals, will do well to get £100m back.
Going forward, my feeling is a hope for a change, where we show that we've broken away from this cycle and, instead of replacing the old deadwood with new deadwood soon, we actually begin to see some green shoots, with a few additions who meet our needs: signings that involve younger, faster, more athletic players, in the most important positions, with the right mindset and growth potential. And without us handing them ludicrous pay deals from the off.
So many of our problems - all now magnified by PSR - are a product of years of disastrous transfer business, all of that enabled by manager churn, the absence of any coherent long-term playing strategy, and the failings of second-rate executives appointed under the Glazers.
And this is still manifest in our current mess, where ETH (a manager who was over-promoted and very quickly out of his depth after only a few months) was allowed too much influence in bringing in too many of his former players (Martinez, Antony, and Onana are all out of their depth in the PL and, though they hadn't played for him, Malacia and Zirkzee are in the same category), whilst the previous executive is massively culpable in scandalous deals, where we have effectively thrown millions away (a competently run club would never have brought in any of Casemiro, Anthony or Mount on the fees we've paid).
Even by my very quick maths, this is ~£300m in systemic failure, where even the best in exit deals, will do well to get £100m back.
Going forward, my feeling is a hope for a change, where we show that we've broken away from this cycle and, instead of replacing the old deadwood with new deadwood soon, we actually begin to see some green shoots, with a few additions who meet our needs: signings that involve younger, faster, more athletic players, in the most important positions, with the right mindset and growth potential. And without us handing them ludicrous pay deals from the off.
I think this is the worst I've ever felt about United. Closest would be the Rangnick period, where I was more depressed by the realisation that the Glazers might never leave than the results. I was happy with INEOS, at least their focus does seem to be on sporting success rather than paying themselves dividends. I agreed with hiring a structure above the manager and Ashworth, Berrada, Wilcox, Vivell etc looked good on paper. They've really not done much to inspire hope since then:
- Debacle over hiring Ashworth just to fire him a few months later.
- Publicly looking for managers before the FA cup final, not finding one and then extending Ten Hag. Sorry but that was just the wrong decision, he had to go and it was plain as day.
- Sacking him and hiring Amorim who is probably a top manager, but switching to 3ATB mid-season with these players was always going to be a nightmare.
- Amorim would have been available last summer, so why not hire him then? Or wait until this summer. Our results would probably have been better if we just waited and kept Ruud as an interim, and that's not a criticism of Amorim.
- What's Brailsford doing anywhere near the club? Just seems like cronyism, I doubt he has much to offer.
- To their credit I will say I still think the summer window was better. More reasonable fees and the players were all in the right age range for once. Zirkzee looks like a flop but no club gets all their signings right, and at least they look like they'll ship him out quickly.
Feeling? It’s all gone at the moment
About as bad as it could be for a team of United's stature so far.
Usual summer, signings seem positive but then it quickly dawns on us it was nowhere near enough as usual.
Get through this weekend without a smashing then at least we can begin the rebuild and hope it all settles and moves back towards last season's finish place, which felt a disaster last year, but would feel like a recovery this year!
Usual summer, signings seem positive but then it quickly dawns on us it was nowhere near enough as usual.
Get through this weekend without a smashing then at least we can begin the rebuild and hope it all settles and moves back towards last season's finish place, which felt a disaster last year, but would feel like a recovery this year!
What formation suits our players though?
We tried 4231, 433, 424 and still were absolutely horrible.
Sick to me stomach. Some of it is the diverticulitis has come back, but the way we are playing doesn't help.
Honestly I’m not sure. I don’t think much suits these players but five at the back definitely doesn’t seem to. I can’t see us scoring much so we need to make sure we concede even less. We haven’t got the wingbacks and our centre backs seem to get complacent when there’s three of them in there.
I feel so desperate and depressed that I was just wishing Diego Leon could start playing for us in January, despite being 17, having not played anywhere but Paraguay, and seemingly only joining us in the Summer
We need somebody on the left, and we need it badly
We need somebody on the left, and we need it badly