How would you punish the players?

After 1 defeat in 20 odd games I think the only sensible thing to do is burn the entire club to the ground.

United will never win a game of football again going by some of the reactions.
 
I wouldn't. I'd move on. Concentrate or Real Betis instead of the self flagellation. There'll be plenty of others to stick the boot in.
I'd replace some of them in the summer and try to keep a good churn of the squad going and i'd be bearing this match in mind when deciding who goes but thats not about punishment
 
red woppit said:
Totally agree. Over and over and over and over and over again.
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This. And cellotape their eyes open like Clockwork Orange. After every goal, pull them back in their chairs, put a towel over their faces and pour a bucket of water over it.

Should do the trick.
 
Make them review the game in front of the squad & coaches, with them each taking turns in highlighting what they personally did wrong, how they let the team down and what they will do in future to prevent it happening again. It is no good giving extra training on top of what they are already doing, as they are going through an exhausting schedule as it is. Donating wages to the MUFC Foundation, as already mentioned, is also a good point.
 
Make them sit through all 1000+ episodes of the Late Late show with James Corden back to back. And just as the last episode ends and they think they're done say ''Sit back down motherfeckers this isn't over yet'' and then play the liver action Cats starring James Corden.

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They need rest not punishment. If anyone is to blame it is EtH for not rotating enough and thinking he can still chase 4 targets. Shows his lack of EPL experience.
 
Make them watch AS Adema - SO L'Emyrne 2002 match, so they can see how a proper team should get results!
 
glazed said:
They need rest not punishment. If anyone is to blame it is EtH for not rotating enough and thinking he can still chase 4 targets. Shows his lack of EPL experience.
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All foreign coaches in the PL start off thinking they've cracked the secret of challenging on all fronts without rotation. A couple of hammerings usually clears their head. See Pep and Klopp in their first years.
 
I sincerely hope they spent the majority of the day watching and rewatching the game, play by play. Physical 'punishment' won't do anything to a knackered squad playing every few days - Sunday was all about mentality and lack of composure.
 
When players show fear as ours did on sunday its not 'company punishment' you need its leadership on the pitch. In a match against your biggest rivals and you have just let in a third goal and brown stains are beginning to appear on the players shorts... you need a 'Keano' :devil: type character on the pitch to spend time going around bolstering the players courage... 'stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood' etc.

We have some good players and potentially great players, but when their 'nerve' deserts them, or the tank is drained, and naked fear in everyone is becoming palpable and spreading like a wild fire through the team, then you need your captain to really play the part.

The 'Anfield hordes' in their own citadel, were tearing us apart, and without that kind of leadership they were lambs to the slaughter. Its not the first time this scenario (as in the first half against City at the Etihad) has occurred.

Erik we need a proper Captain, preferable a stalwart character himself and a mouth on him like a machine gun!
 
glazed said:
They need rest not punishment. If anyone is to blame it is EtH for not rotating enough and thinking he can still chase 4 targets. Shows his lack of EPL experience.
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Nope. We can't blame fatigue, we played our normal game in the first 45.

If anyone is to blame is the board for not backing ETH in January, we have one striker at the club, how does he rotate him? Not to mention we replaced Ronaldo (and Martial) with a loanee from Championship. He rotates Varane, Casemiro was rested, so was Rashford. It's just when he rotates core players the dropoff is too big.
 
red_de_pologne said:
Nope. We can't blame fatigue, we played our normal game in the first 45.
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And then we ran out of gas. That's how tiredness works.

Not just physically but mentally. Think about it - we just won a cup final. Beating Barca felt like a cup final. It's easy to sit behind your keyboard and say 'we go again' but they actually have to do it.

It was obvious to me that Casemiro and Varane were gassed in the second half. Not surprising considering their age and the number of big games they've played (including a World Cup). And when those two go, it all goes.
 
The Fergie way, which by all accounts is what he did.

They got roasted after the game but left it at the door. The focus yesterday was about what went wrong and what can be done about it, lifting confidence back up etc etc.

I was all for the punishing run they got early in the season by the way, but ETH needed to install authority, discipline and build a team by joining them on it. This wasn't that.
 
Give them all spades and make them dig holes at Carrington at 4am. Come back when they're done and make them fill the holes in again. Come back when they're done with that and make them redig the filled holes. Continue until they throw up or pass out or both
 
We need a couple of BIG characters in the squad. Madley (The ref) was poor on Sunday. Every single 50/50 decision went Liverpool's way. It didn't surprise Me at all that the players heads dropped. Its not physical punishment thats needed. Its some type of conditioning to make them all mentally stronger.
 
Look at individual performances and drop a few. Luke Shaw, Antony, Weghorst should be dropped. I'd start Sabitzer over Fred - yes he's been good of late but he's a brain fart of a player at times. Mctominay only to be used in last 5 mins of games if at all ever again.
 
They've been humiliated in front of the world (again). Every outlet in the world has reported on it and taken the piss out then or called them unprofessional.

In any industry, once you're referred to as unprofessional there is no lower point unless you're talking criminal.

If that isn't fuel for them to turn it around, they won't survive here and one by one they'll all be upgraded.

It's perfectly acceptable to be swallowed by the atmosphere at Anfield and feel the world is against you, but at that point, collectively, surely you sit back and undertake a period of damage limitation so you can write it off and move onto the next. It was absolute suicide and they've only themselves to blame for the distraction they've brought up on themselves.

If it derails the season, because let's be honest some of these have been here before, at that point you're really talking about some more of the original squad being moved on.
 
rimaldo said:
i’d make them lie in a circle around me, their heads a couple of foot away from my feet. i’d tell them the star player from yesterday is about to get the star treatment. then i’d tell them they’re not allowed to move, just like they didn’t move yesterday when liverpool were tearing us apart. i’d then slowly spin in a circle, chanting “fan justice, fan justice,” as arcs of warm piss splattered down on their faces.
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I read somewhere that they had to sit in silence and watch the Liverpool celebrations?

I hope it's true. I know that would light a fire in me
 
Print-outs of the scoreline put up all around the dressing room, and around Carrington. Perhaps even print-outs from social media of the reaction from both United and Liverpool fans, and the media. Plenty of reminders all over the place of how unacceptable and laughable that second half performance was.

Also make them watch back the second half a fair few times.

Extra training/runs is no good - I think tiredness is a part of why they capitulated - whilst it might work at the start of the season, it won't work when we've got a big game on Thursday and a lot still riding on the rest of the games this season.
 
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RuudTom83 said:
After 1 defeat in 20 odd games I think the only sensible thing to do is burn the entire club to the ground.

United will never win a game of football again going by some of the reactions.
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Ha, this is my fave response in ages!!! Bravo
 
julianfr said:
Give them all spades and make them dig holes at Carrington at 4am. Come back when they're done and make them fill the holes in again. Come back when they're done with that and make them redig the filled holes. Continue until they throw up or pass out or both
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I would make them do this for 7 weeks along with being docked wages for 7 weeks.
 
glazed said:
And then we ran out of gas. That's how tiredness works.

Not just physically but mentally. Think about it - we just won a cup final. Beating Barca felt like a cup final. It's easy to sit behind your keyboard and say 'we go again' but they actually have to do it.

It was obvious to me that Casemiro and Varane were gassed in the second half. Not surprising considering their age and the number of big games they've played (including a World Cup). And when those two go, it all goes.
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Do you honestly, genuinely claim to know better than ETH and the staff at Manchester United what are the fitness levels and capabilities of the players?
Do you think he plays them and just hopes they're ok, without any reason behind it? That the manager just didn't expect them to get tired?
I'm surprised how can anybody sit behind their keyboard and think they found obvious and knew better than the absolute elite professionals like the manager and the medical team.
 
red_de_pologne said:
Do you honestly, genuinely claim to know better than ETH and the staff at Manchester United what are the fitness levels and capabilities of the players?
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Maybe you missed the part where we lost 7-0 after more or less winning the first half?

I have the super power of hindsight so yes I now know better than they did at 3pm on Sunday. So do they. Hindsight makes thing obvious.

I also said at the time we should prioritise the Liverpool game over the Newcastle game.
 
glazed said:
Maybe you missed the part where we lost 7-0 after more or less winning the first half?

I have the super power of hindsight so yes I now know better than they did at 3pm on Sunday. So do they. Hindsight makes thing obvious.

I also said at the time we should prioritise the Liverpool game over the Newcastle game.
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Thought we looked a bit knackered against newcastle too to be honest. Think it would have been hard to match liverpools energy on this occasion.
It was a bit of a freak result, the further i get from the match the more i wonder if theres anything to take form it that we didn't already know. Maybe i hoped the collapse of the second half was solved after the City match and its a bit clearer that its still there. Mostly it feels like a bit of a reality check with things like de gea's distribution which is nothing new
 
Make them listen silently to Liverpool celebrating in the dressing room next door.

Which he apparently did.
 
Nothing to punish, it was a freak result. It was a combination of the team having bad day at the office plus Liverpool's freak 100% conversion rate. Brush aside and move onto the next.
 
Can't believe peoole are attributing the loss to lack of rotation, what the hell is that? Surely it might be a factor, but no way if justifies a 7-0 spanking to your biggest rivals.
 
glazed said:
Maybe you missed the part where we lost 7-0 after more or less winning the first half?

I have the super power of hindsight so yes I now know better than they did at 3pm on Sunday. So do they. Hindsight makes thing obvious.

I also said at the time we should prioritise the Liverpool game over the Newcastle game.
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No, you made up the reason of fatigue and lack of rotation yourself, even with hindsight nothing indicates that. We stopped playing and it wasn't because of fatigue. We simply gave up.
 
Not sure if posted anywhere else on here so apologies if it has (I'm in work so limited opportunities to check/search), but I saw an excerpt on reddit earlier from a Daily Mail piece (which I also haven't read, because it's the Daily Mail). I thought the pieces in bold were particularly interesting:

Erik ten Hag had arrived two hours earlier, seething from what he had witnessed as his team collapsed to a club record-equalling defeat by Liverpool.

By the time he gathered them for a short talk, though, the theme was one of recovery rather than recrimination.

'What happened doesn't destroy all the good work we have done this season,' was the message from the boss. He told them to be hungry to put things right. He spoke about the importance of not being depressed or losing confidence.

He said they would benefit from more sessions with Rainier Koers, the Dutch sports psychologist brought to the club by Ten Hag.

There was no replay of the game but Ten Hag did show his players selected video clips 'to make them angry', according to one source, just as he had tried to rile them at Anfield by demanding silence in the away dressing room so they could listen to Liverpool's celebrations.

As usual, mentality was at the forefront of his mind. That is what Ten Hag will demand when United host Real Betis in the Europa League this week, looking to put this darkest of days behind them.

Mindset matters more to him right now than any physical shortcomings, which wasn’t the case when United faced a similar inquest after a 4-0 defeat at Brentford in his second game in charge.

On that occasion, Ten Hag summoned his players on a day off and put them through a punishment run in the August sunshine for covering 13.8km less ground than their opponents.

The 99.01km they clocked at Anfield was their lowest since the 95.6km at Brentford, but there were mitigating circumstances.

Ten Hag's side were coming into the game of a Carabao Cup final win over Newcastle and an unconvincing FA Cup victory over West Ham in midweek. The two days of training leading up to Liverpool are said to have been below-par.

Ten Hag knows better than anyone that his players are feeling the strain. There was no point flogging them this time. It has been a gruelling schedule and one that will fall just a game short of the club record of 66 if United continue to challenge on all fronts.
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Link to article: REVEALED: Erik ten Hag showed his Man United flops video clips of their 7-0 Anfield mauling 'to make them angry' before extra sessions with Dutch psychologist as he tries to rebuild confidence.
 
Make them sit down and write apology notes to send to the traveling fans, as well as compensation for what they spent on the match.
 
Sounds like he probably found the right balance. There has to be some consequence and there has to be a post mortem after that kind of capitulation. But it's probably not worth absolutely flogging them as important games are coming at an alarming rate and we need to retain some of the confidence we built up (that possibly veered into complacency). Ultimately that game is done, the most important thing is can we get back on track in the league and progress in the Europa. If we win the next handful of fixtures we are on track, if we allow this to become a deep malaise we are in big trouble.
 
Punishing the players for one terrible, albeit pretty damn terrible, result against a highly motivated team in an extremely difficult environment after the amount of games we've played and our exceptional run of form for months...is exactly why none of us should ever be managers and why those managers that would have the instinct to punish the players in this scenario are never long for their teams or success...

I'm sure ETH will be fairly critical of the performance, point out players that could improve, give suggestions for improvement, and incorporate any strategic managerial changes. Which is as it should be. These aren't toddlers or convicts...
 
Weghorst should have his hand chopped off for touching that bloody sign.
Get a bit of the arabic culture in early doors :lol:
 
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