The anti Pep
I think Pep's philosophy is small distance passes , so that if there is a miss pass, it cam be easily dealt with
6
Season Average Rating
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- Clean sheets
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- Goals
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- Yellow cards
- 6
I think Pep's philosophy is small distance passes , so that if there is a miss pass, it cam be easily dealt with
It is, he outlined that on a MNF episode with Gary Neville.
With short passes, you lose the ball less often and when you do, you have players in position to quickly press the loose balls / man in possession. Remember how Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets, not really your classic "ball winners" used to swarm round opponents like angry hornets? Its not about "effort" or "work rate", its about tactics - being close enough to close quickly and in packs of three of four.
Look again at that photo. Let's be under no illusion, that's what EtH wants, that's what he's asking his players to do. What use is Garnacho 60y away from the ball? What is Rashford meant to do when / if he does receive it? The only players close enough to support him are Hojlund and Eriksen, and they're outnumber 5 -2, include Rashford and we're outnumbered 5-3, even if Martinez makes the 50m pass.
Look at the Porto players setting the trap. Waiting for Martinez to play the only forward pass he can make. There's two Porto players ready to spring into action to cut-out an underhit pass and another waiting to quickly press Rashford. If that pass is cut-out, we suddenly have 5 players completely out of the game in positions they're unlikely to be able to recover from.
Creating overloads doesn't mean having one more player in the opponents half or whatever. It's creating overloads in certain areas where you can exploit opponents with a numerical advantage and quick passing. EtH is somehow managing to create "underloads", always ensuring we somehow have fewer players attacking and fewer players covering than our opponents.
It really really is car crash stuff. I said last season in September he had to go - and I have NEVER before publicly advocated the sacking of ANY Manchester United manager...and it wasn't because of his results and it wasn't because I didn't like him...it was because his football is just...mind-boggling ineffective and stupid
He was good for Argentina no?
I should’ve said in a Utd shirt, he’s had good performances here and there but hasn’t done it on a consistent basis for a while. Yes, he has been good for Argentina since then so it might be a case of the current setup at Utd’s making it difficult to shine.
Martinez this season reminds me of Vidic at the start of his debut season. He'll eventually come good again and playing alongside natural left back and more mobile midfield will be a big help.
That’s why I’m confident it’s not the injury
Way too easy to defend . All the opposition needs to do is stay compact, defend the 5 attackers and put 2 man ready to pounce for second balls /turn overs .
I think you're underestimating the physical demands placed on a DM in most systems let alone ETH's. Look around the top teams in the world, you'll struggle to find a team with Martinez's profile as DM. In fact, I'll challenge you to name one.
I think it takes a quite big mistake to screw up this situation. There is no press whatsoever, it’s 2-2 and time to be patient.
When Dalot moves centrally he is often available for a through pass, and think he was in this situation as well.
Martinez had heaps of space and moved left and forward, even crossed the midline with the ball, while DeLigt moved left followed by Maz who dropped. The problem is more when they put us under pressure, then I am not so sure our backline/midfield is good enough in their movements to solve it, and we often lose the ball. Later in this situation DeLigt lost the ball when put under pressure.
What's happening with this guy? Dropped down the pecking order to 5th choice or not fully fit?
What should be happening when you're out of form, you get benched. I am however fully confident he will pick up steam again, as soon as we get our shit back together (one way or another).
Our defense is just more solid without him I guess.
Clearly have lost his pace after the injury. Can't play high line anymore or at least now.
He never had pace and we've never played a high line with him.
Got a serious injury which he then aggravated further and now he just isn't the same anymore. He's clearly lost a few steps and he wasn't especially quick to start with.
He was always slow over distance, but in that first season he was agile and nimble on the turn allowing him to beat attackers to the spot he wanted to be. Now he just looks stiff in his movement, I wonder if he was doing too much lifting during his injury recovery and lost some of that agility due to bulking up.
He looks a bit bulkier and maybe that could be one issue, but for me his decision making is the number one factor that has gone worse. He leaves his position all the time for no reason.
That first season he also had in form Varane and Casemiro which probably helped. Varane cleaned up behind and Casemiro stopped attackers from coming full speed 1v1 with the CBs.
Well a big part of the problem for him is the decision to play Dalot at LB and then have him invert into midfield leaving the left side of our defence exposed. Once you add in that it is usually Rashford playing ahead of him who is not the most dedicated when it comes to tracking back and you are asking a not particularly pacy player to cover an enormous area.
The injury obviously has left him rusty and perhaps a little low in confidence but it is also not a coincidence that his excellent first season came when Shaw had as close to an injury free season as he gets. Regardless of the need to replace the sicknote it is still fair to say that when fit Shaw is an excellent and fairly quick defender and so Martinez was able to focus on his own job and he did so very well.
International football does not count on here when a player is under attack.
Remember when Harry was playing well in major international tournaments and was actually selected in the team of the tournament....didn't register on here.
I don't like this type of CB. We have had our own versions. I want a Saliba/Varane(prime) type CB...this is about as far from that as it gets from that. Maguire with his shortcomings is still better.
I would say he is good for a squad role
I would say he is good for a squad role
Man, that photo is damning. What is the strategy behind playing like that? I actually would like to know.
Fortunately we have Yoro to balance it all out
For Vegans its a good thing. We keep dogs and cats as pets but eat pigs and caws. They all want to live. Where does it stop Klayton? Where is the limit?
Uniteditis. No player can go 2 years in a row of form. That's just a fact.
Is he back around Christmas? Be interesting to see how he is phased in.
November. He’s already starting training inside. I think due back middle of November.
He looks like a great future CB, perhaps one of those generational ones. Inevitable comparisons with Saliba aside, he is quite mature for his age. Reads the game well, and probably a little better than Saliba in the air from what I saw of him.
Shame, he looked exceptional before his injury and our season fell apart that year when he broke his foot
It’s not damning at all, we’re in possession…
Just look at the clip, you have a difficult longer ball on the RW, an easy pass out to Rashford who can the choose to either take his man on, pass back inside to Eriksen or just recycle the ball. The benefit of Dalot being there is you get the added option if their striker doesn’t cover for the guy who presses Licha of just popping it into his feet. Then you also have the safe options of simply going back to Onan or your CB partner if you don't fancy any of the forward passes on.
Our issue is it’s a stupid tactic if you keep losing possession because the full back will then be out if position and the LCB will get overloaded. I saw some stat that almost all our conceded goals have been down the left as well and it’s probably more about Rashford and Garnacho than anyone else - the latter is young so you have some leniency for errors but it is hard to put into context how bad Rashford has been this season so far. His stats from the big losses are horrendous (vs Pool he had a 50% pass completion and had lost the ball 11 times for example).
This sums up our issues on the left flank in a nutshell, this is from this season in the PL and some comparisons:
| Player | Take ons attempted | Take on success % | Tackled % |
| Mitoma | 36 | 41.7 | 52.8 |
| Doku | 35 | 45.7 | 31.4 |
| Diaz | 24 | 41.7 | 45.8 |
| Rashford | 20 | 25 | 60 |
| Sancho | 17 | 70.6 | 29.4 |
Licha has started the season really poorly but, as always, the answer to the problem is not simply x,y and z are playing badly. We have no LB fit in the team, our LW is awfully out of form and Martinez had about a week of pre season after a long injury and full Copa. Then add in the CM who covers more on the left is Eriksen who isn't exactly the most dynamic/nimble if we are being countered.
It’s not really true, the result were better when he didn’t play.
He missed 13 PL games in total and we won 10 of them, draw 1 and lost 2. Thats 31 points out of 39 (2.38 points per game). We conceded 6 goals in those 13 matches (0.46 /game).
In the 25 matches* he played, we won 13 games, draw 5 and lost 7. That’s 44 points out of 75 (1.76 points per game). We conceded 37 goals (1.48/game).
(*Note that he did not play full time in all those matches. )
Haven't Slot and Palmer talked exactly about this? Speaking of being stubborn. They should have an award for that. Our man Erik would easily win it.
What's the issue with the photo? Shows us in the popular 3-2-5 build-up formation - our shape is not dissimilar to how Man City and Arsenal have largely setup for the past few years. Failings as the play progresses are not apparent from this particular snapshot.
In order to play the 3-2-5 you need very good playmakers or CMs who are very good at carrying the ball up the field. We have neither. As a result we tend to lose the ball in the middle of the park which exposes our team and we get slaughtered on the counter.
We've bought the biggest crocks imaginable. You'd think those in charge were out to sabotage us, not improve us.
We're probably turning some of them into crocks through sub-par training sessions.
Everything we do is sub-par
What's the problem?
What I heard he’s fine fitness wise but was excluded based on performance ie the coach thought Otamendi has performed better lately.
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