[phelans shorts]

I must be the only one who doesn’t get frustrated with him in the slightest. Don’t mind a player that takes on shots, better that than passing responsibility. If I was him I’d look for a move away to be honest. He could be considered one of the worlds best elsewhere but this club is destroying any chance he has and frankly most of the fan base don’t deserve him either.

I’m largely with you. I’m not going to pretend I never get frustrated but that’s natural at times, he isn’t really any more than any other attacker. People have totally inhuman expectations for him and it’s not fair in the slightest, he’s still a brilliant youngster, who’s learning his craft.

All young players can be frustrating in exactly the same way, it’s a natural part of development. You just see it more when it’s one of your own, where we didn’t see those moments for Mbappe or Haaland or whoever because we weren’t watching. Hell Mason is miles clear at the moment of Ronaldo at the same age.

 

[CloneMC16]

I must be the only one who doesn’t get frustrated with him in the slightest. Don’t mind a player that takes on shots, better that than passing responsibility. If I was him I’d look for a move away to be honest. He could be considered one of the worlds best elsewhere but this club is destroying any chance he has and frankly most of the fan base don’t deserve him either.

I love Mase, but there are times when I think he should pass instead of shoot. He will become a better player if he learns to pass when it's a better option than shooting. If he left to play for City, there is no chance Pep would allow him to shoot as much as he does for us. He would coach it out of him. He would go up a level. The only game he frustrated me was the PL game against Villa earlier on in the season at OT. Apart from that, he's mostly been a good watch. He's been our best attacker this season, and the only one I could see winning us a game on his own accord.

I’m largely with you. I’m not going to pretend I never get frustrated but that’s natural at times, he isn’t really any more than any other attacker. People have totally inhuman expectations for him and it’s not fair in the slightest, he’s still a brilliant youngster, who’s learning his craft.

All young players can be frustrating in exactly the same way, it’s a natural part of development. You just see it more when it’s one of your own, where we didn’t see those moments for Mbappe or Haaland or whoever because we weren’t watching. Hell Mason is miles clear at the moment of Ronaldo at the same age.

I agree mostly with what you've said. We aren't watching every minute of those other players. We don't see all of their worst moments, but 20 year old Mase isn't miles clear of 20 year old Ronaldo. Ronaldo was 20 in the 05/06 season. That's when he really started to go up a level and became one of our best players. 06/07 is when he undoubtfully became world class.

 

[Bennie Blanco]

I just don’t think many fans have a clue how much of a players individual performance is down the team settup. The best players in the world don’t just magically perform, they play alongside the best teammates in the best systems. Their teams give them the platform to perform. Go into the Varane thread and there’s posters jumping in calling him average etc. Jump into the Cavani thread and hes washed up etc. Hell even Ronaldo is being criticised. I guarantee you that at City or Liverpool those very same players would be getting hailed as some of the best in the league. The system at Utd is shocking, the manager clearly doesn’t seem to have a grip on it and as a result all our players are underperforming. I just can’t work out why fans try to make individual player judgements in these moments.

Greenwood is young enough that if he gets out now he can still have a world class career, in a proper world class team/system. Martial is evidence that this current Utd is not the club to nurture talent that it once was.

The best players do seem to stand out week in, week out from the rest of the players. I think we can all agree that Fernandes was doing that, prior to this season.

Fernandes is having a bad season, but we've seen how bloody important he is to this team. We've never seen Pogba and Greenwood put in those sort of performances, never.

Greenwood is not boy wonder, he's talented, but he's not THAT talented. He's not miles ahead of the rest, therefore why on earth should he deserve better? He's no Brian Robson.

 

[Rajma]

He needs to become much stronger on the ball to stand any chance of making here long term.

 

[United in sin]

He needs to become much stronger on the ball to stand any chance of making here long term.

I don't know what game you watched. I thought he was our best attacker and only constant threat whenever he broke forward especially in the first half.

 

[Lewnited]

I just don’t think many fans have a clue how much of a players individual performance is down the team settup. The best players in the world don’t just magically perform, they play alongside the best teammates in the best systems. Their teams give them the platform to perform. Go into the Varane thread and there’s posters jumping in calling him average etc. Jump into the Cavani thread and hes washed up etc. Hell even Ronaldo is being criticised. I guarantee you that at City or Liverpool those very same players would be getting hailed as some of the best in the league. The system at Utd is shocking, the manager clearly doesn’t seem to have a grip on it and as a result all our players are underperforming. I just can’t work out why fans try to make individual player judgements in these moments.

Greenwood is young enough that if he gets out now he can still have a world class career, in a proper world class team/system. Martial is evidence that this current Utd is not the club to nurture talent that it once was.

Yeah, fully agreed. It's amazing that some still don't seem to have a grip of this. We haven't had an environment that's conucive to nurturing talent for the best part of a decade, yet half our fanbase continues to believe that every young-ish player that can't make it here is simply a fraud.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

Yeah, fully agreed. It's amazing that some still don't seem to have a grip of this. We haven't had an environment that's conucive to nurturing talent for the best part of a decade, yet half our fanbase continues to believe that every young-ish player that can't make it here is simply a fraud.

Yep, that's exactly it and it's massively frustrating. Is it really too much to ask to just play a modern system that gets the best out of our players? It feels like an impossible job at the moment. What I don't want is players like Greenwood to have a lessor career just because they are at Utd because while I'm a Utd fan first and foremost, I also want to see talent developing in the right way. Utd just arent offering that right now.

 

[OL29]

I must be the only one who doesn’t get frustrated with him in the slightest. Don’t mind a player that takes on shots, better that than passing responsibility. If I was him I’d look for a move away to be honest. He could be considered one of the worlds best elsewhere but this club is destroying any chance he has and frankly most of the fan base don’t deserve him either.

I don’t find it frustrating either, he’s not shooting from impossible distances, and he’s shown before that he’s capable of scoring from wide angles and outside the box. If take those attributes away from him then he’d be nowhere near as dangerous as he’s proving himself to be in the past. It seems now that he’s been given this greedy tag, every shot he takes is scrutinised, but I don’t recall him taking any unrealistic shots in the last couple of games.

 

[eire-red]

It's nor clicking for him, but the goals will come I'm sure. Should be playing centrally as Cavani seems way off the boil right now.

 

[Poborsky's hair]

He needs to become much stronger on the ball to stand any chance of making here long term.

He was one of the best players on the ball, it's like you didn't watch the game..

What he needs to do is to impose a bit more on the game, Ge's got everything in his locker so in instances when he's not getting much time on the ball he can easily drop deeper and try to playmake a little than try to make a run forward, we are so rigid off the ball so it doesn't make him any good but Mason should start to show more willingness to work hard and cover more ground pop up to receive more balls

 

[Bebestation]

Has anyone noticed how is passing has developed?

He can really make some nice and accurate passes especially long range ones.

It does make me sad that I haven't seen him centrally and watching him potentially develop to a striker with some good interplay ability from arguably with both feet aswell.

 

[Rajma]

It's nor clicking for him, but the goals will come I'm sure. Should be playing centrally as Cavani seems way off the boil right now.

If he wants to start through the middle he will need to begin imposing himself in the air a lot more. Currently, he’s only imitating to be going for the ball.

 

[AltiUn]

Extremely disappointed with him this season as he seems to have absolutely lost his way. Doesn't play for the team or teammates; won't select the best options anymore; isn’t trying to work good angles before shooting, but worst of all, he does such a half-arsed job defensively to the point it looks like he thinks it's beneath him to work backwards and track runners when players at far more successful teams than him, with profiles considering them some of the best players in the world right now have no qualms running their hearts out for Pep, Klopp and Tuchel.

It winds me up more than any of the offensive issues how he half-arses graft. I felt he could have killed both goals at source by tracking the initial man on his flank, but he makes a gesture of tracking and he'll stop dead in his tracks at his earliest convenience, which is shirking responsibility.

Rashford is even worse in this regard, but these are young men, and there's just no excuse for it outside of exhaustion, which is not what's going on because the next chance for selfish Roy Of The Rovers, there'll be maximum exertion... until the play breaks down, of course.

My only hope is that Greenwood is still young enough to have it drilled into his head that he's not above defensive work. Salah's a better player than he'll ever be and he runs his fecking arse off and has a Champions League and Premier League to show for it. I'm just worried we had the wrong manager for him at the crucial, formative stage of his development, which will likely hinder him for the rest of his career.

 

[Ixion]

He was decent, I enjoyed seeing him and Elanga posing a threat.

 

[Ali Dia]

The Arjen Robben impression from the RW will get old fast.

Get him up front, get rid of the old timers sucking up not far off a million a week in wages and build for the future.

If you can’t press and tackle, reliably run the channels, hold up the ball or want to head the ball or consistently bring others into play I don’t think you can be the type of 9 we need to catch up in these pressing days. His position is RW/off the striker and he definitely needs to help his full back an awful lot more. Become more of a team player/creative which in turn should make him more unpredictable and then he will get back to scoring more. Potentially a very very good player in a sticky moment. I think we need to get our long term 9 asap so greenwood can learn to play with him. He’s doing alright but he needs to work even harder off the ball and get the head up for a cross a lot earlier

 

[Acole9]

I'm not too concerned about him as I am with Rashford. He does need toughen up though, shoved off the ball rather easily a couple of times yesterday.

 

[lex talionis]

I’m becoming increasingly concerned about Mason’s stagnation, although to be fair to him at least he hasn’t regressed like Marcus.

 

[Fortitude]

My only hope is that Greenwood is still young enough to have it drilled into his head that he's not above defensive work. Salah's a better player than he'll ever be and he runs his fecking arse off and has a Champions League and Premier League to show for it. I'm just worried we had the wrong manager for him at the crucial, formative stage of his development, which will likely hinder him for the rest of his career.

This is a concern of mine, too. He's not switched on or connected to the team, which was never something that could have been said of him at unders level. Whatever is wrong with us as 1st squad seems to have enveloped him and if nobody is correcting that behaviour - or even worse, if he's not listening to instructions - it will set him back years.

I know he's desperate for a goal and probably has some growing pains to deal with as well, but he cannot be allowed to just go off the rails like he has done and I hope, for his sake, and ultimately ours, that it's corrected at the earliest opportunity.

 

[Greck]

Greenwood is also my favourite but for people who don't understand what's wrong with shoot on sight you should realise we can't modernise our play in the final third if our forwards play that way. How do you think City get their tap in goals? Even Messi doesn't take the ball into impossible angles when it makes more sense to draw the keeper then give it to the next guy for a tap in. No one plays that way anymore. It's simply choosing the higher efficiency shot over personal glory. If personal glory is more his thing then assists are now tracked so he can take solace in knowing he still gets credited.

 

[eire-red]

If he wants to start through the middle he will need to begin imposing himself in the air a lot more. Currently, he’s only imitating to be going for the ball.

Yeah agree on that, he's not good enough or competitive in the air. I think he's played enough football now at this level to at least give him the chance to nail that spot as his own.

 

[Sylar]

I think I'd be more frustrated with his shoot on sight policy if the rest weren't so shit at shooting themselves

 

[Greck]

I think I'd be more frustrated with his shoot on sight policy if the rest weren't so shit at shooting themselves

They too are pretty selfish but for different reasons. Rashford's is poor tactical understanding, Ronaldo's is the remnant of the mindset that won him several ballon d'ors but whose ability can no longer justify. Sancho doesn't even get into those positions because of how unthreatening his ability has been. However you're still supposed to play the right way regardless of your teammates.

The end result is an every man for himself frontline with no chance of chemistry. You wouldn't know we are stacked in attack watching them because their approach can't add up to the sum of their parts. Let it continue and we'll waste his ability to lead the attack of our future teams. Aren't actually helping him by enabling this trait. We don't need to jocksniff every thing our favourite players do wrong.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Him, Bruno, and Varane are the top 3 I want us to keep no matter what next season. Greenwood might not be as good as Mbappe but he can still become a top player. His general play is good and quicker than Sancho.

 

[The Corinthian]

We need to get Mason back to what he does best - get him higher up the pitch and in the inside channels (between CB and FB) where he can drop a shoulder and get a shot off. That’s his most effective area. Let Dalot/AWB get out wide and offer width.

 

[Greck]

We need to get Mason back to what he does best - get him higher up the pitch and in the inside channels (between CB and FB) where he can drop a shoulder and get a shot off. That’s his most effective area. Let Dalot/AWB get out wide and offer width.

Defenders don't give him that shot anymore. A lot of those goals came with defenders' standing back because they didn't know how good he was. Now they'll sell their kidney to jump in front of a Greenwood windup. This is where he needs to adjust. Robben, Salah the best inside forwards got their shot off by outsmarting defenders. Greenwood has far better tools so it's even more devastating to see him playing like a teenage Rashford. I hope the next manager won't be the type to tell players not to pass in the box.

 

[Relevated]

Defenders don't give him that shot anymore. A lot of those goals came with defenders' standing back because they didn't know how good he was. Now they'll sell their kidney to jump in front of a Greenwood windup. This is where he needs to adjust. Robben, Salah the best inside forwards got their shot off by outsmarting defenders. Greenwood has far better tools so it's even more devastating to see him playing like a teenage Rashford.

Yes, this can be seen when he forced out to run and shoot from very wide positions. He almost paced Mings but Mings did well to get him to go wider than he would have liked and then tackled him.

 

[The Corinthian]

Defenders don't give him that shot anymore. A lot of those goals came with defenders' standing back because they didn't know how good he was. Now they'll sell their kidney to jump in front of a Greenwood windup. This is where he needs to adjust. Robben, Salah the best inside forwards got their shot off by outsmarting defenders. Greenwood has far better tools so it's even more devastating to see him playing like a teenage Rashford. I hope the next manager won't be the type to tell players not to pass in the box.

He’s not getting in these positions as regularly because our style of play is so slow and disjointed. We need to move the ball quicker, and play with a higher back line which will allow Mason and the other attackers to receive the ball higher up the pitch. It also means we can cause more damage without one of the wide forwards having to carry the ball an additional 15-20 yards.

 

[Greck]

He’s not getting in these positions as regularly because our style of play is so slow and disjointed. We need to move the ball quicker, and play with a higher back line which will allow Mason and the other attackers to receive the ball higher up the pitch. It also means we can cause more damage without one of the wide forwards having to carry the ball an additional 15-20 yards.

Greenwood burst on to the scene when we were dysfunctional. Poor team play isn't the only thing plaguing his play imo. Asides the fact that inside forwards won't always have the luxury of picking up the ball close to goal he currently isn't even making the right choices when he does.

 

[goptun]

He played very well in the first half against Villa. Not only with his dribbling and forward play (he was inches away from scoring in the second half), but with his all-around playmaking. He was spraying the ball around, lively in possession, and kept us on the front foot. He was by far our brightest and most progressive player. It was great to see him take on that role, though it'd be amazing if he could combine this with getting back amongst the goals. He is such a natural footballer it's ridiculous.

 

[The Corinthian]

Greenwood burst on to the scene when we were dysfunctional. Poor team play isn't the only thing plaguing his play imo. Asides the fact that inside forwards won't always have the luxury of picking up the ball close to goal he currently isn't even making the right choices when he does.

Disagree - he didn’t really burst onto the scene either. Ole blooded him into the first team quite well, and he was fantastic in our run to 3rd after project restart in 19/20. He started 20/21 slowly but really came into his own in the latter half of the season. Even this season he did well playing as a number 9 before our team collectively shat the bed. Ideally we should play him as a 9 instead of Ronaldo or Cavani, but even in this inside right channel we need to get him closer to goal.

 

[Nytram Shakes]

Really he is going the same way as Rashford and Martial. A promising young striker breaks through into the first team, is then converted into a winger, progresses a bit at that position then completely stalls and begins to regress.

In a few years we will try converting him back into a striker, by that time it is likely that the time will have passed for him to develop the attributes and positioning to play as a striker at the top level. May be we will strike gold and he will take to it again like RVP did, but its much more likely he won't as people generally need to play a position to get better at it.

 

[SonyaCross493]

Watched the Aston Villa away game again

Greenwood was worse than I thought initially;

greedy shots in the second half when the better option was cutting the ball back for Cavani to make it 3-0 and came over

both the goals for Aston Villa came down his side

In the second half when we are under pressure (after facing a corner) you can see Matic (camera caught it clearly) shouting at Greenwood to tuck in and not go so far forward. Which he of course ignores... which is what Ronaldo was talking about in his interview about young players arrogantly thinking they know it all and ignoring the experienced pros

it doesn't matter who plays in Midfield for Manchester United when you have wide players like Greenwood and Rashford who don't keep the shape when we don't have the ball. Even Bruno is guilty of it at times.

Rangnick needs to see the main problem with this team is the wingers not wanting to do the defensive work.

we can buy Haidara and Zaharia but they'll still have the same problems.. you can't defend with a 2-man midfield again an oppositions midfield 3 plus dealing with overloads from the oppositions full-backs and strikers.

i hope Rangnick wakes up and stops playing Greenwood and Rashford on the wings. They are the main problem in this team currently as they are not proper wingers. We need to be more compact.

we need experienced pro heads to get top 4.. I would even be tempted at playing Cavani on the wings like he did at PSG

 

[Greck]

Disagree - he didn’t really burst onto the scene either. Ole blooded him into the first team quite well, and he was fantastic in our run to 3rd after project restart in 19/20. He started 20/21 slowly but really came into his own in the latter half of the season. Even this season he did well playing as a number 9 before our team collectively shat the bed. Ideally we should play him as a 9 instead of Ronaldo or Cavani, but even in this inside right channel we need to get him closer to goal.

You might be overanalysing the expression bursting into the scene and not the point, which is we were dysfunctional under Jose and Ole and Greenwood didn't look like an unintelligent fool with poor tactical awareness. All of the rest addresses others and nothing about the actual player. The player isn't flawless. His flaws aren't also going to be fixed by a simple position change. His disregard for tactical options in the box is a bigger problem than simply getting him closer to the box because we're still going to end up with dysfunction if the person leading the line doesn't play for the team. Leading the line is a selfless role. It can't displace concerns about his tendencies, might even exacerbate them.

He's probably the most liked player at the club, people aren't getting on his play because they hate him. Bad form is one thing, selfish unwise playstyle is another.

 

[JordanAir]

People that are saying he must be our striker... are they saying that he should be the only striker in the team in a 4-3-3?

I don't think he can be a ST in a top team with the way he is performing, without being capable of winning a single header, being this lazy, being 1.80m tall, and scoring 5 goals in more than 20 games.

Just to put into perspective his numbers he has 5 goals and 2 assist, almost the same as Ansu Fati in a horrible Barcelona , but Ansu played half the games after a really big injury. He isn't a world class talent. Maybe he can be as good as Sterling in his good days if he stops being selfish, learns something, and starts having a football brain ... Being like Sterling it's not bad, but for a team like Manchester United he won't be a superstar.

Maybe he is just desperate to inflate his numbers before he renews his contract, and that's maybe the reason why he is trying so hard to score goals. Anyway in his current form he is a mediocre winger with just 2 assists in more than 20 games. I hope he goes to the bench in the next games and we give the oportunity to team players like Elanga and Sancho.

Many people on here love to compare the numbers of Ronaldo, De Gea, Cavani, Varane with other players. I would love to see the comparison of Mason with the best attacking players in the world and the best young players in the world for this season. Maybe you will get a big surprise about how good he really is.

 

[arthurka]

Has anyone noticed how is passing has developed?

He can really make some nice and accurate passes especially long range ones.

It does make me sad that I haven't seen him centrally and watching him potentially develop to a striker with some good interplay ability from arguably with both feet aswell.

No I haven't seen him pass the ball to be fair. He seems to have forgotten that part of the game.

 

[CloneMC16]

No I haven't seen him pass the ball to be fair. He seems to have forgotten that part of the game.

He usually does when he's deeper in midfield. He made a couple really good cross field passes against Villa. He usually doesn't pass when he's near the oppositions box and sees an opportunity to shoot.

 

[EtH]

We’re gonna ruin this lad aren’t we.

 

[Mr PG]

Greenwood is a graceful footballer, a joy to watch.

Learning to pass will come from a carrot and cake coaching method. Ralf will let him know his selection decisions will be affected by his decision making… can’t keep ignoring open teammates. Greenwood maybe doesn’t do it with ill intent but by over conviction he will score every time because he certainly is capable… but is gonna have to learn to pick and choose when to pass when to shoot. Lad’s never gotten proper coaching before

 

[bond19821982]

People sometimes forget that he is only 20.

 

[Mr PG]

People that are saying he must be our striker... are they saying that he should be the only striker in the team in a 4-3-3?

I don't think he can be a ST in a top team with the way he is performing, without being capable of winning a single header, being this lazy, being 1.80m tall, and scoring 5 goals in more than 20 games.

Just to put into perspective his numbers he has 5 goals and 2 assist, almost the same as Ansu Fati in a horrible Barcelona , but Ansu played half the games after a really big injury. He isn't a world class talent. Maybe he can be as good as Sterling in his good days if he stops being selfish, learns something, and starts having a football brain ... Being like Sterling it's not bad, but for a team like Manchester United he won't be a superstar.

Maybe he is just desperate to inflate his numbers before he renews his contract, and that's maybe the reason why he is trying so hard to score goals. Anyway in his current form he is a mediocre winger with just 2 assists in more than 20 games. I hope he goes to the bench in the next games and we give the oportunity to team players like Elanga and Sancho.

Many people on here love to compare the numbers of Ronaldo, De Gea, Cavani, Varane with other players. I would love to see the comparison of Mason with the best attacking players in the world and the best young players in the world for this season. Maybe you will get a big surprise about how good he really is.

Funny to see any striker being judged when the midfield behind you is McFred… serious. When is the last time they laid a ball for him on a plate?. Forget a Dm we need Ruben Neves who can do both and control the game.
It’s very hard to make all your own goals and even Ronaldo And Cavani are struggling.