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2023-24 Performances


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4.8 Season Average Rating
Appearances
20
Goals
1
Assists
1
Yellow cards
2
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He did OK last night but I still maintain we didnt need him. Madisson would've been a much better option and he would've replaced Bruno in the starting line up.
 
He did OK last night but I still maintain we didnt need him. Madisson would've been a much better option and he would've replaced Bruno in the starting line up.

I agree that Maddison should have replaced Bruno, but who would play in midfield?
 
A midfielder can have a very good game and still lose.
No one said they couldn’t.

Please read what I’ve written then discuss because right now your making arguments I’ve countered & clarified on. . .
You may have missed it in an earlier post of mine but I’ve acknowledged Mount is a good player. I just don’t think he raises the level of the team anywhere near enough & the fact he played so well & we got the performance we did tonight hasn’t dissuaded that thought.
He did OK last night but I still maintain we didnt need him. Madisson would've been a much better option and he would've replaced Bruno in the starting line up.
We may well eventually need a Bruno replacement but Maddison would have been as bad a signing eventually as it doesn’t address the issue in the 8 again.

I understand Spurs have started well but neither player, given financial constraints, was the right player last Summer.

Maddison wouldn’t replace Bruno in the starting line up, he’d displace him currently.
 
If I expected him to ‘win games on his own’ I’d say it. It’s particularly hard to engage with a post that starts with such an extreme exaggeration.

What I do expect is that if he played as well as people are saying against that Galatasary team then the team not just Mount should be getting plaudits come 90 mins. He wasn’t playing away at the Etihad.

To expect that a good game from our key midfield signing should result in a marked improvement in team performance really shouldn’t be too much to ask for, that is not expecting him to win games by himself. The best midfielders tend to influence the game, that’s not them winning it all alone.


No. You don’t.
I don’t mean literally win it on his own but you clearly expect game-changing impact and obvious transformative effect. If not what are you even on about?
 
I don’t mean literally win it on his own but you clearly expect game-changing impact and obvious transformative effect. If not what are you even on about?
I’m genuinely confused that you see this as an issue. . .

Yes, I expect our big midfield signing to improve our game [have a game changing impact] and transform [I prefer the term improve] the way the team play.

If he’s not capable of both or either why bother signing him?

I’m now confused what you’re on about. Are you saying he should do neither of the above?
If he continues to show the influence [or lack of] in overall team performances whilst ‘a lot of the good flows through him’ we are fecked. He can’t just be average/barely above & the fact people are already settling into this level as acceptable is worrying.

I’m certainly not ignoring ‘all’ the good he did, I’m questioning whether that good can get better because it’s nowhere near what we require to turn things around.
 
No one said they couldn’t.

Please read what I’ve written then discuss because right now your making arguments I’ve countered & clarified on. . .
Him apparently having a great game & having no tangible impact on the teams output is concerning though.

So what does this mean?

Yes, I expect our big midfield signing to improve our game [have a game changing impact] and transform [I prefer the term improve] the way the team play.

And he has. He is better than playing McTominay there, so he has improved the team. The fact that Bruno and Rashford have become worse or over half of our team is injured or out because of allegations is not on him.
 
Not sure Mount is good enough to be the starting 10 at any top club tbh, that's why we only bought him in the hope he could play as an 8.

We needed a central midfielder this summer to replace the aging Eriksen, but Mount gives us zero defensive solidity in the position, despite taking a huge chunk of our budget this summer.
There was zero instances of Mount playing in midfield, at least for United. He plays as much a midfielder role as Bruno. Both are deployed higher up the pitch and given more attacking role. This is by design.
Notice how Eriksen operates in different (deeper) areas. There might be many things for which Mount deserves criticism, but our defensive woes are a result of ETH "DM and two attacking 8#" setup.
I do however believe we will need to push Mount deeper, or play him ahead of an actual midfield base.
 
So what does this mean?
Post is in response to another, feel free to click back through that sequence of posts. I’m not doing this dance.
And he has. He is better than playing McTominay there, so he has improved the team. The fact that Bruno and Rashford have become worse or over half of our team is injured or out because of allegations is not on him.
Being better than McTominay is not the mic drop you think it is.
 
I agree that Maddison should have replaced Bruno, but who would play in midfield?

Maddison is playing at Spurs how Bruno should be playing for Man Utd. Bruno sees the game too much in his own way. He isn't a ZZ, Scholes... they were both brilliant, but knew how to use their talents to benefit the team. And they were in the game for 90 minutes. ZZ played off the left, remember that. But he dropped deeper, drifted... just a far more clever player. Bruno is a v good player, but he is seen as undroppable by ETH, and this is a mistake.
 
Being better than McTominay is not the mic drop you think it is.

I don't think it is a mic drop. McTominay is a terrible player. Your point was that Mount hasn't improved our play, even though he has. Højlund has also improved us, but you won't see the effect as clearly because most of our players are out. The ones that are here have decided to play individual football, and give the ball away to the opponents (including our goalkeeper). He can have a sensational performance, but it won't matter because the rest of the team is in the dirt.
 
I don't think it is a mic drop. McTominay is a terrible player. Your point was that Mount hasn't improved our play, even though he has. Højlund has also improved us, but you won't see the effect as clearly because most of our players are out. The ones that are here have decided to play individual football, and give the ball away to the opponents (including our goalkeeper). He can have a sensational performance, but it won't matter because the rest of the team is in the dirt.
Mount was brought in to replace Eriksen who prior to being hacked down by Andy Carroll strung together a decent run of performances, he wasn’t bought to replace McTominay & you know it.

Guess we’ll know come February/March but he’s got quite the bar to get to the influence/level Eriksen provided during our unbeaten run last year.
 
Crisis = our best players are out of form. Neither regulon or hannibal gets into other top teams.
Absolutely true, although I don't see the fuss about Hannibal and why he's even mentioned here.
Anyway, the thing is Reguilon is just playing his role of a full back. He's just doing his job, same as Dalot (who has been one of our better players this season). But ETH has tinkered with everything else, I don't know what is Casemiro /Bruno AND Mount in this setup and I'm pretty sure they don't know either.
 
He should play on the right.

Erik has to integrate his workrate in the fluidity of the front three.
He's got the energy to press full backs.

A fluid 4-3-3 (4-4-2) with Casemiro and Amrabat middle with Bruno in front in a 433
Mount right - Rashford left - Hojlund top

to a

442 with Bruno - Mount wide and Rashford - Hojlund two up.

For that to work - we need Shaw back, and we need a proper right back to put those crosses in. Frimpong or Pavard...
 
A midfielder can have a very good game and still lose. He should still be applauded. A midfielder can also have a very bad game, but the rest of the team played well and we won. You make it seem so black and white.

Frenkie de Jong wouldn't be able to improve us much, because our midfielders are in stark contrast to each other, so while one wants to link-up, build and retain possession, the other looks to give it away and create single-handedly. It is absurd, and it's on Ten Hag. You can't buy a midfielder and force him to play with midfielders who don't want to play as a team. The solution is to get rid of midfielders who don't seek to approach the game this way, i.e Bruno and to a degree Casemiro.
Very good comment. However, I am not exactly sold if this is players doing what they want OR they are following instructions. I'm leaning to the latter option as only Bruno and Casemiro clearly are playing differently to Mount and Eriksen, plus I have never seen Casemiro play such way (and I've seen him a lot in Madrid days).
What is happening imo is ten hag wants us to play simple football, hoping something will come off. But it's counter productive as the whole team seems nervous as feck.
 
He's done well in all of his games since returning from injury. His off-ball movement and workrate is something most people won't realize but it's really important.
 
I’m genuinely confused that you see this as an issue. . .

Yes, I expect our big midfield signing to improve our game [have a game changing impact] and transform [I prefer the term improve] the way the team play.

If he’s not capable of both or either why bother signing him?

I’m now confused what you’re on about. Are you saying he should do neither of the above?
I’m saying he is a good player doing his job well and wouldn’t expect anything more for £55m which was what you seemed to have a problem with. It’s certainly not just me, loads of people, fans and pundits alike are saying he played well. It’s you who is saying you expect more which I think is unrealistic. He’s good but he’s not Grealish good or Bellingham good or, going back, Lampard good. He’s what £55m buys you.
 
Maddison is playing at Spurs how Bruno should be playing for Man Utd. Bruno sees the game too much in his own way. He isn't a ZZ, Scholes... they were both brilliant, but knew how to use their talents to benefit the team. And they were in the game for 90 minutes. ZZ played off the left, remember that. But he dropped deeper, drifted... just a far more clever player. Bruno is a v good player, but he is seen as undroppable by ETH, and this is a mistake.

For a creative player, Bruno just isn't intelligent enough. Makes too much mistakes which gets overlooked because he'll get an assist or a goal.
 
He will be our main attacking midfielder in a season or two. Bruno is 29 already, Mount is just 24. Bruno needs to stop being so erratic or he should be dropped. He loses possession in the most silly ways but I'm yet to see that from Mount.
 
We’ve got a lot of problems in our team but he ain’t one of them. Seems to be growing in to the squad and he is really good at a lot of the things we need in the team. If we were a fully functioning unit he would flourish. Sadly, we are not
 
With some luck, he could've had a goal and an assist. Hannibal stopped a shot that seemed destined to hit the net, and Hojlund's touch deserted him when he was through on goal from Mount's great pass.

Apart from that, he was tidy as usual and unlike the rest of his teammates didn't constantly lose the ball.
 
The one attribute he has that Bruno will never have is the ability to just move with the ball under pressure.
Bruno avoids any sort of physical battle when on the ball, trying flicks and hopeless passes to avoid pressure. Normally this won't be a problem for an inform Bruno as he is pretty good at creating space for himself and picking the right passes but currently the man is just out of rythm.
 
I would totally drop Bruno, play Mount as the attacking midfielder, and play a proper winger on the right.
 
Only noticed it watching the highlights, but that was a nice pass he put in to Hojland for his offside goal.
 
Maddison is playing at Spurs how Bruno should be playing for Man Utd. Bruno sees the game too much in his own way. He isn't a ZZ, Scholes... they were both brilliant, but knew how to use their talents to benefit the team. And they were in the game for 90 minutes. ZZ played off the left, remember that. But he dropped deeper, drifted... just a far more clever player. Bruno is a v good player, but he is seen as undroppable by ETH, and this is a mistake.

ZZ was never a 90 minutes player. He flitted in and out of games. He was just that bloody good when he flitted in.
 
I thought he was good last night, good balance of pressing the opposution with decent passing range when he had the ball. Im not gunning for Bruno here, who I still think is a key player, but I wouldn't seeing Mount as the main attacking threat without Bruno on the pitch. Mount is a lot more conservative, which given how wide open we are right now, might be a good change.
 
Absolutely true, although I don't see the fuss about Hannibal and why he's even mentioned here.
Anyway, the thing is Reguilon is just playing his role of a full back. He's just doing his job, same as Dalot (who has been one of our better players this season). But ETH has tinkered with everything else, I don't know what is Casemiro /Bruno AND Mount in this setup and I'm pretty sure they don't know either.

Maddison is playing at Spurs how Bruno should be playing for Man Utd. Bruno sees the game too much in his own way. He isn't a ZZ, Scholes... they were both brilliant, but knew how to use their talents to benefit the team. And they were in the game for 90 minutes. ZZ played off the left, remember that. But he dropped deeper, drifted... just a far more clever player. Bruno is a v good player, but he is seen as undroppable by ETH, and this is a mistake.
Like Borys said, I believe this is on the manager, Bruno is either doing what he is told, or it's being tolerated by ETH. He used to play further up the pitch and almost as a second striker under ole, it's only under ETH that he's been asked to play even more chaotic than he's used to. Casemiro is another example of this, look at his heat map, does that look like a DM?

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No matter how you look at it, ETH is the one who picks Bruno, he's the one who coaches the team and sets up the tactics. Bruno is simply a reflection of that.
 
Play this guy in the hole behind Hojlund and he'll get double-digit assists, easily
 
I also thought he was probably one of our best players last night. Good energy, some nice touches, good interlink play with team mates, got into scoring positions and tracked back. What more do you want?
Goals… Assists… Win a game or two
 
I thought he was good last night, good balance of pressing the opposution with decent passing range when he had the ball. Im not gunning for Bruno here, who I still think is a key player, but I wouldn't seeing Mount as the main attacking threat without Bruno on the pitch. Mount is a lot more conservative, which given how wide open we are right now, might be a good change.
Agreed.
 
Next step would be to see how Mount looks in front of Amrabat + Casemiro. Same goes for Bruno tbf.
 
Like Borys said, I believe this is on the manager, Bruno is either doing what he is told, or it's being tolerated by ETH. He used to play further up the pitch and almost as a second striker under ole, it's only under ETH that he's been asked to play even more chaotic than he's used to. Casemiro is another example of this, look at his heat map, does that look like a DM?

https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fedf6368c-8a3a-4f61-a266-3a5dbe3dc615_366x261.png


No matter how you look at it, ETH is the one who picks Bruno, he's the one who coaches the team and sets up the tactics. Bruno is simply a reflection of that.
Looks similar to Rodri so yes. A DM for a team that looks dominate the opposition
 
would like to see him get a run in as the advanced midfielder without bruno. Would give our team much more balance/possession than having bruno just spraying the ball to literally anyone on the field.
 
People are better off doing something else than waste their hate on Mount. His position wasn't necessarily needed, he cost a chunk of the transfer fee. Neither his fault. He's a good and solid player.

I can understand why he was bought. He's quick, he's good at pressing, he's got a good first touch so can play under pressure. It's a type of player EtH wants. He's essentially the DvB replacement, the player we bought from Ajax but didn't get.
 
Have seen enough of him to say that unlike that donkey Havertz (who would undoubtedly go down as the biggest flop of the transfer season), this guy would come good. Have faith lads.
 
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