[Robbie Boy]

Very good again last night. I much prefer when he's not playing alongside Maguire.

 

[BorisManUtd]

Very good again last night. I much prefer when he's not playing alongside Maguire.

They're both central CBs so it's better when either of them plays with Yoro and Mazraoui on their sides.

Ideally de Ligt will be good enough to be our first choice for CCB position and overtakes Maguire, while Maguire remains solid option to have there until 2026.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Really really like him. One of the first on the team sheet for me.

 

[r3idy]

Would much prefer him in the Centre with Yoro one side and another fast one on the other. Really settling into the role well, also noticed he's starting to talk a little bit more and directing those in front. God know we need a few more leaders in the team

 

[JBG]

Would much prefer him in the Centre with Yoro one side and another fast one on the other. Really settling into the role well, also noticed he's starting to talk a little bit more and directing those in front. God know we need a few more leaders in the team

Exactly why my preferred 3 backline is Yoro/Maz-DeLigt-Licha/Yoro

 

[Dannn411]

He should not be shunted wide again once Maguire recovers. He is a much better defender and player and should be the permanent starting middle CB. Don't even know why Maguire was extended. Another utterly ridiculous decision.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

He should not be shunted wide again once Maguire recovers. He is a much better defender and player and should be the permanent starting middle CB. Don't even know why Maguire was extended. Another utterly ridiculous decision.

Because otherwise we would only have Yoro, De Ligt and Heaven as CBs. Maz can fill in but we re losing Evans and Lindelof, whilst Shaw and Martinez we might as well right off.

Makes perfect sense when we have a limited budget.

 

[Ali Dia]

He's one of our best players. So is Urgarte and Maz if he can get back to the level he showed when he first came in. I don't know how it's even possible that the team has backslid so much when we added better players than we had most of whom were experienced in the CL or coming off the back of a promising individual season (Zirkzee Seria A young player of the year) They have also all given full effort under both managers from what I can see

if ETH had stayed we might somehow have qualified for EL again but that's obviously miles off what we want from such an expensive squad. Let's hope our next few signings are as committed and as professional as De Ligt. If they are and we can find some attacking solutions then I think we will be ok again

 

[MadDogg]

Because otherwise we would only have Yoro, De Ligt and Heaven as CBs. Maz can fill in but we re losing Evans and Lindelof, whilst Shaw and Martinez we might as well right off.

Makes perfect sense when we have a limited budget.

I wouldn't say Mazraoui is 'filling in'. In this formation he's primarily a CB, and it's WB that he's filling in at (hopefully rarely now that we have Dorgu).

 

[justsomebloke]

I wouldn't say Mazraoui is 'filling in'. In this formation he's primarily a CB, and it's WB that he's filling in at (hopefully rarely now that we have Dorgu).

Totally agree. He's been much better at RCB than he has at RWB, and I'd question if he's got the qualities needed at the latter position in this system.

 

[justsomebloke]

He's one of our best players. So is Urgarte and Maz if he can get back to the level he showed when he first came in. I don't know how it's even possible that the team has backslid so much when we added better players than we had most of whom were experienced in the CL or coming off the back of a promising individual season (Zirkzee Seria A young player of the year) They have also all given full effort under both managers from what I can see

if ETH had stayed we might somehow have qualified for EL again but that's obviously miles off what we want from such an expensive squad. Let's hope our next few signings are as committed and as professional as De Ligt. If they are and we can find some attacking solutions then I think we will be ok again

I guess the question that raises is are they really significantly better players? They're obviously good enough to come in play regularly. But equally obviously, they have not elevated the team.

Personally, I don't think de Ligt has been all that impressive. Not bad either, but not impressive. He gets burned for lack of quickness - it's been a lot of times now that you've seen a forward just burst past him in the box. PL defenders who are challenged in that department usually deal with it by getting sufficiently stuck in to deny attackers the opportunity, but de Ligt seems to have too much confidence in his ability to control the play and stands off in those situations.

 

[sillwuka]

He's quite dependable is De Ligt.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

He's one of our best players. So is Urgarte and Maz if he can get back to the level he showed when he first came in. I don't know how it's even possible that the team has backslid so much when we added better players than we had most of whom were experienced in the CL or coming off the back of a promising individual season (Zirkzee Seria A young player of the year) They have also all given full effort under both managers from what I can see

if ETH had stayed we might somehow have qualified for EL again but that's obviously miles off what we want from such an expensive squad. Let's hope our next few signings are as committed and as professional as De Ligt. If they are and we can find some attacking solutions then I think we will be ok again

I doubt it. We were 14th when he was sacked. And we’ve seen too many times what happens when a doom spiral is established under a manager. The reason I think the new signings haven’t had any positive impact is that they all play in positions where we had plenty of cover. Apart from Zirkzee, who’s had teething problems.

This is the season where every goalscorer in the team has either been shipped out, for various different reasons, or become unable to hit a cow’s arse with a banjo. With inevitable results. That trend started under ETH and has continued since. Bruno is the one and only reliable goalscorer, along with Amad, for the month or two under Amorim before he got injured. And it makes the quality of defenders and defensive midfielders basically irrelevant.

 

[Leftback99]

He's one of our best players. So is Urgarte and Maz if he can get back to the level he showed when he first came in. I don't know how it's even possible that the team has backslid so much when we added better players than we had most of whom were experienced in the CL or coming off the back of a promising individual season (Zirkzee Seria A young player of the year) They have also all given full effort under both managers from what I can see

if ETH had stayed we might somehow have qualified for EL again but that's obviously miles off what we want from such an expensive squad. Let's hope our next few signings are as committed and as professional as De Ligt. If they are and we can find some attacking solutions then I think we will be ok again

Because they aren't better. De Ligt isn't better than Varane (but at least stays fit), Mazraoui barely an improvement on AWB and Ugarte is pretty average for me. Then we sold one of our only goal threats in McTominay. It's no wonder we didn't improve.

 

[justsomebloke]

I doubt it. We were 14th when he was sacked. And we’ve seen too many times what happens when a doom spiral is established under a manager. The reason I think the new signings haven’t had any positive impact is that they all play in positions where we had plenty of cover. Apart from Zirkzee, who’s had teething problems.

This is the season where every goalscorer in the team has either been shipped out, for various different reasons, or become unable to hit a cow’s arse with a banjo. With inevitable results. That trend started under ETH and has continued since. Bruno is the one and only reliable goalscorer, along with Amad, for the month or two under Amorim before he got injured. And it makes the quality of defenders and defensive midfielders basically irrelevant.

I don't think that can be it. How much cover did we have at RB or CM?

Effectively;

- Zirkzee replaces Martial, who hardly played last season. And now also to some extent Rashford, who played quite a bit as striker. In addition to which he now plays in one of the #10 positions.
- Ugarte replaces McTominay (who played a lot last season, but not in the same role)
- Mazraoui replaces Wan Bissaka
- De Ligt replaces Varane (who did not play much last season)
- Dorgu replaces Shaw (who also hardly played last season)
- Yoro is an extra body, but then we're now using 3 rather than 2 players in his position

That really should add up to net gain. But somehow that's not happening. And nowhere is it more baffling than in defence, where you'd think anything should be a very big improvement on last season's sick ward.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I don't think that can be it. How much cover did we have at RB or CM?

Effectively;

- Zirkzee replaces Martial, who hardly played last season. And now also to some extent Rashford, who played quite a bit as striker. In addition to which he now plays in one of the #10 positions.
- Ugarte replaces McTominay (who played a lot last season, but not in the same role)
- Mazraoui replaces Wan Bissaka
- De Ligt replaces Varane (who did not play much last season)
- Dorgu replaces Shaw (who also hardly played last season)
- Yoro is an extra body, but then we're now using 3 rather than 2 players in his position

That really should add up to net gain. But somehow that's not happening. And nowhere is it more baffling than in defence, where you'd think anything should be a very big improvement on last season's sick ward.

We can ignore Dorgu, who’s barely played. Zirkzee is a potential upgrade on Martial but, as I said, has had teething problems and is only just starting to come good. None of the other upgrades will make any difference to our horrendous deficit in front of goal. In fact, replacing McT with Ugarte makes the problem worse. And our inability to score goals is, by far, the biggest factor in our shitty season.

Defensively we’ve been integrating new players and our keeper has been a disaster since the turn of the season. So that explains the defensive issues.

 

[Marwood]

He's one of our best players. So is Urgarte and Maz if he can get back to the level he showed when he first came in. I don't know how it's even possible that the team has backslid so much when we added better players than we had most of whom were experienced in the CL or coming off the back of a promising individual season (Zirkzee Seria A young player of the year) They have also all given full effort under both managers from what I can see

if ETH had stayed we might somehow have qualified for EL again but that's obviously miles off what we want from such an expensive squad. Let's hope our next few signings are as committed and as professional as De Ligt. If they are and we can find some attacking solutions then I think we will be ok again

It's simple. We bought better defenders.

But we've regressed in terms of players who can create and score.

That's the only silver lining right now. The reasons aren't complicated and in theory improvement should be straightforward.

 

[RomfordRed75]

He really does leave everything on the pitch. I love the fact he gives 110% every game.