To 'catch' implies they will have some sort of head start, which they wont. Spend your millions Jose, win your games and stop worrying about city.
Mourinho says it will be difficult to catch City next season
- Thread starter Adisa
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Well, the United job isn't meant to be easy.
The excuses are out early now. He needs to win it next season, I don't think the quality in the squads is as bad as it is made to be by his fanboys, just need to get the best out of them, which he has pathetically failed at.
Compare our defence to any of the top European teams and we dont even get close. None of the top european teams had to overhaul the team like we have ours in the last 2 years.
We are behind a very good City team. The only way to close the gap is by spending. The squad is not good enough.
It's really hard to find players worth 500k salary per week like Sanchez, will be very tough task to spend 150-200 millions Jose has in his transfer kitty already.
Our defence is better than City's, and a lot of other teams, our problem is attack, not the defending. We have rarely conceded 2 goals, and conceding three goals or more has happened maybe once or twice in two seasons under Jose.
Did we have an overhaul under Mourinho ?? We bought a few players and sold a few players, something that happens every year, I don't think that is an overhaul, nor do I think we need one. Also, on one hand, you say we have not spent enough to match City, then you say we had an overhaul, make up your mind, you can't have it both ways. Even if we did have an overhaul in your opinion, that should not be the reason that we still have the same problems as when Mourinho first came here. City also changed their entire defence,it did not stop them from winning the league and playing as a cohesive unit.
Simply spending is not going to win us the league, which is the goal. As long as we keep playing the same way we have these past two seasons, we won't win the league. Simply buying players is not magically going to solve our problems, and the way we play is entirely down to the manager. The squad is good enough, it is the manager who is not.
Its all about money and players. Zero responsibility on Mou. The cheque-book manager is at his best. If it is all only about money, then I expect him tobeat anyone bar City in the league and go far deep in CL.
Excuses, excuses. When when will he realize that he's and might be part of the problem too ?
Jose Moyes
The quality of player in our defence does not match up to top European teams. You are kidding youself if you think it does. We concede less because we actively look to protect them and we have de Gea in goal. They are also not very good on the ball, so that affects us going forward.
The overhaul is ongoing. The state of the squad when Jose arrived was shocking.
We have beat everyone else in the league.
Even if its the truth, he really shouldn't be saying that.
These are a brilliant couple of sentences. He manages to re-establish two prevailing narratives for next season before this one even ends: Not getting the targets he wants and being far behind City talent-wise.
Second season champions syndrome. City will not be as good next season as they were this season. It should easier if Mourinho lands the right player and motivate the team to fight like gladiator in an arena filled with malicious agent, lions and cobra.
The spending of City is a whole different ball game. Pep has signed twice as many players as Jose, so we obviously need more to play catch up.
The market is way too inflated and that wasn’t helped by City splashing 50 million a pop on fullbacks and players on the bench.
Chairmen around the world bracket United with City and PSG as teams to take the most money off. Even though, in comparison, we are way behind in available transfer budget.
The only one kidding himself here is you. You can keep deluding yourself that the defending is our problem rather than attack, that our defense is not comparable to top teams which is wrong, considering we have been consistently among the teams who have conceded the least amount of goals in a season. Also, if our defence is as shit as you say, then why has Jose not done anything about it ?? Oh wait, he did. He bought two players who are not being picked ahead of these supposedly shit defenders. Again, whose fault is that here ??
We are not having an overhaul, having a few ins and outs is not an overhaul. The state of our squad was not shocking, it was not great, but it was not shocking either. The only shocking part is Jose convincing some that the reason our team looks inept and lacks any kind of cohesion is because of the players not being good enough and him not being provided enough money to spend.
I never said the attack wasn't a problem. The team works as a unit though. Players like Smalling do not stand up to players like Boateng and Ramos. Only a deluded person will think so.
Jose signed two relatively unknown quantities for 30 million each. It's not comparable to the other top European teams. This was partly due to the fact money had to go to areas of greater need. Mourinho can get defenders playing above their level, but in the long run and to consistently win titles, you need better defenders.
The squad was shocking. I cant believe people still don't want to admit that. Go and have an actual look at the squad he inherited. The entire team was a fecking mess. That squad would easily be languishing with Arsenal right now. The best outfield players were Martial, Rashford and Mata. Rashford and Martial are young and inconsistent. Mata is a good player, but hardly world class.
That's the attitude! Able to spend whatever he can but knows he isnt as good as Pep so cant build a team to catch up to them. Our biggest hope to win the title with Mourinho is Pep getting and leaving, and I think Mourinho knows that.
Also with that "realist" approach, you would think he could try to build a proper entertaining football team. Being functional and unsuccessful in the end is entirely pointless.
Also with that "realist" approach, you would think he could try to build a proper entertaining football team. Being functional and unsuccessful in the end is entirely pointless.
The longer we keep the race alive the better, it being over before christmas mentally killed us, it was obvious.
City got twice as many players because they didn't lump 90 mil on a single player. They did outspend us but they spent exceptionally well in attack. Got the likes of Jesus, Sane and De Bruyne for cheap compared to the sums bandied about today. Plus they have had Delph in defense for a long time. So it's not just about the players for them.
He has already beat Pep to a CL and league title. He is fully capable of building a team to defeat a Pep side.
Did you notice who City have had in defense for most of the time? You think they are better than what we have? Yet they concede less and score more. You think it's only down to players and a defender who is not good with the ball at his feet?
A place to start closing that gap would be through spending wisely. If you have things working, build on it and directly address weaknesses. Dont strengthen strong areas and ignore weak areas. We spent 30m on lindelof... and I still dont know why. Hes a decent player, probably will turn into a good player eventually. Still a strange signing given our options. We signed Matic to replace last years player of the season. Matic was a good signing, but we didnt build on the few things we did right. We just replaced that. We had martial and rashford doing relatively well and playing a pretty big role in us being 2nd. Not world class, but decent, and happy because they were getting games and developing. Mourinho goes all out to sign Sanchez and both go on the bench and barely play.
Lukaku directly addressed a need. The other signings this season I dont think did. That doesnt help in closing the gap, so he has to take some of the blame because of the signings he made.
What He said was the obvious. He merely stated fact, don't know why some people said He played it safe. Do you want your manager to bullshit you that everything's fine? No, things need to change. A lot of things.
What's with the defeatist attitude then? He did it in the past, and my problem with him is I just dont think hes the same manager anymore capable of the same achievements. Okay in 3-4 years of the 2 of them competing, Mourinho would probably win the league once. But to go with the excuses and manage expectations before this season is even done gives the idea that he doesnt even believe in them. If not, then make huge changes and get something that he thinks can. Otherwise what's the point?
I used Smalling as an example. You can look out our entire back four if you want. It's not as simple as saying our defensive record is good, so our defenders are good. The whole team contributes to defending, but how much does our defence contribute to our transitions, counter attacks and delivery? Very little, especially compared to top teams.
The reality is we have a budget in a market which is inflated and will target us. City will also keep spending and keep that advantage in terms of squad quality. We have gaps to fill and regardless, this is top City side. It will be difficult, everyone knows that.
The spending of Abramovich at the time was a whole other ball game. Same with Citys. Fergie beat both with his limited spending. He shut up and just did his job and got the best out of what he had and knew how he could make us successful again. That's what Mourinho needs to do. Little comments like this are pointless in the grand scheme of things, but they just dont help an already pessimistic crowd (because of the football his teams play).
So because Smalling is not comparable to Boateng and Ramos he is shit ?? Do you think that if Ramos was here we would suddenly transform as a team ?? The team should work as a unit, but we still are not. You don't need world class players in n every position to play like a unit, and that is not down to Smalling or our defence, but on the manager.
Also, two unknown quantities, maybe to you, but both of them were regular players at their previous clubs, and they are the players players that Jose chose. Just because they are relatively unknown and don't cost 50 m each does not mean that they should be considered as shit. Not to mention, just buying players for big money does not mean they will be a success. It also does not mean that it can be used as an excuse for Mourinho. The fact is Jose bought these players, but he does not put any faith in them to be better than the supposed shit defenders and play them. Again, that is his fault.
The squad was not shocking, again repeating hyperbolic nonsense is not going to make it a fact. Shocking squad means there is nothing to work with, which was not true. The defence is basically the same we are playing with now, and even then our defence was good. He inherited a very flawed squad, we had too many squad players, but not top quality players. You say Rashford and Martial are young and inconsistent, why can't he get consistency from them. City have played with Sane, Sterling and Jesus in their team and they are similar in age as Rashford and Martial. We needed some quality players in midfield and attack, which Jose got, and yet two seasons on, he still can't get the team to gel. That is on the manager.
He has improved the team, but it does not bode well that he is already making excuses this early.
We needed someone better on the ball. Lindelof is a signing towards that direction, especially for the future. However, we couldn't go and blow 60 million on a player like Laporte after signing Matic and Lukaku. Both of those have been top signings for us.
Sanchez is a world class player and was available for a very cut price. You dont get many chances like that, so we took it. The squad needed more quality. If he had stepped into this team with players like Matic, Lukaku and Pogba already here, it's a different proposition entirely. That's not what happened though, the squad was dire.
He will not win against Pep neither in the prem nor in CL. Jose's best bet is that Pep leaves England and other clubs continue to spend less than us. He is past it and it will show in his third season at Utd. He will continue to moan about anyone or anything bar himself. Lindelof and Bailly have not improved our defense, Pogba is still misfiring after his brilliant Juve times, Ibra fecked off, Mkhi fecked off, Martial/Rashford/Sanchez all play in the same position, while we have no real right winger. Lukaku cost us the game against City and tested DDG better than any other Arsenal player, played crap for over a month was yet starting every game. Being the tallest team we are leaking goals from set-pieces left, right and center, while having spent close 300 mil quid we still do not know what is our best formation, starting eleven and we are hopeless in the prem and are impotent against fecking Sevilla.
Firstly, I never said Smalling was shit. Stop putting words into my mouth. There is clearly levels to this football thing, and he obviously is tiers below the best. If you cannot understand that, and that you can say the same for the entire backline, I don't know what to tell you. You seem blinded by the stats of how many we have conceded. Like I said, the team as a whole contribute to the defensive side of the game, how much does our defence contribute to our build up, transitions and delivery? Very little.
Who said he does not have faith in Bailly and Lindelof? They have good games, have bad games, like any player. They don't have to play every week and there is nothing wrong with playing Smalling if he is on form. Can we win the league with this defence? No. Go and look at City's defence last year and what happened to it.
The squad was shocking. I am not doing this again. If you want to believe that players like Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Depay, Rooney, Darmian etc aren't shocking for a Man United squad, you're deluded.
But our attackers like Lingard and Rashford don't come close to what the top clubs have either. That pair wouldn't get many games for Spurs never mind the biggest clubs.
Defence is the least of our problems.
So Mourinho wants another 200m for fancier colour paints?
Seeing a neon coloured paint dry on the wall would still be about as exciting watching regular paint dry.
Seeing a neon coloured paint dry on the wall would still be about as exciting watching regular paint dry.
You muppets don’t read shit. Sensationalist headline portraying it as Mourinho going out of his way to make excuses when his actual quote is not even close to it.
The thing is he is not tiers below the best, he is not world class, but certainly not as bad as you rate him. As for build up and transition, that depends on the manager. Smalling played under LVG, and had no problem in the build up and transition. Also, if Jose does not think he is good enough, then don't play him, yet Jose constantly starts him ahead of others. Jose just does not value it as much as you seem do, or else he would not have played. Also, if you stats don't tell the entire story, but they give a good general idea of a teams strengths and weaknesses. The fact that the same defenders have done well under two very different managers tell that they are not as bad as you believe them to be.
It is the fact that they don't start ahead of Smalling, even though as you suggest he does not offer much in the build up. If Mourinho trusted them, they would play. Mourinho has his favourites, and the ones he trusts always start regardless of form. Of course we can win the league with this defence, City have Stones,Otamendi and Kompany in their defence, and they are no better than what we have. Delph has played as their LB for majority of the season. Only Walker has been a big upgrade for them. Their defense is not better than ours, and they are winning the league easily. Smalling and Jones have both won the league previously, so it is nonsense that they are the reason we are not close to even challenging for the title. Again, our defense is not the problem that is stopping us from winning the league.
No wonder you think the squad was shocking if you consider a squad as only 5 or 6 players. You seem to only count the players that were not good enough as part of the squad, and not the ones that are good enough. Yeah you better stop, repeating hyperbolic nonsense won't make it true. And no matter how much money we throw at the team, we won't win with Jose at the helm with this shit football. Something he seems to know as well, so is getting his excuses out early.
I wish it was but our fullbacks would struggle to get into any top 6 clubs next season. Valencia could possibly go another season with good back up (great service he has given) but needs replaced or have genuine competition at this stage (cheeky bid for Seamus Coleman would be good). Left back needs rubbed out sell Shaw, Blind and Darmain and buy Tierney or Sandro and bring back Demi as back up with Young and possibly Rojo as extra cover.
I’m not that sure Alli has outshone Lingard this season to be fair and I’m not the biggest Lingard fan but Alli for me has been relatively poor (esp compared to last season) in a good functioning team (who for some reason or another we comfortably finished ahead of).
I think Rashford has been decent this season and should certainly be content with his game time (Rednapp shut up you trumpet) as that’s what his performances have merited thus season.
We tend to forget that although Fergie didn’t have the spending power of Abramovich at his disposal he did have the benefit of the class of 92 coming through a group of young players totally committed and devoted to United and blessed with unbelievable talent , you don’t need to invest too much on transfers with ,Becks ,Giggs,Scholes, Butt and the Neville’s exploding through the ranks.
These boys provided the backbone of the club for years to come.
Unfortunately in this climate of win or sack no manager will ever give youth a chance to this degree ever again therefore the transfer market is the only answer as sad as that is.
We have the a great defensive record once again but the problem is not that our defenders cannot defend it is that they cannot or will not attack and with full backs now an integral part of successful teams attacking options and with a big burly centre forward at our disposal our full backs are incapable of supplying the crosses to get the best out of him.
If Lukaku is to remain our key forward then we have to bring in attacking full backs to get the best out of him or once again we will be light years behind City and remain fighting the others for a top 4 slot
Dour words from a dour man
Don't agree. That was a once in a lifetime group of players coming through the youth team at one time. If they were all in the youth team today most managers would similarly promote them....well maybe not Jose. He would likely still play Fellaini and Young instead of scholes and Gary.
This is him telling Woodward to dig deep.