Thanks for replying. That's quite a good summary. I appreciate it.
MU Tour 2024 - Back to the US
- Thread starter MyBloodIsRed
- Start date
Agree about Collyer, Wheatley and Amass. Amass I've got most hope in, but age and size wise the others have better chance of making an earlier breakthrough.
I'd be very surprised if Hannibal didn't have a better career than the likes of the others you list - Oyedele, Ennis, Fish, Mather, Bennett, Murray. Certainly think he has a much higher ceiling than any of those - as the level of loans he's been on suggest - and, ability wise, should be included with the other three.
However it doesn't look like he's going to get chances under ETH. But I can certainly see him reaching higher levels elsewhere than those other players when they also subsequently leave.
It's probably not very accurate though!
Maybe not
but it gives me a idea of who to look at for.Re: Hannibal. I think what we see in these small pitch exercises is that the players who can use their body/physicality really well (McTominay) dominate, and those who have exceptional close ball control skills (Sancho) look good because they don't lose the ball, but those who are neither end up looking a little lost.
It's easy to play hard for 20 minutes on a small pitch with a 7v7 set up, but playing full pitch for 70, 80 minutes is where the proverbial rubber hits the road, and that's where someone like Hannibal does better. It's why McT doesn't do as well in games, because it takes him forever to get into the positions he finds himself in when he's doing 7v7, and when he does, he scores. He's just kind of blunted in full field ball. I personally am fecking useless in indoor football, but when I'm out full pitch or 7v7, I bring something to the table. Hannibal doesn't seem to have the body or the feet for 7v7.
That's probably why you have to scout a player multiple times in actual games and note how they start and how they end a match.
One thing that ran through my mind while watching these players is, if the UCLA men's team were out there training with them, would someone like Mount really look like he was $60million better? How does one even quantify the gap? For some of the youth players during these exercises, they mainly passed the ball to each other (had to have 6 passes before going forward) and then passed it to the other team.
I'll maintain, purely from a footballing perspective, sending out half the squad to the States, whilst the other half recovers from an international tournament is a terrible idea.
What's anyone getting out of it apart from the locals paying hundreds of dollars to watch loads of academy players.
On another note, I'd also love to know why Shaw isn't at least training with the squad given he only started one match in the Euros.
What's anyone getting out of it apart from the locals paying hundreds of dollars to watch loads of academy players.
On another note, I'd also love to know why Shaw isn't at least training with the squad given he only started one match in the Euros.
Insane prices; horrible for US fans. Even in the official app, you have to subscribe to see highlights of the friendlies. FFS. I was considering subscribing - I have done before. Absolutely definitely not now. Too cynical towards us punters.$300230 to see these. Trying to decide if it's worth it. Suppose it's cheaper than a flight to Manchester! I am going to the open practice on Friday night, though. There should be a nice MULA turn out.
Artificial turf should be enough to play somewhere else.
It wasn’t artificial turf. Grass was laid on top of the artificial surface.
It was clearly artificial they even spoke about it extensively on live TV.
It was clearly not, you could see the grass falling off when someone made a sliding tackle. Even the MUTV commentators said that it was grass.
From the match report...
BBC
"What kind of pitch was Arsenal v Man Utd played on?
The game was played on a grass pitch grown especially for the game and will be taken out on Monday to prepare the stadium for other events due to be held.
While stadium officials said the move was cost effective, when asked about the environmental impact, they said attempts to find another party to take the pitch had so far proved unsuccessful."
BBC
"What kind of pitch was Arsenal v Man Utd played on?
The game was played on a grass pitch grown especially for the game and will be taken out on Monday to prepare the stadium for other events due to be held.
While stadium officials said the move was cost effective, when asked about the environmental impact, they said attempts to find another party to take the pitch had so far proved unsuccessful."
This won’t happen but next summer we should have a European tour. Play in Ireland, France, Germany, Spain or something like that. One day fly in and out. Concentrate on getting match fit at Carrington. This would help the team no end. Oh well one can dream!
And thus the $250/tix