Samid
He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir
These kinds of posts from you aren't at all repetitive.
My previous three posts in this thread. You're completely right. They aren't repetitive.
I totally see his point of view regarding the subs. After lockdown he simply had to do it this way or else there's no chance in hell we'd be in a position where we control our top 4 destiny before the final game. The subs simply aren't good enough. The drop off in quality is staggering the moment we try to rest even a single player.
So who do people want to see instead? We can't start the likes of Mata, Lingard, Pereira, James, Ighalo in must win Premier League games. Not one of them. We simply can't. The only players we're then left with are McTominay and Fred.
McT has had a good season on personal levels. He has played to the best of his ability but the reality is that he's a limited player. Against the calibre of opposition we've faced post lockdown he's pretty useless. Just watch some of the games from earlier in the season. He's not a DM, he doesn't have the defensive awareness. We were leaking goals while he was playing and as soon as he got injured we starting holding clean sheets. Not a coincidence. He's not a proper B2B mid either, doesn't make those driving runs, simply isn't attack minded. It's not a coincidence either that his best games have come against better opposition. We defend in bigger numbers so his defensive frailties are masked. We run around more and play with a higher energy, his best attributes. And the onus isn't on us to dominate the ball so his attacking frailties are also hidden.
Fred is a weird one. He clearly has the ability but a bit like Carrick it takes him 6-8 games to hit form. But Carrick was a nailed starter, we could afford playing him into form. Fred is nothing more than a rotational player when everyone is fit. Rotational players need to be able to slot in immediately and do a job. They need to be ready whether it's a sub appearance or they're handed a start for injury/fatigue reasons.
So no complaints from me regarding the starting lineups in the league. Has his use of subs been good enough? No but then again, look at the options. Fred got 30 mins vs Soton and we barely touched the ball after he came on. Lingard vs Palace has probably been our best sub the last month or so and he did nothing apart from running around and be... Lingard. Our bench options are simply hideous.
Only sub I feel he should have done was bring on Ighalo vs Soton for his hold up play. He did Bruno > McT but Bruno > Ighalo would have been so much better. Bypass their press by hoofing it to Ighalo, with James, Martial, Rash providing support to keep the ball in their half. Yes the Williams injury was unfortunate but we got into our shell and ultimately paid the price with two dropped points.
Where I'd say Ole got it totally wrong was the FAC game. He got caught up in several minds: 1) He speaks highly of the FAC, it's a competition he loves and wants to win. Heart says go with a strong team. 2) CL is more important, more trophy opportunities will come down the road, plus we have 48h less rest than Chelsea. Head says rest as many players as possible. 3) Don't make too many changes or else it will get sluggish like the Norwich game. In the end the approach wasn't one or the other. He made some changes
The last few games haven't been pretty but if we get over the line on Sunday it'll sure be worth it. Ole is sending a quite obvious message that he'd rather run the 11-12 best players into the ground than trust fringe players that simply aren't good enough. In the summer there needs to be serious discussions between him, Woodward and the hierarchy regarding the squad depth. Look at Chelsea's bench last night. Look at the two players they've already signed. Look at the player they're almost certainly going to sign. And then look at our bench. We're 3-4 class players short. We simply have to invest.
Yeah not really. Mourinho was throwing players under the bus in public, creating toxic rivalries between young players, and was a self-obsessed sourpuss at all times. Amongst many other things. And if you did as little as one small thing that he didn't like he'd blacklist you for the rest of his time at the club.
Ole is the complete opposite. You won't hear him say one bad word about his players in public but behind the scenes he's phasing out players that don't deserve to be here. He's not holding grudges against anyone, if you deserve to play you'll play. Matic and him had a few disagreements at the start of the season but they sorted it out like grownups should be doing.
If you look at the 18 man squad from the Everton game, 12 of those players are either already gone or aren't even trusted to play a single minute at home against West Ham. We had 5 subs last night but only used 2. Shipping all the deadwood takes time, you can't sell them all overnight. Pool still have Lallana on their books and he has been surplus to needs for quite a while now.
The difference between now and the previous 6 years is that we're seeing a definite plan. Under Ole there's a method to the madness in the transfer window. Yes Maguire was overpriced and he isn't the best CB in the world but him along with AWB have shored up the defence. We've conceded 18 fewer than last season. Maguire is 90 minutes away from becoming our first ever present outfield player for 25 years.
Bruno doesn't only improve us quality wise but his work rate and character is also great. Under the previous regimes we had back-to-back-to-back windows where we signed Fellaini, Mata and Di Maria. Three completely different players who prefer to occupy more or less the same positions on the pitch. No real plan, no background checks, just random stabs in the dark and hope something works. Gross mismanagement for so many years.
Mourinho's was a complete misfit for Manchester United. If it was up to him we'd be seeing Perisic and Willain on the flanks hoofing it to Lukaku and Feliiani in the box right now. Rashford and Martial would be tearing it up for other teams and be our versions of Salah and KDB. No one outside of the club would have even heard of Greenwood.
Players like Sancho are willing to join because they can see A) a great environment for young players (which was one of the main reasons he joined Dortmund in the first place), and B) a solid team in the making which will start challenging for trophies in due course.
Haters can take a break for a couple of weeks.
