Our bench yesterday

It's a non thread.
11 first teamers out, and people are surprised we have to dip into youth teamers on the bench!
Having so many youth teamers on the bench is something that makes me proud to be a United fan.

It’s the lack of potentially game-changing firepower that makes it so awful for me. And how it’s a reminder that we hang onto duds (Donny) for far too long.
 
It is, but it's also the way money has gone.

When you look at 100m for Rice and the 2 Chelsea mids, it's worrying to think how much a rebuild will cost.
We should not look at that type of recruitment. It is not feasible economically (we are already in deep shit financially) and it likely won't work.

Essentially, we should sign only promising hungry young players who do not cost that much, and complement them with players who are out of contract. The likes of Akanji from the first group, and Markus Thuram from the second. Thuram in particular was a no brainer, he would have been free, is already far better than Hojlund and could be a good choice for a couple of years until we can find something better. And we weren't going to compete in the next 2 years anyway.

However, we seem to have a fetish for signing players who cost at least 50m, regardless of their position (Onana, Lisandro), experience (Hojlund), age (Casemiro), or ability (Mount, Antony). Which then of course come with high salaries. Until we get out of this cycle, I am afraid it won't get better. Screw the next 2 years, the most important thing would be to rejuvenate the squad, sign lots of good young players, and get rid of the current crop of players (pretty much everyone except Garnacho and Mainoo should not be safe).
 
I was hoping to see Hughill on the bench just incase there was someone required for chasing the game in the last 10 minutes. Instead we have to bring on Regillion, hoping that he could put in a cross.
 
Mid Jan five or six of the injured players are meant to return so hopefully benches as weak as that one won't be seen as much in 2024.
 
We have an astomishing injury list, literally all season long. Not to mention a key talent missing through self suspension (Sancho) but most people prefer to pretend we are at full strength and have just recruited badly.

In fairness if we look at the list of players out how many can we trust.

Hojlund isnt scoring. Casemiro has been poor this season. Lindelof and Maguire are as likely to have a stinker as a good game and should have been upgraded long ago. Mount has been underwhelming when he has played, Martial a busted flush and Malacia and Amrabat are out of their depth. Only Martinez can claim to be money well spent.
 
Personally I loved that bench.

Young players desperate for a chance.

People on this forum have been screaming for EtH to give these players a chance, now they are getting that chance the Caf moans above weak our team is.
 
  • Bayindir
  • Reguilón
  • Diallo
  • Pellistri
  • van de Beek
  • McTominay
  • Gore
  • Mejbri
  • Kambwala
In terms of potential game changers, can anyone list a bench from another top half PL team which is worse than what we had available yesterday? Can anyone name a worse Manchester United bench at any time in PL history?

I don’t really know how we ended up here but our lack of firepower on the bench is really quite something. PL teams aside, the gulf in quality between our subs and those of top CL sides is astonishing.

Yeah, enough with the excuses. How about Notingham Forests bench

O. Vlachodimos
Nuno Tavares
Joe Worrall
Neco Williams
Harry Toffolo
Willy Boly
Orel Mangala
Cheikhou Kouyaté
Callum Hudson-Odoi

We had players on the pitch worth as much as almost all of Forest. Like to see what ETH would have done if he was managing Forest for the game, he would have lost. Thats what.
Just more excuses.
 
Yeah, enough with the excuses. How about Notingham Forests bench

O. Vlachodimos
Nuno Tavares
Joe Worrall
Neco Williams
Harry Toffolo
Willy Boly
Orel Mangala
Cheikhou Kouyaté
Callum Hudson-Odoi

We had players on the pitch worth as much as almost all of Forest. Like to see what ETH would have done if he was managing Forest for the game, he would have lost. Thats what.
Just more excuses.

Literally nobody has used our bench as an excuse for losing against Forest. Not a single post in this thread has done that. But whatever. You do you.
 
With the money we've spent (2nd or 3rd most expensive spending in the league), squad depth shouldn't be our excuse.
 
In 50 years ive never known an injury list and illness like this one.
The bench wasn't the strongest but with everyone fit its a different story.
Hojlund Shaw casamiro Mount Lindelof Amrabat Martial Licha Marguire and more.. you could make a First team 11 from those missing.
 
  • Bayindir
  • Reguilón
  • Diallo
  • Pellistri
  • van de Beek
  • McTominay
  • Gore
  • Mejbri
  • Kambwala
In terms of potential game changers, can anyone list a bench from another top half PL team which is worse than what we had available yesterday? Can anyone name a worse Manchester United bench at any time in PL history?

I don’t really know how we ended up here but our lack of firepower on the bench is really quite something. PL teams aside, the gulf in quality between our subs and those of top CL sides is astonishing.
Are we meant to account for 10 injuries and carry a squad of 40? Look how thread bare City’s squad is. They just don’t have injury issues like we do.
 
Recently our injuries seem to be a real issue. i suspect our infrastructure here is probably as bad as it is in other areas. City probably are just world class at monitoring player condition, optimising training and recovery etc. We seem to frequently over play players etc. It’s yet another issue to be looked at.

You could also add two players that should be potential game changers to the list of those unavailable Sancho and MG.
 
  • Bayindir
  • Reguilón
  • Diallo
  • Pellistri
  • van de Beek
  • McTominay
  • Gore
  • Mejbri
  • Kambwala
In terms of potential game changers, can anyone list a bench from another top half PL team which is worse than what we had available yesterday? Can anyone name a worse Manchester United bench at any time in PL history?

I don’t really know how we ended up here but our lack of firepower on the bench is really quite something. PL teams aside, the gulf in quality between our subs and those of top CL sides is astonishing.
Part of the reason is that our manager, despite facing the sack, refuses to find a professional way to reintegrate a player who he has fallen out with over a trifle.

I get it that he wants to lay the rule and doesn't want to be challenged but we are anyways at rock bottom. He needs to be the bigger person and give Sancho a way to save face and play some football.
 
We are all aware of the ongoing injury situation.
But why is it taking so long to get these players fit again.
It seems like some of them have been out for ages.
I can understand when there are tears to joints or muscles. However, it just feels like we are slow in getting some of them back.
 
Hope we get less injuries this year. We just can’t compete in the league with so many players out.
 
In fairness if we look at the list of players out how many can we trust.

Hojlund isnt scoring. Casemiro has been poor this season. Lindelof and Maguire are as likely to have a stinker as a good game and should have been upgraded long ago. Mount has been underwhelming when he has played, Martial a busted flush and Malacia and Amrabat are out of their depth. Only Martinez can claim to be money well spent.
Not remotely the point. Anyone pretending having all those guys fully fit and available to play Forrest makes no difference is either a liar or doesn't understand football at any level. End of story.
 
In fairness if we look at the list of players out how many can we trust.

Hojlund isnt scoring. Casemiro has been poor this season. Lindelof and Maguire are as likely to have a stinker as a good game and should have been upgraded long ago. Mount has been underwhelming when he has played, Martial a busted flush and Malacia and Amrabat are out of their depth. Only Martinez can claim to be money well spent.

Trust them fully or not, you can't deny the possibility they'd make a difference. Casemiro instead of McTominay. Mount instead of Antony. Hojulnd up top with Rashford back to the left maybe.

That's a very different proposition. That's before looking at the other 3 to 4 players missing.

We only need a marginal improvement on that performance to get a result at Forest.
 
Part of the reason is that our manager, despite facing the sack, refuses to find a professional way to reintegrate a player who he has fallen out with over a trifle.

I get it that he wants to lay the rule and doesn't want to be challenged but we are anyways at rock bottom. He needs to be the bigger person and give Sancho a way to save face and play some football.

Yeah when I watch us right now I can't help but think the man to help this is....Jadon Sancho.
 
Hilarious how many random academy defenders LVG shuffled through, most of them because they were left footed and he had that weird "only lefties at LCB" obsession that ETH also seems to have.

(I realize that doesn't apply to McNair, who is right-footed and played on the right side, but still...)

The crazy thing with Blackett and McNair is they weren't even academy players who were particularly rated. Michael Keane was the highest rated at the time but got shipped out on loan, then Tom Thorpe, who I think did make one appearance before injury fecked him up. Fosu-Mensah and Tuanzebe were both younger but rated more highly, and came through a season or two later. It was egotistical posturing from LVG to be honest.
 
Over a billion spent over the past decade and this is the squad we end up with.
Yeah, quite shocking. Though tbf, it’s an injury ravaged squad otherwise the bench options would look somewhat better. Mount, Maguire, Lindelof, Shaw, Martinez, Casemiro, Amrabat, Martial, Hojlund, Sancho all unavailable for one reason or another (mostly injury). That’s an entire outfield 10, sadly. And I take it this isn’t even the worst the injuries have been for us this season?
 
Shock horror, when you’ve got multiple players absent for various reasons your bench is affected.
 
Yeah, quite shocking. Though tbf, it’s an injury ravaged squad otherwise the bench options would look somewhat better. Mount, Maguire, Lindelof, Shaw, Martinez, Casemiro, Amrabat, Martial, Hojlund, Sancho all unavailable for one reason or another (mostly injury). That’s an entire outfield 10, sadly. And I take it this isn’t even the worst the injuries have been for us this season?

If Hojlund was available he would have started. And less said about Sancho the better. All of which leaves Antony fecking Martial and no goals/no assists Antony as the most senior players we have available to try and turn the game, even if we don’t have a single injury. Our attacking depth is absolutely paper thin.
 
If Hojlund was available he would have started. And less said about Sancho the better. All of which leaves Antony fecking Martial and no goals/no assists Antony as the most senior players we have available to try and turn the game, even if we don’t have a single injury. Our attacking depth is absolutely paper thin.
It’s even more infuriating when you think about what we’ve spent on Antony and Sancho (not to mention wages) and yet our attack is comfortably the worst of the big 4/6 IMO. Hell, our attack is currently competing with the likes of Luton etc. for goals scored :lol:

After everything we’ve spent on our attack, it almost defies belief that our front 3 would all have been academy graduates if MG wasn’t so vile.
 
It’s even more infuriating when you think about what we’ve spent on Antony and Sancho (not to mention wages) and yet our attack is comfortably the worst of the big 4/6 IMO. Hell, our attack is currently competing with the likes of Luton etc. for goals scored :lol:

After everything we’ve spent on our attack, it almost defies belief that our front 3 would all have been academy graduates if MG wasn’t so vile.

Yeah it’s nuts. 150m quid’s worth of attacking talent on our bench seems like an embarrassment of riches. But then you realise that all this investment = Antony and Sancho. FML.
 
Yeah, quite shocking. Though tbf, it’s an injury ravaged squad otherwise the bench options would look somewhat better. Mount, Maguire, Lindelof, Shaw, Martinez, Casemiro, Amrabat, Martial, Hojlund, Sancho all unavailable for one reason or another (mostly injury). That’s an entire outfield 10, sadly. And I take it this isn’t even the worst the injuries have been for us this season?

Bud I totally agree! Our bench was only that bad due to injuries, obviously. But my overall point was that our squad is in a depressing state vs money spent. We should have a far better squad for what we've spent, but we're run like a circus.

Anyway, happy new year Ish. Hope all is well with you mate :) And here's to hoping that 2024 is the year that United sort their shit out.
 
It could age well but right now it’s atrocious.
The really shocking thing is the lack of any reserve firepower that can be brought on to get us a goal. There were some good or at the very least promising youngsters for defence or midfield, but nothing we can call on to punch a hole through defences, even of a poor team like Forest.
 
Our bench on 1999 CL Final:
Raimond van der Gouw
David May
Phil Neville
Wes Brown
Jonathan Greening
Teddy Sheringham
Ole Gunnar Solskjær

Majority were just meh.. Sheringham and Ole were bought for relatively peanuts.
 
Our bench on 1999 CL Final:
Raimond van der Gouw
David May
Phil Neville
Wes Brown
Jonathan Greening
Teddy Sheringham
Ole Gunnar Solskjær

Majority were just meh.. Sheringham and Ole were bought for relatively peanuts.

We can but dream of having strikers of the quality of Ole and Teddy on our bench. In fact, both of them would start every game for us this season.
 
Our bench on 1999 CL Final:
Raimond van der Gouw
David May
Phil Neville
Wes Brown
Jonathan Greening
Teddy Sheringham
Ole Gunnar Solskjær

Majority were just meh.. Sheringham and Ole were bought for relatively peanuts.
Five of them would go straight into our first team now. Hojlund would become third choice forward.

That bench doesn't look anything special relative to the incredibly high standards we had at the time. Ferguson was exceptional at building a squad
 
Bud I totally agree! Our bench was only that bad due to injuries, obviously. But my overall point was that our squad is in a depressing state vs money spent. We should have a far better squad for what we've spent, but we're run like a circus.

Anyway, happy new year Ish. Hope all is well with you mate :) And here's to hoping that 2024 is the year that United sort their shit out.
Yeah, absolutely. I think a little further up in this thread Pogue and I had the same conversation about quality versus money spent/wages etc. It’s been absolutely shambolic and how it was allowed to get that bad - for a club of our stature - shocking.

All good on this side bud. Enjoying the summer sun, albeit it gets a wee bit too much this side. Happy new years to you and your loved ones as well bud. Looking forward to and hoping Ineos can indeed put in a proper structure and start turning things around.
 
Yes it was a weak bench but obviously that's down to injuries - I doubt many of the other teams would manage much better with 10+ players unavailable

We did of course have similar injury crisis under LvG and I see a couple of people have already posted the rookie subs benches for those matches
 
We can but dream of having strikers of the quality of Ole and Teddy on our bench. In fact, both of them would start every game for us this season.

Five of them would go straight into our first team now. Hojlund would become third choice forward.

That bench doesn't look anything special relative to the incredibly high standards we had at the time. Ferguson was exceptional at building a squad
Wes Brown was just 20 y.o. And we only play with 1 striker. So probably only Ole from that list who is a definite starter. Who else a definite starter?

But yeah. SAF was just exceptional. Our starting XI was strong, and I don't know if it was so strong that it could carry that kind of bench; or it's just SAF having such a strong system and coaching that players would just slot in.
 
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Our bench on 1999 CL Final:
Raimond van der Gouw
David May
Phil Neville
Wes Brown
Jonathan Greening
Teddy Sheringham
Ole Gunnar Solskjær

Majority were just meh.. Sheringham and Ole were bought for relatively peanuts.

This also needs the context that we had 2 all time greats out suspended in Keane and Scholes plus Henning Berg injured.
 
This also needs the context that we had 2 all time greats out suspended in Keane and Scholes plus Henning Berg injured.
Us having Hojlund, Casemiro, Martinez etc all out who would be the first 11 players doesn't count then atm? Because whoever mentions that we have feck ton of injuries is "not popular" to the lot who want to bash our manager for poor results only.
 
For various reasons the bench could also have been:

Martinez
Casemiro
Mount
Maguire
Martial
Shaw
Hojlund
Sancho
Lindelof
Amrabat
Malacia

We can’t use it as an excuse but we really are suffering from absentees.
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