Our best players are also our biggest issues

[KikiDaKats]

Agree. Can you agree though, that Pep has never faced a situation like this before. His Barca had won the CL like 2 years before and only had to watch out for Madrid. Setting standards in that situation is different to the EPL in 2022.

Pep had his issues with players at Barca, it was his way or the highway from the off. I agree success allowed him to take the same approach to other clubs.

Bravery is the name of the game at top clubs.

 

[In Rainbows]

Agree. Can you agree though, that Pep has never faced a situation like this before. His Barca had won the CL like 2 years before and only had to watch out for Madrid. Setting standards in that situation is different to the EPL in 2022.

I mean you're right, but what manager will have the same situation as United? What is evident is that Pep has been incredibly tied to his tactics, and anyone that doesn't fit gets benched or sold. Ten Hag has been far more pragmatic. If anything, it is this pragmatism that is alienating a lot of fans. People will be more tolerant of results if the identity is clear for all to see, but results in dropped points. With Ten Hag, I can make out what he wants as there are patterns to our play (as much as people deny this), but his team selections and transfers are not always a clear answer to what his tactics call for.

The easiest way to notice this pragmatism is how different his Ajax side were to this United side. This clear distinction was not that apparent in Pep's sides, or Klopp's sides. Klopp had a clear identity from the start, and his defense leaked goals because there were clear weaknesses at the back. So the results were not there to start, but his identity didn't change at the start. He slowly introduced changes to be a little better on the ball only after his initial 3 seasons.

 

[Bobcat]

There are no pressure from everyone apart from getting top 4 which is reasonable, and maybe an ok run in the CL.

Ten Haag could have buy 30-40M players in numbers to fill the gap while readying the team in another 2 - 3 years. That's planning and professionalism. Maybe he dont last that long to bear the fruit of his works, but at this rate going 100mph and buying 70m players while not knowing where to put them and what is it they offer seems like a desperate move and selfish move for a shortcut.

Case in point buying casemiro for 100m, now he's losing his legs and needs replacement after only 1 year. Hojlund still need 2-3 years under GOOD team.

He's not a builder, he's a quick fix who naively think money solves everything

Get the basic right, we wont do as bad as we are even without 200M signing. Only when you get the basic right you start adding marquee signing

That what irks me as well. Casemiro is (was?) no doubt a great player, but spending that much on a player in the twilight of his career says a lot on where the priorities were. Arteta was shite in his first few years at Arsenal, but the transfers they made were all with the future in mind, and now they have a young squad of great players with great chemistry

No one in their right mind expected ETH to challenge City and Liverpool right away, but now we are looking at having to spend yet another 50-100 million to add fresh legs to CM and im not sure ETH has enough credit in the bank to do that

 

[Nytram Shakes]

We’ve had so many players over the last decade and spend so much money and so many different managers.
The problem isn’t these specific players it’s the structure at the club, the owners, the executives, the job for the boys culture, the laughable recruitment and scouting team.