Players are fecked & it seriously highlights our severe lack of depth.

UnitedSofa

You'll Never Walk Away
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Jul 12, 2013
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We're going to lose a lot more games towards the end of the season & it won't be because of ETH's management or his tactics. Mainly it will be down to our lack of depth in the squad.

We are playing Europa League football on a Thursday and then playing at the weekend with mainly the same team. Where we would normally rotate a large portion of the squad. This season we're playing a full strength side both games. It's hurting us badly and we desperately need investment in January and the summer. Off the top of my head Dalot, Martinez (would have been Varane if he hadn't got injured) Casemiro, Rashford and arguably Antony if he too hadn't got injured would have all played every single game over the last couple months.

I know arguably if we were in the UCL we wouldn't rotate as much as we do for the Europa, but it would still affect us as our Squad is not deep enough to play midweek and weekend the exact same 11.

Feck knows when we are going to play our Leeds/Palace games because all of our midweek games are accounted for:



We are going to be royally fecked towards the end of the season, I was hoping for a top 4 finish this season and thought we'd manage it because we have improved so much. But seeing how knackered the players are I'm not as confident. Eriksen is a clear example of being knakered, he's not playing as well as he was because he's simply fecking tired.

ETH needs to start trusting the 2nd string players to do a job for him otherwise we're going to be injured a lot after the World Cup.
 
Yeah the depth of quality players in the squad is a serious issue. Probably will be what defeats our Top 4 ambitions and being successful in one of the cups.
 
Judas said:
He doesn’t trust the backup players and rightfully so. They’re mostly shite.
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But they can do a job. No harm in putting a few of them in for a game and do a job, today McT or Fred could have played instead of Eriksen.

We need better 2nd string. Lindeloff is not a good back up to Varane, someone like Pau Torres would be a much improved squad player. We should start looking at teams like City and have a full squad of 2 first 11's. So when one needs a break or gets injured, the other can come in and it would be no different.
 
We're gonna pay massively for going full strength in the EL.
 
No one who started today should start on Wednesday, well maybe except Donny.
 
Yep.

10 games played in the last month, with some key players missing for a lot of them. Shouldn't be any surprise it has an impact.
 
UnitedSofa said:
But they can do a job. No harm in putting a few of them in for a game and do a job, today McT or Fred could have played instead of Eriksen.

We need better 2nd string. Lindeloff is not a good back up to Varane, someone like Pau Torres would be a much improved squad player. We should start looking at teams like City and have a full squad of 2 first 11's. So when one needs a break or gets injured, the other can come in and it would be no different.
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We should have two top players for every single position. But we can’t get that without enormous investment in one or two windows. Gradual piecemeal improvements mean we are always a few players short. By the time we get one part of the pitch sorted, gaps will be appearing elsewhere.
 
UnitedSofa said:
We're going to lose a lot more games towards the end of the season & it won't be because of ETH's management or his tactics. Mainly it will be down to our lack of depth in the squad.

We are playing Europa League football on a Thursday and then playing at the weekend with mainly the same team. Where we would normally rotate a large portion of the squad. This season we're playing a full strength side both games. It's hurting us badly and we desperately need investment in January and the summer. Off the top of my head Dalot, Martinez (would have been Varane if he hadn't got injured) Casemiro, Rashford and arguably Antony if he too hadn't got injured would have all played every single game over the last couple months.

I know arguably if we were in the UCL we wouldn't rotate as much as we do for the Europa, but it would still affect us as our Squad is not deep enough to play midweek and weekend the exact same 11.

Feck knows when we are going to play our Leeds/Palace games because all of our midweek games are accounted for:



We are going to be royally fecked towards the end of the season, I was hoping for a top 4 finish this season and thought we'd manage it because we have improved so much. But seeing how knackered the players are I'm not as confident. Eriksen is a clear example of being knakered, he's not playing as well as he was because he's simply fecking tired.

ETH needs to start trusting the 2nd string players to do a job for him otherwise we're going to be injured a lot after the World Cup.
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We’re going to go on an awful run at some point. Like winless in 4 games or something. We simply do not have the squad and have to rely on players who simply can’t deliver.
 
No this is a poor excuse, Newcastle are flying and I would not exactly say they have some amazing first 11 and have to deal with missing some important players through suspension and injuries already this season. Good managers can deal with managing injuries and suspensions over a season, fergie was great at it, same with klopp, Guardiola etc..

If ten hag can only do well when he has his strongest 11 available then we have basically signed a cheque book manager like mourinho.
 
Lee565 said:
No this is a poor excuse, Newcastle are flying and I would not exactly say they have some amazing first 11. Good managers can deal with managing injuries and suspensions over a season, fergie was great at it, same with klopp, Guardiola etc..
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Didn't know Newcastle were in the Europa League.
 
One silver lining is that ETH will have more games and time to implement his ideas. I think that's why he's been putting out such strong XI's in the Europa League. Yes, our squad depth is very thin at the moment but at least for the players who have a future at United under ETH, it will be a opportunity to be fully ingrained in his philosophy.
 
OrcaFat said:
We should have two top players for every single position. But we can’t get that without enormous investment in one or two windows. Gradual piecemeal improvements mean we are always a few players short. By the time we get one part of the pitch sorted, gaps will be appearing elsewhere.
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Apart from City not one other team has that and even City have their shite backups like Ake.

Today might have been about tiredness but it wasn't about depth. Casemiro, Fred, McTominay should be enough to beat Villa. Elanga is also good enough for minutes.

It's too much of an excuse. Tactical setupl and selection were as much to blame today.
 
We've been a bit unlucky recently. Wr had three key attacking players injured or not fit to start. Both of our options that are comfortable to play RW were out too today. A big issue is at RB though as Dalot has played too much imo.
 
We have managed to have a squad which is bloated and lacking depth at the same time. Damning of the way the club has been managed in the last ten years.
 
Crap excuse, our attacking players have been poor all season.
 
Lee565 said:
But arsenal are...
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And their manager has been there for 3 seasons, gutted the squad and brought his own in to basically transform the team.

ETH has not been perfect with his rotation and use of the squad (players like Ronaldo/Fred) very questionable but this is a massive task that is not going to be fixed in the first 4 months of his tenure here.
 
criticalanalysis said:
And their manager has been there for 3 seasons, gutted the squad and brought his own in to basically transform the team.

ETH has not been perfect with his rotation and use of the squad (players like Ronaldo/Fred) very questionable but this is a massive task that is not going to be fixed in the first 4 months of his tenure here.
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To support that, he has clearly made a massive diffference. The defence is stronger, we look more solid and we are playing much better than last year.
 
UnitedSofa said:
What a way to move the goal posts
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But it's true and arsenal performing great and even though Newcastle have no European football they don't have a great 11 let alone much depth. Europa league should not have been issue when with the clubs we had in our group, we should have cruised through the group with a second string team but instead we struggled to get wins in a majority of the matches even when we had a lot of first team players in the starting 11.
 
Frosty said:
We have managed to have a squad which is bloated and lacking depth at the same time. Damning of the way the club has been managed in the last ten years.
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Yes it is pretty impressive. We have the most expensive defender off all time as fourth choice CB on the bench so you would think that would a strong bench but instead that defender is crap. Two midfielders on the bench who started a lot of games for Manchester United but both of them arent exactly world class players either.
 
OrcaFat said:
We should have two top players for every single position. But we can’t get that without enormous investment in one or two windows. Gradual piecemeal improvements mean we are always a few players short. By the time we get one part of the pitch sorted, gaps will be appearing elsewhere.
Click to expand...

No you shouldn't. That's how you end up with the shitshow that was last season
 
UnitedSofa said:
We're going to lose a lot more games towards the end of the season & it won't be because of ETH's management or his tactics. Mainly it will be down to our lack of depth in the squad.

We are playing Europa League football on a Thursday and then playing at the weekend with mainly the same team. Where we would normally rotate a large portion of the squad. This season we're playing a full strength side both games. It's hurting us badly and we desperately need investment in January and the summer. Off the top of my head Dalot, Martinez (would have been Varane if he hadn't got injured) Casemiro, Rashford and arguably Antony if he too hadn't got injured would have all played every single game over the last couple months.

I know arguably if we were in the UCL we wouldn't rotate as much as we do for the Europa, but it would still affect us as our Squad is not deep enough to play midweek and weekend the exact same 11.

Feck knows when we are going to play our Leeds/Palace games because all of our midweek games are accounted for:



We are going to be royally fecked towards the end of the season, I was hoping for a top 4 finish this season and thought we'd manage it because we have improved so much. But seeing how knackered the players are I'm not as confident. Eriksen is a clear example of being knakered, he's not playing as well as he was because he's simply fecking tired.

ETH needs to start trusting the 2nd string players to do a job for him otherwise we're going to be injured a lot after the World Cup.
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Think this assumes we have deep runs in the cup comps. Assuming not (in all), spare gaps will be there.

Said before, I’d love to win the EL but if it’s a choice between a long run (not winning it) OR getting knocked out and we focused on/got top 4, I’d take the latter every day of the week.
 
OrcaFat said:
We should have two top players for every single position. But we can’t get that without enormous investment in one or two windows. Gradual piecemeal improvements mean we are always a few players short. By the time we get one part of the pitch sorted, gaps will be appearing elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Not even Man City have 2 top players for every position. This isn’t Football Manager.
 
Owners will give the manager feck all in January
 
Tiredness is just an excuse. They play 2 games in 7 days. Arsenal Liverpool Chelsea Spurs and City do as well. Arsenal won were they tired? They beat Chelsea. Liverpool winning at Spurs. Are they tired? We beat Spurs a couple of weeks ago. Were we tired then?
We have a weak squad and/or TH doesnt trust the other players. We are playing without a top goalscorer. All the other teams mentioned have at least 1. Its a learning curve for TH, which after the summer transfer window our squad will be in a much better state.
 
Smores said:
Apart from City not one other team has that and even City have their shite backups like Ake.

Today might have been about tiredness but it wasn't about depth. Casemiro, Fred, McTominay should be enough to beat Villa. Elanga is also good enough for minutes.

It's too much of an excuse. Tactical setupl and selection were as much to blame today.
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Yeah it’s a pipe dream to have City’s depth. I disagreed with the team selection today as well.

Depth is definitely a problem though. If you have proper depth you can rotate and you don’t get as tired. If you have proper depth, you don’t get a big drop off when you can’t field your best 11; if the squad players were up to it, we would have won today. When you’re suggesting sticking Fred and Elanga in will solve the problem you’re on thin ice.
 
I don’t usually like sacrificing cup competitions to further ambitions in other competitions. Man United should have a squad that can handle 3 to 4 competitions comfortably. However the reality is that the squad isn’t good enough this season, we don’t have good enough replacements for the players in our 1st team and the lack of an out and out goal scorer is making hard work of matches. There might not be much choice but to rotate heavily in the cup competitions, take the hit if so and free up some time next year to play other league games and just get a bit of time off.
 
It was totally crazy playing a full strength side in the EL. Our reserves would have been more than good enough to finish second in that group!
 
ETH knows his best 11 imo, and he's played it a lot. Swapping 2 or 3 is OK. When there's more than 4 it becomes difficult. We all know Ronny shouldn't have played every game since the Chelsea one. That's because of illness and injuries. The Fulham game is a must win imo before we go on the world cup break.

Varane big miss him with Martinez was great. Lindelof is OK but can go missing , Maguire is well Maguire. Antony was starting to gell and Bruno is a miss when he's not there. DVB hasn't worked just sell or loan again and get another CM that will be in summer imo. Then we look at another CB as well. We've had a fair Window in summer so January could be interesting if players come available.
 
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