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

Hammondo said:
I am saying we don't have good attacking players even if everyone is fit and ready,
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Yes, that would be zero depth in attack. But it’s probably true that the back-ups are even worse than the so-called first teamers.
 
Hughie77 said:
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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Yes, that sounds like good sense to me. I think I heard we aren’t spending in January but let’s see if that’s true.
 
The Irish Connection said:
Exactly. I highly doubt we will bring in anyone other than a bargain or a loan. Fans need to realize that these owners are not fit to run a club who should have very high standards every season.
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We need to get a CF in January. It’s not because of today’s match. We just don’t convert our chances the way we should. We would start flying with a quality CF.
 
ETH needs to trust our 2nd tier. Playing Casemiro - Eriksen every 4 days is not going to work. We need to mix it up a bit, Eriksen with McTominay worked well in a few games, and Casemiro Fred is the obvious choice. We will lose some quality on the ball, but what's good in having great ball players in the middle of the park if they can't run.

On forwards I have no answer.
 
we played against a team who basically have had a pre season plus 12 further games of pre season where they down tools and have played 3 games where they were interested v Utd who have played 21 games. the energy levels of 3 v 21 was apparent. Yes the team could have been different but it wasn't. Move on its a learning game for ETH.
 
As soon as we lost to Sociedad at home we were in trouble. I could see it coming. We've gone almost full strength every game since. The sheer amount of games in the second half of the season will be a big problem for us.
 
We would not have continued playing the first team in the EL had we won our first and most important game vs Sociedad, after that result he had no other choice and in the end it didn’t even pay off.
 
Borys said:
ETH needs to trust our 2nd tier. Playing Casemiro - Eriksen every 4 days is not going to work. We need to mix it up a bit, Eriksen with McTominay worked well in a few games, and Casemiro Fred is the obvious choice. We will lose some quality on the ball, but what's good in having great ball players in the middle of the park if they can't run.

On forwards I have no answer.
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Ronaldo out no matter what those yankee doodles are saying over his head. We cannot afford to wait until the summer
 
Say what you like about our backup players but one things for sure, they're good enough to beat fecking Omonoia and Sheriff.
EtH really fecked up not rotating more and now the world cup can't come soon enough for us.
 
GMoore23 said:
Say what you like about our backup players but one things for sure, they're good enough to beat fecking Omonoia and Sheriff.
EtH really fecked up not rotating more and now the world cup can't come soon enough for us.
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Nah. Antony, Sancho, Varane and Martial aren't injured because of not rotating. Sancho and Antony are ill. And Martial has been out all season. Which makes it harder to rotate anyway. Varane just picked up a standard hamstring injury that he tends to get now and then. The rest haven't been getting injuries, and Eriksen is the only one who looks tired/in need of rest out there I'd say.
 
GMoore23 said:
Say what you like about our backup players but one things for sure, they're good enough to beat fecking Omonoia and Sheriff.
EtH really fecked up not rotating more and now the world cup can't come soon enough for us.
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I fear a massive World Cup hangover for our players,yeah Erik definitely rotated in the wrong Europa League games.
 
700m or more spent by our last two managers before ETH and the group of players is dire. We are a broken and almost not functioning as a club.
 
arthurka said:
700m or more spent by our last two managers before ETH and the group of players is dire. We are a broken and almost not functioning as a club.
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Yeah spent dreadfully and too many different styles has set us back years that's for sure
 
I dont think I'm happy with the first 11 let alone the depth. I think theres loads of decent players who can do a job but a lot of them are square peg in round hole territory. I think theres a fair bit of junk that needs moving on too. This season is basically a salvage operation. Dalot, Shaw and Rashford are making a decent case for themselves but I'd say the rest of the squad pre Ten Hag have a lot to prove.
 
- Rest more in EL games. Get some kids out if needed.
- Ronaldo and Vdb to not play in meaningful PL games
- Maguire > Lindelof (for now)

I think that will improve us. We still have a pretty big squad even with the injuries.
 
Can't just blame all these games in October because Arsenal had to deal with it too,easy excuse that one if you ask me
 
United lack both strength in depth but also quality as XI. A number of first team players are simply not suited for ETH's game. For example we're playing with no forward line while the only deep lying playmaker is a 30 year old guy with a pacemaker.

Our DOF needs to really step up at this point. He need to find buyers to our deadwood and he also need to unearth gems that would fit in our team without costing us a fortune. We can't sort every position with 60m-100m a pop. Can Murtough do that? I much doubt it tbh.
 
devilish said:
United lack both strength in depth but also quality as XI. A number of first team players are simply not suited for ETH's game. For example we're playing with no forward line while the only deep lying playmaker is a 30 year old guy with a pacemaker.

Our DOF needs to really step up at this point. He need to find buyers to our deadwood and he also need to unearth gems that would fit in our team without costing us a fortune. We can't sort every position with 60m-100m a pop. Can Murtough do that? I much doubt it tbh.
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Need a proper DOF
 
croadyman said:
Need a proper DOF
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I agree. If we can get our hands on someone like Michael Edwards then we can really start talking about a rebuild. Till then we're just painting over cracks.
 
Fred over VDB was a no brainer today, and while it's no guarantee it'd have changed the result it certainly would've given us more energy and urgency which we were desperately lacking throughout.

Is Fred good enough long term to be a squad option? That's a separate conversation, but he's world's better than fecking Donny, especially if Ronaldo had to start at ST given other injuries we were dealing with.

One thing is for sure, he should be rotating everybody for the League Cup match on Thursday. Blood some academy players for all I care, just don't bother playing those who you need for the weekend.
 
devilish said:
I agree. If we can get our hands on someone like Michael Edwards then we can really start talking about a rebuild. Till then we're just painting over cracks.
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Yeah we are still jobs for the boys FC,until that ever changes this rebuild won't have lift off
 
Our squad does have enough players, but the drop off from the 1st XI is severe. ETH doesn't want to take that much of a hit. Dalot, Bruno, and Eriksen have played too many minutes this season. Rashford, Martinez, and Casemiro are also going to get overplayed. Our main problem has been at #9, because Martial has spent 95% of the season out injured. RB has also been an issue, but AWB is back now. ETH is refusing to use him.

ETH is going to have to start heavily rotating, or we're going to see way more games like this. We can't expect to play 2/3 games a week, while also putting in good performances against mid table PL teams that are getting a week's break between games.
 
Was it tiredness? It felt like performances caught up with us. We weren't terrible, but Villa exploited us on the counter, exploited poor covering from our wingers and defended compact, which we have struggled with all season. Emery came with the tactics Villarreal used a year or so ago against us, where they should have trashed us.
 
Maybe we should have played a second string all through the Europa Group, but too late now
 
We have to accept that we are on a good trajectory, but we are limited because of our shite squad.

The manager doesnt trust the second team and rightfully so. Players like Casemiro, Dalot, Bruno, Martinez, Eriksen have no replacement right now.

Its a process, and we're ahead of schedule. A striker and some backup players next summer will do wonders for this team. Who knows, maybe in January even.
 
Forget about league and FA Cup this season. Would be nice to win one of them but top four is where it's at this season for us. It was only last season that Klopp bothered about the league and FA cup having been appointed in 2015.
 
I’d argue only Dalot and Eriksen have played enough games to claim they have an excuse for being fecked. All the others that played yesterday have had periods out of the team or been rotated this season (I’m not including Martinez because centre backs don’t really have this issue).

It might be that they’re fecked from Thursday night, which is a slightly different issue.
 
There is too much deadwood in the squad, some of whom should have been moved out ages ago. This means that putting them in the team when required results in a big drop in quality. We must have close to ten players who need moving on and replacing. We've wasted a fortune as usual: £50 million AWB; £50 million Fred; £80 million Maguire; £40 million VDB etc. A fortune down the drain.
 
It's so infuriating that we are not just scraping the Europa League this season. We are not good enough to compete in both competitions, but easily good enough for top four. That should be our full focus.
 
Judas said:
He doesn’t trust the backup players and rightfully so. They’re mostly shite.
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That's the nub of the problem, agreed. At least ETH has identified the issue, hence mediocre players who were previously playing every week now finally find themselves out of the picture. The issue, though, is the problems they cause when they have to play. It will take several transfer windows to rectify.
 
Arsenal players have more players with same number of high appearances as us. Tiredness is not an excuse. If Dalot and Eriksen are so knackered that they cant take on Villa with 18/19 appearances but Saka/Tierny/Martinelli etc can take on Chelsea then we have a problem with the fitness coach or we need to get players that can perform without being knackered all the time. Does playing a high number of games affect performances. Yes but its not an excuse and we should stop using it

Squad depth. We have a 80 mill England captain as 4th choice. A 50 mill RB. A brazil international back up midfielder. Sancho a 70 mill player as back up up front. Ronaldo one of the greatest players ever as back up to Martial. Or the other way around if Ronaldo is first choice. Then 40 mill Donny and McTominay who should be decent back ups. Ok now everyone will say but they are sht. Well yes they are playing sht but the quality of our bench is a lot better than most of the league and definitely should be enough to beat Villa.

Stop the excuses. We should be beating Villa, Burnley, Brighton with the squad we have and the number of games we have.
 
You wanna hear some good news?

Good thing the WC is coming.

95% of our team is so shit that most of them wont play a single minute in the world cup
 
It's a bad schedule but EtH should take some flack as well. Malacia should have started today or in the Sociedad game in place for Dalot.
 
Salus Populi Suprema Lex said:
There is too much deadwood in the squad, some of whom should have been moved out ages ago. This means that putting them in the team when required results in a big drop in quality. We must have close to ten players who need moving on and replacing. We've wasted a fortune as usual: £50 million AWB; £50 million Fred; £80 million Maguire; £40 million VDB etc. A fortune down the drain.
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Yes thats the problem. We signed Maguire and paid a fortune, no one else was in for him. Same for AWB, same for Sancho. We signed Fred and Ronaldo because we were duped they were signing for City. VDB was the odd one. We had just signed Bruno a year before, yet with other neccessities, we sign another similar position player.
I am hoping we havent signed another big money little impact player in Antony. £86 mill when no one else after him.
 
Salus Populi Suprema Lex said:
There is too much deadwood in the squad, some of whom should have been moved out ages ago. This means that putting them in the team when required results in a big drop in quality. We must have close to ten players who need moving on and replacing. We've wasted a fortune as usual: £50 million AWB; £50 million Fred; £80 million Maguire; £40 million VDB etc. A fortune down the drain.
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Fred's a starting centre mid for the favourites to win the World Cup and people think him being on the bench is indicative of a lack of depth?
 
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