Well, lets just say, us fiinishing 2nd again in near future, would be as good as Leicester winning the PL again in near future.
But who knows, maybe next season we will see Leicester 1st, Man Utd 2nd.
Ronaldo: Stay or go?
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But who knows, maybe next season we will see Leicester 1st, Man Utd 2nd.
That's a hell of a stretch.
Actually I'm just stating opnions as opnions, its my opnion that I'm sharing in an Internet forum (I know how shocking).
The only fact i shared was we were better across every possible metric last season without Ronaldo. Make of that what you will.
I wouldn't say the 2nd place finishes under Solskjaer and Mourinho were "flukes" or "undeserved" as we often argue that pulling results out of performances that don't merit them is a positive. You can "earn" your results that way just as you can by outplaying your opponent for 90min.
But when you're looking ahead, performances are a better predictor of future results than past results. And what's absolutely true is that in terms of the actual standard of our play (whether measured through underlying statistics or even just the eye test) we were not the second best team in the league in those seasons we got the second best results. And therefore unless we improved our standard of play relative to teams like Chelsea and Liverpool's the following season, they were more likely than not to overtake us again.
But when you're looking ahead, performances are a better predictor of future results than past results. And what's absolutely true is that in terms of the actual standard of our play (whether measured through underlying statistics or even just the eye test) we were not the second best team in the league in those seasons we got the second best results. And therefore unless we improved our standard of play relative to teams like Chelsea and Liverpool's the following season, they were more likely than not to overtake us again.
That obviously won't happen.
But if it did, it would happen after 38 rounds.
Which means that the likelihood of it being a "fluke" is extremely low: there would be a reason for it.
This is a fluke:
A full league season in football doesn't allow for that. Your opponents may turn out to be weaker (for whatever reason) than most people expected - but that's part and parcel of the game itself, it's not a fluke.
ETA I suppose you could look at it like this: if you try - as José did - to portray a 2nd place finish in a relatively weak league as your greatest ever achievement...people will rightly call that bollocks. But on the other hand, finishing 2nd in a relatively weak league simply isn't something that happens if you have either a genuinely shite team/squad or a genuinely shite manager/head coach.
Or - at the very least - that would be statistically extremely unlikely.
(A relatively weak Premier League is still a strong league - you can't just fluke your way to finishing high in the table over the course of 38 rounds: that's a clear misuse of said term.)
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Liverpool's injury crisis was real and not exaggerated. It was not just two CBs that season, they lost Vandijk first, Gomez then, and Matip later (That's all three 1st choice CBs) but even then they managed to stay top till Christmas. By end of the year, they lost Fabinho I think, who was filling in for their CBs and Henderson there after who was also filling in for the CBs. Leaving not just a hole in their CB but also in their CM which is usually their key defensive area with the fullbacks moving up. So just dismissing it as nothing is simplistic. They played some rookie kid and a Championship level player. I think Chelsea under Lampard/Tuchel is overrated. They are more a cup team and if Ole had stuck to his camp and counter strategy, we would have pipped them to 3rd this season as well.
We are definitely not a better team without Ronaldo. He did what Cavani did, only several times better. A world class player like Ronaldo is not someone who destroys team spirits, highly unlikely. The guy is a winner, if anything his team should have been more motivated with him in the dressing room. Our key performers from last season failed because we moved away from the only system Ole Knew - low block, Hit and Run tactics. Ronaldo is not the reason the team failed. Ole's sudden highline exposing our slow CBs and attempts at gegen-pressing tiki taka (or whatever it was that he tried) without any of the know-how was the biggest reason we failed last season (players looked absolutely clueless on the field on how to press, how to position particularly in defense. Also some of the key players went off-kilt: Mason turned out ugly, Pogba mentally checked out, Luke Shaw bummed as an attacking force and these are some of the reasons why we failed. Definitely not Ronaldo. Ronaldo was a superfluous buy for us (it was done to prevent him from joining a rival). Not a very well thought out move, as we can't replace him easily with younger world class 9 which we so badly need, surely no world class player would want to be his understudy. We missed a trick there. But his impact on our failures is overstated. He is still a solid goal scorer and in my opinion should be kept unless ETH's system requires players to press from top (which he is never going to do for 90 mins).
I have read in a few places that, Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, is getting to work on finding a new club for his client ahead of next season.
The main reason for this is apparently Ten Hag’s style of play, which may not suit Ronaldo.
The main reason for this is apparently Ten Hag’s style of play, which may not suit Ronaldo.
It's been good to have him back but we need to move on as a club without him. I'm concerned though that he won't be replaced properly as i'm not sure our club realizes the window is even open yet.
Well fluke or not, I don't really care to be honest.That obviously won't happen.
But if it did, it would happen after 38 rounds.
Which means that the likelihood of it being a "fluke" is extremely low: there would be a reason for it.
This is a fluke:
A full league season in football doesn't allow for that. Your opponents may turn out to be weaker (for whatever reason) than most people expected - but that's part and parcel of the game itself, it's not a fluke.
ETA I suppose you could look at it like this: if you try - as José did - to portray a 2nd place finish in a relatively weak league as your greatest ever achievement...people will rightly call that bollocks. But on the other hand, finishing 2nd in a relatively weak league simply isn't something that happens if you have either a genuinely shite team/squad or a genuinely shite manager/head coach.
Or - at the very least - that would be statistically extremely unlikely.
(A relatively weak Premier League is still a strong league - you can't just fluke your way to finishing high in the table over the course of 38 rounds: that's a clear misuse of said term.)
But bottom line is, Leicester has as much chance of winning the PL again as Man Utd finishes 2nd again in near future.
If we are going to trust such articles, all I can say is that desperation has hit its peak. By now it is very clear that the media will write anything to ride on the sentiment of the fans. Don't waste your time looking for these articles.
The BBC "gossip" section today has Ronaldo going to Roma. I have never clicked into those pages, but can't remember ever seeing the initial headline being right about United.
We didn't actually play all that different under ole at the start of this season to what we were playing at the end of last season, same formation and pretty much the same tactics with 2 key personell differences the GK and the CF. One is the most un proactive GK in the league pretty much makes it impossible for the defenders to be able to successfully defend higher up because they get no help from the GK also makes it very difficult to successfully play out from the back with his poor distribution and lack of willingness to come and get involved with the build up. And the other is a very demanding diva who wants everything played towards him, world class goalscorer no doubt but made our attacks fairly predictable and he also dosent consistently work defensivly making a very difficult to effectively press.
I know I'm crazy to think that our two best players from last season were actually our two biggest issues because of the detrimental affect they had on the rest of the team. But its a team sport and individuals have to be sacrificed sometimes for the sake of the team, I felt degea should of been dropped as soon as Henderson was fit again and Ronaldo should of been used as an impact sub/occansional starter.
Who will be the first to knock Liverpool and City off their perch.
Will it be Chelsea, Spurs, or Man. Utd.
Will it be Chelsea, Spurs, or Man. Utd.
Quite feasible.
Probably best for both parties as he clearly doesn't have a future at Utd.
Liverpool aint on no perch. 1 league title 3 years ago followed by a 3rd and 2nd place finish is not "perch-worthy".
There's too little noises to suggest that he will leave.
Are we getting Tammy instead?
1 league title in 32 years.
I am hanging on to whatever I can to cut through the hype at the moment.
You are not crazy to think both De Gea and Ronaldo have problems. You are absolutely right about De Gea not being a proactive keeper. His biggest weakness is not even distribution (which I think can be overcome with a good CB or a CM dropping down to collect the ball). He has the fear of gods in leaving his line. He is so poor at coming out of his line, that playing highline is suicidal with him. Compound that with the lack of speed in our CBs its was a disaster waiting to happen and it happened. Ofcourse, Ronaldo is a problem in a young developing team with not a lot of personalities, as there is lot of pressure applied on younger players to meet his on-field demands often forcing them to make wrong decisions. His work off-the ball considering his age and skill set is was always going to be a problem. He was never a Tevez, Rooney, Mane kinda player. He would have suited well in the City style of play rather a Pool one. Both are definitely problems for us.
But I don't agree with Ole playing the same at the start of the season compared to his previous seasons. There was a visible shift in trying to aggressively press up front and a significant push from our CBs to a much higher line in comparison to the previous seasons. And he did this particularly against top attacking sides (not just the likes of Liverpool, City etc. Even teams like Leicester, Brighton, Crystal Palace). For a team just moving away from a low block, no press, counter attack system to a suddenly gegen-press with a highline and transition attack system was a big mistake. We didn't have the players up front to press continuously, nor the coaching/tactic required to execute it accurately. This was clearly visible when Bruno, Sancho and the likes looked completely lost pressing partly and not going in as a team. The bigger problem was the defensive highline which requires our CBs to be super fast which our CBs lacked. Funnily most of the errors were not stemming from CBs getting outpaced all the time, rather our defenders not knowing what to do when a striker drags them out of position. In a highline, space behind is the biggest danger and any movement from single defender dragged out of position created so much chaos that the our other defenders didn't know when to occupy that space or drop back or who to occupy the space leaving a BIG BIG hole for pacy forwards to exploit behind. We got ripped this way against so many teams. Players need time to adapt to new systems making it their second nature and to experiment it in a pivotal season was a mistake.
The point is, Yes De Gea is a problem, Yes Ronaldo is a problem. but those are not the problems that failed us last season. Its the false demand to push for a title when we were still a top 4 team and Ole trying to meet this demand by doing something "Different" severely exposing his managerial shortcomings that cost us the season. Henderson has a mistake or two in him and considering our state last season, he would have added to the woes and severely impaired his confidence. Better De Gea than him last season. Now its ETH's call, if his system entirely relies on the keeper spraying passes and sweeping then De Gea should be subbed for Henderson this season. Also if he prefers his strikers to press out and out, then Ronaldo is out. But we have other problems this window that GK is not the pressing issue and the lack of young super forwards coming to non-UCL team makes it sensible to hold on to them a little longer.
If you think that put a bet on Leicester to win the league. The odds suggest Utd are far more likely to come second than Leicester to win again.
Roma don't have CL football either. Doesn't make sense unless Cristiano thinks he's not gonna be up to another season in the Prem and doesn't want the indignity of being benched or having a 10 goal season. He'll turn 38 by the end of the year, so that is possible. Though it doesn't sound like him, and I don't see why he can't score goals for us with Ten Hag helping us get the ball forward more and allowing him to stay up the pitch more and run less.
If he goes, he should go early so that we can prepare ahead of the season because right now, we don't seem to have any plan to get a CF at all which is concerning.
I mean what can the club do if it has been decided to keep him? We can't actually buy any CF worth the money and ask them to come play backup for a year, a world cup year for that matter. We're either all in on Ronaldo or we're not. There was a hint of people wanting to eat and have their cake. Realistically a backup will be a youngster or lower profile player that can't command playing time to join.
No, they really don't.
Sell him for 80m if he wants to go. He still has a year left. We'd be proper fecked if he does leave.
I'd say definitely fake news.
One paper, in Italy, saying he's looking to leave when Ronaldo himself has said he's looking forward to playing under ETH next season.
One paper, in Italy, saying he's looking to leave when Ronaldo himself has said he's looking forward to playing under ETH next season.
Has to be fake news, as he was last heard saying he is looking forward to work with ETH.
However if he does leave, we’d be properly fecked. Buying a 25 goal striker replacement could cost over 70-80m. We don’t have the money (unless we give up pursue of FDJ), and there isn’t anyone available who wants to join us.
However if he does leave, we’d be properly fecked. Buying a 25 goal striker replacement could cost over 70-80m. We don’t have the money (unless we give up pursue of FDJ), and there isn’t anyone available who wants to join us.
Nothing rumors. Mendes has a lot of clients. Just journalists ignoring those to put Ronaldo in their headlines and generate clicks.
Maybe the fact that Messi did way worse than him at PSG put his mind at ease. Thats why he is not so desperate to leave.
We made second though a year back so obviously not. Last season was a fluke anyways by your logic considering for us it was a billion times worse than Liverpool’s injury situation the season before.
Liverpool have one league title to show in 30 years even including one of their greatest ever periods. What hope do they have in the future to keep challenging?
they are still above us and I don't like that.
Ronaldo gave a message to the Sporting fans regarding the 20 year anniversary of our academy.
In the end of the video he said …”I hope to see you all soon”
Come home my boy!!
In the end of the video he said …”I hope to see you all soon”
Come home my boy!!
He’ll bang in 30 goals next season under ETH, sign that extension, then maybe return the year after?Ronaldo gave a message to the Sporting fans regarding the 20 year anniversary of our academy.
In the end of the video he said …”I hope to see you all soon”
Come home my boy!!
He’s been teasing a return to Sporting for long enough. He wants to compete the full circle and I think it would look good for his “story” in football.
As for his return I think he only signs an extension with United if they qualify for the CL. If not I think he comes to Sporting next summer and plays in the CL for his boyhood club until the WC in 2026 where I think will be his sign of.
I know it’s hard to imagine now, but I haha a weird feeling he will play in the 2026 WC in America as it has the potential to be the biggest WC in years and very marketable for him. Obviously he will be a bench player at that time but that’s my gut feeling.
Think that'll change if we can get on the likes of FDJ and Antony in
Good on him. Put some pressure on these snails to get our business done.
Imagine No Ronaldo and dont sign De Jong or Antony.
Martial up top with McFred in midfield
Martial up top with McFred in midfield
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