So you think a midfield two of: current form Casemiro, Eriksen who can't last 60 mins, and Mctominay is enough to play good football and get results against the likes of Spurs Arsenal and Bayern? Keep dreaming.
Some perspective…
- Thread starter Jericholyte2
- Start date
That's a very blinkered way to look at it. The 3 teams we've lost two have all won four of their five league games, are in the top 5 and have the joint second best goal difference after 5 games. If we'd lost 3 games to teams who hadn't started so well I'd be far more concerned.
I hope the Caf will finally agree with me that Rashford is not who he thinks he is. IMO, he's currently like a luxury accessory... One we don't need.
I'm genuinely shocked by how low our standards have fallen as a club. It's even seeped into the fanbase, unfortunately.
We’ve let in 10 goals in the last 3 games. We are proper shite.
There’s no positives at the moment.
There’s no positives at the moment.
I've noticed people are happy to lower their standards if it allows them to defend a player or manager they like.
City are generally seen as having the strongest squad in the world. I posted on the previous page that the injury list we have had has been akin to taking Walker, Ake, Akanji, Dias, Kovacic, Silva, Nunes, Foden, Grealish, Doku & Haaland out of their team. I'd be intrigued to see a team like Ederson; Lewis, Stones, Gvardiol, Garcia; Rodri; Bobb, Phillips, De Bruyne, Knight; Alvarez going up against the sides we have lost to this season.
All that we can cling to are excuses and slivers of silver linings, but in truth we're a badly run football club that will see nothing change until the Glazers sell the club. Saturdays will be painful for the rest of the season.
Only Wolves and Burnley have conceded more goals than us in the league, I find this alarming even given our depleted squad. Should be an interesting game against Burnley on Saturday.
It's not just the injuries, though the injuries play a big part. It's mostly the off the pitch scandals, ownership situation and non-sale creating a rotten morale throughout every employee at all levels, and then the injuries. And some shit luck in terms of big key moments. You can deal with these things in isolation. The scandals create some bad morale for a bit, then it bounces back to normal once everyone normalizes to the situation. The sale situation is an ongoing minus, but you can deal with it in isolation. The injuries are shit and yes we should've done better in some games, but also on the balance, losing away to spurs, arsenal, bayern are all "yeah pretty fair if you have half your team out". One after the other you expect to pick up some results. The brighton match was shit and especially being at home you can't let happen like that.
Having it all happen at the same time, the Garnacho (pen vs spurs and offside vs arsenal) moments, the out of bounds for hojlund, the handball VAR overturn today and the Pellistri shout not even being looked at as really bad luck in key moments... yeah it's just one of those things, when it rains, it pours. It doesn't last though.
Beat men instead, preferably on football field, Harry.
I think Amrabat will be the difference. Hes a good DM and a good passer. Eriksen needs to come on when were winning with 20 mins to go. Amrabat and Casemiro will be a good combination and the defence wont be so exposed.
It's Onana's first year, he will improve. Even DDG, VDS and other greats were average at times in their career.
There is no doubt injuries are playing their part in these results,however we also need to clear our heads quicker. Too often we are conceding two quick goals or in the case of Brighton three.
I think we are doing fine. We have some tough early fixtures and unlucky results, and some injuries and off field problems. But we will get past all that, and I have a feeling everything will be back to normal real soon.
Just saying standards doesn't do anything. If half the starting 11 are injured you can yell standards all you want but it doesn't make their replacements better footballers.
3rd choice LB
3rd choice CB
2nd choice RB
3rd/4th choice 8 (depends if you put Mainoo above Eriksen)
3rd/4th choice RW (depends if you put Amad above Pellistri)
All of those positions have a huge impact on our defensive contributions, RW I only include because Antony usually contributes a lot defensively, even if he's not great in an attacking sense.
3rd choice CB
2nd choice RB
3rd/4th choice 8 (depends if you put Mainoo above Eriksen)
3rd/4th choice RW (depends if you put Amad above Pellistri)
All of those positions have a huge impact on our defensive contributions, RW I only include because Antony usually contributes a lot defensively, even if he's not great in an attacking sense.
i know we have been shit and too open and let in too many goals but we have lost games against good teams which could/ve gone either way. We have also been really unlucky with VAR calls and offsides/out of play balls that could have gone differently and we could have taken a win against arsenal and a better result against either spurs of brighton. The Erikson handball was pretty shite too and the game couldve gone differently with out that. I know its a lot of what if and could haves but taken everything into account, people are overreacting when they call for Ten Hag's head. We were obviously on the right path last year and in my opinion, it would be a big mistake to change the coaching staff now.
We’re not a mid-lower table PL club. We shouldn’t be operating on a such a thin margin where missing a few players sees us dropping points game after game.
From the first team we're missing:
Shaw
Wan Bissaka
Malacia
Varane
Maguire
Amrabat
Mainoo
Diallo
Mount
Sancho
Antony
Greenwood
I'd say thats enough players missing to make an impact on results and performances no? It will also have an impact on training of course.
Edit: oh and Heaton is apparently injured as well, not that it makes much difference.
I asked this question before and I will raise this again. How many, or in fact which player, do you think is physically fit ? 2 months into the season, more than half of the squad can barely run 70min. How many can contribute 10km? Why do you think 75% of our squad starts the season either injured, or 5kg overweight?
What happened in USA? Too many Big Mac?
The sh*t show of the sale of the club is likely having far greater influence on th club and players than most would think. Any employment when ownership and future direction is piling up under the staff is extremely poisonous and impacts across the board. The Glazers are nasty, selfish pricks with so little care for the club it’s embarrassing.
Don’t think we will see anything but marginal improvement until the golums sell and leave after tarnishing the once biggest club with pitiful care.Terrible absent owners, they have seen what was basically a non cash purchase increase in value form what £450 million funded by using the club as security turn into £5 billion plus and still the leeches tell the fans , fornicate elsewhere we want more. So bad it’s basically time for tears.
Don’t think we will see anything but marginal improvement until the golums sell and leave after tarnishing the once biggest club with pitiful care.Terrible absent owners, they have seen what was basically a non cash purchase increase in value form what £450 million funded by using the club as security turn into £5 billion plus and still the leeches tell the fans , fornicate elsewhere we want more. So bad it’s basically time for tears.
Its just living in reality my friend. Currently Arsenal are definitely a better team than us and so far it looks like Spurs are as well. I hate to admit it and it burns my pride but it's true.
Both can be true, we are going through an injury crisis and the manager hasn't adjusted well enough to attempt to overcome this. Certain squd players have neglected their defensive duties too, there's too many players jogging back and losing their man. The first two goals Bayern scored tonight just shouldn't happen to a team in the Champions League.
I think it's a bit of a perfect storm for us to fail at the moment. Injury crisis during a difficult run of games and some really questionable VAR decisions, when it rains for us it pours. We aren't as good as we wanted to be but we should be there or there abouts for top 4.
I think the take away from tonight on a positive note, is that we looked like we'd capitulate after conceeding two goals in quick succession, but we actually "won the second half" which hasn't happened for us In a while.
I think it's a bit of a perfect storm for us to fail at the moment. Injury crisis during a difficult run of games and some really questionable VAR decisions, when it rains for us it pours. We aren't as good as we wanted to be but we should be there or there abouts for top 4.
I think the take away from tonight on a positive note, is that we looked like we'd capitulate after conceeding two goals in quick succession, but we actually "won the second half" which hasn't happened for us In a while.
Well, as I asked, could you suggest any other team that would have a smoother transition with a new starting GK and 3 out of the starting back four injured?
You left out a brutal fixture to start the season with too.
We've lost 3 league games and we haven't even played Manchester City, Liverpool, West Ham or Chelsea yet. It's going to get worse. We might string some results against weaker sides like Burnley etc but we will always likely lose to the top 6 sides.
Leaving us with more than 10 losses in the season.
Leaving us with more than 10 losses in the season.
Best post in this thread.
Even they couldnt. Below I've mapped Citys defensive players with our injured players for comparison.
Stones -
Walker - AWB
Diaz - Varane
Ake - Maguire
Akanji - Shaw
Gvardiol
Lewis - Malacia
They would have 2 starters and the rest would be kids.
You can't play that style of football if you don't have the technical players that enable this. Coaching, has become so overrated in recent years. Football is mainly about the players
We have been crap, way below standard, but i think once the injuries are resolved and once Amrabat and Mount are fit and bedded in, we might look like a different team.
It's very frustrating, but we are no longer the excellent team of SAF, we've not been that for a decade now, we have to accept reality that mediocrity is part and parcel of the current Manchester United experience.
It's very frustrating, but we are no longer the excellent team of SAF, we've not been that for a decade now, we have to accept reality that mediocrity is part and parcel of the current Manchester United experience.
I don't understand what you are getting at, do you expect a midfield of 2 from anyone to beat those teams?
Even SAF was hamstrung by Glazernomics at the end. Look at how many times he used to talk about 'no value in the market'. That was him just diplomatically pointing out that they wouldn't give him the money needed to sign the best players.
It's true he was, which makes the titles of his final years even more of a feat.
We had our first choice defence for 3 games out of 5 and it didn't look great. The strange thing is that both Dalot and Reguilon actually haven't been bad, so I don't think you can blame them.
Agreed
We have 12 first teamers out and just lost after scoring 3 away to bayern. We are not as badly off as the results are making he appear.
We will improve, I'm sure about that, if Varane can stay fit week to week, if Amrabat hits the ground running then these are positives, however, I see it being a see saw season, littered with some ups and downs.
Rashford is an important player for us, but he's inconsistent and probably needs better players around him in the final third, Garnacho is still raw, Antony erratic, Martial plain lazy, but on the upside you definitely get the impression there might be a good understanding in the making between Rashford and Hojlund, as I said earlier in the post, we will improve.
Rashford is an important player for us, but he's inconsistent and probably needs better players around him in the final third, Garnacho is still raw, Antony erratic, Martial plain lazy, but on the upside you definitely get the impression there might be a good understanding in the making between Rashford and Hojlund, as I said earlier in the post, we will improve.
The perspective with manager in charge for 15 months should be that whoever is playing, even kids that have been on the training ground with team for a couple of months, system should be the same. You should see what they want to do on the field, you should see runs when you are in possession, and what the team want to accomplish. If those are kids or some players from the bench, it won't be perfectly executed, but you will see what they want. You can't see that in any game, and not just this season, but even in previous season, although you could say it is first season, not all his players, and similar excuses. He had two preseasons, and this team doesn't look like a team at all. That has nothing to do with injuries (that is another problem as 13 injuries are not coincidence). So, for me, it is not about results, it is not about players or signings that are bad, it is about playing style that is non existing. What we are playing at the moment is Sunday league level of football with much better players.
The team is having a crisis of confidence with everybody afraid to make a mistake. Midfield is the area of concern and I think that a period of defensive solidity is required to (a) get some points in the Board and (b) restore some much needed confidence.
A change of formation may provide some of that with a 4-2-3-1. With Amrabat and Casimeiro sitting in front of the back 4 it will provide a degree of solidity which is missing and allow Bruno, Rashford et al to do what they do best.
A change of formation may provide some of that with a 4-2-3-1. With Amrabat and Casimeiro sitting in front of the back 4 it will provide a degree of solidity which is missing and allow Bruno, Rashford et al to do what they do best.