The main current problem, players or formation ?

[oz insomniac]

To be honest, ETH and his signings contributed hugely to the issues the club currently has, it obviously goes back further with crazy signings and extensions under the Hooray Henry the Glazers put in charge, and still suffering from players still on the books. The basically Dutch driven signings have been an unmitigated disaster, and can’t be cleaned up in 4/5 months. Getting the financial flows in order is also part 9f the problem, how a club with the resources of Utd got into FFP issues shows how bloated the wage bill was across the club, admin and players, and the funding problems of the Glazers hasn’t helped. Time will tell but it needs to be done and the club really should be sold to much better resourced owners than the dividend seeking absent Yanks.

Fingers crossed the biggest club in the EPL comes out the other side.

 

[Xeque_279]

Both. Players, don't need any explanation. Just as shit when played in a 4 atb.

The formation, it's a bit more complex. It's less to do with the formation, but more about how the players are fitting in/performing their roles. Even 4 atb teams play with a back 3 in games, with full backs tucking in or midfielders ligning up with the CBs. Our main problem I feel is the lack of cohesion -CBs not closing gaps in midfield & forwards unable to link up smoothly.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Some players are better midfielders than defenders, some are attackers, etc., and I think everyone knows this without being told. But we seem to think playing on the left is as easy as the right for every player, or that playing as a CB is the same as a fullback, or a CM can be an attacking mid just by asking —in the hardest fecking league in the world.

A formation recognizes which kind of player you have, and puts the best ones in their best position.

In our particular case we are playing a system that requires specialists who are also greyhounds who can run all day long—but of course we don’t have those players. So the answer is these players in this system overseen by this manager head coach who was hired by these owners.

 

[Ludens the Red]

What I’ve realised reading the cafe over the last few months is that formation, tactics, confidence, training and actual quality level of players are not the reason the team is underperforming. I’ve been enlightened and can now see the root cause.

The main causes are Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Roy Keane and then after that, toxic internet fans like Goldbridge.

Is it any wonder some of our players struggle to settle with this background noise from cretins like Scholes and Neville and influencers like Goldbridge making everything so critical and toxic.

It’s impossible to build a positive atmosphere between the fans, players, and leadership when constant negativity is being thrown out into the media by former players. I hope they’ll soon approach their roles as pundits with more love for the club and the project, instead of just creating noise and negativity.

I’m seeing posts like these quite regularly so there must be something to it.
Until Neville, Keane, Scholes and Goldbridge are removed from the media our players won’t fulfill their potential. The club will not be able to move on.

Must be very difficult for them when they run out onto the old Trafford pitch to then immediately remember what Neville and Keane said about them on the overlap or what Scholes said about them on fan debate.
Expecting our players to block out media and outside noise and focus on a game is outrageous and the type of dinosaur mentality that needs eradicating.
Back in the days of Keane, Neville and Scholes, there was never any spotlight on United or grand sweeping comments about United by any pundit. Not Alan Hansen, not Alan Brazil no-one.
They never had to deal with Mark Goldbridge, they never had to deal with very surprising criticism from United legends after a 8th home defeat in 11. A complete and total overreaction.

The noise from these guys is also causing the board to do things like sign Antony for 85 million or sign Joshua Zirkzee. Once this noise stops, United will start making better transfer decisions too.

 

[vva]

The main problem is that players are not good enough for dominant in technical possession based.
We are kick and run team with weak ball control and passing.
The recruitment is the worst area as well. Even Yoro or Dorgu are also not worth in term of price and potential.

 

[NoLogo]

It's amazing and bloody frustrating how these continue to be the case, no matter how many different squads we've assembled!

Are we just targeting those kinds of flaws? Or not targeting them deliberately but continually making bloody awful choices and getting that type by mistake? Or do players just become that type when they join us because there's something so intrinsically wrong with the club?

While we certainly have bought too many players who are lazy and have a weak mentality we have a problem that actually goes deeper. If you look at our players they almost all get slower and have less stamina the longer they play for us. I can't really say with certainty but it feels like our fitness coaching isn't really up to the task anymore or they are setting the wrong priorities for our players.

I watched games where it felt like we were a team from a lower division because we were never fast enough to win the second ball, opposition players were gliding past our players at will and we were always 2 or 3 steps late for a challenge.

You obviously don't need talent to run as fast as you can for every sprint, what you need is the work ethic and the physical conditioning to do it but we can't even compete in that department.

About 10 years ago Holger Broich for Bayern changed the entire way their players do fitness training and nutrition and turned them at that time into one of the fastest and fittest teams in Europe, by now a lot of teams have caught up but it feels an evolution like that never happened at our club.

 

[big_jeffstar]

It’s having a collection of players that don’t suit any formation particularly well, and don’t do anything with any sort of consistency.. and we’ve had that problem since Mourinho.. we’re in a pretty desperate situation now we’ve lost pretty much all of our attacking threat, because we can’t afford to build a team from the back, Amorim has to fix the defence, the midfield and the attack in the same window.. it’s an awful position to be in really

 

[Pscholes18]

Keep bitching about formation all you lot want, put them in any formation and they still wouldn't get up to 4th.

 

[kanobbk]

I truly find it hilarious that there are some fans that are blaming the formation and/or Ruben for our league position and our overall shortcomings. It's actually remarkable how some of the fan base chooses to watch football and receive information.

This team is by far and large, the worst set of players that have ever been assembled in the history of the Premier League, for a club the size of Manchester United. They lack any form of basic footballing ability. Watching Garnacho ignore Dorgu repeatedly the other night was quite astonishing, or watching Hojlund and Garnacho attempt to link up with a 1-2 and they both complete misread what the other will do etc. I cannot believe that these are professional footballers.

If people are truly blaming this on the manager and/or formation then I don't know what to tell you... you are clearly lost and you do not understand football I'm afraid.

This team finished 8th last season with a negative goal difference, playing 4 at the back. What makes you think that this year they would've all of a sudden transformed into a top 3 side off the back of that? Our opening fixtures until Ten Hag's firing were abysmal too. See below;

9 Games
3 Wins
4 Losses
2 Draws

11 Goals Conceded
8 Goals Scored
14th in the League

Above is what the team looked like after 9 matches playing 4 at the back and our new signings also debuting and getting solid minutes. I'm struggling to see how 4 at the back made us an impenetrable force that every team was afraid of... maybe someone can enlighten me?

Ruben with his Sporting side, before SJR forced him to leave, was 2nd in the UCL standings, with 4 games played, 3W 1D. His Sporting side seemed to play perfectly fine and even recovered from a 1-0 deficit at HT against City, and ended up winning 4-1, on a European night, against one of the so called best managers to have ever lived. He played 3-4-3 that night.

So tell me.. is it the formation that's the problem, or is the fact that our squad of players is the worst in the history of the clubs existence? I'll let you be the judge...

 

[AndyMUFC]

People see our players miss chance after chance and still blame the system.

Is any formation going to stop us from struggling goals? I don’t think so, and it’s because Hojlund, Zirkzee and Garnacho aren’t reliable goalscorers.