The player(s) that are the hill you are prepared to die on?

Nani
Rafael
Welbeck
Tevez

Martial from the current lot, maybe not die on a hill but definitely more talented than given credit for.

ASM, O.Dembele, Richarlison, Bissouma from other teams.
 
Well I said in the Lisandro thread that if we sign him and he's shit I'll take responsibility for it, due to watching him since he was playing in Argentina

Thankfully this week its looking good
 
Players that aren't here anymore:
1) Nani - best winger in the league for eighteen months (2010 to mid-2012). Fergie should have handled him better in his last season
2) Herrera - by far our best midfielder of the 2010s, and at the center of virtually all our best performances under Van Gaal, Mourinho, and Solskjaer. Far better footballer than Fred- should have spent the summer 2018 money giving him a new deal
3) Pogba - consistently one of our best players in his first three seasons, even if he fizzled out after that

From the current squad:
1) Fernandes - our best player and one of the best in the league, even though half this place seems to have turned on him
2) Sancho - easy to see how gifted he is every time he plays
3) Rashford and Martial - defended them for years now because they spent their formative years a) playing for crap coaches and b) having to step up because older, more expensive and higher-paid players in their positions (in order: Depay, Rooney, Mkhitaryan, Sanchez, Lukaku) have been garbage. They get another season to prove their worth now that we finally have a good coach

And if we're including the other kind of hill too:

1) De Gea - liability in this team and barely a midtable Premier League goalkeeper these days, will cost us plenty of points with his cowardice and complete lack of command of his box
 
Martial, if we had hired a "poet" as Mourinho like to call them for a manager after Van Gaal he'll have turned out differently. He's still relatively young and could still fulfill his potential.
Martial FC forever!!
 
DDG. He’s been the only consistenly good thing post SAF. This is the first time i’m starting to have doubts but I’ll still back him.

Former players: Nani, Carrick, Fletcher, Raphael. These are the first ones that jump to memory but there have been others.
 
Used to be Martial, but last season broke the spell.
Now it may be him again :drool:

Also DDG. Mostly because I feel there's zero respect for 5 insane seasons, he made some LvG and Jose games worth watching on his own.
 
atkar83 said:
Januzaj will return to his 2013 form any day now
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I thought at this point he would be as good as Dortmund mkhitaryan. I would check sociedad games here and there to check him out. He is a free agent and we need an rw:drool:
 
Plant0x84 said:
Marcus. He’s had a terrible season, off the back of a bad injury but we know he’s class. He’s still young and can improve, especially his decision making on the ball. I think he will become a monster again under Erik and Schteve.
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It's Rashford for me too. Purely because I've seen enough moments of world class from him to believe that he can truly put it all together. And he's a big game player, which can't be underrated. His record against the top 6, and in big ties in the CL is good.

That spell he had before his back injury he was unplayable in the 19/20 season, and carried us in big games like Spurs and City. That type of mentality and talent doesn't just disappear, something hasn't been right behind the scenes.

Also, he's just a downright humble and nice lad off the pitch. A great example and role model for future graduates.
 
King Azaz the Unabridged said:
Players that aren't here anymore:
1) Nani - best winger in the league for eighteen months (2010 to mid-2012). Fergie should have handled him better in his last season
2) Herrera - by far our best midfielder of the 2010s, and at the center of virtually all our best performances under Van Gaal, Mourinho, and Solskjaer. Far better footballer than Fred- should have spent the summer 2018 money giving him a new deal
3) Pogba - consistently one of our best players in his first three seasons, even if he fizzled out after that

From the current squad:
1) Fernandes - our best player and one of the best in the league, even though half this place seems to have turned on him
2) Sancho - easy to see how gifted he is every time he plays
3) Rashford and Martial - defended them for years now because they spent their formative years a) playing for crap coaches and b) having to step up because older, more expensive and higher-paid players in their positions (in order: Depay, Rooney, Mkhitaryan, Sanchez, Lukaku) have been garbage. They get another season to prove their worth now that we finally have a good coach

And if we're including the other kind of hill too:

1) De Gea - liability in this team and barely a midtable Premier League goalkeeper these days, will cost us plenty of points with his cowardice and complete lack of command of his box
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Im sure you're going to get massive amounts of crap from this take...but I couldn't agree more with a few of the posts.

- Pogba might have been one of our most under appreciated players in my lifetime. I think he was generally splendid, but the expectations were impossible and led to just silly levels of criticism. He was hardly the issue most of the time with our team, but was always singled out.
- Fernandes is always solid if not very good. There are times he acts like an idiot, but he's usually one of the top players on any given day. His stats have dipped but so has everyones recently. I don't get the hate on here either.
- Sancho, how people don't see his class and massive potential is beyond me. He's a classic example of someone that makes everyone better around him.
- Martial and Rashford. Rashford is a weird one...I personally think he's a guy that has trouble playing if he has the slightest of nicks. thats his issue that he needs to overcome. Martial is all confidence. I think when he plays with confidence he's a top ST, and think his holdup play could be epic if given the right opportunity.

Narrowing it down (and this isn't because I used to cut his hair)...I would die on the Pogba hill. I think in a few years we'll all look back and feel like we were way too harsh on the lad. He played on some stunningly bad starting 11s...
 
Trex said:
Martial, if we had hired a "poet" as Mourinho like to call them for a manager after Van Gaal he'll have turned out differently. He's still relatively young and could still fulfill his potential.
Martial FC forever!!
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How can you be Martial FC when he's consistently played and not bothered to put in the effort the club for the last 4 seasons?

My least favourite ever United player on account of wasting ability and having no price in playing in the shirt
 
Rashford. I still think that if he gets his head right and is over the injuries and playing through injuries for so long that he will be banging in goals again.

Sancho will be fine.

Ive personally given up on Shaw and eventually gave up on Maguire.
 
Fortitude said:
Untimely this season, I’ve given Luke Shaw the benefit of the doubt that one day he’ll return to his pre-leg break style of play and really live up to what I’ve always thought was obvious potential. The penny dropped the game before last when he couldn’t be arsed chasing back at full pelt to at least try and prevent a goal-scoring opportunity. I think before then I’d turn a blind eye to the criticism and would more likely defend him or explain away his actions than put him down. Bias because I saw the player he could be over the player he’d become. I’ve other players I favour, but I can’t recall many I would go out of my way to defend or excuse in the manner I very recently would’ve for Shaw.

I am curious about how you perceive your own stance on the players and perhaps managers we’ve had here post-Fergie, and which hills you’re prepared to die on, but also why that is the case for you.
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Pretty much this for me and I said as much in his performance thread, still think injuries truly robbed us of the best LB in the league.
 
Fred

I think he could be very good in the right set up.
 
eire-red said:
It's Rashford for me too. Purely because I've seen enough moments of world class from him to believe that he can truly put it all together. And he's a big game player, which can't be underrated. His record against the top 6, and in big ties in the CL is good.

That spell he had before his back injury he was unplayable in the 19/20 season, and carried us in big games like Spurs and City. That type of mentality and talent doesn't just disappear, something hasn't been right behind the scenes.

Also, he's just a downright humble and nice lad off the pitch. A great example and role model for future graduates.
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I agree. The bold text is key for me, and probably applies to the whole squad in some way. We have seen brilliance but I don’t think we have seen his best.
 
ItDoesntEvenMata said:
How can you be Martial FC when he's consistently played and not bothered to put in the effort the club for the last 4 seasons?

My least favourite ever United player on account of wasting ability and having no price in playing in the shirt
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Well each to his own.
 
JJ12 said:
Fred

I think he could be very good in the right set up.
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Totally misused. I think he’d be a goal threat if he was played fifteen yards further up, and a great turnover winner. I know his shooting hasn’t been brilliant but I feel that’s because there’s too much pressure on each shot he has because he’s so rarely in those positions.
 
Plant0x84 said:
I agree. The bold text is key for me, and probably applies to the whole squad in some way. We have seen brilliance but I don’t think we have seen his best.
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I feel someone has told Rashford to pick his moments to impact games more, and that it may be the worst bit of advice he’s ever received.
 
fps said:
Totally misused. I think he’d be a goal threat if he was played fifteen yards further up, and a great turnover winner. I know his shooting hasn’t been brilliant but I feel that’s because there’s too much pressure on each shot he has because he’s so rarely in those positions.
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Agree. He looks dynamite for Shaktar then we buy him and make him defend. I’m excited to see him flourish again next to Casemiro.
 
Valencia was actually a very good right back for two seasons with us. Actually the best we've had since Rafael had a good season in 2012-2013.

Herrera and Blind were both good players for us and good professionals. I genuinely wish them well wherever they play.

Of the current squad: Fred...maybe? Just been let down by them too many times. You know damn well there's a good month or two in the likes of Martial, Rashford and Shaw but the crash will come eventually. They remind me of the post invincibles Arsenal players in a lot of ways, except they lose out on top 4 more often :lol: :(
 
After Monday.... Martinez and Malacia. Although in all seriousness I think Martinez can be an excellent PL CB.

Apart from that, I think Rooney is underrated by a lot of people. Because he's ugly and was past his peak in his late 20s a lot of people don't give him the credit he deserves. Peak Rooney was one of the best players of his generation without a doubt.

I think that Elanga is a very useful player who could make the most of. If Varane can stay fit he'll show us what a fantastic player he is and Bruno is going to be our most important player this season.

A negative one- Dean Henderson is nowhere near as good as he thinks.
 
I’m firmly of the opinion that Martial has been treated appallingly in his time here, and we should’ve stuck with him instead of signing Sanchez.

I think he’s a perfect player for the way we want to play, and given game time can make us play better.
 
Was fully on board the Pogba hype train. Had his jersey as well. Always felt we did him wrong by playing him as a DM. Wanted us invest in a DM over bruno and push pogba as a CAM.

Hate him after that pogumentary
 
Since Ole (which is still largely current team) the only player I strongly believed in was Bruno. But last season completely destroyed my faith into him. Now, I do hope Sancho will become consistently great, instead of once-in-10games brilliance, but I won't die on that hill :)

From very recent signings, Malacia and Martinez are very exciting both skills and attitude-wise, but way too early to judge.
 
I was ecstatic when we signed Carrick from Spurs.

Unpopular, but De Gea, I would always back him to try to come back stronger. He did it in his first season with us (and barely 21). And he did it again for the first half of 21/22 after that awful EL final. And he could've done it post WC '18 if someone gave him a reality check then. He was always better when challenged, like when Hoek was here, no matter how much De Gea didn't like it. I wish EtH could bring in a GK coach like Hoek to push De Gea (he seems more receptive now than when he was chased by Madrid).

And on the opposite side of this hill, Pogba. I never wanted us to re-sign him, especially not at £89M. It wasn't about his ability, just a gut feel based on how he dealt with the club/SAF in his exit the first time. The only saga where I wasn't a muppet.
 
Past: Fletcher, O'Shea, Park.
Present: McTominay.

Basically I will fight for the underdogs. If the fanbase hate them but they put themselves on the line regularly, I'll give them the credit they deserve. They aren't world class marquee players, but they're the ones who keep the graft going when almost all the other players have given up. They're the fighting spirit of the team, the ones that make other players shine when they're on song and who make up for the other players when they are looking at the ground. Hard working squad players jus hit different for me.

They won't win us titles but they'll fight when the chips are down.
 
I have a soft spot for McTominay, Martial and Shaw - because I know how good they can be - and I just fear they will be that good if we let them leave
 
Bruno, Varane, Eriksen, Sancho, Martial and Martinez from the current side for me.

Fully believe they'll be key contributors this season should they stay fit
 
Whilst McTominay, Shaw & Maguire are still employed by the club I refuse to write off Rashford.
 
Thom Merrilin said:
For me it has to be Daley Blind.

I've always thought he's a fantastic footballer. Very good in 3 positions and had/has the intelligence to make up for his physical limitations. There was a time when Blind and Smalling looked like a great partnership.

I've never understood why he was sold.
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Jose Mourinho is an idiot.

Daley Blind is a brilliant footballer, 0% physique, 100% brain to make it up. He rarely got physically dominated, because his reading of the game was so great. And he was absolutely pivotal in the build-up play. Possibly my favourite post-SAF era United player. So classy.

I also used to defend Herrera, Welbeck and Evans. And, I would still take Dean Henderson over De Gea, even with all his comments. (Unless we sign a better GK as we should.)

Also, McTominay has replaced Lingard as the number one scapegoat but he isn’t half as bad as people here will tell you. Maybe shouldn’t be a regular starter, but still a very useful player. And this is coming from someone who didn’t rate him at first.
 
I'm still pretty confident that Veron and Alan Smith will come good for us.
 
A lot actually.
Martial, Dave, Sancho, Varane, Fred and Lindelof.
With Shaw i am losing patience slowly.

On the other hand, Maguire, Henderson, McT and AWB are other hill. I will defend the fact that they are shit
 
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