The state of this team since winning the League Cup

Fatigue catching up, injury crisis, players coming from injury whose lack fitness. That together with De Gea not being the shot stopper he once was, is what’s making us look so poor.

Still confident in ETH, we already win a cup, just need to guarantee top four and I’ll mark this as a successful first season form Erik. Reaching FA cup final and winning it would just be icing on the cake, but I think us without our first eleven stand little chance against city.
 
I genuinely think it's the number of games but not just from a physical POV.

The mental level these guys need to be at for every single game is extremely high. 90% sharpness/intensity is often not enough, even against relegation teams, especially if a few of your mates are similarly drained. With our squad it's not possible to keep that mental freshness when playing every 3-4 days. Not to mention the tactical limitations of having less time to prepare.

I think the team have done well this year. Top 4 and a cup would be great.
 
What were we expecting. Our squad is paper thin on quality. The fact we've got Maguire, MCT and Fred still in the squad, tells you everything you need to know.

Also to be a top team, we need squad players who are of a similar standard to the first team. The step down in quality we have is insane.
 
Manncunian said:
Good god. Follow a different sport. Football ain’t for you.
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I'll keep saying it. There's a significant minority of our fans who are not happy unless we win 4-0, have 70% possession and do not allow the opposition any chances at all.

Violate any of those and their anxiety kicks in and it's "we played shit" all the way
 
GaryLifo said:
I'll keep saying it. There's a significant minority of our fans who are not happy unless we win 4-0, have 70% possession and do not allow the opposition any chances at all.

Violate any of those and their anxiety kicks in and it's "we played shit" all the way
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Not to mention that the measurement of a quality squad is now that we're supposed to miss 5 starters and still not be affected. I'm not sure there has been a team in history that could manage that.
 
Yeah, if you ignore the fact that:
- we’ve been playing far more than any other team in Europe, never mind just the PL
- have an incredibly shallow squad (both in numbers and talent depth)
- don’t have an actual recognised striker in the squad
- have been hit by injuries and/or suspensions to key players

then you’re absolutely right! The performances have been shocking, ETH has proven to be a flash on the pan manager and he should be sacked ASAP!
Ludens the Red said:
As the title says. Honestly what the actual hell are these performances? tonight, against Newcastle, the second half last week, against Fulham and against Liverpool. All in the space of about six weeks.
Pretty much distinguishing any hope we may have had that this team was turning a corner. Still mentally weak, still throw in the towel when the going gets tough, still making stupid basic errors. The only decent performances coming against sides who will be playing in the Championship next season.

I’m confused as to why these players are carrying on like they are as if by winning the League Cup they completed football.

I know we have had injuries and suspensions but going back to being outfought to these levels just isn’t acceptable on any level. Do this on Sunday and Brighton will genuinely score 6.
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Yeah, if you ignore the fact that:
- we’ve been playing far more than any other team in Europe, never mind just the PL
- have an incredibly shallow squad (both in numbers and talent depth)
- don’t have an actual recognised striker in the squad
- have been hit by injuries and/or suspensions to key players

then you’re absolutely right! The performances have been shocking, ETH has proven to be a flash on the pan manager and he should be sacked ASAP!
 
We’ve actually done alright considering the injuries. We’re solid in top 4.
 
We've had a few okay games since but the lack of rotation all season, the amount of games and injuries/suspensions in Casemiro's case have built up and showed their impact. This coming window is so important to change the players and bring in good backup/improvements to certain positions but I feel the whole sale/investment thing is going to still be going on into the summer so hope we aren't affected negatively too much.
 
Jericholyte2 said:
Yeah, if you ignore the fact that:
- we’ve been playing far more than any other team in Europe, never mind just the PL
- have an incredibly shallow squad (both in numbers and talent depth)
- don’t have an actual recognised striker in the squad
- have been hit by injuries and/or suspensions to key players

then you’re absolutely right! The performances have been shocking, ETH has proven to be a flash on the pan manager and he should be sacked ASAP!

Yeah, if you ignore the fact that:
- we’ve been playing far more than any other team in Europe, never mind just the PL
- have an incredibly shallow squad (both in numbers and talent depth)
- don’t have an actual recognised striker in the squad
- have been hit by injuries and/or suspensions to key players

then you’re absolutely right! The performances have been shocking, ETH has proven to be a flash on the pan manager and he should be sacked ASAP!
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What an incredibly short sighted and immature post :lol:
Didn’t even mention Ten Haag once. My post was clearly targeting the players.
Ten Haag himself has LITERALLY criticised the team for all of the games I’ve mentioned. He came on tv after the game and criticised the performances and application.
 
My main reasons:

- Weghorst starting. No big club is going to have a good attack with WW as striker or attacking mid.

- Midfield is becoming brittle again. When we had a healthy Ericksen and a good Casemiro, teams hesitated to fully press us. Eriksen is getting his legs back and Casemiro has been very average. Seville recognized this, pressed and won easily. I expect Brighton to press the hell out of us and if our midfield does not play well, we will lose.

- Fatigue. It's all catching up to Rashford and he doesn't seem to have the spring in his legs. The same could be said for Shaw and Bruno. Bruno, though, has been good lately but he did have some bad spells after the cup win.
 
Ludens the Red said:
What an incredibly short sighted and immature post :lol:
Didn’t even mention Ten Haag once. My post was clearly targeting the players.
Ten Haag himself has LITERALLY criticised the team for all of the games I’ve mentioned. He came on tv after the game and criticised the performances and application.
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Yes, but you seem surprised that players who’ve historically shown mental fragility, relegated to squad status by ETH, show mental fragility when the upgraded replacements are injured / suspended.

I simply don’t see the point in an entire thread about an inalienable fact - half the squad is mentally weak, and they’ll be rooted out in the next transfer window(s).
 
Offside said:
Our strength in depth is terrible. We didn’t rotate enough during that period because ETH knows how shite the back ups are.
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This for me is the issue. When we were successful and fighting in many competitions in the SAF era, the league cup was always the one where we rotated. The reason why we didn't win as many league cups as perhaps we should have done is because we put out teams with youth and fringe players that often got beat. We also used to use the depth we had when we had already qualified from the champions League group stage with a match or two to spare.
The issue this year has been the lack of rotation for the squad as the same team has to play every match or it's almost certainly a loss. And what you have posted is pretty much the issue, a total lack of depth.
 
The state of the team is pretty good, to be honest.

Into the FA Cup final and in a great position to secure top four. Not going bad at all.
 
Limping a bit due to injuries and fatigue. Lack of squad depth is the obvious issue.

Still, we look solid in top 4, there’s a trophy won and even if we’re far from favourites, a chance of a second one.
 
Ludens the Red said:
As the title says. Honestly what the actual hell are these performances? tonight, against Newcastle, the second half last week, against Fulham and against Liverpool. All in the space of about six weeks.
Pretty much distinguishing any hope we may have had that this team was turning a corner. Still mentally weak, still throw in the towel when the going gets tough, still making stupid basic errors. The only decent performances coming against sides who will be playing in the Championship next season.

I’m confused as to why these players are carrying on like they are as if by winning the League Cup they completed football.

I know we have had injuries and suspensions but going back to being outfought to these levels just isn’t acceptable on any level. Do this on Sunday and Brighton will genuinely score 6.
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We're playing every 3 days at the moment and we had the WC right in the middle of the season so it's no wonder that from time-to-time we looked a bit ragged and disorganised. Even if you don't believe tiredness and injuries are a big factor, the team hardly have time to train at the moment and/or analyse previous fixtures.

I thought ETH comments after Brighton were very telling. When asked about Seville he said 'it was our worst game of the season but we haven't had time to analyse why...we had just to focus on preparing for this game'.
 
DRJosh said:
What were we expecting. Our squad is paper thin on quality. The fact we've got Maguire, MCT and Fred still in the squad, tells you everything you need to know.

Also to be a top team, we need squad players who are of a similar standard to the first team. The step down in quality we have is insane.
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I think we are top 3 in terms of squad options..our issue is our best 11 have prob played together less than 6/7 games this season.
 
Wonderewhether I was being dramatic when I created this thread but it would be daft to pretend there’s not a serious problem with us at the minute. Results since the final
14 wins
4 draws
10 losses

before that game we’d only lost six all season. Think a lot of it is down to the form of Rashford, Casemiro and Martinez who kinda carried us through that period. They’ve been mediocre since and we’re just not well drilled enough as a team to get through phases of key players being out of form.

The mentality of this team has completely changed since the final and other than the simple thought of thinking that our squad thought they’d ‘’made it” after that final I can’t pinpoint what the issue is.
 
Same thing happened to Leicester after winning the FA Cup, like put your feet up time, we've done what we can and they've seen the ceiling.

United team doesn't look like they have the fight to push hard again this season. The spirit and fight we had with Case Martinez and ETH has gone at the end of last or more accurately since Jan. The sendings off and just the fitness required, it's a very tall order to have United back and players like Case know they can't elevate this club for long.
 
They’ll probably improve to be far. Wouldn’t surprise me if they got top 4. The main issue I’ve got is the shitshow that happened again in the Summer. The tolerance of mediocrity at this club from top to bottom. Would be impossible to challenge for the league again under the Glazers. Time for them to feck off, everyone knows it. Even they themselves seemed to then they decided to milk it for all it’s worth yet again.
 
Ludens the Red said:
Wonderewhether I was being dramatic when I created this thread but it would be daft to pretend there’s not a serious problem with us at the minute. Results since the final
14 wins
4 draws
10 losses

before that game we’d only lost six all season. Think a lot of it is down to the form of Rashford, Casemiro and Martinez who kinda carried us through that period. They’ve been mediocre since and we’re just not well drilled enough as a team to get through phases of key players being out of form.

The mentality of this team has completely changed since the final and other than the simple thought of thinking that our squad thought they’d ‘’made it” after that final I can’t pinpoint what the issue is.
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That's an abysmal record. The cup final felt like the players took their foot off the gas. It might not be known to public but I reckon ETH could potentially losing some of the players in the dressing room. The Sancho debacle could have a domino effect especially when players are close with him. Could be alot more at play.
 
A clear sign of mentally weak players. Win a trophy then take their foot off the gas.

It’s happened so many times with teams who have won the league cup. The rest of their season goes to shit afterwards.

Winners kick on and go for more success, more trophies. We don’t have that mentality and haven’t for a long time.
 
Looking back we thought that it was tiredness due to the amount of games we were playing but we did play some really good football up to that point. As i said in another thread, we played brilliantly against Spurs in October and we just went on a run until the cup final where everything was looking up. It's been a weird decline ever since.
 
A lot of off the field issues. Also a draining transfer window where it looked like we would be decisive at the start, but doing it on a shoe string meant we had to get players out and we did not.

Also, the ongoing takeover and the vibe going from an upward curve to doubt to pessimism. Ten Hag said several months ago ( just after strategic crap was announced) was told it would mean more funds for transfers. Well that has not happened.

Not to mention the leaks from inside the club

This has no doubt impacted on planning from the coaching staff and to the moral of the players and the fans.
 
Yorke to Cole said:
A lot of off the field issues. Also a draining transfer window where it looked like we would be decisive at the start, but doing it on a shoe string meant we had to get players out and we did not.

Also, the ongoing takeover and the vibe going from an upward curve to doubt to pessimism. Ten Hag said several months ago ( just after strategic crap was announced) was told it would mean more funds for transfers. Well that has not happened.

Not to mention the leaks from inside the club

This has no doubt impacted on planning from the coaching staff and to the moral of the players and the fans.
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Someone mentioned this in another thread and its a good point i think. There's a fair few players who the club were probably willing to let go and listen to offers for (Sancho, McTominay, Maguire, Martial) that are still here.
 
Ludens the Red said:
Wonderewhether I was being dramatic when I created this thread but it would be daft to pretend there’s not a serious problem with us at the minute. Results since the final
14 wins
4 draws
10 losses

before that game we’d only lost six all season. Think a lot of it is down to the form of Rashford, Casemiro and Martinez who kinda carried us through that period. They’ve been mediocre since and we’re just not well drilled enough as a team to get through phases of key players being out of form.

The mentality of this team has completely changed since the final and other than the simple thought of thinking that our squad thought they’d ‘’made it” after that final I can’t pinpoint what the issue is.
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I tend to agree with you, the good form/performances from our lesser players like Wan Bissaka, Eriksen, and Regulion today isn't enough to make up for namely Rashford and Casemiro's loss of form. The bolded stumped me for a few seconds haha.
 
Niall said:
A clear sign of mentally weak players. Win a trophy then take their foot off the gas.

It’s happened so many times with teams who have won the league cup. The rest of their season goes to shit afterwards.

Winners kick on and go for more success, more trophies. We don’t have that mentality and haven’t for a long time.
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Exactly. It's why I don't blame ten Hag and think the people who do are being daft. We've been here before.
 
Ludens the Red said:
Wonderewhether I was being dramatic when I created this thread but it would be daft to pretend there’s not a serious problem with us at the minute. Results since the final
14 wins
4 draws
10 losses

before that game we’d only lost six all season. Think a lot of it is down to the form of Rashford, Casemiro and Martinez who kinda carried us through that period. They’ve been mediocre since and we’re just not well drilled enough as a team to get through phases of key players being out of form.

The mentality of this team has completely changed since the final and other than the simple thought of thinking that our squad thought they’d ‘’made it” after that final I can’t pinpoint what the issue is.
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Agreed re individuals, nobody has stood out.
 
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