The Upbeat Thread

We didn't give Ruud the job when we would have done pre-Ineos. And we finally chucked Rashford out. Those are the only positives from this season.

Yep we wouldn't want a repeat of the Giggs or Carrick years. :confused:
 
The outrage for not signing 4/5 players in a January window seems crazy to me.
United make January signing for x amount
United fans: Panic buy, overpaying again.. the club will never learn

United plan to get PSR under control, make 1 signing an loan out big wage players:
United fans: INEOS are worse than Glazers, how can we not sign 4 players?

Mistakes have been made in the past, we have to learn from them rather than going back to make the same ones.

The league is done anyway for us, we need to concentrate on improving players and getting the right ones in
 
Yep we wouldn't want a repeat of the Giggs or Carrick years. :confused:
Tbf, looking at the points tally from the honeymoon games under Giggsy, Ole, Carrick and Ruud (21W 5D 2L - 68/84 pts), we would win the league soon enough if we just went through the roster of ex-Ferguson players and gave them 10-15 games each before we fired them.
 
If we get rid of just 3 players - Casemiro, Rashford and Mount - our wage structure will have been largely fixed.
 
If we get rid of just 3 players - Casemiro, Rashford and Mount - our wage structure will have been largely fixed.
Include Shaw in this plus a few other pointless players and we’re seriously turning the wage structure around.

I’m fairly convinced that sorting the wages out is the current priority and I think come July 1st, we’ll be 90% of the way there with only Rashford as the exception depending on his loan spell.
 
1. It was wise to not panic buy in the winter window. It will help down the line.

2. Hopefully Dorgu will restore some balance to the team by allowing Dalot to move back to his strong side and eliminate the idea of Mazraoui as a wing back. And hopefully that will result in us playing a little better.

3. If we can survive this season, we are well set up for next year financially as I expect us to shift Rashford, Sancho, Antony and Casemiro, four money pits this summer. Once we do that, we will have enough to spend to plug much of the remaining holes in the team.
 
The big positive is we have a no nonsense manager who is not for turning. It’s his way or the highway and some players have found he’s not joking. Sounds a bit like our best manager in 86.
We have a lot of talented youth players and law of averages should throw a couple up that will be excellent players.
Ineos/ffp rules might just get rid of the buy big and top wages for players not good enough/ over the hill buys
 
The direction is up. It cannot get worst than this.

We are fixing the financial mess of yester-years at the best opportune time. Imagine if we are on the up and hampered by all sorts of financial restrictions, the fans will revolt.
Signing one-two players in panic will not made us into instant contenders so whether fans like it or not, this will be take time to resolve and this is the best time for a reset and majority of us are starting to accept that.

The manager is taking a hard stand on non-commital players and majority of the fans are in support of this. The existing players and incoming players will know this will be the minimum effort to play for the club.
 
steveoc can't wait for the David May years New
Tbf, looking at the points tally from the honeymoon games under Giggsy, Ole, Carrick and Ruud (21W 5D 2L - 68/84 pts), we would win the league soon enough if we just went through the roster of ex-Ferguson players and gave them 10-15 games each before we fired them.

That'd be amazing when we win our 3rd title in a row with David May in charge.
 
Well, I'm already feeling better knowing there are a bunch of you lot who want to keep things positive here and, after rereading the whole thread so far, you've all done a great job on summing up everything I was feeling. So thank you!

I also really appreciate everybody doing their best to completely ignore the inevitable few negative comments. Let's keep that approach up.

Our collective positive story so far:

Early commercial signs are good
-
Better transfer business.
- Better wage structures.
- Better structure.
- Better direction.

The squad and its network is improving
- Better new signing success rate.
- Better manager.
- Better coaches.
- Better youth teams.
- Better culture.
- Better support.

There are plenty of on pitch improvements
- Better identity.
- Better tactics.
- Better effort.
- Better team play.
- Better defending.
- Better pressing.
- Better against bigger teams.

All is not lost!
- Still in the Europa league. Only team to not lose.
- Still in the FA Cup.
- Youth teams doing wonderfully.
- Relegation very unlikely.

Bonus
- Red Cafe members getting healthier via Amorim Squats.

It's clear the platform and foundation looks positive, so let's support that, keep the good vibes coming, and just because something has already been listed here doesn't mean you shouldn't pile on and add support for it.

Let's keep it up!
My brother, I am all for positivity but this is mad. It lessens the thread if it's too over the top.

I think main positives have been well pointed out though - wage reset, an actual rebuild happening in the club hierarchy/setup (whether it works or not we will see), lots of young players with upside, Ineos transfers seem much better value (jury still out on quality but age profile also better). We are in a really dark place on the pitch, that is where it's been really bad, but the hope is with time Amorim can get things ticking.
 
The fact we didn't make any panic signings on deadline day was a huge positive for me. There is a lag between decisions and their impact, we can all see that we are suffering from decisions made 2 years ago in terms of contracts awarded and signings made, so it will take 6 - 18 months for any decisions made now to bear fruit.

Of course the decisions made now could be worse but it doesn't look like it to me. The Dorgu signing is relatively low risk in terms of wages and fee, the Rashford situation has finally been addressed and Antony has gone. On paper we might look weaker but those players were not actually contributing much.

My hope is Amorim can glide the plane into a safe landing with just the one engine working before the end of the season and address key positions in the summer.
 
There's been a notable improvement in our transfer dealings over the past few years when it comes to player mentality and more recently, valuations.
 
1. We have a headstrong coach who is being backed.
2. We have some excellent young players. Yoro, Amad, Garnacho, Mainoo, Dorgu all seem exciting prospects. Who knows, maybe if the pressure is off him Hojlund might become a good player too after a season or so as understudy?
3. We have some good players approaching their prime who can definitely do a job at the best level. Martinez, Mazroui, Ugarte, De Ligt are all approaching their prime. Bruno is in his prime and is a decent player who would look even better if he was in a good team. He'd be a regular 8/10 if he was in a top 4 team.
4. We didn't sign any crap in this window.
5. By exiling Rashford we've made a massive statement that player power is over. Sancho won't be looking to come back and Antony will hopefully be looking for another club too.
6. Hopefully we wont renew contracts for those who are going to expire this summer.
 
My brother, I am all for positivity but this is mad. It lessens the thread if it's too over the top.

Thanks for sharing your personal experience of the thread @tomaldinho1, and for adding your own POV on the positives.

Obviously, reality is somewhere in the calmer middle, but until we get some semblance of normality here, I'm very happy to play the role of unhinged fanatic, if nothing else just to give folks the more extreme other end of the spectrum so we all come away with a more balanced view!
 
I'm optimistic with the way we're finally changing the culture around the club, with the players we're offloading and the profile of players we're looking to bring in.

I like the manager and what he's trying to do. Really hoping he can pick up enough results to get some time as while the results are very poor the style of play he's introduced is the right one for the club long term. Once we solve our goalscoring problems and recruit sensibly they should improve.
 
Amad performs best as a RWB in this team. I don't even think Zirkzee looks bad as a 10 on the right with Amad's pace and tenacity. I'd like to see Garnacho and Dorgu dovetail down the left more often.
 
Man we needed this thread in the first half! Got there in the end. Luckily the linesman was either a football fan or was bursting for a dump
 
Zirkzee seems to be getting slowly, but progressively, better at receiving, holding and distributing the ball in order to link up play.

As the Spurs game went on, I noticed he initially went from having one Tottenham player deployed to him, to two or three when he was receiving the ball.

Being able to receive the ball well and then forcing a team to commit additional resources to you is an important attribute of counter-attacks, allowing attacking quality (which hopefully we can improve in the summer) to create overloads and take advantage of the space left behind.
 
Zirkzee seems to be getting slowly, but progressively, better at receiving, holding and distributing the ball in order to link up play.

As the Spurs game went on, I noticed he initially went from having one Tottenham player deployed to him, to two or three when he was receiving the ball.

Being able to receive the ball well and then forcing a team to commit additional resources to you is an important attribute of counter-attacks, allowing attacking quality (which hopefully we can improve in the summer) to create overloads and take advantage of the space left behind.
I agree.

Hopefully he'll get a run of games