Things that have improved

SER19

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Apr 15, 2008
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We're in a terrible position, and worse than I thought we'd be in if I had to give my worst case scenario for the start of the season.

People often look at this stop-start spell before the second break as the first chunk of the season, and amidst all the understandable glumness, I thought we may as well consider if anything has improved.

The biggest thing is that we do look more compact and less vulnerable. It was by far the most glaring issue of last season. The liverpool and spurs games were poor, but even Liverpool only had 3 shots on target, and the Spurs game of course was about 65 minutes with a red card, even if we were poor before the red card.

We have 4 clean sheets from 7, only Liverpool have more.

And in terms of shots conceded, last season we ranked 19th in the league, only worsened by Sheffield United. I do enjoy watching us play without feeling like every single loss of possession or break will lead to a shot on goal. So far we're 7th, better than arsenal for example, who have a good defence. It is the basis on which any success has to be built, we can be far off the top teams, but overall should be beating all bottom half teams close to twice if we're conceding few chances.

The squad depth is better, not that we have any evidence of it.

Frustratingly, these improvements seem to have come at the cost of any sort of attacking ability, not helped by fernandes having a really awful start to the season.

That said, with 99.9% of the forum available to turn into endless misery (understandable) Im trying to hope that a good run is possible after the international break. The fixtures look kinder on paper, and you can only hope we will start converting some chances. The margins are so small, that freak offside against brighton was a 3 point swing. Palace and Villa away we hit the woodwork.

Dont get me wrong, we're poor, but if we have any hope of being competitive it has to be built on a more solid foundation than what we saw last season, and at least there is some small optimism there.
 
My sleep patterns,

even LVG didn’t bore me as much as this fraud.
 
People don't go as apoplectic as they did in the past. There is a resignation to our state. I think in due time we'll come to accept our mid-table status like all other clubs managed by Jimmy "the local lad" Brexit. The forum will then be a much more "positive" place.
 
We're 14th.

I really do find this type of post just so idiotic. Ive literally qualified just how poor we are several times in the OP. There are no excuses being made, no caveat for how awful we are, and still you cant help but just inanely post the obvious. Its a standalone topic, that yes, is smaller in the bigger picture but thats what this thread is for. Take this shit post to the 'what position are we in' thread.

Surely any fan of the club can only hope we will improve, and if you hope we will improve, then its fair to consider on what foundation we can build.
 
Can't score goals and we have no idea what our best team is. The defence can be solid if we play more compact but I just don't know where the goals are going to come from.
 
If we draw all games, it’s 38 pts. Just think about it deeply.
This relegation form of the team is unimaginable.
 
Progression has been too slow, the manager who is one of the best paid in the league is failing to deliver across every conceivable metric imaginable.

Also, when you critically assess what's happening from a performance standpoint it is largely evident that Erik as a tactician has nothing to offer other than absorbing pressure and playing geared towards transitions (it's the approach under his management that has produced the best results again no different to Ole / Jose).

It's a shared ideology between Jose / Ole which did largely result in Erik finishing in the top four in his first season.

So from a more cynical view what we are witnessing isn't growing pains, but a manager who's unable to reinvent new ideas. Each respective season United have played an altered brand of football compared to the former campaign and none of it is bearing any fruit nor providing substance that the manager can bring from season to season.

It's a good contrast with Arteta who is an infant managerially compared to Erik and in each season Arsenal have played with slightly different nuances but it hasn't compromised the structure or the competitiveness of the team. To be less conservative, if a manager changes something it needs to work, if after what's approaching 36 months someone tells me the press works, that's unmeaningful because it's an isolated element of play that must then align with the next phase which in United's case doesn't correlate to anything of significance. For example mid way through last season the teams stats for recoveries in the opposition half was one of the best in the league.....but it didn't reap anything.

Erik is done at United.
 
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Every match played is a step closer to Ten Hag getting the boot.
 
We're in a terrible position, and worse than I thought we'd be in if I had to give my worst case scenario for the start of the season.

People often look at this stop-start spell before the second break as the first chunk of the season, and amidst all the understandable glumness, I thought we may as well consider if anything has improved.

The biggest thing is that we do look more compact and less vulnerable. It was by far the most glaring issue of last season. The liverpool and spurs games were poor, but even Liverpool only had 3 shots on target, and the Spurs game of course was about 65 minutes with a red card, even if we were poor before the red card.

We have 4 clean sheets from 7, only Liverpool have more.

And in terms of shots conceded, last season we ranked 19th in the league, only worsened by Sheffield United. I do enjoy watching us play without feeling like every single loss of possession or break will lead to a shot on goal. So far we're 7th, better than arsenal for example, who have a good defence. It is the basis on which any success has to be built, we can be far off the top teams, but overall should be beating all bottom half teams close to twice if we're conceding few chances.

The squad depth is better, not that we have any evidence of it.

Frustratingly, these improvements seem to have come at the cost of any sort of attacking ability, not helped by fernandes having a really awful start to the season.

That said, with 99.9% of the forum available to turn into endless misery (understandable) Im trying to hope that a good run is possible after the international break. The fixtures look kinder on paper, and you can only hope we will start converting some chances. The margins are so small, that freak offside against brighton was a 3 point swing. Palace and Villa away we hit the woodwork.

Dont get me wrong, we're poor, but if we have any hope of being competitive it has to be built on a more solid foundation than what we saw last season, and at least there is some small optimism there.
Did you say less vunerable ?
Teams have been tearing us apart ..
Spurs just hammered us last week
 
I used to need to go and take a walk to calm down when we drew, let alone lost. Now, draws and loses don't effect me at all. I feel nothing.

Is that considered an improvement?
 
5 goals in 7 PL games.

Worst start to a PL season in history.

‘We’ve Improved’

:lol::lol::lol:
 
Stop making excuses for him! I'd call your improvement clean shit, because we saw how Porto clean shited on us while losing 0:2. Fkin pathetic eth army trying to see anything positive here.
 
The manager and most of the squad are a hot steaming pile of shit.

14th and -3 goal difference.
 
I used to need to go and take a walk to calm down when we drew, let alone lost. Now, draws and loses don't effect me at all. I feel nothing.

Is that considered an improvement?
We called that being desensitised to a situation. That is not something that should be happening with United.

I am not sure how INEO's can sit there and think this is ok. He should have got the boot after the FA Cup in, then he should of been booted just before the International Break! Here we are and we don't even have confidence in the club sacking him before the end of October.
 
I really do find this type of post just so idiotic. Ive literally qualified just how poor we are several times in the OP. There are no excuses being made, no caveat for how awful we are, and still you cant help but just inanely post the obvious. Its a standalone topic, that yes, is smaller in the bigger picture but thats what this thread is for. Take this shit post to the 'what position are we in' thread.

Surely any fan of the club can only hope we will improve, and if you hope we will improve, then its fair to consider on what foundation we can build.

Thread is titled "things that have improved". Nothing has improved. We're 14th.

I also don't accept your "we're less vulnerable because clean sheets" as an improvement either. Oh hey, last year my car didn't have any breaks. I've fixed those now, but it no longer has wheels. That's not an improvement. Football isn't played in silos.

Squad depth also is not improved, until it actually shows it has.

So I'm sorry if you didn't approve of my reply because I wasn't seen to be going along with your narrative, but your OP is a load of waffle.
 
We called that being desensitised to a situation. That is not something that should be happening with United.

I am not sure how INEO's can sit there and think this is ok. He should have got the boot after the FA Cup in, then he should of been booted just before the International Break! Here we are and we don't even have confidence in the club sacking him before the end of October.
Aye, it's a complete joke of a situation
 
@SER19 you're just trying to be positive, so I apologise. I don't wanna squeeze that out of anyone.

I think Onana is looking better this year, if that counts for anything.
 
Christ the state of reading comprehension in this thread is laughable. Yes we know the team is playing poorly and in a terrible league position.

Saying that some things have improved doesn't mean that everything is fine and dandy - there can be improvements in some areas alongside severe deficiencies in others.
 
Christ the state of reading comprehension in this thread is laughable. Yes we know the team is playing poorly and in a terrible league position.

Saying that some things have improved doesn't mean that everything is fine and dandy - there can be improvements in some areas alongside severe deficiencies in others.

Thanks for this.

I probably shouldnt have bothered even trying, but even basic understanding of english will allow a reader to appreciate that all of our faults are glaring and not remotely denied in the OP, but at the same time, in a forum of thousands upon thousands of threads, there is room for discussion about the minor improvements without it needing to cause little hissy fits.

We all complained enough about the excruciating openness of last season, and that at least seems to have been tightened a bit. If its at the expense of any ability to attack, thats a huge mark against ten hag obviously.
 
Christ the state of reading comprehension in this thread is laughable. Yes we know the team is playing poorly and in a terrible league position.

Saying that some things have improved doesn't mean that everything is fine and dandy - there can be improvements in some areas alongside severe deficiencies in others.
Why do you even try to find something better in this total shitshow? What's your purpose or goal in it? I don't understand at all.
 
I think INEOS massively modernised the player tunnel, didn’t they? I’ve seen twitter photos of it
 
Onana looks good. Mazraoui looks good.

Solid? Spurs could’ve scored 4 before the red card.

Porto should’ve scored 5.

No more positives. We are still leaking goals even though we aren’t allowing as many shots.

He is finished. Gone tonight. Betting companies have suspended ‘Next manager sacked’ bets.
 
We're 14th.
This outranks everything positive when we talk about 'progression'

The insistence from Ten Hag that the FA Cup win validates his record is basically someone saying that 6 games out of 50 in a season are allowed to define being under par in the other 44 are ok. The fact this narrative has been allowed to carry into this season inhibits any serious talk of progress.
 
Why do you even try to find something better in this total shitshow? What's your purpose or goal in it? I don't understand at all.
Why am I finding something better despite so many things being to poor at United? Because fundamentally I believe that the world is not completely black and white and even though there is 99% terrible at United right now and I want ETH out, I'm not willing to be so jaded that I can't identify the 1% that is good.

I refuse to get sucked into outrage media and the short-attention span economy, and want to hold a more patient and considerate view of the world.

Just because I'm defending the OP doesn't mean I think we have improved on the whole.
 
Onana looks good. Mazraoui looks good.

Solid? Spurs could’ve scored 4 before the red card.

Porto should’ve scored 5.

No more positives. We are still leaking goals even though we aren’t allowing as many shots.

He is finished. Gone tonight. Betting companies have suspended ‘Next manager sacked’ bets.

We're not leaking goals. We've conceded 8, 6th fewest in the league. Im not arguing any case for ten hags job whatsoever.
 
The squad has improved as has the fitness. In terms of play, nothing. The games where we can create chances and score are the games where we leak 20 shots per game and concede 3 goals per game, whereas the games where we look solid defensively are the games we are horrendous going forward and are incapable of creating. The point of a manager is to implement a system that can both create chances and limit opposition chances. If he can't do that, them he is failing at the basics of his job.
 
I don’t see any meaningful improvement.
 
Why do you even try to find something better in this total shitshow? What's your purpose or goal in it? I don't understand at all.

Because the season is 38 games, not 7. Whether its ten hag or somebody else, its important to know what positives can be built on, regardless of how hidden they are. your alternative is to just wallow in complete misery, but theres nobody on the planet arguing that we arent poor. Theres no united fan alive that is happy.

But this overall hostile aversion to anything but anger and misery is just not healthy, on an individual or forum-wide basis