This team is ready

kouroux said:
The entire backline (except Varane) and midfield (except Bruno) needs to be basically changed. Ole and his staff are amateurs but many of our players are just fecking shite
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I'm sure Chelsea fans had similar thoughts when Lampard was in charge. Then they hired a competent manager.
 
Sadly by the time we’ve suffered one humiliation too many and Ole is sacked we could be without Cavani, Martial, Pogba, DVB, Telles. Even Ronaldo might look for a way out by the end of the season. Hell, even Bruno might get fed up of this shit. Our core will be Maguire, McFred, Lingard, Greenwood and Rashford, then guess what? The new manager will need to be backed to build a new squad and spunk another £300m.

The time for change was after the Liverpool game because a good manager will get a tune out of this lot. The ship had sailed and this supposedly top notch squad he’s build might be all broken up by the time he leaves.
 
Defence is poor

Midfield is far worse

Forward line is entirely uncertain in the long term. To give just one example, Sancho won't make it here regardless of who the manager is in the future.

So in summation this squad is nowhere close to competing for the biggest honours and our troubles run way deeper than just the current manager.
 
The midfield needs a complete overhaul to win a PL or CL but there's plenty of talent there for a good coach to build with, not produce the shower of shit we've been seeing.
 
I have to disagree about the balance. We are too top-heavy when it comes to quality, and too many of our wide players are strikers at heart and not really creators. The midfielders are in no way near the quality a top team actually would need, and a top team also can't afford to have a right FB as bad on the ball as AWB, for all his defensive qualities, he is completely hopeless going forward and what's worse we have no one with a real plan in a position to fix this right now.
 
The Bloody-Nine said:
I'm sure Chelsea fans had similar thoughts when Lampard was in charge. Then they hired a competent manager.
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Just because it worked for Chelsea, doesn't mean it will here. Look at their players from a technical POV. Their midfield and backline on the ball, our players just cannot do that.
Look at AWB, Maguire, Fred, McTominay to name a few. Their skills on the ball is abysmal.
Better performances can be obtained from them for sure but there is no fecking we are winning the league or the CL with this team
 
All these players we have at their current form is all down to one man, OGS.
 
Ready for the Europa League next year at this rate.
 
kouroux said:
Just because it worked for Chelsea, doesn't mean it will here. Look at their players from a technical POV. Their midfield and backline on the ball, our players just cannot do that.
Look at AWB, Maguire, Fred, McTominay to name a few. Their skills on the ball is abysmal.
Better performances can be obtained from them for sure but there is no fecking we are winning the league or the CL with this team
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Not this season, no. We agree on that. But we're nowhere near as bad as Ole has us looking.
 
Difference is Chelsea had Jorginho, Kovacic, Kante for the new manager to deploy. If you set them up with structure, getting the defence right, you will control football matches and won't need to destroy sides 4 and 5. They can build from a very competent base as they're not going to under as much pressure at the back as we routinely are.

With us, we are just disaster. There is nothing to hang your hat on in defence or midfield. A caretaker/new manager has to start from scratch with that lot. Probably just play unambitious football, stick some pace around Ronaldo and mostly play defensive. Risk not having the craft against lower class sides whereas Chelsea will play through them eventually.
 
There is no balance.

Overloaded in attack, weak everywhere else. Especially weak in midfield.
 
Individual performances by the players today as bad as anything by the manager. And it sure as hell isn't a simple case of removing the latter to solve the former.
 
Hectic said:
The weird thing is if you look at the stats we are actually top of the league or thereabouts for most of the really important ones which shows with the right manager we could be instantly challenging.

1st for xG
1st for pass completion in the final third
1st for shots per game
1st for interceptions
2nd for possession
2nd for dribbles per game
3rd for total pass completion
3rd most fouls per game
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Not only that but we are 3rd for life expectancy and 2nd in the handsome XI now that we've signed Ronaldo
 
thegregster said:
Ole has got the maximum you can out of this group which is top 4.

The next manager won't do any better without a major overhaul.
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Ole is incompetent and most managers would be an upgrade at this moment.

A squad with Varane, Cavani, De Gea, Ronaldo, Bruno, Pogba, Sancho, Rashford, Greenwood, Shaw, VDB can easily challenge for the title and go far in the CL if they had a manager who had a clue.
 
Our squad would easily win the league with the right manager we ceetainly need a DM and possibly another midfielder but with the right manager he wins the league easily. We have De Gea in goal Varane in defence Pogba in midfield and Bruno Ronaldo and Cavani up front! Plus Donny should be in for Fred or Mctominay!
 
SER19 said:
I completely agree that the level of individual errors is just insane but i believe those are now inevitable when you're so poorly coached. Everything happens so fast at the top level like your average Sunday league multiplied by 1000. Shaw and maguire v pool and today are absolutely individually culpable but the vast majority of goals we concede and mistakes we make are just symptoms of a completely chaotic set up.
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I get individual mistakes at times, but it's the basics that are killing me. Bruno jogging towards the ball for cross that lead to the first goal is a joke and does my head in.

That which is then amplified by United players then saying 'ah damn, oh well we will bounce back'
 
thegregster said:
Nope.

They aren't winners bar Ronaldo and Bruno.

Ole has got the maximum you can out of this group which is top 4.

The next manager won't do any better without a major overhaul.
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What has Bruno won?
 
Sylar said:
I get individual mistakes at times, but it's the basics that are killing me. Bruno jogging towards the ball for cross that lead to the first goal is a joke and does my head in.

That which is then amplified by United players then saying 'ah damn, oh well we will bounce back'
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Glad I ain't the only one who noted this particular shocking instance
 
We are close. So so close.
 
elnorte said:
Defence is poor

Midfield is far worse

Forward line is entirely uncertain in the long term. To give just one example, Sancho won't make it here regardless of who the manager is in the future.

So in summation this squad is nowhere close to competing for the biggest honours and our troubles run way deeper than just the current manager.
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If Sancho was considered to not make it here regardless of manager, then that would point to even more questions of Solskjaer given he just spent 2 summers, and 73m on the guy. If you're saying after 3 months he'll never make it, then serious questions need to be asked of the structure of the club.

As it is, we go through this all the time, the squad are shit etc. A better manager would get more out of this squad. Chelsea looked like not making top 4 under Lampard in January this year, look at them now. Anyone thinking this squad shouldn't be doing better is seriously deluded.
 
Goku1983 said:
Our squad would easily win the league with the right manager we ceetainly need a DM and possibly another midfielder but with the right manager he wins the league easily. We have De Gea in goal Varane in defence Pogba in midfield and Bruno Ronaldo and Cavani up front! Plus Donny should be in for Fred or Mctominay!
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I wish I could bold the first 7 words of this post.

Unfortunately, I can’t so I have to type words.

What utter nonsense!!

No squad in the PL is ‘easily winning the league’.

Such a stupid comment.

To follow it up with the same words is insanity.
 
thegregster said:
Nope.

They aren't winners bar Ronaldo and Bruno.

Ole has got the maximum you can out of this group which is top 4.

The next manager won't do any better without a major overhaul.
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Maybe we may not have winners bar the aforementioned duo, but I strongly believe the squad's winning mentality is a reflection of the manager's. I am not convinced Ole has what it takes to change that unfortunately three years in. Again I'm not sure Ole has got the maximum out this squad by a long shot, actually he is seriously underperforming and it's painful to see.
 
Sylar said:
I get individual mistakes at times, but it's the basics that are killing me. Bruno jogging towards the ball for cross that lead to the first goal is a joke and does my head in.

That which is then amplified by United players then saying 'ah damn, oh well we will bounce back'
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Yeah, but even that i think is the product of a complete lack of cohesion and prep.

Put it this way, if we had henderson and wijnaldum with an ageing milner popping up all over we would without question be talking about our horrific players and recruitment and lazy attitudes. Liverpool got a CL and a title from these guys.

Coaching leads to performances leads to wins leads to confidence leads to consistency
 
RazorOz said:
If Sancho was considered to not make it here regardless of manager, then that would point to even more questions of Solskjaer given he just spent 2 summers, and 73m on the guy. If you're saying after 3 months he'll never make it, then serious questions need to be asked of the structure of the club.

As it is, we go through this all the time, the squad are shit etc. A better manager would get more out of this squad. Chelsea looked like not making top 4 under Lampard in January this year, look at them now. Anyone thinking this squad shouldn't be doing better is seriously deluded.
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In terms of Sancho I've never been convinced that he's anywhere near as good as others would have you believe and from early summer onwards I made my feelings very clear that I was not in favour of his signing. And yes this would be yet another example of the manager making a serious error of judgement.

As regards the overall quality of the squad, it probably is the case that it is underperforming but at the same time in a backline which contains Maguire as supposedly its best defender, isn't ever winning a league title.
 
I honestly believe with this group of players we're closer than we've ever been. All that's missing is a top manager.
 
elnorte said:
In terms of Sancho I've never been convinced that he's anywhere near as good as others would have you believe and from early summer onwards I made my feelings very clear that I was not in favour of his signing. And yes this would be yet another example of the manager making a serious error of judgement.

As regards the overall quality of the squad, it probably is the case that it is underperforming but at the same time in a backline which contains Maguire as supposedly its best defender, isn't ever winning a league title.
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Well yes, that's a question of opinion, which is up for debate. I don't agree, but it's not relevant to the point anyway, as the point would be how would the board look at it, if the board are looking at it that Sancho will never make it here anyway after spending 73m on him 3 months ago and chasing him for 2 summers it would be an absolute disgrace.

Indeed in the bigger picture there seems a problem with the recruitment vs what we're trying to don the pitch. Sancho is the biggest example at 73m, but the same principle applies to van der Beek, why was 40m spent on someone who seemingly doesn't fit in the team. It all points to a big mess and flaw in the structure of the club, there are easily styles of play that could accommodate these players, but they either aren't Solskjaer's vision, or he's incapable of putting that vision on the pitch.

I'd imagine Varane is now considered the best CB. If you were to look at the team from a general overview, the only glaring hole is DM. If you look at say the Liverpool team of the last few years, they've often got by with an average midfield on paper, so the idea that we shouldn't be doing better than we are is a non-starter for me. I'm not sure for example on paper our squad is significantly worse than Chelsea's.
 
RazorOz said:
Well yes, that's a question of opinion, which is up for debate. I don't agree, but it's not relevant to the point anyway, as the point would be how would the board look at it, if the board are looking at it that Sancho will never make it here anyway after spending 73m on him 3 months ago and chasing him for 2 summers it would be an absolute disgrace.

Indeed in the bigger picture there seems a problem with the recruitment vs what we're trying to don the pitch. Sancho is the biggest example at 73m, but the same principle applies to van der Beek, why was 40m spent on someone who seemingly doesn't fit in the team. It all points to a big mess and flaw in the structure of the club, there are easily styles of play that could accommodate these players, but they either aren't Solskjaer's vision, or he's incapable of putting that vision on the pitch.

I'd imagine Varane is now considered the best CB. If you were to look at the team from a general overview, the only glaring hole is DM. If you look at say the Liverpool team of the last few years, they've often got by with an average midfield on paper, so the idea that we shouldn't be doing better than we are is a non-starter for me. I'm not sure for example on paper our squad is significantly worse than Chelsea's.
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For some weird reason I'd forgotten about Varane even though he is clearly our best defender and an exceptional one in his own right. I guess to me it's just the way Maguire continues to be celebrated without, to my mind at least, any semblance of justification. Him being the captain certainly doesn't help either. Regardless even with Varane, the others around him will prove too much of a handicap.
 
SER19 said:
They don't have to be.

Imagine a top manager, let's say ten hag or Zidane. And

De gea

Trippier (jan)
Lindelof
Varane
Shaw

Matic?
Vdb? (pick your 2 here)
Fernandes

Sancho
Ronaldo
Rashford

Subs: Cavani, Greenwood, diallo, fred, mctominay, Maguire, Telles, Martial

I just don't believe this set of players can't fly. Its never ever been so obvious to me how poorly we are coached.
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CM is very far from good enough no matter which of our options are selected. It is a critical area of the pitch. On the other hand I do believe that most managers could have got us more than the 4 points we took from the last 18.

Generally I don’t think the squad is as good as you suggest but two top signings in CM would make all the difference.
 
elnorte said:
Defence is poor

Midfield is far worse

Forward line is entirely uncertain in the long term. To give just one example, Sancho won't make it here regardless of who the manager is in the future.

So in summation this squad is nowhere close to competing for the biggest honours and our troubles run way deeper than just the current manager.
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Don’t agree with this
but agree with this
 
….for a manager who doesn’t suffer fools and is not afraid of egos.
 
How many managers will it take for some people to accept your squad isn’t good enough. A small collection of players aside, you need an entire dressing room mentality change and 3/4s of a squad because at present some are Europa league level at best.

It’s simply delusional at this point to believe your squad has what it takes when every manager (post Fergie) has struggled to some degree. From cancerous personalities like Pogba to players who are more concerned with off the field activities like Lingard and Rashford.

Ronaldo, known for his professionalism, has called out your squad on their attitudes. Ralf is calling for heavy investment. Ex-players (whether you agree or not) have heard about problems and called out the club. Your squad is simply not ready to compete, ability wise or otherwise.
 
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