He was always ill or injured, which is why he completed 90 minutes just twice. We signed a left back who'd spent most of his last season injured to replace our injured left backs.
This 40 combinations *have seen numerous figures used but lets go with 40) a large proportion was not forced, we have not had only 2 (or fewer) CBs available at any one time all season, many of the back 4 combinations have been choices made by ETH, like benching Varane for a couple of months, playing the speedy Amrabat at LB, but yeah lets say 40 forced combinations to spin this to look like ETH has done everything he can in the face of unsurmountable odds.... so answer this then, why? if the back 4 has been such a problem has ETH left them so exposed, playing a 4-1-5 formation for most of the season.... if as you say the back line has been the issue (and it has not, the back line has actually defended pretty well) then surely this highlights ETH's flaws as a manger because it seems he has been doing his utmost to expose them
Did it also force the fraud to NOT play our best defender against City at home based some made-up bullshit that he quickly went back on in the Liverpool away and Bayern home games?
If you give any manager 5 years at our club, regardless of performances, there’s a chance that he will turn into Sir Alex Ferguson.
Having SAF in charge for 26 years was truly a blessing for the club. But at the same time that prolonged period of success unfortunately warped the minds of many United fans (to be fair, including myself as well for some time) who have gotten wrong ideas of what it takes to be a successful manager at a club.
Concise and well said. Although, it spans back to the start of preseason.
fair point, but I think it was the closest we've been to a recognisable style of play that we've seen here - so I'm holding on to it!
Well in the CL some pretty impressive ones beating Real and Juve. In the league PSV had players like Gakpo, Dumfries, Malen who are European level. Feyenoord had Senesi and Sinisterra who are doing well in the Prem. It's not as cut and dry as most people think, they didn't even qualify for the CL before he came in. I have no problem in saying how shite he's been here, but not sure why we're so dismissive of what he did previously all of a sudden.
No, it happens all the time. Klopp didn't want Salah, he wanted Brandt and the DOF stepped in and the rest is history. I think we could see improvement with a better reshaping of the squad, that doesn't mean I am not appalled at how we played against Palace and not concerned with his decision making and set up with what he has.
He is clearly stubborn, much like LVG, but LVG isn't a bad manager and with the players in his vision he has had success. Now much like LVG, is that vision how United want to play? I think Ten Hags is closer to a United style that LVGs ever was, but if Wilcox agrees with the principles Ten Hag espouses, then we have to believe he can purchase players to suit that. It does mean not letting him pursue De Jong again and probably investing in a CB good enough on the ball as Martinez, because we can't rely on him to be fit.
Again, I will repeat, this doesn't mean I want him to stay at all costs. I would prefer Tuchel and we buy players for Tuchel and the agreed vision. I do NOT want to sack him to bring in Potter or Southgate to do that.
Playing young players is not the same as developing young players. Sure, it's better than a manager not playing them at all, but developing these youngsters the right way is actually one of the reasons I want ETH gone. The way he is utilising Mainoo in particular is almost the exact opposite of how he should be developed. We finally have a young player coming through who is tailor-made to playing and contributing in a dominant midfield, and the manager has no interest whatsoever in playing that way. Instead he just plops him in the middle of this chaos that his tactics demand. There's no midfield structure, he's not learning positional discipline, there's little interplay between players...it's just shit football that has no benefit and ultimately could lead to him not developing properly. Hojlund and Garnacho also, to a lesser extent.
We conceded 10 more than City and Newcastle.
Last I saw, our defensive line this season is deeper than it ever was under Ole. And we've done it all season long. So it's obviously a deliberate tactic by ETH. Just like pushing two midfielders very high, something that McTominay has never done before in his career but you seem to to be saying he's randomly decided to do this season? And that all our other midfielders do as well, whether it's Mainoo, Mount or Eriksen? It's blatantly what ETH is telling them to do.
Smaller teams that have, their managers have generally been pretty good!
The playstyle of leaving the entire middle of the pitch wide open and not caring about controlling the tempo of the match is a result of how ETH actively has us set up. It's why it's so much worse this season than it ever was before, even when most of our first choice players are available. All the players are being 'hung out to dry' because of it.
Thank you for the effort I was not willing to go to
.That is a very generous to EtH interpretation of things. You sound as if Greenwood were some ready-made world class player who was ready to drag the team on his own, not a young still developing player after 18 months of no football. Even if he were a world class player - pinning the “entire squad planning” on him would be unwise to put it mildly.
I myself am pretty ambivalent towards ETH, actually more leaning to bringing in somebody else in the summer. The issue for me though, who would that be. Despite that, I think, the situation is described a little too shallow.
This sounds easier than it is though. The publicized ambition might be clear for us, but what actually is the internal one? What are ETHs objectives? We shouldn't make the mistake of assuming, every manager always has the expectation to win as much as possible as the only target. And you need to know that before you can really give an answer on how well or no well a manager does.
Are you sure?
