Unpopular Opinion | Not sacking Ten Hag

[NewGlory]

Onana
Bayındır
Malacia
Lisandro
Evans
Kambwala
Casemiro
Amrabat
Mainoo
Eriksen
Mount
Antony
Garnacho
Højlund

14 of the current 26 man squad are his signings/loans/promotions. Forson should probably be included also. 15/27.

There has already been a massive overhaul from the end of the Ole/Rangnick season. Lots of players didn't outlast the last fiasco.

De Gea
Henderson
Grant
Telles
Jones
Tuanzebe
Bailly
Matić
Garner
Pogba
Fred
Andreas
Mata
Lingard
Chong
Elanga
Ronaldo
Cavani

We're at a stage where we could sell at least half of ten Hag's signings. We've spent €445 million and don't have a lot to show for it.

Onana - his mistake
Bayındır - irrelevant
Malacia - injured all season
Lisandro - injured all season
Evans - not who he wanted
Kambwala - young player
Casemiro - was world class for a year and suddenly declined out if the blue
Amrabat - not who he wanted
Mainoo - young player, doing well
Eriksen - declined
Mount - injured half of the season but arguably a mistake
Antony - his mistake
Garnacho - young player, doing well
Højlund - young player

so out of those 14, actually only 2 were, maybe 2.5 with Mount kinda, a mistake, the rest are either injured, not players he wanted, young players, or players who declined for no predictable reasons.

14-21% (whether you count Mount as a mistake) miss rate is actually low in recruitement. Others have done worse. And as for prices paid - that is mostly on idiots above him, not on Ten Hag

See how different numbers look when you put context next to them and try to not be biased?

 

[Revan]

No, they generally weren’t (at top level), that is the thing.


1999-2001 Valencia made 2 finals under Cuper. Did not have particular success at Inter, did not manage at top level afterwards

2000-2001 Leads under O’Leary made semis. He did nothing of note in his career afterwards

2001-2002 Bayer made CL final under Topmöller. He never even managed, let alone had success on a higher level.

2003-2004 Monaco made final under Deschamps. He had a successful national team career in management but no success at club level afterwards

Porto final under Jose - this one was by a top coach, no question

Deportivo semifinal under Irureta - he did not have success elsewhere

2004-2005 PSV made semis under Hiddink - decent career at national level afterwards, no notable managerial spells except Chelsea interim, so he was kind of on the decline at the time already

2005-2006 Pellegrini made semis with Villarreal, good coach that got top jobs afterwards but hardly a top one

2009-2010 Lyon made Semis under Puel. Did not manage on a higher level after.

2010-2011 Schalke made semis under Magath/Rangnik. Neither have shown themselves to be able to successfully manger a higher level club

2012-2013 Dortmund under Klopp made finals. Top manager no question

2013-2014 & 2015-2016 - Athletico under Simeone - top manager no question

2016-2017 Monaco under Jardim made semis. He is managing in Qatar now.

2017-2018 - Roma made semis under Eusebio di Francesco who is managing mighty Frosione now.

2018-2019 - Ajax with EtH made semis. Poch beat him and made final with Spurs - hardly anyone would want him to manage us now

2019-2020 Leipzig made semis under Nagelsmann who is good, but also Lyon made semis under Rudi Garcia who was managing in Saudi Arabia in a few years

2021-2022 Villareal under Emery made semis, good coach but no particular success at a higher level yet

so plenty of smaller clubs made CL semis over recent decades, most of the managers have gone to do a grand total of nothing at a higher level afterwards. Plus this is ignoring managers who are nowhere near good but made semis/finals/won the whole thing with a bigger clubs like Di Matteo or Grant etc etc. it is a cup competition, this happens.

We can debate on what is a good manager and what is a small club but the big picture is clear I think. Making CL semis with a smaller club is a plus on managers CV but hardly indicative of whether he will come good at higher levels. For every Klopp there are 2-3 jardims, puels and Rudi Garcias

Very good post.

Doing great with a small(er) club is great and might give that manager a top job afterwards. I wanted EtH here.

But it doesn’t mean that they get a free pass afterwards. Most of those managers do not succeed in a higher level. So while it made sense to hire EtH, same as it made sense for Chelsea to hire AvB, it hasn’t worked out. Move along.

And as you mentioned EtH’s success was matched by another dozens of managers, from which only two (Mourinho and Klopp) turned out to be top managers, another couple were quite decent afterwards and half were pretty bad. By no means any guarantee that reaching semis with a club like Ajax means success in a higher level.

 

[glazed]

Bit of a dramatic premise for me. Why would that be the case? Ten Hag has had been given resources to do his job in the same way that any manager is - he's asked for players and been given them, and has brought in his own coaching staff. Broadly speaking, what do other managers have that he hasn't had? All managers will face challenges in their job. Why is he failing to such an extent?

Has he though? He would have asked for Kane and Rice and instead got Hojlund and Amrabat. He wanted FdJ and got Casemiro. He has poor medical and training facilities. He spend a year hobbled under the Glazers, and FFP means they will cast a long shadow unpicking the Woodward mess. He inherited a highly dysfunctional squad in ways too long to list. He's been tasked to transition to a modern high press style with even when everyone is fit a very thin squad of players capable of doing it. He got rid of Ronaldo and De Gea but he still has several players who can't do it and who are only playing because there's nobody else.

TBH it's a miracle we're doing as well as we are.

 

[glazed]

Onana - his mistake

Unpopular opinion but I think Onana will come good. His mistakes are a psychological result of not having any faith in his defence and the sheer number of attacks he has to deal with.

 

[Hughie77]

Obviously ETH wasn't happy with the way he played last season? 2 cup finals 3rd in prem could have got 2nd imo.. out of Europa league should have done better in that as well..

This season he seems to have ripped up that blueprint and made a different one altogether, and it hasn't worked!

Ineos- Glazers have and are making Changes in the boardroom, backroom staff, that tells me that ETH is either staying and they want him to carry on with the project? Or he's going after FA cup final.

Imo he's gone I think the players know he's gone as well, some of them are just waiting for new guy to get a clean slate..

We got Rashford wtf has happened to him Sancho he pissed him off . He's bought bad to say the least then tries to defend it , Mount's been a car crash Antony not much better, Onana again not good enough.. Ole bought Varane Mainoo ,Garnacho already here!

He maybe a half decent coach ie like B . Roger's is but not a top quality manager ...his time is up sorry.. to me he's a stubborn fecker and sometimes it works against you if your not willing to listen to others..

 

[Atheist]

It’s a miracle we’re at 8th place in the league? We should really be thankful to Ten Hag for this incredible, monumental achievement. Maybe a statue outside Old Trafford isn’t out of question? Where would be without his legendary managerial skills?

 

[MadDogg]

I want him gone - so I am not defending him. But if you look at us last season compared to this season - with almost the same players, clearly it's not only the manager. Casemiro and Eriksen look 10 years older over the summer and a player like Rashford can't be bothered to run.

I think you are looking at it the wrong way. The difference between this season and last season makes it exceedingly obvious it's mostly because of the manager changing his style. Last season we largely continued playing how we did under Ole, with the same formation (4231) and basic style. Martinez and Eriksen meant there was a bit more ball-playing in there and Casemiro a bit more defensive ability in midfield, but overall it was largely the same as we played under Ole.

This season ETH quite obviously changed how he set up the team, with a 4141 formation with the attack pushed up while the defence sits deeper which of course leaves a huge space in the middle. It's why he bought Mount, a player that wouldn't have had any place in last seasons formation. It's why McTominay has suddenly changed how he plays and the positions he takes up. Even Eriksen is pushing up higher and playing more as an attacker than a midfielder. The change was obvious right from preseason, and has continued ever since.

Casemiro has declined, but the fact that he's being left all alone in midfield is setting him up to fail and making him look even worse than he really is. The opposition just cut straight through us and run at him with numbers time after time. Not even prime Casemiro would have been able to cope with it properly, let alone one who is physically declining. And being asked to do that constantly is probably leading to him declining faster than he normally would have. Rashford hasn't really changed his effort level or defensive contribution between seasons; the difference is his effectiveness when on the ball.

 

[NewGlory]

Unpopular opinion but I think Onana will come good. His mistakes are a psychological result of not having any faith in his defence and the sheer number of attacks he has to deal with.

That is possible

Personal opinion - I dont think he will become the level we need but he probably will significantly improve in a better team and when he settles in, I agree

 

[glazed]

It’s a miracle we’re at 8th place in the league? We should really be thankful to Ten Hag for this incredible, monumental achievement. Maybe a statue outside Old Trafford isn’t out of question? Where would be without his legendary managerial skills?

I'm not suggesting for a second he will survive the summer. He won't. But all the same problems will await the next human sacrifice we toss into the volcano of dreams. Expect somebody who values money over their reputation.

I think you are looking at it the wrong way. The difference between this season and last season makes it exceedingly obvious it's mostly because of the manager changing his style. Last season we largely continued playing how we did under Ole, with the same formation (4231) and basic style. Martinez and Eriksen meant there was a bit more ball-playing in there and Casemiro a bit more defensive ability in midfield, but overall it was largely the same as we played under Ole.

Yes this is a central point. He was brought in to change the style. That was his whole purpose. Retreat from that and you have all the old problems back again.

 

[SER19]

My unpopular opinion is that we're not as far off being competitive as we think we are, whether we change ten hag or not.

There's been a huge lack of belief this year, with it only being turned on when we're trailing occasionally, and weve massively missed real leaders like Martinez and casemiro (whos stock has no doubt fallen in the eyes of teammates, after he looked so assured last season). While only a part of it, the injuries genuinely have been utterly ridiculous.

So whether it's ten hag or not, I do think onana, dalot, martinez, shaw, mainoo, garnacho, fernandes, mount, hojlund are all good players. We clearly need 3 or 4 excellent additions but not the enormous overhaul some suggest

 

[glazed]

At this rate we are going with "ETH in" posters, we don't even need a coach next season. As long as we have a good football structure set up by Ineos we will play good football. Don't blame the manager even though it was so obvious that tactics is the problem and not the structure (yes, it's partly a problem) when you are outplayed by Palace and toe to toe with fecking Coventry.

The tactics would probably work with the right players. So it's a recruitment problem that has to be seen across a very long period.

Or you revert back to the old tactics so that old and slow players can cope. But ETH was brought in to update the tactics because the old ways are a long term recipe for even greater failure.

So it's not that simple. We're not really seriously debating whether ETH should keep his job. Plainly he won't. The deeper problem is what should now be occupying our minds.

My unpopular opinion is that we're not as far off being competitive as we think we are, whether we change ten hag or not.
We clearly need 3 or 4 excellent additions but not the enormous overhaul some suggest

This ignores injuries and tiredness. The reason City can motor into the home straight every year is because they have a complete squad of high class players who can interchange. At the moment we don't even have a coherent first 11 but your four excellent additions would only bring us that far and not to the 22 we actually need to win anything.

 

[Rood]

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 do not believe for a moment that it was communicated to EtH that “Greenwood is coming back 100%”. It was probably “likely” or “we will do our best”. Even Murtough is not that stupid.

Even if it (stupidly) was communicated like that - EtH should not have been that naive to rely on him coming back to such a significant extent. Again, given his age and long absence a squad rotation player is an absolute maximum you could reasonably expect.

If he were suspended weeks/days before the end of the transfer window- different story and you can maybe use it as excuse is a manager. But this excuse could only be used by Ralf, not by EtH.

No serious organisation would accept “I just relied on X giving me assurances that something good is likely going to happen, therefore no check, no contingency plan” from an employee with a position of such authority on a performance review regarding a critical issue. He is paid 9m a year ffs.

Not sure how closely you followed the details of that saga but it's generally accepted that Ten Hag was told Greenwood was coming back.

Whether it was wise to rely on him after 18 months out is a valid question, but actually irrelevant to the point being made about failures at board level having a major impact on Ten Hag's squad planning. In particular upfront where we have been lacking numbers for the whole of Ten Hag's tenure.

The greatest failure with Greenwood was simply the constant delays from Arnold in announcing anything, this meant that it was just days before the transfer window closed that the club U-turned and finally announced he was leaving.

This left no time for any replacement and has had a major knock on effect. In fact it might be that FFP restrictions essentially meant that Ten Hag was given the option of Greenwood or nothing, before at the last minute being told nothing was the only option!

 

[MadDogg]

Yes this is a central point. He was brought in to change the style. That was his whole purpose. Retreat from that and you have all the old problems back again.

Changing to a different style is pointless if it's not the right style. We still have all the same problems we had before, except now we've got extra ones on top of that.

We are further away from where we need to be now than where we were before. Our defence is sitting deeper, which is the opposite of what we want. Our midfield is much more open, which is the opposite of what we want. Our attack seems even more reliant on high-risk low-quality creation, which is the opposite of what we want. We are having even less control of the tempo of matches, which is the opposite of what we want.

All of these things are directly linked to the changes that ETH has made this season. We've gone backwards in every single one.

You do seem to constantly say that ETH is making changes that need to be made, and therefore he deserves more time. What are those changes? He's basically doing the exact opposite of what almost every top team does. Now there is the chance that he'll change his style again next season, but then that goes against your entire point of what he's doing this season being necessary.

 

[NLunited]

I have no problem with doing something different than Arsenal and Cheaty. Their styles would not fit traditionally here, and we should not all play the same (mostly boring) style.

Chelsea is a better comparison. They are improving after being wildly inconsistent. They have a better defense and midfield than we do.

Ten Hag‘s plan is good in theory. We need to be better in possession and have some key additions, then we should be fine.

 

[VP89]

He was brought to change the style but then he bait and switched us on what that style would be.

his interview with murtough and co was clearly based on how Ajax were playing. Then he quickly decided he couldn’t do that here despite signing half a dozen ex players of his.

The style he is currently failing to develop is a failing style in and of itself.

The new game model is not going to be based on having 1 superhuman midfielder on his own putting out all the fires, and all the front 5 pushed up man marking defenders and never being open for passes or making passing triangles

Oh you were in the room were you?

 

[NLunited]

Are you sure?

Umm, yeah! We push six players forward.

 

[glazed]

You do seem to constantly say that ETH is making changes that need to be made, and therefore he deserves more time. What are those changes? He's basically doing the exact opposite of what almost every top team does.

He needs to high press. That's what every top team does now and quite a few of the crap ones too. This only works if your defence can push up but still neutralise the counter, and your midfield is adept at keeping possession. Virtually your whole team needs to be fast, fit, athletic and good at passing. That's what he is trying for and he's falling way short. That's mainly a player problem. Shaw and Martinez in central defence is a completely different proposition to Maguire and Evans. And don't even get me started on Casemiro. Buying him was like buying a ticking bomb.

I don't know if ETH tactics would work with the right players. Maybe we'd still be shit. We've had no occasion to find out.

 

[MadDogg]

He needs to high press. That's what every top team does now and quite a few of the crap ones too. This only works if your defence can push up but still neutralise the counter, and your midfield is adept at keeping possession. Virtually your whole team needs to be fast, fit, athletic and good at passing. That's what he is trying for and he's falling way short. That's mainly a player problem. Shaw and Martinez in central defence is a completely different proposition to Maguire and Evans. And don't even get me started on Casemiro. Buying him was like buying a ticking bomb.

I don't know if ETH tactics would work with the right players. Maybe we'd still be shit. We've had no occasion to find out.

So what benefit are we getting from implementing this half-arsed high press with an incredibly open midfield and deep defence (that is deeper than we used in previous seasons)? Are our players learning anything, or developing any patterns of play that will put them in good stead going forward?

 

[glazed]

So what benefit are we getting from implementing this half-arsed high press with an incredibly open midfield and deep defence (that is deeper than we used in previous seasons)? Are our players learning anything, or developing any patterns of play that will put them in good stead going forward?

Good question. Cleary the defence isn't supposed to be this deep. But we saw what happened last week when Evans tried to push up. The younger faster striker just kicked the ball past him, ran into the space and scored.

So the choice is stay where we were and suffer death by Oleball, in which case we might as well ave kept DdG and Ronaldo. Or start to buy new players, knowing it's going to be really hard for a while.

But there are two problems. Buying new players on this scale is a very slow process and very difficult to get right. And we have indeed fekked it up. Mount, Antony, Casemiro, these are all bad buys. Secondly in trying to cope we have over stressed the system and now our key players are injured or demoralised.

 

[mitchmouse]

I honestly think Ineos were thinking of sticking with him until Monday night...

 

[RedRover]

Has he though? He would have asked for Kane and Rice and instead got Hojlund and Amrabat. He wanted FdJ and got Casemiro. He has poor medical and training facilities. He spend a year hobbled under the Glazers, and FFP means they will cast a long shadow unpicking the Woodward mess. He inherited a highly dysfunctional squad in ways too long to list. He's been tasked to transition to a modern high press style with even when everyone is fit a very thin squad of players capable of doing it. He got rid of Ronaldo and De Gea but he still has several players who can't do it and who are only playing because there's nobody else.

TBH it's a miracle we're doing as well as we are.

He had limits on who he could buy, as do 99% of the managers in world football. Every PL manager would want Kane and Rice. Do you need Kane and Rice to be finishing in the top 4? Certainly we should expect better than we've been getting with the resources invested.

Significant sums of money have been spent; presumably on players he wanted and they can't do what he wants. Or he's changed what he wants. Or he doesn't know what he wants. Whatever way you carve it up, he needs to take at least a significant part of the responsibility for that.

I personally keep getting back to the same point - what is he doing that suggests he's ever going to be good enough?

I was impressed last season and it looked like there was a plan, even if it might take a while to get us to where he wanted to be. Can't see that any more.

 

[NinjaZombie]

The problem with the idea that we can carry out that open heart surgery and bring in 10 new players (which i highly doubt), is that I have zero faith he can properly identify the right kind of players. Okay, so INEOS has people in place to take charge of recruitment. Say they can do this open heart surgery, why would they stop at the players? Might as well get someone in who fits what they're looking for.

 

[abailey123]

Here’s why I think he stays:
- we’ve paid a lot out in compensation already for our CEO, sporting director and technical director
- Can we really afford at least 2 more lots of compensation which potentially eats into transfer funds
- ten Hag is in the final year of his contract anyway next year
- he’ll have a lot to prove
- he’ll fight for a new deal or we see pretty quickly we need to replace
- we allow the sporting director and technical director to really settle into roles
- they then assess and work with ETH to see whether he is the man to lead us forward
- the alternatives are Graham Potter and Southgate!

No European football could be a really good thing for us to go into next season with a smaller squad, get rid of the deadwood we need to get rid of and next season is season zero.

After Coventry I was ETH out but with my ‘what would ineos do’ hat on, I think he sees out his contract at least

 

[Nas-JR]

I’m convinced you don’t watch United. Either that, or you don’t understand the game.

I don't think you understand what the word boring means. Call us shite and it's understandable, but we play a brand of football that isn't boring, not in the conventional alladyce /dyche / moyes or, on the other end of the spectrum, van gaal way.

 

[soapythecat]

I don't think you understand what the word boring means. Call us shite and it's understandable, but we play a brand of football that isn't boring, not in the conventional alladyce /dyche / moye or, on the other med of the spectrum, van gaal sense.

You thought today was not boring then? You thought Palace was exciting did you?

 

[Fallon d'Floor]

Onana - his mistake
Bayındır - irrelevant
Malacia - injured all season
Lisandro - injured all season
Evans - not who he wanted
Kambwala - young player
Casemiro - was world class for a year and suddenly declined out if the blue
Amrabat - not who he wanted
Mainoo - young player, doing well
Eriksen - declined
Mount - injured half of the season but arguably a mistake
Antony - his mistake
Garnacho - young player, doing well
Højlund - young player

so out of those 14, actually only 2 were, maybe 2.5 with Mount kinda, a mistake, the rest are either injured, not players he wanted, young players, or players who declined for no predictable reasons.

14-21% (whether you count Mount as a mistake) miss rate is actually low in recruitement. Others have done worse. And as for prices paid - that is mostly on idiots above him, not on Ten Hag

See how different numbers look when you put context next to them and try to not be biased?

Stopped reading your post from the bold text. Context.

The point was that after almost 2 years on from the end of the Ole/Rangnick season, a large amount of players have left the club and been replaced by mainly meh signings.

 

[BorisManUtd]

There's always this idea of giving manager more time (Neville and Keane supporting it right now) but looking at previous managers we've had none of them proved us wrong. Moyes has again shown he's a very good manager but at West Ham, we knew that already but hasn't managed top side again. Van Gaal never managed a club again. Ole hasn't managed since getting sacked at United and that was 2,5 years ago. Mourinho failed at Spurs, had success at Roma but got sacked there as well. Most probably his next job will be at a similar level club.

Ten Hag could get a 3rd season but it's good possibility he'll just get sacked 6 months later like it happened before.

 

[Nickelodeon]

There isn’t as much talk of him leaving as I thought there would be.

 

[Infra-red]

I still like Ten Hag and would be open to keeping him giving the paucity of alternative options, but it will be a difficult case for the owners to make, given that this has been United's worst season of the Premier League era (most defeats, most goals conceded, lowest finish).

 

[TrebleChamp99]

Amazing what a little speech can do, look at the table and think about the bizarre decisions and line ups we have had.

 

[James35]

For me at least, it will be worse than the whole shit season itself if they say he is staying on as manager.

 

[Ventura]

Everybody was so happy when ETH was hired, "finally we have a proper manager" and all that nonsense. We have sacked a lot of managers and nothing really changes. Like I've said before, the manager is probably 5% of the results tops, he can't make the massive difference that people expect, and the next guy won't be any different. A club needs a solid structure from bottom up and the right players, and just sacking the manager is pointless. Sacking Ole was pointless, and sacking ETH is pointless, unless it comes with a general rebuild of how the club is run.

 

[tomaldinho1]

For me at least, it will be worse than the whole shit season itself if they say he is staying on as manager.

If we win the FA cup it won't be that bad comparative some of our bad seasons post SAF. League position really doesn't mean much once you drop out of the top 5 or so given the need for CL - Chelsea literally finished 10th and then won the league the year after with 93 points.

 

[Scandi Red]

Ten Hag may have had extra bad luck when it comes to injuries, but if he doesn't get sacked after the FA cup (win or lose), then he's by far the luckiest post Fergie manager. None of his predecessors would have survived this.

 

[Revan]

If we win the FA cup it won't be that bad comparative some of our bad seasons post SAF. League position really doesn't mean much once you drop out of the top 5 or so given the need for CL - Chelsea literally finished 10th and then won the league the year after with 93 points.

Remind me what happened with the manager(s) who finished 10th that season?

 

[Infra-red]

Ten Hag may have had extra bad luck when it comes to injuries, but if he doesn't get sacked after the FA cup (win or lose), then he's by far the luckiest post Fergie manager. None of his predecessors would have survived this.

Indeed. They were all sacked following better seasons than the one Ten Hag has endured. I still think keeping him might end up being the preferrable option if Southgate, McKenna, Potter and Frank are the alternatives, though.

 

[Revan]

Everybody was so happy when ETH was hired, "finally we have a proper manager" and all that nonsense. We have sacked a lot of managers and nothing really changes. Like I've said before, the manager is probably 5% of the results tops, he can't make the massive difference that people expect, and the next guy won't be any different. A club needs a solid structure from bottom up and the right players, and just sacking the manager is pointless. Sacking Ole was pointless, and sacking ETH is pointless, unless it comes with a general rebuild of how the club is run.

Schrodinger's manager. The manager is both the most important person at the club, and we must back him, at the same time he is just 5% of the results.

I call this, for the lack of a better word, total nonsense. As we saw when SAF left and we hired Moyes, with virtually the same team, we dropped from 1st to 7th. We will see the same when Pep leaves. We will see Liverpool going back to mediocre next season. We saw Real going from UCL winners to shit to UCL winners depending on the manager. We saw Inter going from triple winners to shit when they replaced Mourinho with Benitez.

And hopefully, one day we will see United becoming good again when we finally hire a good manager.

 

[James35]

If we win the FA cup it won't be that bad comparative some of our bad seasons post SAF. League position really doesn't mean much once you drop out of the top 5 or so given the need for CL - Chelsea literally finished 10th and then won the league the year after with 93 points.

We won’t win the FA Cup, that I’m certain of.

I have wanted him out since September and it has only gotten worse since.

 

[Revan]

We won’t win the FA Cup, that I’m certain of.

I have wanted him out since September and it has only gotten worse since.

Stranger things have happened.

Hope you are wrong. Winning the FA Cup (against all odds), and then sacking him within 24 hours as we did with LvG would be the best of both worlds.

Or well, within 3 days. If we win the FA Cup, he deserves a weekend of celebration.

 

[cpresc]

I think we are only 2 signings away from having an incredible starting 11 (would need more squad depth though)

But look at this:


Bruno ---- Hojlund ---- Garnacho

---- Neves ---- ---- Mount ----
---- ---- ---- Mainoo ---- ---- ----

Shaw -- Martinez -- Silva -- Dalot



I know it looks weird with Bruno on the left here, but last night in his False 9 role looked amazing.

Basically a fluid front 3 where Hojlund uses his physicality while Garnacho and Bruno are floating around

Then a totally fluid midfield 3 where Mount can push up to cover and Neves/Mainoo can press on the front foot

Shaw is a decent centre back, while Dalot can invert

Martinez and Silva are both great on a ball...


This team would be a pressing and fluidity monster

Only 2 signings!