'We are starving for leaders on the pitch": has Amorim just exposed the true scale of the problem facing United

MyOnlySolskjaer said:
Leading doesn't have to be the Stevie me way, it could just be taking responsibility on the pitch. In that sense I feel Rodri, Stones and De Bruyne were all leaders. Same for Walker from a defensive stand point.
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Gundogan too. He was the chosen captain of that squad (selected by his own colleagues)
 
I feel like leader overlaps a lot with "best player" here. Our "leaders" would probably be Bruno and Amad.
 
It’s not that we don’t have leaders—it’s that our leaders either carry the scars of past failures, like Bruno, Shaw, and Maguire, or seem to be coasting on their reputations, like Casemiro, Eriksen or maybe even De Ligt. You can’t expect to steer the club through tough times with individuals who are either emotionally drained or look like they’ve already checked out.

The best way forward is for the club to move on from this group of leaders entirely and start fresh. Either build around players cut from a different mold or go back to trusting the youth, as we’ve done so successfully in the past. At least they’d bring some hunger and a clean slate, which is exactly what we need to turn the page.
 
ole@thewheel said:
It’s not that we don’t have leaders—it’s that our leaders either carry the scars of past failures, like Bruno, Shaw, and Maguire, or seem to be coasting on their reputations, like Casemiro, Eriksen or maybe even De Ligt. You can’t expect to steer the club through tough times with individuals who are either emotionally drained or look like they’ve already checked out.

The best way forward is for the club to move on from this group of leaders entirely and start fresh. Either build around players cut from a different mold or go back to trusting the youth, as we’ve done so successfully in the past. At least they’d bring some hunger and a clean slate, which is exactly what we need to turn the page.
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We need to get over this "trust the youth" thing. Just because we had one golden generation come up through the academy once, that doesn't mean that this is a viable general approach that you can turn to at any time, if only you choose to have "trust". You can rebuild a squad with an emphasis on youth, as Chelsea has been doing (and like Matt Busby did, for that matter), but that's not about trusting the youth, it's just about recruiting players that are primarily good enough, and secondarily also young. It doesn't work because you got young players, it works because you got good players.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
Leading doesn't have to be the Stevie me way, it could just be taking responsibility on the pitch. In that sense I feel Rodri, Stones and De Bruyne were all leaders. Same for Walker from a defensive stand point.
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The Firestarter said:
Rodri of course
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True. It's basically just good players who are consistent. And that's what Amorim want. When we're good again, we'll say the team is "full of leaders".
 
Isotope said:
True. It's basically just good players who are consistent. And that's what Amorim want. When we're good again, we'll say the team is "full of leaders".
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A leader is obviously a loose and subjective term, but there's more to it than simply being good. Haaland for example is clearly a good player, but not a leader. If the team plays badly, he will often disappear. Its more about the ability to push yourself to high levels of performance simply through your own internal drive, and the consequent impact that has on players around you. Players like that can turn games and inspire others to similar heights.
 
ole@thewheel said:
The best way forward is for the club to move on from this group of leaders entirely and start fresh. Either build around players cut from a different mold or go back to trusting the youth, as we’ve done so successfully in the past. At least they’d bring some hunger and a clean slate, which is exactly what we need to turn the page.
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SAF did not just "trust" the youth the throw them into the team. When the class of 92 were slowly introduced into the team, we had leaders like Cantona, Keane, Ince, Pallister, Bruce and Schmeichel.

Over the years subsequently the class of 92 themselves grew into leaders and led the next generation of youngsters like O'Shea, Evans, Wes Brown, Fletcher, Da Silva brothers, Rooney, Chicharito, Welbeck, Cristiano etc. They passed on and guided the young players on what it means to be a United player and what it means to play for the shirt. Towards the end of SAF's reign we had VDS, Ferdinand, Vidic, Carrick, and Rooney as core leaders in the team.

Unfortunately in recent years we had the likes of Pogba and Jesse Lingard who were introduced at a time with no stronger senior characters to rein in their behaviour. Is it then any surprise to see where Rashford picked up the undesirable behaviours from?
 
Amorim's message here was absolutely spot on and it got the exact reaction we needed - Maguire, Bruno and Martinez (those guys who should be our leaders) massively stepped up against Liverpool when in the past we've seen them totally lose their heads. Dalot made a comment as well after the game which sounded like it had resonated with him (he said he was 'pinched' by the comment) and it got him to step up too.

We haven't had these guys acting like leaders on the pitch and the dressing room for too long, and they will have known that they are exactly the ones Amorim was calling out with this message. If they can keep this up, it will be huge.

We expect way too much of the likes of Hojlund, Garnacho, Yoro, Amad and Mainoo - they're still at such a formative stage of their career so it's hugely important that the more experienced members of the squad step and be leaders to take the pressure off them and give them time to develop and have the space to make mistakes.

Some like Casemiro and Rashford seem to have failed to responded positively to the message, and we'll be better off without them if they're not willing to rise to the challenge. Licha, Bruno, Dalot and Maguire absolutely did in the Liverpool game though and we need them to keep it up if we're going to turn the culture in the club around.
 
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