What do you think about our lack of 'pressure experience'?

clean-sheet-culkin

Full Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2017
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103
Watching this interview with de Ligt, I caught this quote:

I'm happy that I didn't make the step from Ajax to here, because then maybe it would be too much.

It made me wonder; what kind of 'big club' pressure have our squad felt prior to being United, and how much is that factor a major part of the problem?

With a plea to not turn this into yet another thread about recruitment, below is what I found. It raised a lot of feelings, thoughts and questions in me, I suspect it will for you too, so I'd love to hear what it brings up for you!

Goalkeepers
  • Onana: Ajax (4) --> Inter (1)
  • Bayandir: Ankaragücü (4) --> Fenerbahce (4)
  • Heaton: United/Swindon/Antwerp/Cardiff/QPR/Rochdale/Wycombe/Cardiff (6) --> Bristol (1) --> Burnley (6) --> Villa (2)
Defenders
  • Yoro: Lille (2)
  • Martínez: Defensa (2) --> Ajax (3)
  • de Ligt: Ajax (2) --> Juventus (3) --> Bayern (2)
  • Maguire: Sheffield/Wigan/Hull (3) --> Leicester (2)
  • Lindelöf: Benfica (2)
  • Evans: United/Sunderland (9) --> West Brom (3) --> Leicester (5)
  • Shaw: Southampton (2)
  • Malacia: Feyenoord (5)
  • Amass: None
  • Dalot: Porto/United (2) --> Milan (1)
  • Mazraoui: Ajax (4) --> Bayern (2)

Midfielders
  • Ugarte: Famalicão (1) --> Sporting (2) --> PSG (1)
  • Casemiro: Sao Paolo (3) --> Real/Porto (9)
  • Collyer: None
  • Mainoo: None
  • Eriksen: Ajax (3) --> Tottenham (7) --> Inter (1)
  • Gore: None
  • Fernandez: Novara/Sampdoria/Udinese (5) --> Porto (3)
  • Mount: Derby (1) --> Chelsea (4)

Attackers
  • Rashford: None
  • Garnacho: None
  • Diallo: Rangers/Sunderland (2)
  • Antony: Sao Paolo(2) --> Ajax (2)
  • Højlund: FC Copenhaagen (1) --> Sturm Graz (1) --> Atalanta (1)
  • Zirkzee: Bayern/Parma/Anderlecht (2) --> Bologna (2)
  • Wheatley: None
 
The flip side is we have seen players from huge clubs come here and wilt/fail.

No player will have experienced media abuse and scrutiny to the level they do at United, we're a punchbag right now. I doubt the pressure to win is actually as high as Bayern (basically expected to win every game) for example but it's a worse type of pressure because of how horrendous social media is.