Who will be this seasons scapegoat?

Onana, Rashford, and Antony.

I left out Sancho, as I doubt (and don't hope) that he plays enough to be a scapegoat.
 
Sancho and Anthony. Around £160m worth of attackers that look pretty average far too often.

I could be completely off but there seems to be a feeling from the press and rival fans that they’re just waiting for ETH to go through a tough patch so they can take shots at him
 
Those tactical weirdos on Twitter have been making a bit of a beeline for Varane recently. He isn’t quite Timber, therefore we’ll start to pretend that he’s like Titus Bramble.
 
De Gea loyalists will be out in force against Onana all season. Antony and Sancho will continue to be huge scapegoats because of their transfer fees, even if they both have improved seasons.
 
Yeah, I also fully expect Onana to get a hiding from anybody who was still desperately clinging onto the belief that De Gea was good enough to play between the sticks for us.
 
Scapegoat implies they are not to blame, but i'm almost certain that Sancho/Antony/Bruno are going to be the issue if they don't up their productivity in goals/assists
 
Those players weren't scapegoats. Singular players aren't blamed for everything that goes wrong. There are always multiple players that the fanbase doesn't like. They don't like them, because they don't perform. Especially in a season like 21/22. I don't see Fred and McTominay in that list. Fanbase hated them since they began starting consistently under Ole.

The players I expect to get the most abuse are Antony and Sancho. Both aren't good enough and the fans will happily state it. De Gea stans will also heavily target Onana whenever he makes a mistake.
 
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Rashford and Maguire were not scapegoats. What they were is shit and they're still at the club.

Just a dumb thread overall.
 
krazyrobus said:
Scapegoat implies they are not to blame, but i'm almost certain that Sancho/Antony/Bruno are going to be the issue if they don't up their productivity in goals/assists
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To be fair to Bruno, as frustrating as he has been in the goal scoring department, if the players around him could actually score I’m sure he’d be well ahead of the pack in assists. Wasn’t there a statistic that shows his “key chances created” was the best in the league. I know these hypothetical statistics have to be taken with a pinch of salt mind.
 
Maguire was blamed for everything last season, even when he wasn’t playing it was his fault. Pretty sure he’ll continue to hold that role next season.
 
Bruno, coming into the captaincy officially it will be blamed on his lack of retention despite being the principal chance creator.
 
It will change on a match-by=match basis, whoever makes a mistake will be that week's scapegoat
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
2018/19: Young/Alexis
2019/20: Lingard
2020/21: Martial
2021/22: Rashford/Maguire
2022/23: Ronaldo/De Gea

Who's going to be the fault of all of our problems this season?
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I really don't think you can call Ronaldo a spacegoat. He literally did cause massive problems for the team and his goal contribution wasn't enough to compensate for it.
 
Without even reading other people's posts.

*Assuming we sell Maguire and McFred

1. Sancho: I think people have had it with him especially because there's a Garnacho breaking through and Sancho's own lack of aggression in his play, which the CAF loves. If he starts the season poorly, especially if Rashford goes through a bad patch and Sancho doesn't step up then I can see it getting really toxic for him around here.

2. Antony: Especially if Amad isn't sent on loan. Didn't have the best first season and he's had the usual stock defence trotted out for him, "New league", "New team", "Young player" etc. Those quickly turn toxic when there's a new kid on the block who the fans are excited to see what he can offer. Expect there to be calls for ETH to bench him if he doesn't hit the ground running.

3. Martial: I don't suppose he will play much due to his constant injuries, but whenever he does - and especially if we don't win - there will be pages in his thread of the same people recycling why they "Can't stand him" and want him out".
 
Not his fault, but I could see it being Onana. So much fuss has been made about how DDG’s shortcomings hampered the team, Onana has to immediately make an impact.
 
What's my name?? Onananana..

He will probably let a couple of goals in that the Cafe will think DDG will save... and then will it start
 
No one - except Bruno when he drops the CL Trophy during the celebration!
 
The obvious answer is, whichever bang-average striker we wind up signing that fails to score enough goals to make a difference
 
Kag said:
I wouldn’t have this down as scapegoat territory provided any of them are clearly (and detrimentally) inferior to Shaw and Rashford down the left.
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Just wait and see just a matter of time before it happens. I'd say around November it'll happen.
 
Hmm good question.

Antony will get continuous criticism from both fans and the media because he doesn't have an English passport.

I can't look past him as prime target.

Runner up would go to Sancho/Eriksen (I'm assuming McFred will be sold)
 
krazyrobus said:
Scapegoat implies they are not to blame, but i'm almost certain that Sancho/Antony/Bruno are going to be the issue if they don't up their productivity in goals/assists
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A scapegoat typically gets the blame for everything that goes wrong, but that doesn't imply that they are not to blame at all.

This season, my guess is Casemiro.
 
Mount. There’s already fail compilations from his time at united (2 x half time friendly performances, his first football since April). We paid 60mil for him in his final year of Chelsea contract and made him our number 7. That’s pressure. People will love to see him fail especially chelsea fans.
 
IHateTheEightyEights said:
I hate the way people so regularly misuse this word.

No single player has been blamed for any of our seasons. Its just something fans like to cry about.
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De Gea was in fact blamed for our failures last season. Rightly or wrongly is another matter, but he is our official scapegoat for 22/23.
 
Threads like this only cause toxicity and serve to build fake narrative. It implies that certain players will receive criticism because they aren't liked rather than because of their performances. It's immature nonsense
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
2018/19: Young/Alexis
2019/20: Lingard
2020/21: Martial
2021/22: Rashford/Maguire
2022/23: Ronaldo/De Gea

Who's going to be the fault of all of our problems this season?
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Imo you got the thread name wrong. Should be 'who would be our worst players this season'.
 
Bruno, the anti Bruno rumblings have been gathering pace over the last year. Those who dont like him are getting more vocal. From there others get drawn in and its like a snowball
 
For some, I'm pretty sure it will be Ronaldo or Rooney... with a side order of Michael Carrick
 
lex talionis said:
De Gea was in fact blamed for our failures last season. Rightly or wrongly is another matter, but he is our official scapegoat for 22/23.
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No, he wasn't.

If he made a mistake and then we lost the game by a goal, its not scapegoating to say he cost us the game.
 
IHateTheEightyEights said:
No, he wasn't.

If he made a mistake and then we lost the game by a goal, its not scapegoating to say he cost us the game.
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Yes, he was. Dave was almost universally criticized for costing us the FA Cup, a criticism which I don’t agree with but I’m obviously wrong about that. And he was universally criticized for his mistakes (the ball to Maguire, which was Maguire’s fault…and Dave’s mistake later, which he alone is accountable for), the second leg v Sevilla, a criticism I agree with although I don’t go as far as Dave’s critics hear that Dave alone cost us the EL title.

But the truth is that we were played off the park by City, which no one argues did not deserve their FA Cup victory over us on the day. And in truth Sevilla beat us comprehensively in the second leg and in no way was all Dave’s fault; and in the first leg we lost control of midfield late and conceded two freak own goals which Dave could do nothing about, but for which he was mercilessly hammered here anyway because it was oh so easy to make Dave our whipping boy by then.

No one argues that Dave alone cost us the PL trophy, so we’re good there. But the caf and the larger social media hysteria machine is in near-universal agreement that Dave cost us both the FA Cup and the EL trophy. Feel free to deny this, but such denial would be laughable.
 
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