The Manchester United Thread

Are we known for attacking football? Did we play attacking against Barcelona when we won UCL? You remember, when Scholes scored a beauty, and we defended for rest of the game like there's no tomorrow. Did you mind that ugly win against Chelsea when Terry missed pen? SAF was smart man, he did whatever he needed to win games. He was using our strengths and opp's weaknesses to win us games, no matter what.
Yes, we look clueless in attack pretty much all season, and half of last season (at least!). We do need players. SAF was genius, it's naive to expect from Moyes to be on his level. SAF needed players for that attacking football, fluid, with good interchanges. He didn't have them so he played on card of our strike force and boosted defense with Vidic's return. This squad is aging, not good enough, and not 'clever' enough. We need few players, few new midfielders and one central defender. Moyes is doing everything he can/know to win the games. Yes, he's not trowing players forward like SAF did, which is understandable since he joined 6 months ago, he needs time. Only thing I want to see from Moyes is to be more brave. Play more riskier. That will come with confidence.

And again, style of play isn't club's identity. It is part of it, but style of play means **** if you don't win the games.

Read SAF's autobiograph and see why we didn't play defensive football in finals of CL against Barca.
 
Read SAF's autobiograph and see why we didn't play defensive football in finals of CL against Barca.
The same autobiography which he uses to slate almost every player on the planet? Nah, you're alright...
 
I just hope United fans start to see why the majority of Arsenal fans didn't have faith in Wenger at the start of our drought. I think the majority of us realised that we couldnt expect to be winning trophies every season anymore around 2007-ish though.

Not really, we've had a worse start than this before. Finished 3rd. More importantly, the reactions of the home fans was excellent. They stood and applauded Moyes, very different to the internet moaners.
 
Hah, so much backpedaling about Fellaini. :P

Caveman+passer in central midfield used to be nearly foolproof set up, so expecting it to work in United wasn't much of a stretch.

I guess a lot of clubs adapted in the meantime and making lone striker drop deep to ramp up the pressure is now a common thing to do.

It's more to do with the fact he hasn't been performing and imposing himself on matches in the way we expected to see. And we don't have any inventive passer to play next to him.
 
Because you never said Fellaini was the type of player we needed last season ever. Oh wait.

You're right I never, I said Bender not mop-head Fellaini! I thought he would be slightly better than what he is currently, but boy he's been ****.
 
Dembele is better footballer and incredibly composted and good on the ball. Something you expect from a top team midfielders.

Let's not get into this again! :P

He would have to improve drastically on his midfield attributes though. He is perfect as the second striker and main target for a hoofball team though.

He plays deeper for Belgium and does it exceptionally well. Fellaini's very talented, give him time.

Just thinking that there is a fair bit of concern when you look at his transfer history when it comes to signing players of higher value. He's obviously inexperienced when it comes to signing the big names. Making low bids and going to the press to speak of his interest in certain players is not exactly the best way to go about it.

Oh certainly. United's business this summer was an absolute mess.

Just because no-one knows for sure, it means that it can't be used to argue a point? So because no-one knows for sure what'd happen if Su?rez left us, you can't say it'd have a negative impact on the team? Of course I don't know for sure what'd happen, but I'm pretty sure it'd be bad for team morale - if you've had a manager for 27 years, and you then have two in a season, I'm pretty sure it'd destabilise the club a fair bit.

You can say what you like, but you can't tell someone else that they're sounding like a glory-hunter because they've got a different opinion from you regarding it.

Mart?nez has only been in charge for half of season, but he's obviously done well. However, Mart?nez had a better squad to start with than Moyes had, not to mention the fact that he had the funds from Fellaini's sale to spend too.

Had a better team to start with, sure, but he's playing at the same kind of level Moyes was in his last few seasons without the dour reactive football. And let's not act like Moyes never had ANY money to spend ever: Rooney, Lescott, Arteta, Andy Johnson... all double figure sales in Moyes' tenure.

And yeah, some fans were saying how the squad was lacking in certain positions, but now people are saying how the squad is terrible everywhere, and that everyone is ageing. RVP, Vidić and Evra are all starters; but Giggs and Ferdinand are playing a somewhat bit-part role this season (Carrick/Evans are playing instead of them a lot of the time).

Well that's different. Say that United fans' opinion of the squad has dropped even more, and that'd be fair, not saying they've swung from completely positive to utterly negative in the space of a few months.
 
Read SAF's autobiograph and see why we didn't play defensive football in finals of CL against Barca.

In same a-biograph where he said Owen was better than Ruud van Nistelrooy?
You have eyes, use them. We played defensive so many times under SAF, back in 99 Bayern outplayed us, we were defensive pretty much whole game and we won. Many times against City SAF was making defensive substitutions, like puting Smalling instead of Rafael for defensive cover and hight. It's perfectly normal. Here, I'll end this pointless discussion, just like I ended every other with you.
 
In same a-biograph where he said Owen was better than Ruud van Nistelrooy?

I haven't read it; did he say Owen had a better career or was a better player at his peak? 'Cause I'd agree with the second, but not the first.
 
I haven't read it; did he say Owen had a better career or was a better player at his peak? 'Cause I'd agree with the second, but not the first.

I honestly have no idea. I've read it somewhere like month ago.
 
Has everyone finished embarrassing themselves yet?

We've known for about 4 years our midfield is terrible and the Dark Lord himself did nothing to address it. Least season we won the league because we stayed out of trouble and our two best players didn't get injured and stayed as consistenst as they could be. WE beat a typically flaky Arsenal, a Chelsea team who spent more time attacking their own manager than supporting their players, and a City team who forgot you have to work to stay top of the game. I keep seeing "we aren't playing the United way" mentioned too. What is the United way exactly? Fast, free flowing attacking football? If so I don't know what it is you've been watching, because we haven't done that since 2009/10.

I'm also loving the way some people are turning into hypocrites. All this "We will give him a season or two at least before judging him" was utter ****. What you actually meant was "As long as we are winning we will give him time, at the first sign of trouble I'll call for his head". Goes to show just how spoiled some United fans are. The good thing about this is that those in the stands been been showing their support regardless, clapping him off in the last game (GC, guess we were both right about United fans).

Also goes to show that you didn't care about the quality of the football as long as we were winning. You either support United or you don't David Moyes is the manager like it or not. You get behind him. He's taken over the biggest & most successful club in England from the most decorated manager in the English games history. This is a club where the worst thing that has happened in 20 years is that we finished 3rd. 3rd. That is the level he is up against.

He's being judged after a stupidly small number of games. I'm not sure what people were expecting him to do with the squad he inherited. The only signing we've made under his management is Fellaini. He wasn't our first choice but he recognised we needed to strengthen in that area (something Ferguson repeatedly ignored).

What are people expecting him to do? Last season we were extremely fortunate that Carrick and RVP stayed fit and on fire. This season Moyes has lost the two most important players in our squad last season to injury. what exactly are we expecting him to do? We're stuck with what we've got & have no young talent coming through in that position, Powell still at least a year off. We are completely & totally predictable.Teams know how to stop us playing & we have a distinct lack of pace in the side.

Amongst all this we have a new chief exec who is seemingly clueless replacing David Gill. Everything is against Moyes. He can only work with the tools he has. He needs time to make a mark on the team, he's not had that yet. That's why I don't understand people who were willing to give him time suddenly deciding because he's not working miracles he should be sacked.

He's the manager. He might not be the right manager for the club but he needs time which he's going to get, you support him because you support United.

Some fans need to get a grip. We have no divine right to win trophies. Our squad depth is weak as **** especially in midfield. We need to strengthen in January, so judge him then if we don't rectify it.

Pull yourselves together, its embarrassing.
 
I'm not sure if "few bad games" is accurate description of reality, considering its half of December and United is a lot closer to relegation zone then to Arsenal.
 
I'm not sure if "few bad games" is accurate description of reality, considering its half of December and United is a lot closer to relegation zone then to Arsenal.

Things might change very quickly. Utd have really easy run into new year compared to other clubs and if they manage to win all four might be much closer. And after that there's the chance of getting reinforcements in.
 
Things might change very quickly. Utd have really easy run into new year compared to other clubs and if they manage to win all four might be much closer. And after that there's the chance of getting reinforcements in.

Sure it might still change, but right now this is basically a disaster, so I can't agree that people are being unreasonably harsh to Moyes
 
Mike mate, as always you try to be the voice of reason and also, I respect you cos you try to support Utd the "proper" way.

But:

We've known for about 4 years our midfield is terrible and the Dark Lord himself did nothing to address it. Least season we won the league because we stayed out of trouble and our two best players didn't get injured and stayed as consistenst as they could be. WE beat a typically flaky Arsenal, a Chelsea team who spent more time attacking their own manager than supporting their players, and a City team who forgot you have to work to stay top of the game. .

True to an extent but:

1) Imho the summer transfer window was a sign of things to come with Utd/Moyes making a total mess of things going after totally unrealistic targets wasting valuable time then trying to panic buy but not managing even that and ending up with a player who we overpaid 4mil for who we dont seem to know what to do with.
2) Its one thing "being your own man" but Moyes, rather stupidly, got rid of Meulensteen, Steele etc (ie people who knew what UTD is about with experience of winning loads of trophies) and put people in their place with experience of sitting next to David Moyes and not much else! Which come to think of it, bearing in mind that Moyes has no experience in winning things was beyond suicidal and I said it at the time (btw I also thought FELLAINI would be a good purchase since the season before last ...).
3) The squad is an IMPROVEMENT from last season (Januzaj/Fellaini) at least theoretically and anyway Moyes has not managed to inspire them to play decently. I mean yes we have issues in the mf but the squad he has is much better than 9th 13 points off the top and better than he has them paying.


I'm also loving the way some people are turning into hypocrites. All this "We will give him a season or two at least before judging him" was utter ****. What you actually meant was "As long as we are winning we will give him time, at the first sign of trouble I'll call for his head". Goes to show just how spoiled some United fans are. The good thing about this is that those in the stands been been showing their support regardless, clapping him off in the last game (GC, guess we were both right about United fans).

1. I see your point but for myself Ive never said those things. I was against his appointment and have voiced my concerns from day one and, sad to say they ve been totally justified so far.
2. Big Ron was correct. We are a big club and big clubs can have no transitions esp if that means not qualifying for the CL. Ive made my point about my fear about being superceded by other teams and quickly becoming LFC if that is allowed to happen in previous posts so wont repeat myself.
3. Transition and giving time - nice concepts. I see no transition happening with Everton who seem to be doing better without Moyes than with him!
4. Yes we are spoiled but I lived through the barren years and I have the fear of returning to them myself.
5. I came to England to watch the Everton match and was very disappointed that the only person in the stands within earshot who was utterly frustrated and against Moyes was myself ...

Also goes to show that you didn't care about the quality of the football as long as we were winning. You either support United or you don't David Moyes is the manager like it or not. You get behind him. He's taken over the biggest & most successful club in England from the most decorated manager in the English games history. This is a club where the worst thing that has happened in 20 years is that we finished 3rd. 3rd. That is the level he is up against.

Oh, poor little Davey! Im sorry but once he decided to take on the job he SHOULD BE UP TO IT! This argument is no argument for Moyes imho its against him. Also, Im a UTD supporter since I was 8yo. I have to travel to England from another country to watch Utd which I do regularly. So I (and a lot of other true -not glory hunting -fans) have every right to support Utd but disagree with Moyes' continued employment for us. The more time passes the more convinced I am that by voicing our feelings we would be helping UTD by getting rid of him (before the damage done is irreversible). And I resent the "embarassing ourselves" tag.


He's being judged after a stupidly small number of games. I'm not sure what people were expecting him to do with the squad he inherited. The only signing we've made under his management is Fellaini. He wasn't our first choice but he recognised we needed to strengthen in that area (something Ferguson repeatedly ignored).

As already noted I think that time is not something we have. But tell me, have you seen anything to suggest that with time he'll at least inspire players to show some passion on the pitch?! (I know you ll say the Leverkusen away match and thats the only ***** of hope I have). What I expected him to do at the very least was to inspire the team to react positively to going behind at OT - not ceding possession to the tune of 48%-52% and limply playing out the last half hour of matches (cf the Newcastle match).


We are completely & totally predictable.Teams know how to stop us playing & we have a distinct lack of pace in the side.

Exactly. He's tactically clueless esp when stuff seem to go against us during matches and completely one track (point made before by yours truly so wont repeat).

Amongst all this we have a new chief exec who is seemingly clueless replacing David Gill. Everything is against Moyes. He can only work with the tools he has. He needs time to make a mark on the team, he's not had that yet. That's why I don't understand people who were willing to give him time suddenly deciding because he's not working miracles he should be sacked.

I kinda see your point. Im actually not convinced that sacking him now would change anything this season but Im terrified of what will happen if we do not. My only hope is that Im wrong like I was about Fergie in the beginning against whom I even picketed in 1989 holding one end of a "Fergie Out" plackard.

I also now look out there and dont see an available and suitable candidate who would be better ...

PS: Please take no offense. None is meant. I take it as given we both love the club -after all its UTD-KIDS-WIFE in that order!:D
 
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i know what im saying but what are you saying?
Look, I made pretty obvious joke about Mike.'s emotional comment. It was flaming reply for his touchy, soft, and probably soaked in tears tl;dr comment just to annoy him with something that doesn't make sense and what is taken out of context. I hope this make sense, it was a joke, infraction worthy joke indeed.
 
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