The Manchester United Thread

Nah, he's right we're only averaging 65% possession with a 3-1 win(s). I'm with ToD on this one..

New coaches, new teams, international breaks and only 3 games gone, i dont any team can claim to being 'in form' already. Should be a good game but it'l as non accurate guess work till then
 
damola3 said:
..... City have well deserved every result thus far.....
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There's lot's of mitigating factors (opening day/ Pep's first game etc), but they were utter wank opening day against an absolutely putrid Sunderland side they almost throw the game away against. At home. They got dragged down to Sunderland's **** poor level and never got out of that to any great degree.

That game was a horrible watch. But they got the win which in the early running is more important than anything.
 
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Exactly no one has been great and no team should be this early on. That's why I said there's no favourites for Saturday.
 
Theatre of dreams said:
Exactly no one has been great and no team should be this early on. That's why I said there's no favourites for Saturday.
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Football is the winner..

raw
 
Manchester United swoop for West Brom youth chief Steve Hopcroft to kick-start Academy production line - Mirror Online

Manchester United land West Brom youth chief Steve Hopcroft to kick-start Academy production line
The 49-year-old oversaw the Baggies emergence of Saido Berahino and others, having also developed Nathan Redmond and Demarai Gray at Birmingham
  • The 49-year-old oversaw the Baggies emergence of Saido Berahino and others, having also developed Nathan Redmond and Demarai Gray at Birmingham
Manchester United have lured the country’s top spotter of young talent to Old Trafford after West Brom’s Steve Hopcroft agreed to join the Red Devils’ Academy.

Hopcroft has been responsible for developing a string of players who have now earned Premier League title and international honours and will be tasked with repeating the feat under Jose Mourinho.

The Baggies’ head of youth recruitment will take up a position left vacant after Derek Langley lefttwo months ago.

The move is part of a wide-ranging re-vamp at youth level as Manchester United attempt to re-discover a core part of the club’s DNA.

Hopcroft has been employed by the Baggies for the past eight years and is credited with bringing through a string of players who are now reaching first-team level.


Saido Berahino is the biggest name, but teenagers Jonathan Leko, Sam Field and Kane Wilson have all appeared for Tony Pulis’ side this season.

The 49-year-old oversaw the Baggies emergence of Saido Berahino and others, having also developed Nathan Redmond and Demarai Gray at Birmingham


He was responsible for introducing Nathan Redmond and Demarai Gray, now of Southampton and Leicester respectively, to the club.
 
damola3 said:
He has improved every team he's been at in every area. They score more, concede less and have more possession, this has happened at Bayern and Barcelona
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You're adorable. Pep's Bayern scored more, conceded less and had more possession, only to get slaughtered nearly every time they run into serious team in the CL. Statistics don't mean **** if they're not followed by results.
 
wkdsoul said:
Nah, he's right we're only averaging 65% possession with a 3-1 win(s). I'm with ToD on this one..

New coaches, new teams, international breaks and only 3 games gone, i dont any team can claim to being 'in form' already. Should be a good game but it'l as non accurate guess work till then
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Indeed, both Manchester sides will be very happy with their starts, know they have to improve and know that they still have gears lefts.
 
Tyton said:
You're adorable. Pep's Bayern scored more, conceded less and had more possession, only to get slaughtered nearly every time they run into serious team in the CL. Statistics don't mean **** if they're not followed by results.
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They made 3 semi-finals in a row. My point is that they were better over 3 seasons under Guardiola than previous Bayern teams. They won everything but the Champions League.

The Champions League requires an element of luck that Bayern haven't had. The Liverpool team of 2005 weren't the best team in Europe. They had a bit of luck like every team does to win a knockout competition. The Arsenal team of 2006 went from the second group game to the final without conceding with 10 clean sheets, knocking out Madrid, Juve and Vilarreal. Does that make them a bad team?

They dominated domestically to levels not seen before. Wouldn't it be better to compare the domestic league to the champions league? Guardiola did deliver in Germany apart from winning the Champions league. He was hardly a failure in Germany.
 
New Utd youngster Northern Ireland u17 captain O'Connor just scored a solo goal running from his own half against Turkey. Looks a top prospect in defence. Has been great since signing at our academy and at international level.
 
With Bayern, i could dominate in Germany. Under Heynckes, his final spell with them, Bayern played some of the most beautiful football i have ever seen. Dominated everyone they played. Won Bundesliga, Cup, Super Cup and Champions league after humiliating Barcelona in semi final. Same team, same players + Thiago and Pep, couldn't go past semifinal. Yes, he won them a league, but that wasn't so hard after he bought best players from their main rivals.
 
Dokara said:
With Bayern, i could dominate in Germany. Under Heynckes, his final spell with them, Bayern played some of the most beautiful football i have ever seen. Dominated everyone they played. Won Bundesliga, Cup, Super Cup and Champions league after humiliating Barcelona in semi final. Same team, same players + Thiago and Pep, couldn't go past semifinal. Yes, he won them a league, but that wasn't so hard after he bought best players from their main rivals.
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Heynckes won one Bundesliga in two years...
 
damola3 said:
They made 3 semi-finals in a row.
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With a team that made 3 FINALS in the previous 4 years.

damola3 said:
The Champions League requires an element of luck that Bayern haven't had.
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Losing 4-0 to Real and 3-0 to Barca isn't "bad luck". Bayern were completely outplayed and outsmarted in all of the Pep's 3 semis, and that's all there is to it. In fact, the only elite team Pep managed to beat in his 3 CL campaigns, was Juventus last year, and he barely made it too.

damola3 said:
They dominated domestically to levels not seen before.
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Yeah, mostly by buying players from the competition on the level not seen before.

Pep is the best guy there is when it comes to implementing possession football, nobody is denying that. But this isn't 2008 and possession isn't magic beans anymore. You can't be unstoppable just by passing it sideways for 90 minutes with no plan B.

And that's the entire problem with Pep. He has his head so far up his own ***, he actually believes his system to a fault and has no plan B. The game vs. Barca at Camp Nou was the best example of that. Barca were absolutely raping Bayern with quick counters exploiting Bayern's high line, and after 1-0, it was obvious to anybody watching that Bayern have no chance if they continue playing the way they did. They needed to park the bus and play it safe, try to get away with 1-0 and come up with a different approach for the home game. But Pep had them playing high line for 90 minutes, 1-0 turned into 3-0, and they were lucky it wasn't 7-0.
 
Peter Schmeichel on Pep Guardiola: "He was okay at Bayern Munich. I have to say he was okay. For me, personally, he changed a really good, entertaining team to be become more boring to watch."

Schmeichel also reckons former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had a superior philosophy to Guardiola.

"Whereas Alex Ferguson's first priority was 'we have to be able to score goals' - for most coaches that's the priority - with Pep it's possession, I want to have as much possession as possible," Schmeichel said.
 
Would be great if this game wasn't about the two managers.
I don't think either of them will be kicking a ball on Saturday afternoon.
 
Anthony said:
Would be great if this game wasn't about the two managers.
I don't think either of them will be kicking a ball on Saturday afternoon.
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Does make the game even bigger though considering their rivalry. Personally I fancy our chances, simply because they miss Aguero and we really should be able to penetrate that defence.
 
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