The Manchester United Thread

[Theatre of dreams]

Guardiolas teams are always the best in the league. I'd have City as favourites. Never forget that Mourinho can pull off a tactical masterclass though! Stones and especially Otamendi are decent one on one which is the way Pep likes his centre backs like to defend.

My first worry will be getting up the pitch. Ibra doesn't have the pace and I think someone more tactically disciplined than Rashford will play out wide. I fancy Martial and Miki out wide. Pogba is the perfect player to have in a counter attacking day as he can do everything. Don't expect much from Rooney who will be useless under pressure. Impressed with Blind, especially as Mourinho usually ship out smaller centre becks. His ability on the ball and reading of the game has won him over.

It's easy to be best in the league with the teams he's had tbh. Whole different ball game now, City won't dominate like Bayern and Barca. Plus Aguero is injured. Tbh City are lucky to be top atm after being bang average and getting a helping hand OG in his first game. And City looked wank when West Ham put them under pressure. Mou loves these big games and will have a plan up his sleeve. No faves at all imo.

 

[damola3]

It's easy to be best in the league with the teams he's had tbh. Whole different ball game now, City won't dominate like Bayern and Barca. Plus Aguero is injured. Tbh City are lucky to be top atm after being bang average and getting a helping hand OG in his first game. And City looked wank when West Ham put them under pressure. Mou loves these big games and will have a plan up his sleeve. No faves at all imo.

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. City have stepped it up this season.

City have well deserved every result thus far. They were unlucky to score just 3 against West Ham. Their mistake was not killing the game off early. Underestimate a Guardiola team at your own peril!

 

[Scouseinthehouse]

..... Tbh City are lucky to be top atm after being bang average and getting a helping hand OG in his first game. And City looked wank when West Ham put them under pressure.....

The exact same could be said for any of the teams with perfect records thus far. Nobody's looked particularly impressive out of that group against far from stellar opposition. (Save for City at Stoke.).

But points on the board early is a good building block.

 

[Theatre of dreams]

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. City have stepped it up this season.

City have well deserved every result thus far. They were unlucky to score just 3 against West Ham. Their mistake was not killing the game off early. Underestimate a Guardiola team at your own peril!

City have been good in Spirts hardly say they've been on another level. Many media think we've looked the more comfortable despite being in second gear. When West Ham put them under pressure they fell to pieces for 25-30 mins. I don't underestimate City they have quality but so do we. Let's see if they score more, concede less blah blah come the end of the season.

 

[wkdsoul]

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

 

[Scouseinthehouse]

..... City have well deserved every result thus far.....

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.

 

[Theatre of dreams]

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.

 

[wkdsoul]

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.

Football is the winner..

 

[Theatre of dreams]

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.

 

[Tyton]

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

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.

 

[Mike.]

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

Indeed, both Manchester sides will be very happy with their starts, know they have to improve and know that they still have gears lefts.

 

[Average Joe]

Going to be 0-0 now isn't it

 

[damola3]

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.

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.

 

[Theatre of dreams]

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.

 

[Dokara]

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.

 

[Scouseinthehouse]

Going to be 0-0 now isn't it

Works for me. Doubt I'll see much of it like. I'll be in town watching Rangers (hopefully) put the gypo's in their rightful place the first Old Firm league game for 4 years Sat'day dinner. Shrugs.

 

[ninjaskill]

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.

Heynckes won one Bundesliga in two years...

 

[Dokara]

And was in 2 CL finals in same two years...

 

[Tyton]

They made 3 semi-finals in a row.

With a team that made 3 FINALS in the previous 4 years.

The Champions League requires an element of luck that Bayern haven't had.

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.

They dominated domestically to levels not seen before.

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.

 

[RhQQ]

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.