The Manchester United Thread


Scouts in Attendance– ‏@scoutsattending

yH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAANAAwAAAILjI+py+0Po5y0ngIAOw==



#mufc have signed 2 schoolboys from French club AAS Sarcelles
 
IBRAHIMOVIC: I AM ZLATAN THE CONQUEROR
Summer signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic feels he has already conquered English football with Manchester United - and it only took him "three months".

The Swedish marksman missed the EFL Cup win over Hull City due to illness after sitting on the bench throughout the FA Cup triumph against Reading. But Jose Mourinho expects to have him back leading the line for Sunday's mouthwatering showdown with rivals Liverpool.

Ibrahimovic, United's top scorer this season, is only one behind Chelsea's Diego Costa in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot but insists it is not in his thinking as he is pursuing team glory. That said, he believes he has achieved his individual targets already by proving his class in the Premier League.

"No, I’m not chasing anybody," he said, when asked by ManUtd.com about the prospect of chasing down Costa. "I’m chasing the head trophy – the Premier League. That is my aim. The individual things come as part of the main objective because that is like a bonus for every individual player.

"If the collective does well, then the individuals will do well. I try to help the team and try to do what I’m best at – scoring goals, playing good and creating chances for my team-mates. As long as I can do that, I know I will help my team. The same thing with them, they help me the way they can for the team. I have no individual targets because that I did already, after three months in England. After I conquered England – it took three months."

The striker feels United cannot be discounted from the title race as the crunch encounter with the Merseysiders approaches. Victory would leave the Reds only two points behind Jurgen Klopp's side and the Swede has been consistent in his view that things would click eventually into gear.

"We had our dips, our ups and downs when we were winning, losing, winning and losing," he explained. "Lately, we have been winning, where we have been more stabilised as a team. The coach has found his base, which is not easy when you’re a new coach coming to a new team and want to put in your philosophy, your game and the way you want it to be.

"I said from the beginning – slowly, slowly, we will get better and everything was about the click. We needed to click as a team. Now you the see the identity of the team. We are finding each other but I think we can do much more and be much better. And we will do it – we are working hard for it.

"The last one and a half months have shown the right way, the gap [at the top] has been bigger but now it’s better. So we are closer to that now. We wait for the other teams to have their dips, to make their mistakes, and we will be there. We will give them hard work until then because I think the second half of the season is the decisive one and that will decide. Whatever you want, wherever you will come, let’s see what we want. I know what we want. We want to show it."
 
Theatre of dreams said:
IBRAHIMOVIC: I AM ZLATAN THE CONQUEROR
Summer signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic feels he has already conquered English football with Manchester United - and it only took him "three months".....
Click to expand...

Cool. We wait with baited breath for him to (finally) conquerer L'pool and their 'poor' defence.

#5gamesagainstliverpoolwithnogoalandcounting ;).
 
You are all awful, awful people.

I know there is a separate thread but RIP Graham Taylor, a good all round man of the game, and I once had the pleasure of meeting him, very lovely man
 
Mike. said:
You are all awful, awful people.

I know there is a separate thread but RIP Graham Taylor, a good all round man of the game, and I once had the pleasure of meeting him, very lovely man
Click to expand...

Couple of posts in the PL thread you might want to merge with the new one on that sad news.
 
Bujakaa said:
If interested, old doc featuring him. .....
Click to expand...

That right there 4:24 in speaks volumes for the man every tribute today tells you he was.

Standing up to the racist Cockney neanderthals Wembley abusing Barnes and telling them they're 'talking about another Human being.'
 
This may not be a popular opinion but United may have been better off with keeping Van Gaal as fun as it was to bash him.
 
damola3 said:
This may not be a popular opinion but United may have been better off with keeping Van Gaal as fun as it was to bash him.
Click to expand...

If your an Arsenal fan it would of been better if we kept LvG lol. Jeez man the iimprovement of this season in terms of football quality is a whole different level compared to LVG. He's a nice guy, but a bit of a football dinosaur.
 
damola3 said:
This may not be a popular opinion but United may have been better off with keeping Van Gaal as fun as it was to bash him.
Click to expand...

Van Gaal was the one after moyes not before him.

anyway had he not been sacked he had already made clear he was retiring after the last season of his deal so just one less season with him and it meant that we could get Mourinho
 
zzeezzy said:
If your an Arsenal fan it would of been better if we kept LvG lol. Jeez man the iimprovement of this season in terms of football quality is a whole different level compared to LVG. He's a nice guy, but a bit of a football dinosaur.
Click to expand...
Van Gaal is one of the greatest coaches ever. You don't manage Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern and Manchester United for nothing! His system would fit the current squad better. The reason for the **** football was a general result of shocking recruitment. His philosophy was based upon Juego de Posicion (positional play). Some of the passing from the back was unreal. There were 3 big factors to his failure and the boring football:

1) The players weren't good enough. Whether Blind/Carrick was the pivot, you were over reliant on them in the first phase. Teams would just man mark the deep pivot and easily shadow your CMs as a result. Your central defenders other than Rojo had no verticality in their passing within the first phase. Jones/Smalling are poor on the ball. When Blind played there, strikers prevented him from passing vertically and redirected play to wide areas where it's easy for the defending team to force a turnover. The biggest hole was in central midfield. None of your midfield interiors were good enough. Herrera was the most ok out of the lot. None of them were comfortable with receiving deep. None of them were good ball carriers nor press resistant. They also lacked verticality. Pogba is the only United midfielder that fits the bill now. The reality is that your midfield wasn't good enough. Even now, take Pogba or Carrick out of the 3 and United are screwed. Herrera isn't good enough. He's a box to box destroyer who's tidy on the ball and happens to be good at counterpressing. Nothing in the final third and can't carry the ball.

2) Finding the right system was difficult given the lack of quality. The 4-3-3 is the best formation known to world football in terms of balance. Triangles can easily be created in every area of the pitch which is vital for beating shadows. It means that it's easy to overload any area of the pitch given the relative closeness of each individual within the field. It also allows all spaces to be covered making it hard for the opponent to overload. Given that it didn't work, Van Gaal tried the 3-4-3. Chelsea have tried this recently because Kanté isn't good enough to play as a lone pivot. The main advantage is that it allows for easy triangles to be made and it allows more spaces to be covered at the back. The 2 wide central defenders cover wide spaces, creating new angles while there's always a free man in the centre. United's buildup was even worse in the first phase because of Jones and Smalling. It did lead to the discovery of Valencia as wing back who would have shined in Van Gaal's system with more quality around him. Given the difficulty of adapting the squad to his system, he was constantly chopping and changing. The strong man oriented pressing scheme made it difficult for United to transition to attack. It wasn't organised in such a way to make it easy. It's difficult to do that and retain positional structure at the same times. Better sides can use individual quality to transition to attack, however United didn't have enough. This is why the ball was moved so slowly after winning the ball. The man oriented press led to a few bad results e.g. Losing 0-3 at Arsenal. Against teams which have virtually no positional structure (pretty much Arsenal) man oriented presses struggle with good off the ball movement,positions, fluidity and press resistance. This is why Arsene struggles vs Mourinho/Koeman. Zone oriented presses aren't as easily pulled apart by these factors. They perfectly retain shape. Van Gaal's complex system based on positional play requires many hours of coaching to implement. Very few managers can do it. Successful ones of note are Pep Guardiola, Marcelo Bielsa, Mourizio Sarri, Thomas Tuchel and Juergen Klopp. This is why Guardiola is the best in the world.

3) Poor recruitment was the fundamental reason to his failure. The players signed didn't necessarily fit the system. The wide fowards and creators (Di Maria, Martial etc) were perfect. A main problem were his strikers (shouldn't have sold Hernandez), his central midfielders and central defenders. Schweinstiger was a good snip and could rotate with Carrick in the pivot. Smalling and Jones aren't good enough with the ball and will never be. Bailly is young enough to be taught. United should have signed players like Umtiti/Mustafi, Hysaj, Raphael Guerreiro, Naby Keita, Granit Xhaka, Mahmoud Dahoud and Mateo Kovacivc. You missed out big.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Back
Top