The Manchester United Thread

Scouseinthehouse said:
What’s Einstein’s definition of insanity again ….. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results ……

Utd to a T. That was us through the ‘90’s. You have gone the same way and are set for a LONG haul of this so long as the Glazers rule the roost.

Said it countless times in here but the similarities with ourselves at the beginning of the PL era are uncanny. Its like watching that exact same horror movie you all rightly laughed at all over again. Except we’re now on the outside looking in.

But again, would yers li …..Ahhh, forget it. 😛
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It really does feel like a horror movie. On and off the pitch, it's exactly that.

Really isn't good for your mental health
 
Speaking of doing the same thing over and over, Why play Pogba in a double pivot when you know he doesn't have the discipline to play there?


I was arguing with some lads and they brought up how he plays a double pivot for France. France also play with 3 at the back to accommodate him. You know the last time France played with a back 4, they had him in midfield alongside Kante and Rabiot. So you see when you have Pogba in the side, he's a luxury player and you need to essentially tweak systems to accommodate him. I think dilka touched on this sometime

We don't have a system to begin with anyways so who am I kidding? 🤣
 
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The absolutely annoying thing is there is nothing visible in any department.

Our defence is shoddy, with a complete lack of organisation. Our attack is ad-hoc - just give the ball to your best players and let them create on the go - that's simply not sustainable, not in the era of systems. Our press is just bizarre. Our midfield is non-existent and our possession play is shoddy.

We can have one of the greatest goalscorers in the world in the team and a forward line to technically out-create and out-score anyone, but if we are not controlling the game enough and not retaining possession - the ball never reaches them. And let's face it, with Pogba, despite his creative brilliance, we get left with 1 CM - so we end up playing a ridiculous 4-1-4-1, with an ageing Matic/attacking McTominey/gah Fred in the 1, trying to defend. It's simply not sustainable - no wonder the midfield gets by-passed so very easily.

Honestly, drop Pogba for a bit, get a DM, get van de Beek into the side. We can help retain possession slightly better, our movement improves and this ends up creating more chances for our forward line. But that's too bold a call that'll never happen, mainly also because Solskjaer has no clue how to use vdB. He is very good at linking-up and using movement to create better spaces, but OGS might just have only two roles in CM in his mind - DM/playmaker.

I'm kinda hoping Pogba decides to move elsewhere. That means, OGS might finally decide to go with vdB and hopefully, get a ****** DM in January. Because at this rate, we look clueless enough to struggle to finish Top-4. Mind you, still sticking with Solskjaer, as I doubt he will be sacked.
 
Sherkey said:
The absolutely annoying thing is there is nothing visible in any department.

Our defence is shoddy, with a complete lack of organisation. Our attack is ad-hoc - just give the ball to your best players and let them create on the go - that's simply not sustainable, not in the era of systems. Our press is just bizarre. Our midfield is non-existent and our possession play is shoddy.

We can have one of the greatest goalscorers in the world in the team and a forward line to technically out-create and out-score anyone, but if we are not controlling the game enough and not retaining possession - the ball never reaches them. And let's face it, with Pogba, despite his creative brilliance, we get left with 1 CM - so we end up playing a ridiculous 4-1-4-1, with an ageing Matic/attacking McTominey/gah Fred in the 1, trying to defend. It's simply not sustainable - no wonder the midfield gets by-passed so very easily.
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City also play that same formation in and out of possession. Besides the gulf in class in coaching, they press as a cohesive unit. In addition to that, they have their full backs tuck in-field to prevent being outnumbered in midfield.

Today, I'd either see our front 3/4 try to press LC's defenders but our defensive line would stay relatively deep. This led to two issues:

1. Matic and Pogba would drop deep. As a result, there's that big gap between midfield and attack (which LC exploited with tielemans and Soumare.

2. Matic and Pogba would move up to press however Vardy and ihenacho would sit in the half spaces vacated. LC often played long balls to one of Vardy and Ihenacho and they won a fair amount which led to good situations for LC that isolated attacking players with our "defense"


One thing I will note is for the first 20 mins of the match, I noticed when we didn't have Ronaldo and Bruno pushing higher up to press LC's center half during the buildup phase, LC looked very pedestrian. This was because Ronaldo and Bruno effectively cut off the passing lanes to their pivots which caused issues. I thought this was probably the most effective way for us to set up out of possession since we looked decently compact. As soon as LC scored due to the Maguire mistake, Bruno started pushing higher up with Ronaldo which in turn provided such easy access to the LC pivots.

Now, idk if this is down to tactical discipline or lack of from Bruno but if this deviated from an apparent "gameplan", shouldn't Solkjaer have yelled at him from the touchline or something? You know someone like Klopp/pep/Tuchel wouldn't stand for that? Pep probably hooks Bruno off for that as well but he's pep and Solkjaer is a PE teacher with no cajones.

We need a gaffe that can actually instill some tactical discipline with these lot.
 
About
Legend Incredible said:
Now, idk if this is down to tactical discipline or lack of from Bruno but if this deviated from an apparent "gameplan", shouldn't Solkjaer have yelled at him from the touchline or something? You know someone like Klopp/pep/Tuchel wouldn't stand for that? Pep probably hooks Bruno off for that as well but he's pep and Solkjaer is a PE teacher with no cajones.

We need a gaffe that can actually instill some tactical discipline with these lot.
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Pretty much what I have been saying. Ole does not have the stature to actually command the respect of players like Ronaldo or Bruno. He can't yell at them because then he would alienate them. They may like him as a person but I doubt they have too much respect for him as a manager.
 
Legend Incredible said:
Now, idk if this is down to tactical discipline or lack of from Bruno but if this deviated from an apparent "gameplan", shouldn't Solkjaer have yelled at him from the touchline or something? You know someone like Klopp/pep/Tuchel wouldn't stand for that? Pep probably hooks Bruno off for that as well but he's pep and Solkjaer is a PE teacher with no cajones.

We need a gaffe that can actually instill some tactical discipline with these lot.
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Tuchel did just that yesterday with Lukaku.

He was getting visibly more annoyed explaining to him what he wanted the last half hour when Brentford had Chelsea boxed in to the point he eventually just hooked him. And then went into a big explanation with him what he wasn’t getting/ why he’d been tactically replaced.
 
Posted to wrong place before:

United next games will be fun:
  • Atalanta
  • Liverpool
  • Tottenham
  • Atalanta
  • Manchester City
 
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