We need a proper target man. Ibra would be perfect. Someone who connects to those endless crosses.
Our attack is a mess | Joint 10th with Bournemouth for goals scored
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
2 goals in 3 games... The money we've spent and our attack is in such a state 
You need a world class striker, a presence to lead the line. Someone like Zlatan would have been a good stop gap for you I think.
1 own goal, and one deflection assisted one...2 goals in 3 games... The money we've spent and our attack is in such a state
Sorry I know its not funny but after the Pedro debacle, if we dont improve the quality in attack its going to be tough this season.More worryingly, several here think it's nothing to worry about
How much of it was spent on the attack though? Not counting Di Maria who has come and gone, it's just Memphis, whereas Nani, Rvp and co. have gone. People talk about our money spent, but we seemingly refuse to improve what arleady was a pretty poor attack at the end of 2013/14.2 goals in 3 games... The money we've spent and our attack is in such a state
If you're talking about today's game, one can think we played well today but our attack is still lackluster. Although I'm not sure who you referring to.
To me the term "played well" has to include all 11 players. If some of them weren't up to standard we can't really claim we played well.
Very rarely do all 11 players play well so I completely agree with this logic.
I'm probably just being picky. I just get fed up with people coming out with things like "luck just wasn't with us" and "on another day......."
I feel we have the right to expect better from a manager who's spent a quarter of a million and has had a full season and more.
We'd almost be better off letting teams come onto us more, we are such a better team when there's more space for us to attack. We basically look a bit hopeless if a team parks the bus, have done for years.
I think we are where Chelsea were 3 season before.. the season before Cesc and Costa...
In our case we are missing a Costa ... the team is almost there...
In our case we are missing a Costa ... the team is almost there...
I personally think today that particular excuse does stand. The team did play well today not fantastic as LVG put it but better than many OT wins in the past.
The issue I personally have is the lack of signings in attack. As I've said in other threads, Memphis is our only new face in attack right now from the LVG era, and our attack was rubbish under Moyes, and Rooney is even worse, so I don't see how it can get so much better even if our midfield is much improved.
On the money front, fans do have a right to question, but our team was broken when he came so a lot of those signings were required to repair the team. But yes, in attack there needs to be more.
It's just so disjointed. The back 6 is solid, and that even includes Romero. I think we possibly have the best, and most organised back 6 in the league. But the front 4 is a mess, and there's no link between the two. On the pitch, it seems to look something like this:
Out of the front 4, only Memphis is really suited to his position. We're expecting Januzaj to be the man who links the midfield two to the attack, but he doesn't look capable of that, at least not yet. Mata or Herrera would be perfect for that role, but for whatever reason, we're not seeing it. Mata has to stray 30 yards from his actual position to try and do it, and then we leave a massive hole on the right with Darmian isolated.
Surely a midfield as solid as Schweinsteiger/Carrick and Schneiderlin is easily sturdy enough to allow Mata to play as the #10. Januzaj is playing there, but Mata has much better ball retention, and his defensive work is quite underrated. I don't see how Januzaj is considered a more reliable option for the #10 role.
Out of the front 4, only Memphis is really suited to his position. We're expecting Januzaj to be the man who links the midfield two to the attack, but he doesn't look capable of that, at least not yet. Mata or Herrera would be perfect for that role, but for whatever reason, we're not seeing it. Mata has to stray 30 yards from his actual position to try and do it, and then we leave a massive hole on the right with Darmian isolated.
Surely a midfield as solid as Schweinsteiger/Carrick and Schneiderlin is easily sturdy enough to allow Mata to play as the #10. Januzaj is playing there, but Mata has much better ball retention, and his defensive work is quite underrated. I don't see how Januzaj is considered a more reliable option for the #10 role.
The head in the sand crew, they make me laugh.
Statically we were good today. Its not like we don't have an identity, its just frustrating at times.
This is why I had a selfconfessed meltdown when the Pedro signing didn't work out. Not because he would have magically fixed everything but it is so clear our attack is our biggest weakness and there was a very easy way to improve it. I think it will be really difficult to bring in a player of that quality at such a price in the remainder of the window and I think we need perhaps two players like that.
It's because we're hopeless at trying to pull defences out of position. Our front 3 just park themselves in line with each other, so we just bomb the ball in. So many times when we shift the ball out wide we have to cross it because there's this BIG GAPING UNIVERSE OF SPACE behind the strikers and nobody's there to occupy it. Rooney should start dropping in there like a False Nine, like he's done before to start at least drawing the defensive line out of shape. Either that or we switch to a midfield 3 with Fellaini / Ander to provide presence to play off, or drive and energy. I prefer the latter.
That is very worrying! I think selling Van Persie was a mistake. We need a striker who occupies defenders more (some goals would be cool too).
Thats the thing, we didnt play well.
A football game is 90 minutes long, now we dont expect a constant array of attacks amounting to 100 chances per game. However, I, and many others, expect far more than a 15 minute spell where we were pretty decent.
Part of playing good attacking football is the ability to create, another part is to score.
Lets take an example of cricket, a team that beats the bat many times yet ends up failing to produce wicket taking deliveries is not one that has played well. Thats what seperates the best from the decent. And were far from decent, let alone the best.
Im being honest when i say that weve started like Moyes is our manager. Its almost identical to performances under his term. Shit for large periods, created some decent chances and tried hard.
Thomas Muller would be perfect. Splurge the rest of our budget plus all the Di Maria on him
Zlatan, like Rooney, relies on pace around him. He has that at PSG. Matuidi, Cavani, Lucas are always running in beyond him, which in turn, gives him the room required to pick them out.
Apart from Memphis, we have no one willing to get in behind. Everyone's wants to come to the ball.
What you're talking about is an excellent performance, which it wasn't.
20 shots on goal with around half on target, almost scoring on a few of those chances, having all the possession, that's a game we would normally walk away from winning 2-0 and being comfortable. We've had plenty of wins under SAF at home playing worse.
Everyone who is talking about our performance being good obviously isn't talking about the clinical touch of our forwards. Apart from that, as a unit, you can play good football, which I think we did today.
What we need is replays of games from 13/14, and then you'll see that performances like today's are not good performances. Chelsea had a similar game against Swansea, yet scored twice, and many thought they were quite poor that day. We played a worse team in Newcastle and it's considered by many as a good performance...
Yet we have guys like Herrera and fellaini who are positive and can score goals, and neither is featured. Our best source of goals last season was from guys like fellaini and Herrera, and one of the 2 is benched because he's to unpredictableIt's just so disjointed. The back 6 is solid, and that even includes Romero. I think we possibly have the best, and most organised back 6 in the league. But the front 4 is a mess, and there's no link between the two. On the pitch, it seems to look something like this:
Out of the front 4, only Memphis is really suited to his position. We're expecting Januzaj to be the man who links the midfield two to the attack, but he doesn't look capable of that, at least not yet. Mata or Herrera would be perfect for that role, but for whatever reason, we're not seeing it. Mata has to stray 30 yards from his actual position to try and do it, and then we leave a massive hole on the right with Darmian isolated.
Surely a midfield as solid as Schweinsteiger/Carrick and Schneiderlin is easily sturdy enough to allow Mata to play as the #10. Januzaj is playing there, but Mata has much better ball retention, and his defensive work is quite underrated. I don't see how Januzaj is considered a more reliable option for the #10 role.
Suspended.
What money? We sold Di Maria, RvP and Nani.2 goals in 3 games... The money we've spent and our attack is in such a state
We fecked up the Pedro deal and now it's quite normal to be in such a state...
I think he means the money spent since Van Gaal's arrival (not just this summer) and we have 4 strikers who were all here before he arrived.
We shouldn't forget that we were up against a really good goalkeeper today!
Well, we sold RvP who was by far our best finisher. Didn't opt for Falcao and sold Welbeck as well( that of course should've been done as they both were shit at finishing) and we're left with one main striker in terrible form(Rooney), Hernandez, who last year was thought to be surplus to requirements and loaned out and Wilson who doesn't even have 15 games for the club.
Yet we're trying to convert wide forwards/wingers (Depay), or midfielders(Fellaini) to play on top rather than address that issue on the transfer market...
As others have said this team needs a quality big lad up front. Van Nistelrooy/ Van Persie type striker to lead the line. It is fairly slim pickings out there but Zlatan would have fit the bill in the short term, maybe Bayern could be persuaded to part with Lewandowski in a year or two? Someone of that ilk anyway.
Oh hey, we had exactly that and we shipped him off to Turkey.
Anyway, I won't be surprised to see Rooney at 10 and Hernandez up front the next game.
Chelsea had 11 shots with 4 on target, Swansea had 17 shots with 10 on target, with possession 52:48.
Untied had 20 shots with 8 on target, Newcastle had 8 shots with ZERO on target, with possession 70:30.
It was clear that Swansea were the better side against Chelsea even considering the sending off, and we completely bossed Newcastle. You're making the mistake of judging the results rather than the performances. We were far better than Chelsea were that day.
Well RVP himself is past his prime, although at the moment yeah I'd still have him in there.
Absolutely. Every single one of the attackers (Rooney, Mata, Memphis, Young, Hernandez, arguably Januzaj) bar Fellaini has shown their best form in a team that counter attacks into space created by that method.
We have a set of forwards very unsuited to this possession style.
I think Sir Alex mentioned it was a choice between Lewandowski and van Persie that summer.
I can't remember exactly what he said about Lewandowski's availability, and obviously van Persie was more of a sure thing... but Lewandowski would have fit the bill, and we'd be pretty much sorted right now.
Seeing Aguero's quick feet for that first goal against Chelsea... Lewandowski has that. That little bit of extra footwork when defences are on top of you.
We had the chance to sign Pedro, but we decided to not bother. We're reaping what we sow here.
Lewandowski's third goal in that insane match vs Real Madrid was amazing. That was quick thinking footwork right there.