Is everything okay at home? You just listed rashford, AWB, lindelof smalling and mctominay. I usually enjoy a good WUM but I feel your actually serious.
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 48
- Goals
- 23
- Assists
- 8
- Yellow cards
- 1
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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My actually serious. Are you Joel Glazer btw?
I’m intrigued now. Who are your top 5 players at the club in order?My actually serious. Are you Joel Glazer btw?
- Young
- Matic
- Rojo
- Darmian
- Bailly
The feck are you on about you? Martial’s our best forwardMy actually serious. Are you Joel Glazer btw?
I don't think there's anything definitive between him and Rashford, personally.
Great list. I would have added lingard over Bailey but that’s just me.
Martial edges it for me but yer man with the sheds is talking poo putting Smalling etc ahead of Martial anyway
Why do so many people put Eric's name as "Bailey"? Is it to mock him? He has been here long enough at our club so that our names know what his name is - might be an injury prone player but still deserves a certain level of respect.
relax dude it was a spelling error. I do like him if you understand sarcasm. If I was mocking him why would I want him to be replaced by lingard in that list?
I'm relaxed mate but you are just one of the tens of Caf members who spell his name like that, which I have encountered. It does become irritating to see at some point.
So people misspelling his name has led you to the conclusion that we are all trying to disrespect him? Try not to overthink it next time and and if you find something as silly as misspelling irritating it might just be a personal problem of yours. I doubt anybody here is trying to disrespect Bailly. There are others like Lingard who could use some defending from you if thats the case.
Bailey is injured alot though
He's the guy that needs to step up the most this season. I think he will be used as a striker, as rashford seems to be happy with playing out wide. This is his big chance. His problem is he is usually a massive threat in and around the box but has issues getting there consistently enough to provide a constant, dominant threat. Him playing closer to goal may be the key in bringing out his more consistent side. He is a lot more clinical than rashford is, but rashford is a guy that will always find or create chances for himself, something that Martial has not shown consistently in his utd career. His runs need to improve. I can also see this being a good move for rashford in the long run. Rashford's issue is clinicality. He has improved his dribbling, and he knows when to make the right runs. He is a good wide forward for the modern day team just needs to improve his close control link up a bit more.
He's so frustrating.
Not very good down the middle from what I've seen in pre season. Today he's particularly frustrating. Zero press when they're dickng around with the ball by the half way line and just jogs about.
Agreed, but at the same time the others aren't much better today. He looks like it's the usual Martial performance instead though and not the improvements we've seen in pre-season.
I fear if we play him 9 we'll see a lot of that this year.
Great when we have the ball and time on it, as you could see for 10 mins before he was subbed - before that, non existent and a big detriment to our press.
Great when we have the ball and time on it, as you could see for 10 mins before he was subbed - before that, non existent and a big detriment to our press.
He did well enough, considering the midfield had no control thanks to the atrocious performances from Mata, Matic and Pereira. Some people have an agenda against him.
Sometimes its best to say nothing. He barely did anything. I’m not going to bash him but this is not a good level for Martial even just going off the last 2 games.
Bullshit, he had some nice interplay and got great flicks for other players who squandered their chances.
With Pogba back and if we get Dybala, I suspect we will look much more threatening, provided we don't play Mata and Matic anymore.
Only one of the attacking players that started that looks to create one-twos and set up others.
The pass to Lingard doesn't happen in a million attempts if Rashford gets on the ball in a similar position.
Nice assist, not much else. But I think you'd be surprised how well he would do up top with some players who could thread a ball through for him to run on to as he is a lethal finisher. Dybala, Pogba, Bruno all capable players by the way 
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.Dybala might take the position Martial is playing in.
No way, we didn't give him a new contract just to replace him. Rashford, Martial and Dybala will play together, not instead of each other.
Much better in the second half than the first I thought. Not sure why some people have to slate some of our other players in order to praise him though.
Cuts both ways - he'd have to make the run first.Nice assist, not much else. But I think you'd be surprised how well he would do up top with some players who could thread a ball through for him to run on to as he is a lethal finisher. Dybala, Pogba, Bruno all capable players by the way
I think when we're playing good, high tempo football he's great, when Fred, Jesse & Gomes came on he had runners going past him and could drop in and exploit more space and time and looked much better/interested, but that doesn't change his 70 odd minutes before - if you need him to dig in and lead the line I think we'll struggle.
There was an abundance of situations in the first half where he was waiting for the ball to be played in behind, nobody made the pass. Similar situations to how Lingard found himself in space to score, the only difference was that the ball was played out wide instead.
Thought generally he played pretty well considering how poor we were at creating anything for any of the forward players and after the first 20 minutes I don’t what happened but we retreated to Jose ball and he and Rashford were just doing dummy runs between players trying to position a press.
Did a lot of the things he’s done through this pre-season as in opening his body up making runs, dragging players about, creating space unfortunately just wasn’t a good performance by the team in general.
His run for the Rashford goal creates the imbalance for Rashford to get that strike off and get the deflection as that defender moved to go with Martials run.
Did a lot of the things he’s done through this pre-season as in opening his body up making runs, dragging players about, creating space unfortunately just wasn’t a good performance by the team in general.
His run for the Rashford goal creates the imbalance for Rashford to get that strike off and get the deflection as that defender moved to go with Martials run.
I think a no.9 playing as a lone front man needs to be moving a lot more than what I saw today.
If you saw him waiting in the perfect position only for the ball not to be played then fair play to you but I think that is a very kind way of looking at the first 70 mins.
Granted Matic, Mata and a non existent right side were bigger issues - I just remain unconvinced that Martial can do the business at no.9, despite all his obvious talent.
I suppose that is the beauty of these discussion boards as we all just see things differently.
Personally I thought his movement was fantastic - small sharp clever runs. He plays with his head up as well. I am delighted he is playing there and some nice link up play with Rashford. I think the 2 of them are going to be great this season and really looking forward to watching them continue to work on their on pitch relationship.
I think the majority are imbeciles when it comes to understanding football, tbh. There's plenty of situations where he's on their line with space in behind and the ball gets played in wide, unless he runs into an offside position then people on here doesn't understand the situation. It's why Rashford running is overrated on here as well. By all means, there's plenty of flaws in his game, but the biggest one is failing to meet the ball on the first post when it's being crossed in, far too often he holds back in order to make himself available for a pass on the edge of the bo.
Big question to whether he can score enough goals for me...
Very high and mighty - I'll rewatch it because I did not see those movements and I'm quite sure I know the difference between a clever movement and just running in behind and offside.
I think Martial's movement has been a key issue since his second season here - I think throwing him at no.9 and saying he made incisive, but unseen 10 yard runs all day to no avail due to his silly teammates is very very forgiving.
Of our preseason I think Greenwood has shown himself to be a very intelligent runner off the ball in a way that I wish both Martial & Rashford replicated.
Equally, my initial point was as much about his movement in the press - which whilst better in the way he's positioning himself and cutting off passing lanes, still leaves a lot to be desired - AC's cbs were under zero pressure that entire first half whilst on the ball, except for when Periera or a midfielder stepped out.
Totally agree on getting across the front post - thats a problem for both Martial and Rashford, neither are natural poachers and when the ball is wide they are very passive in their runs - Greenwood (again) scored a goal in preseason that neither would in a month of Sundays. Dan James could find that very frustrating if our form so far is anything to go by!
Also for anyone else I don't want to get down on Martial, the set up we are gearing towards fills me with positivity, I just think Ole is still a few players short and we may rely too heavily on players that aren't as well suited to the way we want to play this year.
He will score enough goals if he gets the passes. Martial was the one who made the first goal possible for Rashford. How by busting a gut to get into the box and getting one of the CBs to occupy him. Then he moved forward towards the goal in between the two defenders and let Rashford have that space to line up and shoot.
He is not a player who is going to run like a headless chicken for 90s. He plays in bursts and he needs to ball played to him early and he also goes for return which many times at United does not come back to him.
Yes he does hold back instead of going to the near post but I also feel he is more comfortable holding back and chances are he will score if the ball is pulled back. His conversion rate is extremely good.
He is not a player who is going to run like a headless chicken for 90s. He plays in bursts and he needs to ball played to him early and he also goes for return which many times at United does not come back to him.
Yes he does hold back instead of going to the near post but I also feel he is more comfortable holding back and chances are he will score if the ball is pulled back. His conversion rate is extremely good.
Hope so! If those two can form a workable partnership and fulfil on their talent I think we'll be there or there abouts.
One or two signings behind them could make all the difference
Martial is a player who needs those balls played through to him. If our midfield is so crap we can have Kane and he would still struggle.
High and mighty is the way to go.
Plenty of situations where he's on the shoulder of cb gesticulating for the ball to be passed to him, but it ends up sideways instead. Easier to pass the ball sideways to Rashford/Shaw in a far less dangerous position instead of being direct. Martials pass to Lingard for the 2-2 goal, player sees a teammate in a good position and goes for the killer pass instantly, doesn't dwell on the ball and look for other options. If players attempt the same more often with Martial on the receiving end we'll create far more chances. Oddly enough it's generally the opposite in the build up play, where we attempt to be far too direct and lose the ball.
If the ball goes wide and we're looking to cross it in then both Martial and Rashford have more or less given up on being not he receiving end.
I think so as well. Some nice things today and the way they move for each other so suggests the understanding is building.
Agreed re the midfield signings and the difference it could make. Hopefully something will happen in the next few days.
Kane runs the channels and his hold up play is excellent both with his feet and when it's in the air, he is extremely challenging to handle as an allround no.9 and his movement is that of an out and out striker. An exceptional striker makes passes easy and good through their own movement and ability.
Spurs' midfield isn't all singing and dancing - we averaged almost identical key passes and shots per game, all in similar areas last year (inside the box, outside and inside 6 yard box), you can argue all day about the out and out quality of the play behind those statistics but really I think people are so quick to take personal responsibility from some players and project it onto scapegoats.
The creative quality of a team depends as much on the forwards & their movement/ability as it does on the midfielders as it does on the FBs as it does on the CBs as it does on the entire teams tactical set up.
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