How do you rate part 1 of the ETH rebuild?

[Son]

[

To early to say. Positives so far is his signings have played well and he is showing the courage to drop big players if they are not fit or performing.

The recruitment let him down big time as we have spent 100m (overspent 40m) on Antony and wasted valuable $$$ which could have gone towards a RB and GK.

You don’t know if we’ve overspent on Antony. He might become the next Neymar for all we know then he’ll be a cheap deal.

He has serious sell on potential plus the fact Ajax we’re desperate to keep him might tell a bigger story than the fee. That is encouraging for United fans.

People will use the Haaland as an example but we all know without a release clause Haaland would be between £150m and 200m for the fee alone. Nobody was willingly going to sell Haaland otherwise.

 

[Daengophile]

We've gone from plodding herbivores to wanting to put a shift in and win

 

[Wibble]

Awful.

I suspect he's just created a new set of problems.

Buying a 30 year old DM that Real Madrid had decided to fade out. If we are lucky we get 2 good seasons from Casemiro before we get a repeat of Matic's last few years. Huge wages. Typically favours simple passes. Does he have the speed to get back if we are playing a high line ?

A short CB and a short left-back is just inviting trouble. Look at how Southampton's keeper launched the ball towards the left side of our defence again and again. Every team in the PL will be making plans to exploit our lack of height at corners, free-kicks, even long throw-ins, route one balls from keepers and CBs.

Eriksen another that we might get one good season from given his health issues. So far he's looked decent creating chances, rubbish at finishing them, poor defensively and a liability in possession in our defensive third.

I'm bewildered at how we came to the conclusion that Antony is worth £80m+.

Paid insane fees for 3 of these players. United's business can sustain about £110m net spend per year (in a non-Covid year). The only player we've sold is Andreas Pereira.

The pies at OT are also terrible.

 

[Kopral Jono]

It's very early days but the dismantling of McFred and Maguire-Lindelof alone deserves a solid 8/10.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

De gea (to replace)

Dalot (ok for the next 10 years)
Varane (ok for the next 4 years)
Martinez (ok for the next 10 years)
Malacia (ok for the next 10 years)

Casemiro (ok for the next 4 years)
Eriksen (ok for the next 2 years)
Bruno (ok for the next 6 years)

Antony (ok for the next 10 years)
Sancho (ok for the next 10 years)
Martial (to replace)

The squad is almost complete
Only the GK and CF position needs to be fixed asap
The rest of line up is fine for the next 2/4-10 yrs

Seriously?

I wish that's how things worked btw (good for xxx years).

 

[kouroux]

So far so good. Got me worried with the likes with Arnautovic tbh and starting Maguire in the first 2 games with Shaw

 

[Escobar]

ETH - good so far but will need more time
Club/scouting - failure as usual. Unable to sell players, non-existent scouting. Only positive is they brought in the players that EtH wanted

 

[reelworld]

He seems like a guy who have a plan and knows how to execute it.
I love his signings so far. Bringing in technically excellent players with good work rate and determination. A striker, a ball playing midfielder would be nice for the next step. A keeper would be a nice bonus. I like what Eriksen bring so far, but he will need to be rotated in the near future.

 

[Boondog]

.

How are we at the point to rate anything as “Part 1” right now ? We’re four matches in and his first transfer window hasn’t even gone yet.

Bizarre thread.

Maybe there's 100 parts.

 

[Boondog]

Dean Henderson left the club on loan before ETH took over, both of them never met, watch Henderson interview he will explain how and why he left and didn't want to new manager to see him play. Ronaldo as per reports back in May when it was certain we wouldn't get UCL confirmed that he would stay, his late July bomb came as a surprise to everyone at the Club. From reports privately club and manager would like Ronaldo to leave but so far he hasn't got a club in for him. If a reasonable bid came in, I'm sure club will accept it.

That was what rubbed me the wrong way about him, was his comment that he didn't want the new manager to see him practice for fear of keeping him. Had the timing of when everything happened wrong though, which is a good thing, so thanks for the correction mate.

 

[RedRonaldo]

7/10.

I like all the signings he got, even though I don’t agree with some of the fees we’ve paid, but they are still good signings for us regardless.

Apparently we are still at learning curve in football we’ve played so far. Very disappointed with our performance vs Brighton and Brentford, but very happy with our result vs Liverpool, and glad we got 3 points vs Southampton. Our defense has improved considerably with new signings, but our midfield and attack is still shite. We are still a counter attack team.

 

[jeepers]

I like Martinez and Malacia. Eriksen was a no-brainer. Casemiro, win-win for him and us since he is no longer an automatic first choice at Madrid with Camavinga and Tchouameni, and we bring in a tough tackling midfielder and a serial winner.

If McFred and ‘Arry the Fridge are kept away from the first team, it would be fan-feckin-fastic.

Go again for FDJ, a RB and a GK next season. Blood in some youngsters in the cup games this season.

 

[Baneofthegame]

Next summer window we need GK/RB/ST/CM and we will be good to contend at the top imo.

 

[frostbite]

I believe we are ready to win the Eredivisie.

 

[Real Name]

7/10. Some of the deals could have been done earlier and some cheaper but all in all it was a good window really.

 

[Bondi77]

Surely this can only be assessed at the end of the the year at the earliest!
I know some get a warm fuzzy feeling when we have some new faces in the team but the reality is that if they don't bring their previous club form with them that warm funny feeling can quickly turn into convulsions and we all know that the bigger the price tag the quicker the impact has to be.

 

[M Bison]

Early signs are promising, beating Liverpool plays a huge part in that. Little bit nervous after the Soton performance, despite the win we didn’t look great imo.

I’m a bit concerned about the money spent on Antony and our reactionary approach to signings, we’ve managed to steady things but poor how we’ve chased FDJ all summer and it’s not materialised. Ronaldo remains an issue although I’m pleased with how ETH is handling it. Casemiro on the face of it should be an excellent signing and give us a lot of balance and I’m pleased with what we’ve seen early on from last seasons under-performers, Varane in particular.

It’s a long season and interested to see how Erikson manages, I expect him to be in and out the team with Fred coming into the side a lot more. Pleased with Malacia and it puts pressure on Shaw who has ability but lacks drive, and Martinez could end up being a great buy, although the next run of games will say one way or another.

Overall reasons to be cautiously optimistic.

 

[Real Name]

Early signs are promising, beating Liverpool plays a huge part in that. Little bit nervous after the Soton performance, despite the win we didn’t look great imo.

I’m a bit concerned about the money spent on Antony and our reactionary approach to signings, we’ve managed to steady things but poor how we’ve chased FDJ all summer and it’s not materialised. Ronaldo remains an issue although I’m pleased with how ETH is handling it. Casemiro on the face of it should be an excellent signing and give us a lot of balance and I’m pleased with what we’ve seen early on from last seasons under-performers, Varane in particular.

It’s a long season and interested to see how Erikson manages, I expect him to be in and out the team with Fred coming into the side a lot more. Pleased with Malacia and it puts pressure on Shaw who has ability but lacks drive, and Martinez could end up being a great buy, although the next run of games will say one way or another.

Overall reasons to be cautiously optimistic.

It's EriksEn.

Sorry, it's stronger than me.

 

[RedRonaldo]

De gea (to replace)

Dalot (ok for the next 10 years)
Varane (ok for the next 4 years)
Martinez (ok for the next 10 years)
Malacia (ok for the next 10 years)

Casemiro (ok for the next 4 years)
Eriksen (ok for the next 2 years)
Bruno (ok for the next 6 years)

Antony (ok for the next 10 years)
Sancho (ok for the next 10 years)
Martial (to replace)

The squad is almost complete
Only the GK and CF position needs to be fixed asap
The rest of line up is fine for the next 2/4-10 yrs

I think we still need to improve on CM, RB, CF, GK at the very least.

 

[M Bison]

It's EriksEn.

Sorry, it's stronger than me.

Fair do's

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Here are my thoughts for what its worth

This confuses me. I think there is a power struggle going on which possibly accounts for all the flip-flopping recently: You have your new manager, you have your DoF plus Arnold and Murtough and you also have a 'think tank' of advisors including two of the people you make a comparison with from yesteryear. There are also the Glazer owners whom I believe are behind the retention of Ronaldo for commercial reasons. Fortunately it seems the manager is currently winning the power struggle - in fact in a few months time you might look back at the Brighton game and the Brentford game with pleasure and not so much pain as those 2 matches have empowered the manager to take total control, drop Ronaldo and demand the action in the transfer market that has been seen this last week or so.

Fairplay for good replies

I think this season what should have happened is murtagh should have been up and running well in advance of the summer window, ready to go with club targets. The manager should have inputs but as you said it can't just be the managers old players long term. I think they did this short term because maybe murtagh and his contingent wasn't ready, he has made a ton of changes and gutted the scouting team - I really hope it isn't due to any confusion above murtagh, and personally I don't think it was.

It probably does seem muddled above murtagh. There probably is too much input at the moment. But my hope is that the input is into the long term strategy which they are currently shaping. As a stop gap let eth get who he wants... Hopefully the next summer window will be very different

 

[onemanarmy]

I'm happy. A lot of under performers of the last couple of seasons are gone (Pogba...) or on the bench (Shaw, Maguire, AWB...). A lot of deadwood is gone. We signed couple of young exciting players and a few very good experienced players.
He's not afraid to put Ronaldo on the bench.
I was hoping he'd give a bit of game time to the likes of Garnacho, but that will come.
The only thing lacking is decent sales but the massive contracts were bound to bite us in the ass. AWB, Tuanzebe, Henderson, Williams... shouldn't be on our payroll anymore.

It's far from perfect, but it will take time anyways.

 

[::sonny::]

Seriously?

I wish that's how things worked btw (good for xxx years).

Hypothetically in many positions you have a starter or a reserve player for some year at least

Dalot, hypothetically could be a starter or a backup player for the next 8/10 yrs

If you get Timber, in that position you are fine for years… or you can look with calm for better players without urgency

Many roles can be improved, but in this moment only GK, RB and CF are urgencies

 

[alexthelion]

Awful.

I suspect he's just created a new set of problems.

Buying a 30 year old DM that Real Madrid had decided to fade out. If we are lucky we get 2 good seasons from Casemiro before we get a repeat of Matic's last few years. Huge wages. Typically favours simple passes. Does he have the speed to get back if we are playing a high line ?

A short CB and a short left-back is just inviting trouble. Look at how Southampton's keeper launched the ball towards the left side of our defence again and again. Every team in the PL will be making plans to exploit our lack of height at corners, free-kicks, even long throw-ins, route one balls from keepers and CBs.

Eriksen another that we might get one good season from given his health issues. So far he's looked decent creating chances, rubbish at finishing them, poor defensively and a liability in possession in our defensive third.

I'm bewildered at how we came to the conclusion that Antony is worth £80m+.

Paid insane fees for 3 of these players. United's business can sustain about £110m net spend per year (in a non-Covid year). The only player we've sold is Andreas Pereira.

 

[CM]

From ten Hag's perspective I think he has done as much as he possibly could in this window. It's a nice blend of players. In an ideal world we would've been able to get a couple more bodies in but it was always going to be a tough ask when we needed to do as much business as we did.

Obviously ten Hag will have to earn the right to spend more big money in future windows but if we continue to make steady progress under him, I would hope he is given that opportunity. Historically we've given managers good backing in their first window and that backing has diminished the longer they've been in the job. We've made a good start to rebuilding this squad but we're a long way from the final product. If we want to get there and be successful, we will have to continue making resources available to the manager and work with him to achieve that goal.

 

[Mike Smalling]

• Signings generally address the right areas, and are all looking promising. We will overpay for Antony, but may have gotten a bargain on Malacia. Well done considering we may not be the most attractive side to join just now (club in chaos, no CL, etc.).
• Tactically we are seeing some interesting things already I feel. There was some sharp play against Southampton in particular, where we showed patterns we haven't seen for a long time. Something to build on.
• Brentford was bad, but it was mostly not on ETH I feel, and he used it to properly set up the players for the next few games and show them what it takes to win.
• He's shown both balls and brains in dropping Ronaldo and Maguire for the benefit of the team. Great to see.

Very decent start, I would say. There is a sense of positivity, and if we can finish the transfer window strongly, there is no reason we can't challenge for 4th and maybe go on a cup run.

 

[skeeta]

Given the large outlay this summer, it's a shame that, as other posters have mentioned, we still needed a lot of surgery for our first team squad. I am adamant that we still need to sign a top right-back. We need more quality in that area, particularly with aerial ability, and I was disappointed with our defensive performance against Southamption, despite the clean sheet.

 

[Andersonson]

Way to early to judge, but Martinez seems to be a good buy. Dropping Maguire was the call we all have been waiting for.
Eriksen on a free was is a good deal for every side and Malacia seems very exciting!

Looking forward to see what he does with th midfield going forward. It rates Mctom more than Fred, and I think he is spot on there. He is starting to sub off Sancho early, which is a good sign. He has been terrible and he has brought some life back into Rashford.

It will be exciting to see how things are in jan.

 

[Alemar]

I am quite disappointed with the selling side of business: only Pereira sold for money, and some hopes for Bailly option to be triggered. A lot of deadwood still in the team, although could’ve been turned into cash and wage savings - we would then be able to buy one more good player.

That said, signings were really good, and there is hope that maybe someone else of value will join on deadline day

 

[Boondog]

I wonder what this thread looks like if we drop this one to Leicester. Because the Arsenal game is going to be tough.

 

[Lentwood]

I am going to try not to be outcome-orientated so I am going to suggest that I am incredibly underwhelmed so far...and I think if many of you are being honest, and think back to some of your previous posts about the failings of our recruitment strategy, you will see my point...

So far, we have exclusively signed players the manager knows and a big name from Real Madrid at the back-end of his career.

Now, Antony might turn out to be the next Neymar, Malacia and Martinez look like useful additions already, Eriksen is a classy player to get on a free and Casemiro is a mutliple Champions League winner.

However, none of that changes the fact that many of us have previously been critical of the leadership team for relying too much on the manager or assigning too much weight to the managers opinions on players. We have also criticised the club for making "short-sighted" signings i.e. bringing in quick fixes on big money.

So we can't then be hyprocrites and say how brilliantly we think this window has gone because clearly, nothing has changed (yet) structurally.

My only hope is that this seasons scattergun approach is reflective of a new recruitment team and from the next window on, we'll take a fresher, more strategic approach.

What I do know at the moment is that whether these players succeed or not, we have made similar 'mistakes' with our recruitment in the past, it hasnt worked out and then we have all said, with the benefit of hindsight, "maybe the manager shouldnt choose the players"/"maybe we shouldnt sign 30yr olds on massive contracts".

 

[Todd]

I am going to try not to be outcome-orientated so I am going to suggest that I am incredibly underwhelmed so far...and I think if many of you are being honest, and think back to some of your previous posts about the failings of our recruitment strategy, you will see my point...

So far, we have exclusively signed players the manager knows and a big name from Real Madrid at the back-end of his career.

Now, Antony might turn out to be the next Neymar, Malacia and Martinez look like useful additions already, Eriksen is a classy player to get on a free and Casemiro is a mutliple Champions League winner.

However, none of that changes the fact that many of us have previously been critical of the leadership team for relying too much on the manager or assigning too much weight to the managers opinions on players. We have also criticised the club for making "short-sighted" signings i.e. bringing in quick fixes on big money.

So we can't then be hyprocrites and say how brilliantly we think this window has gone because clearly, nothing has changed (yet) structurally.

My only hope is that this seasons scattergun approach is reflective of a new recruitment team and from the next window on, we'll take a fresher, more strategic approach.

What I do know at the moment is that whether these players succeed or not, we have made similar 'mistakes' with our recruitment in the past, it hasnt worked out and then we have all said, with the benefit of hindsight, "maybe the manager shouldnt choose the players"/"maybe we shouldnt sign 30yr olds on massive contracts".

Being able to compete now is just as important as building a team to compete in the future. Every season we miss out on Champion's League is a disaster. It's going to become very difficult to sign world-class talent if this keeps happening...why would any elite player come to United to play in the Europa League when they could go to City, Madrid, Bayern etc and essentially be guaranteed Champion's League football every season of their prime?

Malacia, Martinez and Antony seem to be very promising players for building a good future. Casemiro and Eriksen are very good players for the short-term.

My concern is that we need goals right now and we haven't done anything so far to address that.

 

[TsuWave]

I'm still trying to understand the philosophy/thought process in going from Arnautovic & Rabiot to Casemiro & Antony

 

[BluesJr]

I'm still trying to understand the philosophy/thought process in going from Arnautovic & Rabiot to Casemiro & Antony

Protests forced the owners to actually do something. There’s always a pattern with these guys.

 

[Red the Bear]

I'm still trying to understand the philosophy/thought process in going from Arnautovic & Rabiot to Casemiro & Antony

It's called panicking, not that I'm complaining.

 

[Hal9000]

I'm still trying to understand the philosophy/thought process in going from Arnautovic & Rabiot to Casemiro & Antony

I think given the links, i think we've always been wanting a wide forward and a more classic number 9 as well. I think Antony was always on the cards and when he was priced out initially, that's why we was looking at Gapko, Carrasco etc.

Arnautovic, i think we were just looking for something different than Martial and Rashford, a taller striker, who can hold up the ball.. Why we was strongly linked with Sesko, Kalajdzic, Arnautovic. Arnautovic was an option because he could of been cheap and a stop gap with the budget we had and probably would not minded being on the bench. I think next season, when Ronaldo is gone, we'll probably get a similar striker to those names..Tall, Strong, and can play with their back to goal and occupy centre backs, get a head on a cross.. similar to Haller did at Ajax.

Think Rabiot was an alternative to FDJ, but his wage demands, coupled with how our midfield got overan by Brighton and Brentford probably made ETH decide that if we can't get FDJ, then we should go for someone who will help us defensivly, and we went for probably the best. Eriksen is now filling the FDJ role this season. I'd like to think that maybe this season ETH was planning on getting FDJ and then next season getting a DM/Casemiro style player, but we've switched where this season we've gone for the DM and next season we'll try again for FDJ.

 

[stoinz]

7/10. There are now competition for places. AWB is out, Shaw and Maguire no longer guarantee a starting spot (I still think they can contribute, there is a great defender in there). Even MCT plays better with better instruction and tactics. Our passing especially transition from defense to attack is much faster. You can already see some semblance of tactics.

However, our attack especially in the final 3rd can be better but I'm not sure how much ETH can actually influence that without changing players. For now it is 7/10, hopeful and very excited about this season. Hopefully by end of the season we get to see more of Savage, Iqbal and Gernacho too.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

 

[Pronewbie]

Let’s wait till October at the very earliest lest we see a repeat of last season.

It could be a very shaky few months ahead as we bed our new players into the squad and re-attempt a deeper adaptation to Ten Hag‘s preferred system.

That said, I’m most impressed by his pragmatism, persuasion and adaptability at such short notice - traits that world class managers across industries possess. Here’s hoping his new signings gel well and prove their weight in gold.

 

[Newtonius]

Really good end to the window, the best post Sir Alex era with 5 new starters coming in including FINALLY getting a left footed attacker and a holding midfielder... however that hides the fact its been totally shambolic. Lingard and Pogba left for nothing when they should have been sold over 12 months ago... We won't let go of Ronaldo because of his marketing value... Phil Jones and others are still trapped in their golden cages being paid more than there talents are worth making them un-sellable... We chased a player in FDJ for 3 months when he said straight away he didn't want to leave Barca as its his dream club... Ultimately we are still ran like a joke of a club and need a massive change in the way we are ran.