In my (of course totally fair and balanced!) view, Merson is an a*se wipe
Marcel Sabitzer - (Use the Player Performance thread to discuss his matchday performances)
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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?
Sabitzer signed before the others, that’s why he’s first.
So pissed Eriksen is injured. Doesn't seem to be the player who can control the tempo like Eriksen does. Hopefully he'll be a good signing.
I think he'll be good for us. Might even be a better option than Eriksen in some games.
Slightly disappointed we didn't get a buy option on the loan.
Bayern are no mugs. If Sabitzer does well for us they'll probably charge a king's ransom if we want him permanently.
Slightly disappointed we didn't get a buy option on the loan.
Bayern are no mugs. If Sabitzer does well for us they'll probably charge a king's ransom if we want him permanently.
Is it April 1st? United don't sign players in 12 hours! What's going on?
I still can't quite believe we went from ETH saying "it's tough to sign players on deadline day" to actually signing a player on deadline day 12 hours later
At least Rio's calling out the lazy punditry. https://www.football365.com/news/ferdinand-slams-merson-man-utd-panic-buy-sabitzer-chump-claim
“For me, those comments [from Paul Merson] stink of someone who hasn’t seen him play and who wouldn’t know who he is or if he’s left or right-footed because you can’t say it’s a bad signing."
I said the same yesterday.
“It’s a panic signing!”
Well Paul, our first choice midfielder was brutally assaulted a few days ago and is out for the season. His understudy suffered a freak injury a few weeks ago. His alternative has been ruled out for a few weeks.
We’ve signed him as an emergency loan so yes, there’s an element of panic in it you doughnut. A “panic” signing has completely different connotations though and is usually reserved for splashing big money on deadline day because your fans are pressuring you or you find yourself in the relegation zone.
Merson is just very stupid. He's a weird pundit, because sometimes he makes valid points and ends up being proven right, but he frames them so poorly and he has such a basic grasp of the English language that you don't really understand what he's getting at.
His take on this one is just ignorant though. Sabitzer isn't a 'panic' signing at all. 'Emergency' is probably a more appropriate term. A panic signing would have been getting someone like Jonjo Shelvey permanently and not on loan; just a body who isn't going to contribute anything while he's here and be hard to shift on as well.
If we were given a choice between having a fully fit Eriksen for the rest of the season or the current situation with Sabitzer on loan, I think a majority of fans would choose the former. However, the club have done well to get a good player like Sabitzer in with such little time in the window left. We still have some good midfield options now to get us through the season.
I wonder if we would have signed this guy if DVdB had not also been injured. That would not have been a fun second half to the season.
Seen him play a few times he looks a decent signing for a last minute replacement on deadline day.
Defensively he might give us more and he has a better engine than Eriksen but I don’t think that’s the way to look at it. He is closer to being as good as Eriksen ON the ball than anyone else we’ve got and nowhere close to as good as Case defensively.
I trust EtH, so I’m feeling positive about this addition.
Weghorst, Sancho and Sabitzer! for a couple of million is a very clever January.
Weghorst, Sancho and Sabitzer! for a couple of million is a very clever January.
Mark Bosnich was our first Australian.
From what I've seen of him, his best qualities are his passing range and his work rate, which are two key things that will really benefit the team. Unsure how good his positional sense is though given he'll be playing in a slightly deeper role than he would normally.
I don't know what you are all on about. Its not totally bat sht crazy what he said. Its just an opinion. You can argue semantics all you want but it can easily be labelled as a panic buy. If we planned correctly and thought about the consequences of one of our players getting injured and made the purchases early in the window then thats not a panic buy. If you do it on the last day after your player is out for 3 months then yes its not in the realms of impossibility for it not be deemed a panic buy. Also he said he was a fourth choice Bayern midfielder that couldn't get in the side. Well that's true. Isn't it? We are all just basing our excitement on his Leipzig form. Bayern fans are not rioting.
Now as an aside its still a really good signing. Its ok to panic buy when needed. Its not a dirty word. The one thing Merson hasn't got is our belief in Ten Haag. If Rangnick just bought Wout and Sabitzer the fans would be pissed. Ten Haag however and we believe that he will get the best out of them. And if he gets the best out of Sabitzer he will be a great addition.
Very happy with this. To get a player of his quality in last minute shows we are a serious club with a plan again.
Different qualities to Eriksen but will still offer us a lot. And he can play a full 90 which Eriksen was mostly unable to do.
Different qualities to Eriksen but will still offer us a lot. And he can play a full 90 which Eriksen was mostly unable to do.
Fantastic signing. Two footed quick passer and very nippy. Delighted we've got him. We're really being ran like a top club again.
We must do everything to keep EtH here for as long as possible.
Eriksen was never a good corner taker, I don't know where this myth came from. My mate used to hate him on them at Spurs.The United corner curse even managed to claim Eriksen who was one of the best corner takers in the world so I'm not hopeful that Sabitzer can avoid it.
low risk signing, to cover for injured player.
His history tell us that he is a decent to good player who consistently played for years and even captained a team like RBL, a team that consistently featured in CL in that last 6 years, and even played in SF once, we got him only for six months on loan, as a cover, we wouldn't do better than him if we tried.
I have low expectations of him, as long as he can just do his bit alongside Cas, then I am happy.
His history tell us that he is a decent to good player who consistently played for years and even captained a team like RBL, a team that consistently featured in CL in that last 6 years, and even played in SF once, we got him only for six months on loan, as a cover, we wouldn't do better than him if we tried.
I have low expectations of him, as long as he can just do his bit alongside Cas, then I am happy.
He'll be fine positionally, can play as part of double pivot or in one of the half spaces a bit further forward.
A couple of his match comps from the start of the season for Bayern when he was more of a regular
My most livid memory of this guy is his mistake which lead to Rashford's goal couple seasons ago. But imo he's a pretty decent player and would do well here. Seems also like a very versatile player I think.
You don’t know what I’m on about but pretty much reworded what I’ve said?
I can see him being made permanent in the summer. He can play 6 better than Mctominay. He can play 8 and 10 too. I reckon he'll solve our midfield need now and into the future.
For me, a panic buy involves a "buy" as it says, Panic Buy. Sabitzer is a player signed on a short term loan, not someone the club spent a fee to bring. Maybe you can call it a panic signing, but then again, for me at least, panic entails paying a hefty fee for someone who wasn't part of the plan, Sabitzer wasn't part of the plan, but at least we didn't pay anything for him, so not so much panic buy, more like an emergency cover for an injured player.
That is brilliant work from the club to get that done in a 24 hour period.
Casemiro
Sabitzer
Fernandes
Fred
All hard pressing players. This should be a strong midfield heading into the 2nd half.
Casemiro
Sabitzer
Fernandes
Fred
All hard pressing players. This should be a strong midfield heading into the 2nd half.
Seems like a smart pickup considering Eriksen's injury (feckin Carrot). Hope he can show the kind of form he showed for RBL. I always thought he looked best in an attacking role.
Happy with this personally, really liked Sabitzer at Leipzig and I think he's a great addition at short-notice
I'm probably missing someone obvious but is this our first ever Austrian player?
Good people, the Austrians. Never known of a bad one
Good people, the Austrians. Never known of a bad one
I was hoping we'd sign him before he went to Bayern, so I hope he does well.
Could be a fairly cheap squad player for the future.
Could be a fairly cheap squad player for the future.
Same boat here but it’s hard for me to excited when our midfield is worse with him in it from what we had simply a week ago
Seems like he has the right attitude and character alongside some key footballing qualities we're missing in the midfield due to injuries. Very good bit of business on the face of it.
Weird, when do Bayern let quality players go so freely?
Semantics. You are being deliberately obtuse. I can say its not a panic buy because the word panic denotes sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety and there is no proof that anyone at United were scared or anxious therefore it cannot be called a panic buy. Maybe slightly concerned late in the window low risk loan? Happy? Although the definition of low risk loan needs to be defined. Arnt all loans low risk by their definition? Well maybe not Felix. But I would deem it standard risk for a loan. So.....slightly concerned late in the window normal risk loan?
It's the fact Merson's falling over himself to frame it as a negative bit of business for United. He could have said it's a 'necessary' signing, he could have said it may prove a 'shrewd move but the jury's out' etc. instead he went straight for 'panic buy' and made it sound as if we still don't know what we're doing. Meanwhile the mood music from everyone else in the press is that it's a decent signing on decent terms at such short notice and very much belies the utter shitshow we've been as a club for the past few years., but if you only listened to Merson you'd think 'same old United'.
But it was his opinion and he wasn't necessarily wrong. Thats the beauty of opinions. Not everyone has to say the same thing. He just gave a different perspective on it. I disagree with him but I don't see what the whole world has to get their knickers in a twist over it.
It’s a transfer to cover an injured player. Calm down, that’s all it is for feck sake.
edit Merson is a fecking muppet because it’s yet another appraisal on a player by an EPL pundit who has never watched the player play.
So if I am reading you correctly, you are saying that when you do something first, you will be first? Wow! I did not think of it that way before.