Its all about Attitude

Nogbadthebad

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Something popped up in my YouTube feed today, "Manchester United's Top 10 Premier League Comebacks".

I watched it, and while I disagree with some of the picks, something struck me.

First, it's easy to forget just how good our teams in the 2000's were, but importantly they believed they could win from any position, and frequently did.

That is not just the players, it was in every aspect of the club from the manager down, and that is what we miss most. For those saying its the players, in this video, you have O'Shea chipping a goalie at Highbury, he played throughout a successful period, and he was never a patch technically on most of the squad we have now. But he had belief.

If I could sum up everything we need to find again, it is the last match in this video, coming back from 2-0 down against spurs.

On the pitch at the same time, we had Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov and Tevez. We won 5-2.

No manager we have had since then, Ole included, would stick an attacking line up like that on the pitch to chase a game.

That is what we are missing I think.

 

Snuffkin

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Yes but we also had Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov and Tevez.
 

Revaulx

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The only thing I remember fondly from the Jose era was that we seemed to have recovered the ability to make comebacks. Which suggests that maybe our players aren’t “mentally weak”, and that for at least part of the time he was here he was able to motivate them.
 

Blind pew

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This is spot on. I am reminded of a phrase.

"Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard."

Somebody ought to remind the current United players of this.

When ones thinks of the Beckhams, Rios and Giggsys (and many more of course) of this world, they all possessed one common denominator. They all works their socks off. Their medal haul is testament to this.
 

mitchmouse

loves to hate United.
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err where is the 5-3 win at White Hart Lane? plus it's fake news anyway. must be: anderson scored a goal!

Nogbadthebad said:
Something popped up in my YouTube feed today, "Manchester United's Top 10 Premier League Comebacks".

I watched it, and while I disagree with some of the picks, something struck me.

First, it's easy to forget just how good our teams in the 2000's were, but importantly they believed they could win from any position, and frequently did.

That is not just the players, it was in every aspect of the club from the manager down, and that is what we miss most. For those saying its the players, in this video, you have O'Shea chipping a goalie at Highbury, he played throughout a successful period, and he was never a patch technically on most of the squad we have now. But he had belief.

If I could sum up everything we need to find again, it is the last match in this video, coming back from 2-0 down against spurs.

On the pitch at the same time, we had Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov and Tevez. We won 5-2.

No manager we have had since then, Ole included, would stick an attacking line up like that on the pitch to chase a game.

That is what we are missing I think.

Click to expand...
 

Enigma_87

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Messages
27,648
Blind pew said:
This is spot on. I am reminded of a phrase.

"Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard."

Somebody ought to remind the current United players of this.

When ones thinks of the Beckhams, Rios and Giggsys (and many more of course) of this world, they all possessed one common denominator. They all works their socks off. Their medal haul is testament to this.
Click to expand...
But as you mentioned hard work would only get you this far.

Beckams, Rios and Giggsys were incredibly gifted footballers. Regardless of how hard Lingard works he would never be as good as them.
 

Skills

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Comes from the manager. Liverpool have the same kind of fight in them now, and it's mostly down to Klopp.

Attitude and culture flows down from the top.
 

Raw

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I think there was definitely a period when Ole arrived where the attitude shifted almost immediately. Felt like that attitude dropped completely after that PSG win, like the players felt like they've done their bit for the season and phoned it in for the remainder.
 

K13

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Blind pew said:
When ones thinks of the Beckhams, Rios and Giggsys (and many more of course) of this world, they all possessed one common denominator. They all works their socks off. Their medal haul is testament to this.
Click to expand...
Beckhan use to practice his free kicks after training finished. His branding commitments caused real problems with Sir Alex. He got the accidental boot in the face because he was actually not working very hard. Actually it was Gary Neville who use to work his socks off on that right hand side because he would make so many decoy runs to allow Becks to get his crosses in.

Sir Alex had plenty of hair dryer run ins with Giggs and Rio because sometimes they did not work as hard as he wanted them to. At games the amount of abuse Giggs got from a few 'fans' in the first few years because he did not track back or gave the ball away or did not try and win the ball back was incredible. I only saw Ronaldo a few times live in the early days but same for him. There is always a few fans who think they can do better probably because they have never kicked a ball and don't appreciate how hard it is.

It is why a manager is so important as they provide the reminder when levels drop off.
 

roonster09

Hercule Poirot of the scouting world
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Nogbadthebad said:
On the pitch at the same time, we had Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov and Tevez. We won 5-2.

No manager we have had since then, Ole included, would stick an attacking line up like that on the pitch to chase a game.
Click to expand...
That's the best part with SAF. He brought Tevez in at half time in this game and then subbed in Macheda and Welbeck for Tevez and Nani against Villa.

World class attacker in one game and 2 unproven kids in the other.
 
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