We lack creativity

Alexit said:

Pretty much agree with this. You are 100 percent right.

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abdo99 said:

We need the RB, CB, RW and DM urgently. Do you think we can sign 5 players in one window?
We will be creative enough with the above 4 signings. We already are imo. A RW and DLP will complete everything.

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Agree with this, if Fred comes on a bit like Lindelof has, settle in then start to show why we bought him, you have him, Herrera, Pogba and potentially Lingard to fill in the no 8 & no 10 positions, Neves for DLP would be superb and an upgrade IMO on Matic.

Sancho, Neves, Alderweireld and Wan Bissaka all for £190ish million. Ha we can dream!

StrettyEnder07 said:

Agree with this, if Fred comes on a bit like Lindelof has, settle in then start to show why we bought him, you have him, Herrera, Pogba and potentially Lingard to fill in the no 8 & no 10 positions, Neves for DLP would be superb and an upgrade IMO on Matic.

Sancho, Neves, Alderweireld and Wan Bissaka all for £190ish million. Ha we can dream!

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Would be surprised if we go for a young RB again after buying Dalot. I wouldnt be opposed to buying a more offensive LB for cover and competition or upgrade to Shaw though. Young and Dalot RB is enough for next season. We lack left footers and width on the left flank badly, since Martial is cutting in. A new RW could solve the lack of quality on the right side. I also think Dalot has more to offer offensively than shown so far.


CB, RW, CM/DM and a fullback is a must for me.

izec said:

Would be surprised if we go for a young RB again after buying Dalot. I wouldnt be opposed to buying a more offensive LB for cover and competition or upgrade to Shaw though. Young and Dalot RB is enough for next season. We lack left footers and width on the left flank badly, since Martial is cutting in. A new RW could solve the lack of quality on the right side. I also think Dalot has more to offer offensively than shown so far.


CB, RW, CM/DM and a fullback is a must for me.

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Young irritates the hell out of me, must have put 40 crosses in against Burnley, never ever hits a United man, Dalot I agree looks good just looks very dodgy at the back, Valencia going, Shaw/Young for the left and Dalot/Wan Biassa would do me, CB, CM, RW are musts.

We don't lack creativity, we just don't have enough balance in our attack.

On paper (not judging on how they perform in our team setup) we have Pogba, Mata & Sanchez who I would consider extremely "creative" players, then the likes of Rashford, Martial, Lingard, Herrera, Lukaku have had seasons were they were notching up decent tallies of goals and/or assists.

Issue for us is most of our attacks are built on the left side, Pogba and Martial are developing a great understanding and Martial possesses the ability to stay wide and go either way when he takes someone on. Compare that to the RW, which has been Mata (not an RW) or Lingard (not an RW) both of whom drift in and we condense up way to much. If you are defending against us and have a decent structure, as well as a half decent RB to track Martial, then half the battle is won already. This issue is lessened when Rashford plays No9 as he creates a lot of space and keeps defences a bit deeper due to his pace, which Lukaku does not.

Couple that with Sanchez apparently forgetting how to play football and Mata really not ever suiting our system, it kind of leaves Pogba as our driving creative force. I'm convinced, even by adding a relatively limited RW and RWB we'd become so much harder to contain. Shift the balance of the team to a front three who complement each other and we will free up so much space for Martial and Rashford, as well as giving our midfielders another avenue to attack to exploit as we rarely even bother going down the right - expect vs Burnley where Young gave us a lesson on how not to cross.

Always see people saying buying 5 or more players in one transfer window is not realistic. Many positions should have been solved for the last few seasons, such as RW, CB, FB. The problem is that we always struggle to sell useless players, we even extend some of their contracts (until now i still get no idea why we extend Rojo, who played only 10 games last season, and 2 games this season).

Let's say First team should have around 23 players, we have almost 10 players (Lukaku, Sanchez, Mata, Fellaini, A. Pereira, Young, Rojo, Jones, Valencia, Darmian) who are either useless , not Man Utd quality, or overrated to their price and wage (I already not count Fred, who still need time to adopt English Premier, Smalling and Bailly). That's why other than the starting XI, we don't have quality players to rotate. Vs Burnley is a good example, and I have never seen a situation of a big team like us so far, keeping dozens of players who are not helpful to the team. So please, offload those players, spend money in the summer (RW : Sancho / Nicolas Pepe ; CM : Ruben Neves / Ndombele ; CB : Koulibaly / De Ligt / N. Milenkovic ; RB : Aaron Wan Bissaka), promote youth players (Greenwood, Chong, Garner, Tuanzebe).

Look at Liverpool, since Klopp came, he almost changed the whole first team, but their net spend is so low, because he sold players who are not suitable for him (Benteke, Coutinho, Ibe, Sakho etc), sold Danny Wards, a goalkeeper who never play for Liverpool for 15M to Leicester City, Solanke 17M to Bournemouth, and we can only wait until the players free go (Mata, A. Pereira, Young, Jones, Valencia, Darmian)

The lack of passing penetration from midfield is an issue. Pogba has too much responsibility to play the creative pass with Herrera lacking the ability and Matic the courage to try those passes.

That is where you see the worth of a player like Carrick in his years. Best known for his continuity game but very capable of whipping a ball through the lines to an attackers feet. Also why Fergie loved having guys like Old Giggs and Anderson in midfield who could carry the ball at pace from deep.

We need Neeskens Mk II. It’s not that complicated.

Skills said:

Needs to be addressed in the summer. Especially if we want to go ahead with this set up.

Our best two attackers (Martial & Rashford) are better getting on the end of chances. When we want Pogba to attack the box, there's nobody else there who can pick out a pass and create something out of nowhere. Even lingard's strengths lie in his off-ball movement, so we don't have anybody outside of Pogba in the team who can get the ball to feet, look up and find a ball.

It's why we always end up passing the ball out wide because nobody else has a clue what to do with it. It's just a result of the lack of ideas.

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It was one game, and it was instructive. Ole rested Herrera and Lingard, and Martial was injured. The replacements were not good enough - Perreira didn't have the energy of Herrera, Mata played at too slow a pace, and Lukaku was less mobile than Rashford (he replaced Martial, but Rashford was shifted from his central position to accommodate Lukaku).

We would most likely have won the game if Lingard had started - it's not just his pace and movement, but the fact that Pogba gets more time and space when Lingard plays (remember the Newcastle game, when Mata replaced Lingard, where Pogba was also less effective).

I do worry about what our plan would be sans Pogba, but still feel that the real issue for us is maintaining the pace and movement of our front three. Lukaku and Mata do not provide the same threat as Martial and Lingard.

Skills said:

Needs to be addressed in the summer. Especially if we want to go ahead with this set up.

Our best two attackers (Martial & Rashford) are better getting on the end of chances. When we want Pogba to attack the box, there's nobody else there who can pick out a pass and create something out of nowhere. Even lingard's strengths lie in his off-ball movement, so we don't have anybody outside of Pogba in the team who can get the ball to feet, look up and find a ball.

It's why we always end up passing the ball out wide because nobody else has a clue what to do with it. It's just a result of the lack of ideas.

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I agree with when Pogba in the box, there is nobody else in our team who can create something out nowhere since we don’t have someone with his ability to pick a pass and all we are doing is just play the ball to wide area. However, if Pogba is in the box that means we have just put more body in the opposition box, means there is a good chance for us scoring goals if we put decent crossings. Sometime we can’t just play 1 plan which is relying on Pogba only to get the ball to player’s feet, we also need to have another plan which are crossings.

If we end up signing a very creative player that can pick out pass, where is he going to play? Herrera’s role? Can we find a player who is both quality defensively like Herrera and as creative as Pogba? Or can we actually change our midfield structure by replacing Herrera’s role to a role that suit player with less defensive work?

I think if we can improve our full backs crossings or sign better full backs who can also deliver great ball and getting a right winger who is creative enough will address the issue.

quethenoo said:

Na, we just game up against an incredibly obdurate Burnley, who despite defending for their lives still couldn't stop us scoring two.

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I had to Google obdurate.
Who ever got you the "A word a day calendar" for Christmas can sleep well knowing you're putting it to good use.

RW - Sancho/Lozano/Pepe
CM - Ndombele
RB - Wan Bissaka
CB - Koulibaly

4 positions that need covering most. Jones, Darmian, Valencia, Smalling, Mata, Peirera, Rojo, Sanchez, Lukaku all need to follow Fellaini out the door for us to compete with City and Liverpool for top honours again in my opinion!! Klopp and Pep have both got rid of there deadwood and we need to follow suit. Give Ole the permanent job and get Paul Mitchell in from Leipzig for DOF!

Lets get back to the top!!

I just read some stats that say since Ole took over, we have scored the most goals, have the most shots and created the most chances in the PL yet somehow this thread was still made.

Caf never change with your kneejerk reactions.

.....and we are also unable to move the ball across the pitch effectively. That is were the lack of creativity stems from.

I feel we need at least 5 players brought in.

CB and a RB
2 Midfielders
RW

Already it seems that Herrera and Mata are moving on, with Valencia, Darmian, and Rojo.
If Pogba, Sanchez, De Gea, and Lukaku go we will need more.
It is going to be a very busy summer here at Old Trafford. Watch this space.

NoPace said:

I think that because Lingard and Herrera are not great against set defences, we need a RW and a creative midfielder, unless Fred can be that guy. Imagine if Pogba missed even 3 weeks, we'd basically have to move to a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 because you can't really play a 4-3-3 without a CM who can dribble or pass forward consistently.

Basically, if we start games like this:

Martial--Rashford----RW
-----Pogba----Herrera---
-----------Matic----------

and then when we need to attack more (or from the start for home games against weaker teams) we could bring on the CM we sign and let Herrera take Matic's role, and Lukaku will be our big striker off the bench.

We should really sign Ziyech from Ajax. He's desperate to leave, his end product improves every year, he's 25 and he'd fit the team perfectly positionally:

Martial/Rashford----Rashford/Lukaku--------
------------------------------------Ziyech----
-------------Pogba--------Herrera------------
Shaw-------------Matic--------------------RB/Dalot
------------CB-----------Lindelof--------------

would be a really solid all-around team and we could always play a right-winger or all 3 of our forwards and drop a midfielder when we need more firepower out there, and if Pogba has to miss a game we'd still have a creative central midfield option. I'm not saying he's the best player out there, but it seems like a really pragmatic signing we could make along with Alderweild and we'd definitely have a stronger starting XI for like 70-80M.

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Absolutely. Fecking £25m release clause.

This is the man that could be of proper help and use for that right side which has hindered us for nearly a decade.

Ole’s Wheel said:

Absolutely. Fecking £25m release clause.

This is the man that could be of proper help and use for that right side which has hindered us for nearly a decade.

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If we can add marauding RB the balance will be even better. The right wing is empty for years.

We lack Lingard out of this team. And replacing him with a proper am.

It was plain to see.

What a shock that our creativity is lacking. No midfielder and no attackers -- apart from James, who was believed to be a punt -- it is not surprising that we are no different to last season. Honestly, I do not see how anyone thought we would improve. We signed nobody in the places we needed for creativity (James is another left-winger!). We needed a RW, CM and an AM. How on earth did we fail to not even sign one?

It isn't just creativity; it is goalscoring as well. I cannot believe people were happy with selling Lukaku and not signing a replacement; he may have only scored against smaller teams but that is better than nobody scoring.

I am shocked by our lack of creativity

Habs said:

Pogba is our only real source of creativity, if he were to get injured we would struggle to create anything I reckon. Definitely need to bring in another creative player as neither Mata or Sanchez are good enough anymore

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Pogba plays OK today but he needs someone to cover his ass, which was taken off for Mata. I see our problem on the other attacking players, Rashford and Martial were off day but no-one could step up. James and Lingard had the best movement but final delivery was as good as mine. Palace played with dirty tricks outside the box but so do City and all other teams, so no excuse for technical foul if you always try to run the ball for 50y before passing.

It really irritates me how this thread was created in June and Pogba is still our only creative player. It's nonsensical.

Skills said:

It's great that we spunked all our cash on defenders this summer. Defences win titles for life

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If we’d have bought a creative player would Ole even trust him? He’d stick with Lingard.

Ole's answer to our lack of creativity is playing our most crrative player at DM.

This will be our downfall this season. 3 games in and you can already tell there is a huge hole in our team between the midfield and the attack. We need someone who can link those two together because Pogba can't do it from deep.

Is it just me that gets frustrated when they don't swing it into the box when they get the chance?
Maybe it's because we don't have a van Nistelrooy in there but at least there's a chance something could come from it

Raoul said:

Joao Felix was available this summer FFS

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We'd destroy him.

Not bringing in a creative midfielder was the biggest concern heading into the new season for me and it showed today.

Have to admit, I'm worried about how this season will pan out.

youmeletsfly said:

Ole's answer to our lack of creativity is playing our most crrative player at DM.

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Pogba isn't even true CM yet he's our deep lying playmaker. Bizarre stuff. Everybody knows he's prone to making errors in possession except Ole.

The lack of creativity we have in the team has been a glaring flaw for the last 2 seasons. We were linked with Bruno, Dybala etc this summer and I assumed we would finally bring in a number ten with more to offer than running around a bit.
Basically Mata should be the first name on the team sheet when we are up against any team out with the top 6. He is the only player who might be able to play a through ball to our attackers.

youmeletsfly said:

Ole's answer to our lack of creativity is playing our most crrative player at DM.

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We don't play with a DM.

There's not enough goalscoring variety in this team. Too often it's dependent on a nice ball by Pogba or opponent mistakes. This team needs more goals from outside the box and set-pieces. Sometimes it's really just 1 set-piece that provides the first goal, then the opponent has to get a goal and they'll leave more space behind and it becomes easier to score.

Also, what attacking patterns is Solskjaer coaching the squad? I see no automatisms.

Skills said:

It's funny how the solution is just constantly new players, upon new players who when they come here look much worse than they did elsewhere.

We're the club who've made Paul Pogba an average player

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We simply don't play cohesive and creative enough football. Must be woeful being a forward in this team. You get like two touches in the opponent half every half while the rest of the team faffs around passing it sideways.

We play with either OAP or a retard that’s still learning the game. Of course we were gone have no fuxking creativity in midfield.