Imagine we actually bought nobody - How would you line up?

OleGunnar20

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Taking a trip to a parallel, nightmarish reality - Assume that tomorrow the season kicks off. ETH has stormed off back to Go Ahead Eagles and left you in charge. How do you line us up?

Bonus question: Where do we finish the season across all competitions?

Just for fun of course. I'm sure we'll sign many, many brilliant players, as soon as Frenkie returns our calls ..
 

Dr. Dwayne

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DDG
Laird Varane Bailly Shaw
Hannibal Garner Fred
Sancho Garnacho Bruno

Probably finish in a Europa League spot or a bit worse because it's my first season as manager.
 

luke511

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DDG
Laird Varane Bailly Shaw
Garner
VDB Fred
Amad Ronaldo Sancho
​
Toss up between Bruno and VDB, VDB is more of a team player in midfield so he edges it, especially with Ronaldo as striker.
 

MichaelRed

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Won't pretend I've watched a lot of Garner but everyone putting him as a DM seems odd to me. I thought he was more of a playmaker & definitely doesn't seem to have much physical presence.
 

luke511

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MichaelRed said:
Won't pretend I've watched a lot of Garner but everyone putting him as a DM seems odd to me. I thought he was more of a playmaker & definitely doesn't seem to have much physical presence.
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There's no one else that can play there really. Don't even say the M word.
 

Big Ben Foster

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We'd be lucky to finish in the top half with the lineups that have been posted so far
 

bdspeedy

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Maybe..........100,000,000 of us surrounding the Glazers compound. Obviously, that's not likely and there shouldn't be ANY violence but they need to wake the feck up and understand that the fans are not playing this shit any more. The only success we've had with them was when OT was stormed or other "visits" were rumored.
 

UpWithRivers

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DDG
WB Varane Maguire Shaw
McTominay Fred
Bruno
Sancho Ronaldo Rashford

They are still our best players on paper. Forget anything fancy and play counter attacking football and we will get 4th. But and this is a big BUT - They have to regain form and stop fighting each other. Plus we need a fix for a low block -maybe Donny/Mjebri or both fitted in somewhere and Dalot in.
 

roonster09

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De Gea

Dalot
Varane
Maguire
Shaw

McTominay
Fred
Bruno

Sancho
Ronaldo
Rashford

with players like Mejbri getting mins from bench.
 

RedRonaldo

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DDG
Dalot Varane Maguire Shaw
Fred Garner
Sancho Bruno Garnacho
Ronaldo​

Garner can pass the ball better than Mctominay, Garnacho can dribble the ball better than Rashford. So I assume that’s a good start.
 

Frank White

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DDG

AWB Lindelof Varane Shaw

VDB Fred

Elanga Bruno Sancho

Ronaldo

Bang average team top 6 fight would be tough.
 

OleGunnar20

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Zlatattack

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UpWithRivers said:
DDG
WB Varane Maguire Shaw
McTominay Fred
Bruno
Sancho Ronaldo Rashford

They are still our best players on paper. Forget anything fancy and play counter attacking football and we will get 4th. But and this is a big BUT - They have to regain form and stop fighting each other. Plus we need a fix for a low block -maybe Donny/Mjebri or both fitted in somewhere and Dalot in.
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This. I think it'd be a shit show though.

McFred horrendous.
 

DOTA

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Assuming I cannot be sacked, I would fall out with everyone and we'd repeatedly be docked points for failing to field a side.
 

Remember the geese

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De Gea, Shaw, Maguire, Varane, Laird, Garner, McTominay, Fred, Fernandes, Ronaldo, Sancho.

Laird starts on the right purely because I have more patience with him than Wan Bissaka or Dalot. The midfield three looks incredibly uninspiring, but that's exactly what it is, a midfield three. None of this two midfielders and Bruno playing off Ronaldo nonsense. Rashford would be given plenty of opportunities to return to form. If he does, then there's every chance that he will force his way in on the left. Sancho is better on the left, but I have him on the right basically so I can get Fernandes in the team. The latter can come inside on his right. Plenty of minutes for the kids in the Europa and domestic cups, as well as league games we are comfortable in.

With me in charge, we would finish firmly in the bottom half. Ten Hag would get this team anywhere from 3rd to 6th.
 

LoneStar

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UpWithRivers said:
DDG
WB Varane Maguire Shaw
McTominay Fred
Bruno
Sancho Ronaldo Rashford

They are still our best players on paper. Forget anything fancy and play counter attacking football and we will get 4th. But and this is a big BUT - They have to regain form and stop fighting each other. Plus we need a fix for a low block -maybe Donny/Mjebri or both fitted in somewhere and Dalot in.
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I agree, if they get their shit together they can scrape top 4 with some good luck, or at worst be 5th/6th. Our biggest problem last season was that we conceded too many goals. Tighten up the defence and play counter attacking football, and we will play better than last season.

I might experiment with a back 3/5 for the big games and go full park the bus. It'll certainly be less embarassing than whatever we did against City and Liverpool last season.
 

Thistlesoup

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Remember the geese said:
De Gea, Shaw, Maguire, Varane, Laird, Garner, McTominay, Fred, Fernandes, Ronaldo, Sancho.

Laird starts on the right purely because I have more patience with him than Wan Bissaka or Dalot. The midfield three looks incredibly uninspiring, but that's exactly what it is, a midfield three. None of this two midfielders and Bruno playing off Ronaldo nonsense. Rashford would be given plenty of opportunities to return to form. If he does, then there's every chance that he will force his way in on the left. Sancho is better on the left, but I have him on the right basically so I can get Fernandes in the team. The latter can come inside on his right. Plenty of minutes for the kids in the Europa and domestic cups, as well as league games we are comfortable in.

With me in charge, we would finish firmly in the bottom half. Ten Hag would get this team anywhere from 3rd to 6th.
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The delusion and conceit of football fans knows no bounds.

I presume you've never managed or coached football professionally, yet you say that ETH gets that team 3rd-6th, and you'd be merely "bottom half" :houllier:
 

Lewnited

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God this will be painful..

DDG

Lindelof - Varane - Shaw

Dalot - VdB - Fred - Elanga

Sancho - Martial/Bruno - Ronaldo

- Two good ball players either side of Varane in defence, with Shaw having the ability to carry well.

- Absolutely slapped together midfield. Frantically hoping Elanga comes good as a wing back because Telles is awful. Dalot and Elanga can at least carry the ball well, VdB and Fred both release it relatively quickly.

- Martial worked brilliantly in 19/20 as a link player with Greenwood and Rashford either side, I'd like to hope Bruno could do something similar. Ronaldo's never really been a real #9 so I'd be inclined to give him a relatively free role.

Edit: Forgot Jadon
 
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romufc

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There is a possibility this could happen if we get priced out on all the deals. Looks like we wont do any business until De Jong is sorted.

Come July and if De Jong is not done, I can see us starting the season without a new signing.
 

RedRonaldo

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romufc said:
There is a possibility this could happen if we get priced out on all the deals. Looks like we wont do any business until De Jong is sorted.

Come July and if De Jong is not done, I can see us starting the season without a new signing.
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If we can't get De Jong deal done by July. I expect us to panic buy someone like Neves and Antony on last day of window, for combined fees of around 150m.
 

Hackman2210

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If we bought nobody - I'd like to see.

DDG, Shaw, Lindelof, Varane, Maguire, Dalot. Garner, Fred, Bruno, Sancho and whoever the best finisher is that we have at the club. Hannibal first sub!
 

Remember the geese

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Thistlesoup said:
The delusion and conceit of football fans knows no bounds.

I presume you've never managed or coached football professionally, yet you say that ETH gets that team 3rd-6th, and you'd be merely "bottom half" :houllier:
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What is your point? I have zero experience managing a football team, so would do a shit job. Ten Hag is a much better manager than me and will do significantly better. What is wrong with that?
 

Thistlesoup

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Remember the geese said:
What is your point? I have zero experience managing a football team, so would do a shit job. Ten Hag is a much better manager than me and will do significantly better. What is wrong with that?
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The point's that if ETH would get as low as 6th with that team (and is regarded as a world class manager with years of experience at the top level of the sport), you'd be a lot more than potentially 4 or 5 places behind him.
 

GL21

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Ddg
Awb,varane,maguire,Shaw
McT, DVB,Bruno
Elanga, Ronaldo, sancho

Hannibal, garner, rashford all getting game time
 

Remember the geese

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Thistlesoup said:
The point's that if ETH would get as low as 6th with that team (and is regarded as a world class manager with years of experience at the top level of the sport), you'd be a lot more than potentially 4 or 5 places behind him.
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So you want me to say that I would get United relegated? Well, I don't think I would. It would have to be sabotage to get us relegated. Daniel Farke and Dean Smith are far better managers than me too, but they didn't finish any higher than I would have.
 

AltiUn

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Dr. Dwayne said:
DDG
Laird Varane Bailly Shaw
Hannibal Garner Fred
Sancho Garnacho Bruno

Probably finish in a Europa League spot or a bit worse because it's my first season as manager.
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EL spot would be fairly impressive as a new manager, I could have prime Messi, Maradona and Pele and I'd get relegated in my first season.
 
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