I hope you're joking.Lots of teams have players that do individual brilliance, doesn't mean they can play possession football. You need a certain type of player who's technically gifted to play it.
Yeah, this is sort of where I'm at. 'Give it to Bruno' is the most consistent thing in our football.I'm still no closer to knowing what sort of team we are. We buy better players to improve, but at the core of our side, I'm not sure what we're truly doing.
He failed to get us playing possession football. Fo you think any of our players would be in the City first team? Maybe Shaw.I hope you're joking.
You need the right coaching setup to play possession football, not the right players. Possession football is not some outerworldly new and fecking genius way of playing the game that suddenly needs certain type of players.
LVG made the likes of Cleverly, CBJ, Depay and Januzaj play possession football. All you need is a decent manager as 95% of players can play possession based football with 3-4 months of proper coaching.
He failed to get us scoring from playing possession football, that;s something entirely different.He failed to get us playing possession football. Fo you think any of our players would be in the City first team? Maybe Shaw.
You think Pep would ever want Pogba? Have you ever watched his team's play? He's the type of player he's avoided.He failed to get us scoring from playing possession football, that;s something entirely different.
And c'mon, quite a few of our players will get into a Pep team: Shaw, Pogba, Bruno, DVB, Maguire.
Who would you bring in? I think we need to have a ready-made replacement for Ole if we sack him. Conte maybe?This is why I want the entire coaching staff binned.
Buying new players is just a band-aid.
Or creating pathways to move the ball effectively be it through runners moving players out of position, quick one-two touch interplay passes to quick thinking.We struggled with possession when we had it, today is a perfect example of us not being good enough to play that style.
Possession football is not just about having the ball but being able to use it.
Yep, they allow us because they know we’ll become toothless. Like letting Rashford have the ball with no space to sprint into or give AWB a free run of things.Who thinks we are? We are only a possession team because teams allow it.
We are expected to dominate the ball most games so having poor retention will always be a problem. Until we become better at moving the ball, we can forget about being a top team.Yes. Our ball retention is mediocre, at best. That's not a necessity even for a team that is built for quick transitions.
Yes. What I meant was that even if we want to play quick, direct football, it doesn't inevitably follow that we have to be shite at ball retention. Because as you say, as long as we are shite at it, we're not going to achieve anything meaningful.We are expected to dominate the ball most games so having poor retention will always be a problem. Until we become better at moving the ball, we can forget about being a top team.
I agree, this is what I’ve been saying all along. To me, a midfield is as much a single machine as it is 3 players. However, with us, it seems to be a wish to have 3 different parts, and simply ask them to have game changing moments somehow. Bruno to score or assist. Pogba to dribble or play a ridiculous, low probability pass. McTominay or Fred to have game saving tackles. But no expectation on their relationship with each other when we have the ball.The problem @Rozay is our inability to play as a collective. Too reliant/indulging of individuals because of the G/A, whilst ignoring everything negative in their game.
I fully recall Pep reducing the role of Aguero at City because he doesn’t make the team play better. As an individual he will give great numbers but what about when he is stifled. So, brought in Jesus a lesser player but makes everyone around him look good.
We need players in midfield that serve as a glue not the highlights reel types. Doesn’t matter whether our game is based around quick transitions but all facets need satisfying because in a 90mins you deal with various situations.
A reason am not obsessed with big name players in certain roles. Nor do I frown at lesser name players without assessing their playing style/benefit to the team. Like how important Lallana was to Liverpool in getting results in tight games last season. But, most of us won’t want a player like that at United because he is not celebrated enough or their YouTube highlights don’t make great viewing. VDB falls under that same category, whilst people are busy questioning his impact I personal believe he made players around him look better.
I agree with the above. Even though Bruno and Pogba would pass and move, our RW, LW, RB and LB are too static and they don't create space when compared with someone like Cavani. I think this is the main culprit on why we're playing so slow.Let’s be honest. Bruno and Pogba are a problem in the team. Individually both are clearly tremendously talented players but they don’t move in intelligent ways or quick enough. We have 3 players that pass and move to give a player on the ball a better option and those 3 are Mata, VDB and Fred.(guessing in part that’s why Pep wanted Fred)
All the rest stand and watch the ball, or when they receive it hold on to it for too long looking for a miracle pass. It just doesn’t work and why can’t we be both? A team that can keep the ball and move it about well creating opening with fast 1 touch passing and then be able to counter attack when we need to? I mean Man City “ the possesion” team have scored some absolute crackers counter attacking.
The truth is if you really want to be a good team you should be able to do both and right now the make up of the team or the way it plays I don’t think will be good enough to make us proper challengers and a team that is properly feared.
Your fanbase still belong to the 90s and 2000s, still having this weird hung up about possession football.Yes, I absolutely agree. Controlling games with sustained possession, being able to keep the ball under pressure, carving teams open with combination play - these are things that all top teams must be good at, otherwise they have a ceiling, a limit.
Incidentally, this is why I despair when people rail against playing the ball out from the back. It's another essential part of the modern game, without which there will always be a limit to a team's potential.
Leeds under Bielsa disagrees.Lots of teams have players that do individual brilliance, doesn't mean they can play possession football. You need a certain type of player who's technically gifted to play it.
Yep and to be honest I question if the individuals that use stats to defend certain players actually watched any our games. Since last nights was a big game, free and easy to access coverage so it might come as a surprise to them that what they saw is actually a typical performance without G/A to cover the cracks.We have always been a team who transition play quickly, especially under Fergie and Busby. But that didn't mean we didn't have the ability to control games via retainining possession. There's plenty of examples of us scoring goals where we have shown the ability to build the play at a high level under Fergie which culminated in us passing the opposition to death on numerous occasions.
Jurgen Klopp plays a similar style of football now to Fergie, along with quite a few other young coaches, but they still try and control the game via possession. And how you do that is having players who are good in the build up phase, who can evade pressure, break lines/spread play, whilst maintaining a high pass percentage. And it's not just the midfield that's the issue, but also players in attack who are below par in the build up/approach play, phase of the game, which is papered over by people who use stats, which ignores the player's short comings in the build up phase.
