“ If De Bruyne (£68m) has an off day, City have Mahrez (£61m), Sterling (£57m), Silva (£45m), Foden, Gundogan (£24m), & Ferran (£21m)

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Surely that would work if yesterday was the first disappointing result of the season...

We've had our full squad at our disposal at times and still underwhelmed (as did City earlier in the season to be fair)
 

Adam-Utd

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So we need 300m+ worth of talent to beat Palace do we :lol:

Brighton had over 10 shots on goal more than us against them!
 

AshRK

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I have blamed the board enough but last few weeks is all on Ole. You don't need sancho to beat sfu, west brom or palace. It comes with the mentality. The moment we reached the top spot, he started making excuses and it's as if no one believed we are good enough and that comes from the manager.
 

Judas

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As much as we can talk about how much money City have spent, it's a bit of an awkward one, because we've spent nearly as much just on worse players. They've got a ridiculous level of depth in most areas, they've been managed well.
 

Siorac

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Plummet down the table and drop loads of points which is the case for every team bar City.
Well, my point was more that they don't actually have such mega-expensive superstars and yet keep the pace with us, and have done so for two consecutive seasons now.
 

RashyForPM

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Thoughts team?
And one more thing; our fanbase has become even more obsessed with City’s squad value recently. Lad who tweeted that simply needs to shut up. It’s as if we’re the noisy neighbours despite being a million times bigger than City in terms of trophies, global fanbase and revenue. Fergie would be fuming if his grandchildren or whoever showed him that tweet. Fergie steamrolled City in 2013 despite them having much the better squad bar RvP. What is that down to? Coaching and man-management.
 

largelyworried

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If City were without all those players, I would still expect to see a coherent, structured team that did the basics right. They might struggle with a lack of cutting edge, but they wouldnt struggle to pass the ball 12 yards, or continually fail to move into space to receive a pass from a team mate. United failed to even do the basics last night. We can debate whether its an off day or an underlying problem, but it went way beyond a lack of star power on the pitch.
 

gza the genius

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It's not even about "x" player having an off day this season, for us it's a matter of us not being able to rest Rashford or Bruno. City have the luxury of being able to rest a couple of players every week and not see much of a difference, meanwhile we've ran Rashford and Bruno in to the ground.

That said, why can City and Pep get the most out of their players while when we do attempt to rest someone the backups always end up playing so poorly that we have to throw Rashford and Bruno on anyway.
 

Ekeke

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If they were all fit we'd still be 10 points behind City, so pretty ridiculous to make that comment
 

horsechoker

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If City were without all those players, I would still expect to see a coherent, structured team that did the basics right. They might struggle with a lack of cutting edge, but they wouldnt struggle to pass the ball 12 yards, or continually fail to move into space to receive a pass from a team mate. United failed to even do the basics last night. We can debate whether its an off day or an underlying problem, but it went way beyond a lack of star power on the pitch.
What a username
 

RUCK4444

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Spot on really.

Most will disagree though because it doesn’t lend itself to the hysteria after a bad result.

We are very limited in what we can do when Bruno is out of form/needs a rest. Especially when Pogba is not in the squad.

Yet the same hysterical posters probably still want to sell Pogba at any cost because he has fancy haircuts and doesn’t win us the league on his own.

There is no balance in this place, it’s just feckin boring now to be honest. Look at the state of this place since last nights game.

Nobody is happy with the result or more to the point nobody is happy with the lack of desire shown by the players, but it’s the extreme knee-jerk reaction that is tiresome.

Imagine most here as the director of a company, the moment there was an issue they would sack the entire staff and replace the management, except in no walk of life is that feasible and nor is it in any way productive.
 

L1nk

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There’s no mutual exclusivity.

Yes, they have better players, but they also have a better coach.

We’re second to City in spending so you can’t say we haven’t had two pennies to rub together, so what is the point of the tweet, that we are horrendous at spending our money? Everybody knows this and this is the fault of the owners and the manager

There was absolutely nothing stopping us from trying to get Gundogan or Ferran for their cheap prices and yet we didn’t, or players of a similar ilk. Perhaps if we weren’t wasting so much damn money on players like Maguire who aren’t worth half of what we paid we might be better off?

Aside from that, you do not need an embarassment if riches to beat the dregs of the league, we need another 500 million spent before we can even consider being competitive against the smaller teams that play low block do we?

Pathetic tweet and its just excuses central
 

He'sRaldo

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Why didn't this come out last season when Liverpool were miles ahead?
 

Hoboman

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I'm afraid that the gap between Pep and Ole is disastrously bigger than the difference in their squads quality.
 

cyberman

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If City were without all those players, I would still expect to see a coherent, structured team that did the basics right. They might struggle with a lack of cutting edge, but they wouldnt struggle to pass the ball 12 yards, or continually fail to move into space to receive a pass from a team mate. United failed to even do the basics last night. We can debate whether its an off day or an underlying problem, but it went way beyond a lack of star power on the pitch.
If this were true then Pep wouldn't spend so much.
Ole has had 1 go to sign a CB. What if Pep were stuck on one choice for big money and had to stick with them.
 

bsCallout

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VDB has barely been used by Ole even when fit and even when we desperately needed goals. He has spent 130m on the defence which wasn't our biggest issue and still isn't a huge strength.
Defence wasn't our biggest issue? It was awful.
 

SAFMUTD

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Depressing how they have got value for their money while we spent 40M on VDB, 50M on Fred, 50M on Martial, 20M on James, etc.

Its not only about spending, its about spending wisely.

Pep spent similarly in Cancelo than Ole did with AWB, same case with Ruben Dias and Maguire. I know which two I would pick.

Are they better players or better coached? I'd say the first one is questionable but the second one is not. I can only dream of what Rashford would be by now under a coach like Pep after seeing how Sterling has improved under him.
 

elmo

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Who does Sheffield, West Brom and Crystal Palace have that could make our squad in the first place?

Let's stop comparing with City and question why we can't even beat the relegation favourites.
 

Spiersey

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That tweet just lists a bunch of players who cost 20 mil less than Pogba, Martial, Fred, VDB and James. Ignoring Rashford who would probably be valued at £80 mil+. Not sure what his point is bar that City have spent their money better, which is exaggerated by the fact that they have a much better coach.
 

devilish

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If Bruno has an off day we are supposed to have VDB and Pogba. Which according to this Ole in seems not good enough. Unfortunately for Ole there's no chance in hell of him resting Bruno (he played him in return leg that we've previously won 4-0) and he seem to have froze VDB out
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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Well, my point was more that they don't actually have such mega-expensive superstars and yet keep the pace with us, and have done so for two consecutive seasons now.
To some degree sure, they are also the perfect example of what is being said in the OP. They are only dropping off because they are suffering injuries and drops in form, that's basically impossible for City as they have multiple players for every role.
 

tomaldinho1

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We were playing Palace. A team that has conceded 43 goals in 27 games, had 9 players injured and they had more shots on target than us. A team that has signed a single player over £10m since Hodgson joined them.

Sometimes (nay very often) the tribal nature of the Ole in versus Ole out divide stops logical debate but that kind of tweet takes the piss.
 

Norman Brownbutter

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So I guess we are going to continue to ignore the amount of misplaced, overhit, and generally shit passes we have been making for a long time?

But if its not the coaching, then why did we sack LVG or Jose?


2020-21 (Manager - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer)
After 27 Premier League games, United have:
  • 51 points
  • a +21 goal difference
  • are 14 points behind the top of table
Source - https://www.premierleague.com/tables

Compared to:

2014/15 (Manager - Louis Van Gaal)
After 27 Premier League games, United had:
  • 50 points
  • a +20 goal difference
  • were 13 points behind the top of the table
Source - https://www.worldfootball.net/schedule/eng-premier-league-2014-2015-spieltag/27/

2015/16 (Manager - Louis Van Gaal)
After 27 Premier League games, United had:
  • 44 points
  • a +10 goal difference
  • were 12 points behind the top of the table
Source - https://www.worldfootball.net/schedule/eng-premier-league-2015-2016-spieltag/27/

2016-17 (Manager - Jose Mourinho)
After 27 Premier League games played, United had:
  • 50 points
  • a +17 goal difference
  • were 16 points behind the top of the table
Source - https://www.worldfootball.net/schedule/eng-premier-league-2016-2017-spieltag/27/

2017-18 (Manager - Jose Mourinho)
After 27 Premier League games played, United had:
  • 56 points
  • a +32 goal difference
  • were 16 points behind the top of the table
Source - https://www.worldfootball.net/schedule/eng-premier-league-2017-2018-spieltag/27/

Trophies won at Man United after 26.5 months at the club (the length of time Ole has now been there):
Van Gaal (1)
  • FA Cup (2016)
Mourinho (3)
  • FA Community Shield (2016)
  • EFL Cup (2017)
  • UEFA Europa League (2017)
Solskjaer (0)


Since I keep reading that Ole has the better team, how can this be true if its not the coaching?

ITs not one thing, thats for sure. But to think that it isnt Ole at all is just weird in my opinion.
 

Pexbo

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It explains why we are behind City. Not why we are 14 points behind.
Two incorrect decisions against Sheffield cost us 3 points, the penalty against Chelsea potentially 2 points brings it down to 9. Foul on Lindelof by West Brom brings it down to 7. City’s ridiculous offside goal against Villa could bring it down to 5.

Margins are fine in this league and if all those decisions were actually ruled correctly, it would be much closer.
 

The Uncle of All Uncles

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"If Pogba (£89m) has an off day, Utd have Fernandes (£47m), Martial (£50m), Van de Beek (£40m), Rashford, Fred (£47m), & James (£15M) to pick up the creative slack"

Christ! This is embarrassing. It's not like Man City haven't had injuries this season. De Bruyne was out himself for over a month recently.
 

RedDF

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The real question we should be asking is why we didn't go for Ferran at £21m when we've been crying out for a winger for years and instead spent £40m on VDB? or Mahrez a few years back? It's not like we can't afford them and they weren't exactly reserved for City. We could've afforded every one of those players if there was intent.

Can't use their success in the transfer market as an excuse for our failures.
 

UnofficialDevil

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We were playing Palace. A team that has conceded 43 goals in 27 games, had 9 players injured and they had more shots on target than us. A team that has signed a single player over £10m since Hodgson joined them.

Sometimes (nay very often) the tribal nature of the Ole in versus Ole out divide stops logical debate but that kind of tweet takes the piss.
Exactly! Same goes for the West Brom game with Big Sam. In both games Sam and Hodgson outdid Ole. Just look at their squads compared to ours. Night and day.
 

VP89

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I have blamed the board enough but last few weeks is all on Ole. You don't need sancho to beat sfu, west brom or palace. It comes with the mentality. The moment we reached the top spot, he started making excuses and it's as if no one believed we are good enough and that comes from the manager.
Worth noting he scraped through against SFU in the reverse, scraped through against WBA (dodgy pen 1-0) and also vs Burnley during the great run of form we had. When you consider how finely balanced those games were even then, noting the comebacks along the way, lucky v Brighton 3-2, the comeback vs West Ham, Villa, etc.

None of this should be surprising. The reverse fixtures just look to be balancing the other way.
 

Smores

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Spot on really.

Most will disagree though because it doesn’t lend itself to the hysteria after a bad result.

We are very limited in what we can do when Bruno is out of form/needs a rest. Especially when Pogba is not in the squad.

Yet the same hysterical posters probably still want to sell Pogba at any cost because he has fancy haircuts and doesn’t win us the league on his own.

There is no balance in this place, it’s just feckin boring now to be honest. Look at the state of this place since last nights game.

Nobody is happy with the result or more to the point nobody is happy with the lack of desire shown by the players, but it’s the extreme knee-jerk reaction that is tiresome.

Imagine most here as the director of a company, the moment there was an issue they would sack the entire staff and replace the management, except in no walk of life is that feasible and nor is it in any way productive.
You sound a bit hysterical
 

VP89

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This guy is a Man Utd commentator so he's going to defend everything as a narrative or attack on the club/manager to be fair.

He has a point, it's not "all" about the coaching, but the coaching isn't one of the positives either.
 

Smores

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All thar tweet says is that Ole can't beat the likes of Palace without superstar players. If he has to drop player quality even a little his poor coaching becomes evident.

The manager of this club has to be able to win games whilst rotating. If he can't do that that's his issue, it's not our issue that we can't give him the depth City has.
 

Acquire Me

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It is quite embarrassing he is adding the transfer fees of Gundogan and Ferren. We have Fred who cost us more combined.
Yes, but we are no where near them in quality. We need signings to compete. That said, we are going in the right direction. I hope we get the proper backing in the next window.