Whilst I’d normally agree wholeheartedly with this, Mitten has much more of a personal buy in to United and isn’t just another journalist trying to get clicks or stories.
He’s ‘one of us’
Andy Mitten: The players aren't responding to the manager
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
He’s ‘one of us’
Fair enough, I'll alter the headline
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If true looks like we’re once again fecked. Usual suspects getting another manager the chop. Rinse and repeat.
He needs to go on 14km runs with them again
Quite simply the players responsible for constantly exhibiting a bad attitude and ignoring the manager need to be removed from the team, and eventually the club. I don't care who they are. This vicious cycle needs to end
If we get results on the pitch then these stories dont need to be considered. Play the right players which wil lead to results. what's so negative about that?
I am saying our club is very much influenced by PR and optics.
You are underestimating the power of media in the country. It is insane.
Also you are assuming that dropping underperformers will instantly turn us into serial winners. The process will be slow and mistakes will be made and losses will be there. Media will not give any breathing space and will pounce at every opportunity to blame the manager and the club for not playing player A or B due to arrogance or whatever. All kinds of stories will be made.
100%
It's why ETH needs to be convinced of what he is doing and I hope he has that self-belief. This club has ruined players and managers alike before. It's why I'd like him to be more short with the press. Don't indulge them, control the narrative, blank questions, in a way take a page from SAF's book. Granted, the great man had authority no one else had, but it's also something you have or do not have.
This.
A win vs Galatasaray and Mitten wouldn't say this. And it's clear we didn't lose to them because "the players weren't responding".
Whatever the truth the club needs to just stick by Ten Hag.
Other than a few, all the players can bugger off for all I care.
Other than a few, all the players can bugger off for all I care.
I get your point. But we are not doing anything with these so called PR players. Might as well put on players who can at lease listen to instructions. All this negativity will be gone when we start winning a few games.
There’s the players who are not playing and that’s to be expected. Blame is with the board or the players themselves for them not getting sold in the summer eg Maguire and McTominay.
Then there could also be players unhappy with Rashford and Bruno always starting. I look at our midfield why not try Amrabat, Mount and Casemiro.
Casemiro moved from RM because he was fed up being a CDM all the time. At United he has stood out for his attacking play. Eg passing in the final 3rd, assists and goals. Yet he is still played as a CDM and left exposed so that he gets blamed when our midfield gets run through.
I would really love to see Amrabat CDM, Mount and Casemiro alternating between 8/10 during the match. Garnacho on the left and Antony on the right. But I’ve got a bad feeling that ETH will come to think that playing Amrabat as a LB is a way to get more names on the pitch without hurting egos. We will have to see once Regulion is back.
Then there could also be players unhappy with Rashford and Bruno always starting. I look at our midfield why not try Amrabat, Mount and Casemiro.
Casemiro moved from RM because he was fed up being a CDM all the time. At United he has stood out for his attacking play. Eg passing in the final 3rd, assists and goals. Yet he is still played as a CDM and left exposed so that he gets blamed when our midfield gets run through.
I would really love to see Amrabat CDM, Mount and Casemiro alternating between 8/10 during the match. Garnacho on the left and Antony on the right. But I’ve got a bad feeling that ETH will come to think that playing Amrabat as a LB is a way to get more names on the pitch without hurting egos. We will have to see once Regulion is back.
de ja vu!
Forget about the tactical aspect or anything like that for a minute, as an employee I would not feel comfortable with a manager who wanted to bring someone like Greenwood back into the squad and didn't take a stand on that issue. Regardless of his guilt in the eyes of the law, that is something that could have had an impact on some players.
The reports about him wanting him back did make me lose a bit of respect for the guy if I'm honest and I'm sure some players did too.
The reports about him wanting him back did make me lose a bit of respect for the guy if I'm honest and I'm sure some players did too.
Right you are, well actually not right because it's a load of tosh but anyhow.
Would love to know what sort of stories they were supposedly 'dropping'!
I think he’s friendly with Sancho - he liked Sancho's rant as well before removing that but maybe he’s supporting Sancho still
If this is true and it’s a big if then simply drop the players who aren’t listening or playing for ETH as no player should ever be bigger than the manager or the club, in the past we’ve got rid of far bigger names and far better players than anyone we’ve got at the club currently.
He didnt. This never happened.
Which is not necessarily a good thing here, because we want to hear the information he has to give as a journalist, when in reality his heart may rule over his head at times.
I've listened to Talk of the Devils for quite a bit and I reckon those guys really love the sound of their voices. They can rumble on about something forever. There are good pieces of information and analysis there, but also plenty of, well, useless crap. That remark from Mitten was one of those, because it was so vague and unclear: Do the players not respond on a personal level, or a tactical level? Is it based just on what he thinks? Have the "People he talked to" contributed to his opinion? Are those people club insiders with actual information or just people of interest who watch the game and form a few like any of us?
He should be giving answers, but he just created questions with that remark. It's not good journalism.
Well judging by the later comments in this thread, he didn’t say it anyway so it’s all just hot air over nothing.
This notion that you can be better just because your salary is high is bizzarre too. To exaggerate the point, Maguire wouldnt be a better player if he was paid 1 million a week. Every player mostly just try and do their best with what they have and go through streaks of good/bad form. Bruno and Rashford are our most involved players, so the downing tools bit that my comment originated from is just strange.
I kind of believe this article due to Andy Mittens contacts within the club. If true, then it really is the beginning of the end for ETH. There is no disguising how poorly he’s done in recruiting and playing style, which we must blame the players for too, but we’ve gone backwards since the cup win. I’m still not sure what way or how he wants is to play, but it isn’t effective with the players he has and that is in him.
It wouldn't really be that different from the way it worked with other managers. For me it doesn't just happen that someone one day loses control of a dressing room in a moment. Generally it will have been preceded by a gradual decline in status of the manager, and probably the arising of certain factions and sniping that's bubbling beneath the surface that are against him.
Then you get the battering or whatever the straw that broke the camels back is. At the moment we may or may not be in the preliminary stages, because there is an obvious discontent, but there should be because we're losing games. How far the manager's status has dropped is hard to see from a distance, but maybe Mitten has sources which would obviously illuminate things.
If people think sacking another manager is cheaper than replacing the squad, THINK AGAIN! We have spent ONE BILLION POUNDS hiring and sacking managers in the last 10 years and we are so far away from winning the league.
You sacked ETH and hire the new manager, that new manager would demand new players to be brought in, fast forward 2 years that new manager would lose the trust of these players, we sack him and hire the new manager, THE CIRLCE CONTINUES with no end in sight. ETH and Murtough have to identify the troublemakers, kick them out, and tell the Glazers it's cheaper this way.
with Ole, it was all about vibes no tactic
with Rangnick, it was all about him being interim
with ETH, it is all about his signings?
There's always excuse for these underperformed overpaid divas eh? honestly i'm sick to death with these players. They might have excuse throwing managers they dont like under the buss HAD they won everything under the sun (like chelsea under roman) but nope they are perennial losers who crumble under slighest pressure, enough is enough for me.
You sacked ETH and hire the new manager, that new manager would demand new players to be brought in, fast forward 2 years that new manager would lose the trust of these players, we sack him and hire the new manager, THE CIRLCE CONTINUES with no end in sight. ETH and Murtough have to identify the troublemakers, kick them out, and tell the Glazers it's cheaper this way.
With Jose, it was all about toxicity he created
with Ole, it was all about vibes no tactic
with Rangnick, it was all about him being interim
with ETH, it is all about his signings?
There's always excuse for these underperformed overpaid divas eh? honestly i'm sick to death with these players. They might have excuse throwing managers they dont like under the buss HAD they won everything under the sun (like chelsea under roman) but nope they are perennial losers who crumble under slighest pressure, enough is enough for me.
Yes exactly.
True Manchester United fans need to remember that The Athletic sees a good opportunity to ride on the back of Manchester United. And is not averse to creating a false narrative.
There is nothing they like more than some form of scandal.
He is a tool. He doesn't understand football tactics (compared with Carl for example) and is just a bitter man on Twitter where he thinks he is higher up than everybody else.
Also, if players don't listen to him, he should just bench them. I'm pretty sure Hannibal, McTominay, AWB etc will listen to him. If this is true, it's probably 2-3 players maximum IMO.
Yes.
So you’re saying Andy Mitten isn’t a true United fan? Jesus wept.
I want any player not giving 110% out of my club. Watching the Beckham series on netflix and the hunger and desire in players back then to now is like chalk and cheese.
Same, I remember Beckham working his bollocks off every game but seeing it again made me pine for a player with half his ability but same desire and fight.
"Andy Mitten: The players aren't responding to the manager"
To be fair, you don't need to be a genius of have inside information to know this, you just have to watch a game, and see the look on EtH's face when another cock up happens.
To be fair, you don't need to be a genius of have inside information to know this, you just have to watch a game, and see the look on EtH's face when another cock up happens.
Got his new mega contract.
That is not what I said at all. Sorry to disappoint you.
Didn't even mention his name.
I don't get this. Who are "the players" who aren't bought in, other than the obvious few?
He's brought in at least half a dozen of his own players. If they've downed tools then there's a real problem.
If there's a couple of big personalists about who don't like him, he should just get rid.
He's brought in at least half a dozen of his own players. If they've downed tools then there's a real problem.
If there's a couple of big personalists about who don't like him, he should just get rid.
The players looked pretty together during the Galatasaray match
Why are people still pushing this narrative of the "same players" getting the manager the sack, it's an almost new 11 that is first choice and you can't seriously tell me that players like bruno, lindelof, Maguire and mctominay are not trying or ignoring manger instructions, I can give you maybe rashford as his head is back down again but that is just 1 player out of a starting 11, it's insane that fans still believe such a nonsensical thing
His exact quote was "I know they aren't responding to the manager, I speak to people, I see with my own eyes", which I heard as it was more his interpretation of what he is seeing and reading between the lines of conversations rather than something he has been told directly.
If it's true we should try and introduce warm milk drinks and a nice comfy blanket for the players after training and maybe a nice story that gives them that warm fuzzy feeling inside.
Get a grip and let us get these soft cocks out of the club and get in players that are up for the challenge!
Get a grip and let us get these soft cocks out of the club and get in players that are up for the challenge!
But most of them have been brought in under ten hag and you then trust him to get it correct second time round?
Feet up time.