If you expect Gomes to come in and dominate games in PL at his age and with his experience you're going to be disappointed, the benefit of playing him now is that he'll develop much quicker and be a great player by the time he's 21/22 rather than 24/25. SAF never threw a kid in for 10 games and dumped them if they didn't tear up the league.
Angel Gomes — Is he the key player to unlock organized defenses?
- Thread starter DSG
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Has to be mentioned as well that Ole is already picking the (or one of) youngest matchday squads in the prem already. Probably doesn't help Gomes and Chong as Ole might prefer some older players for balance.
He’ll be getting lots of minutes in Europe as we simply don’t have the first team squad to compete in more than one competition! If he stars then Ole will start picking him in the league!
I agree.
Starting him may be a step too far but he deserves to get a ‘decent run out’.
OgS has been suspect with his substitutions mind so I feel the only way Gomes gets a run is by starting the game, which is too much pressure imo.
I’m just sick off seeing Mata start, play well for 13minutes & then be anonymous for 60 before being subbed for a youngster that gets 15minutes to prove themselves.
The question is not about the level or which level. I have not played at the same level as you however; when you have an attack with Rash, Martial, Gomes, James we lack experience. I agree if it is Lingard or Gomes then it has to be Gomes but what Mata brings is experience.
When we have a young team, and we go a goal down or pegged back they think attack attack whereas a experienced head would know when to go attack and when to keep the ball just to let the pressure relieve.
I am not saying he should not be played, but people on this thread think he will be our saviour etc, No he wont if we put this much pressure on him. It is not fair to put this much pressure on a young lad trying to break into a team.
Not sure he's the key as not had the opportunity to see him enough. He needs to minutes in meaningful games....
If he is, it isn't doing us much good with him not even in the team.
Deserves a shot more than Mata.
didn't realise he was in his final year. what's been the hold up? is he refusing because he wants more minutes?
We don't really know if any negotations have happened - but I'd imagine yes that would be the exact reason.
He made his first team debut 3 years ago and hasn't hardly had any chances since then, I can see why he'd be reluctant.
Lets' hope Ole can give him plenty of football and he can show why we all rave about him.
I take your point regarding when to keep the ball, when to press forward. But we are talking about low/mid table teams who are basically packing it in and looking to hit us on the break. We should have much of the possession in the final third, and we’ve watched enough of Lingard and Mata. They really struggle in these situations. Is Gomes our “savior”? No. Can he help us in certain situations? Maybe, and it is imperative we find out.
Regarding “pressure” on a young player, I’m sure if you asked Gomes, he wants a chance more than anything. If he has shown in training that he deserves a chance, but isn’t given a go with “pressure” as an excuse, I think that hurts player confidence as well.
Yeah, I agree we can give him a go. I am not disputing because I think he will start in the Europa League. We know what Lingard and the like can do, tbh I don't actually know what Lingard and Perreira bring to the table besides pressing.
The pressure I am talking about is not as much playing, it is fan pressure. I can imagine him getting cheered everytime he touches the ball and fans expecting him to produce miracles. I don't think this will be the case, I would rather we let him settle into the EL and Cup competition before drafting him into the PL team.
I think he’s very talented player, but I can’t really say he’s the key, or see exactly what he can do since we haven’t really seen him play first team football much... I remember many people raving about Andrea (including myself) but it turned out he’s not the player we thought, granted I still think he’s an okay option, and not a bad player, but not a starter for me..
Would like to see him play in the Europa and if he looks promising the odd last 10 to 15 minute sub in one or two PL games, but he should not be thrown on and expected to rescue a result.
Right on, Mata is on the downward slope with his best days behind him whilst Gomes is a potential multimillion pound player that if nurtured will save us large amounts of money in transfer fees whilst helping the team on the pitch for years to come. Its baffling why he is not being given a fair chance at it at a time where there is no one really justifying their places in the roles that he can play.
Much like if rather Garner play that Matic I’d also rather Chong and/or Gomes play instead of Mata and I couldn’t give a feck about Matic or Mata being experienced, Rashford and McTominay in the last few years have shown if you’re good enough you’re old enough and from what I’ve seen of Gomes in particular when he plays is that he brings as much as Mata does with the upside being he’ll only get better.
Maybe the management team sees him going against PL level defenders every day at training?
And they also see Mata/Lingard in actual matches going for months on end without a single goal or assist. I doubt that they also impress against PL level defenders in training.
Likely to get 3 games in the next 20 days or so.
Cannot wait to see how he does.
Cannot wait to see how he does.
3 games.... hmm lets see. I'm expecting less
Pereira was insanely rated back then, easily in the level of Januzaj (and to be fair, they have had similar careers so far).
Maybe they do and that's why they play ? Fact is we know feck all about training so best avoid theories. Gomes' time will come, some of our fans need to be patient
With our lack of midfielders I cant see Ole wanting to risk too many starters against the likes of Astana and Rochdale.
Reckon we'll see a lot of him over the Rochdale/Astana fixtures.
If he does well, he'll start getting league minutes.
If he does well, he'll start getting league minutes.
Thats 2 games... I think we’ll play a stronger team vs AZ away
Gomes absolutely should be given a start against Astana at home, let the lad show what he can do....
I do worry about the Pogba history repeating itself, because I'm not sure that this club learned any lessons from that...
I do worry about the Pogba history repeating itself, because I'm not sure that this club learned any lessons from that...
Sarcasm is wasted on the caf mate
Feck it, he's leaving for psg/Barca. 
We won't know until he's tried. But now I think he would be a better option than Mata or the out of form Lingard.
Angel Delight!
Perhaps
I would be disappointed if he does not start the match tomorrow.
I thought he looked very good against an experienced and physical Astana side. His close touches in and around the box won us three free kicks and his corners in the first half were excellent.
I felt he was very good at finding teammates in dangerous positions that led to chances... Dalot a couple times.
He spent most of his time on the left working with Chong it seemed, which was to his detriment. Chong is just not good enough, with poor movement, poor touch and weak passing. I’d like to see how Gomes does with Martial and Shaw on that left side.
Parts of his game I did not like... workrate was poor at times. If you look at players with his level of technical ability and size, the best ones are always moving, mitigating physical disadvantages, and putting defenders on the back foot so they can go past. He did this once when he set up Fred for the shot that clipped the bar.
Secondly, he needs to come deeper at times to receive the ball. Matic and Fred had very few forward passes to Gomes, mostly because their first thought is play a ball sideways. His control of the ball around defenders is elite, maybe Matic and Fred are reluctant to play those passes because Lingard and Rashford typically lose possession. When he received the ball in deeper positions, we tended to play forward and in some cases had some nice attacking moves.
All in all, I can’t say he’s the answer to our woes in the final third, but he certainly shows promise, and only more minutes on the pitch will allow him to improve and give us the answer: can he meet the standards required for United?
Although we did not get a definitive answer on Gomes, we did get one on Chong. I think he goes on loan in January and won’t be a United player in the long term.
I felt he was very good at finding teammates in dangerous positions that led to chances... Dalot a couple times.
He spent most of his time on the left working with Chong it seemed, which was to his detriment. Chong is just not good enough, with poor movement, poor touch and weak passing. I’d like to see how Gomes does with Martial and Shaw on that left side.
Parts of his game I did not like... workrate was poor at times. If you look at players with his level of technical ability and size, the best ones are always moving, mitigating physical disadvantages, and putting defenders on the back foot so they can go past. He did this once when he set up Fred for the shot that clipped the bar.
Secondly, he needs to come deeper at times to receive the ball. Matic and Fred had very few forward passes to Gomes, mostly because their first thought is play a ball sideways. His control of the ball around defenders is elite, maybe Matic and Fred are reluctant to play those passes because Lingard and Rashford typically lose possession. When he received the ball in deeper positions, we tended to play forward and in some cases had some nice attacking moves.
All in all, I can’t say he’s the answer to our woes in the final third, but he certainly shows promise, and only more minutes on the pitch will allow him to improve and give us the answer: can he meet the standards required for United?
Although we did not get a definitive answer on Gomes, we did get one on Chong. I think he goes on loan in January and won’t be a United player in the long term.
Gomes is not ready to be a starter in PL. Yesterday he showed skills individually but he couldn't bring fleuncy in the midfield. Note that Astana were really poor, he and chong were replaced by mata and lingard... the two bottom performers of the senior team and they came and played better. The game started getting momentum. So if Ole start depending on Gomes in PL then soon both will finish their career at united.
Substitute appearances and practice with the first team is way to go for Gomes for now.
Substitute appearances and practice with the first team is way to go for Gomes for now.
Might be mistaken but Astana are midtable championship quality at best. The good championship teams are much better than them, at least away from home. At their ground they are probably not easy to play against though.
I think on another day we would have won with 3-4 goals that game. Gomes was decent with some great touches around the box.
He needs to make adjustments to his game if he's going to become player to unlock defenses. First of all, he'll have to show for the ball a lot more. Then we'll have to hope that he has the ability to make those incisive through balls.
Same with Greenwood who barely touched the ball for long periods.
I don't blame them. They really are just kids right now. Being able to take all that responsibility is not expected from them and might even be inadvisable at this stage of their careers. We need to recruit senior players and let the kids develop at a natural pace.
Agreed.
He has very good attributes like his first touch, quick feet, awareness and vision, good technique for dead balls. Never saw him play before yesterday so always thought he was just another hyped up United youngster. But he looks really very promising. He definitely deserves minutes in the league. Very excited to see him play again.