I really hope that article is BS. While I see the need to improve the first team and some of the squad players, the team we currently have is better than the results we're getting IMO. And really, it's not like the new signings have played great, it's players like Herrera, Mata and Valencia who have stepped up.
Castles: Mourinho believes Man Utd squad's broken. Will take at least two transfer windows to repair
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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?
We have a considerably better team than you lot. This is the team that won the League title at a canter 2 seasons and have added a few pieces.
Seriously, if anyone only informed himself a little about Micky, he knew exactly what we are getting. Him coming under Mourinho makes it even more hilarious. He is known to be an introverted fella, who takes time to settle and get comfortable. Calling him out for that is just bad manhandling by Mourinho. This way you make players worse, and not better.
Pretty similar about Darmian. He is Italian, who are a bit special. They are known to not get along too well with other cultures, and have to feel "at home". In Italy it is common (becoming less and less in the modern world though) that men live in the same house like their Mama, even if they earn a fortune and have a family and wife - Mama still cooks and cleans and irons their clothes. If you want to get the best out of such a player, you have to handle it right. The way Mourinho did it, he took all his confidence. -->bad manhandling again
Shaw had a horrific injury, one of the worst there are, and probably thought for a long time that he is never gonna play football again. Now Mourinho blames him, shortly after his recovery, when he don't wanna play with pain? Manhandling so bad, almost laughable. Anyone who is an athlete himself, pro or amateur, knows that you gonna do your sports as soon as it's possible in any way, pain or not, doesn't matter. If Shaw doesn't wanna play, it means he feels he could get hurt badly again. Give him time fecks sake. Mourinho no clue about those things because he never played football.
And calling Schweinsteiger for a bad mentality is utterly ridiculous. In contrary to other pro's like Berahino or Yaya Toure he was and is an absolute model professional, did take his unjustified demotion like a real man, no drama, no bad blood, still supporting his team in the stands and social networks. I bet you, next to noone would handle this matter as masterfully as he did.
Mourinho is just not the right manager for our team..he makes a lot of player worse then they are, because he can't handle people. Not everyone has a Ronaldo mentality. Next to noone has. His medieval methods and punishment lead to nowhere.
I don't think it's as simple as that though. We only matched them by playing complete anti-football (people say Jose is anti-football, but even at the moment it's a breath of fresh air a lot of the time).
I've still got the faith and think we'll end up very strong so long as Jose is given time. Despite the cries by many of how much quality we have in the team, we're a fair distance from the elite clubs in Europe.
Yeah I don't buy this at all.
Of course they do. Paco Alcacer, Rafinha, Aleix Vidal, Sergi Roberto, Lucas Digne, Mathieu, Nacho Fernandez, Coentrao, Lucas Silva, Kovacic, Vazquez, Badstuber, Rafinha, Green, 33yr Ribery, Renato Sanchez....are not a tad better then the so called "deadwood" from our team
Arguably had the best midfield in the world. Anyway, he has one cap as a second half substitute in a friendly. I think with a solid run which he seems to be getting now, he could prove himself to be very useful but I maintain that overall he has so far been average for us.
Yes he has done OK as winger but I said to get the best out of him he should be a ten. I still think that. But we don't have a quality winger so Mata has to fill in there.
Martial was indeed a stand-out last season in a terrible team. But he has not produced that this season so we can't maintain that he is a winner just yet. It could come, but I think his mentality will have to improve.
I did say Carrick was excellent did I not? I simply said he could not be relied upon, at his age, to play 90 minutes of every game over a season. I maintain that as well.
So, no I don't see what you're getting at I'm afraid. I'm not making excuses, I'm making criticisms of the players. And I stand by them. You've only tried to dissect my comments about Mata, Martial and Carrick - which I think were fair. What about my opinion of Mkhitaryan, that he's a bottler, not mentally strong enough? Or that Ibrahimovic was bought to convert chances but has missed blatant ones costing us about 6 points?
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Seriously bias, uneducated post you got going there. Don't even know where to begin.
Think you need to read up on our players before blaming the manager on how he's managing them.
But I guess your agenda is only interested in a very narrow version of events.
Obviously clear bias.
Same like last year at Chelsea..was only the players what can be perfectly seen now, they are just as bad as last season, aren't they 
Okay, I'll play along. Which country has a better one?
Sergio Busquets (Barcelona), David Silva (Manchester City), Thiago Alcantara (Bayern Munich), Jorge “Koke” Resurreccion (Atletico Madrid), Juan Mata (Manchester United), Ander Herrera (Manchester United), Francisco “Isco” Alarcon (Real Madrid)
Yes, he just got his first cap, which implies that he's recent form is pretty good. Overall during his time at United he hasn't had a decent run of games until now. You also said that he is average, not that his career so far at United has been average.
Jones stagnated because he was injured. Smalling was as well but seem to have put that behind him.
If what the article says is true, that certain players are too comfortable and lack the right mentality, that has to be the first priority.
What pieces? Winning the league these days is not a show of quality of a squad. Liverpool should have won it a few years ago with a Europa level squad behind their front 3. Leicester last year is also an example.
We are in the era of having the highest level of managers the league has ever had, it's more about sides adapting to the managers formations and super pressing ala Spurs and Liverpool rather than team A having a better squad that team B.
Agree with the statement, haven't read the article itself. We have big issues all around the field - our defense is shambolic (as seen in the Arsenal game - concede one chance = concede one goal; was the same in the Stoke game, we let Chelsea stick 4 past us for f's sake). Chris was good last year, but has been super inconsistent this year, Jones is always injured, Rojo is the level of Sylvestre, Blind is not a CB. Baily has looked our best defender - that should tell you enough. Left-back - Shaw hasn't been convincing, Valencia is a makeshift RB. Darmian is a servicable replacement . . . and then you're left with trying to fit Young as a FB.
Midfiled - our best player is still Carrick. We finally replaced Scholes . . . now to figure out how to replace his replacement . . . Herrera is good, but is nowhere near the level of a top CM. Schweinsteiger is past it and doesn't want to be here. Fellaini clearly wants to be here, but is nowhere near the level we need. Schneiderlin has shown absolutely nothing in his time here.
Rashford is young and it's ridiculous to burden him with such high expectations in his first full season with us. Ditto Martial. Rooney is past it, Ibra is in the final stages of his career. We don;t have one winger - for a club that was built on quality wing-play for the last decade and a half, that's ridiculous. We don't have a striker that's in his prime - our options are too young, or too old.
All of this can somewhat be mitigated by management - bad defenders can be made to look better than they are if the tactics and drills are right. But when your players are constantly injured and you rarely can pull out a consistent back 4 - that's when you have problems. Mediocre defenders - Evans, Smalling, etc - have greatly benefitted in the past from runs of games. But everyone in our back 4 seems incapable of staying fit for more than 5-6 games at a time.
The biggest issue seems to be mentality however. I don't know if it's lack of leadership, if it's just a poisoneaous influence in the locker room and a "it's just a job" mentality, but nobody seems willing to die for the shirt the same way people like Evra, Vidic, VDS, Scholes, Giggs, Keane, Schmeichel, Cantona. I mean, the people who look most up for it in most games are Fellaini, Young and Herrera . . . that should tell you there's something wrong.
It's not like we're relegation candidates or that our team is full of dross. All of our players are talented enough and Sir Alex has won the league with worse teams. But he always picked his players as much for their mentality, as for their footballing ability - something that we've definitely been lacking. For me Mourinho is the guy to bring that back - whether he can do it with the current crop of players is a different question.
Midfiled - our best player is still Carrick. We finally replaced Scholes . . . now to figure out how to replace his replacement . . . Herrera is good, but is nowhere near the level of a top CM. Schweinsteiger is past it and doesn't want to be here. Fellaini clearly wants to be here, but is nowhere near the level we need. Schneiderlin has shown absolutely nothing in his time here.
Rashford is young and it's ridiculous to burden him with such high expectations in his first full season with us. Ditto Martial. Rooney is past it, Ibra is in the final stages of his career. We don;t have one winger - for a club that was built on quality wing-play for the last decade and a half, that's ridiculous. We don't have a striker that's in his prime - our options are too young, or too old.
All of this can somewhat be mitigated by management - bad defenders can be made to look better than they are if the tactics and drills are right. But when your players are constantly injured and you rarely can pull out a consistent back 4 - that's when you have problems. Mediocre defenders - Evans, Smalling, etc - have greatly benefitted in the past from runs of games. But everyone in our back 4 seems incapable of staying fit for more than 5-6 games at a time.
The biggest issue seems to be mentality however. I don't know if it's lack of leadership, if it's just a poisoneaous influence in the locker room and a "it's just a job" mentality, but nobody seems willing to die for the shirt the same way people like Evra, Vidic, VDS, Scholes, Giggs, Keane, Schmeichel, Cantona. I mean, the people who look most up for it in most games are Fellaini, Young and Herrera . . . that should tell you there's something wrong.
It's not like we're relegation candidates or that our team is full of dross. All of our players are talented enough and Sir Alex has won the league with worse teams. But he always picked his players as much for their mentality, as for their footballing ability - something that we've definitely been lacking. For me Mourinho is the guy to bring that back - whether he can do it with the current crop of players is a different question.
Well if he did get the results what's the point in changing the players?
What should Jose be doing now that he isn't already? In my opinion he's doing a good job so far, bit unlucky not to be in the top 4 as it stands.Our players have been underperforming for 3 seasons.Obviously clear bias.
Making out bastian is a model professional, he was jetting off back to Germany last season and following his wife around the tennis courts, rather than getting treated at United. Bloke is seriously out of condition. But for you he stands in the crowd and posts on social media so all is well.
Jose doesn't understand how Italians work. I mean he only managed to get an Italian team to over perform and win the CL. Darmain had zero confidence once he got Van Gaaled, he's now starting to look like he's coming back (under Jose' management).
Shaw is scared he may get injured? Yes he broke his leg, all players take that risk, it can happen to anyone. Wanting player to put themselves on line for the team, this is what all good managers demand of their players.
As you've called out Jose for never being a player. Why then are you spouting rubbish, having never managed a football team.
Rumour has it that Mhki was a make weight in the Pogba transfer, true or not I don't know. But I didn't see anyone predictijg he'd break down in tears at being susbstituted and ask for a transfer. Our scouting of this player was bad, though most did, and still do, rate him.
Apart from the massive national generalisations here the fact is Darmian flopped last season under LVG and it was LVG who bought him so blaimg this on Jose is misplaced.
Shaw may never fully recover physically or mentally, and while he doesn't he will and has cost us points. We can't afford passengers or liabilities, or someone pulling a sicknite unnecessarily when we already in an injury crisis. To say Mourinho is clueless about these things because he hasn't played football can only mean you know nothing of his background or understand why he's been so successful.
He may well have been this year, but last year he took the absolute piss, and is only buckling down this year because Mourinho didn't tolerate him like LVG, and because he wants to move to the MLS this January--spotting that we have a vastly overpaid MLS level player on our books and handling him this way is masterfully handled by Mourinho.
This is where it becomes clear that this is just an anti-Mourinho bias. And not understanding that his methods led him to be the most successful manager in the world and PL champion 18 months ago.
Mkhitaryan chose to come here didn't he? If he didn't feel up to it he should have stayed in Germany. He is a bottler.
I think Darmian has done OK and deserves a better chance, I don't know if he will get that though. I think he should be man enough to get on with it though, so not sure about what you are saying here.
Shaw's mentality seems to be a problem. To me, he is not self motivated. He has to be kept on top of. Van Gaal was not happy with him when he arrived either so I don't think this is Mourinho. I think Mourinho does have a clue about these things and has top professionals supporting him so it doesn't matter if he never played football. He did play football though.
I believe that Schweinsteigers mentality has been wrong since he came here. Maybe Van Gaal was partly to blame by allowing him to go home to Germany all the time. He watched more tennis than anything else last season from what I've heard.
If Mourinhos methods are so bad how do you account for his successes?
Some people just want a shiny new manager at least once a year. It'll solve everything. For me, Jose will get 2 seasons to turn us into a team that'll be there or there about in the league and top 8 in Europe team. After the arsenal performance, you can see the players are behind him. But to some it's bad management and its Chelsea all over again, blah blah blah.Well if he did get the results what's the point in changing the players?
Seriously disappointed with a lot of our fans, you'd thought we'd been played off the park and badly beaten by arsenal the way they're going on.
Its "broken" in that its still a bit lacking in balance no matter the lineup. We have like 5 or 6 players who probably offer nothing other then extra bodies. Plenty of average players on huge wages. Some players who are always injured. Others who don't try hard enough. Sometimes if we get the best balanced team in terms of quality and work rate, its not big enough for Mourinho or strong enough. If we go for more strength, we sacrifice on quality.
De gea, valencia, bailly, carrick, herrera, pogba, Mata, martial, rashford and Ibra I think are the only players who should be untouchable really. We know they are quality when on form, there aren't or shouldnt be doubts about their potential with what they can achieve here. Of course Ibra and Carrick are old while Martial and rashford are very young, but that group really should survive and changeover (unless the old guys retire or whatever). Possibly Shaw in there, if he gets his confidence and form back to pre leg break. Mkhitaryan if he ever wins Mourinho over would go in the above group too since he can be a world class player for us. The rest are all dispensible players who either lack in ability, or effort, or potential to get better. So thats what, 10-12 players who are definitely good enough and have shown that quality and/or potential in the past 12-18 months? Sure some of the others like Smalling can be good squad players, but he'll always make us lopsided in terms of passing the ball out from the back when he plays, or Blind who is quality on the ball but then lacks in physicality and might not be Mous ideal type. You can probably say smalling and Blind would be really good squad players. but that still leaves around 10 players who dont really serve much of a purpose and are significant downgrades over the starting option (or are always injured), and most hate when they see in the starting 11 (darmian, jones, rojo, schneiderlin, fellaini, schweinsteiger, memphis, lingard, young, rooney). Not sure if I'm missing someone.
But with Mourinho seemingly not being a fan of Smalling, Shaw and Mkhitaryan, and bailly and valencia picking up decently big injuries, while carrick is too old to play every game, martial has struggled at the start of the season, rashford being a kid still and Ibra went through a rough patch, is it any surprise we've been struggling a bit? Only pogba, mata, herrera and de gea basically are players that can be relied upon to play every game and haven't had injuries.
De gea, valencia, bailly, carrick, herrera, pogba, Mata, martial, rashford and Ibra I think are the only players who should be untouchable really. We know they are quality when on form, there aren't or shouldnt be doubts about their potential with what they can achieve here. Of course Ibra and Carrick are old while Martial and rashford are very young, but that group really should survive and changeover (unless the old guys retire or whatever). Possibly Shaw in there, if he gets his confidence and form back to pre leg break. Mkhitaryan if he ever wins Mourinho over would go in the above group too since he can be a world class player for us. The rest are all dispensible players who either lack in ability, or effort, or potential to get better. So thats what, 10-12 players who are definitely good enough and have shown that quality and/or potential in the past 12-18 months? Sure some of the others like Smalling can be good squad players, but he'll always make us lopsided in terms of passing the ball out from the back when he plays, or Blind who is quality on the ball but then lacks in physicality and might not be Mous ideal type. You can probably say smalling and Blind would be really good squad players. but that still leaves around 10 players who dont really serve much of a purpose and are significant downgrades over the starting option (or are always injured), and most hate when they see in the starting 11 (darmian, jones, rojo, schneiderlin, fellaini, schweinsteiger, memphis, lingard, young, rooney). Not sure if I'm missing someone.
But with Mourinho seemingly not being a fan of Smalling, Shaw and Mkhitaryan, and bailly and valencia picking up decently big injuries, while carrick is too old to play every game, martial has struggled at the start of the season, rashford being a kid still and Ibra went through a rough patch, is it any surprise we've been struggling a bit? Only pogba, mata, herrera and de gea basically are players that can be relied upon to play every game and haven't had injuries.
Not happy reading but this is pretty accurate and a good summation. The squad is badly broken.
I agree its a process but that process must include the ability of a manager to make players at his disposal better. I'm sorry but I am not convinced that Jose has that ability. He can get a team playing well but before that he need a truck load of money. I would expect more from a world class coach, as I would expect a world class player to be able to produce something out of nothing. Anyone can organise a title winning side with £1bn to burn. It worked in the past but now managers should be able to do more than just arranging an XI but making players in the even they leave, something Jose isn't quite good at IMO.
Conte, a manager with zero experience in any kind of managerial experience outside Italy, in a short time has turned Chelsea into a way more impressive team. Yes, they haven't played some of the big boys but they look like they have a direction. Conte has transformed a bunch of so called down and out, apparently mentally weak players that contained a dodged bullet in Pedro, added a nobody in Alonso, a mid table Moses, PlayStation David Luiz, into a solid team. he has done all this in the absence of £33m Bats, John Terry, Fabregas, Oscar and Willian. Kante was the only signing that worried me at the start of the season. Everything has changed; mentality, desire, style, philosophy, tactics, all in a short time. We don't really have much of an excuse.
I'm not saying that Jose can't win with United but it's an easy cop out to just call for excessive amounts of funds every 2 weeks to turn things around. At some point, pressure needs to be on the manager to make the players at his disposal better. Every post today talks about how terrible our players are like they are relegation fodder.
That's a caption contest pic in the OP if I ever saw one. @SteveJ
can you list the average players?
Shaw is a kid coming off a serious injury, should be nowhere near this list.
Chelsea had a better pre-season than us and have no European football, so it's not surprising that they've taken on board the manager's coaching quicker. Having said that, even they didn't start well and have had to change their formation. He didn't find his winning formula immediately. I think it's still too early to see whether they can keep up their form or other tams work out how to exploit their 3 at the back, or Costa gets sent off again, or whether Zlatan goes on a scoring run and we find our best formation. Too much can still happen to conclude.
How is the squad still in such a shape after 3 years (or two years if you count that the "rebuilding" started with Van Gaal). Even if Fergie left behind a team of cadavers (he didn't leave the squad in top shape, but he left some oldies and young blood), how is there still this much work considering the concensus on here was that Van Gaal was a master at this stuff
A lot have made their minds up. Shaw isn't right for this club and apparently isn't "self-motivated".
Jones was playing here, there and everywhere under Fergie. Smalling was playing right back at one stage.
They're development was not handled well by Ferguson.
I agree that certain players are here for a payday.
So another 500mil to spend then for Mou to buy another title.
But time has proven it is very much different. You can't blame the manager forever.
The pre-season was not Jose's fault and it is likely we would be as bad if LvG were still here, in fact everyone would be moaning about the results and the football, while at the moment most it is just the results. Get another CB, another RB to challenge/rotate with Valencia, a midfielder to rotate with Carrick and then take over and a Griezmann and we will be set. I am not sure Jose wants traditional wide men, so then we have to make sure the players we play as wide forwards are top notch. I am having a big problem with Memphis, he is all talk and no action, Martial seems to be in a permanent sulk and Rashford needs time to develop, so stop trying to force him along.
Lingard is a good squad option, he seems to like Fellaini, but again he is just a squad option. Morgan has been a disappointment and we can not hang around hoping he will settle. We will hopefully see what Mikhi can offer.
Until Rooney goes it will provide a problem, as he thinks he should always plays and to be honest he is only a bench warmer now.
Shaw is definitely the best option for LB, but he needs to show courage from now on, yes his leg is mended, but until his head is Jose will always doubt him. He wants battlers in his team.
They just had what, sixth game in a row without conceding? Including the game in which they annihilated us.
There is clearly more to it than a difference between Costa's and Ibra's form.
Conte had big problems and then figured out the way to maximize his players (introducing average/underrated players like Alonso and Moses to the crucial roles). Mourinho didn't. Hopefully he will at some point.
Squad is broken. We spent so much money on mediocre overrated players like Rojo, Darmian, Depay, Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin, Fellaini etc., and clearly overspent on Martial and Pogba. We don't have a player that can win a game by himself unlike Chelsea, City or Arsenal. Players like Rashford playing every single week says it all really as I don't think he is ready for first team football yet.
We've been controlling games and not scoring, if we continue to plah as we do from box to box I will be more than happy. We've actually performed to a high level this season that is let down by the shocking misses in front of goal.
We have a squad that should be challenging for the fecking title. The issue is actually getting the good players out on the pitch together in a system that works.
The single biggest problem we have is playing Rooney and/or Ibrah when both are clearly garbage. And the off shoot of that is Martial and Rashford have been stuck out on the wings, and Mkhitaryan hasn't even had a sniff. We need wingers who can produce and we need Martial and Rashford playing through the middle, because they are the best goalscorers we have by a fecking mile.
The second problem is the injuries in defence and Mourinho's falling out with Smalling and Shaw.
The third is not playing Carrick anywhere near enough, or having a decent deputy for him.
We need Carrick, Herrera, Pogba and Mata out there on the pitch together to control and create. We need Martial and/or Rashford up front. We need a winger who can actually deliver a cross. We need Bailly back and we need Shaw and Smalling to man up.
Our substitutes/reserves are no worse than Arsenal's, Chelsea's or City's. City were winning with Kolarov and Otamendi in defence ffs. Chelsea are rolling over teams with David Luiz and Cahill in defence and fecking Moses and Alonso on the wings. They are all garbage.
The single biggest problem we have is playing Rooney and/or Ibrah when both are clearly garbage. And the off shoot of that is Martial and Rashford have been stuck out on the wings, and Mkhitaryan hasn't even had a sniff. We need wingers who can produce and we need Martial and Rashford playing through the middle, because they are the best goalscorers we have by a fecking mile.
The second problem is the injuries in defence and Mourinho's falling out with Smalling and Shaw.
The third is not playing Carrick anywhere near enough, or having a decent deputy for him.
We need Carrick, Herrera, Pogba and Mata out there on the pitch together to control and create. We need Martial and/or Rashford up front. We need a winger who can actually deliver a cross. We need Bailly back and we need Shaw and Smalling to man up.
Our substitutes/reserves are no worse than Arsenal's, Chelsea's or City's. City were winning with Kolarov and Otamendi in defence ffs. Chelsea are rolling over teams with David Luiz and Cahill in defence and fecking Moses and Alonso on the wings. They are all garbage.
I agree with him. Our squad is fundamentally broken. We need to get rid of the mediocrity. I know Lingard is well liked because he's a product of the academy and he's a hard worker, but sorry he should never ever be a starter for a team aspiring to win major trophies. Same with Rooney, same with Rojo, same with Jones, same with Darmian, Schneiderlin, Fellaini, and Young. These slow, ponderous oafs have a crap first touch, poor passing ability, can't dribble, consistently make mistakes, and rarely ever do anything spectacular. Time to sort it out and get some exciting pacey players who can come up with moments of brilliance and really help us compete with the elite teams in football. Players like Hazard, De Bruyne, Aguero, Mane, Coutinho, Ozil etc. I was hoping Mkhitaryan would be one of them but typically that's gone wrong for us as well.
So our squad is good enough to challenge for the title if we play Martial and Rashford centrally with "wingers who produce"? Who are these wingers, pray tell?
Hence the "at this moment" part. I wouldn't sell Shaw for £50m, but he's been shit lately. Same goes for, in my opinion, Smalling, Schneiderlin and Lingard (would probably take £50m though
)Sure.
I know they played several positions but I'm not so sure it affected Jones negatively as he, spart from the first season?, has mostly been injured.