It just doesn't feel like, there is potential which makes the whole negative football more annoying.
Dirty, negative football
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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?
The Hull game, we weren't good, Hull decided to concede possession and defend deep and we failed to break them down! We were lucky to get that last minute goal.
Celta Vigo are a mid table la Liga team, of course we should be better than them ans they shouldn't be causing us any kind of problems over 2 legs, but instead they were the team that left OT we regrets and we're the team that's considered to have escaped with some luck! Go and read the match day thread to have a view of what happened that day!
Yeah you are right, 1st half ended by 1 goal lead! But again, City tactic was to heart on counter. Ibra didn't miss a sitter, that header was not an easy one!
I didn't say that Jose has to teach them how to finish, I said that their poor finishing mIght be the result of many circonstances related to their training, management and system!
If they are not trained well, managed well and the system is not allowing them to have a situation that put them in an optimal situation to score, then serious question have to be asked! Those players where scoring for fun under other managers, Ibra(51at PSG, Mkitharyan +23 at Dortmund, Martial 17 under LVG, Rashford 9 under LVG, Mata 8 under LVG, Pogba 10+ at Juve) so why are they suddenly shit at United under Jose?
I knew we were going to out classed against Barcelona, that I can take, but Celta fecking Vigo? We have players like Pogba, Herrera, Carrick, Martial, Mata, Mkhitaryan and Rashford available and fit to play. They do know how to play decent attacking football.
First sorry I had to close the forum after my last replay.
This can be taken from different prospective, that we are forcing this team to set deep and defend. Hull in this game has tried many counter attacks but they all failed because of Fellaini and Bailly cutting all of them and regaining possession for us. Not to mention they were starting the league in great form and win the previous 2 matches. We forced them to set deep by our performance. You want to make us look as if we never do anything good.
What is that of midtable team ? This team eliminated Madrid from cup this season, and reached semi final of this season. If you think we will enter this competition and win all our matches 4 or 5 then you sure will be disappointed. I posted here before the road of Chelsea to this trophy in 2013. They have a worse teams to meet and still passed all of them by by difficulty except Basel in semis. Any team who reach this stage will raise their game to you and fight hard.
You said in your post that we weren't better than them but the fact is this the should have been over since first leg, the second leg could have been a friendly if Lingard and Mikhi took their chances in Spain, so yes we were better than them overall and deserved to pass. They only played good 45 minutes in both legs. Basing your opinion on the second leg and deleting the first leg is very, very biased IMO, no offense.
Regarding City, since when a team succeeded in forcing Pep to play on the counter and change his saint system to save his result ? That proves we controlled that second half and Jose responded well.
And how didnt you say manager should train them on scoring goals if you are copying the part I was replying on when I said this ? You said it's related to training and management, well for your disappointment these are professional footballers who have been scoring goals for their life so no one will retrain them on how to face a keeper and score. Coaching staff has nothing to do with this put people like to complicate reasons of a problem. The attacking players were letting us down, just that. Jose teams have always comes 1st or 2nd in terms of goal scoring so saying the problem in his training sessions is strange. Why are we the weakest team he managed to score goals if even his most defensive sides as Chelsea and Inter were scoring tons of goal per season ?
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Just seen this on Twitter. We were so good to watch back in 06/07. Ronaldo
This forum is going to get really annoying when we win some titles - people will come back and tell us how we were wrong along. Truth is no one is talking about Jose's capabilities to win titles- if this is a short term approach; it's one thing but it shouldn't be United's plan A
Nothing to lose now in these last three PL games. I really hope we just go for it-even if it means losing.
I am sorry too because I couldn't reply yesterday as I only have 5 posts/day in the mains, I would be glad if you could give me the formula to get more likes and be a permanent poster on here!
Yes we forced Hull, or whichever average team we faced, to sit deep because we are bigger than them and have by far better players, so they have no choice than to come against us, sit deep and try their luck on counter; don't forget that those kind of teams are satisfied with one point against a geant of our size! So I think we did force them to sit deep but they have no other alternative.
Celta Vigo are a mid table la Liga team, even if they eliminated Madrid in the Cup I don't think Real Madrid displayed the kind of performance we showed against them at OT. Madrid came and played their game but it is a cup game everything can happened. I don't think we should win every game by 4 or 5 goals but we should be playing better against some 3rd zone teams like Rostov, Celta. Feyenoord, Swansea or Bournemouth!
I stand by my opinion that we weren't marginally better over two legs! Firstly we displayed a good performance against them in the 1st leg but they were the better team in the 2nd leg, and no their good form didn't last 45 min as they completely took control of the game after we scored in the 1st half, even my 12 year old nephew said that we were lucky to have conceded only 1 goal!
In the same way you are bringing the miss of our players in the 1st leg, I want you to watch again the 2nd leg and tell me how many chances they miss too!
For the City game you are right that Pep changing the system was strange but City started to play on counter in the 1st half after going 2 goals up, not only at the start of the 2nd half!
Beside it was Jose's fault to leave Herrera out and play Fellaini against a pressing and mobile team. Everyone knew it was a mistake leaving Pogba alone with Fellaini.
LVG was teaching his players how to accurately have a better shot, for example he told Herrera to have a touch and control the ball before shoting it and you know what, Herrera had a better shoting accuracy under him than this season as most of his shots tend to go in the stands!
LVG system was designed to create optimal situation to put his attackers in a better conditions to have a free shot or put our forwards in a better conditions of 1 vs 1 situation against an opponent, our conversion ratio was better under him even if we created less and our wingers were beating players for fun!
Add to that if players are managed well and are calm and happy mentally then they will start to make good decisions in specifics situations! Players like Martial and Mkitharyan plays on confidence, if it is short then they'll make wrong decisions which can explain the misses.
But all of this is just my opinion at the end! Let agree to disagree then!
Send nudes to admins and mods.I am sorry too because I couldn't reply yesterday as I only have 5 posts/day in the mains, I would be glad if you could give me the formula to get more likes and be a permanent poster on here!
No problem, keep posting posts like these and you'll get more likes eventually. Now on to the topic.I am sorry too because I couldn't reply yesterday as I only have 5 posts/day in the mains, I would be glad if you could give me the formula to get more likes and be a permanent poster on here!
Yes we forced Hull, or whichever average team we faced, to sit deep because we are bigger than them and have by far better players, so they have no choice than to come against us, sit deep and try their luck on counter; don't forget that those kind of teams are satisfied with one point against a geant of our size! So I think we did force them to sit deep but they have no other alternative.
Celta Vigo are a mid table la Liga team, even if they eliminated Madrid in the Cup I don't think Real Madrid displayed the kind of performance we showed against them at OT. Madrid came and played their game but it is a cup game everything can happened. I don't think we should win every game by 4 or 5 goals but we should be playing better against some 3rd zone teams like Rostov, Celta. Feyenoord, Swansea or Bournemouth!
I stand by my opinion that we weren't marginally better over two legs! Firstly we displayed a good performance against them in the 1st leg but they were the better team in the 2nd leg, and no their good form didn't last 45 min as they completely took control of the game after we scored in the 1st half, even my 12 year old nephew said that we were lucky to have conceded only 1 goal!
In the same way you are bringing the miss of our players in the 1st leg, I want you to watch again the 2nd leg and tell me how many chances they miss too!
For the City game you are right that Pep changing the system was strange but City started to play on counter in the 1st half after going 2 goals up, not only at the start of the 2nd half!
Beside it was Jose's fault to leave Herrera out and play Fellaini against a pressing and mobile team. Everyone knew it was a mistake leaving Pogba alone with Fellaini.
LVG was teaching his players how to accurately have a better shot, for example he told Herrera to have a touch and control the ball before shoting it and you know what, Herrera had a better shoting accuracy under him than this season as most of his shots tend to go in the stands!
LVG system was designed to create optimal situation to put his attackers in a better conditions to have a free shot or put our forwards in a better conditions of 1 vs 1 situation against an opponent, our conversion ratio was better under him even if we created less and our wingers were beating players for fun!
Add to that if players are managed well and are calm and happy mentally then they will start to make good decisions in specifics situations! Players like Martial and Mkitharyan plays on confidence, if it is short then they'll make wrong decisions which can explain the misses.
But all of this is just my opinion at the end! Let agree to disagree then!
Regarding Hull game, yes but what's the difference between these teams and any match Liverpool and City for example is played in the same way with them setting deep to defend ? why then we praise Liver and City for their attacking approach in these games while when we do it, it's because the other team was just setting deep ? That's one problem I have in some of our fans, not just you, is we seem the failure post SAF has made us hesitant in saying we're the better team in game, but rather " the opponent was terrible ". The fact is the opponent was terrible because our performance made them appeared this way. Again I want to mention Hull wasn't completely toothless and they tried to do various counters on us but it never got completed because Bailly and Fellaini were intercepting them quickly.
On to the Celta point, When we're talking about game of two ties then we must analyze both games, We were better in the first leg, won on their pitch which -if you don't know - always caused a lot of problems to Barca in the league ( as Real Sociedad's pitch, too, btw ) and wasted chances to finish the tie, entered the second leg and we got the first goal already, then they dominated the last 45 minutes of the game and yes wasted some chances but overall I insist it's just 45 minutes that they played and wasted real chances in it. The first 45 minutes of the second leg they got possession but weren't that dangerous away from some Blind's brainfarts. So overall on both ties the one who deserved to pass is us imo. We defeated them on their terrible pitch and that's enough for me. The league form is irrelevant since they aren't fighting for anything and their full concentration were on us. Did you forget quickly how we terribly lost to Bilbao on both legs before ? Spanish teams are always different in European competition than in the league.
Yes Jose's tactics at the start of the game was total wrong in starting with one DMF against Silva and De Bruyne, which he responded well in second half in correcting his mistake and we still had a chance to equalize, the game wasn't total lost then, it proves that he read the game well later on and I'm still believing this game should have ended 2-2, the most deserved results for both teams. They got a great half and we controlled the second one. I don't think I have never seen Pep making a defensive sub, introducing another CM in second half to try to close the game and play on counters, contradicting his original play style completely to save the result instead of going for more goals. He even never does this when he's meeting a stronger team than his. That proves we weren't really that terrible this day overall, they just got a great first half.
Regarding LVG's point of shooting and clinical conditions, well just one question if all these are true why did we score only 87 goals in 59 matches last season?
And I don't understand why can you see our calm mentality last season as a good thing, it was terrible for me. The team has no soul at all and players got used to lose games after games after games, then coming in the press conf to tell us " Oh sorry we lost no problem we'll try more harder next game " just to lose that next one. We were never devoid of soul like this. United has always been a team who plays with full heart on the pitch. The fighting soul of the team was one of the reasons I got hooked to them and supporting them finally. Under LVG, the whole team, from coaching staff to players, were playing uninterested, zero fighting spirit, zero soul, zero determination to win. It's not about the tactics in this point, but I was feeling the team at LVG's last season has nothing related to Manchester United I know than that badge on the shirt. It was the worst thing in his reign at all.
How can you consider this mentality good ? These players were turning gradually to bunch of losers who have ready excuses to give to fans after each lose. They needed a strict manager who slapped them and press them to understand they're playing for United and their mistakes can't be forgiven, and each lose they caused is a problem that counts. These players used to escape with their mistakes under LVG and Moyes. They need now to take some responsibility for their performance and know that their manager isn't very kind-hearted and expects more than what they're doing. Sorry but I believe how player's mentality reached last season will never be treated except by this tough love way.
We prise Liverpool and City for doing the same because they always play like that against every oppositions and doing it even against bigger club! When I watch Liverpool and City play, they don't hide behind 10 men defending for their life or fullbacks sitting deep afraid of crossing the midfield line, or wingers playing like 2nd fullback! We praise them because we know that it's their way of playing and it's entertaining and enjoyable! Give me a place in the top 4 while playing like City or Liverpool and I'd take it any day instead of an EL trophy while playing like United, we're a shambles and no doubt people doubt our capability to force teams sit deep because most of the time when the adversary decide to show up and play football they always take control and force us to sit deep and defend(or what we commonly call "park the bus), many average teams did this to us!.
On Celta Vigo, their domination didn't last 45 min in the 2nd leg, no, they took control after our goal and I remember reading many posters in the match day thread begging for the halftime to come so that Mourinho could organise his men, they were out playing us even during the 1st half and Jose couldn't correct this in the 2nd half, we had no answer how to stop them, we sat deep with wingers playing like 2nd fullbacks but they were constantly getting behind our fullbacks and creating spaces for their players in our half! So yes they were the better team at OT and we were lucky to escape this game with a draw! They deserved to win, as we deserved to win the 1st leg.
Beating Madrid or Barcelona is one thing, but playing with 11 players defending in our own half and hesitant to cross the midfield is just a shame! I even hated seeing teams playing like this against Barcelona let alone Manchester United playing the same way against a 12th la Liga team! That's my problem and I'll never be happy with it or claim that we played better! No, no,no! Madrid lost against them but Madrid played football.
Regarding City game, they got a strong half and destroyed us then they tried to protect their lead. Yes the introduction of Herrera balanced our midfield but Pep reacted well and nullified this by introducing a DM and the change won him the game, I don't see what is wrong with this as they continued giving us some troubles on counter! It was his choice and it worked.
We did score few goals because we created less chances, we had less quality players than this year and his tactic requires more patience to build attacks, and it didn't help we had few quality players! With a Pogba and Mkitharyan we'd have scored more.
Regarding the part in bold, I really don't see the difference with this season as what we see is players making excuses after excuses after each draw and defaite! The performance against Arsenal last week was shameful! A stronger and big team can't surrender a game the way we did it! Top 4 was still possible but we just gave up on it. It was really pathetic from our side and the EL was not an excuse for that display! If Jose didn't give a feck about that game, so why not play our reserve team and give some youngsters a chance to prove themselves instead of sending out a team with no envy to win.
This season I always see the manager coming with such excuses that we have many games and a big calendar as if we were the only team to suffer from this! I remember seeing Madrid and Barcelona playing 4 classics games in one month while also playing the CL knock out stage but they didn't complain about!
Add to that that we have the money to build a big squad to cope with such circumstances buy the manager is the one who decided to sell players and go out with a thin squad and overplay some key players without rotation! Mourinho responsible for this.
Saying our players were used and happy to fight for 4th and that they are now showing more passion, let me remind you that we sat on 6th spot almost the whole season and are still there! If we lose the EL final against Ajax, will you be happy with this team and Jose's management?
For all the praises about Jose and his team, let me remind you that he hasn't done better then LVG after spending 150M and buying better players!
If our players were turning in a bunch of losers under LVG but still won the FA Cup and only missed on top 4 by goal difference while having a squad decimated by injuries and introducing many youngsters(Rashford, TFM, Varela, BJ,.....); then what can you say about this team which is happy with 6th spot while having the most expensive players in the world, the best Bundesliga player, the best french league player and one of the best defender from Spain?
I really respect last season team more than this one because they kept fighting till the end knowing that the manager would not be there while having to accommodate some academy players!
Well sorry but that's a biased opinion for me. If we're doing the same in any game then we should take the praise as them, not contributing our good performance in any game to the opposite being poor or opponent deciding to set back, then we should say exactly the same on them in any game they do it.
Also Klopp has set back this season against City when he won 1-0 , and set back against us after taking the lead by that penalty but these are forgotten. I also see the concept of us setting back in every top game is very exaggerated by us. We only set back in top 6 games against Liverpool, City and Arsenal away, the last game is not even relevant because we gave up on the league before it. Against Arsenal at home, Liverpool at home, Chelsea at home, Spurs at home we played very good and balanced matches and went toe on toe with them. Even in that 4-0 loss to Chelsea we had more possession and shots than them despite the dreadful defeat. People are exaggerating this point because of the recent games only.
They controlled the ball, but were nothing a threat except in these Blind's and Darmian's brainfarts. Second half is when I blamed Jose for his tactics as he took more cautious approach without a reason, but overall on regarding both ties, we won away from our field and deserved to pass. If Celta wanted to pass us they should have get a better result on their field first.
No one's saying Jose's tactics second half was good, it was terrible and I criticized him for it but it has nothing related to us deserving to pass them.
It's not wrong for them to go on the counter. It just proved we responded well and forced Pep to take an approach he never does. Jose's tactics at the start of the game wasn't good because he based his calculations on Fellaini being good enough to stop City's midfield based on his previous performances, also we were let down by terrible performance from Mikhi and Lingard. Jose didn't start the game well, but he read it pretty well and responded to Pep's formation by introducing Herrera, which Pep responded by introducing another CM and changing his style of play. Great tactical game coming back and forth between both managers on touchline. Should have been a draw since we wasted easy chances and shots, too.
Think we won't reach a point of agreement on this game then let's move on.
And creating less chances is terrible in LVG's system. Also having no quality players is his fault. He got a whole summer to choose his players and bring them. He assessed the squad and decided to throw Hernandez and RVP away to give Mr.Rooney the number 9 starting spot. He decided to buy Depay, a player whom he knows from Netherlands national team. He decided to sell and loan most of the squad without replacing them, then his excuse for this was to give youth a chance ! just to delude us from his terrible mistakes in the market. He chose to go with this squad then he deserved everything. Not an excuse to him for me.
I actually didn't see anything about our player's mentality this season, except that jose is trying to solve the mess that was created in players' minds from last failure season by the only way possible: to be strict on them. These players don't need a kind-hearted manager who pets on their shoulder after each terrible lose. They used to this it's unreal. They need to take some slaps to remember which team they're playing for. The players who respond to him will remain and those who are unwilling to change themselves will be chopped in summer. We needed such a direction for years to our bunch of losers.
Regarding manager's excuses I don't know what irritates us from this. Saying this doesn't mean he's not working on the team behind scenes. Do you think if the manager said in the press that he holds all responsibility for the shocking form will make the world great and change our results ? It won't affect it by a bit. He can say this and never do anything.
Klopp has come with more ridiculous excuses this season, blaming the wind and the grass for his results. Managers must have something to say in the press. It has nothing to do with their work on the team.
Speaking about last season is strange. LVG has underachieved in both seasons heavily. In his first season he has no European football at all and got eliminated from EFL from first match. That means he played the whole first half with only one match in the week ! Still couldn't do anything except achieving 4th place. When Liverpool got no European football they lost the league with great difficulty to City. When Chelsea got no European football they walked the league. When LVG got no European competition he gets barely 4th place. What a shame.
His second season was the worst season in EPL ever, with Chelsea and Liverpool collecting only 10th and 8th positions respectively. City got into a collapse after Pelligrini announced leaving and we couldn't even finish 4th in the worst season of EPL, the season in which Leicester city won the league by 10 points different from second place, a season in which 67 points would have been enough to finish 4th and we still couldn't do it. Terrible.
LVG was lucky in managing in the EPL in its worst 2 seasons ever. His 70 points and 66 points wouldn't have been enough to finish even 5th this season. In fact these 70 and 66 points would have only lead us to finish the league in Moyes season in 6th and 7th places respectively.
He underachieved in much easier circumstances and should have done more than this regarding the terrible form of other top teams surrounding him. And again he's responsible for the quality of the player because he assessed the squad and decided to enter the season in such a state, then gave excuses for this later by saying he wanted to do this to give youth chance, well good luck, Louis but you'll hold full responsibility for results then. Oh and btw if Jose decided to enter next season with a terrible squad he'll also hold full responsibility for the results.
Can see this thread being busy today if it is 5 at the back we are playing.
Good ole 7 2 1 formation lol
Can these performances even worthy of being called 'defensive' performances by those trying to defend it? When I think defensive performances I think Juve Vs Monaco/Barca second leg where they let the opponent have the ball and still create lots of chances anytime they did get the ball by countering. What we do is is what Hull/Burnley do when they face the big teams. Put every behind the ball, head/hoof everything out so the opponents get it back again. Towards the end of the Celta game you could see we did not stand a chance in hell of getting talkless of keeping the ball. We were totally at the mercy of their finishing ability. That's not a 'defensive' performance, that's just being shit at football. There's no excuse for taking out your attacking players and replacing them with defenders, there's no reason to tell your fullbacks not to even attempt going forward. Now I understand why people seem to just not like him at all. I hope things change next season when he gets 'his own' players as I believe lots of our players are just plain shite, but if this continues at any point next season I want him gone. I've always slated people for saying this, but I'm not sure I'd be happy if we won the league playing this trash
That's not true, Arsenal at home had plenty of fighting spirit for example, Chelsea away too. There was a mental problem, players didn't know how to use the tactics to break down a parked bus and often lost confidence with more than 10 minutes to go, but that was a different problem. It was a big problem of course, especially because it was terribly frustrating to watch. Now they just hang in there and hope for the best, that's easier mentally.
I understood a big problem was that the players couldn't take LvG's criticism in front of the other players (not even in public).
That makes no sense. Without Leicester's one of kind wonder year he would have made fourth. Guardiola and Klopp haven't done particularly well, Arsenal has a worse year, the PL clubs have done poorly in the CL. Every season is different, but leagues don't change significantly in strength overnight. And the media and lots of fans begging for Mourinho while he made clear he was available to step in any moment didn't help the squad and the manager of course. Mourinho is lucky there's no manager who does that to him this season.
The media and the supporters have only now lowered their standards. They kept living in the past while there was a rebuilding manager and patience was required, now there's a manager who was all about getting results immediately and isn't taking the club anywhere in terms of a new playing style get's all the time and money he needs. That makes no sense, and there is no alternative now, but making LvG look worse than he was doesn't make Mourinho any better. He failed, no one wanted him as a manager to do this, he only met the expections of people like me who didn't want him.
Take the restraints off this guy!I am sorry too because I couldn't reply yesterday as I only have 5 posts/day in the mains, I would be glad if you could give me the formula to get more likes and be a permanent poster on here!
Yes we forced Hull, or whichever average team we faced, to sit deep because we are bigger than them and have by far better players, so they have no choice than to come against us, sit deep and try their luck on counter; don't forget that those kind of teams are satisfied with one point against a geant of our size! So I think we did force them to sit deep but they have no other alternative.
Celta Vigo are a mid table la Liga team, even if they eliminated Madrid in the Cup I don't think Real Madrid displayed the kind of performance we showed against them at OT. Madrid came and played their game but it is a cup game everything can happened. I don't think we should win every game by 4 or 5 goals but we should be playing better against some 3rd zone teams like Rostov, Celta. Feyenoord, Swansea or Bournemouth!
I stand by my opinion that we weren't marginally better over two legs! Firstly we displayed a good performance against them in the 1st leg but they were the better team in the 2nd leg, and no their good form didn't last 45 min as they completely took control of the game after we scored in the 1st half, even my 12 year old nephew said that we were lucky to have conceded only 1 goal!
In the same way you are bringing the miss of our players in the 1st leg, I want you to watch again the 2nd leg and tell me how many chances they miss too!
For the City game you are right that Pep changing the system was strange but City started to play on counter in the 1st half after going 2 goals up, not only at the start of the 2nd half!
Beside it was Jose's fault to leave Herrera out and play Fellaini against a pressing and mobile team. Everyone knew it was a mistake leaving Pogba alone with Fellaini.
LVG was teaching his players how to accurately have a better shot, for example he told Herrera to have a touch and control the ball before shoting it and you know what, Herrera had a better shoting accuracy under him than this season as most of his shots tend to go in the stands!
LVG system was designed to create optimal situation to put his attackers in a better conditions to have a free shot or put our forwards in a better conditions of 1 vs 1 situation against an opponent, our conversion ratio was better under him even if we created less and our wingers were beating players for fun!
Add to that if players are managed well and are calm and happy mentally then they will start to make good decisions in specifics situations! Players like Martial and Mkitharyan plays on confidence, if it is short then they'll make wrong decisions which can explain the misses.
But all of this is just my opinion at the end! Let agree to disagree then!
Only Arsenal game we show any fight any it in the total season. That Chelsea game we were setting back and couldn't even defend well. David were saving us from multiple goals. Other than this, bunch of losers who lost at home to all teams and came to tell us they'll do better in next game, which they also lose any way.
Hmm don't really understand this statement.
There's nothing called " if not for ". I can say exactly the same on this game, and regarding the form of teams this season then all top 4 teams will end the season with + 75 points. Last season 4th place got it with 66 points, and the season before the 4th place ( us ) got 70 points.
We're even going to end this season with more points than last season ( currently 65 and last season 66 ) and we aren't even going to finish 5th.
It's not a sort of defending Jose here. The league form wasn't good, but using LVG as an example to slaughter Jose isn't accurate because we were terrible under him in the league and our points collected in both season will only finish 5th or 6th in any decent season including this.
I'll return to the thread after that Spurs game to replay.
Any coach that has shown some positive results deserves that judgment be reserved till end of his second season.
Any coach, needs quality player that suits his style of play to succeed. Pep has spent £160m at Citeh and I dont see them challenging or winning anything, and have looked bad in a lot of games. Klopp is coming up with excuses faster than the game schedule, Poch has been in charge for 3yrs and yet to win a single thing, and, Conte, for all his success, can only said to truly have revitalized Chelsea when he doesnt have the luxury of a 7 day rest between games.
It might not look pretty, but we are one win away from achieving our key objectives this season. We won the LC, and (with a win against Ajax) will win the Europa league and qualify for CL group stage. Winning the league is probably the only objective we can add. For me, that outcome is better than Spurs, City, Liverpool and Arsenal.
As to the style of play, it will definitely improve next season, as the team adds more quality and depth. Mourinho has coached some of the highest goal scoring teams in his career and, depending on your taste, were entertaining enough.
Any coach, needs quality player that suits his style of play to succeed. Pep has spent £160m at Citeh and I dont see them challenging or winning anything, and have looked bad in a lot of games. Klopp is coming up with excuses faster than the game schedule, Poch has been in charge for 3yrs and yet to win a single thing, and, Conte, for all his success, can only said to truly have revitalized Chelsea when he doesnt have the luxury of a 7 day rest between games.
It might not look pretty, but we are one win away from achieving our key objectives this season. We won the LC, and (with a win against Ajax) will win the Europa league and qualify for CL group stage. Winning the league is probably the only objective we can add. For me, that outcome is better than Spurs, City, Liverpool and Arsenal.
As to the style of play, it will definitely improve next season, as the team adds more quality and depth. Mourinho has coached some of the highest goal scoring teams in his career and, depending on your taste, were entertaining enough.
Some of you guys should read the match day thread. We are playing horrible again and some fans have convinced themselves it was okay simply because the main man told them so.
I have no hard feelings against the guy but if we aren't trying put at least some more youngsters on the pitch so there is at least some point in watching. First time I have genuinely switched a match off in 10 mins.
I have no hard feelings against the guy but if we aren't trying put at least some more youngsters on the pitch so there is at least some point in watching. First time I have genuinely switched a match off in 10 mins.
It's pretty much the same as the Arsenal game -- with absolutely nothing to play for, why not just go for it? The [extremely hollow] defence raised in that game was that we'd get destroyed even more so than what happened in the game... Does anyone think actually going toe-to-toe with them would result in a worse performance than what we're seeing so far?
We aren't playing defensively.
We are just being outplayed.
We are just being outplayed.
Yeah today is annoying me and it shouldn't in reality. I think it's just sad seeing how far we have fell that Tottenham scored and it was just expected. Games like today with nothing to lose there is absolutely no reason to play 5 in defence. Just go out and play normal and try have a go.
Last season every DDG save was brilliant, and his costly mistakes were hardly mentioned. This season his brilliant saves are hardly mentioned. He did have a few spectacular ones last season, but this shows that people were out for LvG's head and are desperate to go easy on Mourinho. The Chelsea away game had some nice attacking football in a difficult time. The team had some mental issues, but there was quite a bit of fight in it and they did bounce back from a disappointment quite often.
There were all these stories about the players hating it that Van Gaal explaining them their errors in front of the other players. My first response would be 'what a bunch of unprofessional pussies', but somehow this was proof what an evil man Van Gaal was.
Yes, but the difference between the top 4 and the rest differs per season anyway. It's just not very telling. I was disappointed in LvG's achievements too, I just think it's nonsense to lower the standards dramatically and find any kind of excuse for a manager who isn't building something but was supposed to buy himself into an instant title challenge with top 4 taken for granted.
We need to be much more expansive in our play. This cannot be acceptable next season. You can't spend a fortune in the summer and play like kittens. Were Manchester United not West Brom.
You do realise football isn't a computer game and that you can't just 'go for it' against top sides. You barely get a touch of the ball for minutes, and when you do you're shattered and make mistakes. It's why this isn't our first XI and never will be, they're good players but not a team, nowhere close.
It won't be. People can talk shite about Mourinho getting time all they like. If this is what we're watching next season, Woodward will be lining up manager number 4.
Totally agree. No excuse for Jose next season. The odd game we can tolerate it but it's becoming every away game now. Not good enough really.
The season isn't over, we have one very important game left. Nobody wants to get injured. I hate to see us lose but this game means nothing, judge after the Ajax game. This season is now just about getting through to the end and rebuilding over the summer, it's not worth raising your blood pressure over.
No, I didn't realise that - thanks for the clarification. Let's just carry on playing with 4 CBs and an additional one in midfield and hope they don't twat us any more than what they are doing so.
Why do you give a feck? It's a nothing game, we can't do anything with a win, draw or defeat. It's going through the motions and rightly so, because we're in a European final.
And then we act surprised when we have no confidence at home to hammer teams. Playing exciting football is a process (lol). You have set up to do it and keep trying to do it better. Not play boring shit half the time and expect to play swashbuckling football whenever you want. I hope Jose makes a permanent shift to being a more positive manager at United because I fear he's getting into his usual cautious mode again.
Because United are playing I imagine.
Probably because I support this team.
It's a nothing game to an extent, yeah... So we should be going out and ruining their day if we can. If we lose, we lose - there is no ramifications. But, bending over and playing like this won't exactly do wonders to our confidence. There's only 2 more games before Ajax and I'd rather go into that on a high note, not with football like this and Arsenal in mind.
So United have to win every single game playing beautiful football every single minute of a game? Behave
Well today is prime example that we could of just went for it as we have nothing to lose. Yet Jose plays 5 defenders.
Why are you being so obtuse? Who has said this?
If we play these defensive tactics next season, Jose can feck off.
I'm sure it'll be acceptable next season. If it does happen again, Jose will weave a narrative throughout the year that we can all cling onto for reassurance.
This Spurs starting XI, in its entirety, cost ~7m GBP more than Pogba alone. The idea that we have the ability to spend ~150million over a summer without blinking and look so poor in comparison is just disheartening.
