How do United fix the attacking issue?

AaronRedDevil

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Jun 28, 2018
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With LVG it was possession with 2 shots per game, Jose ultra defensive playing counter attacking, Ole had free flowing attack but when that doesn't work, they run out of ideas quickly and ETH had possession and now Amorim can have the same thing but with an even worse attacking threat. (Not blaming him entirely)

I just don’t understand why can’t we do a simple attack. Either run down the wings and pass it in or a pass through the middle. The methods haven’t changed in 100 years. What’s going on exactly for this team to be able to attack. It simply doesn’t exist in our team. They either hesitate, overthink, hold the ball too long or make the worse possible decision every single time. It’s always flashes of Moments or pure luck in how we score. How in the name of God do United fix this issue. It’s been this way for a very long time. There’s no plan in anything we do.

Possession is pointless if they can’t do anything with it. The better our attack, the less our GK and Defence will have to worry about conceding because right now, the other teams aren’t afraid to go all out against us, knowing full well that United will not capitalise on any opportunity. I simply have no idea how this gets fixed, is it the players, formation or the Manager? Something needs to changed drastically when United go into next season. Yes good defence can wins you the league, but you need to win games first by having a great attack.

How do you think United can change this huge issue.
 
I fear there isn't just an attacking issue. We talk about the obvious attacking problem as if everything else is cohesive and well drilled. The attack is just the forefront of a woeful side, that cant control games, or reliably pass the ball, or work hard. You could swap todays front 3 for Mbappe, Wirtz and Bellingham, and I dont think we'd look much different. It's all about the system for teams, and every team we face looks better and more confident in their roles.
 
SER19 said:
I fear there isn't just an attacking issue. We talk about the obvious attacking problem as if everything else is cohesive and well drilled. The attack is just the forefront of a woeful side, that cant control games, or reliably pass the ball, or work hard. You could swap todays front 3 for Mbappe, Wirtz and Bellingham, and I dont think we'd look much different. It's all about the system for teams, and every team we face looks better and more confident in their roles.
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Utter nonsense
 
Leftback99 said:
Utter nonsense
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I disagree. While nowhere near the level of the 3 players I mentioned, we look the exact same regardless of who starts because the system is bigger than the sum of its parts. We're a mess, back to front.
 
Playing more attacking players than defensive players for a start would help.

We routinely start with one striker and one wide attacker. Five defenders, and then a combination of at least two defensive midfielders and then a no.8/10.

We must be the most negative side in the PL in this regard. It’s how the manager wants to play.
 
Stop playing this awful system. It's as simple as that.

This is now 2 managers in a row trying implement a style noone else plays to terrible effect, but too stubborn to admit their mistake. All the wrong players in the wrong areas of the pitch where they are unfamiliar.

---------------onana-------------
Maz-maguire-yoro-shaw
-------mainoo-ugarte--------
-----amad-bruno-garna----
-------------hojlund--------------

That team and that system wins this game in 3rd gear. Just like when is got us into CL places a couple of years ago.

We had no need to change following ETHs first year.
 
sammyhol said:
Stop playing this awful system. It's as simple as that.

This is now 2 managers in a row trying implement a style noone else plays to terrible effect, but too stubborn to admit their mistake. All the wrong players in the wrong areas of the pitch where they are unfamiliar.

---------------onana-------------
Maz-maguire-yoro-shaw
-------mainoo-ugarte--------
-----amad-bruno-garna----
---------------onana-------------

That team and that system wins this game in 3rd gear. Just like when is got us into CL places a couple of years ago.

We had no need to change follow ETHs first year.
Click to expand...
Two Onanas would work yes. Probably would score more than Hojlund too.
 
sammyhol said:
Stop playing this awful system. It's as simple as that.

This is now 2 managers in a row trying implement a style noone else plays to terrible effect, but too stubborn to admit their mistake. All the wrong players in the wrong areas of the pitch where they are unfamiliar.

---------------onana-------------
Maz-maguire-yoro-shaw
-------mainoo-ugarte--------
-----amad-bruno-garna----
---------------onana-------------

That team and that system wins this game in 3rd gear. Just like when is got us into CL places a couple of years ago.

We had no need to change follow ETHs first year.
Click to expand...

Playing with 10 men and having Onana playing in nets and drifting up front in possession would be a very bold strategy indeed.
 
Send Højlund to the glue factory. Worst United player to consistently get minutes since I started watching 30 odd years ago.
 
sammyhol said:
Stop playing this awful system. It's as simple as that.

This is now 2 managers in a row trying implement a style noone else plays to terrible effect, but too stubborn to admit their mistake. All the wrong players in the wrong areas of the pitch where they are unfamiliar.

---------------onana-------------
Maz-maguire-yoro-shaw
-------mainoo-ugarte--------
-----amad-bruno-garna----
-------------hojlund--------------

That team and that system wins this game in 3rd gear. Just like when is got us into CL places a couple of years ago.

We had no need to change following ETHs first year.
Click to expand...
:lol:
 
SER19 said:
I fear there isn't just an attacking issue. We talk about the obvious attacking problem as if everything else is cohesive and well drilled. The attack is just the forefront of a woeful side, that cant control games, or reliably pass the ball, or work hard. You could swap todays front 3 for Mbappe, Wirtz and Bellingham, and I dont think we'd look much different. It's all about the system for teams, and every team we face looks better and more confident in their roles.
Click to expand...

Facepalm
 
Acquire Me said:
Facepalm
Click to expand...

Facepalm all you like. There are plenty of teams in history with good players who looked awful and ended up changing manager and looking better. If the system is awful and non functional, it doesnt matter who plays where. We have better players than plenty of PL teams, but 16 of them look far superior to us. Players dont change things in isolation.
 
Leftback99 said:
:lol:
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You forget the season two years ago where we won a cup, got to another final, and came top 4 with a pretty similar squad to what Amorim inherited??

It all went tits up when ten hag changed the system. It's as simple as that.

It is no surprise that we looked best under Ruud. Cos he played the system that we were successful in previously
 
Only 2 teams in the league have worse starting strikers than Utd. Anybody disagree?

Saints and Leicester. Everyone else has a better striker/main source of goals. For example, Salah not a striker but he's their main source of goals.
 
The issue is Hojlund is a horrible football player who shouldn't be in this league, yet he's playing every game. And then the main 10 behind him is 20 year old Garnacho who is promising but has so far been a shit finisher. Replace that with a proven goalscorer and someone like Cunha while Garnacho is more of an impact sub and it should be a lot better on paper. Genuinely like a 30 goal swing better in our favor.
 
Bubz27 said:
Only 2 teams in the league have worse starting strikers than Utd. Anybody disagree?

Saints and Leicester. Everyone else has a better striker/main source of goals. For example, Salah not a striker but he's their main source of goals.
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40 year old Vardy is a better striker than Hojlund
 
Sign a striker, an attacker and a wing back who actually have decisive quality in the final third.

The team is littered with players who make wrong decisions, take bad touches, bad passes and poor finishes in key moments.

We cannot turn dangerous attacks into actual goals.

You're not getting anyone to coach this current lot to become match winners.

It needs new players.
 
SER19 said:
Facepalm all you like. There are plenty of teams in history with good players who looked awful and ended up changing manager and looking better. If the system is awful and non functional, it doesnt matter who plays where. We have better players than plenty of PL teams, but 16 of them look far superior to us. Players dont change things in isolation.
Click to expand...
I hear this, but my argument is in the 2 most important positions on the pitch, ST and GK, we have some of the worst starters in the league. Those positions are too important and make too much of a difference.

I think Liverpool are a good team with a world class GK, CB and goalscorer. And it makes all the difference.
 
sammyhol said:
You forget the season two years ago where we won a cup, got to another final, and came top 4 with a pretty similar squad to what Amorim inherited??

It all went tits up when ten hag changed the system. It's as simple as that.

It is no surprise that we looked beat under Ruud. Cos he played the system that we were successful in previously
Click to expand...
A Rashford purple patch was the main reason we fluked 3rd that season. As soon as that stopped we were dreadful. First season Casemiro and Eriksen were multiple levels better than Ugarte and Mainoo are too.

Martial and Weghorst were far better than Hojlund too.
 
Get Sancho, Rashford and Antony back in the summer and loan/ sell the current lot. Only half joking
 
DWelbz19 said:
Playing more attacking players than defensive players for a start would help.

We routinely start with one striker and one wide attacker. Five defenders, and then a combination of at least two defensive midfielders and then a no.8/10.

We must be the most negative side in the PL in this regard. It’s how the manager wants to play.
Click to expand...
We played with one actual centre back and one defensive midfielder today. It’s really not that far off a team that the last coach would have played in terms of the 11 on the pitch.
 
Change Rasmus and Garnacho and we would have at least 25 goals more. Pretty much everything would be an upgrade on those two.

Especially Rasmus is insanely bad. Worst striker in the league and nailed on for the worst transfer in history. This dude wouldn't start for Sturm Graz anymore let alone anyone in the PL. Probbably the worst player united had in the last 20 years.
 
Get a manager in who plays a 4-3-3 and sign a quality striker. Play Bruno as the 10, with Garnacho and Amad either side of a top number 9 and we'd score goals. If Cunha is signed with the idea that he'd play as a 10 rather than a 9, then that seems like an unnecessary waste of 62m considering the next manager isn't going to play the same formation as Amorim.
 
sammyhol said:
Stop playing this awful system. It's as simple as that.

This is now 2 managers in a row trying implement a style noone else plays to terrible effect, but too stubborn to admit their mistake. All the wrong players in the wrong areas of the pitch where they are unfamiliar.

---------------onana-------------
Maz-maguire-yoro-shaw
-------mainoo-ugarte--------
-----amad-bruno-garna----
-------------hojlund--------------

That team and that system wins this game in 3rd gear. Just like when is got us into CL places a couple of years ago.

We had no need to change following ETHs first year.
Click to expand...
Totally agree. If we had played a back four formation we would be much better placed than this. The WB roles have destroyed this season as the system relies on them so much. We ain’t getting anything better so next season will just role on from this one.
Sack him and play to the strengths of the players we have. It was a bold project that has failed spectacularly.
 
SER19 said:
I fear there isn't just an attacking issue. We talk about the obvious attacking problem as if everything else is cohesive and well drilled. The attack is just the forefront of a woeful side, that cant control games, or reliably pass the ball, or work hard. You could swap todays front 3 for Mbappe, Wirtz and Bellingham, and I dont think we'd look much different. It's all about the system for teams, and every team we face looks better and more confident in their roles.
Click to expand...
Completely agree. The team isn't playing as a unit, most of not all teams are better organized than we do. There were times, where individual class was able to balance that out but those times are gone and we are suffering from it. If our team would at least be slightly above average in terms of intensity, workrate and general football IQ, we'd still get by I guess but on times like today, there just isn't anything to get your hopes up. For all the flack Ugarte receives (and his mistake that led to goal was a pretty dumb one), he at least offers workrate and solidity. Thats something, nobody else in midfield offers right now. Yet people want to replace him with Casemiro and play him next to Bruno there, who went missing today against a rather ordinary Westham midfield. Obviously, it isn't his fault but the whole team suffers from organisational issues and, probably the most, from being well below par on the physical side of things. If your players are good enough, you can still get something out of games without going 100%, but those days are over for quite some time.
 
Dan_F said:
We played with one actual centre back and one defensive midfielder today. It’s really not that far off a team that the last coach would have played in terms of the 11 on the pitch.
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We still played with 5 defensive players. Fullbacks are not attacking players. Luke Shaw and Nousair Mazraoui are not making us stronger in attack.

We also then played with a central midfielder (Mainoo), a no.8/10 hybrid (Fernandes), and a no.10 (Mount).

There was one player on the field who is a wide attacker. There was one recognised forward.

Part of that is down to squad composition, but another part of that is self inflicted by the manager purging the club of attacking options.
 
soapythecat said:
Totally agree. If we had played a back four formation we would be much better placed than this. The WB roles have destroyed this season as the system relies on them so much. We ain’t getting anything better so next season will just role on from this one.
Sack him and play to the strengths of the players we have. It was a bold project that has failed spectacularly.
Click to expand...
The system has nothing to do with this. Our fullbacks are pretty bad for ages at this point. Our wingers have been dire as well. We sucked in midfield well before and with the striker options that we have available right now, there is no system in the world to remedy that. The formation change was an additional hurdle and from a strategic standpoint, it was a big gamble to do it halfway through the season, but lets not act as if there was much to be cautious about. The team was unfunctional before.
 
The panic again, three of the most expensive players we had were just fecked away because they dropped their standards immensely. That's why we have to start Garnacho who should be a sub at best or Dorgu who is just a prospect and Hojlund - the worst striker in our history compared to his value/price.

Solution is easy, just buy better attackers. Hopefully we can get something for Antony and Rashford and reinvest in players which are gonna deliver for us.
 
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