How do we solve our midfield problem?
- Thread starter HailtotheKing
- Start date
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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.
Buy new midfielders. All ours are shite, except Pogba, who is lazy and doesn't want to be here.
Start from scratch.
Mctominah just isnt a MF that can dictate the play. Neves has looked miles better for Wolves.
We need a veratti/modric badly.
We need a veratti/modric badly.
Give players like Donny a proper run? He literally cant do worse than McFred (or Matic)
Neves Moutinho is a better midfield duo than whatever combination we can put down. It's as simple as that.
Used to look like scripted game of Fifa against easier opponent, but it looks like best paid group of supposedly professional players.
We should play a midfield 3 of Fred, VDB and Bruno, high energy.
Anyone can make a screen grab of a moment of a game that makes a team look bad tactical. Even the one you showed, it is more of a formation problem with Ralf 4 2 2 2. Regardless, on the topic of the thread, having a player like Verratti or Thiago would be like a blessing worth more than what we spent on maguire, Sancho, and so on. We need a player with good passing ability and composure with the ball. Not another work horse. If pogba wasn't such a diva and had more disciplin, he is really the type of player that would help our midfield as well.
Put McT where he belongs. Burnley. That would be a great start. Then buy one top class mc.
Buy better midfielders.
Buy 2 or 3 new midfielders. Kimmich, Verratti, Barella, Wijnaldum, Rice.
That’s the exact same problem we had in the reverse fixture against Wolves when Ole was in charge and played Fred and Pogba in the double pivot.
Midfield problem my arse. We had 10 players passing like the had collective annesia. Idiot passing and idiot passing decisions.
Only greenwood seemed able to both pass the ball and the correct way. Now he is off.
I swear it cant be the coaches who teach this guff. Something is seriously wrong with our players. Or they are collectively the worst passers of a ball in all Europe.
Only greenwood seemed able to both pass the ball and the correct way. Now he is off.
I swear it cant be the coaches who teach this guff. Something is seriously wrong with our players. Or they are collectively the worst passers of a ball in all Europe.
Give donny a proper chance in a 3 man midfield over 6-10 games to see what he can do. Such a waste of talent.
We should start by signing good midfielders.
The big problem in this picture is how the front 4 are not at all making themselves available. I am not sure what you expect from the midfield even if they were in a more advanced position.
Having one would be a start
There were actually many more moments i could have taken a screenshot.
Remember when Fergie won against Arsenal with a midfield of Gibson, O'Shea and the Da Silva twins? Good times.
Matic is done. Fred and McTominay aren't good enough to start. We need to buy 2 top quality midfielders. That's the only way we can sort it.
Get four new CMs
Agreed. Black and white between Neves and Mctominah tonight.
Neves is twice as good as anybody we have.
Two top quality midfielders is minimum. United have slept since the day Scholes retired and Fellaini was signed in his place.
Not much have changed.
We need quality in there, but at least until that happens we need to change formation and get back to a 4-3-3
That most likely means McFred, with Bruno just in front. Not the up with the striker we saw early season.
Give Sancho and Rashy a chance by playing them out wide. Greenwood to come in when/if one of them is out of form. Both have looked pony in these strange new positions.
That most likely means McFred, with Bruno just in front. Not the up with the striker we saw early season.
Give Sancho and Rashy a chance by playing them out wide. Greenwood to come in when/if one of them is out of form. Both have looked pony in these strange new positions.
The only thing worse than Mcfred is McMatic.
With that central midfield we cannot have control or feed balls to our forwards.
With that central midfield we cannot have control or feed balls to our forwards.
At this stage i’d like to see this when Pogba
returns, even if its just until the summer.
...................Matic................
Mctominay..........Pogba......
.................Bruno..................
Mason................Ronaldo
returns, even if its just until the summer.
...................Matic................
Mctominay..........Pogba......
.................Bruno..................
Mason................Ronaldo
I think Declan Rice would help a lot. He possesses everything we don’t have right now.
Pogba, VDB & Matic will/should leave so we need Rice plus one more to compliment Rice, Fred & McTominay.
Pogba, VDB & Matic will/should leave so we need Rice plus one more to compliment Rice, Fred & McTominay.
Attackers: Martial, Ronaldo, Cavani, Greenwood, Diallo, Rashford, Elanga, Lingard, Sancho, Mata, Fernandes, Pogba, Van de Beek
vs
Central midfielders: McTominay, Fred, Matic.
How the feck does anyone build this squad and be satisfied with the money that was spent?
vs
Central midfielders: McTominay, Fred, Matic.
How the feck does anyone build this squad and be satisfied with the money that was spent?
This
And get Fred back in. Need his energy
Vdb hasn’t been given a chance for ralf. None of the managers we’ve had seem to want what he offers
Only way to solve it is to start from scratch, we need two or three new players.
Not so much in the second half as the game stretched a little but go back and watch the first half and look at how easy it was for Wolves to pass it through our midfield when they were about 40 yards from our goal and then watch how difficult we found it when we had the ball 40 yards from theres. They always had space and an option to pass to whereas it always looks like nothing is on for us.
How about trying Mejbri? Worth a shot.
Needs to be a 3 at all times. Drop Cavani or Ronaldo.
Don’t keep McTominay on the pitch for 90 mins when he’s performing like this. That would be a start.
I agree that we need better passers, but that is only half of a solution. A passer needs options, players have to perform off-the-ball actions to enable stuff. THat is the issue, not one single player can come in and change that. We have not enough workrate in the team. And as long as others do not step up, seems like we can not afford to keep Fred away from the team.
I hear what you are saying,
But what tends to happen is when we buy in these types of players, they play well for a few weeks, then turn to absolute crap and then we all moan about how crap they are.
Bruno was an exception, where he kept his good form going for 18 months. Normally, it lasts a few weeks.
No doubt that McT, Fred and Matic are currently inferior.
How do we solve our midfield problems?
Buy better talent.
Buy better talent.
Could it be that in training he is dire? I do find it strange that none of Ralf, Ole, McKenna, Carrick, Fletcher, etc rate VDB.