I see the 'ABU' Media are back in full voice...

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roonster09

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:lol: No mention of us playing West Ham off the park for the majority of the first half
She came up with weird reply, apparently controlling means opponents not creating any chance.

 

KingCavani

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That West Ham game has broken the brains of the media like no other I can remember.

Do people think that’s an easy fixture?

I’m far from an Ole defender but that was a good performance. Away from home against a team with European ambitions we were comfortably the better side. People in the media like we scraped by against a bottom feeder just aren’t living in reality.

The agenda’s are stronger than ever with Ronaldo on board. They decided it was a bad move made out of desperation and fan service so they can’t fathom it actually making us a better team. They’re twisting reality to match a conclusion they’ve already made. Wilson is the most egregious example of this but he’s already discredited himself beyond repaid.
 

Rash Decision

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Being pedantic here but wouldn’t Melissa Reddy count as a biased Pool fan rather than ABU? Would be far more of a shock if she wrote nice things about us. Edit: I suppose Pool fans are by default ABU so nvm.
 

Walrus

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The amount of negative media I’ve seen about Solskjaer over the last week is mental. Some ridiculous info graphics from the Carabao Cup game talking about the cost of the side - completely ignoring that the likes of Matic and Mata we bought years ago and are obviously past their prime.

Meanwhile at the start of the season I don’t recall reading any plaudits when we smashed Leeds and were doing well. But Arteta beats two relegation fodder teams and Wimbledon and suddenly he is the next Pep again.
 

justsomebloke

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Whether ABU or not, it's impossible to ignore that for some reason, United is currently triggering a level of disparagement and dislike that is too intense and rather too obviously one-sided to not be, on some level, emotional. And it is plainly out of any proportion to the fact that we are undefeated and level on points with the league leaders after 5 rounds. There was in my opinion a huge shift after the Ronaldo signing. Since then, everyone stopped talking about us as a team that were making strides, and became terribly keen to see us fail. So much so that they can't wait until we actually have.

There's not going to be any slack cut us, that much seems clear. There's only one answer to it really, and that is to continue winning.

Hopefully the upshot of all this will be the development of a healthy siege mentality among the players. A little bit more of that around here wouldn't hurt either. Because let's face it, there are plenty of posters around here who are as hopeless as Jonathan Wilson in their attitude to the team.
 

romufc

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I think as a United fan, if Ole won us either the PL or CL, it would be one of the sweetest victories. Just to see the ABU media and fans reaction, even some United fans.
 

justsomebloke

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This paranoia gets my blood boiling. Most of the articles here are fair game, some are bad takes - but to think they have that take because they are scared of United are seriously deluded and should be called out. I presume that the journalists call it as they see it. It's not like it's a myth that half the United fanbase does not think Ole is good enough and that United does not play good enough football to get sustainable results. I've seen plenty of great takes got posted here, like a Jonathan Wilson article, a very well-written text with arguments that backed up his opinion. You don''t have to agree, but to call it ABU and clueless... well, you have to be very biased to think that.
Sorry, what article was that? Because this is exactly the problem: Wilson either doesn't back up his view with any arguments, or his arguments are plainly defective, or based on an inaccurate description of reality. Examples would be his portrayal of United's playing system (which he does not appear to have modified since 2019), and his claim that United struggle more frequently than better-structured top teams against low-block opponents (despite the fact that both Tuchel and Klopp dropped points more frequently against lower-half teams than we did), and his claim that the only way we can really regularly score is on the counterattack (which ignores that the great majority of our goals last season were not counterattack goals). Many of his arguments are not just unbalanced, they are essentially counterfactual BS, when examined. Writers rarely achieve a perfect argument, and it's only natural that their conclusions are debatable on many points. But when these things pile up the way they do in Wilson's articles, and all of it in the same direction, he just loses credibility. I simply don't believe that he is so stupid that he would make such an argument if he had actually made an honest attempt to examine his own assumptions. It doesn't matter if you agree with him or not, his is by any reasonable measure a badly constructed argument, to the point that you could justifiably call it unreasoning.

Generally however I agree it's a bit pointless to chase hidden intentions in articles, to say nothing of assuming conspiracies. But a bad argument is still a bad argument, and I don't think you have to be conspiratorial-minded to note how media tend to cluster around similar narratives. Indeed, it's hard not to notice that if you follow football journalism, and this is most plausibly ascribed to psychological and social mechanisms much simpler and more universal than biases or conspiracies.

There are articles out which are very critical of United without being over the top, the way Wilson's are. For instance, Jonathan Liews' scathing post-YBB-piece, which was no more than United deserved and should expect after that performance.
 

big rons sovereign

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I read somewhere today that Tim Sherwood is blaming Ronaldo for Bruno missing that pen.
I couldn't be arsed reading on for his reasons.
 

Pretzels81

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I think as a United fan, if Ole won us either the PL or CL, it would be one of the sweetest victories. Just to see the ABU media and fans reaction, even some United fans.
Would...but won't, mate
 

Loon

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BBC and Micah Richards making a thing of the 1-6 game's tenth anniversary on the website. When's the anniversary piece on the "Demolition Derby" with Andea Kanchelskis then?
 

Withnail

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Sky with this well, researched and thought out graphic :houllier:


Last year it was we'd be relegated without Bruno's goals and assists. Yeah if we played with 10 men and a big hole at AM. Feckin clowns :lol:
 

Flytan

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Sky with this well, researched and thought out graphic :houllier:


Last year it was we'd be relegated without Bruno's goals and assists. Yeah if we played with 10 men and a big hole at AM. Feckin clowns :lol:
Weren't we all thinking this? I know I was.

It's the same thing as show stats when a certain player is missing. Not sure why you think it's media bias
 

cyberman

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Weren't we all thinking this? I know I was.

It's the same thing as show stats when a certain player is missing. Not sure why you think it's media bias
So there should be stats like these with Liverpool and Salah?
No Ronaldo and we don’t exactly play with 10 men
 

Flytan

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So there should be stats like these with Liverpool and Salah?
No Ronaldo and we don’t exactly play with 10 men
I mean those stats exist? But why would anyone care about them? You realize even among fans we're saying Ronaldo is carrying this mismanaged team to victories. Of course the media is going to do the same thing. If Salah gets hurt tomorrow or something and misses time I'm sure they'll have a nice graphic for you in a few weeks of "Liverpool goals per game w/ Salah and w/o". I don't get why you guys have conspiracy theories about the media when we literally have former players spending time on live TV talking about how amazing everything is and how the club is going in the right direction. It goes both ways.
 

cyberman

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I mean those stats exist? But why would anyone care about them? You realize even among fans we're saying Ronaldo is carrying this mismanaged team to victories. Of course the media is going to do the same thing. If Salah gets hurt tomorrow or something and misses time I'm sure they'll have a nice graphic for you in a few weeks of "Liverpool goals per game w/ Salah and w/o". I don't get why you guys have conspiracy theories about the media when we literally have former players spending time on live TV talking about how amazing everything is and how the club is going in the right direction. It goes both ways.
And Bruno was carrying us last year.. it’s weird since it’s not really a stat since we don’t know how many points we would get without him.
It’s always us, with and without Bruno, points if Pens didn’t count etc. it’s weird as feck
 

JPRouve

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So there should be stats like these with Liverpool and Salah?
No Ronaldo and we don’t exactly play with 10 men
The same thing has been done for Ronaldo and Messi at Real and Barcelona, it's weird but not limited to United.
 

Flytan

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And Bruno was carrying us last year.. it’s weird since it’s not really a stat since we don’t know how many points we would get without him.
It’s always us, with and without Bruno, points if Pens didn’t count etc. it’s weird as feck
Honestly, I can't pretend to say I watch sports media from England around the clock but are you sure at least some your reasoning isn't just because you're a United fan so naturally you gravitate more towards United news? Yes there are people in media who want United to fail miserably, but there are other people in media who want to see Liverpool embarrassed too. In fact I'm pretty sure I've seen numerous posts on this forum that were pasted from RAWK/Bluemoon talking about how the media has an agenda against them.
 

JPRouve

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Honestly, I can't pretend to say I watch sports media from England around the clock but are you sure at least some your reasoning isn't just because you're a United fan so naturally you gravitate more towards United news? Yes there are people in media who want United to fail miserably, but there are other people in media who want to see Liverpool embarrassed too. In fact I'm pretty sure I've seen numerous posts on this forum that were pasted from RAWK/Bluemoon talking about how the media has an agenda against them.
https://talksport.com/football/835951/liverpool-premier-league-table-salah-ronaldo-man-utd-messi/
 

Withnail

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Weren't we all thinking this? I know I was.

It's the same thing as show stats when a certain player is missing. Not sure why you think it's media bias
You realise that if Ronaldo didn't play someone else would and other players would score goals?

It's totally meaningless because we wouldn't have played with 10 men and neither would we have scored 0 goals.

Fair enough if @JPRouve says they also do it with Messi etc but the only other time I saw it was Bruno last year.

So it's not media bias but do we have a media stupidity thread? This one was the closest I could find.
 

cyberman

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Were the media saying Salah should be dropped?
I remember Carragher putting fecking Firminho in a combined 11.
What’s even more ridiculous is that it’s the team providing the chances to Ronaldo. The second goal in Italy was different but we are putting chances on a plate for Cristiano. We are actually getting the best out of him but it’s been skewed to him saving us.
 

Zen86

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Team has less points if you subtract their top scorer’s goals. What shocking and insightful analysis.
 

The Bloody-Nine

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I remember Carragher putting fecking Firminho in a combined 11.
What’s even more ridiculous is that it’s the team providing the chances to Ronaldo. The second goal in Italy was different but we are putting chances on a plate for Cristiano. We are actually getting the best out of him but it’s been skewed to him saving us.
I agree. My point was that recently certain media figures / journos (and more embarrassingly, some of our fans) have been running with the narrative that Ronaldo is a problem for us, and should be dropped. The above table of our standing without him is a pretty good rebuttal to that.

I think that is why they did it, in this instance, anyway. Nothing worth getting irked about, in my opinion.
 
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