James, Lingard, Pereira, Rashford: What do you expect?

[Godfather]

James and Pereira have actually been playing pretty well.

Rashford is extremely low on confidence, most likely as a direct result of all the shit he gets from internet idiots even when he has a decent game, and actually the same can apply to Lingard who isn't even allowed to go on holiday without it causing a tsunami of stupid personal insults from his own fans.

Why anyone would criticise Pereira or James at all at this point is beyond me. The pair of them are ridiculously hard working and actually stand up and want the ball and try to make something happen

I often agree with your posts but you are way way off here. Pereira might be hard working but he is very far from the standard we need. Same goes for Lingard and the jury is still very much out for Rashford. Low on confidence or not but they way Lingard and Rashford have been performing is ridiculous.

 

[Bilbo]

I agree, but why haven’t we brought someone in?
Could be someone on loan even, could be another up and coming player like James even, but literally someone who could offer something different and give us some attacking threat.
I really don’t know who is Ole referring to as “the right players”, but there are plenty potentially “right players” out there when we are so far from being the finished product ourselves, as a team.

Why didn't we bring more players in? Who knows, though I suspect that our finances are not in as great shape as we are led to believe. I wonder how much we still owe on transfer fees for players signed by LVG & Mourinho. I suspect this summer was always intended to be a relatively low net spend & reduce the wage bill exercise.

I would have signed Sturridge on a free personally, but we have no idea of the data the club has on players. Maybe they have what they consider to be the right players lined up for January or the summer already and decided to wait on those.

 

[The Boy]

James and Pereira have actually been playing pretty well.

Rashford is extremely low on confidence, most likely as a direct result of all the shit he gets from internet idiots even when he has a decent game, and actually the same can apply to Lingard who isn't even allowed to go on holiday without it causing a tsunami of stupid personal insults from his own fans.

Why anyone would criticise Pereira or James at all at this point is beyond me. The pair of them are ridiculously hard working and actually stand up and want the ball and try to make something happen

Well said, Pereira gets so much shite on these pages and it is so undeserved.

The pressure you guys put on your players is unbelievable

 

[Sir Scott McToMinay]

Well said, Pereira gets so much shite on these pages and it is so undeserved.

The pressure you guys put on your players is unbelievable

Because this is Manchester United and not Brighton (will all due respect), we expect our attacking midfielders to show creativity and flair and put out the numbers, he isn’t any better than Tom Cleverley, possibly worse, Tom was at least very good positionally and you could count on him to do a job in a midfield two, what does Pereira bring to the table?

I like that he is a hard-worker but he’s bang average at anything else for a team trying to change it’s fortunes and get back up there, not even a viable squad option.

 

[sunama]

James has no business being associated with the other three.

Correct.
James is clearly a cut above, BUT I reserve my judgement on him, until a season has passed.
I say this because new players come in and are usually pretty good at first.
Then once our poor coaching kicks in, their performance level drops until they eventually become a fringe player and get sold.
Miki & Di Maria are the best examples. It also happened with Bailly and Rojo.
My belief is that it won't happen to James because he relies on grit, determination and speed, which our poor coaching cannot "reduce".

And as for the others...what do I expect?
I expect Perreira to be sold as he is basically useless in our team.
Lingard will remain, though he too, is useless.
And Rashford will definitely remain. He is a bit more useful but for whatever reason, all managers seem to love the guy.

 

[El Jefe]

Not one of the four is good enough to be a guaranteed starter here. James has started very well though.

IMO Pereira and Lingard shouldn't even be at the club.

 

[Devil may care]

I wasn't expecting success from this team, I said when the season started I thought top 6 was our ceiling, what I did expect was Ole to coach the team in a system and style of football, you don't need world beaters to play as a cohesive team.

 

[Eric's Seagull]

Do we need Messi, Neymar, Mbappe and Ronaldo to score more than once?

Ole keeps playing Lingard and Peieira.

He went into the season happy with the squad as he has said numerous times.

Although he may have said it he is happy I think he is putting on a brave face and I don't think he was happy with the squad. I think he would have wanted another striker in to replace Lukaku and Sanchez. I also think that he would have wanted to get at least another midfielder to replace Herrera.

I thinnk Ole has not choice with some of the players he has to start. I think Lingard has to go but I feel that he is going to get a new contract. Think that Matic will go in the summer when his contract expires next summer unless we take up the extra year, which I really hope we don't do. Fred needs to step up or he can go along with Pereira.

Although I don't think Ole is happy with the squad, I don't think he is going to moan about it as it would cause disharmony and make a difficult situation even worse.

 

[buckooo1978]

Coaching and confidence are key

I was watching a yout tube video the other day about our Europa League campaign and it shocked me in parts. I largely remember it from Zlatan doing well, Mhiki being quite productive, that tight win against Celta Vigo and the control we had over Ajax

some of the football we played in that tournament in the early stages was excellent and we played with real pace and intensity particularly at home. The link up play was much brighter than what we are seeing and Zlatan, Pogba, Lingard, Mata, Rashford and others were all looking good together - in the games I saw there was creativity, chances and plenty of goals.

There's obviously a ceiling for players like Mata, Lingard, Pereira and Rashford in terms of ability but it's clear to me that our coaching isn't being effective - every game provides the same tumescent football where we are relying on a moment of brilliance (McT) or a penalty. We are struggling to create good chances.

Confidence and coaching will help us maximize what we have

 

[TRUERED89]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Crazy stat tells it's own story

Perhaps someone should show this tweet to Ole next time he wants to say we didn't need Lukaku and Sanchez replacements.

 

[Dearg hÉireann]

I think most fans know we're in the S**t right now, from top to bottom we're a shambles. But if Jesse gets a contract extension we'll know exactly where our expected standards lie. In the gutter, Christ he's a useless little sod. The mind boggles at the amount of dross we have on good contracts

 

[noodlehair]

Wow, your standards must be really low.

It's not about where your standards are. It's about applying some kind of common sense to a situation. These are the players we have so if you think they are not good enough fine, but if they are doing their best n difficult circunstances and you are still attacking them, you're actually making yourself a part of the problem.

James is a young player we've signed from a lower league. He's done incredibly well so far and is also the hardest working player in the team.

Pereira is playing out of position and trying to do a job on the right of our attack that pretty much every other player in our squad has already tried and done no better at. He works hard, plays for the team rather than himself. He's actually provided an attacking threat down that side at times that we otherwise lack.

Rashford is still what, 22? He's had nothing but shite from our "fans" for months, for absolutely no reason...Now, surprise, he looks low on confidence and unhappy, and his performances have nose dived. He was getting shite on here when he was playing well.

I won't even go into Lingard. He's not good enough IMO to start for a team with our ambitions, but it is not his fault we have no one better and some of the stuff he gets criticism for on here ("manchild" etc.) is pathetic. Again his form has gone to shite and no doubt you lot won't be intelligent enough to figure out that this tends to happen to our players a lot when the idiot section of our fan base target them.

I often agree with your posts but you are way way off here. Pereira might be hard working but he is very far from the standard we need. Same goes for Lingard and the jury is still very much out for Rashford. Low on confidence or not but they way Lingard and Rashford have been performing is ridiculous.

See above

 

[Will Singh]

I expect what Ole said he wants, passion, play for the badge. He said he will bring back the United way and from a few interviews of ex players have said they used to be ready to die on the pitch. That’s all I expect which these wage thrives ain't giving!

 

[Amadaeus]

What? Most of them were highly regarded. In fact all of them were. Everyone that follows talent knew about Lamela and Lucas before they were bought from S-America.
At 21 Mané was the best player in Austria when Southampton bought him and many regarded the purchase by Liverpool as a bargain.
Alli was a 19 year old that had already played 3 seasons of first team football.
Liverpool paid 30m for Firmino. He wasn't some 24 year old no name that they threw money at. Watchers of the Bundesliga were well familiar with him.
Chelsea fans have had high hopes for Tammy Abraham. He's 21 and has played 2 seasons in the Championship with more than 20 goals. Before this he just wasn't ready for the Premier League.
Salah is the biggest surprise at how good he is but this is the same person that Chelsea initially bought from Basel. You think they bought him because they thought he was average?

It's a weird bunch of names that you consider average but all of them were bought at a young age by big clubs.

If these players were highly regarded, then so was Rashford, Lingard, and Pereira. Rashford is more valuable than any of those players you listed before the respective managers turned them into good players. Most club would bite our hands of to have him in their team at the time. Lingard is England international and has been playing a vital part in our team for a few years. Pereira was one of the best players coming through our academy. He was also very valuable. The fact is that most of these players improved with coaching. Something that Ole isn’t doing well to these players.

 

[lex talionis]

I see James and Rashford, despite the latter's poor form of late, having long and prosperous careers.

Lingard is a fukking shambolism of a professional footballer who should be nowhere near OT. Pereira is a useful squad player but serves in a role we seriously need to upgrade on.

 

[buckooo1978]

Perhaps someone should show this tweet to Ole next time he wants to say we didn't need Lukaku and Sanchez replacements.

he did say he wanted to replace Lukaku- deffo said that in an interview

quite telling that when Lukaku left we signed Maguire....reeks of Glazer book balancing

 

[Roboc7]

The squad is full of players who either aren’t good enough or are squad players at best. We’ll regularly face teams this season whose players are easily as good as ours. For me the team is performing pretty much as expected, when certain players are injured we’re closer to a team that you’d expect to finish 8-10th.

James has been very good so far and has been a late developer, Rashford still has potential and is going for a striker. He may not get better but could improve a lot.

Lingard would be fine if he was a squad player filling in (sort of player who should not even be guaranteed to be on bench if everyone is fit) but nowhere near a regular starter. Perreira’s new contract made no sense at the time and so far still doesn’t, I still don’t know what position he is actually supposed to play.

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

Why oh why did we not buy some attacking players in the summer? Right wing, proper striker and creative attacking mid were all obvious needs to all except the club hierarchy

 

[USREDEVIL]

Why oh why did we not buy some attacking players in the summer? Right wing, proper striker and creative attacking mid were all obvious needs to all except the club hierarchy

Eriksen, Dybala, Bruno, etc. were the rumors but we ended up with nothing and now we are paying the price.

 

[billybee99]

It's not about where your standards are. It's about applying some kind of common sense to a situation. These are the players we have so if you think they are not good enough fine, but if they are doing their best n difficult circunstances and you are still attacking them, you're actually making yourself a part of the problem.

James is a young player we've signed from a lower league. He's done incredibly well so far and is also the hardest working player in the team.

Pereira is playing out of position and trying to do a job on the right of our attack that pretty much every other player in our squad has already tried and done no better at. He works hard, plays for the team rather than himself. He's actually provided an attacking threat down that side at times that we otherwise lack.

Rashford is still what, 22? He's had nothing but shite from our "fans" for months, for absolutely no reason...Now, surprise, he looks low on confidence and unhappy, and his performances have nose dived. He was getting shite on here when he was playing well.

I won't even go into Lingard. He's not good enough IMO to start for a team with our ambitions, but it is not his fault we have no one better and some of the stuff he gets criticism for on here ("manchild" etc.) is pathetic. Again his form has gone to shite and no doubt you lot won't be intelligent enough to figure out that this tends to happen to our players a lot when the idiot section of our fan base target them.



See above

Oh yes, it is our fault that Lingard has gone over 9 months without a Premier League goal or assist. It is our fault he had 26 touches on Monday and attempted zero dribbles. Poor Jesse being bullied by the fans.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Rashford and Lingard smashed it under Ole when he first came in. They've also had good periods under Van Gaal and Mourinho. Whilst not top players (I still believe Rashford has the ability to be) they have shown in the past they can do it.

Rashford, at the tender age of 21, has too much pressure to produce in a team that has no sort of seniority. We expect too much from him, and frankly, he may just not be that player. At his age, at a team like United, unless he's special like Rooney, Messi, Ronaldo, etc at their age, then he really should be a squad player. As it is, he starts every game because we haven't got anyone else. In hindsight, we should have probably kept hold of Lukaku, or at least bought someone to replace him.

Like Rashford, Lingard should not be starting every game for United. I actually think he'd be a decent squad player to come in every now and then. Even someone to 'do a job', but he should never be a starter for United.

Pereira probably had his best game for us in a EPL game the other day against Arsenal, but to me, he's not good enough to be a squad player, never mind a starter. Can't fault his effort, but unfortunately, he's not good enough, in my opinion.

As for James, if we don't get quality around him, will go the same way Rashford has gone, in that we'll be looking at him to produce moments of magic every game when he just isn't that player yet. No way should we have bought him with the thinking that he was going to start every game. I mean, he's arguably been our best attacking player. Whilst that's good, like Rashford, he's a young lad and last year he was playing in the championship. He should be eased in!

Going forward, we need to acquire at least three attacking players, meaning demoting players like Lingard, James and Rashford to squad roles. James and Rashford have loads of time to improve and should be learning off experienced players at the club, but we haven't got any.

This is something Sir Alex was absolutely spot on with, regards always having the right cycle of players. Older players, mixed with youth. When youth got to the experienced category, he had more youth coming in. It was a constant cycle that he was absolutely fantastic at.

Ole looks like he's going all youth which, if i'm honest, doesn't seem like a great plan, but if they've got the ability, then I guess it'll be fine.

Either way, we really do need to up the quality of our squad because if we don't, we'll continue to see mediocre performances from the lads.

 

[Snow]

If these players were highly regarded, then so was Rashford, Lingard, and Pereira. Rashford is more valuable than any of those players you listed before the respective managers turned them into good players. Most club would bite our hands of to have him in their team at the time. Lingard is England international and has been playing a vital part in our team for a few years. Pereira was one of the best players coming through our academy. He was also very valuable. The fact is that most of these players improved with coaching. Something that Ole isn’t doing well to these players.

They were all highly regarded except for Lingard, don't remember any specific talk about him. Lingard and Rashford were also homegrown and not purchased for millions. United have actually brought players through to the first team without sending them away. Doesn't that suggest good coaching?

The player isn't magically transformed by coaching. The player has to do the work. Tammy Abraham was on loan at multiple clubs. He hasn't been coached by Chelsea at years.

Was Salah transformed by the coaching at Roma and Fiorentina or did he just gain more experience by playing more as he got older having experienced adversities previously unknown to him at Chelsea? Something that for example Rashford has never experienced.

 

[Amadaeus]

They were all highly regarded except for Lingard, don't remember any specific talk about him. Lingard and Rashford were also homegrown and not purchased for millions. United have actually brought players through to the first team without sending them away. Doesn't that suggest good coaching?

The player isn't magically transformed by coaching. The player has to do the work. Tammy Abraham was on loan at multiple clubs. He hasn't been coached by Chelsea at years.

Was Salah transformed by the coaching at Roma and Fiorentina or did he just gain more experience by playing more as he got older having experienced adversities previously unknown to him at Chelsea? Something that for example Rashford has never experienced.

Exactly, if these players were highly regarded than they are capable of being coached to become better players. At the moment, our current manager isn’t doing that. Lingard was not as highly regarded as the others but he was good enough to be selected for England and start multiple games for United, even getting the nickname Jessi or whatever fans called him in homage of Messi because of some of his good performances. Salah was transformed by the coaching and also experience. There doesn’t have to be a dichotomy that exist between the two.

 

[Icemav]

Guys its a bit of both. The coaching/system is not good enough and the attacking players are not performing.

The players and the coaches need to improve this and quickly because there is no other way.

 

[Icemav]

I often agree with your posts but you are way way off here. Pereira might be hard working but he is very far from the standard we need. Same goes for Lingard and the jury is still very much out for Rashford. Low on confidence or not but they way Lingard and Rashford have been performing is ridiculous.

Agree. Pereira has been pretty dire imo. A couple of 6/10 perfermances doesnt gloss that over. Like Young, Mata, Lingard.... he should not be in our side.

Pogba has also be attrocious at times. But unlike Pereira he can put in sublime worldy performances. Pereira doesnt start for any other team in the PL apart from relegation fodder.

 

[KristianMackle]

Perreira is average and needs to be replaced. Whats the formation we play when he's on the pitch anyway? 4231 with him as the right sided midfielder? Maybe we should just play a diamond.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

Attacking and blaming the fans for Lingard almost going a full year without a goal or assist in the league is mental.

Any attacking player at any level of football with Lingards stats over the last 18 months would be getting stick off their fans.

 

[billybee99]

Exactly, if these players were highly regarded than they are capable of being coached to become better players. At the moment, our current manager isn’t doing that. Lingard was not as highly regarded as the others but he was good enough to be selected for England and start multiple games for United, even getting the nickname Jessi or whatever fans called him in homage of Messi because of some of his good performances. Salah was transformed by the coaching and also experience. There doesn’t have to be a dichotomy that exist between the two.

Lingard and Salah? Yeah okay. Whatever.

 

[Inter Yer Nan]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Crazy stat tells it's own story

Grim. Not remotely surprising to read that too.

 

[Inter Yer Nan]

Attacking and blaming the fans for Lingard almost going a full year without a goal or assist in the league is mental.

Any attacking player at any level of football with Lingards stats over the last 18 months would be getting stick off their fans.

Yeah, Lingard has been given a pass for being "United through and through" for far too long. He's relegation fodder level.

 

[morbidsaint]

Pogba.. poor Pogba. The defensive midfielder that often times has to run to de Gea to get pick up the ball, and from there pass it to the likes of Matic, Pereira, Lingard before he then, if these fecking fools is successful pick the ball up again before delivering the final pass to Rashford.. and just pray that our #10 can figure out how to actually shoot on target.