List everything that has to be done

[VojjE]

Woodward/Glazers aren't going anywhere so won't go into any of that.

1. Stop being kneejerk reactionists
2. Assess the match properly
3. Assess the squad quality wise
4. Assess the current mentality of the squad
5. Assess the coaching methods

From there we can make some sort of change, whether it is
- Looking for more quality in the squad, i.e new players that can provide a new injection of energy to the squad, both physical and mental.
- Making changes in training and mentality coaching, sometimes squads needs some sort of change, a kick up the arse to get going again. If the same squad that went undefeated in the league for so many games suddenly looks dogshite there is something going on.
- Change the coach. Sometimes it's not even that the coach's methods are bad or have changed, it's just that the player's need something new to get out of the rut. Ole isn't a bad manager but if he can't get a result out of his players then there will have to be a change.

Something needs to happen, but it needs to happen with the longterm in mind. This season is in shambles and I thought it would be even before it began. The only reason this season is even happening as it is, with the fixture congestion and the late start is because of financial obligations, it hasn't got the quality of the sport in mind at all.

 

[FujiVice]

Ask yourself this - Is David De Gea a good enough modern goalkeeper? Is Harry Maguire a Man United captain? Could Luke Shaw get into at least 10 Premier League starting 11s? Does Pogba have more good games than bad ones? Is at 30-odd year old Matic good enough to play as a deep lying midfielder in such an energetic league? Is Martial a player good enough to lead the line for Man United?

Or and why is there a manager who got sacked from Cardiff coaching the biggest club in the world (registered trademark)?

 

[GenZRed]

1) Glazers sell the club
2) Woodward sacked or moved away from footballing duties
3) Put in place a proper modern structure which will enable to club to compete

Only if those 3 are complete can we

4) Replace coaching staff
5) Get a better manager
6) Replace anyone who isn't prepared to give 100% on the pitch

This.

 

[bondsname]

If we need to make a list of everything that has to be done this thread will have more pages than the Sancho thread. A fecking shitshow is what it is.

 

[RashyForPM]

Now that I’ve cleared my head a little, I’ll list them from most pressing to least.

1) Glazers out
2) Woodward out, VdS in
3) Ole out
4) Judge out
5) Hire a DoF
6) Fix up the recruitment - buy the right players as requested by the right manager, no overpaying but no lowballing too.
7) Sell the deadwood, of which there are too many too list.
8) Sell Pogba, De Gea and Maguire. Eating up wages, and atm they’re all poor.

How long will these things take to do? Probably around a decade honestly. We’ll see.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Nuke the earth first and then rebuild.

 

[TsuWave]

Get a proper manager in please. Giving this guy a permanent job on the back of a month’s purple patch and a super sub goal scored back in 99 was always an idiotic decision

 

[GenZRed]

Woodward/Glazers aren't going anywhere so won't go into any of that.

1. Stop being kneejerk reactionists
2. Assess the match properly
3. Assess the squad quality wise
4. Assess the current mentality of the squad
5. Assess the coaching methods

From there we can make some sort of change, whether it is
- Looking for more quality in the squad, i.e new players that can provide a new injection of energy to the squad, both physical and mental.
- Making changes in training and mentality coaching, sometimes squads needs some sort of change, a kick up the arse to get going again. If the same squad that went undefeated in the league for so many games suddenly looks dogshite there is something going on.
- Change the coach. Sometimes it's not even that the coach's methods are bad or have changed, it's just that the player's need something new to get out of the rut. Ole isn't a bad manager but if he can't get a result out of his players then there will have to be a change.

Something needs to happen, but it needs to happen with the longterm in mind. This season is in shambles and I thought it would be even before it began. The only reason this season is even happening as it is, with the fixture congestion and the late start is because of financial obligations, it hasn't got the quality of the sport in mind at all.

Do you think people calling for new owners and Woodward to be sacked or at least moved out of transfer dealings, are 'kneejerk reactionists'?

Honest question.

 

[Ralph1386]

1) Glazers / Woodward out.

2) New owners who get this club and want to run it like a football club that wins trophies and not like a piggy bank. Owners who hire the right person at the right position. They would hire football people to take care of football issues, and business people to take care of business issues.

3)A competent and experienced DOF who has the same vision for the club as these new owners. He would revamp our transfer strategy and make sure we hire the best staff - not just the players but all the staff in the club.

4)A competent manager who can work hand in hand with the owners and DOF with a clear long term vision for the club. This manager needs go have good assistants around him to help him in the areas where he feels or we feel he is lacking.

Ole can stay to create a healthy transition before the next chosen manager arrives.

5) The club and its entire culture need to be galvanized by the change of ownership.

6) Continuity and common vision need to remain at the club regardless of whether we sack a manager or not.

(of course, I know that the glazers selling the club is far fetched at the moment.)

 

[Ollie Derbyshire]

Get some coaches in to try and explain to these idiots how to play football as a team, I’ve seen better in U12 leagues. When did we last have a coach like Brian Kidd, Steve McClaren or Carlos Quieroz?? Someone who is world class at coaching.

The fact half our team don’t seem to know where they are meant to be on the pitch is a disgrace.

If we can’t play decent football changing the owners and transfer team is going to do jack all.

 

[Redfan94]

The ‘Be a proper fan and back the club/manager’ boat has well and truly sailed for anyone complaining of knee jerk reactions.

Just so everyone’s clear.

 

[Fooza]

More easier to just invent a time machine and go back to living in the fergie days again. That's how much a mess we're in at the moment.

 

[VojjE]

Do you think people calling for new owners and Woodward to be sacked or at least moved out of transfer dealings, are 'kneejerk reactionists'?

Honest question.

I think the board and owners can do a lot (a lot a lot) better by this club, so I would call that calling as fair and justified. But it won't happen realistically.

 

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

glazers out

woodward out

ole and coaching staff out

sell pogba if he wants to go

sell maguire and de gea

sell jones and lingard

hire a dof

hire a competent manager

Yes, everything is a mess. Massive job required.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

Woodward/Glazers aren't going anywhere so won't go into any of that.

1. Stop being kneejerk reactionists
2. Assess the match properly
3. Assess the squad quality wise
4. Assess the current mentality of the squad
5. Assess the coaching methods

From there we can make some sort of change, whether it is
- Looking for more quality in the squad, i.e new players that can provide a new injection of energy to the squad, both physical and mental.
- Making changes in training and mentality coaching, sometimes squads needs some sort of change, a kick up the arse to get going again. If the same squad that went undefeated in the league for so many games suddenly looks dogshite there is something going on.
- Change the coach. Sometimes it's not even that the coach's methods are bad or have changed, it's just that the player's need something new to get out of the rut. Ole isn't a bad manager but if he can't get a result out of his players then there will have to be a change.

Something needs to happen, but it needs to happen with the longterm in mind. This season is in shambles and I thought it would be even before it began. The only reason this season is even happening as it is, with the fixture congestion and the late start is because of financial obligations, it hasn't got the quality of the sport in mind at all.

Fair points. I've just vented my spleen in the Glazers/Woodward Out thread but there's no doubt that was a terrible performance from that group of players and coaches, and that if heads rolled in that dressing room there could hardly be many complaints. It would disappoint me if that were to happen and the boardroom stayed as is but the team out on the pitch look gone.

 

[United Hobbit]

Review if Glazers are willing to spend money on the club. If not sell

Move Ed purely to the corporate side of things

Appoint a DOF

Set a proper plan in place

Sell the deadwood and make quality signings that actually fit the plan

Sack Ole

Bring in a world class manager

 

[Eli Zee]

new owners.

new manager.

new coaches based on managers preference.

Continue to remove players that aren't good enough.

Bring in new transfers.

and most importantly - Don't allow the money guys to dictate anything football related - just have them either sign checks or not, based on the opinions of people with actual football knowledge.


that would be like building a club from scratch though. More realistically would be just a new manager and continue to go for youth / players that don't cost an arm and a leg. Hire better scouts and negotiate deals with players/teams better. Definitely stop overpaying for players that aren't even that good. And drop players that underperform.

 

[GenZRed]

I think the board and owners can do a lot (a lot a lot) better by this club, so I would call that calling as fair and justified. But it won't happen realistically.

Sadly you are right.

 

[L1nk]

The Glazers and Woodward have to be changed, the whole board needs to be changed, this is an absolute given, no matter any other answer given in this thread, these are musts. However, this will be a long long time before this happens, if ever.

1. Ole needs to go - People can say he hasn't been backed, he hasn't this, he hasn't that. Fact is he's never been good enough for this club, he's here because he's an ex player that's the reality of it, but there are far more talented managers out in the world that can get more from the players we have now. If you're telling me the difference between us winning todays match and not being absolutely all at sea and completely thrashed is just signing Jadon Sancho then no.

The squad isn't the best in the world, but you aren't going to sit there and convince me a squad with Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, Fernandes, Pogba, VdB, De Gea, Maguire, Wan Bissaka and all the rest are complete trash and we deserve to play so crap, i'm sorry but no, we have loads of better players than a lot of teams in world football, they just play like complete strangers. It should clue people in that whenever we buy a good performing player, like Fernandes, that as soon as we get our hands on them their performance level drops to shite, it literally never fails to happen, Maguire isn't 80m worth but he was much better at Leicester, same as AWB at Crystal Palace.

2. We need an entirely different coaching setup - Clearly this isn't working, what are we even doing in training? They look absolutely lost on the pitch. I'm tired of this jobs for the boys nonsense, trying to desperately cling onto any morsel of SAF we can, this will surely come along with a new manager but can we bring in a good, young, relevant manager and let them bring in their coaches and staff

3. We need Footballing people at the board level - Whether it's a DOF or whoever I don't care at this point, we need people with actual footballing knowledge and contacts to be at the highest level alongside Woodward et al. We are a laughing stock around Europe with Matt Judge and the rest of the circus, our transfer windows are always complete messes and certainly never properly planned, briefs all the time, stupid comments about how we should trust the process, thinking we can back clubs into corner when we obviously can't, flaunting our financial muscle to the world and doing nothing with it, overpaying on players who aren't worth the transfer fee, overpaying wages on players who don't deserve it, giving new contracts to players who don't deserve it I can go on and on, it's a shambolic state of affairs.

To be fair I could write an entire pissing essay on this stuff it's so blatantly obvious and yet nobody is doing anything to fix it.

 

[Jacob]

Wish there was a reset button. The only ones associated with the club I'd regret losing are Mason and Bruno.

 

[tombombadil]

Ole and Evra are right. This is the worst time for internationals. Now all the players are going to be isolated and exposed.

They need to get all the players back together and batten the hatches. It's going to be a long war.

 

[TehRed]

Glazers out. We need ownership whose goals extend beyond "milk a dividend from the club" and who realise that investment in order to achieve success on the field is important to growing the brand too.

Woodward out. We need a football man making the decisions. I'm all for him staying at the club in a role that suits his qualities, but it should be purely commercial and have nothing to do with the footballing side.

We need at least one new CB. A starter, not a youth project.

We need a new DM. Matic won't last forever. Fred and McTominay aren't 100% suited to being his successor, not in the current system at least.

We need a starting RW. Sancho, sure, but someone else is required if not him. This has been needed for years now.

We need to either play Pogba in a role that suits him better, or look to selling him.

I'm not gonna say "Ole out" juuuust yet.

 

[RashyForPM]

The Glazers and Woodward have to be changed, the whole board needs to be changed, this is an absolute given, no matter any other answer given in this thread, these are musts. However, this will be a long long time before this happens, if ever.

1. Ole needs to go - People can say he hasn't been backed, he hasn't this, he hasn't that. Fact is he's never been good enough for this club, he's here because he's an ex player that's the reality of it, but there are far more talented managers out in the world that can get more from the players we have now. If you're telling me the difference between us winning todays match and not being absolutely all at sea and completely thrashed is just signing Jadon Sancho then no.

The squad isn't the best in the world, but you aren't going to sit there and convince me a squad with Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, Fernandes, Pogba, VdB, De Gea, Maguire, Wan Bissaka and all the rest are complete trash and we deserve to play so crap, i'm sorry but no, we have loads of better players than a lot of teams in world football, they just play like complete strangers. It should clue people in that whenever we buy a good performing player, like Fernandes, that as soon as we get our hands on them their performance level drops to shite, it literally never fails to happen, Maguire isn't 80m worth but he was much better at Leicester, same as AWB at Crystal Palace.

2. We need an entirely different coaching setup - Clearly this isn't working, what are we even doing in training? They look absolutely lost on the pitch. I'm tired of this jobs for the boys nonsense, trying to desperately cling onto any morsel of SAF we can, this will surely come along with a new manager but can we bring in a good, young, relevant manager and let them bring in their coaches and staff

3. We need Footballing people at the board level - Whether it's a DOF or whoever I don't care at this point, we need people with actual footballing knowledge and contacts to be at the highest level alongside Woodward et al. We are a laughing stock around Europe with Matt Judge and the rest of the circus, our transfer windows are always complete messes and certainly never properly planned, briefs all the time, stupid comments about how we should trust the process, thinking we can back clubs into corner when we obviously can't, flaunting our financial muscle to the world and doing nothing with it, overpaying on players who aren't worth the transfer fee, overpaying wages on players who don't deserve it, giving new contracts to players who don't deserve it I can go on and on, it's a shambolic state of affairs.

To be fair I could write an entire pissing essay on this stuff it's so blatantly obvious and yet nobody is doing anything to fix it.

This is the post of the year. If Woodward read this, it’d help him. He won’t though, the chinless twat.

 

[Murder on Zidane's Floor]

Two year project.

1. Find a buyer for the club (Jim Ratcliffe, Jeff Bezos).
2. Hire a Director of Football
3. Double our scouting network.
4. Poach the backroom staff from Dortmund, Bayern, Leipzig. Staff who take care of nutrition, fitness, data analytics, player profiling.
5. Revamp our academy, lower the burden on transfers and huge financial outlays.
6. Institute a play style and formation which is ours. This factor does not change with managerial appointments, we select managers based on their match to our play style.
7. Player profiles are matched as above to our play style.
8. We never overpay or approach transfers from a position of need, leads us to be played for fools. Approach, enquire, too expensive? Reject, next target.
9. Select targets early and constantly be enquiring for players, don't start few weeks before summer.
10. Playstyle I'd suggest is three at the back my 2c

 

[GenZRed]

The Glazers and Woodward have to be changed, the whole board needs to be changed, this is an absolute given, no matter any other answer given in this thread, these are musts. However, this will be a long long time before this happens, if ever.

1. Ole needs to go - People can say he hasn't been backed, he hasn't this, he hasn't that. Fact is he's never been good enough for this club, he's here because he's an ex player that's the reality of it, but there are far more talented managers out in the world that can get more from the players we have now. If you're telling me the difference between us winning todays match and not being absolutely all at sea and completely thrashed is just signing Jadon Sancho then no.

The squad isn't the best in the world, but you aren't going to sit there and convince me a squad with Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, Fernandes, Pogba, VdB, De Gea, Maguire, Wan Bissaka and all the rest are complete trash and we deserve to play so crap, i'm sorry but no, we have loads of better players than a lot of teams in world football, they just play like complete strangers. It should clue people in that whenever we buy a good performing player, like Fernandes, that as soon as we get our hands on them their performance level drops to shite, it literally never fails to happen, Maguire isn't 80m worth but he was much better at Leicester, same as AWB at Crystal Palace.

2. We need an entirely different coaching setup - Clearly this isn't working, what are we even doing in training? They look absolutely lost on the pitch. I'm tired of this jobs for the boys nonsense, trying to desperately cling onto any morsel of SAF we can, this will surely come along with a new manager but can we bring in a good, young, relevant manager and let them bring in their coaches and staff

3. We need Footballing people at the board level - Whether it's a DOF or whoever I don't care at this point, we need people with actual footballing knowledge and contacts to be at the highest level alongside Woodward et al. We are a laughing stock around Europe with Matt Judge and the rest of the circus, our transfer windows are always complete messes and certainly never properly planned, briefs all the time, stupid comments about how we should trust the process, thinking we can back clubs into corner when we obviously can't, flaunting our financial muscle to the world and doing nothing with it, overpaying on players who aren't worth the transfer fee, overpaying wages on players who don't deserve it, giving new contracts to players who don't deserve it I can go on and on, it's a shambolic state of affairs.

To be fair I could write an entire pissing essay on this stuff it's so blatantly obvious and yet nobody is doing anything to fix it.

A great post.

Our squad is certainly good enough to challenge for Top 4 on paper but like you said, the coaching and training must be so bad they end up playing like total strangers and decent/good players end up looking lost and hopeless on the pitch. As others have said, even if we signed Messi (not realistic, I know) he would be bought down a level or two due to our coaching setup.

 

[pseudo_canadian]

Scorched earth.

Yup. Scorched earth is the bare minimum starting point.

 

[Lentwood]

The Glazers are going nowhere so lets not waste time on them. In any case, they are only running the club in the way 95% of clubs are run so we can’t cry about some massive handicap when we’ve spent £1BN net this last decade

Second, we can talk about transfers but look at the difference Arteta has made at Arsenal with mainly the same squad.

This squad now is capable. In the past i’ve been critical of the quality of the players - but I think it’s getting more and more difficult to argue they are “poor” players.

For me, the defeat today was 100% tactical. No pressing, no pressure on the ball, huge gaps in the midfield, a high line constantly exposed due to overloads and players easily picking up the lines between the back four and midfield.

Last season we played counter-attacking football (which is much easier to do). I fear that now Ole is being asked to play front-foot football he is out of depth. I’m confident if we went back to playing 4-2-3-1 and getting 10 behind the ball we’d win games and maybe finish 3rd/4th...but that’s not going to wash long term and wastes the talents of our better players.

 

[Andi Latte]

Stop living in the past!

Most problems post SAF stem from an unwillingness to let go of past glories. It started when SAF was allowed to name his own successor. Then we forced Giggs on LVG as an assistant and did the same with Carrick and Jose. Now Ole is in charge and with him Phelan, Carrick and McKenna, all of whose sole achievements are being part of SAFs connection. Those aren't the best people for the job, they're just the most United people they could get.

It's the same with "rewarding" players simply for being here a long time without really contributing. It's just sentimental, and backwards, all in hoping we could bring back the times of Ferguson.

Well, those times are over, accept it and move on. Act like a modern club and not like this distorted vision of the past.

 

[hungrywing]

If one had no choice but to keep the Glazers/Woodward and just fix one single thing, it would be the wages. That's how badly overpaying is affecting the club, from the contempt it draws from the rest of the footballing world to playing staff motivation to erosion of manager power.

 

[redshaw]

If the Glazers can't be gone then they need to sweep out the fools running the club for them. A billion has been spent and this is the result. The club is overseen by people unable to do the job.

The set up and training/coaching must be one of the worst. It's seven years in a row where signed players come in looking fit and fresh from another club and fall away, some take weeks, some take months. Bruno must have lasted the longest and has now succumbed. Every season our players are slow, grimacing after a few games, can't press, can't run, shatter to pieces in the tackle, overweight.

This fatigue mentality comes from the feel of the club post Fergie by those running it, it's not a serious set up, it really is the disney of football as Ed rightly said, collect a huge salary and coast through like a football holiday camp, put on a show every now and then.

 

[onemata]

(1) The Glasers are not going anywhere very fast and have provided plenty of money . They need to be active as owners which means

(2) get rid of Woodward or make him in charge only of more commercial deals with Chinese mattress manufacturers or the like .

(3 ) appoint a director of football immediately

(4) sack the rest of the board who are just freeloaders and get a new CEO and board members none of whom used to know Woodentop at Bristol University

( 5) get a more experienced commanding manager who does not go around the pitch back slapping the opposition after losing so appallingly and has the guts to substitute Pogba for VDB after 30 minutes of playing complete crap as per the usual Jogba , losing the ball , slowing the pace down , handling the ball instead of letting it hit his mush , etc . I see his defenders now excuse him because he is recovering from Covid to add to the long list of other excuses for generally being a complete fraud . why sign VDB otherwise and not use him . The new manager should

(6) sell the aforementioned Pogba . Should have been done earlier when he had some perceived value .
Sell De Gea now before Henderson gets disillusioned .
Don't buy Jadon Sancho . I would trust Greenwood he is not that far behind . Good statistics in the Bundesliga are deceptive .
We don't need to get Cavani a backward panic step given his age but it sounds too late now unless he watched the match today and asked the pilot to turn round .
we should buy Upamacano and sell Bailly
We should have bought Erling Haaland try again but probably too late
Keep Mata . He always gives 110 % to use a cliche , is an all round good bloke and is a smarter player even now than anyone apart from Fernandez . Despite being slow he somehow gets into the box faster than players in their early twenties . It's called intelligence . Hugs

None of the above will happen though .