Manchester United vs Rayo Vallecano (Sun 31st July, 16:00 UK time) | Happy King (Bebe) Day

AndySmith1990

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All those who were banging on about us “selling the deadwood” as if by virtue of not having certain players we would improve. Well, we sold/released the deadwood, haven’t replaced them and these kids are currently our bench. We genuinely need about 5 further signings this summer, or we need to be patient with these kids. Or it’s going to be a really long season on here.
I'm happy to see the back of Pogba and Lingard and instead have players like Garnacho and Zidane come in. We still need signings, sure, but releasing those players certainly wasn't a mistake
 

Dazzmondo

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I quite enjoyed a lot of what I saw. Garnacho and Zidane just look great! I really hope they get some mins this season. After struggling in the 1st half, I thought Laird massively improved in the 2nd which was good to see. Martinez looked class imo. VDB had a good game. Amad finally had a decent pre-season performance. Still think he'll ultimately go on loan. Hasn't shown himself good enough to play for us this season. Now time to prepare for Brighton
 

redom

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Decent pre-season overall, we've got to see things start to take shape under ETH but with clear issues that still need to be addressed. Now it's on to the real thing and we'll get a better idea of where we really stand this season, I'm cautiously optimistic.
 

NinjaZombie

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Truth is the youngsters are used to playing nice quick interchanging football. ETH coming in will help them massively because most aren't the type that would have excelled under Ole ball.
This has me stumped for a while now. We've had youth players who play quick interchanging football but the ones who get into the first team show very little of it.
 

RedPed

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Amad needs more first team game time. He's better than Elanga, who's pretty crap. Hope Sancho is ready for next week. The one thing that really is apparent is that we need better squad depth.
 

Stobzilla

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There were some pretty poor takes in here today, Laird, Garnacho, Zidane and Amad all impressed.
Yeah, I wasn't really looking for much from Garner, Eriksen, Ronaldo or Martinez given their lack of minutes but happy to varying degrees with them.

Laird I thought really grew into the game and was exposed horribly by:

Chong, who was bad, more frustrated with him than anyone because he is better than that but I think that ship has sailed now. Injury last season has killed his chances after a promising start.

Hannibal, outside of a horrible mistake getting caught in possession, IHA, Shola, Amad, all looked lively.

VdB and Telles need to leave. Don't care about depth at either position they just need to go.

Zidane Iqbal has class written all over him, hope he stays until at least January.
 

Anustart89

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lairds not going to make it.
Too early to write him off before we've seen if he can improve in-house to suit EtH's style of play, but based on today I don't see him being nailed on to make it as some people think. I'd much rather we sold AWB and kept Laird as backup to Dalot as opposed to sending him out on a loan where he'd be coached by someone else or playing as a wing-back in a 3-5-2 or something.
 

redom

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Zidane shows for the ball a bit more than garner.
He seems a better stylistic fit for us at the moment, comfortable receiving the ball in tight spots and popping it off to his team mates, just lacks the first team experience that Garner has from his loans.
 

Kopral Jono

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Garnacho and Garner are both ready. Iqbal is getting there. Amad needs to be around. Chong, or Chongy as referred to by a certain managerial genius from Norway, needs to feck off.
 

davidmichael

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Laird, Garner, Iqbal and Garnacho all deserve to be in the first team picture this season. For me Laird should be our starting right back and learn about the defending part of the game from the likes of Varane whilst Garner would be a good back up to De Jong if we sign him.

Every time I’ve seen Iqbal he’s oozed class and you can see his brain is constantly seeing things no one else is, I’d say he’s probably ahead of Mejbri right now. Garnacho should be used as main back up to Rashford and Sancho if they’re to be our starting wide players this season.
 

Dargonk

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Decent game from the kids all up in the end. I think Zidane and Garnacho have both performed well, and could force themselves into the squad. Amad showed glimpses, but still doesn't look ready. Chong I felt is the one who let himself down the most today, given nearly 90minutes, but didn't have a great game.
 

largelyworried

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First 30 minutes were ok, last 10 mins with the kids in was good too, the bit in the middle was fairly drab. The defending on the goal was godawful, not seen it replayed but looked like Telles was the one leaving an enormous gap. Didn't really get chance to see Martinez do much, but he looked ok. Thought Varane was fairly poor.

Not too bad a preseason overall, none of the performances were worrying (unless you imagined we were challenging for the league this season) and I think we've seen as much progress as you could reasonably hope for in a month under ETH. Just hope everyone's sharp and fit next weekend.
 

DevilRed

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Too early to write him off before we've seen if he can improve in-house to suit EtH's style of play, but based on today I don't see him being nailed on to make it as some people think. I'd much rather we sold AWB and kept Laird as backup to Dalot as opposed to sending him out on a loan where he'd be coached by someone else or playing as a wing-back in a 3-5-2 or something.
I have a feeling AWB might get sold.
 

Dazzmondo

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Garnacho and Garner are both ready. Iqbal is getting there. Amad needs to be around. Chong, or Chongy as referred to by a certain managerial genius from Norway, needs to feck off.
Based on today Iqbal looked more ready than Garner tbh
 

Anustart89

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I have a feeling AWB might get sold.
You'd have to wonder who'd be stupid to pay the sort of money we would expect to get for him. I reckon we'll probably want £20m back for him and he's clearly not worth more than half that.
 

Laurencio

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Garnacho, Iqbal and Savage should be getting some minutes this season, case could be made for Laird - but I think we need to buy a new right back. The rest do not look either ready or good enough.

Rashford better watch out, because Garnacho could take his spot if he doesn't get his act together pronto.
 

Woziak

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Only two of the young players should be involved in the squad next week, Zidane and Ganaucho.
Predicted First 11 team all being fit ; D De Gea, D Dalot, H Maguire or R VaraneL Martinez, L Shaw, Fred, Ericsen, Bruno, J Sancho, Martial, Rashford
Subs; T Heaton, V Lindelof, R Varane or H Maguire , T Mallicia, S Mctominay, DVB, Zidane,, Ganaucho, Ronaldo


however I’m sure ETH will swap out Zidane and Ganaucho for J Garner snd A Ellanga, this is without doubt the most bang average attacking options we’ve had in 20 years.
 

siw2007

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Not bad from the team, considering there were so many young players out there this afternoon. Garnacho was electrifying, good displays from Laird, Amad and Iqbal too. Less impressed with Chong (not strong enough) and Garner (doesn’t read the game quick enough).

One week of training and it starts again!!
 

BuzzKillington

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I'm happy to see the back of Pogba and Lingard and instead have players like Garnacho and Zidane come in. We still need signings, sure, but releasing those players certainly wasn't a mistake
Add Henderson, Greenwood, Matic & Mata to that list. We have no midfielders or back up forwards, the only area of the pitch where we have genuine competition and backups is the back line.

I genuinely like the look of Garnacho, Iqbal and Savage, but I’m really not confident we can rely on the likes of them and Hannibal in the big games. The thought of sending those lads out against Pool or City gives me a twitchy arse.
 

Strelok

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Had a free kick on the corner of the area. Telles laid it off to the right for DvB to put his laces through it. Currently the ball is somewhere over Mongolia in low earth orbit.
It was hilarious probably one of the worst shots I've seen in years he didn't even hit the ball right :lol:

Anyway Telles must secretly be in love with VDB. He managed to find VDB another time later in a box full of players :D
 

VP89

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Since your Pogba’s biggest fan I don’t feel the need to engage with you on what’s considered “good football” anymore. Cheers
I am his staunchest critic, the mods put an ironic tagline to try and wind me up.

You should look up my post history for any Pogba views :lol:
 

Dare to Zlatan

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Garnacho was certainly a bright spark today, but some of the players really let themselves down today. I can’t see any way that Varane starts the opening game of the season ahead of Maguire, he was awful and that affected laird massively in the first 60 minutes of the game. Also what are people seeing in garner that warrants the praise he receives? I didn’t see anything from him today.
 

The holy trinity 68

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Garnacho was certainly a bright spark today, but some of the players really let themselves down today. I can’t see any way that Varane starts the opening game of the season ahead of Maguire, he was awful and that affected laird massively in the first 60 minutes of the game. Also what are people seeing in garner that warrants the praise he receives? I didn’t see anything from him today.
Garner is miles behind the rest of the squad fitness wise, as he didn't play at all on the tour of Australia due to injury.
 

georgipep

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That's exactly what I had in mind when writing that post. I'll forgive Ronaldo on that given he isn't match fit, is old, past it and doesn't have the legs to make surging runs on the turn. Not to mention these days he's known as a pure goalscorer, so I don't expect him to make plays from deep.

Garner on the other hand is a midfielder expected to carry the ball and make plays. The ball was returned to him like 5 times yet refused to take responsibility and do anything more with the ball hut make those few yards passes.
Yeah, that one did not bode well for Garner and him asserting himself on the game.