15
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 18
- Goals
- 3
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 1
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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And an assist.
Maybe we should try him at Centre Forward instead of Wout
feck me walked off the pitch now
Huh?
Not sure why but it seems he touched his hammy or back
Sounds about par for our course.
Doing an interview at least. Seems he got a knock. Hopefully nothing too serious
Sabitzer for striker, free kick taker and corner kick taker?
At the very least we need to get him giving Bruno some lessons on how to strike the ball from outside the box.
Damn. It does look hot. Let him take every freekick in that area, then.
Not surprised to see Sabitzer in the goals. He's a box to box midfielder and he's always scored a good amount of goals.
His problem at United, like many others, is he's forced to play deeper because we have only one #6 in the squad: Casemiro. And that #6 is suspended.
Sabitzer and Fred, Sabitzer and McTominay are bad combinations. All of these players want to get forward, all are better running around, hassling opponents. None has the instinct to block off passing lanes, sense danger in our final third or cover defenders when they go forwards.
We need to get a proper backup for Casemiro. Then we might see more goals from Sabitzer in a United shirt.
His problem at United, like many others, is he's forced to play deeper because we have only one #6 in the squad: Casemiro. And that #6 is suspended.
Sabitzer and Fred, Sabitzer and McTominay are bad combinations. All of these players want to get forward, all are better running around, hassling opponents. None has the instinct to block off passing lanes, sense danger in our final third or cover defenders when they go forwards.
We need to get a proper backup for Casemiro. Then we might see more goals from Sabitzer in a United shirt.
Agree. That's why if he stays he should be a replacement for McTominay than a backup to Casemiro. He's better than McTominay and his versatility can be an asset. The only question is will he accept playing as a backup utility player or not. Definitely wont be the first choice.
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Some serious thinking about our midfield needs to happen this summer.
Ideally, we should have two players for every position. If you consider Casemiro, Eriksen and Bruno our first choice midfield, then arguably we have one #6 and one #10. It's woefully unbalanced.
Fred, McTominay, Sabitzer all are alternatives for #8. You need one of them. Not all three. You can make the case for keeping two and playing Eriksen as a #10 in rotation with Bruno. However, if the Sancho #10 experiment is going to continue, there's a strong case for moving on two and getting a #6 to backup Casemiro.
Yeah but how many players do we need who are either box to box or excel in the attacking phase. Bruno is nearly a forward? Fred is all action box to box. Eriksen can playmaker but he’s more natural a bit higher up. We just keep littering the squad with box to box / attacking / generic midfielders with nearly nobody who can help start moves.
He’s neither the playmaker we need nor can he ensure we aren’t as reliant on Casemiero.
You might be right that he is not good enough but it’s very early to be drawing that conclusion. To me he looks to have the ability and physical qualities to be very useful and challenge for a starting place. But it is true that he needs to do more. The question is whether he is actually able to do more and we really need a few more weeks to form a judgement on that.
That's why ETH is doing an amazing job here, so many players are playing out of position, and some key one don't have a proper backup.
Let's see how he preform when Eriksen come back to the team, for now I would rather keep him for next season more than Mct and VDB, both were here for too long and not really up to the standard.
Let's see how he preform when Eriksen come back to the team, for now I would rather keep him for next season more than Mct and VDB, both were here for too long and not really up to the standard.
Great post.
Yeah, that's how I've been viewing things as well in terms of the balance of our current partnerships in midfield.
We've got Eriksen and Fernandes for the creativity, Fred and Sabitzer (if, as I'd like, he's made permanent) for the energy and box to box. Casemiro as the world class number 6. Without Casemiro, we currently don't have a balanced midfield as we don't have anyone to come in and do the clever defensive work that you list. In an ideal world, we'd buy in an understudy for Casemiro and offload VDB and McTominay for a well balanced group of 6 midfielders.
I watched the Austria game yesterday and was, obviously, really impressed with Sabitzer's performance. Not a surprise, of course, as he's shown plenty of times before for Austria and Leipzig how much of a threat he can be going forward when allowed to play more of a free, forward going role from midfield. He's great for that energetic, #8 role.
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Good overall performance
Hopefully the injury is nothing serious and seeing as the Austrian FA tweeted that Leeds' Max Wöber has returned to his club due to an injury and nothing about Sabi, it seems it's not.
This shows what I thought, his best position would be Bruno rotation, the Sancho/WW experiment should be over seeing this, moving them on along with McT & VDB, that should leave us with:
Casemiro/*new understudy aka Lavia
Eriksen/Fred
Bruno/Sabitzer
For £15-20m I'd be well happy with him signing. He's probably the player I thought we were getting with Donny. He's just a lot more robust and suits the league more.
He also has hardly gotten a run in with our best XI, as ETH has picked Fred over him when Casemiro is playing majority of the time, so he's had to deal with getting stuck in the lesser sides.
He may improve with a run in the team playing with our best players, and you’re right that it’s probably too early to judge him based on the amount of game time he’s had. On what I’ve seen so far though, he’d be a hard pass from me.
He’s certainly got work to do.
Would like to see (front 6)
Sabitzer Casemiro Eriksen
Anthony Rashford Sancho
Sabitzer Casemiro Eriksen
Anthony Rashford Sancho
I’d be interested to see that. Only way it happens is if Bruno gets injured or suspended.
Did not train today with the national team and might sit out Austria’s next qualifier due to a knee problem. Rangnick said it’s all about “pain management”, so hopefully he doesn’t play and is fit for next weekend. Can’t afford to have more players out with Casemiro being suspended…
Yeah at least let's see him and Casa together a couple of times before end of season before making a call on what to do
That's a worry.
If it's just a knock, then hopefully he'll not feature in the game but be OK for us v Newcastle or, at worst, v Brentford.
But a shame after such a great first game that he can't get another confidence boost with another positive display - and a worry that his injury may mean he misses some of the matches that Casemiro and, probably, Eriksen will also miss.
As you say, we especially need him to be fit for the next 3 games. After that, Casemiro and maybe Eriksen will be back to strengthen our midfield options so sod's law if Sabitzer misses some of those 3 as well.
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This is why I believe the March international break should be scrapped.
Doesn't sound anything too serious.
Sounds like Rangnick thinks he might even be available to play in Austria's next game, so hopefully it's not a major injury.Tweet
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This is why I believe the March international break should be scrapped.
He is clearly more comfortable higher up the pitch, which is a shame because I wouldn't say the squad needs another Fred-type.
But I'm happy he scored a brace and performed well last week.
But I'm happy he scored a brace and performed well last week.
So reading the article and quotes rangnick, sabitzer has had knee issues before anyway and he's expected to play next game (he picked up a knock hence being subbed early in last game )
Personally I don't think you can have enough versatile midfielders especially ones with good qualities on the ball. It's the same argument as "we don't need a 10 we have Bruno" and then we are stuck playing Bruno 90 minutes in 60 matches a year while he runs himself into the ground.
On the bench, which is kind of ideal. Means he's able to play but hopefully doesn't even have to come on so that he'd be fresh for Newcastle.
Can see both sides of those points.
A few versatile players are good for a squad as they provide options and therefore depth in a variety of positions.
So, yeah, I'm happy to have some versatile midfielders amongst the group. But specialists are also key. So it's all about the balance. Personally, I think there's room for both Fred and Sabitzer in a group of six midfielders. Especially with Sabitzer also able to play as a #10. But you'd probably then look to offload McTominay and VDB to bring in a specialist understudy #6 along with Casemiro. With Eriksen and Fernandes rounding it off.
With those six, you'd have at least two players able to play the 6, 8 and 10 roles and have balance as well as depth and quality.
Sky Sports have him on the bench tonight as breaking news 
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