With his conversion rate he'd have probably scored about 10 today.
Mauro Icardi
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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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Darmian + 30m
Just fecking sign him. Having to suffer the endless antics of him and his knob gobbling lunatic wife\agent can't be any worse than to suffer the finishing today.
feck it just get him
Immense finisher, please sign him.
We had a decent run of playing 4-3-3 under LvG and then for some reason he went to 4-2-3-1 and Jose started that way too, but IMO the system we used against City on Wednesday and with Pogba/Herrera/Mata today was a 4-3-3, Mata just had the greater freedom to roam which is fine in a game when we attack all of the time. I think we all agree to the extent we need extra firepower in the front line, it's just which position we get it in where people are disagreeing at this point.
Need a striker in January, and given his relationship with the fans, is an option, though I had hoped Griezeman would lead our line.
Whats the deal with his relationship with the fans ?
I reckon he missed out the word 'Icardi' before 'is'.
Icardi's relationship with Inter Ultras seems to have disintegrated lately.
Martial is better than him, why can't we play him up top again.
I agree with the person who said you just buy him and play him up top. There is no doubt where his best position is. No experiments, no bullshit conversion to a wide forward, second striker or some of that nonsense. Play him as a number 9, give him decent service and he will score a guaranteed number of goals.
He is not the fastest around, or the fanciest. He wont dribble past 4 opponents. He is a good header of the ball, has good movement, strong, decent touch and most importantly a clean striker of the ball and an excellent finisher. The art is to get him motivated and manage his attitude a bit, keeping him focused. There is a beast and great potential in him. If you get him to leave it all out on the pitch and chase defenders around, getting him into good positions with through balls, crosses and movement, you have a top striker on your hands.
He is not the fastest around, or the fanciest. He wont dribble past 4 opponents. He is a good header of the ball, has good movement, strong, decent touch and most importantly a clean striker of the ball and an excellent finisher. The art is to get him motivated and manage his attitude a bit, keeping him focused. There is a beast and great potential in him. If you get him to leave it all out on the pitch and chase defenders around, getting him into good positions with through balls, crosses and movement, you have a top striker on your hands.
I agree that we play better in a 433, but I don't agree that we played that today. Mata played as a CAM imo, rather than a box to box, which would make it a 4231. And that formation just doesn't work against defensively strong teams without pacy wingers who make use of the width of the pitch. For some reason, Mourinho feels like Rashford, Lingard, Young and Mata are better options out wide compared to Martial and Mkhitaryan, which is simply baffles me. So my point is, in the formation Mourinho plays atm, a pacy winger would be more useful, as the striker wouldn't get much service. So unless it's a striker who can create something for himself like Suarez, I feel like a winger might suit us more and move Rashford or Martial to a striker.
I'd hold off for Griezmann personally.
Edit: On second thoughts it's not my money, so feck it. Buy him.
Edit: On second thoughts it's not my money, so feck it. Buy him.
his goal scoring record the last few seasons is actually quite good, wouldn't be against signing him.
No he isn't.
Martial has a higher potential. But currently Icardi is a better goal scorer and that's what we lacking.
In a 4-3-3 one of the 2 CM's is always a CAM, the most famous incarnation being Barca where Busquets was deepest, with Xavi as a CM and Iniesta as the CAM supporting the attack, today that was what I felt we did, and we created bag fulls of chances, Ibra just missed them all. I'm not sure what is going on with Martial and Mkhitaryan right now but I think over time we'll see them involved, however our focal point up top is missing sitters and doesn't have the legs or mobility to stretch defenses. Rashford for me is just too far off being rounded enough for the role, s we lack of a line leader that can pressure defenses.
I don't think that was what we played against Burnley as both Pogba and Herrera were much deeper than Mata. And for me I much prefer when both box to box mid's are given the flexibility to move forward or back accordingly, but this formation currently used means that Pogba is nowhere near as effective as he neither gets forward as much as he wants, along with not doing a lot of the defensive work.
Ibra has missed way too many in recent and should have dropped a while back, but the thing is loss of form can happen to any striker. Rashford really isn't a winger as he lacks the dribbling ability for it, but he is very quick and is a decent finisher, so he should be given a chance up front. If we continue to play the 4231 formation, I'd personally love to see the front four of Martial, Mata, Mkhitaryan (from left wing to right) in behind Rashford.
Pogba is deeper yes, in the same way as Xavi was always deeper than Iniesta, it's still more a 4-3-3 than 4-2-3-1 IMO as Mata wasn't just occupying space central, and really that is often the difference between the 2 formations, the workrate and appreciation of space your #10/CAM has. Ultimately I'd go with the 2 pure #8's in Herrera and Pogba in front of a quality #6 as like you I prefer the higher energy of that balance. For now though given the options we have for this season I'd try the line-up you are suggesting as Rashford can't possibly be more wasteful than Ibra right now.
Mata wasn't occupying just central areas as he was given the freedom to move to get onto the ball, but I'm fairly sure in the first half he was a CAM and he was moved to the right for periods in the second half. Imo, what we're lacking is a midfielder that controls possession and passes the ball forward quickly. This is why I want a 3 man midfield with Carrick playing CDM, as it also allows Pogba to play in his favoured position and get more involved without worrying about his defensive responsibilities. Agreed with Rashford as Ibra needs a rest because he's just not in form atm, but also because we need switch things up, as things simply aren't working.
missed an absolute sitter today
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Channels his inner Zlatan there
€52m = £50m these days
Hits his shoulder, bit unlucky.Which minute?
the header in the 68th ?
oh boy
I watched him closely today, I think you guys were massively exaggerating his abilities.
He almost never went to the first post on crosses, always waiting on the penalty spot or some other lazy stuff. Inzaghi is rolling in his grave with the comparison in this thread.
I'm not sure you guys are gonna solve all your problems by overspending on him.
He almost never went to the first post on crosses, always waiting on the penalty spot or some other lazy stuff. Inzaghi is rolling in his grave with the comparison in this thread.
I'm not sure you guys are gonna solve all your problems by overspending on him.
I think we are drifting away a bit mate from the Icardi aspect, I reckon we pretty much agree, while I may see how Mata is operating differently I ultimately want us to get a deep lying playmaker to sit behind Pogba and Herrera for the long term, the only thing we differ on is that while I'd play Rashford in a couple of games as striker right now, I don't think he's ready to be leading the line any time soon, not that I'm sure about Icardi either in truth.
I'd agree with that aswell. I don't think Rashford is ready to lead us either. A United centre forward should be getting 20-25 league goals a season and Rashford certainly isn't anywhere near that yet imo.
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