Does this mean Lindelof at RB??? Lord have mercy. After all the money we've spent and we still have a backline that consists of Lindelof, Evans and Maguire.
Club is just madness.
Club is just madness.
3
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 22
- Clean sheets
- 8
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 1
Poor bloke, plays for us for less than 2 months and we already caused him to have a dodgy ticker.
Did we give this guy a thorough medical??
Obviously not!
Obviously not!
Maguire is injured and we are probably only a Martinez injury away from Casemiro to CB again. Madness is not the word for it.
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"Lisandro Martínez has arrived at the Argentina camp with a physical problem that is not leaving him in good shape. " from his thread
+1 to AVNRT - that's what I had my ablation for. Would make sense why not picked up as it can be hard to identify / replicate. Doctors said that it probably wouldn't have been identified in me until much later in life if I wasn't so active. It took a lot of stress testing to replicate when diagnosing (and a lot of adrenaline directly to heart during the surgery!).If it's an ablation he had, then a much more fun topic of discussion would be what arrhythmia we think he had. Based on his age profile I would guess AVNRT or WPW
Anyone else want to play?
Right..
NT coach in the prematch press conference said what he has is not too alarming and he should be back soon
Why do you assume there was anything to detect?
He had myocarditis in early 2023 following a Covid infection from the World Cup, but he performed regularly and normally after that at Bayern. I have no idea if this now is connected to the myocarditis as some kind of after effect but in any case it's not like he has a serious heart condition.
Stop acting like our club doctors are buffoons failing to 'detect' something that is a published part of his medical history even known to fans. If you think our club is 'completely incompetent' that is merely because you want to think that.
I wasn’t told that I had WPW until mid thirties. That was after 20 years of echocardiograms and stress tests every year (due to other inherited issues) I was told that likely I had it already but it doesn’t always show itself till later.
I don’t think the club did anything wrong here with regards to finding whatever it is. It just showed itself later.
You're a cardiologist, then?
Completely agree. No blame on the club whatsoever.
I wonder if we really wanted Mazroui or Bayern offered him to us like a buy one get one free offer.
So much of his transfer doesn't make sense, the age, the health, the attacking ability, the future managers utelising defensive fullbacks instead of potential use of wingbacks etc.
He's better than Wan Bissaka but I felt Dalot was good enough defensively at RB to focus on a proper attacking player at RB.
Having a defensive RB or LB feels shit to me when we could just literally play Lindelof at RB as many teams are doing now with their CB's.
So much of his transfer doesn't make sense, the age, the health, the attacking ability, the future managers utelising defensive fullbacks instead of potential use of wingbacks etc.
He's better than Wan Bissaka but I felt Dalot was good enough defensively at RB to focus on a proper attacking player at RB.
Having a defensive RB or LB feels shit to me when we could just literally play Lindelof at RB as many teams are doing now with their CB's.
he's our best signing so far, we knew Dalot will need to cover the LB, I think everything makes sense with the transfer
I’m not sure what you are on about here.
He’s been really good this season and is an attacking full back.
Back in training... according to ETH today. That's good news.
So hes available this weekend?
It's weird how you can interpret the whole signing like that.
Since when is 26 old? He likely has a lot of years left at the elite level, I'd say at least 5.
Don't forget that he was ridiculously cheap as well, as we only paid £12.8m to Bayern for him.
His performances overall have been very good too, and most United supporters would tell you IMO that he's been our best signing so far based on just the performances. Overall, he's a massive upgrade on AWB and one of the most talented full-backs in the league for me.
I'd actually argue that we need to make more signings like him. Player at peak or pre-peak age, bargain fee, reasonable wages, consistent performances, and easily raises the base level of the squad.
I'm not really thinking of Ten Hag's ability to utilise Mazroui. Neither do I think he is crap but it's more the type of fullback we went for. We went for a more all rounded RB than a player that can really provide the width & pace & crossing in attack. It feels like to me this is important to players like Garnacho, Amad, Rashford, a New RW & Hojlund etc - I'd also say that I think Amad has struggled with Mazroui as his RB because he just doesn't provide Amad with that overlap and Amad ends up having to take two or three men on directly by himself.
I'm thinking more about how future potential managers like Xabi Alonso, Amorim,Inzaghi or Nagelsmann can utilise Mazroui and yet get the attacking output needed because to me he doesn't contribute enough attacking wise.
Maybe I'm just thinking too much about things & how alot of the new younger managers seem to be using wingbacks and 3 CB's to provide that kind of crossing support our team greatly lacks.
I guess our full backs don't have to be so gung ho as I wished for - many like Azpilicueta & Carvajal have been more all rounded fullbacks gaining great success and maybe Mazroui will be ours.
Positive news
This is a textbook example of how so many people post on here.
An assumption is made despite zero evidence to back it up, and then a comment based on that assumption about how shit everyone is at their job, despite not knowing who those people are or whether they are good at their jobs (spoiler, they very likely are).
There are a multitude of things that could've happened, ranging from them just not picking it up (as some have said can easily happen) to them noticing it but agreeing to just monitor it since it's minor and wasn't an issue at the time. And look, it came up, it was dealt with and he's already back in training.
Small things like this can happen. This is how football works. It is so embarrassing to watch people post with such disdain and anger at every single issue at the club, ranting about how amateur everything is when any club (even the shit ones) in the PL is going to have top level staff across the board based on the country average. They probably pick up and manage shit-loads of stuff and deal with it well, but that kind of thing will never be praised because it's impossible to notice something that doesn't happen.
An assumption? Really? The same manchester united who couldnt deal with Caicedo's transfer issue while smaller club like Brighton was able to see through it. The same manchester united whose CEO flew back from Australia to close urgent transfer only to pay over the odds in the last minutes of transfer window? The same manchester united whose director of football spent almost a month chasing a player in Barcelona? An assumption, nice. I wish it was only an assumption.... Why do you think we are at 14th on the table? Because of an assumption?
Just hope we aren't rushing this because he's happy to take time with Malacia and Shaw but not him
Uh!!??
@mardika if you're reading this from the other side, just know I didn't ban you. A completely separate mod also thought you were quite shit.
Price. Thats why we signed him. That and AWB not wanting to sign the contract offered... It might be that we offered a low one, but regardless he didnt want to sign so we needed a new RB
He was well on his way to signing for West Ham when we decided he's a good deal for what hes going for, so then we came in
He's been good and he does find better passing solutions than AWB, but hes not as quick and has made mistakes in goals we've conceded too. He's finding out that our fullbacks get loads of work to do with opposition wingers getting one on one against them a bunch of times in basically every match
Back to the original point, we were clearly stetching our funds this summer which is why Ugarte and de Ligt took a long time. The wingbacks posters wanted would have cost at least 2 times as much and then we would have signed 1 less CM or CB, or one that was deemed not as good instead
Obviously this is relevant. Also that, for all his qualities, AWB’s limitations is so detrimental we try to play under Ten Hag (and hopefully will try to play under the next manager), that it was probably important to get him out, and then without Mazraoui where would we have been in terms of FB coverage? I’d say in spite of the team’s general problems, he has been one of the most sensible short term buys for a while.
This is Ten Hag, he'll rush anybody back if it improves his chances of saving his job.
It’s very very quick if he had an ablation
The worst time to be suggesting this. We did far better under Ten Hag with AWB than we've done with Mazaroui so far. In fact the more "ETH type" players we've added the worse we've done under him.
He's clearly a better passer, but that hasnt translated to us improving. Instead we've lacked his pace defensively and possibly his defending too
AWB is also 2 places higher than us in the league at present
If you are arguing that the lack or presence of Wan Bissaka at RB is the main factor determining Man Utd and West Ham’s league position, I’m afraid you’ve lost me.
As you say, Mazraoui is clearly the better passer, I’ll ad that his defensive positioning is better, as is his movements in attack off the ball, as is his ability to mark people for headers. He has been good one on one for United, and probably better than Wan Bissaka against players going inwards. Wan Bissaka is better one-on-one against players going on the outside. RB being passed on the outside is not one of the many problems United has had this season so far. That doesn’t translate into Man United improving as a team totality, because it is one of a hoarde of factors influencing that totality, and not one of the more significant either.
I’d further suggest, again, as I did in the bolded quote as well, that I think Mazraoui is a type that will be more useful to Man United’s next manager as well, as I don’t think Wan Bissaka would fit the profile for any manager I’d hope to see at United anytime soon. Ten Hag’s effectiveness with getting a tune out of his chosen players bears little upon that opinion.
Watching Mazraoui play has been one of a few boons this season. I’ve never been into the bashing that Wan Bissaka has received, and think a lot of his weaknesses has been overexaggerated. I still think it was the right decision to let him go, and Mazraoui has done very well to teplace both him and Dalot despite everything else.
Some of the goals we've conceeded and a lot more chances on top of that have come from our RB making mistakes
Brighton winner he allows the cross to come in at the end
Van Der Ven runs past him with the ball and then goes into the box. Could have at least brought him down on the edge of the box, crosses for Johnson's goal for Spurs
Udogie knocks the ball past him and breaks down the left without him having the pace to get back, passes to Kulusevski and then onto Johnson who hits the post at 1-0
At 2-0 up Kulusevki puts a ball behind Mazaraoui for Werner to go through, Onana saved from Werner and the rebound. Poor positioning, doesnt have the pace to recover
Moura got in when it was 2-2, Porto's leftback and he didnt have the recovery pace to defend his position
Against Liverpool the TAA early offside given goal he hesitates to confront Gravenberch's run with the ball, then when Diaz is played the ball on the outside hes poorly positioned his body so Diaz goes past him and gets the ball across the box
For Liverpool's actual first goal he is too far up the pitch and reacts very slowly when Casemiro gives the ball away, jogging back and not getting close to any involvement fo Diaz's header. He had no reason to be so far up because Casemiro's pass that was on was to the left wing and had nothing to do with Mazaraoui on the opposite side.
He has also made quite a few tackles and interceptions where he did win the ball and defended well. He's made our most tackles with 3 per game on average. But no doubt our RB position is far more open and vulnerable this season than last with teams getting in several times a game. He's making far more mistakes than AWB and funnily enough AWB has more key passes per 90 mins this season than :
Rashford, Zirkzee, Dalot, Bruno, Mazaraoui, Mainoo and Ugarte
At this moment in time he's playing better even if Mazaraoui is doing a decent job overall given how much work he's given to do at fullback. For some reason, probably because he's new, Mazaroui isnt getting called out for most of his mistakes likes Dalot id and AWB was. But there have been quite a few so far
Some of these examples are a bit harsh. I think you should watch the highlights again.
Van der Ven's run came from a break of play in the middle of the pitch (i.e leaving us open) where Mazraoui was marking Werner on the right side of the pitch initially. He was perhaps a bit too wide but the central threat should have covered by Ugarte and de Ligt. The Udogie run, he overcommitted and was never going to recover from that; the fact that de Ligt also overcommitted and got caught in no man's land afterwards made it worse. The through ball could have been defended better but we were already 1 man down there and we were getting cut open.
As for the Liverpool one, yeah sure but then Casemiro's pass and technique on that was idiotic. As you've said, a lot of these examples are more due to the unnecessary workload and suboptimal circumstances of where these defensive lapses happen.
In general, Mazraoui has been very tidy on the ball and plays in a cerebral way that should be complimented in a proper system. His deficiencies aren't really technical or from a reading of the same, which is why people have been singing his praises. However, I will say that we are missing our best RB, Dalot in that position as we are losing recovery pace and a physicality there (overlaps etc) that Mazaoui doesn't possess.
He clearly had a role to play under both Nagelsmann and Tuchel at Bayern, though.
I also actually thought that he has developed a nice little dynamic with Amad on the right side, so far.
His longer term future at the club will heavily depend on the next manager, like you said, if we happen to sack ETH, which I think we will eventually. How effective his overlapping runs can be, will depend heavily on how our right half space dynamics are going to be set up too, whether under ETH or another manager. Amad might also not be our long-term nailed-on right winger, and the RHS dynamics are also influenced by the #10/right-sided #8.
Also, if we'll have a manager that likes to use 3 CBs and just one traditional full-back, Mazraoui is still going to be a suitable player for that IMO, because he can invert into the midfield well, just like Dalot, if we switch to a 3-2-5 build-up shape in possession, with the left-back (let's say Martínez) tucking in to be a CCB/LCB.
Overall, though, I think any manager worth their salt will find a role for Mazraoui in their team, because he's a very good player and is absolutely tailor-made for most modern day tactical approaches.
The real concern with him IMO is still only his injury record, despite him being reliable so far in this regard. I just hope it can continue.
Excellent Post.
Maz mean weakness is pace, he is not slow but Dalot and AWB are a lot faster than him, pacey wingers will get the better of him in a foot race sometimes, but he is a good defender in terms of positioning and likes to get tight to wingers which forces them to go back or he nicks the ball away, and technically he is mint.
Man Utd 2:1 Brentford
New
Glad to know he is back already.
Fenerbahce 1:1 Man Utd
New
Wasnt able to watch the match today.... but Maz is a number 10 now?
No he isn’t