Our squad is NOT sh*t

Leftback99

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The first XI is what really matters and it's not better than the top 4.
 

Un4givableB

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The only clearly better squads than ours are City and Liverpool's. City, Liverpool & Spurs are better teams.
 

Di Maria's angel

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The center backs, the full backs and the midfield need additions. I still worry that without Pogba our level would go down 2 to 3 notches.
 

Robbo's Shoulder

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It's not shit but its not a title challenging squad either. Need improvements defensively that's for sure and a deeper squad depth. Attack wise, the quality and numbers are there but we do lack quality in depth in other areas.
 

Cockney Phil

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We have a top squad and it’s clear the management, including SAF, have faith in them. Since the exorcism they have shown what they can do. We just need a manager who can draw out their talents.

I wouldn’t swap any of our players for the riffraff above us least of all from the Scousers or the Bitters.
 

cyril C

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The center backs, the full backs and the midfield need additions. I still worry that without Pogba our level would go down 2 to 3 notches.
Mourinho was right, our CB is shitty. We are still relying on 30+ years old Young and yes, MF without Pogba is average at best.
 

red4ever 79

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We do have mediocre players at the club. Rojo, Darmian, Valencia, Young, Jones all could go tomorrow, and quality wise we wouldnt miss them. At the minimum we need a CB, a RW and a ST
 

Janson

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What i don't understand is that, we all agreed that our players needs coaching on the final third. Each were playing like they've met others for the first time. How is it's now clicking all of the sudden without any coaching?
Now OGS coached them and it's all great.
 

Rory 7

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Haven't city being playing delph at left back for a long while, plus I don't see mendy being better than shaw overall. Liverpool maybe although I still think bailly would be great alongside VVD whereas not that impressed with chelsea defenders barring azpi.
I don’t see Shaw getting in that City team. And I don’t see any of our other defenders getting in the other teams. You telling me you wouldn’t take Alonso from Chelsea?
 

MJJ

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I don’t see Shaw getting in that City team. And I don’t see any of our other defenders getting in the other teams. You telling me you wouldn’t take Alonso from Chelsea?
Nope don't think he is that good in a back four. Only leftback I would take is robertson.
Shaw is better than a make shit left back.
 

Yakuza_devils

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I think SAF once said to win the CL we usually need 5-6 world class players.

Now we have DDG, Pogba and Sanchez as world class player. Hope Martial and Rashford can be one in the near future.

This summer we need to sign a world class CB and midfielder.

That make us have 5-6 world class players with many very good squad players like Matic, Herrera, Lukaku, Mata, Shaw, Young and etc.

Our squad is not that bad, we are 2-3 signings away to have a very strong team ready to challenge for EPL and CL with the right manager
 

Darwin09

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Our defense is getting a lot of stick here, but last year we allowed the 2nd least goals in the league, 1 more than City, with this same group of “shit” defenders.

I think everyone’s been drinking the Jose juice that we need some world-class central defenders because our guys are terrible. They weren’t bad last year but with Jose telling everyone how terrible they are it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Our problem over the past 5 seasons was and has been lack of goals and creativity in the attack. The evidence over the past 3 matches is that it might have been caused by overemphasis on tactical discipline. We’ll see if that continues to be borne out.

Our squad is good.
 

RedCurry

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We still need a right wing who can score goals and a centre back who can defend. I thought that under Mourinho and I still think that. Jose also knew that those positions were our weakest but he went about filling those positions all wrong.
 

Leftback99

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Our defense is getting a lot of stick here, but last year we allowed the 2nd least goals in the league, 1 more than City, with this same group of “shit” defenders.

I think everyone’s been drinking the Jose juice that we need some world-class central defenders because our guys are terrible. They weren’t bad last year but with Jose telling everyone how terrible they are it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Our problem over the past 5 seasons was and has been lack of goals and creativity in the attack. The evidence over the past 3 matches is that it might have been caused by overemphasis on tactical discipline. We’ll see if that continues to be borne out.

Our squad is good.
You need to look beyond the goals against column which only tells part of the story. We were/are conceding more shots and more shots on target than the rest of the top 4, last season we were getting lucky/De Gea was performing heroics, this season it's caught up with us. See Burnley for the same effect, conceded 39 last season, 41 already this.
 

RedCurry

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None of our defenders would get in the City, Liverpool, Chelsea or Spurs team. And when you look through the rest of the squad, hand on heart, how many would get into those first teams. That’s the problem for me. We’ve fallen behind.
That argument is always flawed. How many Madrid players would get into City's team? And before the start of the season, how many Liverpool players would get into City's team? No one ever gets into a functioning team.

edited
 

ash_86

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It's not just about coaching but also the tactical set up and mindset with which we approach games. Coaching the players into better versions of themselves and the team to elevate everybody can take time and effort through coaching (if the manager is capable), but a shift in terms of tempo, high press, bodied in the box, fullbacks high up, relentless attack mindedness etc can be brought in fairly quickly. How well that is executed of course depends on various factors. In our case it has been pretty smooth although against lesser opposition. But still, impressively smooth. But it isn't the same as coaching the intricate details into the players which would always take time.

It's like with Klopp. He entered and immediately you saw the team press high up and try to play the way he wants them to play. However it took a long time to work on the finer apsects, buy players etc to get them challenging.
Makes a lot of sense. It's amazing what little has to change to cause a day and night effect. Finally we have a good direction to journey and hopefully Ole gets what he deserves at the end of the season.
 

Rory 7

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That argument is always flawed. How many Madrid players would get into City's team? And before the start of the season, how many Liverpool players would get into City's team? No one ever gets into a functioning team.

edited
Madrid are in the same mess as us, that argument is flawed.
 

Santoryo

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I see our squad still getting underestimated. At least people have moved on from talks about our squad being no better than mid table.

By the end of January some people will be extremely surprised at how good our squad actually is.
 

RedCurry

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Madrid are in the same mess as us, that argument is flawed.
Yet they won the last three CL's. So the whole "we've fallen behind" argument is wrong because you can't be said to have fallen behind if you're the most successful team in the last one year and last five years. You need to refresh your squad time to time and somehow Mourinho made us believe that it's such a massive job.

Last season, did you think anyone from Liverpool apart from Salah could make it to City's first team? Even now, how many Liverpool players would you say can get into that City team? VVD and maybe Salah. When a team is setup well and have good players in all positions, you will never think it is a good idea to replace them, even with equally good players.
 

CechMate1

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Your squad was never "shit" slightly unbalanced but far from shit

IMO you have potentially one of the best attacks in Europe under the right manager and right tactical setup.

Pogba, Sanchez, Martial and Rashford has the potential to be absolutely incredible. Martial, Rashford and Sanchez as an interchanging front 3 with Pogba pulling the strings behind them
 

Rory 7

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Yet they won the last three CL's. So the whole "we've fallen behind" argument is wrong because you can't be said to have fallen behind if you're the most successful team in the last one year and last five years. You need to refresh your squad time to time and somehow Mourinho made us believe that it's such a massive job.

Last season, did you think anyone from Liverpool apart from Salah could make it to City's first team? Even now, how many Liverpool players would you say can get into that City team? VVD and maybe Salah. When a team is setup well and have good players in all positions, you will never think it is a good idea to replace them, even with equally good players.
Man for man the Madrid squad has regressed as was predicted by many. Likewise, man for man many of us have been pointing out the deficiencies of our squad versus the rest. This doesn’t mean our squad is totally Sh1t. It means we have weak links throughout. This time last year it was obvious Pool needed a keeper and a CB, they addressed that. I honestly don’t think we have addressed any of our weaknesses as a squad in recent years, unlike most of the competition.
 

iluvoursolskjær

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What i don't understand is that, we all agreed that our players needs coaching on the final third. Each were playing like they've met others for the first time. How is it's now clicking all of the sudden without any coaching?
I'm not entirely sure, but Solskjær's instructions to the players probably permits a lot more 'freedom to express' within its' framework. Mourinho would lambast players for trying flicks (when they come off potentially creates huge spaces and we're seeing it); players - like Matic - taking loads of extra touches seem to have stemmed from the manager, there's been much more willingness to play passes through the lines the last few games.
 

Buster15

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I don’t see Shaw getting in that City team. And I don’t see any of our other defenders getting in the other teams. You telling me you wouldn’t take Alonso from Chelsea?
Not so sure about that. With Mendy out they are struggling at LB. With Luke Shaw pace he would be a good fit for them.

Glad they won't get him though.
 

Buster15

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Looking at the difference between the previous and current styles of play, we seem far more comfortable attacking.

You just have to look at Matic who now seems significantly better.

Of course we have half a dozen players who need to be moved on but with a few careful additions we will not be too far away.
 

glazed

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It's hard to win anything major without a world class or near to WC centre back.
 

bleedred

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It's not shit but its not a title challenging squad either. Need improvements defensively that's for sure and a deeper squad depth. Attack wise, the quality and numbers are there but we do lack quality in depth in other areas.
We lost stupid points against clubs which we should have won (BHA, Palace, etc.,).Had we managed,say 10 points out of those games, which I don't think is unrealistic, we would have been challenging.

It was the same last season, We dropped at least 10-12 points (Newcastle, WBA, BHA,Huddersfield, Stoke etc.,) which the squad is capable of getting,with a right manager. It may not have mattered in the end, but that has been the case. We were rightly the second best team last year, but the margin should have been nowhere near that big.
 

amolbhatia50k

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We lost stupid points against clubs which we should have won (BHA, Palace, etc.,).Had we managed,say 10 points out of those games, which I don't think is unrealistic, we would have been challenging.

It was the same last season, We dropped at least 10-12 points (Newcastle, WBA, BHA,Huddersfield, Stoke etc.,) which the squad is capable of getting,with a right manager. It may not have mattered in the end, but that has been the case. We were rightly the second best team last year, but the margin should have been nowhere near that big.
And against those rubbish teams we never truly played attacking football. We were still trying to play contained controlling football and it just didn't fit with the ethos.
 

ChaddyP

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Its funny. If it's one thing Jose did, he built a pretty damn good squad for playing attacking, pressing full throttle foot ball. He's sold the right players and bought some pretty good ones. Problem is he had a ferrari and started to want to drive it like a MAC truck
 

Volumiza

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Your squad was never "shit" slightly unbalanced but far from shit

IMO you have potentially one of the best attacks in Europe under the right manager and right tactical setup.

Pogba, Sanchez, Martial and Rashford has the potential to be absolutely incredible. Martial, Rashford and Sanchez as an interchanging front 3 with Pogba pulling the strings behind them

Well said matey. I couldn’t agree with a post more if I tried.
 

Still ill

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It's hard to win anything major without a world class or near to WC centre back.
True. You only have to think back to the Beckenbauer-like Wes Morgan.
Or his partner in crime, the 53 year old Robert Huth.
 

TheLord

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The squad is not shit, but not great either. There are too many passengers.

The hyperbolic depression and an equally crazy mania in this forum after a run of bad or good results is quite frightening.
 

roseguy64

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Our club does NOT have less European heritage than Sevilla

Mou talked a lot of shit in an attempt to cover his shortcomings
Not to be branded a Mourinho defender but that's not what he meant. He was excusing himself but he was talking about since SAF not the entirety of history.
 

iluvoursolskjær

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Its funny. If it's one thing Jose did, he built a pretty damn good squad for playing attacking, pressing full throttle foot ball. He's sold the right players and bought some pretty good ones. Problem is he had a ferrari and started to want to drive it like a MAC truck
Not gonna lie, he contributed* to building a good team.

Credit where it's due.

Just never used it correctly.

*by contribute, I mean he signed Ibra, Pogba, Alexis; with Fred, Dalot, Lindeloff and Bailly to watch out for
 
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The Mitcher

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Not to be branded a Mourinho defender but that's not what he meant. He was excusing himself but he was talking about since SAF not the entirety of history.
It does not really work that argument, because unfortunately for Mourinho we were the first English club to win the European cup and one of the first British teams in the competition itself doing very well and if the munich crash had never happened, we may have won it before Celtic did, and be the first British team to win it.
 

Kharhaz

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The squad is not shit, but not great either. There are too many passengers.

The hyperbolic depression and an equally crazy mania in this forum after a run of bad or good results is quite frightening.
And yet every other supporter on here of other clubs saw how good your players are. Is your defence as bad as the stats say? Individually, are they that bad? or have they played in a system which invites pressure on them?

I think you have a squad of great players, get rid of Fellaini, he just represents negativity, across all factors when he plays. If he is not there to disrupt the opposition, he is there to nick a goal from a long ball, or to play defensively, but not in a clever controlled way, just in a break things up until final whistle kind of way.

Ashley Young, he has been a great servant for you, but you can do so much better with proper fullbacks. Ashley Young has been a great servant for both united and england, but he is very limited.

Other than those, I dont see a problem with the squad you have. Yeah sure, add an established centre back in there and a proven goalscorer and for me your troubles are sorted.

The problem never were the players. It was the manager, and his negative style of how football should be played.
 

roseguy64

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It does not really work that argument, because unfortunately for Mourinho we were the first English club to win the European cup and one of the first British teams in the competition itself doing very well and if the munich crash had never happened, we may have won it before Celtic did, and be the first British team to win it.
I know. That's not what I was saying or what Mourinho was saying. His overall point was wrong, we should have beaten Sevilla. But he was arguing about the last 3-5 years.
 

edcunited1878

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Squad was never shit, as evident of winning silverware in Jose's first year and finishing second last year.

But there's significant weaknesses that United have have and will continue holding back the squad in relation to being top 3/challenging for a title.

RB is a major weakness, nevermind needing a rock of a CB. The balance of Pogba, Matic and Herrera under Ole has been what we've all wanted to really see for the past few years, but Herrera can be improved upon significantly (Fred still has much to prove being a two way player/8 on the defensive side, same with Andreas), much more than Matic.

The right forward position that Lingard is currently playing can be upgraded as well. You look at City, Liverpool and Spurs, their right sided forwards (Sterling/Mahrez, Salah/Mane, Alli/Son) all contribute much more than Lingard and I'm all about Lingard, but his goals and assists have to be on par with the rivals. Whether or not he can make that jump, jury is still out.
 

stepic

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True. You only have to think back to the Beckenbauer-like Wes Morgan.
Or his partner in crime, the 53 year old Robert Huth.
When will people stop using Leicester - the biggest shock winner in all of PL history - as a yardstick? They are the exception.