Tony247
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Good player. Definitely improvement for this united midfield (we are that bad). Not worth more than 40m in the market.How do you think Maddison played today?
Good player. Definitely improvement for this united midfield (we are that bad). Not worth more than 40m in the market.How do you think Maddison played today?
The team has played very little football together. Herrera was the one who kept the pace in the attack, who linked attack and defense, and our losing streak at the end of last season coincided with Herrera getting injured post PSG. Pereira looked decent in pre-season and against Chelsea for 60 minutes until he switched to the wing, I'd like to see him back in midfield. We need to give them time to gel.We got 3 points but forget about players missing. We would have played as much as yesterday even if those three players were playing.
We just don't know how to play football. There is no flow. When Scott goes on a press no one covers the space he has vacated.
Really Mata should not be playing at all.
Statistics are like a bikini; What is revealed is interesting; What is concealed is crucial
Every time I’ve seen him play for England he’s looked good to me. Likely upgrade on Shaw but would cost big moneyWas impressed with Leicester attacking leftback (Chilwell). Was he always that good? or we made him looked good?
I'd rather us go for Digne.Every time I’ve seen him play for England he’s looked good to me. Likely upgrade on Shaw but would cost big money
My biggest concern - which I’m more than happy to stifle for half a season at least, until we’ve got some actual evidence to worry about - is that Ole is, at worst, being horrendously naive to think he can basically carbon copy Fergie’s approach to team building from 20+ years ago, which even he only effectively did once - in an era where the idea of a money bags mercenary side was the Blackburn team of Chris Sutton and Colin Hendry, and our biggest domestic competition was a Newcastle side with Darren Peacock, Steve Howey and Ruel Fox, augmented by the relative star quality of Ginola & Asprilla, who’d probably be playing midtable in the current age - into a much different, much more cosmopolitan era of English football....
Even if the likes of Greenwood and Gomes do step up in the way only really Rashford has in the post-Fergie era, we’re still looking at least 3-4 years before they’re adequately consistent first XI players ready to plausibly challenge for anything, and that’s just going off the examples of previous starlets, who were often surrounded by genuine big names to help them bed in/learn from... The Class of 92 had Cantona, Keane and a solid defence, and Rooney and Ronaldo then had the Class of 92... hell even Messi & Xavi made their bones in a recent CL winning Barca side with the likes of Ronaldinho, Eto’o and Henry in it...
The idea we can just throw all the youth in at once is alluring, sure, but potentially kamikaze.... for both us and them. The likes of West Ham & Southampton are also famous for bringing through youth, but the difference was they weren’t competitive with it. I dearly hope to a God I don’t believe in that he knows what he’s doing, or we’ll just be like them.
I read many posts such as this on here. A few things in response: Of course it's subjective, 99% of the discourse on RedCafe. is subjective, it's a public forum for people to share opinions. Like you have. I do not think that Manchester United have any sort of footballing identity at all. I reference Klopp, Pep, Rafa, Dyche, Conte, Mourinho, Nuno Sancho..... all have teams that reflect a clear identity, all slightly different too... Emery at Arsenal... all have instilled a distinctive way their teams play.I feel like people just say this because it's something so unquantifiable and entirely subjective that they pretend like they dont know what Ole is trying to do just because they dont like it. It's perfectly clear what we are trying to do. Saying shit like we don't have identity is ridiculous when in fact, this is the first time in a while that we actually do.
Theres plenty of valid reasons to criticize Ole if you want to. But saying you read a report of a game where we beat a very good side and then decide to criticize the manager even though you didn't watch the game is pretty laughable.
We sneaked into the lead and then contained them. Wasn't a dominant performance but Leicester rarely troubled us.Couldn't catch the game, how did we play?
I 100% agree with this assessment.We sneaked into the lead and then contained them. Wasn't a dominant performance but Leicester rarely troubled us.
They started to pick up a head of steam in the second half and it felt like Wolves and Palace all over again, but then Ole did Matic> Fred and Mata > Chong and it changed the game. We saw out the last 25 minutes quite comfortably.
Not really seen much of Digne...what would make me favour Chilwell is the fact he is 22, whilst Digne is 26I'd rather us go for Digne.
Yes. Good assessment especially the lack of players covering eachother.We got 3 points but forget about players missing. We would have played as much as yesterday even if those three players were playing.
We just don't know how to play football. There is no flow. When Scott goes on a press no one covers the space he has vacated.
Really Mata should not be playing at all.
Digne is good plus he can take free kicks too, 26 would be a good age for us as our starting 11 does lack experience.Not really seen much of Digne...what would make me favour Chilwell is the fact he is 22, whilst Digne is 26
The problem is, the rebuild is so big that if we’re signing players aged 26/27, by the time we’ve fleshed out the rest of the weak areas around them, they themselves will be hitting 30
It’s a 2/3 summer job this, minimum. That has to be factored in
As a kid, flashes of quality make you highly rated. The hope is that those flashed become more consistent with age and experience. He seems to have stalled over the last 2-3 seasons. This is an important season for him - either he gets consistent or he will get sold sooner or later to a mid table team. The same can be said of Lingard also.If we could parachute a player like maddison into this side he'd make a big difference. I think dybala is more of a Rooney though. More second striker than assist maker. Re Pereira he does work hard. Very limited quality though, especially considering how highly rated he was as a kid.
We were shite but somewhat dominant throughout. Even Leicester were shite.Couldn't catch the game, how did we play?
I can not get my head around the fact that we didn't sign a striker given we sold our only proper striker to inter milan. We literally do not have a striker right now. An old fashioned centre forward isn't necessary if you have consistent, goal contributing wingers and false 9s likewise but we aren't in that position. I struggle to see where our goals will come from this season.So much whingeing again from people who don’t understand the reality of our situation.
Our XI isn’t top four quality when they’re all fit, never mind when we’re missing three starters
We deserved 6pts from Wolves and Southampton and got 2pts. OK, it sounds like we weren’t brilliant yesterday but we won. Simple.
Ole, correctly, prioritised our defence in the summer, spending £130m on two players that both started yesterday. It’s not a coincidence we’ve already kept two clean sheets this season
Throw Fred/Garner in there instead of Matic also.It's no surprise we struggled to create much as that's the case when we are full strength too but considering the players we had missing i'm happy with the result.
I'd rather Chong, Gomes and Greenwood got minutes over Mata and Pereira who offer absolutely nothing.
Mata was the problem. Not Pereira. He is the one Gomes or Chong should replaceWe fought for a win for 90 minutes.
It wasn't pretty, but it was important we kept the clean sheet and got the 3 points.
Build from here and try to improve our midfield and attack gradually. We give the ball away too much and sometimes its far too easy to get through our midfield.
Need better service in attack. I want to see us use Gomes as I believe he is a better player than Perreira.
Workmanlike effort from the lads to finally get 3 points on the board again. Lets continue to improve.
You do realise we did not create a single chance from open play yesterdayWe were shite but somewhat dominant throughout. Even Leicester were shite.
I can not get my head around the fact that we didn't sign a striker given we sold our only proper striker to inter milan. We literally do not have a striker right now. An old fashioned centre forward isn't necessary if you have consistent, goal contributing wingers and false 9s likewise but we aren't in that position. I struggle to see where our goals will come from this season.
We have a very average midfield for a top 6 side. Yes top 6 now.You do realise we did not create a single chance from open play yesterday
So I have to ask how you think a traditional cf would score goals with zero supply....
Yeh. I'm just entertaining the idea. He'd cost some fee. We still need to fix midfield and attack, I doubt we will get him.Every time I’ve seen him play for England he’s looked good to me. Likely upgrade on Shaw but would cost big money
Without wanting to draw this out (cos we both agree we need mega improvements to the squad), I wasn’t comparing us to City. I highlighted that we’ve just beaten a team City similarly struggled to beat to emphasise the positivity of the result. The fact two of our best players are out only accentuates the point.But you're the one comparing us to City. All I'm saying is I expect United to be able to put out a better performance than that, and if that needs a better squad then complaints about our squad are acceptable.
Because we dont have a traditional cf... Who in our attack is going to outjump, outmuscle, outmanouevre a premier league centre back? No one. So what is the point in crossing or attempting risky through balls? IIRC against palace I remember numerous times when AWB, Pogba crossed the ball and james was at the end of it, only to re cross it back in to absolutely nobody. I feel like Sam Allardyce or Tony Pulis but we have no physical threat whatsoever in attack and it's so painfully obvious.You do realise we did not create a single chance from open play yesterday
So I have to ask how you think a traditional cf would score goals with zero supply....
Yeah, Fred also has his limitations but was noticeably faster on the press when he came on. I actually thought Matic did ok yesterday - no more than that though.Throw Fred/Garner in there instead of Matic also.
The identity is clear for anyone who is objectively watching games under Ole. For me, it's the following and I hope you watch a few games to assess if this is true:I read many posts such as this on here. A few things in response: Of course it's subjective, 99% of the discourse on RedCafe. is subjective, it's a public forum for people to share opinions. Like you have. I do not think that Manchester United have any sort of footballing identity at all. I reference Klopp, Pep, Rafa, Dyche, Conte, Mourinho, Nuno Sancho..... all have teams that reflect a clear identity, all slightly different too... Emery at Arsenal... all have instilled a distinctive way their teams play.
You tell me what is our identity as a team? Because I don't know...
Leicester have had a good start, but, from what I have heard, they were not very good at all. Many people on here seem to suggest that we were also not so good.
Subjective narrative is what will continue to inform Redcafe. I welcome this. How boring would things be if everyone just posted stats.
We did create a number of half chances. The left foot curler from Mata should have been scored.You do realise we did not create a single chance from open play yesterday
So I have to ask how you think a traditional cf would score goals with zero supply....
£40MGood player. Definitely improvement for this united midfield (we are that bad). Not worth more than 40m in the market.
Agree with this.De Gea - Looked solid again. Yay!
Wan Bissaka - No worries at all defensively, but offers very little going forward. He seems to know this too.
Lindelof - Shaky early on but recovered. Still not overly convinced by him.
Maguire - Calm and consistent again, apart from that one time he let someone nick the ball off him really close to goal for no reason.
Young - Played very well I thought, professional as always. I'm gonna be controversial and say he offers more than Shaw.
McTominay - Fantastic, MOTM for me. Turning into a really good player.
Matic - Probably the best game I can remember him having for several months, based solely on the fact he didn't feck anything up.
Mata - Neat and tidy, but didn't impress too much. See no reason Gomes shouldn't be given his role.
Pereira - Meh.
James - Really good again, love watching him play. We're creatively bankrupt going forward, but we'd be a lot harder to watch without him.
Rashford - Cool head for the pen but went missing afterwards. Martial should be our no.9 when fit.
I'm pleased with us defensively, but going forward we're far from top 4 quality. Massive 3 points, but we need to buck our ideas up and figure out a way to create a few more chances than none at all if we want CL football.
Martin Atkinson