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2023-24 Performances


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5.5 Season Average Rating
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Valencia Shin Crosses

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"Martial...He's isolated Skrtel here..."
Well if Sir Jim and his team doesn’t realise how poor our squad options are in the striker department he soon will.

How can teams like Brighton and Villa have the following options ;
Minomoto, Wellbeck, E Ferguson, A Fati, J Pedro, J Enscio, Simon Adingra, A Lallana (Brighton)

O Watkins, J Ramsey, L Bailey, M Diaby, J Duran, M Rogers, Tielemans. J M

and United have - Martial(always injured), Antony (crap), Rashford (out of form), Garnaucho(19), Amad(never used), Omari forson(19) , Hojlund(now injured) , Mount (injured ) and Bruno

Heads in the medical department, recruitment need to roll very quickly !
when will the numb skulls understand goals win matches and we are 30 short ever season since ETH joined?

Any fan that still doesn’t think that our first two recruits this summer must be a new left back and a new established CF.
I mean I’m not sure why you named every attacker and even some midfielders when making a point about strikers. But you do realize buying strikers doesn’t just instantly = goals right? It’s been discussed ad nauseam in this thread that even Hojlund has basically had the least amount of service in the league and many of his goals recently have been his own brilliance. The bigger issue with our goalscoring this season is that for much of the season before this run, Rashford and Antony were genuinely zeros for output both in goals and creativity, and Garnacho is still a learning teenager.

Behind them it’s been Bruno who’s been largely poor and has lost the finishing ability he had when first arriving at the club, and then McTominay who’s actually done well goals wise but isn’t going to contribute much outside of that as a midfielder.

Point being I don’t think bringing in another decent striker instantly brings our goal tally up 10+ with the personnel and how we play at this point. Now that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get one this summer, as it’s certainly high on the list because right now there’s 0 depth in quality across the frontline (which is why I’d prefer a forward who is comfortable playing across the line over 1 that’s strictly meant to play in the middle or on the bench).
 

2 man midfield

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Everyone thought we’d sign a striker in January. We surprised everyone and sent back our only left back instead.
 

vanrooney

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we cant get a break. with hojlund, licha and shaw out, three very important players are missing. even the top teams wouldnt cope with that - except maybe city
 

Alemar

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It’s a disaster really. But now it’s literally needed to start McTominay - as a striker of course.
 

Woziak

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I mean I’m not sure why you named every attacker and even some midfielders when making a point about strikers. But you do realize buying strikers doesn’t just instantly = goals right? It’s been discussed ad nauseam in this thread that even Hojlund has basically had the least amount of service in the league and many of his goals recently have been his own brilliance. The bigger issue with our goalscoring this season is that for much of the season before this run, Rashford and Antony were genuinely zeros for output both in goals and creativity, and Garnacho is still a learning teenager.

Behind them it’s been Bruno who’s been largely poor and has lost the finishing ability he had when first arriving at the club, and then McTominay who’s actually done well goals wise but isn’t going to contribute much outside of that as a midfielder.

Point being I don’t think bringing in another decent striker instantly brings our goal tally up 10+ with the personnel and how we play at this point. Now that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get one this summer, as it’s certainly high on the list because right now there’s 0 depth in quality across the frontline (which is why I’d prefer a forward who is comfortable playing across the line over 1 that’s strictly meant to play in the middle or on the bench).
That’s my point, I included attacking midfielders that are reliable for goals because PL teams that score 75-85 share the goals around and have an astute manager that isn’t used to being good at only managing 12 or 13 players in a small league,

In the PL when you manage one of the Elite teams the idea is you have a squad of 21-22 players who can all make a difference that’s why you have a wage bill of £300-350m per year, you have to get the best players that can make a difference..

The rule change to 5 subs and 9 being named on the bench should allow an elite manager to plan for ever eventuality but as a United manager you have to pick 4/5 attacking players from the start and have at least 3 from 9 who can change and effect the game and score goals or see what’s wrong from the bench and then change the game.

With the added intensity of the PL the top 6 now effectively being a top 8 you must have options that plan for extra injuries.
We need one versatile striker that can play multiple positions and one CF who can maybe play as a second striker, ETH problem is he needs to learn and learn very quickly how to manage a larger squad.
 

Canuckred64

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How many games will ne be out? Hopefully just tomorrow against Fulham and the FA cup game against Forest.
 

Berbasbullet

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McTominay would suck as a striker, his entire ability to score goals is predicated on ghosting in from midfield.

Only option now is Rashford CF.
 

JezChan

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Rashford needs to start up front - he's our only recognised striker. McTominay is effective when arriving late into the box. If he plays 10, then Bruno is displaced - which I don't think is the worst thing. Recently he's been rushing the play, ineffective at holding the ball - these recent tendencies can be mitigated by playing him on the right (which EtH has done in the past, and I know many aren't a fan of it, but Bruno is still our captain with undeniable potential to have a moment of brilliance). So for the stretch when we're missing Hojlund, I'd be thinking of playing:

Rashford

Garnacho --- McTominay --- Bruno

Mainoo --- Casemiro​

It'd be great to see Amad get a run if at all possible, but I'd imagine Antony is still more trusted.
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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That’s my point, I included attacking midfielders that are reliable for goals because PL teams that score 75-85 share the goals around and have an astute manager that isn’t used to being good at only managing 12 or 13 players in a small league,

In the PL when you manage one of the Elite teams the idea is you have a squad of 21-22 players who can all make a difference that’s why you have a wage bill of £300-350m per year, you have to get the best players that can make a difference..

The rule change to 5 subs and 9 being named on the bench should allow an elite manager to plan for ever eventuality but as a United manager you have to pick 4/5 attacking players from the start and have at least 3 from 9 who can change and effect the game and score goals or see what’s wrong from the bench and then change the game.

With the added intensity of the PL the top 6 now effectively being a top 8 you must have options that plan for extra injuries.
We need one versatile striker that can play multiple positions and one CF who can maybe play as a second striker, ETH problem is he needs to learn and learn very quickly how to manage a larger squad.
This is accurate as a general point but Ten Hag could do nothing about this situation. It’s nothing to do with “learning to manage a big squad” and all to do with the fact Utd don’t in fact have a deep squad. He has for his entire tenure how incredibly limited options to use and generally the best squad players he had utilised have been youth players. The recruitment over the next few years simply has to address that element. Until then I can’t see how the manager can be blamed for the situation.
 

criticalanalysis

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Honestly it doesn't surprise me. He's put in an enormous amount of high graft and high intensity work that's not really sustainable.

I think the same of Dalot, who had another good game against Luton but I fear for his stamina for the rest of the story.
 

Sniper007

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There are going to be a lot of people here incredibly disappointed when they find out McTominay isn’t going to be selected as a striker. In fact, there’s more chance of winning the lottery than ETH selecting him as a striker. Just because ETH sees him as a midfielder with a goal scoring threat, the manager will not automatically consider him as a striker.
 

SWE-Chucky

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So the 3 week report isn't definitive, at least it's nothing too serious.
Guess not, he will miss the game today, and probably against City (which 99% believes we will lose anyway - but for me, I love these games when nobody is counting on us and City are not unbeatable at the moment).

But its hard to blame ETH for everything this season, we have been so unlucky with injuries and our squad depth is not like Citys or Chelsea (who by the way complain about injuries even though they bout like 23 players last 18 months).

We really miss Martinez, Shaw and now Höjlund.

Only one we can really play today is Rashford instead of Rasmus.

So;

Onana
Dalot - Varane - Maguire - H. Amass
Casemiro - Mainoo
Antony - Bruno - Garnacho
Rashford

I would rather give on the best young prospects the chance today then playing Lindelöf/Amrabat on LB or move Dalot from the RB spot now that he is doing a great job there (But if AWB is ready to start, then i would have to play AWB as a RB, Dalot LB and give Harry Amass at least 25-30 minutes if we are up 2 goals because the boy is good enough - and we that said, old enough. We need to start introducing him to senior football because if Shaw will start to pick up these 2-3-4 months injuries on a regular basis again, then we need either invest in a LB and maybe RB if we sell AWB while also have to figure out the CB situation.

The reports are coming from Saudi news that Varane is still seen as huge superstar and that several clubs are interested in offering him a big contract - so since we didnt trigger 1 year contract extension because we dont want to keep him on the same high salary, its said we will offer him a lower salary but 2 year contract and keep him 1 more year and sell him in 2025 together with Casemiro. The "new" FFP rules are impossible to count on and take a guess how much we will have to spend, but in a ideal world we would buy 2 huge talents like Silva (CB) and Joao Neves (CDM/CM) this summer to play, rotate and learn from Varane and Casemiro for 1 season at least.

If we didnt give Garnacho and Mainoo the their chance, we would have been in a very dangerous position with limited amount to spend (and also a lot of contracts running out in 2024-2025) - but a lot of positions to cover. Garnacho and Mainoo have saved us probably closer to 200m. H. Amass is another talent that we have to try out in some games where we feel comfortable to do so - because Im not sure Shaw is someone we can count on having him starting 40-50 games per season anymore (he has had like 2 years without any injury that kept him away for less then 1-2 months).
 

Red Regista

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Did he get injured in training? He looked ok to me after the Luton match and even did that interview with Gaz and Redknapp.
 

Mike Smalling

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Honestly it doesn't surprise me. He's put in an enormous amount of high graft and high intensity work that's not really sustainable.

I think the same of Dalot, who had another good game against Luton but I fear for his stamina for the rest of the story.
We've played seven games in January and February combined though, roughly equating to once per week on average. That shouldn't be a problem for players in their early twenties.

There could be a problem with our training or treatment, who knows, but it can't really be the match schedule right now. Could also just be bad luck.
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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It’s unlucky and I’m gutted for him really as he was in such great form. Injuries though are part of the game and I don’t think you can always forensically analyse them. We just need a far better squad to handle them better.
 

Tony247

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Bummer. Muscle injury at such a young age. Need to use him carefully. Also means we will need a second striker.
 

Doracle

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To be an important player at United at 21 is quite something.
Primarily though because we have somehow left ourselves with only a player new to this level and Martial as real CF options. We wouldn’t be as concerned if we had an Alvarez, Nketiah, Jota or Ferguson as back ups.
 

croadyman

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It’s unlucky and I’m gutted for him really as he was in such great form. Injuries though are part of the game and I don’t think you can always forensically analyse them. We just need a far better squad to handle them better.
We are at fault not having the financial capability to bring in another striker to help him
 

frostbite

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Did we break him already?

I am really worried about ETH's training methods. ETH has proven to be so bad in every aspect of football management that I now expect him to be bad in planning the training sessions, too. Perhaps his training is the main reason we have so many injuries?
 

SungSam7

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Any chance of him returning for City?
I'd rather not be rushing him back and putting him at risk.
That City team are coming up to crunch time and will be hungry dogs against their rivals. They also need to start gaining ground if they want to win the title. I just have no faith ETH and Co will get anything out of this game, rushing him back would put our season at risk just like Martinez. Give him the time he needs is the way to go for me.
 

laughtersassassin

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Hope he is back for the cup game against Liverpool.

Don't really see us winning either way but if we are to win we will need him