- Joined
- Apr 21, 2023
- Messages
- 215
You have to realize that we are not a normal run football club. And the fact that ETH never tells the true story when it comes to how are things internally. Since that is the case let's look at the evidence:He’s spent insane money and appears to have done it mainly on players who would be best in possession sides (Onana, Martinez, Antony).
Despite this he doesn’t seem interested in making us a possession team, instead a transition one. Some players who are shite in possession he desperately wanted to sell, yet now are dead certs to start.
The signings you mentioned were indeed intended for a possession based team(except Onana because even a direct transition team needs a GK that can pass under pressure). We can also add Eriksen to the mould and the fact that we chased FDJ all summer. Couple with the likes that we were linked with players like Todibo, Frimpong, etc. Clearly ETH was building a possession based team at the time.
So what changed? Why did ETH suddenly decide to change his tune?
Judging by the fact that Rashford plays every game and Bruno is undroppable, most likely what happened was he went to the higher ups with the next steps of his vision which included the sale of AWB, Maguire, McTomminay, Fred, Bruno and Rashford and replacing them with more possession based players.
Knowing our management they most likely told him that we can only sell certain players, but the likes of Rashford and Bruno are too big of a commercial impact. Not only do they have to stay, but also they have to play as much as possible to maximize their commercial impact.(ie. Martial and Pogba back in the day)
So ETH did the thing most people are accusing him not doing. He adapted his play style, to suit the likes of McTomminay, Rashford, Maguire, etc
The problem is that if half your players are used to being possession based, while the other half are direct you have a hodge podge of 2 groups of players that are on the different wave lengths and they don't gel. We saw how just by dropping Rashford we had 2 of our best attacking displays of the season(against Galatasaray and Palace).
Couple with the fact that the players that we have are only suited for a team that sets up in low to midblock. This goes against ETH's principles which has us set up higher up the pitch. That's why other teams are just slicing through us like butter right now. And the thing is ETH doesn't know/is too stubborn to set up in a low to midblock formation.
With all that being said, it looks like ETH is forced by our management to play a style that he isn't suited for because of politics.
So we either sack ETH and bring back a manager that will have us set up in a more defensive/pragmatic way with the players that we have(i.e. Conte or Ancelotti) kind of like Mourinho or Ole did.
Or we back ETH and let him build a possession based side while restructuring our footballing side, but this is more problematic because of the Glazers. The whole commercial aspect was their creation, so the only way to get rid of it is by kicking them out of the club, which is not happening.
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