If we don't challenge Ole has to bow out, simple as that. I know the midfield is a glaring hole, but the team has enough quality around that to push till the end.
Signing Ronaldo will lead United to a true title challenge
- Thread starter bosnian_red
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We have two strikers with the best off the ball movement in Europe.
Does Bruno still take our penalties?
When fernandinho was younger, but now he doesn't provide the industry that Fred has, which is needed at this top level. This is why Fred started for Brazil at the Copa America
His mentality alone will improve us, Old Trafford will be raucous every match, and younger players will learn from him too.
Dunno about a title, but we definitely need to be winning a domestic cup and going further in Europe than we're used to.
Dunno about a title, but we definitely need to be winning a domestic cup and going further in Europe than we're used to.
Fernandinho will always be better than the best form Fred can hope for especially as a DM.
I don't disagree with the notion that you don't need a full world class team to win the league and that our CM isn't as disastrous as people are making it to be. We have a great team, our defense and attack on paper are up there as the best in the league, and we have the best LB in the league. Your examples were solid, but the comparison with Pep winning it with Fernandinho is simply wrong.
Juventus were in a title challenge last year?
I don’t think this guarantees anything apart from goals. The again, if you struggle to break down teams..
It’s a good signing but Ronaldo is short termism at its finest. He might make a few runner up medals into titles but a 38 game league season is a whole different kettle of fish. Peak Ronaldo is a whole different story to modern Ronaldo.
I don’t think this guarantees anything apart from goals. The again, if you struggle to break down teams..
It’s a good signing but Ronaldo is short termism at its finest. He might make a few runner up medals into titles but a 38 game league season is a whole different kettle of fish. Peak Ronaldo is a whole different story to modern Ronaldo.
This RVP analogy needs to fecking die ffs. There is feck all similarity.
That was a much weaker league back then. Only United and City had decent teams, we finished 20 points ahead of the rest. We had Fergie as manager. We had finished level with the champions the year before and had a squad of winners..
Now it’s a league where Pep, Klopp and Tuchel are here, managers who have won all major honours, and we have Ole. The opposition is much much stronger. Our group of players are closer to bottlers than they are to winners. Ronaldo is not 29 like RVP was, he is 36.
He alone can not help overcome the shortfalls of the midfield or the inexperience in management.
That was a much weaker league back then. Only United and City had decent teams, we finished 20 points ahead of the rest. We had Fergie as manager. We had finished level with the champions the year before and had a squad of winners..
Now it’s a league where Pep, Klopp and Tuchel are here, managers who have won all major honours, and we have Ole. The opposition is much much stronger. Our group of players are closer to bottlers than they are to winners. Ronaldo is not 29 like RVP was, he is 36.
He alone can not help overcome the shortfalls of the midfield or the inexperience in management.
Last season we did well but there were muiltiple instances of us struggling to break down teams. Multiple 0-0 draws, that fecking horrendous 1-1 away at West Brom etc. Now we have Sancho, we have Pogba seemingly continuing his fine form from the second half of last season, Rashford will be coming back finally injury free, and now we have Ronaldo (hopefully).
Last season we were let down by our defending at times, especially on set-pieces. Now we have Varane, and Shaw has transformed into some form of Superman which is a boost at both ends of the pitch.
More than anything, Ronaldo will bring a mentality to this team, a desire to win. We've bemoaned the lack of leaders and the winning mentality over and over, now we have Bruno, Varane, Ronaldo.
We aren't perfect by any means, but if we can add a few percent to our attacking returns we'll turn some of those draws into wins. If we can add a few percent to our defensive returns the same applies and we'll have a really good season. Despite signing Grealish, city must be feeling a bit flat at the moment.
Last season we were let down by our defending at times, especially on set-pieces. Now we have Varane, and Shaw has transformed into some form of Superman which is a boost at both ends of the pitch.
More than anything, Ronaldo will bring a mentality to this team, a desire to win. We've bemoaned the lack of leaders and the winning mentality over and over, now we have Bruno, Varane, Ronaldo.
We aren't perfect by any means, but if we can add a few percent to our attacking returns we'll turn some of those draws into wins. If we can add a few percent to our defensive returns the same applies and we'll have a really good season. Despite signing Grealish, city must be feeling a bit flat at the moment.
The above is important. RVP was a gamble from an injury perspective- he was a crock for most of his career- but we knew that if we kept him fit he'd be brilliant.
Ronaldo is simply not as good a player right now as RVP was then. And even if he is still excellent, at some point he has to stop being excellent. For most players that happens a long time before they reach 36. Is he still a player who can bang in 20-25 non penalty goals a season? And if he is, will he still be next season?
Ole simply has to produce now; there is no hiding place for him. Ronaldo, Sancho, Varane, and Cavani re-signed. It's the best transfer window in many a year, so now we have to seriously challenge in the league and the Champions League. I'm not saying we will win either, but we have to be amongst the contenders this season. If we fall well short with this squad, Ole knows he will pay the price.
it's not just the signing of Varane, a serial winner, a young Sancho who has all the potential in the world but now you've brought back arguably the best player of all time.
The amount of added experience and winning mentality these three guys will bring to the table is absolutely immense
The amount of added experience and winning mentality these three guys will bring to the table is absolutely immense
We're the favourite underdogs after City and Chelsea.
Liverpool can feck themselves.
Liverpool can feck themselves.
Not sure. We need a midfielder who can both defend AND pass the ball. We currently don't have one of these at the club.
To me the biggest impact will be leadership. We finally have some proper fecking characters in the dressing room. Ronaldo, Varane, Bruno. They will infuse some proper winners mentality.
Pressure just increased on Ole tenfold.
No excuses now.
No excuses now.
That would be the cherry on top. However, no team is perfect and it's very difficult to solve every problem in one transfer window. Given the squad we have right now, we have to be in the mix for the biggest trophies, even if we just fall short. What won't be tolerated this season is more underachievement i.e. no title challenge and playing Europa League football next spring.
true that. imagine playing them both up top feeding off shaw's crosses, bruno/pogba's dinks
Bit of a gamble for Ole. Because even if Ronaldo hits 25 + goals, if we do not win anything, then he will have to respond (yet again...) to that... He'll look a little silly, and we will seem more nostalgia, rather than anything else.
United MUST once again be a club that seeks out the best goalscorers in Europe, who can help us build a team,. for a number of years.
Juve' have acted like a big club. Not sure how this looks for us as a club, I really don't. Can't suggest I'm 100% happy, and I absolutely love Ronaldo the player. He's brilliant.
But ..Ibra, Cavani, now Ronaldo.
What's the plan Ole? (and remember, we sold Lukaku...!!!!)
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Lack of a top quality and much needed CDM I'd fear will stop United from mounting a title challenge this season.
It's a win now move and if we don't win anything major, probably this season, then it will have failed. There can't be any more talk of building or a long term plan, they've made a short term move and if it doesn't work (and honestly I don't think it will) then Ole will surely have to face the consequences.
Yes, agreed. A front line of Ronaldo, Sancho and Cavani/Rashford/Greenwood (with Bruno and Pogba playing the passes) should easily be good enough to put Villarreal and Atalanta to the sword in the CL and keep us in the top echelons of the Premier League table (even if we can't quite overhaul City/Chelsea).
Not sure we'll win the title but as a 9 would Kane have given us more than Ronaldo??
The psychological boost that CR7 brings to the team cannot be understated and may possibly be even more important than his contributions on the pitch.
We have a lot of younger players that grew up idolizing him, biggest example being Rashford. How often have we shot ourselves in the foot due to lethargy throughout Ole's tenure? Hell, it just happened last week! Imagine what CR7 could do to lift up the team in those situations.
We have a lot of younger players that grew up idolizing him, biggest example being Rashford. How often have we shot ourselves in the foot due to lethargy throughout Ole's tenure? Hell, it just happened last week! Imagine what CR7 could do to lift up the team in those situations.
Is it an "Either/Or" scenario? Who says we still can't get a solid DM even with the Ronaldo signing?
He will help paper over a lot of cracks for sure. Maybe even drag us to a PL title. CR7 might just be enough to offset our solid combo of 'bang average midfield options + bad coaching staff + sub-par manager'.
Which is either a good short term thing or terrible for the long term, depending on how you see this and which side of the Ole fence you are on. One thing is for sure, if even CR7 cannot get this team challenging for the PL, then there really should be no more argument about the levels of our current manager and his coaching staff.
It would want to lead us to one or serious questions need to be asked! Even without Ronaldo we should be at least challenging with the firepower we have.
No more excuses now. Glazers have more than backed him. Has to win trophies or move on.
Ronaldo was brought in for one purpose only, to lead the club to the title.
This signing is definitive evidence that Ole believes his side is good enough to win the league now. I hope the players share that sentiment.
This signing is definitive evidence that Ole believes his side is good enough to win the league now. I hope the players share that sentiment.
Nooope. That player isn't born yet.
You tell me which player did that in the modern game against the level of opposition we're up against. Because the very same C.Ronaldo struggled to wrestle titles away from Barca in a 2-team league (only 2 titles in 9 years), with a better team and coaching staff behind him and during his peak. This is a 36yo, very much in decline from his peak Ronaldo. Against 3 more complete teams managed by Klopp, Pep and Tuchel.
You are either completely underestimating the difficulty of the task or think Ronaldo is some sort of 10-footed god.
If it was Fergie on the helm I would give us a chance. I don't even trust Ole to have the balls to tell Ronaldo to leave the free-kicks to Bruno because he has only scored 1 free kick in 3 years despite taking them all.
We are one good DM away from having a truly special team. But feck it, still good enough to challenge for all fronts regardless.
It should also lead to old Trafford being even better as that Viva Ronaldo chant is great and will be sung even more now that he's back
Was great last time round
Was great last time round
It'll honestly be good to see him shouting and moaning at players who feck things up or don't show enough effort. I think he might raise the standards in that regard. We've been missing a real captains presence for a long time.
Always thought we still lacked a magic up-front. A 27 y.o. Cavani would be enough, but not a 35 y.o. version with injury history. Now we have added another, albeit old but still can struck fear.
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We already had one of the best squads in Europe without him. If we don't challenge with him then.. well.. god help us.
REALLY excited about this signing. . . Never thought I'd be writing about CR7 coming back home. I truly hope that with this signing that the dynamic of the team won't change too much. As much as I like Lingard, I think this opens WH a better opportunity to come and get him. We are stacked at the front, and I am truly excited to see the pursuit of silverware with this deep squad.
It is great news. No excuses if we don't challenge with Sancho, Varane and Ronaldo now a part of this squad.
A title challenge is the bare minimum with this squad. Anything less will be unacceptable.