Sky Sports: Manchester United must be patient in transitional period, says Gary Neville

[dev1l]

But Matic and Fred are frankly useless, Pogba and McTominay are a better combination. You aren't fixing a thing by moving Pogba, you are just swapping the Lingard issue with the Fred/Matic issue while playing Pogba in a position where he isn't particularly good. And the other two are worse than Pogba in CM and arguably worse than everything we have as 10.

Re Fred and Matic.
I think Matic is done, he s slower than he already was and cannot cope with the pace of the game.
Fred - there is some hope. I ll give him another chance.
He was good at times last season but he hasn't adapted well enough. But think deserves another chance

 

[Random Task]

Feel like you've been "in a transition period" since Moyes left.

Ain't that the truth.

The problem is the way the club has handled this period of transition; Poor managerial recruitment, an equally poor transfer policy that went against everything the club stood for and to make matters worse, we placed an arrogant investment banker at the head of that recruitment. Ed Woodward is as much to blame for our current plight as anyone at the club.

The transfer window just gone was probably our best since Fergie retired. We brought in 2 players with the potential to grow and are proven PL quality. Dan James, although unproven in the PL, has tonnes of potential, under the right guidance he can become a world-beater. The only thing missing was an investment in the midfield area, but we'll see that addressed next summer.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Can someone link me to the guidelines for transitional periods?

 

[Random Task]

Can someone link me to the guidelines for transitional periods?

https://www.writechangegrow.com/2012/09/how-to-deal-with-periods-of-transition/

Enjoy.

 

[TsuWave]

been in transition for more than half a decade now

 

[ArjenIsM3]

But Matic and Fred are frankly useless, Pogba and McTominay are a better combination. You aren't fixing a thing by moving Pogba, you are just swapping the Lingard issue with the Fred/Matic issue while playing Pogba in a position where he isn't particularly good. And the other two are worse than Pogba in CM and arguably worse than everything we have as 10.

Well we know Lingard is shite and isn't going to improve so I'd much rather have Fred in there who's now been here long enough to have settled in and who has shown at Shakhtar he can be a good midfielder. Chance of success with Lingard is 1%, Fred might be 20%. Still shite odds, but anything's better than persisting with Lingard.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

been in transition for more than half a decade now

Half a decade or 5 years? Make your mind up!

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Well we know Lingard is shite and isn't going to improve so I'd much rather have Fred in there who's now been here long enough to have settled in and who has shown at Shakhtar he can be a good midfielder. Chance of success with Lingard is 1%, Fred might be 20%. Still shite odds, but anything's better than persisting with Lingard.

But we need to be patient with Lingard, he's a young lad just learning...oh wait!

 

[Marcus]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Wait till the oil money runs out. You really won't be this smug.

 

[El Zoido]

We’re constantly in transition because we keep changing manager. Whether Ole is the right man for the job is irrelevant.

 

[2 man midfield]

The amount of flack he’s taking for espousing an obviously correct opinion

Just shows what some people will do if you slag off their beloved Pogba.

 

[stepic]

we've not done enough now in 2 consecutive summer windows.

Jose knew in the summer of 2018 that we needed another CB. Maguire was discussed at that time. we didn't go for it. all we signed was Fred and Dalot, only one of which was an expected starter at that time.

a year later we finally get the CB, and another RB, but fail to address anything else, in the mean time losing former starters like Lukaku and Herrera. we've actively weakened the midfield and attack, hoping for internal improvement.

in 2 years we've managed to sign 2 players that are now starting for the first team. that is atrocious for a team trying to actively catch up on the best teams in the country. 'transitional period' my arse.

 

[Irwin99]

Post invincible Arsenal were patient with their project and their players but it ended up being a failure. I know people will argue that their hands were tied financially but they hoped players like Walcott, Diaby, Wilshere would become top players and they didn’t.

It works both ways. You can be patient with players Smalling, Jones, Lingard etc hoping they’ll be the foundation of your team for years to come and it just ends up being a massive waste of time.

I honestly like some of what Ole has done so far and am willing to be patient but fans will use their own judgement as to how much progress is being made. At the end of the day Ole will be judged by results. I’d assess how things are at the end of the season and take it from there.

 

[devilish]

Prior to the end of last season Gaz said that he doesn't like this squad. Then 3 British players were signed, 3 foreign players left and voila he has rediscovered his love for this squad and is pushing for patience and sticking to what we're already doing.

 

[robinamicrowave]

Wait till the oil money runs out. You really won't be this smug.

If anything I'm making the point that Neville's talking shit for clicks.

But carry on.

 

[kps88]

He's right, but we could have made things move faster by signing a quality midfielder or forward in the summer.

 

[clarkydaz]

After the shit he stirred up last week, he tells everyone to be patient

 

[Phil]

Yet another transitional period after a disappointing transfer window, sure.

The only thing we're transitioning into is a Europa League team.

 

[JPRouve]

Well we know Lingard is shite and isn't going to improve so I'd much rather have Fred in there who's now been here long enough to have settled in and who has shown at Shakhtar he can be a good midfielder. Chance of success with Lingard is 1%, Fred might be 20%. Still shite odds, but anything's better than persisting with Lingard.

While I agree that Lingard is bad, your percentages are meaningless, they are based on nothing and last season shows that Lingard is probably less bad than Fred. Which is pretty sad.

 

[SteveJ]

After the shit he stirred up last week, he tells everyone to be patient

It's like me telling posters to stop using green smilies.

 

[UpWithRivers]

Absolutely spot on. We are doing great. Yeah we have ups and downs but thats to be expected. And we cant just buy a new team. We just need to give youth a go and keep plodding away. Soon we will be champions.....oh who am I kidding. I cant pull off this delusional optimist fan lingo

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Yet another transitional period after a disappointing transfer window, sure.

The only thing we're transitioning into is a Europa League team.

I wonder. Were Valencia in transition as well? He is not wrong but this must be one of the longest transitions in history. Patience is fine, but what if they people carrying out the transition are making a bit of a chore of it?

 

[red_de_pologne]

We tried an instant-bought improvement, now we clearly have a new approach. It is fair to call it a transition as it involves phasing some players out and bleeding youngsters in. If we build around the current core we'll have a solid team within 2-3 seasons, don't see anything wrong with what he said.

 

[StrettyEnder07]

Think Nev is pretty spot on, it is not an overnight fix, the knee jerk reaction on Twitter/Caf is comical, 3 games in, he is trying to make a lot of changes at once and it will take time and a few windows.

Anyone with half a brain cell we are not going to be challenging the top 2 and it will be a struggle to get into the top 4.

My only criticism so far of Ole is his constant use of Lingard as a No. 10. I am a fan of Pogba in the deep lying role, some of his passing has been superb, he is just missing that cleaver connect between him and the strikers, which I personally think Gomes can provide given a chance.

Love the fact that Smalling, Jones, Matic, etc. are no longer first choice. If Martial is out this weekend, Rash up front, James Gomes Greenwood behind for me.

 

[jeff_goldblum]

Not sure what there is to be annoyed at Neville about here; it's a statement of fact that we're in transition. We shouldn't be, 6 years post-Fergie, but we are. What should have been a couple of years of transition after losing Fergie and Gill has been allowed to spiral into over half-a-decade and the lack of vision from the top has meant that the squad Ole took into the Summer of 2019 has as many as, or more issues than, the one Moyes inherited in Summer 2013, or which LVG inherited in Summer 2014, or Mourinho in Summer 2016. Regardless of poor management, the club should have been behind the scenes building a squad of players capable of delivering silverware for each manager to make use of and it's utterly failed to do that.

What I've seen this window is a plan to build a squad, and that's something we've not had since Fergie left. Whilst I'm disappointed we couldn't bring in another forward player, I wouldn't particularly mind finishing outside the top 4 this season if the windows in January and Summer 2020 were as cohesive as the one we just had.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Not sure what there is to be annoyed at Neville about here; it's a statement of fact that we're in transition. We shouldn't be, 6 years post-Fergie, but we are. Regardless of poor management, the club should have been building a squad of players capable of delivering silverware and it's utterly failed to do that. What should have been a couple of years of transition after losing Fergie and Gill has been allowed to spiral into over half-a-decade and the lack of vision from the top has meant that the squad Ole took into the Summer of 2019 has as many as, or more issues than, the one Moyes inherited in Summer 2013, or which LVG inherited in Summer 2014, or Mourinho in Summer 2016.

The big problem, as you have hinted, is that this team should be the finished article now. What have we been doing all this time? So the transition is starting now, so how long will it take and is Ole the man to do it? He might get rid of some players, but is he going to recruit the right players to replace them? He might have the right idea, but some of the names mentioned are very underwhelming. It has to be a mixture. Good young talent, but also top notch players in there as well. He is supposedly following the SAF recipe, but really he isn't. Some of the ingredients are missing.

 

[ArjenIsM3]

While I agree that Lingard is bad, your percentages are meaningless, they are based on nothing and last season shows that Lingard is probably less bad than Fred. Which is pretty sad.

Obviously they are based on my own judgement. Last season shows what exactly? Fred had some decent and some bad games, same as Lingard. Difference is it was Fred's first season here while Lingard has been around for ages. So far this season Lingard has been even worse than last season. What I'm saying is there's a chance that Fred had some trouble adjusting to his new surroundings so he could be better this season. With Lingard, there's no chance of that or any other improvement really.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

One can be patient in a transitional period if things are being done right. But its hard to be patient with a below average manager and a disaster of a transfer window after six years of mistakes.

 

[AshRK]

He should have said that to himself first before he went on ranting about Pogba's missed penalty. Just cannot take this idiot seriously.

 

[JohnnyKills]

We tried an instant-bought improvement, now we clearly have a new approach. It is fair to call it a transition as it involves phasing some players out and bleeding youngsters in. If we build around the current core we'll have a solid team within 2-3 seasons, don't see anything wrong with what he said.

There's a difference between the man and the process, though. Yes the current project might give us a good team in 2-3 years, but will Solskjaer be the man to complete it?

Personally I think OGS has been a good choice to oversee part 1 of the rebuild. He's grown up under Fergie so he knows the kind of players that succeed at United and the ones that don't. The 'United Way' bullshit is tiresome but it's clear he wants to build a young, attacking team, just like the fans. He's already weeded out some of Mourinho's players and started replacing them with Academy products.

But he's also shown himself to be a bit tactically limited. So do we trust him to complete the full rebuild? Or do we say at the end of this season 'thanks for doing the foundations, but now we need a more experienced guy to oversee the remainder of the project'?

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Gary: Just be patient

Also Gary: WRONG MAN TAKE PENALTY!!


I don't really know what Gary is trying to say anymore. He calls for calm from supporters, and then flips his wig over minor details, which seems to cause waves on social media and then the fanbase gets agitated about the same things. It's like he's telling the fans to calm down about the fury that often starts with him.

When he's talked about it before, he's used the 70s and 80s as examples of overseeing United be noncompetitive at the top. You'd think that him playing a major part in the clubs most successful ever period over two decades would have resulted in his standards being higher, but because we got relegated in the 70s and were shit for a bit, it's okay for us to be shit again.

 

[Dr. StrangeHate]

This.

Stop tweeting like a 14 year old kid, Gaz. I loved you as a player and it's a shame to see you being all reactive nowadays.

You punched the air when Liverpool beat City, you are gross.

 

[SteveJ]

Neville: "Even I wish I'd fecking shut up"

 

[R'hllor]

i heard that somewhere before.

 

[Dr. StrangeHate]

He needs to stir shit up and then give opinions like this. This is why sky pay him money. If there is no controversy he will become his brother.


BBC News - Phil Neville commentary will calm fans, police joke
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-27858505

 

[Ban]

He's right about a transition if there some kind of plan behind it which I don't think there is.
He also said United should sell OT naming rights which is ludicrous.

But whatever he says doesn't matter since he abused our Pogba.

 

[Greck]

Worth noting that even with patience we have to hit certain minimum goals that make us attractive to the profile of signings that can improve us or we'll be running on a treadmill trying to build a CL team out of James' and Longstaffs. Patience also doesn't give the manager license to fall out of the top 6 for example. Sancho's outright refusal to join us was a huge gutpunch and we will see more of that if we regress. Ole's stock isn't exactly high among players and fans alike and he can't let it fall any further. It already feels like a sure thing that Pogba's replacement will be a massive downgrade

 

[Chesterlestreet]

I haven't clicked on the link but I share the sentiment. Our weaknesses are obvious and on paper easily fixable, if Ole sticks to the 4231, which he should, then we need to find a proper 10, a midfield destroyer and a creative winger. I'm sure that some will roll their eyes because it has a whiff of déjà vu but the difference between now and the last three years is that the roles that we are missing are clear due to the fact that our approach is clear.

Was thinking the same thing after Palace.

Replace Lingard with someone who can bring others into play consistently, and who knows how to unlock a defence - and presto, it's looking considerably brighter straight away.

Upgrade in the DM and RW departments on top of that, and we could actually field a decent team - using the very same approach we've seen so far this season.

The question is to what extent Ole will get away with not having those players until - well - he can either conjure them up from the current options (unlikely) or buy them.

The basic approach is alright, though, for my money. With LVG and Mourinho I didn't feel we were on anything like the right track, only lacking a couple of players in specific positions/roles.

 

[izzydiggler]

There’s no long-term transition/rebuild going on. The summer should have shown everyone that - damaged limitations, owners happy to not challenge whilst the money comes in.

Nothing has changed. For all the talk it’s the same old and all patience and ‘let’s wait and see’ attitude will do is let the problems at the club take it down even more.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

He's right about a transition if there some kind of plan behind it which I don't think there is.
He also said United should sell OT naming rights which is ludicrous.

But whatever he says doesn't matter since he abused our Pogba.

Think he said sell the rights and use the money to reduce ticket prices. Wonder if Daniel Levy would fancy that idea?