So 4 games in, share your 5 thoughts so far

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1. Starting to look like we have a style of play
2. But we are still inconsistent and hope it will stabilize soon
3. New players are quality and feel that the scouting really improve a lot
4. The players are still playing 100% for Amorim
5. It feels like the team is just going to click soon and once it clicked we will see the real Man Utd is back.
 
1. I like the new players.
2. We are creating chances.
3. We should have 9 points.
4. Mount has impressed.
5. I like all three new kits.
 
1. Liverpool will win the league
2. I wish we brought in an experienced striker. Fair chance Höjlund might have a better career than Sesko.
3. Mbeumo and Cunha - great personalities and quality players.
4. Keeper - Jury out on Lammens but same feeling as point 2. Au revoir Onana!
5. Amorim is in for a rough season. Hope he can turn it around. Promosing football so far but we struggle to win matches. Missing quality wing-backs and a CM?
 
DatIrishFella said:
This is actually blowing my mind considering what little I've seen of him in a United shirt. I'm a little flabbergasted at it. Don't even know what to respond with considering the quality of Cunha. Mad, mad take.
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That's fine, you're allowed to disagree. It's basically impossible to have an reasonable discussion about a new United signing for 6 months anyway because the rose tinted glasses are a thing.

But I've been saying it for at while now though, it was very apparent at Wolves too. His close control isn't great.
 
Pickle85 said:
He's always looked like he's got a cracking touch to me. He's shown it a few times this season already. That ball he plucked out of the air from a Bruno long ball Vs...goons was it(?) was cracking
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There's a difference between having a good first touch every now and again and having good close control while running with the ball.
 
Happy with the players we have shipped out..worried about the lack of a midfield signing and the persistence with playing 3-4-3. I think 4-2-3-1 suits our players best with Bruno playing in his best position and Kobbie playing next to Ugarte/Casemiro.
 
1. Mbwemo looks a decent acquisition.

2. Fingers crossed the new goalkeeper settles quickly. And isn't a complete huddy. Unless we were recruiting for a Donkey Derby, God knows how we saddled ourselves with Onana and Bayindar.

3. Now he's fit, Mount has looked decent. Whether he stays fit is a moot point. And leads to

4. We don't have a functioning midfield pair to make this system work. We signed two 10's. We already had Mount and Bruno. Bruno has been shoehorned into a midfield two. Which doesn't and won't work whilst Amorim persists with 3-4-3. Why didn't we sign a proper CM?

5. It's a results business. Amorim has been given plenty of slack and indulged about the squad. He needs now to turn his warm blather into substance. If results don't pick up, he ought to be gone by Christmas. We can't be spending this much money without end product.
 
Dion said:
There's a difference between having a good first touch every now and again and having good close control while running with the ball.
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Agreed, but he looks very comfortable with the ball at his feet.
 
1. Need a new keeper
2. Need more mobile midfielders
3. We need more bodies in midfield if we can't get the players we need now
4. Amorim is still too rigid and any manager with half a brain will outthink him
5. Mbeumo is fantastic
 
Pickle85 said:
Agreed, but he looks very comfortable with the ball at his feet.
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Again, you're free to disagree. As I said to the other guy, it'll be about 6 months before the rose tinted glasses disappear and I'll be interested to see if this opinion still holds up.
 
United can at least hold the ball longer upfield. Mbeumo and Cunha giving back to me my long lost confidence/hope of future resurgence.

Above all, most of the weakest mentality personalities who took for granted, playing for United, have been jettisoned—though some on temporary basis.
 
groovyalbert said:
1. Need a new keeper
2. Need more mobile midfielders
3. We need more bodies in midfield if we can't get the players we need now
4. Amorim is still too rigid and any manager with half a brain will outthink him
5. Mbeumo is fantastic
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This is fair. But points 3 and 4 are too sides of the same coin. Amorim's system is not possession based, its quite vertical and about finding ways to get the ball to the forwards quickly. So he doesnt want us playing through the midfield and our spare player is always a CB, which also hinders our comfort in possession. Its just really odd that such a young manager has such a rigid approach. Some of the XGs look better but its an odd statistic at the best of times. The next month will be much more telling as to where we are
 
1. A midfield 3 of Bruno/Mainoo/Case or Bruno/Mainoo/Ugarte could potentially work. Amorim needs to be more flexible and change formations depending on the game/players available
2. Thank feck Onana is gone, he inspired no confidence
3. The Sesko space launch was sexy. High hopes, hope the lad gets a goal soon
4. We're creating much more chances and taking more shots than last season which is good - the new transfers are doing their job
5. I'm a little worried about Amad, he seems very off so far this season
 
1. Without the Grimsby game, I would have felt more positive.
2. In the league we got what was expected, 1W 1d 1L.
3. We played better than the results suggest, which is promising
4. We still struggle to score, even with the new signings and we still miss a lot of chances
5. Our midfield is not great.
 
I think the truth is somewhere in between the extremes people are posting. Yes, the goalkeeper issue is glaring and has cost us points already, and we don't know the level of Lammens yet. Yes, the midfield is unbalanced and Amorim’s rigidity with the 3-4-2-1 has been frustrating. But there are also real signs of progress compared to last season that shouldn’t be ignored.

Against Arsenal we played some of our best football in months and were unlucky not to take something. At Fulham we had 20 minutes of dominance where we could have killed the game, and against Burnley we created enough chances to win two matches. Last season, we were often struggling to create anything, so even though the finishing has been poor, the volume and quality of chances being generated is encouraging.

Cunha and Mbeumo look like they’ve added exactly what we’ve been crying out for – dynamism, directness, and real quality in the final third. The final piece is Sesko finding his confidence in front of goal. Once he gets one or two, I think he’ll take off, and we’ll suddenly look a much more dangerous side.

As for the midfield, I agree with those saying Bruno isn’t the solution as a deeper CM. He’s a top-class offensive midfielder, but if we want real control of games, we need someone who can dictate tempo and hold shape next to Casemiro or his successor. That doesn’t mean the whole project is doomed, though. Amorim’s system is built on structure, five-lane occupation, and coordinated pressing. If we get the right profiles in midfield, it could click in a big way – but right now it’s not fully there. If Mainoo would step up he could be the solution, next to a ball-winning workaholic (Baleba).

I get the concerns about Amorim being too stubborn, but it’s also true that every manager needs time to implement a repeatable method. Pep, Klopp, and even Arteta all had rocky first seasons where people were calling them inflexible too. The key is whether the players buy into the system and whether the club addresses the obvious weaknesses in GK and CM.

So, overall, I see this as a transitional phase. There are more positives than people give credit for, and if we stick with the plan rather than ripping it up again, there’s a platform here to build something that actually lasts. It’s not perfect, far from it, but the ingredients are better than they were a year ago.
 
1. What I’ve been impressed about: number of chances, Sesko’s aerial potential, Cunha’s jogo bonito.
2. What I’ve been concerned about: Amorim’s emotamanaging, off the ball midfield play.
3. What I’d like to see improve: getting the ball in the back of the net from open play, better crosses targeting Sesko.
4. What I’d like to see introduced: consistency, ruthlessness on set play defending.
5. What I’d like to see removed: sulking on and off the pitch.
 
Our finishing and goalkeeping were substandard in the three PL matches. If both of those aspects of our game improve, we'll be in the hunt for 4/5. If not, we're a bottom half table side.

Yes, the midfield needs upgrading but it's not in the cards any time soon and because of that we're nowhere near close to a PL title run, but that is no news to anyone here.
 
  1. Mbuemo, Cunha, Sesko acquisitions look to be a move in the right direction
  2. Dalot continues to regress and needs to be sold.
  3. Happy Ohnono is gone. Hope Lammens is the real deal.
  4. Still need a proper DCM.
  5. Not sold on Dorgu or anyone else we have for LW. Honestly would've kept Amass around.
 
Trying to be balance

1. Ruben is still stubborn and inflexible beyond belief however his football is better than last year because of better players signed.

2. We needed a Centre Midfielder with legs, let’s see how that glaring omission affects our season in the fullness of time.

3. Finally getting rid of most of the undesirables in the squad mostly for attitude reasons not ability reasons

4. We are entrenched in a 3421 but still lack genuine elite wing backs.

5. Finally getting rid of Onana, however we still have Bayinder and a new rookie Gialkeeper in Lammens, the club is not 100% in the Goalkeeper department.

6. The club can go one of two ways, actually produce a couple of good performances against City and Chelsea and go on a reasonable run of not losing a PL game in 5 or 6 that’s would equate to 3 wins and 3 draws or 2 wins and 4 draws under Ruben, let’s not get carried away just yet, or he could lose 3 out of the next 5 PL matches and probably get the sack.

7. Carrington is a huge plus, the youth tset ups have genuinely talented young players who could emerge in next 3-5 years like the Fletcher Twins, Amir Ibragimov, Shea Lacey, Musa, Chido, Mantato and JJ.
 
1) De Ligt has been very good, playing with more width could also give more of a chance to demonstrate his passing ability.
2) Amad and Mbuemo on the same side doesn't particularly work, they both want to be in the same spaces and both want to cut in. Amad has popped up on the left so maybe we'll see more of that.
3) I don't think the shape best suits any member of our squad which is damning from a managerial perspective. The sum of the whole is definitely less than its constituent parts.
4) Playing games without a CF is senseless.
5) We're an injury or two in midfield away from being really exposed against well coached PL teams.
 
1. We were by far the better team vs Arsenal and should have won the game.

2. We started so well vs Fulham and should have beeen 2 or 3 goals up. Bruno also missed a penalty.

3. Grimsby game is a one off played by second strings. Also thanks to Onana.

4. Good win vs Burnley. The players show the fight and still playing for Amorim.

5. Maybe just maybe a little bit more "suffering" and we will see results?
 
1. Amorim has a very specific structure, which I am told, once implemented, should allow the team to vary style and tactics to suit various in-game situations.
2. The players currently look like they want the plan to work.
3. I am worried about the players losing confidence in either themselves or the plan.
4. I am worried that the upper management team will bottle it (again) and fire Amorim if the plan isn't working by January.
5. There is no 'baseline' in our performances and there hasn't been for a very long time, since OGS, and this needs to happen otherwise we will be wobbling all over the show forever.
 
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