Love this guys content. Found this to be a lovely balanced view of the Spurs defeat and the season so far. Not all doom and gloom, just a few tweaks and hopefully a new signing and we ‘should’ be good to go. Opposed to the perceived Caf consensus that Mount needs to be sold, Casemiro is past it and Ten Hag is a poor manager, etc etc etc.
Statman Dave
- Thread starter Red_toad
- Start date
Wow thank god for this post. I actually think people just look at the final score or just one half of a football game and decide we are doomed. The first half against spurs we created so many chances, we didn't take them. The passing and pressing was really good. We can build on that and I am pretty sure we will improve with a proper CF.
He's too into stats.
I know that's his gig but relying on stats alone is a poor evaluation of the game.
Agreed. I like him but actually watching the game and have the so called eye-test helps balance stats. We can still create a lot of chances while being very poor in midfield and also thinking we should be getting more from the players.
The majority of the video is actually looking at game footage and the defensive positioning of our players. Didn't feel he was concentrating too much on stats.
Was gonna say, he's not really talking about stats in that video
Bonus he’s a United fan
He's not wrong but he's just saying what everyone else is in a much more long winded way.
Basically its too easy to counter attack against us because our system and positioning is wrong. If you delve into all the "doom" posts on here this is what 95% of them are also saying.
Basically its too easy to counter attack against us because our system and positioning is wrong. If you delve into all the "doom" posts on here this is what 95% of them are also saying.
The guy sometimes feels like a media outlet of the club itself. Wouldn't give too much on all that "balanced view", he'll alter it quickly. I mean, he produced like 10 videos why Mount is perfect for us and how great that formation switch will be. This particular video is a good one, admittedly.
If you are into it, this one I thought was even better as it seemed a bit more grippy:
TIFO in real life latest video
He is not someone's opinion I would trust. I would imagine he was thrilled with all of the signings when they happened, now captain hindsight like so many football content/creators.
Isn't he employed by MUTV? I don't tend to trust anyone to provide levelled analysis of the club when they are literally a direct employee.
I prefer Scatman John
You need to actually watch the video before criticizing it.
100%. Problem is, pundits and fans are hugely results-orientated and when combined with a massive recency bias, people become far, far too obsessed with literally the last thing that happened.
I actually got more heart from the Spurs game than the Wolves game. We battered Spurs for 40-mins. We completely and totally dominated terriority and had 3 very good chances, plus a penalty turned down that most likely should have been given.
Yes, Spurs played better 2nd half and we fell apart. Yes, we can't afford to lose our heads when we fall behind and/or we miss chances...but these are "coachable" issues.
We're very, very early in this project. People saying "this system can't work, this player can't work, this combo can't work etc...' only need to look at the first half vs Spurs to see it absolutely 100% CAN work....it just needs more time.
Also, don't forget, we're playing without a CF. I'm not even having a go at Rashford now, because we all know he's crap at CF and doesn't like playing there...but imagine City having to start the season with Grealish at CF, or Chelsea with Sterling, or Arsenal with Martinelli. It would definitely have an impact.
Before folk leap in with "but but we should have signed a CF"...yeah, would be nice wouldn't it, to fix every single problem we've given ourselves over the last decade in two windows...but not realistic is it! Had we signed another CF and not Onana, people would have complained about that. Had we signed a CF and not another midfielder, people would have complained about that.
We're flirting a fine line with FFP because Woodward spanked £1BN+ net on dross. Our squad has holes because Woodward spent £1BN net on dross. Patience people!
There are some weird takes in the vid. For example.
- We don't try and play offensively with "3 No 10's", Bruno is basically an SS but Mount was not in the position he said he was at all, his heatmap for Spurs proves he was trying to play like an 8 (however unsuccessfully) and was much deeper.
- The first clip he tries to analyse the issue re being countered but misses the cause which really sums up our problems. Rashford receives the ball in a good area, Garnacho and Antony make the correct runs (creating space on their respective flanks) and Bruno makes a central run but Rashford decides not to pass to anyone. He cuts back as every defender is probably expecting but also doesn't shoot. By deciding not to pass or shoot you give the opposition the chance to win the ball back and you immediately have 4 players (inc. Rashford) out of the game as they have run past you. When Spurs then win the ball it is not surprising the press isn't there because you basically have too few bodies. It is decision making 101. As an example of one of our players doing this well, the Rashford chance where Antony got the ball and played a very simple short ball through to Rashford whose dink was saved is a good example.
I thought MUTV was a separate entity so not the same as being directly employed? But yes I'm sure I've seen him on there.
I wouldn't read too much into that anyway. He might have to curtail things a bit but he wouldn't be allowed to put a video on MUTV with a massive "please stop signing these players" vignette and then spent the first part of it basically slagging off how we set up, so I doubt they are having too much influence on his youtube stuff.
Even so its fine putting a positive spin on it as long as he's not just ignoring the blatant issues.
Here's a list of 5 extraordinary players that Manchester United should consider signing to elevate their squad to unparalleled heights. These players possess an exceptional blend of skill, flair, and potential, promising to inject electrifying dynamism into the team's gameplay.
So these are the players I believe Manchester United should sign to elevate them to the next level. What do you make of this list?
I've been Statman Dave. Make sure to like, comment and subscribe to get more of this kind of content. Thanks for watching and I'll see you later!
- Kylian Mbappé
- Kylian Mbappé is the epitome of explosive pace and clinical finishing. His ability to transcend defenses with sheer acceleration and finesse transforms the pitch into his personal canvas, leaving opponents in awe. Averaging 1.5 dribbles per 3 touches, along with his flashpoint acceleration of 2.8 seconds from 0 to 35 km/h, makes him a lightning bolt of brilliance.
- Erling Haaland
- Erling Haaland's prodigious talent encapsulates the art of goal-scoring precision. His innate ability to find the back of the net, coupled with his imposing physical presence, creates a truly unstoppable force. No other player has such an advanced net seeking radar, detecting 10 open spaces per every 20-yard radius. The Terminator scores a goal every 4 touches and averages 2.2 goals per 90 mins, leaving spectators in perpetual amazement.
- Lionel Messi
- Lionel Messi's immaculate dribbling, ethereal vision, and impeccable playmaking have rewritten the fabrics of football. Possessing the ability to turn matches on their heads, through his 48.7 playmaking marvels per game, Messi's presence radiates an aura of magic. His telepathic through balls are successfully executed 99.8 % of the time, coupled with his world class 0.89 dimensional dribbles per touch, makes him a high priority for Man Utd.
- Jude Bellingham
- Jude Bellingham's emergence as a midfield virtuoso heralds a new era of brilliance. His incisive passing, intelligent movement, and unmatched work ethic make him a standout prospect. With 6.8 Zidane turns per game, plus a deep run success of 89 %, makes him a box-to-box midfielder impossible to contain. Channeling the essence of a modern midfield conductor, Bellingham orchestrates the team's rhythm and synchronicity.
- Eduardo Camavinga
- Eduardo Camavinga's commanding presence and composure belie his youth, marking him as a luminary enforcer in the heart of midfield. His ability to shield the defense, with an accuracy of 96 % per involvement, and launching incisive counterattacks showcases a remarkable balance of power and finesse. Camavinga's dynamic presence within a 30-yard radius is unmatched, as he allows the team to dictate the tempo of each engagement.
So these are the players I believe Manchester United should sign to elevate them to the next level. What do you make of this list?
I've been Statman Dave. Make sure to like, comment and subscribe to get more of this kind of content. Thanks for watching and I'll see you later!
So you didn’t even watch the video?
Wouldn't disagree with this as a specific example. Its one of Rashford's worst traits when he's off form. Not so much the bad decision making as that he will just get the ball and take a few seconds to do nothing for no apparent reason before losing it.
In general though I don't think you'll ever get anywhere with a pressing/anti counter attack set up that relies on your forwards not losing the ball or making a bad decision more often than other players. Very few effective attacking players in the world don't have some level of frustration and inconsistency attached to them, and none of the ineffective ones. This is why the reliance is on other players being ready and aware positionally...although in our case I thinka bigger problem is also that even when our players are set up correctly to box teams in, too often they just get pushed out of the way or you see any semi strong physically opponent walking through 3-4 of our players without it even looking like much of an effort.
He hasn't worked for MUTV for years.
So more worryingly it is a manager issue and primarily because he signed Mount rather than a much more defensive minded player which was box to box. Everything Statman Dave is correct:
A) We are far to easy to be countered attacked - this is because of Mount and Bruno in midfield. And also we are failing with the inverted full backs tactic. Shaw is coming inside and AWB doesn't. They both need to be doing the same tactic at the same time.
B) We rush playing the ball forward to attack - Bruno and Rashford are the main culprits, their ball retention is atrocious. The amount of times they give away the ball creates more counter attacks against us which adds to point A.
Oooh! Out-of-context screenshots with arrows! Everything he says must be right!
It's more about percentages, if Rashford does that 5+ times out of 10 it is an issue, if it's only a couple it's fine. Same for all our players with any habits. A big issue last season was we could quite easily pinpoint some of the major issues because it was so common i.e. Rashford not passing, Antony not crossing, Bruno being too direct, DDG whacking it upfield to no one and it all adds up.
On your latter point I think that's all about acceleration and pace, we have a slow team particularly around the midfield and if you do win the ball back against us and are a moderately fast player you can likely transition the ball right to the other end of the pitch with a basic pass or just running into the vacuum Bruno creates and Mount doesn't know how to/can't physically cover..
To be fair, I think both analysis are good and to the point, with lots of good examples, and both overlap and complement each other. Statman’s description of the rest defense organisation is more precise to me than Tifo, who again has a better analysis on Tottenham’s second half counterplay and how It affected United’s plan A. Tifo had a good description of Utd’s plan A press, while Statman better described the attacking organizations and how Utd actually got to so many good chances first half. Statman also points out the issues with directness when it’s too one sides, while Tifo adressed playing out from the back which tbh I think is partly a trope, and partly a problem only as the game drew on, because for a long time Utd got into the oppo’s half and even last third, for a long while Spurs only had the ball in their own half or on Statman’s noted transitions.
What none of them point out, is the uncertainty between what is Utd’s strategy for the game, and what is how it looks when players aren’t match sharp and fit enough to fully execute it. A plan A that might work a treat against the opponents tactics, might crumble badly if just two or three players are not physically or mentally up to speed. You might want a manager to revert to plan B and C then, but if he feels that they are closing in on how they are tarhetting to play, maybe it’s right to focus fully on plan A for the first few weeks to get it fully going, insted of confusing things. The next four games will show much better I think what Ten Hag’s plans with how we’ve set up aginst Wolves and Spurs really were.
Even if the thread title points more to Statman Dave generally, as an answer to posting a video that has 95% analysis of plays and examples of moves and structures, and hardly any stats, it’s tempting to say that relying on past generalisations alone is a poor evaluation of an evaluation.
I love you StatmanGPT !!
Exactly. Who needs stats and actual hard data when we can judge based on vibes and emotional hyperbolic outrage.
I agree to a point but I think you need to work to your players strengths. Bruno creates more chances than almost any other player in the league (I mean, barring KDB who isn't a fair comparison on anyone). If you get rid of his directness you lose that. Same with Rashford. Unless you can find another wide player who'll get you 20 goals in a season, you need to utilise what you've got...and I actually think we're suffering atm because he's not playing from the left so is if anything more wasteful and much less effective...and the rest of our forwards struggled to even get near 10 goals last season. We're set up completely wrong with 2 no 10s to be able to box teams in or stop them counter attacking, and that's a self inflicted issue by the manager which should be easy to fix (if he didn't inexplicably sell Fred). Where as trying to change or replace Rashford/Bruno etc. is a very difficult thing to fix, because actually they're pretty good players.
On the second point, I don't think its a pace issue. Well you may have a point but it definitely isn't just a pace issue. Tottenham players were literally walking through ours and brushing them aside. Same with Wolves. Literally walking at times. I don't think Mount reads the game well at all and Bruno doesn't even try to, so playing both should be a non starter unless Mount is in the front 3...but even then, both of those two, Rashford, Garnacho, Anthony to a lesser extent, just let people go past them if they use a bit of physicality. Well Mount to be fair at least tries not to, but that's half the outfield team and everyone outside of the back 4 apart from Casemiro. That's obviously a pretty big issue if you're trying to win the ball high up the pitch. You don't see City or Arsenal players doing that.
Interesting points, first paragraph I disagree - I feel you are falling into the trap of looking at stats and not context re Bruno. Yes he does create the most in our team (8 goals and 8 assists last season) but what is the cost of that? If he makes 10 high risk passes a game, 1 is an assist and the other 9 we lose possession how do you analyse the cost/benefit? Don't get me wrong, a lot of teams will accommodate a great player if the risk/reward adds up (Pool and Salah for example) but I don't think I can remember a team doing so in such a key position, usually you accommodate the wide attackers or CF because their goal output will be so strong. There are also other options for the 10 role who I think on balance probably deserve a start. Re Rashford I am hesitant to criticise him at CF because from the LW I do think he is good enough to start for most, if not all, PL teams, his weaknesses are somewhat lessened there and he is a player I think there is an argument for us 'accommodating' (as above) given his age and ability to score goals.
Second part I agree if we're talking about players who know the positional side of CM better than Mount. Eriksen is a slug physically but he knows when to sit deep and generally is much more effective at screening and slowing down a counter - that's really the key, modern football doesn't require amazing one on one tackles because it's likely the opponent can go past you if you commit yourself, it's about minimising the threat and giving your teammates time to regroup and essentially forcing the offensive team to either go for a high risk pass/dribble/shot (which is what we want) or to stop, recycle possession and try a different attack. Even with the second scenario you have successfully stopped the counter. That said, pace and acceleration are a massive part of football these days and I struggle to think of a generally slower, less dynamic 3 among the top 6 or so clubs than Case, Mount and Bruno.
I don't look at stats regarding Bruno so I can tell you that's wrong for a start. I just know from watching us and other teams he is one of the best players in the league at creating chances. He also loses possession a lot but I think they go hand in hand. He tries passes other players either wouldn't attempt or wouldn't see, an he has the ability to do so quickly. I think we're going down a somewhat strange route if we're using a very basic and obvious problem with our formation and set up, to argue whether we can "accommodate" our only genuinely effective forward players. As if we'd somehow be doing any better if we swapped Rashford and Fernandes for VDB and Martial, for example.
We've created a problem by putting Mount in place of Eriksen/Fred, because he is a different player who plays a different position. Nitpicking at other players who we would never realistically be able to replace/improve on isn't going to do anything to fix it.
Casemiro was absolutely fine last season, in fact he was arguably our best player and excellent in general. He certainly didn't look sluggish to me, but he had a midfield partner last season. Everything you've just said about Eriksen I agree with, and even Fred although he was a madman, would at least be there. The problem is how often Fernandes and Mount end up behind the play as soon as the opposition play out, at which point it doesn't really matter how fast they move because its already too late. And IMO that is down to the positioning.
Having one midfielder out of three ahead of the play is not the end of the world as the other two can get across to plug a gap and will usually have one of the fullbacks there to help them. So if its a loose ball from a clearance they stand a decent chance of seeing and getting to it first, and if it they can't win the loose ball they can force the opposition to slow the attack. Having two out of three ahead of the play leaves Casemiro on his own to cover about half of the pitch, so he isn't getting to loose balls first unless they just happen to be near him purely through luck, and then when he doesn't he's left with massive gaps either side of him so can't do anything to slow an attack down either. You could attach rockets to his boots and he still wouldn't be able to do much.
But I really don't think it helps when we have 5 outfield players trying to box an opponent in, and the opponent just rolls one of them them struts through two others and ends up charging towards our box. I lost count of how often this happened in the second half vs Spurs and it was making the problem much worse.
He’s a sell out and a Utd shill.
He is great on the peter crouch podcast, he knows his stuff
Agree with most of this. The Spurs game was far more positive than the win over Wolves.
I don’t know how anyone sits through his or any other analysis videos. They’re an excruciatingly boring mix of the banal and the bleeding obvious. Who the feck has time to watch that shite? And I say this as someone who wastes hours of my life on this poxy site talking about stuff like beekeeping and queueing in pubs.
I also blame them for the explosion of armchair football coaches on here and everywhere else online. Despite the fact that closest that 99% of them have ever been to actual football coaching is the Football Manager computer game.
I also blame them for the explosion of armchair football coaches on here and everywhere else online. Despite the fact that closest that 99% of them have ever been to actual football coaching is the Football Manager computer game.
What alevel headed post
Some people even watch the full games, now how about that!
I agree with you somewhat, but I disagree about Mount. He's playing the exact same role that Eriksen did last season, and doing it fine. The bigger problem is that Casemiro has been nowhere near as good as last season, which helped Eriksen out a lot more than Eriksen helped out Casemiro. Mount isn't getting that same level of performance from his midfield partner at the moment. Swapping Mount for Eriksen won't really change anything.
The midfield shape hasn't been perfect, but it's been undermined by an out of sorts defence and really bad use of the ball from our attacking players. I mean REALLY bad...their use of the ball has been terrible so far this season. Even in the first half against Spurs, where we still managed to fashion good chances, the front 4 made so many wrong decisions.
Casemiro also isn't getting proper help from the fullbacks. One of those fullbacks is meant to sit in alongside Casemiro as part of the rest defence to try and quickly smother counter attacks, but too often against Spurs they didn't shift over quick enough. Although this was usually because we lost the ball in situations we really shouldn't have been losing it.
Casemiro's performance was still bad though. He kept getting higher up the pitch than Mount for some reason, and was often the wrong side of Maddison. Dave was right to highlight this in the vid. Maddison was pretty quiet first half, but second he was left with too much space a lot of the time.
Yeah but he doesn't say it like a cnut
I don't think it is true that Mount is playing the "exact same role" as Eriksen did last season. Maybe he is supposed to on paper but in practice he hasn't been taking up the same positions. He has been higher on average and less visible in the buildup. That can be seen from the touches/passes he is making. He is appearing to be unavailable to teammates at the moment. He also has quite a bit of ground to make up in recovery on counterattacks due to this higher positions so that's impacting our defensive shape too.
Sorry, but Mount is not playing the same role Eriksen did last season. In my opinion, this is pretty clear from watching the match, but it's also statistically obvious. For example, Eriksen hit more than 7 progressive passes/90, while Mount has a bit above 2/90. Other differences:
Passes attempted/90: Eriksen 65.1, Mount 25.3
Touches/90: Eriksen 72.1, Mount 32.9
Carries/90: Eriksen 42.4, Mount 17.6
Not gonna go more deeply into other areas because two games for Mount is obviously an extremely limited sample to compare with Eriksen's whole last season. But even considering that, those are all stats that are a good measure or how involved a player is on the ball, and the difference is so massively huge that there can be no question of reflecting a similar role. Or if they do, Mount's doing really dismally at it.