Survival of the Fittest and Best

People moan about ashley young giving ball away but martial is in the same boat.

He struggles to make 10yd passes

Dire
 
Every position need to have two quality players fighting to start. That's how it was for long periods under SAF and that is how it should be. Bring good players in every transfer window and let internal team competition decide who makes it and who doesn't. If Ole can really instill this mentality into our club again we will benefit from it. If there is a player we are only half confident in, buy another player for his position and see who comes out on top at the end.
 
Good to read.

Hope we are also focusing as much on technical quality.
 
Let's use City as the barometer for whose good enough

Good enough - De Gea, Lindelof (as back-up, although he'd be their 5th best CB), Pogba, Rashford (as back-up), Dalot (as back-up), Herrera (as back-up), Romero (as back-up), Shaw (he'd probably be their first choice left back right now)

Not good enough - Bailly, Jones, Alexis, Mata, Lukaku, Martial (I'm sorry, but he'd get nowhere near their team), Smalling, Lingard, Andreas, Rojo, Fred, Young, Valencia, Matic, Darmian, McTominay (he's been decent lately but he'd get nowhere near their bench)

We are miles behind & need a complete overhaul.
 
Sweet feckin Jesus at least after years posting on this forum at least I'm allowed to post on this thread. Survival of the fittest? Watching this, we'd need 11-20 new players. How many of ours would get into the City, Pool, Spurs or Renties teams? A decade of mis-management (even going back to the last few years of SAF). Can't help feel that what we have achieved in between has been in spite of our 'quality' rather than because of it/
 
Heymrtangerineman said:
Sweet feckin Jesus at least after years posting on this forum at least I'm allowed to post on this thread. Survival of the fittest? Watching this, we'd need 11-20 new players. How many of ours would get into the City, Pool, Spurs or Renties teams? A decade of mis-management (even going back to the last few years of SAF). Can't help feel that what we have achieved in between has been in spite of our 'quality' rather than because of it/
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You got hounded out for defending LVG and Mou, they aren't faultless but feck me were they working in tough conditions. Our best players are a goalkeeper and temperamental attacking midfielder. Most of our 1st team would be bench warmers for the best teams in the world.
 
When Ole said that yesterday my mind cast to Lingard. I have always backed him on here, but when we talk about standards, I did wonder whether whatever line we draw will have him in the wrong side of it for a United ‘forward’. Today underlined that. I like him, but he’s not a good enough footballer. I’d imagine his England career is near enough done now, in his mid-twenties, and I’m not sure he’s good enough for us anymore either.
 
Reddy Rederson said:
the fact martial and lingard survived the full 90 says Ole is all talk.
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Came in here just to post this. Survival of the fittest just as long as it's not one of his favourites.

Lingard's last two starts; today and Wolves away, have been the most abject attacking displays I've seen all season but he's still played the full 90 in both of them.
 
Fosu-Mens said:
Mata was an easy sub.
The same with Rojo when we were hunting a goal.
Lingard, Martial and Lukaku. One of them had to go off.
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Lingard needed to come off before any of them. Mata didnt have a good game, but at least he was in it. Where was lingard for 90 minutes? I remember him diving and then being a dick for getting called on it. Martial I can forgive, theres only so many subs you can make. But lingard? No chance. The guy needs a rocket up his arse. Hes stealing a living at this club.
 
Let's see if words are put into action. So far we have given Young & Jones contract, and Mata has a contract on the table waiting to be signed. There was another report from Italy we have offered Darmian another 4 year contract. That doesn't sound like that only the "fittest" are surviving.

In the summer we need to see the back to Valencia, Mata, Darmian, Bailly, Rojo, Herrera and Sanchez. Then let's see if Eddie has the acumen to make 5 or 6 top class signings to get us going again. This squad needs major surgery. Anything short of being absolutely ruthless is not doing enough.
 
If we don't get rid of many from this squad in the next 2 transfers then regardless who the manager is, we're F'd.

Its not even about quality but the sheer level of stupid in this squad is beyond understanding. Absolute Joke.
 
Reddy Rederson said:
Lingard needed to come off before any of them. Mata didnt have a good game, but at least he was in it. Where was lingard for 90 minutes? I remember him diving and then being a dick for getting called on it. Martial I can forgive, theres only so many subs you can make. But lingard? No chance. The guy needs a rocket up his arse. Hes stealing a living at this club.
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Main reason for having Lingard on was for his running and not being a liability when team is not in possession. As we were not able to control the game or the possession, playing Mata became a liability. I'm not saying that Lingard was good, but at least he can run and backtrack.
 
Reddy Rederson said:
the fact martial and lingard survived the full 90 says Ole is all talk.
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Think specifically this match is more management of who will play against Barcelona imo. Left both on because they're not starting against Barca, and because of general tactics / Mata, Rojo.

Lingard really should be one in the headlights of all this survival of the fittest talk. Haven't had end product in like 10 games or so. Also Martial really doesn't have much minutes on the pitch this season. Fitness is really important with him.
 
ROFLUTION said:
Think specifically this match is more management of who will play against Barcelona imo. Left both on because they're not starting against Barca, and because of general tactics / Mata, Rojo.

Lingard really should be one in the headlights of all this survival of the fittest talk. Haven't had end product in like 10 games or so. Also Martial really doesn't have much minutes on the pitch this season. Fitness is really important with him.
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You make a good point. We can only hope though. Lingard starting or even being on the bench would be a generous reward for that performance.
 
Fosu-Mens said:
Main reason for having Lingard on was for his running and not being a liability when team is not in possession. As we were not able to control the game or the possession, playing Mata became a liability. I'm not saying that Lingard was good, but at least he can run and backtrack.
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Sorry, dont agree with that at all. Mata, while being shit, at least offered something to the attack. Lingard running around a lot is pointless if it doesnt lead to anything.
 
El Jefe said:
Came in here just to post this. Survival of the fittest just as long as it's not one of his favourites.

Lingard's last two starts; today and Wolves away, have been the most abject attacking displays I've seen all season but he's still played the full 90 in both of them.
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Agreed. I like Jesse and don't want him sold but he's not been subbed when he needed to be lately.
 
This club needs to become ruthless again. If you are not good enough you will be shipped out. Post SAF, players like Richardson, Eagle, Gibson etc would have gotten extensions. To run a top club and to have a vision to become great again, you have to be ruthless in player selection(s).
 
-Supreme- said:
You will be disappointed if you expect them to be sold.

Jones and Young are perfectly fine as squad players but I will be disappointed if he plays Young anywhere near as much as he did this season.
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They aren't perfectly fine as squad players. Both aren't anywhere near to United quality, the former is also a crock and the latter is ancient.
 
Sometimes I geniunely want Martial to get sold just so he could go tear it up at a Bayern or somewhere and read the threads on here about how much of a mistake it was. The different standards players are held to within our own club by many on here are shocking. So much disparity between players.
 
The fitness part is mainly why I won't be judging Ole much this season.

When he initially became an interim manager, we started pressing hard. But that resulted in a lot of injuries, which is understandable given our players were not used to running much in the past couple of seasons. With so many (crucial) matches coming up, it makes sense to preserve players and not get more injured.

So hopefully, he gets it right in the pre season and then we begin pressing and attacking again. But I'm still not sure about some players like Lukaku or Martial could put in an effort like that. Time will tell....
 
Since Woodward came in none of the managers have really gotten to be ruthless. Last I can remember that is van Gaal with chich and Rafael (ironically two of the hardest workers we had)
The manager needs to be given more say in who stays, comes and goes. We seem to take a business minded ‘protection of assets’ approach to our business
 
I won't judge Ole on the enforcement of his statements until after the summer. It will really show us if Ole is really about what he says or just feeds us the party line in press conferences.

We have several players who should not be here and not even come close to playing a preseason game for us in 2019/20. If he continues to place his faith in the likes of Young, Jones, Lingard and a few others in the starting lineup, it will be clear that Ole will be another on the list of failures post SAF.
 
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