Yeah, good point. And it also shows that you're immediately in danger of losing our big time if teams around you improve and you don't. Man Utd might be lucky that other top 4 contenders don't seem solid either, but that also means others might jump ahead (looking at you, Everton). Although of course all still remains to be seen for this season, including for Man Utd.
The Athletic ~ Inside United's 6-1 fallout: Half-time rows, Solskjaer backed, transfer regrets
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VVD had a worse weekend. Yet we attack our captain. He is our most consistent player. Not world class I grant you but darn dependable.
This constantly gets overlooked on here. The "relegation fodder" these days are much, much better than they were 10-20 years ago because there is so much money in the PL now so they can afford both better staff and better players than they could back then. Of course the big clubs have also gotten richer, but the gap is not as big as it used to be.
Also, while Liverpool have been good, they vastly over preformed in the league last year according to xG, xGA and xPts
Most consistent player? Is this a joke? He's not been criticised up until this point and after the restart in June he is a shadow of himself.
If we wanted a slow defender who can't turn, can't run, can't head the ball in the attacking set pieces, and just be there to hustle the opponents there were a lot of cheaper options than him.
To say we had a good season is wrong, it was just fortunate for us that other teams were bad as well. Manchester United should be buying players and appointing managers and coaches to get us challenging for the title not scraping into the top 4.
So we was looking at the league all wrong last year. Emery and Poch didn’t have a bad season... the league just improved? Rodgers didn’t bottle it, they just had a tough set of fixtures?
I thought it was quite a good piece. Obviously the sources will have their own motivations to share what they do, but I thought it was a well constructed piece that says a lot about Utd's reputation these days
VVD has earned the right to be cherished by the scousers. He’s obviously a very good defender, although has looked off the pace this season.
Maguire has been shite for ages in a team that has won nothing at all. United are not winners, whilst earning champion wages. They deserve all the rage they after that 6-1, yet alone the other league performances.
we’ll be advertising cheap loans next.
Generally speaking? Yes. If you look at for example Villa who just barely escaped relegation last year they have a pretty strong squad, filled with players from all world corners and some internationals sprinkled here and there. Its very different from say the 90's and early 2000's when clubs who were hovering around relegation had 95% British players and maybe a couple from the continent.
Villa for example got around 100 million£ in revenue from TV deals, where as Barcelona who was the highest earner in La Liga only got 150 million£. Levante who ended up in a similar position to Villa got only 44 million. So yes, the relative strength of the smaller teams in the PL have increased in the later years, both in relation to the top teams and certainly in relation to the lower table clubs in Spain, Italy and Germany
Rodgers did bottle it though. How many points did we gain on them post-lockdown? 12 or something? Emery i dont really know while Poch was a case of him losing the dressing room so he was doomed anyways
Rodgers had injuries to most of his defence and his creative midfielder for some / much of post lockdown. His squad fell apart more than anything.
But I agree with your points about the league getting stronger.
I also wanted same but years of miss management and here we are targeting top 4.
Agree it started with Moyes and either him dithering or not being backed properly and then it has snowballed. We are now the butt of endless jokes.
Like it or not, his analysis was spot on.
We missed out CL the previous season......... Think you got the wrong season.
And that supposedly inferior team just thumped us 6-1. Mourinho had his faults. For sure. But his analysis of our problems were correct.
Honestly this bullshit about Maguire still being messed up from the summer....
He's a fecking man, we've all had scraps in the streets and the odd scurmish on holiday.
Harry will not give a flying feck about that now as he draws his near 200k a week salary. He wasn't even in Greece for the trial.
Pathetic if that's being rolled out as an excuse, what they suggesting he's got PTSD.
He's a fecking man, we've all had scraps in the streets and the odd scurmish on holiday.
Harry will not give a flying feck about that now as he draws his near 200k a week salary. He wasn't even in Greece for the trial.
Pathetic if that's being rolled out as an excuse, what they suggesting he's got PTSD.
Yep two clubs in the exact same state
Yes, that is one of the biggest factors in this league right now. EPL shares the TV money in a "collective negotiation" with tiered winnings for each position and a base cash. La Liga leaves each club to fend for themselves. Because of this, even the lower clubs in EPL earn quite a lot. Which, in my mind, makes the EPL very competitive from top to bottom. A lot more than in the past.
LVG summarized up our football operations in the same manner even before Jose did, does that also mean we made a mistake in sacking him?
Mirror reporting:
- Bruno Fernandes had a furious half-time bust-up with Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer during the 6-1 hammering by Spurs.
Have we?
I agree with your plan, here - clubs should try and make players better. But when was the last time (post-SAF) that we bought a player, improved him and he played in the 1st team?
I honestly can't think of any.
In fact, from memory, I will say that every player we have bought, their first season was the best. It was downhill from there.
Let me break it down by looking at the players, who played against Spurs, who were bought in, after SAF left.
Maguire - now playing worse than his first season
Wan Biassaka - now playing worse than his first season
Baily - now playing worse than his first season
Shaw - not an easy one because in his first season he got very fat and LVG refused to play him due to poor fitness. Next season, he got injured after a few games. Since then, he has been decent....but has played really badly this season
Pogba - now playing worse than his first season
Bruno - still relatively new, but is now playing worse than last season
Matic - playing as good as in his first season...this is the standout.
Martial - difficult to tell. he joined us as an 18 yr old and he was good. And he is still "good". Though this season, he hasn't been good. Towards the end of last season, he tailed off.
Fred - this player has never played particularly well for us. Even in his first season. Very inconsistent.
So, from the above, Matic I think is playing just as well as he did in his first season. Martial and Shaw, are (overall) marginally better.
All our other purchases have got worse.
Given the above, would you bank on us buying a player and taking him up a few levels? I wouldn't.
At best, we can maintain a player's ability, but most likely, he will decline.
Bruno probably got frustrated by Ole's relaxed demeanour after we got spanked 4-1 in the first half.
Probably said something along the lines, "why aren't you doing something".
Whatever the case: we got spanked and that's the important fact to remember. Bruno and Matic will be back against Newcastle.
I can bet you he hasn’t experienced anything close to what Maguire did.
Not sure if he did. But one incident is not associated with the other.
For the mods: it should be forbidden to start a whole thread based on an article behind a paywall without any kind of summarising.
Haven't we seen this before? Players shoved down the manager's throat?
PS. Is Ed gonna come out this time and say "when they see Cavani on the team sheet it will send shivers down their spines?"
Bruno Fernandes is the true captain of this club.
It's clear they want it to be a British captain, otherwise there's no explanation for Maguire to have the armband.
If Ole dumps Maguire for Bruno (especially after what seemingly happened in the dressing room) he'd look indecisive and unsure of himself. You could even say that subbing Maguire instead of Bruno would have given a similar impression. The problem is many already have the impression of him which is arguably entirely justified.
Maguire being made the captain immediately really was odd when you consider the manager must have barely even known him or his person at that point. Too early to know if he's a leading personality in tough times.
Wasnt DeGea stripped of the captaincy for his offhand comment "Whats wrong with united at the moment? "Everything" comment?
We have no viable leaders left at this rate, might aswell give it Greenwood
We have no viable leaders left at this rate, might aswell give it Greenwood
It may have already been addressed but it wasn't the players who had those concerns. They're mentioning other people who work at United, not the players.
You have no idea what each of them does to say that they need to go. Might just need one additional coach hired though to sort things out.
I am going to state the obvious.
From manager to players, we had not bought our first/second choice. We had been getting the leftovers(also not the right leftovers) and paying over the odds for that as well. That is the reason for mediocrity and it wont change till we get that right.
First find proper replacement for David Gill(CEO) and then for SAF(Manager) then the players will happen.
Liverpool and City changed the top management first. Then the right manager followed, then the players. Chelsea too changed Emanelo to the russian woman and now getting most decisions right.
From manager to players, we had not bought our first/second choice. We had been getting the leftovers(also not the right leftovers) and paying over the odds for that as well. That is the reason for mediocrity and it wont change till we get that right.
First find proper replacement for David Gill(CEO) and then for SAF(Manager) then the players will happen.
Liverpool and City changed the top management first. Then the right manager followed, then the players. Chelsea too changed Emanelo to the russian woman and now getting most decisions right.
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Fred and Lindelof were both terrible in their first season and then improved significantly after that. Not necessarily great, but definitely much better than what they were in their first. On the flip side I'd say Matic has gotten worse although he's always been very inconsistent in his time here. In his first season we at least got 6 months of good form before he dropped off, which is more than he's given us every other season so far.
Overall you are largely right though. Almost all players seem to decline after joining us.
Of course I don't, am I on the coaching staff?
Are you?
Doesn't mean supporters can't speculate.
I just hated the Phelan coaching era under SAF
I think that due to his nationality, body frame, position, transfer fee and World Cup experience, Ole and the board just assumed he'd be a commanding player with natural leadership.
In reality, he just keeps to himself all the time, never opens his mouth, and recent events suggest he might be kind of an airhead.
Bruno, on the other hand, has everything you dream in a club captain.
Just another baffling decision in this everlasting shitshow.