Thumped by City | Is Bruno a problem? | What next for ETH?

[That'sHernandez]

Ed @That'sHernandez is joined by Ashwin @AR87 as we discuss all the fall out from United's humbling at the hands of Manchester City and Erling Braut Haaland.


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[Yorkeontop]

I like a little more doom with my post loss UH pods.

Shaw has always been a passive attacker. Seems like a personality trait.

Antony could see the end of Bruno. Can we accommodate 2 such attackers?

 

[Samid]

I think both of you are batshit insane for suggesting his subs have been 'spot on'. 2nd sub against Brighton while chasing the game was made with 10 mins left. Then 3 more subs in added time. Against Brentford no changes until 4-0 down at half time. Against City just a forced change at 3-0, no tactical change again until 4-0 at half time. In a couple of the wins he sacrificed too many of the front 3 and bought on 2 DMs which pegged us back far too much, against Leicester it almost cost the win with the chance they had last minute.

I'd say only his subs against Arsenal were good but that was mainly because Lego took the bait, made horrible changes and lost the control they had.

Ajax fans warned us about ETH's in-game management and so far it looks like they were correct unfortunately.

 

[AR87]

I think both of you are batshit insane for suggesting his subs have been 'spot on'. 2nd sub against Brighton while chasing the game was made with 10 mins left. Then 3 more subs in added time. Against Brentford no changes until 4-0 down at half time. Against City just a forced change at 3-0, no tactical change again until 4-0 at half time. In a couple of the wins he sacrificed too many of the front 3 and bought on 2 DMs which pegged us back far too much, against Leicester it almost cost the win with the chance they had last minute.

I'd say only his subs against Arsenal were good but that was mainly because Lego took the bait, made horrible changes and lost the control they had.

Ajax fans warned us about ETH's in-game management and so far it looks like they were correct unfortunately.

Yeah, I'm not holding his lack of subs in his first match with a brand new team against him, or criticizing him for not changing things in a complete write off first half against Brentford. Those are such hypercritical reaches.

Again, criticizing a manager for not making a sub before halftime against City is absolutely ridiculous.

We saw off those games and won. You're now criticizing him for making subs which helped contribute to desired results.

His subs against Arsenal were excellent, and we took the lead immediately after he brought on Ronaldo in that match, which moved Rashford to the left. Lego made additional changes after that which exacerbated our advantage and allows us to score a 3rd.

I'm not sure what you're expecting with the squad he has at his disposal. Our options in attack are thin even when we have a full set and he hasn't had that for the vast majority of the season. In defense he almost certainly would prefer to start Shaw, but he was so unfit and poor to start the season he was forced to start Malacia. I suspect after yesterday, Shaw will get another chance now in the XI starting against Everton, but it's his own fault he lost his spot in the first place.

I would like to see him adapt more in midfield and I discussed that on the pod.

Has he been perfect? No, but even yesterday against Amnesia he was able to tilt the match back to our advantage and wrest back control after a poor first half. Not a high bar, but I've neither seen enough to proclaim an inept in-game manager, or a master of changing things. I've seen much more good in this regard than bad though.

 

[That'sHernandez]

I like a little more doom with my post loss UH pods.

Shaw has always been a passive attacker. Seems like a personality trait.

Antony could see the end of Bruno. Can we accommodate 2 such attackers?

Are you saying there wasn’t enough doom in this one?!

I’m optimistic about us to a fault, I’m afraid!

Edit: I think we can but I can certainly understand why Ashwin wants to see us play 4-3-3 and I was getting a bit excited on the down low thinking about that Eriksen-FDJ-Casemiro midfield.

That being said, I also think Bruno and Antony can be accommodated, more than Pogba and Bruno could or ever would have been

 

[Baneofthegame]

I think both of you are batshit insane for suggesting his subs have been 'spot on'. 2nd sub against Brighton while chasing the game was made with 10 mins left. Then 3 more subs in added time. Against Brentford no changes until 4-0 down at half time. Against City just a forced change at 3-0, no tactical change again until 4-0 at half time. In a couple of the wins he sacrificed too many of the front 3 and bought on 2 DMs which pegged us back far too much, against Leicester it almost cost the win with the chance they had last minute.

I'd say only his subs against Arsenal were good but that was mainly because Lego took the bait, made horrible changes and lost the control they had.

Ajax fans warned us about ETH's in-game management and so far it looks like they were correct unfortunately.

Odd that the bad games are definitely him and the good ones are due to other circumstances, subs Thursday were also fine.

 

[Oranges038]

Odd that the bad games are definitely him and the good ones are due to other circumstances, subs Thursday were also fine.

To be fair it was always the same with Ole.

Lose and it was his fault for not making subs on time or not at all.

Win and it was luck or vibes or whatever.

Managers can only do so much, making subs is always a bit of a lottery, even more so when the game is going against you. He could have made 11 subs and changed the whole shape of the team agaisnt Brighton, City and Brentford before half time and it wouldn't have made a jot of difference to the overall result.

 

[That'sHernandez]

Odd that the bad games are definitely him and the good ones are due to other circumstances, subs Thursday were also fine.

Not to mention he’s to blame for scenarios that could have happened but didn’t.

 

[AlPistacho]

Bruno is an enigma and conundrum. He’s our outfield David De Gea. All our great attacking moments over the past 3 or so years involve Bruno, most recently beating Arsenal. But then so often he’s the most obvious weaklink in matches when we need to retain possession, slowly buildup play, there’s countless of examples but the two that come to mind are our last match Vs City and second leg Vs Atletico.

I’m more critical of Bruno, tbh I never thought De Gea’s lack of ball playing ability was a huge problem, although this year im starting to see why a sweeper keeper would be beneficial to ETH vision. But at the same time , to my eyes and others will see it different, Vs City it was Bruno ruining our play not de Gea.

So I think in big matches Bruno either needs to start from the bench or be coached to not always go for the killer pass.

In the end if used correctly Bruno is the type of player who will offer us the diversity every other team lacks eg when it’s fast paced end to end Bruno is the man. But when we need to pass it about and around teams he’s a hindrance.