Too many players being injury-prone, physically weak, slow, technically poor and/or with poor (on pitch) attitude

[JeffFromHK]

For those who wonder why we always struggle in the games, perpahs it is no rocket science - we have way too many players being injury-prone (i.e. injured more than 1/4 of the season), physically weak, slow, technically poor and with poor (on pitch) attitude (IMO, being whiny doesn't mean a poor attitude, but laziness/faling to apply efforts is), which makes them either unavailable or easily targeted by opponents and most of our regular players at least tick one of the boxes above:

CBs:
Maguire - slow
Lindelof - physically weak and poor attitude (mentally weak)
Varane - injury prone
Martinez - injury prone
Evans - slow (since he is too old)

Fullbacks:
Malacia - injury prone
Shaw - injury prone
awb - injury prone
Dalot - (seems to tick none of the boxes finally but his speed is average and has lots of lapses of concentration)

Midfielders:
Casemiro - slow (technically quite poor as well)
Amrabat - slow
Mount
Fernandes - physically weak (he has great stamina but is too physically weak and has no ability to shield the ball), you can say he is technically poor as a number #10 in terms of dribbling/ball control/ball shielding)
McTominay - technically poor
Eiksen - slow, physically weak

Forwards:
Antony - slow (with almost no ability to burst forward with the ball), very very poor at crossing/shooting as a winger
Martial - injury prone, poor attitude (sulks when things don't go in our way)
Rashford - poor attitude (lacks efforts)
Sancho - poor attitude, slow (in winger's standard)
Garnacho
Hojlund

17 out of 21 regular senior players with serious issues. So the problem is deep down into our squad building and transfers (which ETH has a fair share of responsibility). Coaching can't fix the problem. We need another open heart surgery.

Your thoughts?

 

[Frank Grimes]

Yes, we do have too many shit players.

 

[Lebo]

I agree with these except a few.
1. I don’t think Lindelof has a poor attitude. He might not be physically imposing but I’m yet to see anything that suggest he isn’t giving his best out there.
2 Dalot is not slow.
3 Our midfield is so disorganised that I miss Fred. My man of the match against Barca
4. Hojlund is the only one here without any weaknesses for his position.

I don’t know why we keep on signing players that are so handicapped for their positions. From short center backs, Fullbacks that can’t run with the ball(AWB ), midfielders that can’t keep the ball in crowded areas(everyone), slow wingers(Antony, Sancho).

it’s not that having these players is a problem when it’s just 1/11. But having all of them in 1 team is disaster.
Our team needs to replace everyone except

Keeper(for now), Dalot, Shaw(CB),Bruno, Rashford, Hojlund. Everyone else has just too many issues around them.

 

[JeffFromHK]

You can compare with our last CL winning squad 07-08. We only had a couple of slow or injury prone players and was graced with a bunch of speedy, physically and technically great players. Amongst all players I would only categorize Anderson as a "poor attitude" player career-wise.

Defenders
Rio - not injury prone (yet), physically strong, quick, technically great, leader on the pitch
Vidic - not injury prone, physical beast, decent speed, great attitude, technically decent (as a CB)
Oshea - Slow. but a physical beast, good technique as a defender (chip vs arsenal and nutmeg vs figo springs into mind), good attitude
Pique - speed was average but great in all other aspects
Evra - not injury prone, good fight, speed, technique and physicality
Brown - usually injury prone but not that season, physically okay, quick, technically good, good attitude (poor in a shift when needed)
Gary Neville - injured all season (we didn't need him with Brown anyway)

Midfielders
Hargreaves - injury prone (less so in his first season)
Anderson - injury and attitude problems didn't emerge yet. Great technique, physically strong, lightning quick
Carrick - a bit slow. But fine in all other criteria
Scholes - slow and physically weak. (But his football IQ remedied those issues)
Fletcher - not injury prone. great attitude. decent in all other aspects

Forwards
Ronaldo - not injury prone, strong, quick, technically great, great fight (being selfish and whiny isn't poor attitude in my book)
Saha - injury prone (luckily he was a rotation option), physically strong, quick, technically good, good attitude
Rooney - a bit of injury but generally not injury prone, physical beast, quick, decent technique, monster attitude
Tevez - not injury prone, physical beast, quick, good technique, great fight
Giggs - (no longer) injury prone, decent physicality, quick, great technique, great (on-pitch) attitude
Park - plaqued by injury that season (not usually an injury prone player). But he had great physicality, attitude, with decent speed and technique
Nani - not injury prone, great physicality, good attitude (diving/play-acting isn't poor attitude in my book), speed and technique monster

When you field a XI like this:
van der sar
Brown Vidic Rio Evra
Hargreaves Scholes Carrick
Ronaldo Tevez Rooney

apart from the two slow men as bolded, there are basically no known "handicapped players" for opponents to exploits.

 

[JeffFromHK]

I agree with these except a few.
1. I don’t think Lindelof has a poor attitude. He might not be physically imposing but I’m yet to see anything that suggest he isn’t giving his best out there.
2 Dalot is not slow.
3 Our midfield is so disorganised that I miss Fred. My man of the match against Barca
4. Hojlund is the only one here without any weaknesses for his position.

I don’t know why we keep on signing players that are so handicapped for their positions. From short center backs, Fullbacks that can’t run with the ball(AWB ), midfielders that can’t keep the ball in crowded areas(everyone), slow wingers(Antony, Sancho).

it’s not that having these players is a problem when it’s just 1/11. But having all of them in 1 team is disaster.
Our team needs to replace everyone except

Keeper(for now), Dalot, Shaw(CB),Bruno, Rashford, Hojlund. Everyone else has just too many issues around them.

Yes, Lindelof doesn't whine being on the bench, never causes troublese and puts on a shift when needed. But I think he (on-pitch) is the CB version of Rashford. He keeps avoiding duels and defensive actions and fails to apply himself 100% effort on the pitch. It is a poor mentality IMO

for Dalot, I remember his top speed is one of the quickest in the squad (that's why I didn't bold him here), but he seems to be incapable of applying his speed all the time and keeps outpaced by the wingers. It is a similar case to Antony who is speedy without the ball but Antony can't carry the ball quickly so I categorize Antony as a slow winger.

I can't agree more with the bolded part - we keep signing/tolerating players with known handicaps for their position. It is even for our goalkeeper position - we used to have De Gea (who was an excellent stopper but weak at passing/high ball/sweeping) and replaced him with Onana (who is an excellent passer, but is average at shotstopping and is a poor sweeper/high ball claimer). We are obsessed with one-trick ponies rather than an all rounders (someone similar to van der sar, who was a good at all of short stopping, passing, high ball, sweeping). It is like we love players who are hard-wired with one particular thing but lack all-roundness, e.g. Bruno is a chance creating monster but he can't protect the ball and can't carry the ball through opponent midfield, Rashford is "cut in and shoot" merchant but basically can't contribute other than scoring (if he scores), Casemiro is a tackling/interception monster but he gives away balls cheaply, Martinez is great at passing out, but don't expect him to be aerially great.

When I watched the games, I always feel Hojlund (lack of PL goals aside) is the only regular player with no known handicaps in respect of his position

a starting XI like this has too many handicaps which gives holes for opponents to target and exploit:
Rashford (lacks pressing and efforts) Hojlund Antony (can't dribble past players, can't burst with the ball can't cross, can't shoot)
Eriksen (slow, lacks legs) Casemiro (slow, loves giving the ball away for fun) Bruno (no ball retention, giving the ball away for fun)
Dalot (can't watch the back post) Maguire (slow) Evans (slow) awb (weird technique)
Onana (average shotstopper, poor at high balls/sweeping)