No it couldnt. AWB is the main upgrade we've had in defense this season. The idea that Laird could come in and put in a similar performance against City
U19s Friendly - Manchester United vs AC Milan
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Did I say Laird could come in and do something against City now?No it couldnt. AWB is the main upgrade we've had in defense this season. The idea that Laird could come in and put in a similar performance against City
And it wasn't difficult to upgrade on what we had. Plenty of midtable teams around Europe could've supplied us the players to improve on our fullbacks. We're not in the 80s and 90s anymore.
But for £50m AWB wasn't worth it because there was better players around Europe and at home who were superior at fullback play.
It was expensive but without him we'd have let in plenty more goals this season. Someone else might have been better in attack but our defensive record probably wouldnt be close since he's arguably the best 1 vs 1 defender in the league
Defensively he was very good and he proved that at Palace no question. But I've always maintained that a fullbacks role is more than to just be defensively sound in todays game. It's to join and initiate attacks, especially against teams who we're expected to beat which greatly helps the midfield and forwards. I really don't see the point of playing AWB against the majority of smaller teams in the future for that reason.
I think thats fair, but this season would have been a lot tougher for De Gea, Lindelof and Maguire if we hadnt signed him, or hadnt signed anyone for RB. Young would be our rightback this season not Laird
I agree with you about this season.
You’ll eat these words when develops into one of the best
People are still questioning our signing of AWB?? He’s been one of our standout players this season! The crazy signing was Dalot as he will be blocking Laird’s route to the first team when opportunities do present themselves
feels like the youth team is so much closer to the first team these days.. like any one of these lads could pop up and make a run at becoming a starter
I hope you're right and I'm wrong tbh with you.
Good luck with that thinking
Its very easy. We've played a lot of players in our first team that didnt become a star at premier league level, nevermind for us
Yeah he does look a real prospect.
Enjoyed the match, impressive performances by a few of our youngsters. Kovar, Laird Mengi and Bernard all very solid at the back.
sorry if it was confusing, my comment was about the opportunities Ole is giving youth players these days
obviously, most of then won't make it
but more are getting chances, which is brilliant.. it gives a bit more meaning to watching these games (to me at least).. And of course, it's going to be a huge motivation for these lads too
I dunno, I think its a lot more meaningful when you get a proper place in the squad like with Williams and Greenwood. That I'd like to see with some of the others, but I wont be excited about a player getting 1 or 2 games for the first team because we've always had players getting that and then they move on to try and make it in the game somewhere else. When they leave I'll occasionally check up on them, but not that much and I don't care about the club making 500k from selling a player or something. So, since about the time Wilson came through and I thought he'd be a good player for us, I try and wait until they're doing good stuff in the first team.
Yeah, I have seen him there a lot before, but my point remains, you can't play him there in the EPL, so why bother?
You can play him there, so long as his job is to retain possession, help the team bring the ball out, pass between the lines, occasionally provide a through ball over the top, and persuade the opposition away from pressing. This is the job Scholes had, except Scholes was a better passer and better goal threat from deep.
Compare Levitt to Gomes. Why can Levitt play deep, but not Gomes?
I get your point. Some decisions are simply baffling. Like you said earlier, he is never going to play at that position for us. Or even for any team.
At least it was in midfield, much better than Ole's visionary left wing
Because Levitt, Garner and Scholes are physically more suited to that position at the senior level than Gomes. Actually Levitt, for all his boyish look, can be pretty tough some times. Gomes might become better suited in the future after adding some muscles.
I wouldn't swap AWB for anyone. He's an absolute monster defensively and still young enough to improve his attacking game which I think has potential given his ability to beat a man. He just needs to improve his delivery a bit which is definitely achievable. I also love the fact that we've somebody as exciting as Ethan coming through. I've mentally considered him a future teamer for a couple of years. He's fantastic.
I'd happily see the two of them rotate depending on the opposition/injuries etc. I think the modern fullback benefits from some rotation given the huge amount of running now expected from them. Spurs did that really well for a while there under Poch and basically always had 2 super energetic full backs on the pitch.
If we are going to end up fighting for European Cups again against the best sides AWB will be worth his weight in gold. The City game was a perfect example.
Between the two of them right back may well be sorted for a decade. That's not something to be complaining about at all in my humble opinion.
Fair points, can't say I disagree with much in your post, if at all.
AWB is what I thought TFM would turn into. Since I've been watching our youth teams for nearly 10 years, TFM was the standout tackler at youth level. AWB surpassed that at first team level.
And I'm someone who preferred Max Aarons as I prefer the more technical attacking player at fb.
And I'm someone who preferred Max Aarons as I prefer the more technical attacking player at fb.
Good stuff @Adnan
Good to know. Hope we are patient with Gomes. He's worth keeping if manages to make the step up.
Worth noting that Gomes' has only ever been played deep by Butt, who coached our u19s last season, coached our youth team in an indoor tournament a few years ago, and just coached yesterday's u19 win against Milan. It was Butt who mentioned Gomes specifically as the pivot in an interview last season.
Here are the goal highlights
50 million for 21 year old consistent PL level player is cheap.
50 million is the 25 million 3-4 years ago..
Sorry to derail but if nobody minds i'd like to comment on the u19 friendly v AC Milan from last night for a minute, so not only did we field a far far older team than those poor loves from Italy but we proceeded to time-waste quite blatantly towards the end by scoring not one but two goals and actually celebrated them, and to make it worse they were scoring by Gomes, not to be confused with Gomez, and Tatty Chong who by all accounts are being frozen out, what is going on at the club? I was once proud to support the club but it's getting harder every single day.
Back on topic, I might have a moan about AWB later, much later.
Back on topic, I might have a moan about AWB later, much later.
What do you mean by far older? Only Dalot and Chong are those who wouldn't be eligible for the UEFA Youth League this season. It looks like an U23s squad because our U23s squad this season are mostly consists of those who were part of, or still eligible for the U18s last season. Dalot, Chong (and Gomes for that matters) were playing for fitness reason considering we have 0 U23s game left till next year.
I am joking, just following on from my pre-match post where I was also joking. Sorry if it wasn't obvious.
Good to se Gomes playing again and playing well after a few weeks out. Hope he can get a good run now without injuries and hurdles and maybe just maybe get a chance to show just how talented he is at first team level. Either with us or on loan.
Puigmals quality, so efficient in everything he does.
Anyone saw those U17s goals vs. PSV that they shown at HT? Looks too easy, and we didn't even play Mebdji
Yeah.. It seemed PSV gave up after the 5th goal or so.. We were just walking in a few of the goals
Anyone know Hoogewerf's goal scoring record?
And I rewatched the Milan match. Not seeing how Gomes didn't play well. Thought Gomes, Galbraith, and Laird were our best players on the night. Galbraith was the midfield engine, and Gomes was better at supplying our attack or rather did the best in starting off attacks from a deeper position. Our midfield largely controlled the match.
I missed this one, but I always think he looks good in central midfield, too. I'm hoping that we stick with the Puigmal-Galbraith partnership for a bit now.