Understanding Uniteds transfer strategy

iHicksy

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Ten Hag knew he wanted a new midfield. He thought he could get Frenkie, held on for a while. Frenkie to him is a unique, rare player and that he could get him and then some cheap ball winner probably to partner or just coach our existing players into the role.

Ten Hag sees 2 games of Fred and McTominay and Bruno and the rest. Sees that they are in fact mentally shattered still, that they complete shit their pants under pressure and that they have no hope. So he adapts, gives up on Frenkie and moves on to a DM in the style of how he played at Ajax without Frenkie. A true ball winner.

Its one of the problems of a coach just joining in the summer. Often times they want to make their own mind up on the players, but it needs time to coach them for a bit and see them in competitive matches.

In terms of other positions? A joke for it to go this far, we knew the price for Antony, and every summer we try this thing where we think a team is more receptive in the last few weeks when it's always the opposite. No excuse for the RW and RB situations. They are no brainer weaknesses regardless of midfield targets. Ronaldo was probably some naivety from ten hag and misjudging it. De Gea was a situation where he was decent last year, so he figured eh not a big deal I'll stay with him this year, and then now panicking at the sight of what De Gea will be this season.

I think a big part is also Ten Hag seeing the first 2 games and realizing he needs a true ball winning DM in the side and shifting focus to that.
This is basically the crux of it in the second paragraph. ETH saw these guys pre-season, looking good, playing decent football and winning games. He thought he had a foundation here and just needed to add a few players. He's now seen that they absolutely shit the bed under any real pressure and that pre-season has mis-lead him. Now he's seen how they hide in league games he's having to go out and get players who can actually perform. They might not be the first choice, but we're into the season now and have to take what's available.
 

RedDevil@84

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Things happens when fans turn on the Glazers and start calling for their heads.
 

UpWithRivers

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Do people really believe there is no strategy? Like none? Zero? Nada? If this is true why isnt everyone having a go at ETH? Surely it was him who targeted Malacia, Martinez and FDJ and even Timber and Antony and even Eriksen. Surely this has been lead by him. If we kept going after FDJ why hasn't ETH contacted him and asked him if he wants to come? Or why hasn't he said 'Stop going after FDJ?' Or are Murtough et al just ignoring him and picking names out of a hat like people want you to believe? If so ETH should walk out. Every manager that has 0 control usually walks. Or complains.

I know we are losing and we hate the Glaziers and yes they are doing a sht job but really? Ok then I guess its true then.
 

Smores

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You can support the club without having to think it never fecks up or rationalise stuff away. The most obvious answer here is probably the one the closest to the truth and that's a change in course.

I'm just glad we finally got a midfielder. Hopefully next summer we're more prepared for now small victories.
 

Mainoldo

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Get good players now!!!

I love it… better than whatever they write down originally.
 

Revaulx

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The opinion on what position should have been a priority is incredibly contentious when we surmise last season.

The only position we could have been fairly relaxed about going into this season was in goal (no longer applies).

We subsequently loaned out our second in command and no one bothered to tell ETH our first in command will fall on his sword trying to 'play football'.
Given how poor DDG had been in earlier seasons, I think it was safe to assume that his recovery of form last season might not be sustained.

You're right about it being contentious. Fans of certain players will tell us that their favourites are "the least of our problems" but you could objectively make a case for all of them needing replacing; I have always regarded it as a massive and pleasant bonus if ETH could revive any of our lot's flagging careers.
 

Baxquux

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To ramp up the crisis, get clicks, 'solve' it (with a player likely, whether through temperament or technical/tactical incompatibility with the rest of the team, to, if anything, make things worse), get clicks, more crisis, occasionally buy a 'hot' fringe player - though never an actual up-and-coming CM - to throw everyone off the scent, rinse, repeat... the first bad vibes superclub strategy. Although Casemiro will probably make the team at least 20% more likely to... draw rather than lose, even with the backline continually exposed by the chasm between De Gea and the centrebacks, TBF.
 
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wangyu

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This is utter drivel pal. You can see you've not even put 2seconds into researching it.

Look at his record on here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casemiro

Averaging 44 games for the last 6 seasons!!
I stand corrected I must have mistaken him with somebody else but apart from the injury record I still think it's not an ideal deal.
So far our transfer of Varane wasn't a success either, I think Real knows something we don't. He is probably not as good anymore as he was.

But if it turns out I am wrong again, then I will also stand corrected.

PS I didn't even spend 1 second of research in it.
 

Sandikan

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I stand corrected I must have mistaken him with somebody else but apart from the injury record I still think it's not an ideal deal.
So far our transfer of Varane wasn't a success either, I think Real knows something we don't. He is probably not as good anymore as he was.

But if it turns out I am wrong again, then I will also stand corrected.

PS I didn't even spend 1 second of research in it.
Fair play for admitting it, would have been very easy not to.

And let's all hope he performs very well here. He's be in a very small minority of signings we've made in the last decade who have for a sustained period.
 

marktan

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Does anyone know who's actually calling the shots with these transfers? Might not be public knowledge but surely some info leaks to the press via briefings, agents etc.

Martinez, Malacia, FDJ, Antony we know is ETH, which isn't ideal as very few well run clubs let the manager solely pick players as very few managers are great scouts and it doesn't allow for detailed analysis of players.

But then came Arnautovic, Rabiot, and about 50 other players before settling on Casemiro. Does anyone know who's the one calling the shots on those? Murtough? Arnold? It's a bit bizzare how scattergun it's all been.
 

tenpoless

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Equivalent of a zoomer Crypto trader who trades based on feelings and vibes but somehow hasnt gone broke yet and still has a chance to be lucky.
 

Maik2022

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I think the first few transfers were made for ETH, then they looked at his start, and the latter ones are already for a possible after ETH time, which makes sense.
 

Galactic

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At the moment, the best strategy is to buy a new starting XI plus its backups, without going bankrupt. Easier said than done, though.
 

Greck

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There's no strategy. It's just a combination of firefighting and deferring to managers because no one else is qualified then more firefighting.

I mean does anyone realise how insane it is that we already screwed up the year 1 of a rebuild? Rock bottom expectations and we still fell short and have to go back to firefighting 2 games into the season. These guys need some sort of award for innovations in the field of failure.
 

Leftback99

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If this is an actual strategy then we're in even bigger trouble than I thought.
 

Bastian

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Wonder if there'll be some comments on our FDJ pursuit from the club (ETH/Murtough) or if we'll just act as if it didn't have a huge affect on our strategy.