What I mean is that I feel like SAF left a lot of personal responsibility on the players on the pitch to make decisions, whereas Pep and Tuchel seem very focused on positioning, set-up etc.
You've hit the nail on the head though. We played a very simple, but effective brand of football. But it's also worth noting SAF had a brilliant squad at his disposal. Someone always seemed to deliver when it mattered.
One thing I feel we always had was someone who could beat a man. Ronaldo, Giggs, Nani, Valencia to name a few. Having that ability in your team is underrated, especially with today's posession-based game. It's why I feel like we greatly miss Rashford at the moment.
I think, it needs to be noted, that Fergies United was pretty adaptable. Yes it was usually very counter attacking focused and (like todays team) weren't creating too many chances per game in his later years but they were able to switch between countering and possession based, deep block and pressing, could go on to score from set pieces. So these teams had some some stuff up their sleeve to make something work. This is, what we have been lacking a bit last year. Lets see how it pans out this season.
Absolutely. I am surprised some on here seem to suggest that our style of play (lack of...) is not a concern. Today was typical United under OGS.... no flamin' structure, leadership.. just a group of players waiting for something to happen. And, today, it did. If that is a strategy that some are happy with, then fine. But as a fan, I am not, and this is not unique...West Ham were flat, poor, without their main player, and how did we look? Wolves, Young Boys... look at the squad we have? How many players do we need to look a confident, well drilled, coherent team?
Look at City, Liverpool, Chelsea and us, and ask yourself, honestly, whether those teams have a clear identity to their play, which is both suucessful and effective, and ask whether we do.
Are we better than last season? I'm not so sure.
I wouldn't overdo the sceptical stuff for todays match. I mean, we hit the post and we could have got 1 or 2 penalties. While that isn't awesome, it is alright against a tricky opponent trained by Moyes (Mr. Hard-to-Beat). Using this game, it was an improvement on some games last season. At least in my eyes. Plus the subs were pretty brave, taking Pogba off could have easily backfired but it worked out. Stuff like that is good, even it doesn't work out all the time, at least he did something today.
Yeah for sure and I was pretty much talking about our attack and in particular goalscoring as I saw your example of city scoring goals in a particular pattern. As I said there are things we can improve on but creating chances and scoring goals isn't one of them. It's actually something we are statistically best in the league at, or thereabouts. Talking about the PL that is.
I understand your point but one thing to note: while we scored many goals last season, we did so because our forwards have been pretty great. They overperformed on their xG, meaning they scored goals the average player prbably wouldn't have scored. That is to be expected somewhat because our players should be better than the average one. But still, it showed it negative effects as soon as we had to sub people off or went with a fringe-player team.
I agree with you, goal scoring in itself isn't the biggest issue these days. Creating chances can be one. And the stats suggest, that our competitors do it a bit better than we do, which might be an advantage for them. So why shouldn't we try to get something of that as well, if it doesn't work, nobody can take away the individual quality we have.
The arguments about lack patterns of play in relation to oles management are guff yes.
It would be groundbreaking. If this sacred patterns crap was so tantamount then we dont need Ronaldo, just some league 2 players and some genius like you to implement patterns. We will win the lot.
Its not difficult
Joe Sixpack is still arguing with socrates... I respect your bravery. Maybe I try a different angle: You are right, having Ronaldo in the team will help your team regardless of patterns of play. But this pre-drilled moves can help the team even when you don't have such great players than we do. Look at Brighton for example, or last seasons Leeds. These teams aren't stacked with worldclass offensive players but are still able to create good numbers. Nobody wants to take anything away from current United because, as you said, it works to a large degree and that isn't just luck. But adding another layer may even make the team even stronger. I am sure you would agree, that players like Bruno, Ronaldo or Pogba can deal with freedom probably better than players like AWB or McTominay.
