Why is our fanbase so toxic towards its players?

[Owen06]

It's because majority of our fans can be quite gullible and easily mislead by the media.

The last few months of the season was something else,I hoped the whole player bashing thing would stop with Jose gone but it didn't.
They compare our team to liverpool and city's, a team that has been playing high press for the last three seasons compared to us who just lay back and soak up pressure for a large part of the last three seasons.
The fans wants a team who isn't used to pressing for 90 minutes to all of a sudden start pressing,they want a team who just experienced a thug of war between the board and the manager to just continue winning without getting exhausted,the game against liverpool where our attackers got injured just sums up our fitness.

The media has brainwashed our fanbase, imediately Jose was sacked it was always gonna be a question of, was it Jose's fault? or was it the players fault?hence everything becoming toxic again when we started losing but the biggest reason why we were losing was because of the players fitness and general pattern of football, i think lukaku said they weren't yet fit enough to play solkjaer's style, the fans however couldn't see this because everything had become black and white it was either the players fault or Jose's,no room for other options hence the toxicity towards the players.

 

[dave1956]

It would appear from comments on this subject that Utd., fans have only recently criticised players. Not so, I remember players being slow hand clapped, booed, and into day parlance missiles thrown, which I could never understand as they were excellent meat pies purchased from a local pub. ( which in my opinion were to good to waste to make a point ) The only other way was to write to the Football Pink or Green.
These days we have a improved social media to voice our concerns, this is also used by Utd., team members to promote their business interests, make excuses for poor performances, ( which for the most are insincere ), as a platform to get a transfer or indicate that they are worth a pay rise.
Now in my opinion if you use this area of the media as a player then one should not complain when the clubs fan base use it to complain on a personal basis or as a team for what they see as a lack of effort etc.

 

[hobbers]

Nothing toxic about it at all. Simply put, we pay the highest wages, we have the best facilities and we have the best support, and therefore we justifiably have the highest expectations. But despite all that we currently have a squad of players many of whom wouldn't even get a game for Wolves or Leicester.

And to compound their horrific lack of quality, a lot of these players dont seem to care about the club's fortunes or show any pride in being where they are. Players who seemed to deliberately down tools under Jose. Players who are happy walking off the pitch after an embarrassing defeat having not run themselves into the ground. Players who care more about growing their social media empires than their medal hauls.

They deserve almost every bit of criticism they've had, and then some.

 

[Rendezvous with Ronaldo]

The matchgoing fans are not toxic at all. In fact I'd say they are very lenient for the most part.

The forum fanbase on here, however, does seem on the whole to be more toxic than forum fanbases elsewhere. It's fairly obvious why expectations are so high, but the type of criticism many players face on here (ie - the personal kind). Added to that, when a player is in the bad books, literally everything they say and do is negatively scrutinised, and it's just a plain toxic practice. Being well paid should not mean they are fair play for abuse.

There are a couple of peculiarities at play: The first is the justifiable criticism of media toxicity, yet fans are exactly the same if not worse regarding their teams players. The second is that players take this abuse because they are not good enough players, as if they have control over how talented they are. They are getting abused because of something they can't control, but people like to hide this abuse inside sub-topics.

For example: People criticising Lingard for having a clothing line when what they actually have a problem with is that he isn't a good enough player - something that he can not control.

 

[SteveW]

It's because majority of our fans can be quite gullible and easily mislead by the media.

The last few months of the season was something else,I hoped the whole player bashing thing would stop with Jose gone but it didn't.
They compare our team to liverpool and city's, a team that has been playing high press for the last three seasons compared to us who just lay back and soak up pressure for a large part of the last three seasons.
The fans wants a team who isn't used to pressing for 90 minutes to all of a sudden start pressing,they want a team who just experienced a thug of war between the board and the manager to just continue winning without getting exhausted,the game against liverpool where our attackers got injured just sums up our fitness.

The media has brainwashed our fanbase, imediately Jose was sacked it was always gonna be a question of, was it Jose's fault? or was it the players fault?hence everything becoming toxic again when we started losing but the biggest reason why we were losing was because of the players fitness and general pattern of football, i think lukaku said they weren't yet fit enough to play solkjaer's style, the fans however couldn't see this because everything had become black and white it was either the players fault or Jose's,no room for other options hence the toxicity towards the players.

This sums it up pretty well. Everything is either right or wrong, good or bad. People seem to be losing the ability to think for themselves. It's kinda pathetic tbh

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Socks analysis to follow.

Now we're talking... you can tell a lot from a man's socks, as my gran used to say.

Never quite understood what she meant by it, mind you, but it does sound intuitively right.

 

[KristianMackle]

Right, the OP should watch more Arsenalfan TV. Alex Iwobi and his entire family has probably been shaken to the core because of them.

 

[Al-T]

City have won everything domestically and the dippers have just won the Champions League.

If the current crop of people that wear red shirts and supposedly represent Manchester United don't understand why fans are not happy, there's no hope.

 

[Hamadovich86]

If anything fans (myself included) have defended the players and laid most of the blame on the managers. Considering that we have players who would not make the squad in many other PL teams, its understandable if fans resent them but I dont see a toxicity. Theres hate on the internet but nothing too bad at games and I havent read of any incidents of fans walking up to Ashley Young and telling him to feck off.

 

[Negan]

These players have it easy.

If they played for Madrid, They’d be getting booed out of the stadium.

No less than they deserve, in my opinion.

 

[Kidders]

When your rivals are scooping up all the silverware and we slip into mediocrity (our standards) we either blame the board, they won't budge = nothing changes, blame the manager, we change the manager = nothing changes, blame the players, change some players = nothing changes.
The club needs a dramatic and total overhaul from the top to the bottom, but until/if that happens the fans will focus on what we see on the pitch, and it's not good enough, let's be honest, we were never bothered about how much we paid Keane, Beckham, Giggs and co, because they delivered the trophies, the trophies and titles have dried up for now, so it's natural to question the rewards our players get, to me the toxicity comes from a primeval resentment of someone getting rich for doing little in return.

 

[Keefy18]

I actually think our fanbase has been very patient. I've seen people calling us spoilt and the like, despite giving Moyes a chance, despite standing behind a failing LVG until it became too much, despite our players constantly talking a lot but failing to deliver time after time. This isn't kneejerk spoilt behaviour. It's being annoyed because of years of issues and waiting for something to happen. People are tired of crap.

The players are getting the brunt of it now, because everyone is finally realising they are a major part of the problem, and we're not this sleeping giant of a team that just needed a bit of good management to challenge for the league, like many have made out in the past. Anything that doesn't seem like them seriously knuckling down like they need to is judged negatively, and while some of it may not be entirely on point, I kinda get it.

Our supporters sang Jose's name with LVG sat in the dug out and waved Jose / United half an half scarves at OT.

Then when Jose sulked and engineered his pay off it was "Ole's at the wheel" and now Ole is struggling its back to blaming Woodward again.

More confused that a bunch of blind lesbo's in a fish mongers is our supporter base.

 

[VeevaVee]

Our supporters sang Jose's name with LVG sat in the dug out and waved Jose / United half an half scarves at OT.

Then when Jose sulked and engineered his pay off it was "Ole's at the wheel" and now Ole is struggling its back to blaming Woodward again.

More confused that a bunch of blind lesbo's in a fish mongers is our supporter base.

Lots of people gave LVG the benefit of the doubt for a long time.

 

[Irwin99]

These players have it easy.

If they played for Madrid, They’d be getting booed out of the stadium.

No less than they deserve, in my opinion.

THIS. It shouldn't even be up for debate, our match going fans are absolute saints in comparison with other big club's fans. That one guy arguing with Pogba at Cardiff is the only thing I can think of in terms of being 'toxic'.

 

[AceUnited]

Our true fan base is not toxic, It is the plastic wannabes that are toxic.The same ones that care about what Rashford and Lingard wear.

True fans will stand by our team through thick and thin.

 

[FootballHQ]

I haven't really been reading this thread but I think things are being exaggerated.

At end of Cardiff match there was only booing and that's it and even still many pro OGS chants. Pogba got stick off one or two individuals in Stretford End rather than whole crowd.

Compare that to Real Madrid and Barca were Bale gets whistled on and off the pitch (multiple CL winner) and Coutinho gets whistled all match when on the ball and it's all very tame and low key.

When did Old Trafford crowd last sing "you're not fit to wear the shirt" at the team or cheer a player off when subbed? That would be toxic atmosphere.

 

[Irwin99]

I haven't really been reading this thread but I think things are being exaggerated.

At end of Cardiff match there was only booing and that's it and even still many pro OGS chants. Pogba got stick off one or two individuals in Stretford End rather than whole crowd.

Compare that to Real Madrid and Barca were Bale gets whistled on and off the pitch (multiple CL winner) and Coutinho gets whistled all match when on the ball and it's all very tame and low key.

When did Old Trafford crowd last sing "you're not fit to wear the shirt" at the team or cheer a player off when subbed? That would be toxic atmosphere.

Don’t think there were even any boos at Cardiff. The most toxic atmosphere around the club that I’ve seen was probably around 05-06 with with chants of 4-4-2 and boos after a home loss to Blackburn and also the green and gold campaign of 09-10. Amazing to think how we were in a far far better situation as a club back then.

The better question would be , why are United fans so passive now compared to then?

 

[FootballHQ]

Don’t think there were even any boos at Cardiff. The most toxic atmosphere around the club that I’ve seen was probably around 05-06 with with chants of 4-4-2 and boos after a home loss to Blackburn and also the green and gold campaign of 09-10. Amazing to think how we were in a far far better situation as a club back then.

The better question would be , why are United fans so passive now compared to then?

I remember Giggs also being cheered off around that time when subbed when he was in poor spell of form.

I wouldn't say it's a bad thing. Man. United fans are generally very supportive of the team and away fans are amazing throughout singing whatever the score is. Certainly less whiny and entitled than what you get at Arsenal and Chelsea.

However there comes times when as a crowd you need to make your point to the players that the standard is nowhere near good enough and I'd say a few home truth chants would've sufficed at end of Cardiff game considering it was dismal end to the season with top 4 still in play. Surprised to hear hardly anything happened apart from the mass walk out before the lap of thanks round the pitch.

 

[Giggsyking]

The reality is, we have been very very very soft on the players, we were more hard on the managers ( still softer than fans of other clubs) but the players, noway were we toxic against them. 7 years of shit football is enough.

 

[Keefy18]

Lots of people gave LVG the benefit of the doubt for a long time.

"For a long time" = Barely more than a season and ignored the fact our worst run of form under him coincided with an injury crisis of 15 players out if memory serves right.

We were top of the table a few times prior to that, even if the football was painful to watch.

 

[Vidyoyo]

Yeah you guys are too serious. I thought it was just a bit of fun at first taking the piss out of Lingard for dressing like a university professor.

Now you want him exiled to the hinterlands and held on account of treason, it's too much really.

 

[VeevaVee]

"For a long time" = Barely more than a season and ignored the fact our worst run of form under him coincided with an injury crisis of 15 players out if memory serves right.

We were top of the table a few times prior to that, even if the football was painful to watch.

He still had a lot of support up until half way into his second season, when most realised nothing is going to change. Supporting him any longer at that stage would be pretty blind, or happy with the most boring football known to man.

What are you basing it on if you only joined in November last year? Your mates or another forum?

 

[Valar Morghulis]

Our true fan base is not toxic, It is the plastic wannabes that are toxic.The same ones that care about what Rashford and Lingard wear.

True fans will stand by our team through thick and thin.

Say what you want about people being abusive to the players, I don't agree with personal abuse and don't particularly care if they want to dress up like a pair of gobshites, that's their choice and they can go right ahead.

However if you subscribe to the holier than thou "true fan" rhetoric that some preach then I think that's an equally idiotic stance to take.

 

[Keefy18]

He still had a lot of support up until half way into his second season, when most realised nothing is going to change. Supporting him any longer at that stage would be pretty blind, or happy with the most boring football known to man.

What are you basing it on if you only joined in November last year? Your mates or another forum?

He had a ridiculously tough job on his hands. Our squad needed to be rebuilt as Fergie left an ageing squad and Moyes wasn't up to it. Taking over a team that finished 7th and keeping them competing with top 4 whilst rebuilding is no easy feat.

Why not support him longer and let him see out year 3? Jose was a complete 180 from all the work LVG and the back room staff had put in the preceding 2 years.

As I said on the other LVG thread recently, LVG left us in a far healthier state throughout the club than Jose in December last.

I've read here for a few years, also on other forums as well across social media.

 

[VeevaVee]

He had a ridiculously tough job on his hands. Our squad needed to be rebuilt as Fergie left an ageing squad and Moyes wasn't up to it. Taking over a team that finished 7th and keeping them competing with top 4 whilst rebuilding is no easy feat.

Why not support him longer and let him see out year 3? Jose was a complete 180 from all the work LVG and the back room staff had put in the preceding 2 years.

As I said on the other LVG thread recently, LVG left us in a far healthier state throughout the club than Jose in December last.

I've read here for a few years, also on other forums as well across social media.

Why is this turning into whether LVG should've stayed or not? We've done it to death and simply put, that he made United unwatchable with no end in sight was a good enough reason in my opinion.
United fans were not toxic when it came to Van Gaal. Van Gaal was toxic when it came to football though. Just so happened his successor was even more toxic in the dressing room.

People seem to forget it's them who owe us something, not the other way around. You can't go against what the fans want (entertainment) and then say it's toxic when they get fed up of you. We pay them via the club to entertain us.

 

[Keefy18]

Why is this turning into whether LVG should've stayed or not? We've done it to death and simply put, that he made United unwatchable with no end in sight was a good enough reason in my opinion.
United fans were not toxic when it came to Van Gaal. Van Gaal was toxic when it came to football though. Just so happened his successor was even more toxic in the dressing room.

People seem to forget it's them who owe us something, not the other way around. You can't go against what the fans want (entertainment) and then say it's toxic when they get fed up of you. We pay them via the club to entertain us.

Well you mentioned LVG, I was just joining in on the discussion

Sorry but yes our fan base was absolutely toxic towards him and some of the players even then, like Fellaini being booed coming on as a sub vs Brugge? To then score and shut them up!

So there you go, back to our supporters being dicks towards players and its only grown worse with each passing season.

The recent footage of Pogba being abused was disgusting and no doubt it will carry on into next season too.

 

[VeevaVee]

Well you mentioned LVG, I was just joining in on the discussion

Sorry but yes our fan base was absolutely toxic towards him and some of the players even then, like Fellaini being booed coming on as a sub vs Brugge? To then score and shut them up!

So there you go, back to our supporters being dicks towards players and its only grown worse with each passing season.

The recent footage of Pogba being abused was disgusting and no doubt it will carry on into next season too.

Unfortunately the fans have no voice and so they can only be heard by anyone that matters in the stadium. I don't condone it, but the booing was because they were fed up of terrible football, only to see Fellaini being used for hoofball time after time. If he wasn't utilised like that so often, and the manager actually tried to put something better in place where we didn't need to rely on it, he wouldn't have been booed. He did score a few important goals, no doubt, but it's what it represented - terrible football then hoofball or holding on for dear life.

 

[Sky1981]

It's because majority of our fans can be quite gullible and easily mislead by the media.

The last few months of the season was something else,I hoped the whole player bashing thing would stop with Jose gone but it didn't.
They compare our team to liverpool and city's, a team that has been playing high press for the last three seasons compared to us who just lay back and soak up pressure for a large part of the last three seasons.
The fans wants a team who isn't used to pressing for 90 minutes to all of a sudden start pressing,they want a team who just experienced a thug of war between the board and the manager to just continue winning without getting exhausted,the game against liverpool where our attackers got injured just sums up our fitness.

The media has brainwashed our fanbase, imediately Jose was sacked it was always gonna be a question of, was it Jose's fault? or was it the players fault?hence everything becoming toxic again when we started losing but the biggest reason why we were losing was because of the players fitness and general pattern of football, i think lukaku said they weren't yet fit enough to play solkjaer's style, the fans however couldn't see this because everything had become black and white it was either the players fault or Jose's,no room for other options hence the toxicity towards the players.

For me..if you're the top 0.012 percent athlete and you cant get fit to play a simple high pressing game which city/liverpool and many other teams plays then I'd call bullshit.

Conditioning or no conditioning if the other 19 teams can do it so can we.

Nobody expect them to run twice as much as the next team, but if you cant even run for 90 minutes you have no business playing football for a living

 

[Keeps It tidy]

For me..if you're the top 0.012 percent athlete and you cant get fit to play a simple high pressing game which city/liverpool and many other teams plays then I'd call bullshit.

Conditioning or no conditioning if the other 19 teams can do it so can we.

Nobody expect them to run twice as much as the next team, but if you cant even run for 90 minutes you have no business playing football for a living

The 19 other teams do not all play high pressing games. And it took a while for Liverpool, Spurs and City to really master playing a high pressing game.

 

[Sky1981]

The 19 other teams do not all play high pressing games. And it took a while for Liverpool, Spurs and City to really master playing a high pressing game.

What i meant isnt the good football..more like running without gettint out of breath

 

[U99ted]

Why not support him longer and let him see out year 3?

Lack of progress. In year 1, Van Gaal met (but not exceeded) the target, which was top four. We had a poor end to the season which cost us third or a chance at second. In year 2, with Chelsea’s spectacular collapse into midtable, Liverpool 8th, Spurs/Arsenal barely getting 70 points and City failing to challenge, the title was there for the taking. Instead we collapsed before Christmas and finished 5th while Leicester City won it.

 

[Irwin99]

There were some rocky patches with LVG but the support of the match going fans was still there if wavering. Never heard fans chant 'you don't know what you're doing' or booing a substitute that I remember. Some ironic cheers when we had a shot on target but again, compared to other clubs (Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barca) the behaviour was incredibly forgiving.

In fact LVG and Jose said the same thing after humiliating loses to MKDons and Spurs, that the support was very unusual

I actually wonder when the patience of the OT going fans will match the levels of the green and gold campaign a decade ago . I can't fathom another season of Young and Jones in defence.

 

[SCJY]

Fans are entitled to point the finger at whomever they choose to. CEO, owners, managers, players: they have all received their fair share of criticism. It's difficult for the average fan to pinpoint exactly where the blame lays, but with the players being the most high-profile, and they number in the dozens, there is simply more options and ease in targeting the players than to go into the intricacies of how the club is run from a business perspective.

Many of the players are certainly not without blame, but any educated fan would know the problem is the board, the CEO, the owners and how the club is run in general. The management/owners have mostly insulated themselves from criticism from the general public. They've conjured a situation where there is an air that the players rule supreme, allowed to run wild and free without a modicum of discipline and allowing some of these players to represent the "brand" and be "the face" of United, all the while they can sit in their ivory towers counting their beans.

Let's be honest, screw the Glazers, screw Woodward and screw some of the players. Some segments of the fanbase may be toxic, but the toxicity of the club management is far, far, far worse. I welcome those fans who make the noise, rather than just sitting idly by.

Ole is safe for now, because he is new, and I believe he should be given at least a season unless United a languishing mid-table by Christmas.

 

[Lennon7]

Traditionally, we’re not. This fan base has always been the most supportive, helping players like De Gea, Vidic, Evra etc. develop after bad starts, and singing a player’s name if they feck up.

But the way some of our current players are disrespecting the club shouldn’t be ignored. No one (hopefully) outwardly abuses players to put them down such as booing specific ones (like with Bale @ Madrid) - forgetting that tosser shouting at Pogba.

But we’re allowed to express our sadness and discontent on football forums and social media. It needs to change! Certain players seems way more involved in the other side of being a footballer i.e. the money and fame, than the actual football. Lingard posted his fecking clothing logo on a tribute post for God sake.

 

[Kopral Jono]

THIS. It shouldn't even be up for debate, our match going fans are absolute saints in comparison with other big club's fans. That one guy arguing with Pogba at Cardiff is the only thing I can think of in terms of being 'toxic'.

Yes, absolutely. Our fans are too nice if anything.

 

[Owen06]

For me..if you're the top 0.012 percent athlete and you cant get fit to play a simple high pressing game which city/liverpool and many other teams plays then I'd call bullshit.

Conditioning or no conditioning if the other 19 teams can do it so can we.

Nobody expect them to run twice as much as the next team, but if you cant even run for 90 minutes you have no business playing football for a living

So you think Liverpool and city who are pressing just started overnight?
Liverpool and city has been playing the pattern for a while before adapting to the system it's practice and hard work.
Our players has been playing the opposite of pressing for the large part of the last three seasons and you want them to press like mad men?
Maybe you should go support liverpool and city.

 

[Keefy18]

Unfortunately the fans have no voice and so they can only be heard by anyone that matters in the stadium. I don't condone it, but the booing was because they were fed up of terrible football, only to see Fellaini being used for hoofball time after time. If he wasn't utilised like that so often, and the manager actually tried to put something better in place where we didn't need to rely on it, he wouldn't have been booed. He did score a few important goals, no doubt, but it's what it represented - terrible football then hoofball or holding on for dear life.

The fans have plenty of vocal impact, quite likely their constant singing of Jose's name at matches swayed Ed and made him think the fan base was going to get toxic. Even if they didn't, think its pretty obvious at this point the supporters haven't a clue what's best for the club and should give it a rest at this point!

Lack of progress. In year 1, Van Gaal met (but not exceeded) the target, which was top four. We had a poor end to the season which cost us third or a chance at second. In year 2, with Chelsea’s spectacular collapse into midtable, Liverpool 8th, Spurs/Arsenal barely getting 70 points and City failing to challenge, the title was there for the taking. Instead we collapsed before Christmas and finished 5th while Leicester City won it.

The title is never there for the taking, the best team wins it. Leicester won that title on merit, as the saying goes...the table doesn't lie.

We collapsed at Christmas because we had upwards of 15 injuries, prior to that we sat top of the table a few times I believe and after 14 matches (28/11/15) we were 1 pt from top, behind City & Leicester.

Fast forward 6 matches to 2nd Jan 2016 - With the majority of the squad out injured, supporters booing the players and manager and signing Jose's name... we were 9pts behind.

I'm by no means saying it was a raving success with LVG, but he's the only manager post Fergie to make any attempt at rebuilding the team. Jose refused to sell and invested expensively on flavor of the month. Moyes dithered and did next to nothing.... we wait and see what Ole delivers but can't say I'm overly confident in his abilities.

 

[Bestietom]

Because they are robbing us fans of our hard earned money with the performances they are putting in. They just want to fill their fat bank accounts.

 

[Le Red]

Say what you want about people being abusive to the players, I don't agree with personal abuse and don't particularly care if they want to dress up like a pair of gobshites, that's their choice and they can go right ahead.

However if you subscribe to the holier than thou "true fan" rhetoric that some preach then I think that's an equally idiotic stance to take.

Top red is just a pretty name for yes man.
They'll gladly eat any dross they're served, only to virtue signal to the "moaning" fans how heretic they are.
I appreciate your effort but it's pointless trying to convince these cultists that they do more harm than good to the club.

 

[Chairman Steve]

I'd say some of the fans are too nice. I see no problem with fans getting pissed when the team puts out completely cack performances like we did a lot post-PSG away. You can't just give the benefit of the doubt everytime they feck up or especially if they're doing it constantly and say "oh well rashy/youngy will be better next game. better luck next game lads"... Sooner or later you should put your foot down and tell them to shape up. It's like any normal job of employment really. The fans should act as a line manager and not some blind hope cheerleader.