United Thread - 2023/24

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Onana - Regular Starter

Dalot - Regular Starter
Varane - Regular Starter

Casemiro - Regular Starter
Mainoo - Regular Starter
Fernandes - Regular Starter

McTominay - In and Out of the side
Garnacho - Regular Starter
Rashford - Regular Starter

So much for a pile or injuries...Never came across of bunch of deluded cunts in all my life.
 
Ken Early: How have Manchester United come to accept such mediocrity?
For United, there was a quiet pride in only having lost 3-1. That’s where United are now – that least it wasn’t 6-1


Seldom has there been a derby game with so little doubt concerning the result. The only prematch speculation was about how big a mess Manchester City were going to make of Manchester United. In terms of the anticipated spectacle, you could only have confidently recommended the game to sadists, Man City supporters, fans of cringe comedy and other connoisseurs of morbidity.

In the end, the rubberneckers were disappointed, as both sides walked away feeling City’s 3-1 win was about par.

For City it was another three points, a 14th win in their last 16 unbeaten matches, another step on the road to the title defence they are all aiming for. It was not a game any of them are likely to mention to their grandchildren, except maybe Erling Haaland, who, in the first half, produced what will likely rank as the worst miss of his career.

For United, there was a certain quiet pride in only having lost 3-1. That’s where United are now – the “at least it wasn’t six” zone.

There had even been a brief interlude of insane hope in the early stages. Marcus Rashford’s brilliant goal eight minutes in had shocked City and seemed to rob them of their usual composure in the box.

But City had plenty of time to recover their poise, with Guardiola telling them to be “faster in the process, slower in the final third”. In the meantime, United never threatened to put them under any more pressure.


Before the game, Ten Hag had talked about the wide open space behind City’s high defensive line and it was clear that Plan A for United was to hit runners in that space. That created the first goal, when Andre Onana’s long clearance found Bruno Fernandes, who held it up brilliantly before teeing up Rashford.

But that, it turned out, was that. For United, the saddest parts of the game were those rare occasions when they moved as a team into City’s half with the ball. There was never any sense that they had any idea what to do next, and rather than going for another goal they seemed consumed by the fear – which ultimately proved well-founded – of the counterattack that would follow the inevitable loss of possession.

As Haaland’s miss demonstrated, City were far from their best, but unlike Liverpool, Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Tottenham, who all took advantage of City off-days to come away from the Etihad with points, United offered absolutely nothing. The two shots they managed were the fewest any side has had against City in a Premier League game this season.


How did it come to this? How have United come to accept such mediocrity? They turned up with eight players on the injury list but the starting team included at least eight of their strongest XI – all the first-teamers bar Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw and Rasmus Højlund. Maybe Harry Maguire would have started in advance of Raphael Varane, but few would argue that would have been an upgrade. Varane, with Onana, was United’s best player on the day.

The defeat ended a run of 143 Premier League games in which United had not lost after leading at half-time. The last time they lost after being ahead at half-time was the 5-3 defeat at Leicester City in the autumn of 2014. Jonny Evans played in that game too. That was his seventh season as a senior United player and when he was sold to West Brom in the summer of 2015 it seemed safe to assume it would be his last. His return to the United team a decade later shows how badly one of the richest clubs in the world has been mismanaged: a player they discarded a generation ago is the best reserve centre back they can currently afford.

Evans, to be fair, is doing a job as a stopgap – it’s safe to assume United’s new Ratcliffe-Brailsford-Ashworth brains trust isn’t building the long-term plan around him. Nor can they be expected to keep betting on Erik ten Hag, the coach who claimed earlier this season that he couldn’t bring the Ajax style to Manchester even after signing several of his old Ajax players at ruinous expense.

A more difficult question for them is: what about Rashford? Yesterday his outstanding goal helped keep things respectable, yet his overall performance showed why many United fans have lost patience with him.

He crumpled under a challenge from Kyle Walker at the start of the move that ended with Phil Foden scoring City’s equaliser. His angry reaction suggested he believed he had been fouled, but if there was a foul it looked on the homeopathic side and the video referees evidently felt it hadn’t met the threshold.


Last week Rashford had published another piece with The Players Tribune, rebuking the critics who, he suggested, were waiting to pounce whenever he – “a 26-year old lad” – had a “human moment”. (This was how he seemed to be characterising his recent adventure in Belfast where he went out on the town two nights in a row and then called in sick to training). He reassured fans that nobody could possibly love Manchester United more than he does and gave some examples of his love for the club.

This overwrought piece was missing the point. Rashford’s problem is that he is one of the best-paid players in the Premier League and yesterday he scored his sixth goal of the season. It doesn’t matter how much you love the club if it’s already March and you’ve only scored six goals. People are going to wonder if there might be someone out there who could score a few more.

Maybe the clinching argument for keeping Rashford around for now, despite his inconsistency, is that he still looks much better than the hapless Antony, who replaced him on 75 minutes. And even if none of the current crop are at United much longer, they’ve already done Jim Ratcliffe a big favour. Expectation levels at United are lower than anyone would have thought possible ten years ago. From here, the only way is up.
 
blueste41 said:
Which I don't see happening. With their poor goal difference they are effectively 12 point off 4th with 11 games to play. Also with them being 6th they need to outperform 2 teams to make it to 4th. Odds range from 16/1 to 20/1 for them to make the top 4.
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Operation Top 4 will be in fucking overdrive the next few games.
 
waspish said:
Rashford has one good thing a good shot on him but he has understandings of the game positional play and a touch like a baby elephant
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I was slated for years by reds & neutrals when i said he was average at best.

He's made a career out of running fast with the ball, in a straight line, straight into defenders, and sometimes gets passed men with a lucky ricochet or 2. He shoots from ANYWHERE, and sometimes, rarely, they go in.

He had a slight purple patch where he scored a few, and his defending or tracking back is non existent, and he doesn't even hide his laziness on the pitch.

I kinda get that reds backed him, but other fans were saying he was world class.

Never saw it, never will. He's incredibly limited as a player, and has bagged a £350k a week contract.

Sums them up perfectly.
 
Gingers Dad said:
But on another day utd could have won. Small margins
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ETH was correct, looking at this page with a graph and text, it definitely has small margins

f4aa0ccf13b9d1dca557f8742f315b52.jpg
 
babyape said:
I was slated for years by reds & neutrals when i said he was average at best.

He's made a career out of running fast with the ball, in a straight line, straight into defenders, and sometimes gets passed men with a lucky ricochet or 2. He shoots from ANYWHERE, and sometimes, rarely, they go in.

He had a slight purple patch where he scored a few, and his defending or tracking back is non existent, and he doesn't even hide his laziness on the pitch.

I kinda get that reds backed him, but other fans were saying he was world class.

Never saw it, never will. He's incredibly limited as a player, and has bagged a £350k a week contract.

Sums them up perfectly.
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Exactly what I've always said

Anything that requires good vision, passing, technique etc..he can't really do.

Even his shooting is mostly him blasting it as hard as possible, and sometimes it works.

He's pretty dangerous on a counter because he's quick off the mark, but your team has to be set up that way to get any joy out of him. In a team that actually plays through teams he wouldn't have the ability to do it.

He's probably a good option on the bench for a team that's winning and the opponents are going gung-ho trying to get back in the game and open at the back. Apart from that, I don't really see what he could offer any team except the rags who play hoof ball 90s footy.

I reckon if the rags had let him go a few years ago, he would probably be playing for a Sheffield United type of team because he wouldn't be cutting it at a big club and they wouldn't have sentiment for him as he's not from their academy. Or he would have followed a similar path as Lingard.
 
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