87 | James McAtee - 2024/25

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Blue_Lightsaber said:
I'd be very cautious about getting hopes up here..

Lets not forget Pep lost faith in him after Feyenoord and the door only opened because Foden was having a stinker. Props to him for taking his chance but I don't think Pep is the type of manager that rates someone on 1 good outing..

Maybe I'm wrong but I still think McAtee is too small for our midfield and his future lies elsewhere.
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Yeah Pep is not the type of manager that rates someone on 1 good outing but he loses faith in someone after 1 substitute outing in which he wasn't even responsible for the bad result ? that's rubbish, too small for our midfield ? when has Pep ever given a fuck about someone's size in midfield ? look at who's been playing in midfield this season for crying out loud.
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
I'd be very cautious about getting hopes up here..

Lets not forget Pep lost faith in him after Feyenoord and the door only opened because Foden was having a stinker. Props to him for taking his chance but I don't think Pep is the type of manager that rates someone on 1 good outing..

Maybe I'm wrong but I still think McAtee is too small for our midfield and his future lies elsewhere.
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So pep lost faith in a player after 20 minutes and he’s too small? Bernardo and foden being the giants they are.
 
Chak19 said:
Yeah Pep is not the type of manager that rates someone on 1 good outing but he loses faith in someone after 1 substitute outing in which he wasn't even responsible for the bad result ? that's rubbish, too small for our midfield ? when has Pep ever given a fuck about someone's size in midfield ? look at who's been playing in midfield this season for crying out loud.
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I suspect that's due to injuries..

If Pep had options he wouldn't be playing as much.
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
I'd be very cautious about getting hopes up here..

Lets not forget Pep lost faith in him after Feyenoord and the door only opened because Foden was having a stinker. Props to him for taking his chance but I don't think Pep is the type of manager that rates someone on 1 good outing..

Maybe I'm wrong but I still think McAtee is too small for our midfield and his future lies elsewhere.
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If he can condemn people on one outing, he can do the opposite when the occasion demands. Or eat yesterday’s words.

McAtee may or may not be good enough in the long run. Just give the lad a chance to help us out and show what he’s got to offer.
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
I'd be very cautious about getting hopes up here..

Lets not forget Pep lost faith in him after Feyenoord and the door only opened because Foden was having a stinker. Props to him for taking his chance but I don't think Pep is the type of manager that rates someone on 1 good outing..

Maybe I'm wrong but I still think McAtee is too small for our midfield and his future lies elsewhere.
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Praise the Gods that you were not in charge of our transfer policy in the last ten years, given Bernardo is about five foot two, and the magical Merlin not much bigger, and both have been amongst the greatest midfielders we have ever had.
 
jollylescott said:
Praise the Gods that you were not in charge of our transfer policy in the last ten years, given Bernardo is about five foot two, and the magical Merlin not much bigger, and both have been amongst the greatest midfielders we have ever had.
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LOL

When we go through 2 months of our midfield being outmuscled, outhustled and outperformed.. I would love to have a 6 foot 3 Rodri back so that someone like Victor Gyorkas, Morgan Rogers and a 20 year old Bilal El Khannouss don't dominate over our midfield.

Don't forget there's a thing called evolving as Pep had to put John Stones, Rodri, KDB and Gundo in midfield for our best season to date.
 
Paul1970 said:
If we sell this lad in January I can see alot of fans will start to get really pissed off and especially if we carry on playing shit . Don’t sell this kid .
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If we sell him it is nothing short of a dereliction of duty by Txiki and Guardiola.

The lad should be starting games now. He is good enough, certainly at the moment anyway.
 
robbieh said:
Arsenal had a 17 year old playing tonight. He's a kid. McAtee is 22.
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Its Pep biggest weakness as a manager.

He doesnt trust youth enough, or has a higher barometer for them than is necessary.

Now many would argue the trophies won justifies his choices.

I believe all of those would have been won even if we tried to integrate more youth players.

I think some blame should be to the board as well, as they probably were seeing the youth as just money to make, not realizing how much more could be made by not wasting on players like Phillips.
 
Paul1970 said:
If we sell this lad in January I can see alot of fans will start to get really pissed off and especially if we carry on playing shit . Don’t sell this kid .
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Fans aren't going to revolt against Pep over James fucking McAtee.

People treating him as the second coming because of one turn against Leicester, like those who constantly use a single game against Forest as proof Grealish not being played in the middle has been a waste all of these years.
 
RegisteredToSeePhotos said:
Fans aren't going to revolt against Pep over James fucking McAtee.

People treating him as the second coming because of one turn against Leicester, like those who constantly use a single game against Forest as proof Grealish not being played in the middle has been a waste all of these years.
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It’s not about Janes mcatee it’s about our reluctance to give kids a chance even though we are showing relegation form and letting these young players go for fucking peanuts and they suddenly become top players . Maybe he one turn against Leicester but that one turn and cameo showed more heart than most of ours have shown in 13 game I mean have you forgotten getting beat by the worst United team on record .
 
WallyA said:
Its Pep biggest weakness as a manager.

He doesnt trust youth enough, or has a higher barometer for them than is necessary.

Now many would argue the trophies won justifies his choices.

I believe all of those would have been won even if we tried to integrate more youth players.

I think some blame should be to the board as well, as they probably were seeing the youth as just money to make, not realizing how much more could be made by not wasting on players like Phillips.
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Complexly agree, it's very difficult to criticise Pep in anyway but his reluctance to give any meaningful minutes to our young players is a weakness for me.

This season has been a disaster in term of recruitment, injuries, loss of form and fatigue, yet it's taken until the end of the year to give the likes of McAtee even a few minutes.

I hope in the coming weeks that the young players are given minutes and opportunities, even more so if we don't go into the transfer market.
 
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The problem has been our relentless success, ironically. If you have to do your best to win every competition, any player needs to earn their keep - they need to be proven to be world class before they get a run in the team (with the very odd exception - Zinchenko, Lewis etc - who play as a consequence of having a very small squad).

This is especially true of attackers. But in fact, the time to introduce young academy players would have been the last few years when the team was doing well, not now when it is imploding.
 
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