United thread 2017/18

[dickie davies]

It's great to see Sanchez on his haunches looking shell shocked after another crushing defeat. You took your thirty pieces of silver, here is your reward. At least you got to play for the team you dreamed about playing for when you were a kid kicking that football about in the dusty backstreets of Chile eh?

On a positive, he has CL nights to practice the piano

 

[domalino]

It's all of them. For some reason I can't post a screenshot but if you stop it at 2:41, the Sevilla player has the ball about 5 yards inside his own half and there isn't a rag player near him. They're all running back towards their own goal and no one is putting any pressure on him. We'd be converging on the ball carrier in numbers but they're all retreating, leaving him the freedom of the park.

Even worse, they've not blocked any of the channels - they're running back like headless chickens - and nor have the defenders moved up to cover the Sevilla forwards. The lad's got so many options;

• he can put it over the top to Correa on the left touchline, because Valencia is way out of position;
• he can play it forward to Ben Vedder, who's straight ahead of him and completely open;
• he can play it to Sarabia on the right, who Pogba has let go without tracking;
• he's also got the player just in front of him and the two players to his left.

There's no evidence of any coaching or football intelligence there. No one is thinking "We've got to put pressure on the player with the ball" or "I need to block off the possible pass and put myself in a position to intercept it". They've clearly not been drilled at all in the way that someone like Pep or Benitez would drill their players in detail to cover various eventualities. It's simply astonishing.

 

[KentBlue]

And yet we're constantly being told that Maureen is a master tactician.

 

[lancs blue]

Three Sevilla players between the lines and the rag full backs pushed up to make a midfield six, it's almost how you'd set up a training session for a 3 on 2 counter attack!

 

[domalino]

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

And yet we're constantly being told that Maureen is a master tactician.

Only when the tactics seemingly work is he the master tactician, and then, how do we know that it wasn't the opposition that buggered up something simple to make him look like a master?

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

That’s the one thanks. 8 rag players in that picture and not one of them is stopping a Sevilla player from playing or receiving the ball.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

Even elements of the media seem to be getting bored with Moreen now.

Team Talk on the Phil Williams Show on 5Live last night;

"Shall we discuss Mourhino?"

"No - I think it's been done to death"

"Ok - Let's move on"

 

[Mr Blue Moon]

And yet we're constantly being told that Maureen is a master tactician.

Of course. He's deliberately failed in the Champions League so that they can focus on the more historic FA Cup ;-)

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

This is what astounds me. Everyone here predicted that this is what would happen, both the biased (most of us) and those dispassionate enough to try to analyze them without our blue-tinted specs. To either, it was as plain as the nose on your face. How can so many express incredulity at the football they’re playing with him in charge? I think they’ve overachieved. They are further behind us than at any time in the post-Purple nose era.

If you take the Doughnut Thief out of the equation, they are even further behind. Yes, I know that's the same as saying "Take City out of the equation and U** are top of the League", but it really does illustrate how crap they really are when their outfield players are so reliant on their keeper to to drag their sorry arses out of the s**t week-in-week-out.