United thread 2020/21

[5 Hit Gibbon]

Horrible red bastards. If only we could beat them.

How is OGS still in a job?

He's doing a fine job and long may it continue!

 

[lefty goldblatt]

 

[Horlocksleftpeg]

So I actually used to kind of rate Maguire. I thought he was overrated but he admittedly always looked decent for both Leicester and England. So he showed for both sides that he can play in teams that either look to play a possession game, look to sit deep, or at the least play normally with an organised defence. None of which exist at United.

My point is that I think the problem comes more from United than Maguire. They are so disjointed in their play under Solskjaer that any time they have issues everything becomes so awful. Funnily enough, I think he would have done fantastically under Mourinho, who'd been begging for years for a defender like Maguire which makes it rather hilarious they got him in so late.

His head's going though. I reckon Maguire's a resilient lad but his resolve is taking a battering at the minute, and the longer it goes on the less likely he is to recover.

Maguire is living off the 2018 World Cup and been very average/poor since

John Stones had a very good 2018 World Cup and been injured/average/poor since.

Guess which one still gets capped for England.

 

[The Stockport Iniesta]

Are all their signings shit or is it something else that turns what look to be fairly decent players pre rag, into absolute donkeys. Something is seriously wrong at the swamp and long may it continue.

 

[mccity]

Are all their signings shit or is it something else that turns what look to be fairly decent players pre rag, into absolute donkeys. Something is seriously wrong at the swamp and long may it continue.

Apologies for the essay.


It's Woodward, mainly. But Mourinho, Ferguson, Gill, and especially Solsjkaer have worsened things.

When Moyes took over Woodward failed to sign Baines, Herrera, Khedira, De Rossi, Thiago, Fabregas, and Bale. Plus others, and he even turned down Ozil (who was still brilliant at this time). United had a crumbling team at that point and Ferguson left Moyes in the shit here, probably knowingly. Even a couple of these players would have been alright but they end up with Fellaini. And later on Mata, who'd suddenly just gone down 5 notches in ability in the six months prior to his big money signing. Moyes does shit, which now would have kept him in but at the time was too much a fall from grace to keep him employed.

So now the team's worse and LVG comes in (Although Klopp was 1st choice). He wants quality too. He wants Robben, Fabregas, Hummels, Reus and the like. But only gets Rojo, Falcao, Blind, and Herrera. He gets Shaw though, who turned out to be addicted to pudding, and Di Maria, who hates rain. A bit unlucky with the latter two, but they're generally missing out too much on quality and ending up with decent but not great alternatives. Add that to the weakening squad they had and it's not great. BUT they actually looked a bit more stable under Van Gaal, but the media was constantly giving them shit for being dull, which mustn't have helped. But Herrera aside, most of the others were never either good or great. That's about 140m down the drain. The reason why they sucked is due to the fact the rest of the team was shit and none of these guys were good enough to change anything.

In 15/16 they got Martial, and Romero on a free who were good signings. But Martial was young and Romero was never amazing. Then they also got Schneiderlin, Depay, Darmian, and Schweinsteiger, the first not being that great in a team not catered to him, the second being a bit young, the third being shit, and the last being old and probably uninterested. Only about 80m down the drain this time. Plus they missed out on Otamendi, which would prove costly in December 2017. And Pedro, who's a guy that would have actually done well in a weaker side due to his work ethic. I'm pretty sure they went for Ramos and failed to sign Hummels again. So still a shitty squad, with some new average shit thrown in. The squad is just too weak for certain players to be decent in. Think of Delph. Looks kind of average, except in 17/18 when the rest of the team is so strong that he looks like the best LB in the country. Now imagine the reverse and you have United. Van Gaal overachieved, finishing 5th with an FA Cup and makes way for Mourinho.

EDIT: I should add a big problem with Mourinho here is going to him immediately from Van Gaal. You've gone from one of the most historically possession = good managers to one of the most possession = bad. So anyone useful signed for Van Gaal or even prior players who'd learnt to play for him are now going to really be stranded for Mourinho. Most notably Shaw. This is a poor move on Woodward's part, even if Mourinho was a good manager.

Now Mourinho KNOWS they're shit. Especially in defence. So he spends all summer begging for a CB and a DM. He wants Hummels, Varane, Kanté etc. He gets Bailly (never good enough for Mourinho), Mkhitaryan (who was always wrong for a Mourinho side) and Pogba. And I refuse to believe he wanted Pogba. They get Ibrahimovic for free and he was pretty good for a season, but not enough to change anything. Now the one and only thing a Mourinho side needs is a pair of really good CBs, and the rest will take care of itself. But no. They all cost 160m. Excellent stuff. This guy does not give a shit about style, just coaches them to do whatever to win the next game, knows how shit they all are and somehow wins the tinpot treble of 2nd choice trophies.

Then in 17/18 he spends all summer asking for CBs and now attackers, especially with Ibrahimovic out. He wants Willian, Bale, Griezmann. He gets Lukaku, who isn't a bad player but with a bit of homework they would have realised the wrong kind of striker (Mourinho likes rounded forwards, but they settled for just round when they signed Lukaku). They sign Matic who he actually wanted and looked good under him and Lindelof who was another 4th choice not quite good enough. They finish 2nd, which Mourinho called his greatest achievement. The players were that bad/wrong. Lets not forget the 30m signing of Sanchez, who's only contribution for his entire tenure was delaying City winning the title by a week.

Now something really important here is that Mourinho had been developing United into a fast, powerful counter attacking side. But I'm pretty sure the players had begun to revolt at this point, which made them look worse than they were, and meant that we never saw truly Mourinho's plans pan out.

18/19 they sign Fred, which makes no sense as they had Matic, and a bunch of people you'd never hear of again. Mourinho still wants CBs, he still wants hard working forwards, but nothing. They turn to shit and Ole comes in. He gets everyone all excited and for about 3 months or whatever they play exactly like a really good Mourinho side. This tricks everyone into thinking Solskjaer is the architect and he gets a full time deal and now the wheels come off. This guy is a legit bad coach.

But 19/20 happens, and for the first time you could argue United get it fairly right in the transfer window. Wan-Bissaka is a great defending player and a perfect Mourinho right back. Maguire can sit deep real good and is a perfect Mourinho player. Daniel James is an industrious and skillful young winger who Mourinho could rely on. And Fernandes is the perfect high goals+assists AM that Mourinho teams so often have. But now Mourinho's not there.. The entire season is just Solskjaer undoing anything Mourinho did by trying to get them to be more proactive but he can't coach. So the players don't know what they're doing and end up making positional errors galore and mostly relying on reverting back to Mourinho tactics, hoping one of their forwards scores from range or penalties. They finish 3rd but it's important to note they look bad, despite the good results.

This season is just more of the same, but more! They play like they have no idea except when the Mourinho instincts of the team kick in, which is diminishing more and more. And yet, I'd argue that this is the best team quality wise since Ferguson. This is why I'd rather they didn't sign Pochettino.



So in conclusion. United were shitter than we though squad wise. Woodward fails to buy top class replacements time and time again, and spends big on players that were good but wrong for United at the time. Too arrogant to see issues because they were the great MAN UNITED they failed to do any research and kept signing players that were either just big names without substance, hot property at the time, or their 2nd choice. And they never seemed to thoroughly scout whether any of them would suit the team, the specific manager, or the league. They did this for years. And they failed to bring Klopp in, who apparently Woodward scared away with his Disneyland bullshit. But Woodward is good at getting sponsors so he stays in the job. By the way, Woodward continuously wasting money on duds is why they could never afford actual quality when they needed it the next year.

And then they get Solskjaer who's an extremely limited manager so what do you expect?



tl;dr Ferguson and Gill knowingly left the club in the shit and seemingly took the scouting department with them, Woodward was super shit at signing anybody good, and by the time they got it close to right Solskjaer came in and fucked everything up. Their refusal to hire a Director of Football is their undoing.


ps. Fuck United, thank you.

 

[The Stockport Iniesta]

Apologies for the essay.


It's Woodward, mainly. But Mourinho, Ferguson, Gill, and especially Solsjkaer have worsened things.

When Moyes took over Woodward failed to sign Baines, Herrera, Khedira, De Rossi, Thiago, Fabregas, and Bale. Plus others, and he even turned down Ozil (who was still brilliant at this time). United had a crumbling team at that point and Ferguson left Moyes in the shit here, probably knowingly. Even a couple of these players would have been alright but they end up with Fellaini. And later on Mata, who'd suddenly just gone down 5 notches in ability in the six months prior to his big money signing. Moyes does shit, which now would have kept him in but at the time was too much a fall from grace to keep him employed.

So now the team's worse and LVG comes in (Although Klopp was 1st choice). He wants quality too. He wants Robben, Fabregas, Hummels, Reus and the like. But only gets Rojo, Falcao, Blind, and Herrera. He gets Shaw though, who turned out to be addicted to pudding, and Di Maria, who hates rain. A bit unlucky with the latter two, but they're generally missing out too much on quality and ending up with decent but not great alternatives. Add that to the weakening squad they had and it's not great. BUT they actually looked a bit more stable under Van Gaal, but the media was constantly giving them shit for being dull, which mustn't have helped. But Herrera aside, most of the others were never either good or great. That's about 140m down the drain. The reason why they sucked is due to the fact the rest of the team was shit and none of these guys were good enough to change anything.

In 15/16 they got Martial, and Romero on a free who were good signings. But Martial was young and Romero was never amazing. Then they also got Schneiderlin, Depay, Darmian, and Schweinsteiger, the first not being that great in a team not catered to him, the second being a bit young, the third being shit, and the last being old and probably uninterested. Only about 80m down the drain this time. Plus they missed out on Otamendi, which would prove costly in December 2017. And Pedro, who's a guy that would have actually done well in a weaker side due to his work ethic. I'm pretty sure they went for Ramos and failed to sign Hummels again. So still a shitty squad, with some new average shit thrown in. The squad is just too weak for certain players to be decent in. Think of Delph. Looks kind of average, except in 17/18 when the rest of the team is so strong that he looks like the best LB in the country. Now imagine the reverse and you have United. Van Gaal overachieved, finishing 5th with an FA Cup and makes way for Mourinho.

Now Mourinho KNOWS they're shit. Especially in defence. So he spends all summer begging for a CB and a DM. He wants Hummels, Varane, Kanté etc. He gets Bailly (never good enough for Mourinho), Mkhitaryan (who was always wrong for a Mourinho side) and Pogba. And I refuse to believe he wanted Pogba. They get Ibrahimovic for free and he was pretty good for a season, but not enough to change anything. Now the one and only thing a Mourinho side needs is a pair of really good CBs, and the rest will take care of itself. But no. They all cost 160m. Excellent stuff. This guy does not give a shit about style, just coaches them to do whatever to win the next game, knows how shit they all are and somehow wins the tinpot treble of 2nd choice trophies.

Then in 17/18 he spends all summer asking for CBs and now attackers, especially with Ibrahimovic out. He wants Willian, Bale, Griezmann. He gets Lukaku, who isn't a bad player but with a bit of homework they would have realised the wrong kind of striker (Mourinho likes rounded forwards, but they settled for just round when they signed Lukaku). They sign Matic who he actually wanted and looked good under him and Lindelof who was another 4th choice not quite good enough. They finish 2nd, which Mourinho called his greatest achievement. The players were that bad/wrong. Lets not forget the 30m signing of Sanchez, who's only contribution for his entire tenure was delaying City winning the title by a week.

Now something really important here is that Mourinho had been developing United into a fast, powerful counter attacking side. But I'm pretty sure the players had begun to revolt at this point, which made them look worse than they were, and meant that we never saw truly Mourinho's plans pan out.

18/19 they sign Fred, which makes no sense as they had Matic, and a bunch of people you'd never hear of again. Mourinho still wants CBs, he still wants hard working forwards, but nothing. They turn to shit and Ole comes in. He gets everyone all excited and for about 3 months or whatever they play exactly like a really good Mourinho side. This tricks everyone into thinking Solskjaer is the architect and he gets a full time deal and now the wheels come off. This guy is a legit bad coach.

But 19/20 happens, and for the first time you could argue United get it fairly right in the transfer window. Wan-Bissaka is a great defending player and a perfect Mourinho right back. Maguire can sit deep real good and is a perfect Mourinho player. Daniel James is an industrious and skillful young winger who Mourinho could rely on. And Fernandes is the perfect high goals+assists AM that Mourinho teams so often have. But now Mourinho's not there.. The entire season is just Solskjaer undoing anything Mourinho did by trying to get them to be more proactive but he can't coach. So the players don't know what they're doing and end up making positional errors galore and mostly relying on reverting back to Mourinho tactics, hoping one of their forwards scores from range or penalties. They finish 3rd but it's important to note they look bad, despite the good results.

This season is just more of the same, but more! They play like they have no idea except when the Mourinho instincts of the team kick in, which is diminishing more and more. And yet, I'd argue that this is the best team quality wise since Ferguson. This is why I'd rather they didn't sign Pochettino.



So in conclusion. United were shitter than we though squad wise. Woodward fails to buy top class replacements time and time again, and spends big on players that were good but wrong for United at the time. Too arrogant to see issues because they were the great MAN UNITED they failed to do any research and kept signing players that were either just big names without substance, hot property at the time, or their 2nd choice. And they never seemed to thoroughly scout whether any of them would suit the team, the specific manager, or the league. They did this for years. And they failed to bring Klopp in, who apparently Woodward scared away with his Disneyland bullshit. But Woodward is good at getting sponsors so he stays in the job. By the way, Woodward continuously wasting money on duds is why they could never afford actual quality when they needed it the next year.

And then they get Solskjaer who's an extremely limited manager so what do you expect?



tl;dr Ferguson and Gill knowingly left the club in the shit and seemingly took the scouting department with them, Woodward was super shit at signing anybody good, and by the time they got it close to right Solskjaer came in and fucked everything up. Their refusal to hire a Director of Football is their undoing.


ps. Fuck United, thank you.

Totally agree mate, brilliant post and thanks for taking the time to write it.

Deserves at least 20 likes, c'mon blues.

And fuck the rags.

 

[Gingers Dad]

Apologies for the essay.


It's Woodward, mainly. But Mourinho, Ferguson, Gill, and especially Solsjkaer have worsened things.

When Moyes took over Woodward failed to sign Baines, Herrera, Khedira, De Rossi, Thiago, Fabregas, and Bale. Plus others, and he even turned down Ozil (who was still brilliant at this time). United had a crumbling team at that point and Ferguson left Moyes in the shit here, probably knowingly. Even a couple of these players would have been alright but they end up with Fellaini. And later on Mata, who'd suddenly just gone down 5 notches in ability in the six months prior to his big money signing. Moyes does shit, which now would have kept him in but at the time was too much a fall from grace to keep him employed.

So now the team's worse and LVG comes in (Although Klopp was 1st choice). He wants quality too. He wants Robben, Fabregas, Hummels, Reus and the like. But only gets Rojo, Falcao, Blind, and Herrera. He gets Shaw though, who turned out to be addicted to pudding, and Di Maria, who hates rain. A bit unlucky with the latter two, but they're generally missing out too much on quality and ending up with decent but not great alternatives. Add that to the weakening squad they had and it's not great. BUT they actually looked a bit more stable under Van Gaal, but the media was constantly giving them shit for being dull, which mustn't have helped. But Herrera aside, most of the others were never either good or great. That's about 140m down the drain. The reason why they sucked is due to the fact the rest of the team was shit and none of these guys were good enough to change anything.

In 15/16 they got Martial, and Romero on a free who were good signings. But Martial was young and Romero was never amazing. Then they also got Schneiderlin, Depay, Darmian, and Schweinsteiger, the first not being that great in a team not catered to him, the second being a bit young, the third being shit, and the last being old and probably uninterested. Only about 80m down the drain this time. Plus they missed out on Otamendi, which would prove costly in December 2017. And Pedro, who's a guy that would have actually done well in a weaker side due to his work ethic. I'm pretty sure they went for Ramos and failed to sign Hummels again. So still a shitty squad, with some new average shit thrown in. The squad is just too weak for certain players to be decent in. Think of Delph. Looks kind of average, except in 17/18 when the rest of the team is so strong that he looks like the best LB in the country. Now imagine the reverse and you have United. Van Gaal overachieved, finishing 5th with an FA Cup and makes way for Mourinho.

EDIT: I should add a big problem with Mourinho here is going to him immediately from Van Gaal. You've gone from one of the most historically possession = good managers to one of the most possession = bad. So anyone useful signed for Van Gaal or even prior players who'd learnt to play for him are now going to really be stranded for Mourinho. Most notably Shaw. This is a poor move on Woodward's part, even if Mourinho was a good manager.

Now Mourinho KNOWS they're shit. Especially in defence. So he spends all summer begging for a CB and a DM. He wants Hummels, Varane, Kanté etc. He gets Bailly (never good enough for Mourinho), Mkhitaryan (who was always wrong for a Mourinho side) and Pogba. And I refuse to believe he wanted Pogba. They get Ibrahimovic for free and he was pretty good for a season, but not enough to change anything. Now the one and only thing a Mourinho side needs is a pair of really good CBs, and the rest will take care of itself. But no. They all cost 160m. Excellent stuff. This guy does not give a shit about style, just coaches them to do whatever to win the next game, knows how shit they all are and somehow wins the tinpot treble of 2nd choice trophies.

Then in 17/18 he spends all summer asking for CBs and now attackers, especially with Ibrahimovic out. He wants Willian, Bale, Griezmann. He gets Lukaku, who isn't a bad player but with a bit of homework they would have realised the wrong kind of striker (Mourinho likes rounded forwards, but they settled for just round when they signed Lukaku). They sign Matic who he actually wanted and looked good under him and Lindelof who was another 4th choice not quite good enough. They finish 2nd, which Mourinho called his greatest achievement. The players were that bad/wrong. Lets not forget the 30m signing of Sanchez, who's only contribution for his entire tenure was delaying City winning the title by a week.

Now something really important here is that Mourinho had been developing United into a fast, powerful counter attacking side. But I'm pretty sure the players had begun to revolt at this point, which made them look worse than they were, and meant that we never saw truly Mourinho's plans pan out.

18/19 they sign Fred, which makes no sense as they had Matic, and a bunch of people you'd never hear of again. Mourinho still wants CBs, he still wants hard working forwards, but nothing. They turn to shit and Ole comes in. He gets everyone all excited and for about 3 months or whatever they play exactly like a really good Mourinho side. This tricks everyone into thinking Solskjaer is the architect and he gets a full time deal and now the wheels come off. This guy is a legit bad coach.

But 19/20 happens, and for the first time you could argue United get it fairly right in the transfer window. Wan-Bissaka is a great defending player and a perfect Mourinho right back. Maguire can sit deep real good and is a perfect Mourinho player. Daniel James is an industrious and skillful young winger who Mourinho could rely on. And Fernandes is the perfect high goals+assists AM that Mourinho teams so often have. But now Mourinho's not there.. The entire season is just Solskjaer undoing anything Mourinho did by trying to get them to be more proactive but he can't coach. So the players don't know what they're doing and end up making positional errors galore and mostly relying on reverting back to Mourinho tactics, hoping one of their forwards scores from range or penalties. They finish 3rd but it's important to note they look bad, despite the good results.

This season is just more of the same, but more! They play like they have no idea except when the Mourinho instincts of the team kick in, which is diminishing more and more. And yet, I'd argue that this is the best team quality wise since Ferguson. This is why I'd rather they didn't sign Pochettino.



So in conclusion. United were shitter than we though squad wise. Woodward fails to buy top class replacements time and time again, and spends big on players that were good but wrong for United at the time. Too arrogant to see issues because they were the great MAN UNITED they failed to do any research and kept signing players that were either just big names without substance, hot property at the time, or their 2nd choice. And they never seemed to thoroughly scout whether any of them would suit the team, the specific manager, or the league. They did this for years. And they failed to bring Klopp in, who apparently Woodward scared away with his Disneyland bullshit. But Woodward is good at getting sponsors so he stays in the job. By the way, Woodward continuously wasting money on duds is why they could never afford actual quality when they needed it the next year.

And then they get Solskjaer who's an extremely limited manager so what do you expect?



tl;dr Ferguson and Gill knowingly left the club in the shit and seemingly took the scouting department with them, Woodward was super shit at signing anybody good, and by the time they got it close to right Solskjaer came in and fucked everything up. Their refusal to hire a Director of Football is their undoing.


ps. Fuck United, thank you.

You need to get out more...

 

[eastmanc]

Let them suffer. Long may this continue.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

Apologies for the essay.


It's Woodward, mainly. But Mourinho, Ferguson, Gill, and especially Solsjkaer have worsened things.

When Moyes took over Woodward failed to sign Baines, Herrera, Khedira, De Rossi, Thiago, Fabregas, and Bale. Plus others, and he even turned down Ozil (who was still brilliant at this time). United had a crumbling team at that point and Ferguson left Moyes in the shit here, probably knowingly. Even a couple of these players would have been alright but they end up with Fellaini. And later on Mata, who'd suddenly just gone down 5 notches in ability in the six months prior to his big money signing. Moyes does shit, which now would have kept him in but at the time was too much a fall from grace to keep him employed.

So now the team's worse and LVG comes in (Although Klopp was 1st choice). He wants quality too. He wants Robben, Fabregas, Hummels, Reus and the like. But only gets Rojo, Falcao, Blind, and Herrera. He gets Shaw though, who turned out to be addicted to pudding, and Di Maria, who hates rain. A bit unlucky with the latter two, but they're generally missing out too much on quality and ending up with decent but not great alternatives. Add that to the weakening squad they had and it's not great. BUT they actually looked a bit more stable under Van Gaal, but the media was constantly giving them shit for being dull, which mustn't have helped. But Herrera aside, most of the others were never either good or great. That's about 140m down the drain. The reason why they sucked is due to the fact the rest of the team was shit and none of these guys were good enough to change anything.

In 15/16 they got Martial, and Romero on a free who were good signings. But Martial was young and Romero was never amazing. Then they also got Schneiderlin, Depay, Darmian, and Schweinsteiger, the first not being that great in a team not catered to him, the second being a bit young, the third being shit, and the last being old and probably uninterested. Only about 80m down the drain this time. Plus they missed out on Otamendi, which would prove costly in December 2017. And Pedro, who's a guy that would have actually done well in a weaker side due to his work ethic. I'm pretty sure they went for Ramos and failed to sign Hummels again. So still a shitty squad, with some new average shit thrown in. The squad is just too weak for certain players to be decent in. Think of Delph. Looks kind of average, except in 17/18 when the rest of the team is so strong that he looks like the best LB in the country. Now imagine the reverse and you have United. Van Gaal overachieved, finishing 5th with an FA Cup and makes way for Mourinho.

EDIT: I should add a big problem with Mourinho here is going to him immediately from Van Gaal. You've gone from one of the most historically possession = good managers to one of the most possession = bad. So anyone useful signed for Van Gaal or even prior players who'd learnt to play for him are now going to really be stranded for Mourinho. Most notably Shaw. This is a poor move on Woodward's part, even if Mourinho was a good manager.

Now Mourinho KNOWS they're shit. Especially in defence. So he spends all summer begging for a CB and a DM. He wants Hummels, Varane, Kanté etc. He gets Bailly (never good enough for Mourinho), Mkhitaryan (who was always wrong for a Mourinho side) and Pogba. And I refuse to believe he wanted Pogba. They get Ibrahimovic for free and he was pretty good for a season, but not enough to change anything. Now the one and only thing a Mourinho side needs is a pair of really good CBs, and the rest will take care of itself. But no. They all cost 160m. Excellent stuff. This guy does not give a shit about style, just coaches them to do whatever to win the next game, knows how shit they all are and somehow wins the tinpot treble of 2nd choice trophies.

Then in 17/18 he spends all summer asking for CBs and now attackers, especially with Ibrahimovic out. He wants Willian, Bale, Griezmann. He gets Lukaku, who isn't a bad player but with a bit of homework they would have realised the wrong kind of striker (Mourinho likes rounded forwards, but they settled for just round when they signed Lukaku). They sign Matic who he actually wanted and looked good under him and Lindelof who was another 4th choice not quite good enough. They finish 2nd, which Mourinho called his greatest achievement. The players were that bad/wrong. Lets not forget the 30m signing of Sanchez, who's only contribution for his entire tenure was delaying City winning the title by a week.

Now something really important here is that Mourinho had been developing United into a fast, powerful counter attacking side. But I'm pretty sure the players had begun to revolt at this point, which made them look worse than they were, and meant that we never saw truly Mourinho's plans pan out.

18/19 they sign Fred, which makes no sense as they had Matic, and a bunch of people you'd never hear of again. Mourinho still wants CBs, he still wants hard working forwards, but nothing. They turn to shit and Ole comes in. He gets everyone all excited and for about 3 months or whatever they play exactly like a really good Mourinho side. This tricks everyone into thinking Solskjaer is the architect and he gets a full time deal and now the wheels come off. This guy is a legit bad coach.

But 19/20 happens, and for the first time you could argue United get it fairly right in the transfer window. Wan-Bissaka is a great defending player and a perfect Mourinho right back. Maguire can sit deep real good and is a perfect Mourinho player. Daniel James is an industrious and skillful young winger who Mourinho could rely on. And Fernandes is the perfect high goals+assists AM that Mourinho teams so often have. But now Mourinho's not there.. The entire season is just Solskjaer undoing anything Mourinho did by trying to get them to be more proactive but he can't coach. So the players don't know what they're doing and end up making positional errors galore and mostly relying on reverting back to Mourinho tactics, hoping one of their forwards scores from range or penalties. They finish 3rd but it's important to note they look bad, despite the good results.

This season is just more of the same, but more! They play like they have no idea except when the Mourinho instincts of the team kick in, which is diminishing more and more. And yet, I'd argue that this is the best team quality wise since Ferguson. This is why I'd rather they didn't sign Pochettino.



So in conclusion. United were shitter than we though squad wise. Woodward fails to buy top class replacements time and time again, and spends big on players that were good but wrong for United at the time. Too arrogant to see issues because they were the great MAN UNITED they failed to do any research and kept signing players that were either just big names without substance, hot property at the time, or their 2nd choice. And they never seemed to thoroughly scout whether any of them would suit the team, the specific manager, or the league. They did this for years. And they failed to bring Klopp in, who apparently Woodward scared away with his Disneyland bullshit. But Woodward is good at getting sponsors so he stays in the job. By the way, Woodward continuously wasting money on duds is why they could never afford actual quality when they needed it the next year.

And then they get Solskjaer who's an extremely limited manager so what do you expect?



tl;dr Ferguson and Gill knowingly left the club in the shit and seemingly took the scouting department with them, Woodward was super shit at signing anybody good, and by the time they got it close to right Solskjaer came in and fucked everything up. Their refusal to hire a Director of Football is their undoing.


ps. Fuck United, thank you.

Brilliant post, your own work?

 

[Toffeedude]

Boo to Utd. Hope they lose today