United Thread - 2021/22

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Let’s have it right, Poch is a good appointment if they get him. This time last year before Pep renewed many were touting him for us.
I wonder what he does with Ronaldo though. I’m not sure he can implement the same style he had at Spurs with him upfront. Pressing becomes a bit disjointed which is what he’s seeing at the moment with PSG. 7 of the team are happy to press, 3 can’t be arsed. It just doesn’t have the same affect.
 
Marvin said:
That's your heart talking not your head. And yet they were runners up and beat us last season. Then they added Sancho, Varane and Ronaldo to that. The problem is its all ad-hoc and not thought through and they've gone from playing counter-attacking football which worked quite well for them last season (against the better sides) to some unknown style of play which basically seems to revolve around feeding Ronaldo.

Can a new coach get something more out of this squad? The mystery for me is the collapse in form of Shaw and Maguire. They are both decent players imo who have as you said had nightmares this season. Normally a players lack of form can be explained. Injury, unsettled, age etc. But Maguire and Shaw have gone from being strong performers to complete rubbish and its hard to understand why that would be.
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I would humbly submit that it’s your heart talking not your head. Long-time City fans are certain to be still raw from the years of their dominance, the ribbings at work or at school, and the media tsunami which makes them seem the Only Club That Matters in the UK.

Their owners aren’t in it for the same reasons ours or Chelsea’s are. And they aren’t as sharp as Liverpool’s. And future owners aren’t going to look like the Glazers because there’s no side primed for an LBO the way United was.

Sure they’ll have an up or down but over the long-run no LBO has a sustainable business model when up against well-funded competition with structurally better assets and much less 3rd party leverage (in Chelsea’s case, leverage that might as well be equity since it isn’t 3rd party).

I believe they will be a gradually waning force in the game until the Glazers sell, and even then it’s going to depend on who buys them and how they’re re-capitalized.
 
babyape said:
A lot of pundits assume they have a great squad because it cost loads, gets paid loads, and, well, it's United....

De Gea is a liability, Maguire is just plain terrible, Lindleoff average, Wan Bissaka poor, Shaw having a mare. Midfield doesn't exist, strikers are old, albeit i like Cavani, Rashford is a myth...

To trim down that will be a nightmare considering the bloated wages. And any players coming in will want bloated wages.

Fantastic.
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They are a top class coach and a top class CM player from a serious challenger.

That's what made their decision to keep Little Ole utterly bizarre.

Enjoy this present situation because it will change and they will come back.
 
Keeper! said:
They are a top class coach and a top class CM player from a serious challenger.

That's what made their decision to keep Little Ole utterly bizarre.

Enjoy this present situation because it will change and they will come back.
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They also need a striker for Cavani getting off at the end of the season. Plus another creative midfielder with Pogba going as well, Bisakka is utter dog shit and I wouldn’t be too confident of Varane being a dominant centre half in this league. There’s a 300 million pound shopping list straight away.

They’ve been a player away from being contenders with better managers than Ole and it’s never materialised.
 
I think the club's announce ment of Ole's departure showed how reluctant they had been to sack him and how muddled their thinking was. He is and always will be a club legend, he will always be welcome at OT and he had done such valuable work in laying the foundations for future success ... but the last month had been challenging. So Ole was being sacked for one bad month? That clearly doesn't make sense. United were actually dispensing with the services of a man who had been an answer to a prayer three and a half years ago and who had signed a new contract only last summer. Now, they don't seem to have a clue who they want, or rather who they can put up with and who will tolerate them.

As caretaker Ole had represented a return to the good old days, a repair to the break with the past and, if I remember correctly, Woodie was able to ditch plans he had never liked for a director of football. Then he jumped at the chance to make Ole permanent after a series of wins against poor teams. Woodie had got the man he wanted in situ: compliant, grateful for his dream job, but just not capable of doing it. He could build a team which coud defend deep and counter attack and that will win some games - but no trophies, and Ole never managed to win matches against sides which sat deep against United. But his record was quite respectable. Until now.

The difference now is Ronaldo, the ultimate nostalgia signing who has to play every game but will accept no defensive responsibility whatsoever. And the player who keeps Cavani, Rashford, Greenwood, Sancho (and Lingard?) out of the team but who must play all the time because, as the GPC says, you must always play your strongest team. And so Ole is the victim of a million myths of the Ferguson years, which unfortunately seem to be just what the Glazers and Eddie find so profitable. But the fans are fed up of waiting for the trophies which is, for them, the other inevitability of Ronaldo and the return to the past. And it's that as much as anything that has done for Ole - the myth that the rags are a club which has trophy winning in its DNA, that "the United way" means a conveyor belt of trophies. This is not a mission statement likely to keep any top manager happy. So who do they want? Who can they get?
 
feedmpenzaandhewillscore said:
They also need a striker for Cavani getting off at the end of the season. Plus another creative midfielder with Pogba going as well, Bisakka is utter dog shit and I wouldn’t be too confident of Varane being a dominant centre half in this league. There’s a 300 million pound shopping list straight away.

They’ve been a player away from being contenders with better managers than Ole and it’s never materialised.
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They have weakness without doubt but they have a very talented squad that's has had a manager and coaching staff that would struggle to get a job in the lower leagues.

A scenario, IF Pep was their coach do you think they would challenge?
 
Keeper! said:
LOL they have floundered for 8 years and the Premier League has NEVER been stronger
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Yes - the main asset of the PL for the big global audience markets is that the top 10 clubs changes year on year and any top 10 side is capable of beating another. The top 3 seem a bit stable but even then any of those 3 is capable of beating the others. Any other league and the quality drops behind 2 or 3 clubs at most.
 
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