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The Footie Thread

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Agree, you need a balance and bringing through young players is one thing, but a Phil Foden doesn't come along very often. You need a core of senior players who lead by example and not by tik tok dances.


were just gonna have to rely on the youngsters lol, severe shortage of senior players at our place :( last nights XI met the criteria for an U23 side lol
 
Man Utd are finished for the foreseeable future because the structure is wrong. From the owners, to the CEO and to the football set up. Darren Fletcher is a total no mark in coaching and development yet was given a job as technical director, that says it all. Rangnick even said he has no idea what he actually does. And this was a recent appointment! The structure is incapable of appointing the right manager, signing the right players or selling the right players when their time is up. Nothing has changed and nothing will change.

Ten Hag is a bad appointment for the following reasons;

He was the cheap option in terms of compensation and wages.

No experience in a decent league. If he'd proven himself in Germany, Italy or Spain you'd say he had the credentials. Winning titles in Holland with Ajax isn't the mark of a world class manager. It's just a huge gamble on someone that has to learn a new league and go head to head with the two greatest managers in the world. Not even including Tuchel or Conte who are world class and proven in major leagues.

He plays a very attacking 433 and Utd won't allow him to sell or sign the players he needs fast enough to play that.

Utd have a side full of egos and wet wipes cultivated by Ole. These are players signed for huge fees and paid about £100k a week over their market value. They'll be impossible to sell so he'll have to manage that type of player but he has no experience of it.

All of that under intense pressure and scrutiny is going to be almost impossible.
 
Man Utd are finished for the foreseeable future because the structure is wrong. From the owners, to the CEO and to the football set up. Darren Fletcher is a total no mark in coaching and development yet was given a job as technical director, that says it all. Rangnick even said he has no idea what he actually does. And this was a recent appointment! The structure is incapable of appointing the right manager, signing the right players or selling the right players when their time is up. Nothing has changed and nothing will change.

Ten Hag is a bad appointment for the following reasons;

He was the cheap option in terms of compensation and wages.

No experience in a decent league. If he'd proven himself in Germany, Italy or Spain you'd say he had the credentials. Winning titles in Holland with Ajax isn't the mark of a world class manager. It's just a huge gamble on someone that has to learn a new league and go head to head with the two greatest managers in the world. Not even including Tuchel or Conte who are world class and proven in major leagues.

He plays a very attacking 433 and Utd won't allow him to sell or sign the players he needs fast enough to play that.

Utd have a side full of egos and wet wipes cultivated by Ole. These are players signed for huge fees and paid about £100k a week over their market value. They'll be impossible to sell so he'll have to manage that type of player but he has no experience of it.

All of that under intense pressure and scrutiny is going to be almost impossible.

I don't disagree with anything you say. Ten Hag may be the cheap option but we've also tried the expensive ones in LVG and JM. It's going to take a lot of unravelling at OT and things will get worse before (if) they get better.
 
I don't disagree with anything you say. Ten Hag may be the cheap option but we've also tried the expensive ones in LVG and JM. It's going to take a lot of unravelling at OT and things will get worse before (if) they get better.
When they have that World Class donkey (Gareth’s m8) in defence….
 
If world class managers inc Maureen and LVG Could not make Utd see where the problems were, and I don’t just mean on the park. I am struggling to see how Ten Hag will. it seems Man Utd are a football image of our government where no one is taking responsibility and blaming everyone else. One things for sure with the prem league getting stronger with more teams up pushing for top four. Utds cause is not straight forward.
 
If world class managers inc Maureen and LVG Could not make Utd see where the problems were, and I don’t just mean on the park. I am struggling to see how Ten Hag will. it seems Man Utd are a football image of our government where no one is taking responsibility and blaming everyone else. One things for sure with the prem league getting stronger with more teams up pushing for top four. Utds cause is not straight forward.
Yes, although I think most people are agreed that the problems lie much deeper than the manager, and even the players. There are decision makers at the club who have somehow managed to keep players long past their sell date, and brought players in at extortionate prices / wages, and then it seems the manager at the time never really fancied that player anyway. Then there are all the people behind the scenes who work with the players, are they helping to motivate and build a winning mentality. Or, is it all a bit casual and unprofessional, with everyone having a bit of a laugh at posting clips on instagram and tiktok, rather than staying in training for an extra few hours because they are 100% focused on winning and are self critical of their own performances?

If all that remains the same, then yes I have no idea what ten Hag can do to improve things (I suspect nothing). Not if that culture remains the same, and Mourinho and Van Gaal also struggled. However, their struggles were also probably a lot down to themselves as well, and I think many fans didn't quite take to them. I've a feeling Utd fans will see ten Hag as a better fit from the start, and so be more understanding if things are not going so well for a while longer (just a hunch though). To me, at least this appointment seems to have been a bit more considered this time, rather than just rushing to get a big name manager in who can "guarantee" trophies, irrespective of how they come about.

As a fan, I always like to live in hope, rather than automatically feel the future will continually repeat itself until the end of days. So, I hope that ten Hag and his team will be a better fit for the club, that they will be able to motivate players, and quickly learn the players they can do without, and the ones they would like to bring in. I'd like to think that the Board are fully aware of their past mistakes, and willing to look at better ways of working with the manager and the team. Now, we might be sitting here this time in 2 years and saying Man Utd are still an embarrassment, but I hope we are instead looking at a team full of hard workers and a good team ethic. I think it is one of those times were the new manager actually has less to prove to the fans than the Club itself.
 
Sean Dyche is available?! I'd enjoy that.
I would love to see a Sean Dyche Man Utd line-up. I'm guessing something like:

De Gea
Wan-B - Maguire - Jones - Shaw
Sancho - McTominay - Matic - Telles?
Ronaldo - Cavani​

They don't have an orthodox leftie winger as far as I can tell so I had to put Telles there. Get some crosses in, Ronaldo will score 15 headers a season. Luxury players such as Pogba, Bruno & Rashford would be out their ear. :D Industrious players only.
 
I would love to see a Sean Dyche Man Utd line-up. I'm guessing something like:

De Gea
Wan-B - Maguire - Jones - Shaw
Sancho - McTominay - Matic - Telles?
Ronaldo - Cavani​

They don't have an orthodox leftie winger as far as I can tell so I had to put Telles there. Get some crosses in, Ronaldo will score 15 headers a season. Luxury players such as Pogba, Bruno & Rashford would be out their ear. :D Industrious players only.

Could he keep them up?
 
If world class managers inc Maureen and LVG Could not make Utd see where the problems were, and I don’t just mean on the park. I am struggling to see how Ten Hag will. it seems Man Utd are a football image of our government where no one is taking responsibility and blaming everyone else. One things for sure with the prem league getting stronger with more teams up pushing for top four. Utds cause is not straight forward.

The problems run far deeper than the manager and playing staff, Tash. I don’t know what it is, but there is something fundamentally wrong with the way the club is run, and there has been for years.

It strikes me that footballing decisions are being made by non-footballing people. The evidence has been there in the transfer dealings, otherwise how do you explain a player like Di Maria being brought in for a manager like LVG? That is perhaps the best example I can think of to illustrate my point that, whilst the club continues to throw money at the problem, the manager is left to sort out the mess. There is a massive disconnect between the manager and those pulling the transfer strings. Ronaldo is another example - a signing made by club, not manager.

I say again, I hope that ten Hag has told the club that he’ll do it his way, or he’ll walk. Things can’t continue the way they have been going for the last decade.
 
I don't disagree with anything you say. Ten Hag may be the cheap option but we've also tried the expensive ones in LVG and JM. It's going to take a lot of unravelling at OT and things will get worse before (if) they get better.
JM did do fairly well imo - given the accepted amount of hamstringing that he claimed, and all seem to feel is happening still. It was only after he lost motivation that results went downhill for him.
Fixing the off-the-field machinations needs to be the top priority imo.
 
JM did do fairly well imo - given the accepted amount of hamstringing that he claimed, and all seem to feel is happening still. It was only after he lost motivation that results went downhill for him.
Fixing the off-the-field machinations needs to be the top priority imo.

JM did great when he started. We won 3 trophies in the first season if you include the charity shield.

Problem with JM is that he's never a long term solution. He lived out of a hotel, seemed to lose interest and then we ended up playing 10 men behind the ball and hoofing it up to Lukaku.

I agree, fixing the off field issues needs to be a priority and moving RR upstairs where he should be seems to be the plan.
 
JM did great when he started. We won 3 trophies in the first season if you include the charity shield.

Problem with JM is that he's never a long term solution. He lived out of a hotel, seemed to lose interest and then we ended up playing 10 men behind the ball and hoofing it up to Lukaku.

I agree, fixing the off field issues needs to be a priority and moving RR upstairs where he should be seems to be the plan.
Was that him, or the was it the stuff going on behind! I don't believe he had/has the tolerance to try to change the stuff behind the scenes. I'm not sure whether RR is right for MU anywhere. Though if that is a role MU wants, he's certainly better there than as Manager.
 
It’s amazing that considering Alex Ferguson is on the Board at United, then if there are any problems behind the scene he hasn’t sorted it.
He clearly has a love and an affinity for the club, so it’s even more baffling considering his previous position and experience !!!!!
 
It’s amazing that considering Alex Ferguson is on the Board at United, then if there are any problems behind the scene he hasn’t sorted it.
He clearly has a love and an affinity for the club, so it’s even more baffling considering his previous position and experience !!!!!

The fella almost died not that many years ago!! I’m sure he’s got other priorities these days.
 
It’s amazing that considering Alex Ferguson is on the Board at United, then if there are any problems behind the scene he hasn’t sorted it.
He clearly has a love and an affinity for the club, so it’s even more baffling considering his previous position and experience !!!!!
He could well BE the problem - or at last part of it!
 
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