Morning chaps, hope you had a nice weekend. Good result yesterday and hopefully another good one on Thursday before the “Champions" turn up at OT. Had a chat with my siblings and old man yesterday about the “state of Utd" and wanted to extend it to the forum for your views. I will share the views of my family members below as well as they are pretty much mine.
I am not interested in hearing about Moyes or LvG so can we kindly park that to one side and have an honest and frank debate about the state of play.
This is our current registered squad at the moment;
Goalkeepers: De Gea, Romero, Dean Henderson, Joel Dinis Castro Pereira,
Defenders: Eric Bailly, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo, Chris Smalling, Daley Blind, Luke Shaw, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Antonio Valencia, Matteo Darmian, Axel Tuanzebe, Ro-Shaun Williams, Regan Poole
Midfielders: Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Michael Carrick, Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini, Matthew Willock, Juan Mata, Ashley Young, Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Strikers: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford
Our League Statistics; Played: 30 games, Won: 15, Drew: 12, Lost: 3, Goals Scored: 46, Goals Conceded: 24
At Old Trafford we have won 6 games, drawn 9 and lost one out of 16 home games. We all know the results and performances and tactics, so not going to go into that as well. Some of those games we were unlucky, some we clutched a point from the jaws of defeat and some, we threw away 3 points with negative tactics.
Looking at that squad, there are some areas that can be improved but I honestly do not see that much of a gap in depth to the teams above us personnel wise or talent wise.
So my questions are as follows;
1. What do you believe is stopping us from competing in the league for the title? (Using Europa as an excuse is not enough because we would have been in the CL and still had to deal with the extra fixture)
2. Do you think the squad has been utilised well?
3. How well do you think the manager is doing considering his additions to the squad?
4. If we finish the season out of the top 4, would you consider it a good season? (Cup dependant obviously)
5. What improvements do you think can be made to the squad? Player additions or proper utilisation?
I honestly feel the manager has done a mediocre job this season and has not helped player development with the constant tweaks to the side. I like that we have got the never say die spirit back however.
He has to buck up a lot of his ideas in my humble opinion and pick a settled “attack" and stop punishing some players for a bad game whilst rewarding many others for crappy performances. That was the view expressed by the members of the clan. Would like to hear yours as well, what say you?
Many thanks
State of Affairs
posted on 10/4/17
comment by Genius_AppleCart_Space_Dude_Featuring_Zorak (..We all got a Chicken-Duck-Woman thing, Waiting for us.) (U19099)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by Roy's Keen (U11635)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 22 minutes ago
And then Jose starts making nonsense soundbites about Javier hernandez
A nice vote of confidence for the 2 boys
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Jose's comments saying he would not have sold Welbeck and Hernandez were comical at best.
Lukaku and De Bryne?
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Comical at best vc and also for the two names you mention
I wonder however does Jose think about the possible impact his public utterings have on his players
It beggars belief to talk in April about a player that's been gone the guts of 2 years from the club, a player who hadn't been mentioned at all during the previous 2 windows.
He has two of the most exciting young talents on his hands and all of a sudden chiqarittto if he was here would have been the answer to our goal scoring problems.
😕
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Dont think Jose claimed Hernandez would solve all our issues uptop but surely even you could see the difference between the striking instinctive of Hernandez compared to Martial and Rashford.
Hernandez,when he was here atleast,alertness in the box was exceptional and our 2 young forwards,though I dont see Martial as a forward,dont have that and I'm not sure it's something that could be taught ie in the box intelligence.
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Doesnt suit bla blas agenda the poor lad. Nothing about what jose said in that instance was wrong.
posted on 10/4/17
1. Getting rid of jones, smalling, rojo, Valencia, fellaini, carrick, young, rooney, lingard, rashford needs a loan. None of these are good enough for a title push. Reason we've hovered around fifth for years now.
2. Yes as well as could be.
3. Given the rubbish squad he inherited, well enough.
4. Yes. Very well.
5. Dunno. Up to Jose and ed. that said we'll probably bring in the wrong player with high marketability. All about the cash.
posted on 10/4/17
comment by Robb.Lannister (U21234)
posted 15 minutes ago
How is it to do with bad play whatever that means?
If the team creates 6/7 good chances a game and the players miss them there's nothing wrong with the 'play'
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I watch Utd against WBA and Everton and no way did Utd create 6/7 good chances. Posdibly even over both games.
Utd certainly didn't in the two games against us or any of the other games against the top six.
Utd have missed 11 more big chances than Liverpool according to the official stats. You make it sound like it's hundreds.
posted on 11/4/17
If the team creates 6/7 good chances a game and the players miss them there's nothing wrong with the 'play'
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I watch Utd against WBA and Everton and no way did Utd create 6/7 good chances. Possibly even over both games.
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We hardly ever create that many good chances. IMO our creativity has been exaggerated for most of the season.
We went through a purple patch where we played some good football and created a lot of chances but that purple patch ended months ago. We have been playing poorly for most of this year in truth.
posted on 11/4/17
comment by The Red Side™ (U11275)
posted 21 hours, 12 minutes ago
Is that true? I'm going purely on what Butt said in an interview in The Times a few months ago. He specifically said Rashford is far more natural as a winger as he played there up until the beginning of the 2015/16 season. He said he would have no issue seeing him back wide because that is where he has played the vast majority of his football.
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Strange because I seen him play quite a lot for the U18s behind the striker and then as the main striker and I think most considered him more of an attacking midfielder/2nd striker if anything back then.
I'm not saying he didn't play wide but not as much as he has in those other positions. Not for the U18s/21s anyway.
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Jose is turning United into the footballing version of George Orwells 1984. He has the fans believing we are playing good football and he has rewritten the history for the staff.
posted on 11/4/17
comment by Stretty - mr mourinho (U3123)
posted 20 hours, 37 minutes ago
1. Getting rid of jones, smalling, rojo, Valencia, fellaini, carrick, young, rooney, lingard, rashford needs a loan. None of these are good enough for a title push. Reason we've hovered around fifth for years now.
2. Yes as well as could be.
3. Given the rubbish squad he inherited, well enough.
4. Yes. Very well.
5. Dunno. Up to Jose and ed. that said we'll probably bring in the wrong player with high marketability. All about the cash.
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Valencia has been poty why get rid?
posted on 11/4/17
"Valencia has been poty why get rid?"
That's depressing to think Valencia is even an option for POTY
posted on 11/4/17
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 21 minutes ago
"Valencia has been poty why get rid?"
That's depressing to think Valencia is even an option for POTY
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Agreed.
But at least the award might go to an outfield player for a change - even if he is a defender. Can you imagine if DDG won it again!?
Zlatan really ought to be a shoe-in but I don't think many United fans would vote for him. Not the ones on here anyway!
posted on 11/4/17
Zlatan really ought to be a shoe-in but I don't think many United fans would vote for him. Not the ones on here anyway!
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He's got my vote.
Who else is there to vote for?
He might've missed his fair share of chances like everybody else but he's pretty much dragged us through this season.
posted on 12/4/17
comment by The Red Side™ (U11275)
posted 18 hours, 30 minutes ago
Zlatan really ought to be a shoe-in but I don't think many United fans would vote for him. Not the ones on here anyway!
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He's got my vote.
Who else is there to vote for?
He might've missed his fair share of chances like everybody else but he's pretty much dragged us through this season.
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I agree but if you read the Sunderland match thread you'll see that a lot of folks here don't rate him and want him gone.
It's been like that with some fans all season. First he couldn't finish, then it was his fault that the team couldn't create any chances, and now the latest is that he can't pass the ball for toffee apparently...
A 28 goal waste of space!