Juve interested in Rashford

Yeah, I agree Diafol

I'm not sure Lukaku will actually improve much on the player he is currently. Normally, you'd think a 25-year-old is approaching but yet to hit his prime, and it seems reasonable to expect he will finish polishing off his game.

Lukaku isn't your 'standard' 25-year-old in footballing terms though, as he's already got over 450 professional appearances under his belt. You'd think that was time enough to have reached a point of stability where you get consistent performances out of him.


On United playing more of a pressing game and trying to win the ball back sooner, one of the issues with that might be the actual size/bulk of the players, as bigger, heavier people don't normally have the same stamina as lighter-framed ones. Trying to press lighter, nimbler opponents out of the game might prove disastrous as the game wears on.

comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 6 minutes ago
I'm not sure Lukaku will actually improve much on the player he is currently. Normally, you'd think a 25-year-old is approaching but yet to hit his prime, and it seems reasonable to expect he will finish polishing off his game.

Lukaku isn't your 'standard' 25-year-old in footballing terms though, as he's already got over 450 professional appearances under his belt. You'd think that was time enough to have reached a point of stability where you get consistent performances out of him.


On United playing more of a pressing game and trying to win the ball back sooner, one of the issues with that might be the actual size/bulk of the players, as bigger, heavier people don't normally have the same stamina as lighter-framed ones. Trying to press lighter, nimbler opponents out of the game might prove disastrous as the game wears on.
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Maybe that last point relates to the brief discussion I had with Diafol above and is part of the reason why Mou (to the chagrin of many reds on here) holds the players back.

We have a large and capable enough squad though, and aren’t playing a crazy number of games this season. I’d like to see him give the players a bit more license to maintain the press up the pitch under the right circumstances.

If this incredible patience the players have to display is driving us mad, imagine what it’s doing to them

Yeah, it was, rosso.

Stamina is just one issue, though. It also requires a lot of drilling and synchronisation to be done effectively and ensure everyone's in the right place at the right time, and is also riskier as regards your own defensive shape when it fails.

For a side like yours, and considering how far we are into the season now, it might work better if you pressed in short bursts at different intervals during a game rather than as your go-to tactic.

How's things holding up your side? Been as rainy over there of late as it has been here?

comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 1 hour, 3 minutes ago
Yeah, it was, rosso.

Stamina is just one issue, though. It also requires a lot of drilling and synchronisation to be done effectively and ensure everyone's in the right place at the right time, and is also riskier as regards your own defensive shape when it fails.

For a side like yours, and considering how far we are into the season now, it might work better if you pressed in short bursts at different intervals during a game rather than as your go-to tactic.

How's things holding up your side? Been as rainy over there of late as it has been here?
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To be fair, we have been doing exactly that on occasion - a synchronized and (more) compact higher press at particular points in games - with varying success. We just haven’t done it frequently enough.

It has been cats and dogs here mate. It does exactly the same thing every year. Mid-October until the end of November is rainy season. Nobody is complaining though: people were doing raindances here by mid-September

It's so unpredictable here, because it relies so heavily on the wind. Last year we had an unusually long Autumn spell of Easterlies off the Sahara, so were still basking on the beach this time of year. This year the Trade Winds kicked in early and have barely let up, so we've had a lot of rain. Heavy rain expected again as of tomorrow, Easterlie expected to kick in at some point over the weekend.

Had a massive sea swell last weekend, here's a glimpse of what it did down on the coast nearest to my home:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR6_st-3v7A

Frightening mate.

We’ve had a couple of storms and 5m+ swells, but that’s not crazily unusual here, and the most annoying and dangerous thing about that is the number of surfers (in the literal, rather than JA606, sense) in the water!

Those swells are amazing to watch from a safe place, especially on warm, sunny days.

comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 1 hour, 41 minutes ago
Those swells are amazing to watch from a safe place, especially on warm, sunny days.
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Yep.

The power of them is downright pant-wettingly scary. I hadn’t at all understood to respect the ocean until I started surfing. After that you quickly learn when looking at the water you should think, “Nope; not only am I not going in, I’m not going near!”

Nobbs bodyguard aka Dave NotSo was HUMILIATED here