comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - 2017 joy squids (U2958)
posted 20 seconds ago
Lukaku is getting the brunt of people's frustrations over the last few games.. Yet he has been ok with the holding up and one touch passing... Not his best asset, but nowhere near as bad as some are making out. Especially when you consider he hardly gets a sniff and has almost zero support.

Herrera, Mkhi, and to a lesser extent Martial, Mata and Young should be getting the bulk of the blame. (along with Jose, of course).
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People frustrations with Lukaku don't lie with his performances but his limitations. People like Robb suggesting his all round game is good doesn't help.

He's had no service, granted, but he's made nothing happen for himself either. He had a chance vs Liverpool which he missed too.

Pogba backup is important too. Look at Spurs, missing Dier and Dembele, Winks steps in, City miss any player and they have a ready made replacement.

I think we should be making top three with what we have and, with a bit of luck, challenge for the league.

I'm hoping that the game on Saturday will act as a wake up call for our players and that we get a great reaction on Saturday against Spurs.

I'd be tempted tomorrow to play some of our first team starting attacking players as well and use it as a free hit to try and get some momentum for Sunday. Doubt that'll be the case but I would like to see it.

I am an 1 of the "Lukaku can't trap a bag of sand' brigade.

His hold up play has been pretty bad, the team won't be able to get up the pitch vs quality opposition.

He is really sloppy in possession

I think we all expected this from Lukaku, he's not a striker to make something out of nothing. He does need service, and when he gets it, he usually scored.

The frustrations should lie with the service and midfield. We need a RW desperately. Someone who produces assists.

Vity have KDB, David Silva, Sane, Sterling, all producing assists and goals. On top of Aguero and Jesus

So far we have Rashford, Martial and Lukaku chipping in. We need more

Are you just a parody account nowadays SE?

comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 minute ago
Pogba backup is important too. Look at Spurs, missing Dier and Dembele, Winks steps in, City miss any player and they have a ready made replacement.
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I know many won't agree, but I will say it again. Andreas Periera would have been a good back up. He's been doing well at Valencia, scored a wonderful goal the other day too. He has good passing and a bit of skill and good retention of the ball. Can also score a goal or two

Spurs have a great manager, I hope he doesn't leave for. RM or Barcelona but suspect he will.
I prefer to keep top talents in the PL.

comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 17 seconds ago
Spurs have a great manager, I hope he doesn't leave for. RM or Barcelona but suspect he will.
I prefer to keep top talents in the PL.
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If Jose leaves, Poch needs to be on top of our list

Jose would've preffered Morata.United didn't want to take that gamble,though.

lukaku had a really good assist at the weekend which of course because of the result will be lost in the calamity of that result, miki and Herrera are a big issue for us at the moment, no ball retention from either doesn't help, the ball is far to slow getting to lukaku and by the time it does there's 3/4 players round to crowd him out, of course he's not to get the 1v1 against the opposition defender chances like he did for everton but the opportunities are there just lacking the execution from behind him

comment by #TopLad || Sir Alex Ferguson ||✓ (U10161)
posted 1 minute ago
I think we all expected this from Lukaku, he's not a striker to make something out of nothing. He does need service, and when he gets it, he usually scored.

The frustrations should lie with the service and midfield. We need a RW desperately. Someone who produces assists.
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Excatly.... He is not great at that role, so when he is chipping in with assists, like Saturday, and helping with play around the box, like Liverpool chance... You shouldn;t be asking to much more. He's pretty well within his limits.

Contrast that with Mkhi, who is constantly losing the ball in key areas and not providing any real support for the #9, which are supposed to be his strong points, then you know where the frustrations should be targetted.

comment by meltonblue (U10617)
posted 5 minutes ago
Are you just a parody account nowadays SE?
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Have you just realised?

This may be harsh, but Herrera has a slight 'headless chicken' feel about him right now. It should be either Mata or Miki, not both, but neither has done enough for me to think, yeah, you are the answer. There have been moments, but we need more than that, we need 8 out of 10 performances from either on a regular basis.

I really hope when Pogba comes back he turns out to be the real deal - so many good signs at the start of the season, but needs to maintain it.

I think that when the squad players come into City or Spurs side, they know their job, and are slotting into a well-drilled team. In ours, they look like individuals - sometimes enough against lesser teams, but not enough to really take it to the bigger ones.

comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 4 minutes ago
Spurs have a great manager, I hope he doesn't leave for. RM or Barcelona but suspect he will.
I prefer to keep top talents in the PL.
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Poch has said about five times he will never manage Barcelona because of his links to Espanyol. He seems like a guy with principles as well, so I don't think he is lying.

comment by #TopLad || Sir Alex Ferguson ||✓ (U10161)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 minute ago
Pogba backup is important too. Look at Spurs, missing Dier and Dembele, Winks steps in, City miss any player and they have a ready made replacement.
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I know many won't agree, but I will say it again. Andreas Periera would have been a good back up. He's been doing well at Valencia, scored a wonderful goal the other day too. He has good passing and a bit of skill and good retention of the ball. Can also score a goal or two
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I felt McTominay should have come on the weekend. Young or not he offers a goal threat and confidence on the ball we lacked.

We have so many positions we have little to no backup. Only GK, CB and LW we seem set for.

Said a few weeks back that Herrera has been playing like a slightly glorified Robbie Savage laterly.Seems that the competition for places has brought out the worst in him.

I'm certain Lingard will play on Saturday and if he's pushed up alongside Lukaku and Rashford I'd be pretty happy with that as both he and Rashford can run in behind the Spurs full backs and cause problems.

Spurs are a very good side at the moment but Liverpool created enough yesterday to suggest they can be got at.

I'd go with the aforementioned three up front with Matic behind two of Herrera, Fellaini and Mata (I'd play Fellaini if fit).

We need to be brave without being too gung ho and leaving ourselves open. Spurs have conceded possession to both Dortmund and Liverpool and beaten them well so we will need to draw them out a bit.

If we do get in front then Martial and Mkhi (on paper at least) should be able to get more space to operate in and be a danger on the counter.

We have good squad options, they are just completely out of form.

I'd imagine Potch will be our next target. Whether he'd come I don't know, btu he doesn't win a title with Spurs over the next 24 months, he may want to go to a club with more stature.

I don't really know what Herrera stands for as a midfielder at the moment.

When we signed him is was by in large a #10. Then in the last season he was a tenacious ball winning midfielder.

Now he is playing like how Cleverley did for us. Sideways

I agree with Kinsang on Herrera, I've said it here this season that I am so disappointed in him. He was our best midfielder last year slotting in a deeper and attacking role seamlessly.

This year, he has gone completely backwards. He's been so poor on the ball which for a Spaniard is shocking. I don't know if it's because of the two man midfield formation or being demoted to a squad player has affected his mentality. It's still not good enough, especially for a guy who's contract is up next summer.

comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - 2017 joy squids (U2958)
posted 20 seconds ago
We have good squad options, they are just completely out of form.
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We have too many "good" options and not enough great ones.

As allauded to above, nobody seems to know their job. Who can do what Felaini does but Fellaini? Pogba, Matic, Herrera, Carrick are all their own player. So replacing them doesn't work with the same system.

comment by Roy's Keen (U11635)
posted 14 minutes ago
What's disappointing is the form of miki and what looks like a regression in Herrera.

Shudder to think how we'd have fared without the matic signing god help us if he gets injured
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I think Herrera's form is down to how he has been handled. He was one of our best players last season, then he suddenly couldn't get a look in this year. He seems to take a few games to get going when he has been out of the team for a while. Hopefully he can rediscover his form.

Herrera and Mata wont be here going into the next season.Both have regressed and are nothing more than decent players.
Wouldn't get anywhere near the top sides first 11's.