comment by Melbourne Red (U5417)
posted 8 minutes ago
Also, I do think people forget how bad our football was towards the end of SAF's reign on occasion. I think it was either the 2006 or 2007 season we started really badly and could barely put the ball in the net.

It is a worry now how Jose seems to be turning on some players in public. Has similarities with his last season at Chelsea.
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Lucky there are no female doctors on the staff

comment by Roys Keen (U11635)
posted 14 seconds ago
comment by Melbourne Red (U5417)
posted 8 minutes ago
Also, I do think people forget how bad our football was towards the end of SAF's reign on occasion. I think it was either the 2006 or 2007 season we started really badly and could barely put the ball in the net.

It is a worry now how Jose seems to be turning on some players in public. Has similarities with his last season at Chelsea.
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Lucky there are no female doctors on the staff

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Mandy Henry on MUTV better watch out..

comment by Benched (U7195)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by Benji Veniamin (U19953)
posted 1 minute ago
But Jose said the players refused to play attacking

Someone’s lying
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Clearly the players just doing what they like, everyone knows they would be doing nothing but covering their full back and sitting in front of the CBs if Jose let them away with it.
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So Jose lied during his conference then?

Also heard an Irish journo mention this on the radio. Mourinho allegedly always likes a target in the dressing room.

He'll just pick one of the less established squad members and relentlessly give them s4it to assert his dominance. Mhki was his go to guy before the transfer.

Pedro Leon at Madrid got it worse than many as well.

You really do believe anything the media tells you huh

comment by Melbourne Red (U5417)
posted 11 minutes ago
comment by Roys Keen (U11635)
posted 14 seconds ago
comment by Melbourne Red (U5417)
posted 8 minutes ago
Also, I do think people forget how bad our football was towards the end of SAF's reign on occasion. I think it was either the 2006 or 2007 season we started really badly and could barely put the ball in the net.
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There was one season we won the league with a lot of 1-0 results.
SAF had a way of altering the attacking blue print of his teams though through the years.

The rapid counter attack with fast wingers/crossing game of the 90s (Schmeichels throws, Giggs, Sharpe, Kanchelskis, Blomqvist, Poborsky and Becks wasn't slow at this point.)
Midfield dominance/2nd striker foil of the early 2000s
Rotating fluency of a front 3 in mid-late 2000s
Inverted wingers and AM of early 2010s.
Had he stayed I believe he was putting together a team which relied on attacking full backs and the #10 role (Using the twins, Kagawa, Powell and Buttner)

Good grief some of the circlejerking over City in this article is embarrassing

We're talking about an already stacked squad having 100's of millions spent on it, Guardiola may be a great coach but he's a chequebook manager and smartly picks his clubs. I'd love to see what he could do at a club like arsenal. But of course his next team will not be an underachiever, most likely PSG.

City have also played with no pressure this season, and pressure is massive. Literally every big club has bottled the title race this season and failed to put any pressure on city. Yeah city are winning games but they are going in to each game with no fear or no one chasing them down. They can just play their football and clubs just turn up with fear and are beaten before they enter the pitch.

Past great utd teams would have not fallen so far behind and if they did then we would adjust the following season and see of the billionaire clubs - like we did with chelsea & city before. It's an insult saying past utd teams wouldn't match this points total - they wouldn't need to as they would turn up when needed and win the important games to keep the pressure on. We also wouldn't have turned up to a derby and played spineless cowardly football.

This utd team unfortunately gave up after the derby game with city and city have strolled it since. We also lost to crap teams too and completely bottled the title race. City were very fortunate with games earlier in the season and won many with last minute goals. If this team put on a run of form in that period of time, the momentum would have carried us far and given city something to think about. However that was never going to happen simply because we have mourinho in charge who messed up team selections, transfers and man management all season.

A club with our resources should not be in this state. But as much as I criticise utd for completely giving up on the title in november, they are not alone.

Spurs have a new stadium to adjust which has cost them points so i can understand that, but chelsea and arsenal have been a shambles and rolled over to have their bellies tickled this season. Pool have done ok but again have failed to really do anything this season despite the good football. The whole league is in a state, as much as I try to defend this league, it's the poorest it's been for some time and city's points gap is embarassing just like when leceister won the league.

Lurker,

"a chequebook manager and smartly picks his clubs"
Jose outspent every other team in the domestic league in his first season at Porto, Chelsea, Inter and Madrid

Sure City had a decent squad before Pep spent a fortune. Now they have a great squad and are playing unreal football.
Utd's squad was only goal difference behind before Jose spent a fortune. Other than Bailly it hasn't been improved and the football is arguably worse.

As for teams rolling over, we did just that in the Derby. The score line was flattering to us.

Also this whole the Utd of the last would’ve adapted and challenged is just rose tinted

When Fergie challenged Chelsea they were not petrofunded crazy like city and psg are. They spent big but not 100s of millions more than us.

When he “saw off City” they were still in the early stages of their revolution.

I’d give a penny for his thoughts on where they and PSG are taking football now

Money is relative. Teams spending now is not the same as a few years ago.

The key issue was how the handover was handled. We lost SAF and Gill. We then had a novice and a manager that had never managed a big side nor played as an attractive side.

We then hired LVG to turn us into Barca but we recruited poorly. Falcao and Di Maria were vanity signings. The first just came back from injury. The second didn't want to be here and down tools when things got tough. Depay looked like someone with talent but it seems a move to United was too soon. He's done well in France but maybe that suits him more.

Our other big signings haven't justified their fees. Pogba and Lukaku are Jose's signings. None are close to what we paid and do not look to reach that.

I am sure I could mention other players on how they were signed, played or used or not used.

This shows a haphazard recruitment policy of managers and players. We haven't planned well and we really need someone to come in a deal with the football side of things. A DOF would help and have Ed deal with the business side of things.

Now onto this season. There is a recurring thing from last season. In both we played well until we lost to City. After that it went down hill. There have been improvements in results though this season compared to last. But the style of play reverted to being boring to watch after our defeat to City.

There needs to be change of mentality from the players and the manager. Jose needs to change or get in coaches to work with. SAF used to get in a new assistant manager every few years as it helped him keep him fresh and someone to bring in new ideas. I think Mourinho would need something like that. A change either in assistant manager or coaches. I think he has had the same assistant for a few years and in his last few jobs.

My issue is we haven't played well in most of our games. We have the ability to do so but rarely do and other than the start of the season, we do not seem to do so for both halves. That can be levelled at both the manager and the players.

Whether City is on another level to everyone else or if it is just this season remains to be seen. We have seen past few winners running away with the league only to struggle the next season. If they are, then we need to step up. Players and manger.

I'd lastly add that a CB, LB and Cm has been mentioned. I'd say, since Sanchez is not going to be used on the right, we may need a new RW too. I'd personally liked to have seen more of Martial, Rashford and Lingard (when he hit form) start as our front three when but I think we only saw that once. Lukaku has done well. Still not £75m well though. But he and Pogba do have time to improve.

I like Luke Shaw.Can we have him at Chelsea?

I think what we are seeing is a repeat of Jose totally facking over Chelsea. Does he realise that the job is too big for him ? Des he knw he won't ever be better than Pepe at City so doesnt want the perceived "failure" ?
Jose is happy to accept the plaudits when things go well but doesnt accept responsibility when things go wrong.
A big part of a manager/coac's job is to MOTIVATE the players, little sign of that.
Looking like he wants out to me

Maybe if he wasn't an over weight lardass he'd get some games.

Mourinho losing the dressing room going into his third season? Well I am just very shocked by this...

I’m still scratching my head as to how Utd are second tbh. Seem to be able to drag themselves over the line a lot of games despite getting dominated or atleast having the lesser of the chances

Will be at PSG very soon

comment by Nickasaurus (U9257)
posted 17 minutes ago
I’m still scratching my head as to how Utd are second tbh. Seem to be able to drag themselves over the line a lot of games despite getting dominated or atleast having the lesser of the chances
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Probably suggests that with a positive manager who the players were on board with we be even further clear off everyone else and much closer to City.

comment by Nickasaurus (U9257)
posted 48 minutes ago
I’m still scratching my head as to how Utd are second tbh. Seem to be able to drag themselves over the line a lot of games despite getting dominated or atleast having the lesser of the chances
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We're very infrequently dominated, and although we often have fewer chances than the opposition (partly because we encourage teams to shoot from 25 yards out), we usually have the better ones.

Maybe not dominated, but i've seen several games with utd where they have it "all to do" and manage to just claw a draw or a win. Palace a prime example of that. Also chelsea should imo have been 3 up at half time. Liverpool were the better side a couple weeks back and i'm still baffled at how arsenal lost THAT game. For a top team utd have not been convincing, that is fair to say I hope? But have managed to just do enough in games.

I wish we had enough about us this season to do the same.

My original point though was that this side and the atmosphere reminds me to the chelsea team I compared earlier. Same manager, same atmosphere, same style of footy, just doing enough till the season ends

We had a lot of those kind of games under Fergie as well Nick. We won the league on several occasions battling through games and just doing enough, and if City weren't the best side in Europe right now, we might have been doing the same under Mourinho this season.

The side and the atmosphere I can't comment on, because I don't know Chelsea that well and have only really watched United games in the Prem for several seasons now. But for sure, there is a problem with discontent in the fanbase right now, if nothing else.

The board and manager seem to be getting on very well. The players we can only speculate about.

comment by Eric_the_king (SE85) (U21241)
posted 1 hour, 3 minutes ago
comment by Nickasaurus (U9257)
posted 17 minutes ago
I’m still scratching my head as to how Utd are second tbh. Seem to be able to drag themselves over the line a lot of games despite getting dominated or atleast having the lesser of the chances
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Probably suggests that with a positive manager who the players were on board with we be even further clear off everyone else and much closer to City.
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Lol no.

Well city are not the best side in europe so that point is not really valid Rosso

But yeah for me , as someone who loves mourinho, it's hard viewing watching him make what look like the same decisions and causing the same atmosphere. Something needs to change going forward or could be similar to what happened at chelsea.

Only barca can be considered as better or on their level.

Oh ffs stretty's here, everyone log off quick!

But yeah was obviously tongue in cheek, barca have been best because they are unbeaten but city are unreal.