Lingard & Pereira

He must have hoped for one of Lingard or Pereira to find a bit of form, but it just didn’t happen.

Playing Pereira on the right was ridiculous though. Just really, really ridiculous.

Doesn’t say much for his judgement. We could, and should, have signed Bruno in the summer. We wouldn’t be in this mess if we had.

Yeah, but Ole had decided he was going to stick with 4-2-3-1 as his default no matter what, and he can’t have expected Pogba and McT to be injured at the same time.
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Strange that. Firstly, to adopt a formation that requires a good no. 10 when you don't have one. Secondly, to be so inflexible to not change it.

comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 11 hours, 10 minutes ago
We also should have replaced Matic, but we extended his contract. Jones has been stealing a living. I like Mata but he’s not good enough anymore either and had his contract extended. Luke Shaw is an average left back that is always injured, but still remains a mainstay in the team when he is.

We always hear about a new manager coming in and being ruthless with the players that aren’t good enough, and every time they prove not to be.
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Jesus, give him a chance. You can't get rid of half of your squad in one season. Plenty have left since Ole took over. And just because you think that a player should have left, doesn't mean the manager does. So your idea of being ruthless won't always match the manager's idea.

comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 9 hours, 45 minutes ago
Doesn’t say much for his judgement. We could, and should, have signed Bruno in the summer. We wouldn’t be in this mess if we had.
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By all accounts we did try to sign him in the summer, but couldn't agree the price. Is that Ole's fault?

comment by Elvis: King of Cult (U7425)
posted 53 minutes ago
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 9 hours, 45 minutes ago
Doesn’t say much for his judgement. We could, and should, have signed Bruno in the summer. We wouldn’t be in this mess if we had.
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By all accounts we did try to sign him in the summer, but couldn't agree the price. Is that Ole's fault?
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That is absolutely not Ole’s fault, very obviously. He has literally zero to do with that.

Imagine if we’d have started the season with Bruno where we might be now.

I cannot explain what I’d want to do to Ed Woodward if I met him face to face.

Imagine how Ole feels about him.

They’ve identified the perfect player to come in and play at ten: a goalscoring, creative attacking player with quick feet, a good touch and a superb work rate. Basically ticks all of Ole’s boxes for his system and will improve the side immediately in one of the positions that we most desperately need an upgrade in. Negotiations get underway and seem to be progressing nicely.

Preseason is used to prepare to play the system Bruno will drop neatly right into. Then he doesn’t arrive. “We couldn’t agree the price,” Ed tells him. “Don’t worry though, we’ll have another go in January.”

What the fack does he do? Well, he plays variously Mata, Lingard and Pereira, trying time get a decent tune out of one of them and waits.

He could have gone to 4-3-3/4-1-2-3 but a) it’s patently obvious he isn’t interested in setting us up that way, and b) even if he did temporarily until Bruno’s arrival, he’d then have to start again tactically re-acclimating the players. Plus he lost Pogba, so the by-default benefits of the 4-3-3 had gone (unless you’re crazy enough to think there’s any sort of value in playing any three midfielders from Pereira, Matic, Fred and McT at a time).

Lingard was just awful on Saturday. Completely lacking in any quality. I'm sure Inter would be interested...

It’s not really an attack on Ole, it’s more a problem with the club as a whole.

Nah it was Ole’s fault pursuing Eriksen and Dybala, when we could have signed Bruno but didn’t try. We’ve done this before, Elvis.

Ole’s a big part of the reason that we were unprepared going into this season. Blame Woodward if you like. It’s what happens when people won’t criticise management, but want to credit them with all the good.

They’ve identified the perfect player to come in and play at ten: a goalscoring, creative attacking player with quick feet, a good touch and a superb work rate. Basically ticks all of Ole’s boxes for his system and will improve the side immediately in one of the positions that we most desperately need an upgrade in. Negotiations get underway and seem to be progressing nicely.

Preseason is used to prepare to play the system Bruno will drop neatly right into. Then he doesn’t arrive. “We couldn’t agree the price,” Ed tells him. “Don’t worry though, we’ll have another go in January.”

What the fack does he do? Well, he plays variously Mata, Lingard and Pereira, trying time get a decent tune out of one of them and waits.

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That's a nice story.