I know the trendy thing is to bash Ronaldo and while he’s far from innocent in all these ‘who’s to blame?’ debates, it really does come down to the engine room. Let’s put it this way - if Ronaldo was playing ahead of the Wolves midfield for example - who were excellent - remember when we were linked with Moutinho? - he would be far more effective as he’d have a better base to work from rather than what we had today which was like a sieve.
That’s the issue that Ole failed to fix which really has cost him his job. And to be fair to Ole it’s an issue that all of our managers have failed to fix since SAF left ( and even he struggled too). The closest we came to fixing it was the summer of 2016 when we brought in Pogba and almost got Kante but Chelsea beat us to him. If only we’d snapped up Kante 😭
Anyway, whoever the next manager is really needs to sort the midfield as a matter of urgency. Once Pogba goes there isn’t a single one who should be safe from the axe.
Our midfield is the biggest issue
posted on 4/1/22
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 6 minutes ago
It's almost like you're saying signing Ronaldo really disrupted the (little) planning we had!
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Hey, don't put words in my mouth Diafol!
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On your other point of passing between the lines Phil Jones did that last night to be fair I thought. If he could stay fit I certainly don't think he's any worse than Maguire as a CB. Perhaps Jones can be our new DM!
posted on 4/1/22
Sign Rice & McGinn and make one captain.
posted on 4/1/22
comment by Diafol Coch 77 (U2462)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 6 minutes ago
It's almost like you're saying signing Ronaldo really disrupted the (little) planning we had!
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Hey, don't put words in my mouth Diafol!
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On your other point of passing between the lines Phil Jones did that last night to be fair I thought. If he could stay fit I certainly don't think he's any worse than Maguire as a CB. Perhaps Jones can be our new DM!
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I think a lot of fans massively under-appreciate Maguire's ability passing through the lines and progressing the ball. If we're playing chaotic football and fire-fighting in defence, these qualities aren't going to come to the fore and a pure stopper like Smalling will be more valuable. I think if you put Maguire in Guardiola's team everyone would think he's top class. Put Ruben Dias in this United side and a lot of people would look at him the way they look at Lindelof and Maguire.
posted on 4/1/22
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 (U2462)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 6 minutes ago
It's almost like you're saying signing Ronaldo really disrupted the (little) planning we had!
----------------------------------------------------------
Hey, don't put words in my mouth Diafol!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On your other point of passing between the lines Phil Jones did that last night to be fair I thought. If he could stay fit I certainly don't think he's any worse than Maguire as a CB. Perhaps Jones can be our new DM!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I think a lot of fans massively under-appreciate Maguire's ability passing through the lines and progressing the ball. If we're playing chaotic football and fire-fighting in defence, these qualities aren't going to come to the fore and a pure stopper like Smalling will be more valuable. I think if you put Maguire in Guardiola's team everyone would think he's top class. Put Ruben Dias in this United side and a lot of people would look at him the way they look at Lindelof and Maguire.
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The Maguire of this season certainly wasn't really missed last night IMO. However, I accept the point that we have a lot of players who perhaps look worse than they are as well. What a mess we're in really!
posted on 4/1/22
Maguire was just launching it in the barcode game.
posted on 4/1/22
comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 15 minutes ago
Sign Rice & McGinn and make one captain.
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With our luck this goes the way of the Maguire signing. Not sure we have one successful bug name signing. Somehow a big contract and the United team atmosphere does wonders to their workrate and general ability.
posted on 4/1/22
As an outside, the way i see it when i watch Utd is that you are caught between 2 stools.
Firstly, there is the expectation to entertain. Exciting winning football is demanded having been the fans diet for a few decades.
But really the make up of your squad is best suited to counter attacking football (which can be very exciting to watch). You lack the players to deliver an effective press and in possession you lack the quality to really control games and probe their defence.
OGS's team seemed most effective when accepting of these limitations, but when you tried to be more expansive it began to falter. Ultimately, in this league, playing counter attacking football will only get you so far. If United play more open and try to press then the spaces left for the opposition to exploit are there to see, and exploiting them is easy if the press is halfarsed, which it often is.
posted on 4/1/22
comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 25 minutes ago
Maguire was just launching it in the barcode game.
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He has also been passing forward between the lines quite a lot since Rangnick turned up, and statistically is among the top CB for progressive passing.
At some point we have to consider why it is that we keep buying players who look excellent (or at least above the level of their present club) and then they look worse at United. I think it happens with centre backs more than any other position that received wisdom about their ability is re-evaluated dramatically depending on the team and system they play in.
posted on 4/1/22
I do think we've defended better as a team since RR has come in. Nearly all of the goals conceded have come from individual lapses that I can think of.
YBB - VDB/AWB
Newcastle - Varane
Burnley - Bailly
Having said that I do want more from Maguire. He's shown he can do it and this season he's not been as good IMO. Same can go for Luke Shaw as well. Euro hangover?
posted on 4/1/22
comment by Pride of the North (U6803)
posted 5 hours, 8 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 28 minutes ago
We have nobody in the middle of the park who can keep the ball let alone dictate the tempo of the game or make intelligent passes. Our fullbacks also keep failing to stop crosses coming into the box and are caught out positionally as well as not really offering much up the other end of the pitch.
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I'm not saying Fred, McTominay and Matic are prime Pirlo but movement of the front players is part of the problem. Over the Christmas period there have been loads of times when I've seen the midfielders receive the ball and shape to pass forward early and --- there's nothing on and everyone is static. Not saying the forwards are being lazy. It's a new system and it takes a while to get on each other's wavelength so forwards have a sense of what run the midfielder is looking for and midfielders are confident the run is going to happen. This is another thing that should improve with coaching and training.
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There's been quite a few occasions where a through ball has been on, which our mids do see, but don't have the confidence or ability to make the pass.
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I’ve seen quite a few times where they have done that pass but because of the run of the forward line abs the gap between them and the midfield, it ends up being a blind alley anyway.
Forward line movement, and just your transition movements in general, have been issues for a few seasons now.