By Crusher Go To Postfootball what is it good for, absolutely nothing
By inky Go To Postfuck footballfuck sports in general tbh
By LFMartins86 Go To PostPele, just seen that Botafogo signed Tiquinho Soares.Yeah hopefully he'll come good. We can not go back to serie B.
He should be great for you, I wouldn't mind having him at Sporting.
I don’t mind either way, but playing out from the back looks way better when they can evade a high pressing team with simple ground level passes, rather than just booting it to the far end of the pitch and hoping the striker or whoever gets a touch on it
By Xpike Go To Postfootball is great ladsYeah loving this season so far (:
We lost from 2-0 up yesterday and we’ve had to have another home game postponed due to the state of our pitch.
Still better than United.
Still better than United.
I'm in awe of Jamie Redknapp. He was a professional footballer for 15 years. His father was involved in professional football for 55 years as a player and then as a manager. The entire family is steeped in football.
Yet he hasn't the first fucking clue about how modern football organisations operate.
Yet he hasn't the first fucking clue about how modern football organisations operate.
By FortuneFaded Go To Post
Guy is complaining that not all the players came over to get heckled with abuse
Very disingenuous of you.
By Laboured Go To PostJust walk away. Save yourself.
I wonder if United got caught out by their fall in stature. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were going into the transfer window thinking they could sign De Jong and Timberr and Nunez, and probably they got some positive feedback from agents. But then when it came to crunch time it turned out none of the players really wanted to move.
In the past United didn't struggle to sign players even without the CL, but perhaps things have just reached a tipping point
In the past United didn't struggle to sign players even without the CL, but perhaps things have just reached a tipping point
Love a briefing 2 games in
Meanwhile, it came out last night that the reason Spurs didn’t move for ETH before Paratici arrived was because he didn’t want enough control at the club. That doesn’t sound like what’s happening at United though, maybe he’s correcting?
Meanwhile, it came out last night that the reason Spurs didn’t move for ETH before Paratici arrived was because he didn’t want enough control at the club. That doesn’t sound like what’s happening at United though, maybe he’s correcting?
I don’t think it’s that he wants too much control; it’s that he has walked into a broken system whereby there is no control. The scouting system is obviously so fucked that all he can do is request players he knows. Murtough doesn’t know what he’s doing. Fletcher doesn’t know what he’s doing. Arnold doesn’t know what he’s doing. So it seems Ten Hag is having to do more than he is comfortable with. He’s come from Ajax where his role as first team coach was clearly defined into a scenario where no one knows fucking anything.
Again, United has many problems and a lot of them have nothing to do with the players. But fuck me Ronaldo is a huge issue in its own right. He has to go.
He offers nothing on the pitch but acts like it's everyone else's fault.
He offers nothing on the pitch but acts like it's everyone else's fault.
Wilson in Guardian:
A clearout is needed at Manchester United. None of the parts fit together
A keeper that can’t use his feet and forward line lacking mobility – there is not a single element of this side that works
It was less than a year ago that Manchester United won at West Ham to stretch their record unbeaten league run away from home to 29 games. What a happy, uncomplicated time that must seem for them now, in the wake of a seventh successive away defeat with a cumulative score of 2-21.
This is United’s worst away run since 1936. Was the performance in west London worse than the 5-0 defeat at Crystal Palace in 1972? It’s probably too early to be sure, but Saturday was haplessness at a volume that will resonate through the generations.
Which is not to say things were good last September. United had just lost away to Young Boys. They had not played well at Southampton or Wolves. The ease with which Villarreal had restricted them in the Europa League final was still fresh in the mind. Ole Gunnar Solskjær, though, was good at setting up his team to sit deep and play on the break – at least until Cristiano Ronaldo was signed, depriving the forward line of pace and mobility and so destroying the one viable approach United had, and undermining dressing-room morale while he was at it.
At Brentford on Saturday, United were decked out in Stabilo green, as though somebody had highlighted where all the problems were. There’s not a single element of this side that works. Confidence is shot. Basics have gone. None of the parts fit together.
There are complaints about a lack of signing from the Glazers, but this is a squad that has been expensively assembled; the starting XI cost eight times that of Brentford. The problem is that it has been put together extraordinarily badly, with no long-term vision, and zero understanding of football. The present scramble for new players is entirely typical: every player United are linked with is either well-known (or, more often, notorious: Marko Arnautovic! Adrien Rabiot! Mauro Icardi!) or familiar to Ten Hag from the Eredivisie.
To say that Ten Hag isn’t a match for this squad is both true and pointless: nobody is, nobody could be. Can you play Lisandro Martínez, a 5ft9in centre-back, in the Premier League? It’s always going to be a risk, but it is doable, if he has a dominant partner to win aerial battles and if the side is able to control the match.
If he’s playing alongside an out-of-sorts Harry Maguire and opponents can put in eight crosses before half-time, then it’s a glaring weakness. Can you play Christian Eriksen as the deepest-lying midfielder? Surely he wasn’t signed for that? Again, though, it’s not impossible; with a ferocious snapper to protect him, perhaps he could function as a deep-lying playmaker in the style of Andrea Pirlo. But Fred is no Rino Gattuso.
The opening goal was, obviously, primarily the fault of David de Gea, but the gap Josh Dasilva exploited was left by Fred so there was no cover when Ronaldo was dispossessed. Letting in the shot was bad, but letting the shot happen exposed structural failings.
Can you press with this squad? United managed just seven pressures in the final third all game, 14 fewer than Brentford. Ralf Rangnick last season despaired of the lack of basic tactical understanding in the squad; most, he said, had simply never been drilled in ball-oriented pressing. He spent half an hour working one-on-one with one high-profile player, thought he made a breakthrough, but then watched him produce his worst performance of the season in the following match.
Can you play out from the back with De Gea? De Gea remains, despite Saturday’s howler, an excellent shot-stopper, which is why last season he was named United’s player of the year for the fourth time. But there is a reason he has not played for Spain since October 2020 and why he has apparently fallen behind Brentford’s David Raya in the pecking order. “A goalkeeper,” the Spain manager Luis Enrique said in June, “should start the play and generate the first superiority, they must dominate the aerial play.”
De Gea cannot do that because he is simply not comfortable on the ball. Last season he completed just 71.3% of his passes. By comparison, Ederson completed 88.1% and Alisson 87.1%; while it’s true that’s partly because De Gea was encouraged to play more longer balls, it’s also true that one of the reasons United played more longer balls is De Gea.
The long unbeaten away run ended with the 4-2 defeat at Leicester in which Maguire, forced back early from an ankle injury, couldn’t adjust quickly enough to an underhit pass from De Gea, leading to Youri Tielemans’s equaliser. The goalkeeper’s loss of form at the 2018 World Cup was widely blamed on a loss of confidence provoked by his discomfort at being asked to play behind a high line and pass out from the back, which reached its nadir in the second goal he conceded against Portugal, a soft Ronaldo shot that slithered under his body much as Dasilva’s did on Saturday.
This is a major problem for United: De Gea is one of the few United players who has performed consistently in recent years and yet those struggles with the ball at his feet make it very hard for them to switch to a modern style. It’s not by any means the only reason why the Rangnick interregnum failed, nor is it anything like the only reason why Ten Hag cannot fit this United into his Ajax template, but it is fundamental.
The analogy with Pep Guardiola’s prompt decision to jettison Joe Hart is clear. Perhaps Ten Hag has raised the issue, but the mind boggles at who this United board might come up with as a replacement after thumbing through their ageing directory of high-maintenance bad boys. Kepa Arrizabalaga? Jens Lehmann? Toni Schumacher?
But what happens next? A clearout is desperately needed (even after offloading four senior players this summer) but what’s the point if there’s no idea how to replace them? Half a century ago, United responded to the defeat at Selhurst Park by sacking Frank O’Farrell and George Best. Moving on Ronaldo might be a start, but Ten Hag is even less an author of the chaos than O’Farrell was.
That, perhaps, is the most disconcerting thing for United. This is supposed to be Ten Hag’s honeymoon period, but already he looks in danger of being overwhelmed by just how shambolic the club is. Like Rangnick, he cannot play his football with these players; he perhaps cannot play any football. And they’ve got Liverpool next.
Paul Hirst of the Times also saying ETH has again asked for more players to be signed. I'd love to know what the fuck has happened with the recruitment department. They're unaware of good players; their targets are underwhelming and they struggle to even sign them.
Think you need to do what we did and take a few years out to rebuild the entire squad, I don't think there are any quick fixes here.
Saw a headline on Reddit saying Ronaldo has been offered to Milan and Inter who both don't want him. He really should just go to Sporting and be the top dog there for a few (genuinely could see him going on until the next world cup) years but I know his ego wouldn't allow the perceived drop down.
By Cleff Go To PostDisgraceful that we let this boy go on loan with buy option. He was always gonna make it and at that price was a bargain
Kill everyone
By Frustrated_me Go To PostSky Sports, Goal, etc., are geo-locked in first world countries.They've added their own Seri to complete their transformation into Fulham
By Plasma Go To PostThink you need to do what we did and take a few years out to rebuild the entire squad, I don't think there are any quick fixes here.
Problem is this should have been happening as soon as Fergie left lol
Most of our transfers since he left are beyond disgraceful and imply we don’t even have a scouting department.
2013/14
Fellaini - worked with Moyes, signed for more than his release clause
Mata - unwanted by Chelsea
Janko - zero appearances
Varela - 11 appearances
2014/15
Herrera - smart signing (but a year late botched by lawyers)
Shaw - smart signing, ruined by injuries and fatness
Milinkovic-Savic (GK) - zero appearances
Rojo - rushed signing based on WC
Di Maria - unwanted by Madrid, bought to sell shirts
Blind - worked with LVG, based on WC
El Fitouri - zero appearances
Fosu-Mensah - 30 appearances
Valdes - two appearances
2015/16
Depay - fairly smart signing at the time I suppose
Darmian - risk free, decent WC and league season and cheap
Schweinsteiger - unwanted by Bayern, bought to sell shirts
Schneiderlin - smart signing on paper and probably one of the only ones actually supported by data but didn’t have a role that suited him or the mentality
Romero - good signing
Martial - lots of good moments without sustained success
Poole - zero appearances
Falcao - bought to sell shirts
2016/17
Bailly - banter has been legit; results not so much
Zlatan - good signing but bought to sell shirts
Mkhitaryan - smart signing on paper and probably one of the only ones actually supported by data but a soft bitch
Pogba - bitch, bought to sell shirts
2017/18
Lindelof - decent signing but isn’t any better than a third choice CB
Lukaku - never going to fit a top side trying to play progressive football in the PL but had a decent season
Sanchez - absolute wasteman
Matic - past his best
2018/19
Dalot - nothing player
Fred - still no fucking clue
Grant - third choice
Woolston - zero appearances
2019/20
James - speed merchant sold in a year
Wan-Bissaka - can’t attack
Maguire - i like him but his mentality is gone
Fernandes - smart signing but too chaotic without anything around him
Bishop - zero appearances
2020/21
Van de beek - bitch
Cavani - couldn’t be fucked
Telles - dogshit
Amad - who knows
Pellistri - who knows
2021/22
Martinez - known by EtH
Eriksen - free signing
Malacia - eredivisie, cheap
All of those and I’d count the ones who weren’t or didn’t end up being total failures as:
Fellaini (with reservations)
Mata (with reservations)
Herrera
Romero
Martial (with reservations)
Zlatan
Lindelof (with reservations)
Fred (with reservations)
Fernandes
By Willkiller Go To PostFernandes (with big reservations) imo
we’ll always have that magical first year guv
These games will be on itv4 but I don't get why Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A don't try and get a cushy Saturday/Sunday afternoon spot on BBC, ITV1, C4. Get the casuals watching like Italia in the 90s. I'm sure the current viewing figures for those leagues is miniscule and I can't imagine the TV money they get is mega either.
Don't think La Liga can compete with EPL viewership in England.
What I don't get is why doesn't La Liga just license out to Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube, Netflix, Disney+ and go all out? Reach a global audience through the tech companies who are more than eager to pour billions into streaming content? Disrupt the model all together.
What I don't get is why doesn't La Liga just license out to Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube, Netflix, Disney+ and go all out? Reach a global audience through the tech companies who are more than eager to pour billions into streaming content? Disrupt the model all together.
By n8 dogg Go To PostVarela - 11 appearances
this cunt wasnt even good enough for copenhagen
Anyway the 'bought to sell shirts' shit is a myth. Dont pretend even United are that dumb, cause you arent making back your money.
kuijt lost his first two games as manager of ado den haag, and is last in the second division in the netherlands.
they've yet to score a goal.
rip his career already imho.
they've yet to score a goal.
rip his career already imho.
By WoodenLung Go To Postthis cunt wasnt even good enough for copenhagen
Anyway the 'bought to sell shirts' shit is a myth. Dont pretend even United are that dumb, cause you arent making back your money.
Sell shirts is shorthand for ‘raise social media engagement and sponsorship deals’
By bud Go To Postkuijt lost his first two games as manager of ado den haag, and is last in the second division in the netherlands.
they've yet to score a goal.
rip his career already imho.
Meanwhile Ruud van Nistelrooy’s PSV scores five goals a game. Lads.
By n8 dogg Go To PostSell shirts is shorthand for ‘raise social media engagement and sponsorship deals’
Weird way to shorten that. But no doubt also bullshit, it was fucking Schweinsteiger, not Ronaldo.
At least they're admitting that their confidence is completely shot. No idea how you fix that though
By Shanks D Zoro Go To Postwhy don’t Forest have a shirt sponsor?
sounds like they just havent been able to agree a deal with any.