ScottishCanuck
Registered User
I’m talking about right now how hard is that to follow. Really?
But he's French..
I’m talking about right now how hard is that to follow. Really?
Oh, great argument.But he's French..
United should go for Skriniar, but lack of CL might be hindrance there.
CM and CB would be the first and most important things, even if they spend their whole budget on those positions. I think Liverpool and City proved that buying quality over quantity and leaving some weaker positions for a while works.
They need a CM like Fernandinho or Fabinho, someone who can absolutely dominate the game.
I wouldn't really say Liverpool or City in that. They bought players that fit. That's what I'm saying they do. I'm saying they shouldn't go out and drop 75M on Bale or 50M on Kovacic or anything like that. I'm saying they should actually buy smart and those were just a few players I think would fit the bill. I would also like to throw Dybala in there to play in the Firmino sort of role as a false 9 with Rashford and Martial as the wingers.CM and CB would be the first and most important things, even if they spend their whole budget on those positions. I think Liverpool and City proved that buying quality over quantity and leaving some weaker positions for a while works.
They need a CM like Fernandinho or Fabinho, someone who can absolutely dominate the game.
CM and CB would be the first and most important things, even if they spend their whole budget on those positions. I think Liverpool and City proved that buying quality over quantity and leaving some weaker positions for a while works.
They need a CM like Fernandinho or Fabinho, someone who can absolutely dominate the game.
Don’t want any of those except James... maybe Fraser but rest aren’t good enough and will cost too much.They should buy James Rodriguez, Kieran Trippier, James Tarkowski, Ryan Fraser and Callum Wilson. Fingers crossed.
I think Mourinho's biggest problem is that he's not a long term manager. He knows how to set up his teams to get the most out of them for a short period, but he's not a fun manager to play for and he loses the room generally pretty quickly (relatively, anyway).Utd are in a horrible position right now. Their best players will want out apparently (DDG, Pogba) and I really don't see any elite players being drawn to play for them.
I think they'll need to put in an overachieving season with some "B list" players in order to attract the "A list" names again.
This is the thing about Mourinho... He won trophies with this bunch. Finished 2nd ahead of Liverpool and Spurs.
And only NOW are people realizing that the players on that team just might be really mediocre.
I don't know how many of his buys were his and how many were "consolation prizes", but Mou's problem was never getting the most out of his players - but recruiting the right players was/is questionable.
I don't think the team has been performing much better though. I think they had a new coach boost, and the team was trying a lot harder, but since then they've looked pretty terrible. This was also in probably the most favourable stretch of the season.I wonder how people can say that with a straight face and then see that a newbie coach, with basically zero high level coaching experience can get this same roster to perform MUCH better with MUCH better results.
I'm sure if Jose had stayed on for that really easy stretch his numbers would have looked better before he left.I don't think anyone except the homerest of homers thought the squad was good enough to compete for the league or anything. However they should be able to compete for the top 4 despite the holes they have given that 2 of the other teams also have issues and Spurs have serious depth questions which can hinder them on a long campaign.
Since OGS was hired, even with their brutal run of form lately, they're still competing for top 4. I can't recall if they'd be in it or not, but if they're outside it they're only out by a couple points instead of the ~10 they were outside it under Jose.
I wonder how people can say that with a straight face and then see that a newbie coach, with basically zero high level coaching experience can get this same roster to perform MUCH better with MUCH better results.
Some five years later, all signs were pointing toward OGS being appointed as the full-time manager of one of the three richest clubs in the world. Seeing this possibility set in motion and and moving down the tracks toward reality, a Dutch analyst named Sander IJtsma said something that made a lot of people mad on the Internet:
It’s an absurd thought: Rip up the contract for your dream job, coaching the club at which you spent the best part of your playing career. Pass up a sum of money that’ll put your grandkids through college. (Although perhaps Elizabeth Warren will hopefully soon make the previous sentence moot!) But really, it was just a provocative way to point out what was really happening: United were getting incredibly lucky. In the first 11 games in the Solskjaer era, they scored 26 goals on just 20.8 expected goals, and they’d allowed just seven on 13 xG. In the Palace match, United were outshot, 17-13, and the expected goals total also favored the hosts: 1.7 to 1.0. Look back at the highlights, and you’ll see three United goals and three impressive, tight-angle, tough-to-replicate finishes. Great plays by talented players, but not the kinds of things you can rely on, week after week
Since the Palace game, United went on to beat Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, thanks to an improbable 3-1 victory in France, with all three goals aided by a succession of bizarre errors from PSG players. Then, they hired OGS full-time. And then -- well, they haven’t won a road game and are just 2-4 on the whole since letting Ole permanently take the wheel. They went out of the Champions League meekly, 4-0 on aggregate to Barcelona. And with Manchester City coming to Old Trafford tomorrow, their Champions League hopes will be completely blown out with just the tiniest gust of wind. FiveThirtyEight gives them a seven percent chance of finishing top four.
There’s regression to the mean, and then there’s getting punted into outer space by Lucas Digne and the boys at Goodison Park.
I'm sure if Jose had stayed on for that really easy stretch his numbers would have looked better before he left.
But again, Mourinho seems to lose his team around now so it's not surprising they were looking bad before OGS was hired. The underlying numbers though didn't take some huge hike after he left however. I agree that they can compete for the top 4 but the argument was that they had the best roster outside of Liverpool/City which I just don't think was ever true - I had them on par with Arsenal and Chelsea, but Chelsea getting the nod for having Hazard (which I was crucified for, again).