GWT: PL Matchweek 22

Il Mediano

Registered User
Feb 24, 2018
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United was always the team in England I most closely followed , but post Fergie I became increasingly apathetic towards the club. Moyes, LVG and Mourinho were all terrible fits from a philosophical standpoint. Anyone could see it (who was willing)

Sure, as a fan, you never want to admit your club is doing the wrong thing at the time, but sometimes you just need to be objective. Trophies are nice, but if you have to sacrifice your soul to get them, then it's not worth it, imo.

I'm glad Solskjaer took over the club. And I'm glad United is playing the way they should.

Attacking, daring football is essence of United (as is trusting youth and the academy). Mourinho is literally the antithesis.

Good riddance. I expect he'll find his way back to Italy, if I had to wager. Wouldn't shock me to see him replace Spalletti in time.
 

East Coast Bias

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Feb 28, 2014
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Just got around to watching Spurs-United on replay after seeing pieces of it live.

The guys on NBC broke it down pretty good at half so I'm kind of taking a bit of that here but.......the changes Solskjaer has made goes beyond the whole "everyone hated Mourinho and are now playing well" bump. There's more to it than that.

The difference in the two matches vs Spurs this year highlighted that. Solskjaer dropped Lingard into a diamond MF, and had him pressure Spurs MF. Martial and Rashford stayed higher and didn't man mark the FBs as Mourinho always had them doing. You could see early on the goal was to let Spurs FBs get upfield, win the ball, have Martial/Rashford one v one with the CBs in transition. It led to a lot of early chances through 15 mins, and ultimately the goal. Those chances aren't happening with Mourinho b/c he had the two of them man marking the FBs back in defense, so when they won possession it was 1v2 even if they got the ball wide because of how deep they set up.

The back 4 is still very clearly weak, but unlike Mourinho, Solskjaer isn't dropping 10 behind the ball inviting pressure. I still cannot comprehend how he thought playing through their weakness was the best strategy. They're going to get burned at some point against good teams and nearly did against Spurs, but you can't worry about that now. It is what it is for now.
 

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
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I read a stat on instagram today that I'm not sure is true because I haven't checked, but it said that across all 31 games this season so far not a single player has dribbled past van Dijk this season (CL and PL).
 

Wee Baby Seamus

Yo, Goober, where's the meat?
Mar 15, 2011
14,704
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Halifax/Toronto
I read a stat on instagram today that I'm not sure is true because I haven't checked, but it said that across all 31 games this season so far not a single player has dribbled past van Dijk this season (CL and PL).

Not sure if true, but, regardless of whether or not it is, Holy mother of God has he been good this season. Player of the Year so far by a country mile.
 

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
34,543
2,560
Not sure if true, but, regardless of whether or not it is, Holy mother of God has he been good this season. Player of the Year so far by a country mile.
Yeah so there are a few more sources reporting it now, and it includes National Team games as well.

Indeed, it would take something special I think or a big collapse on his part for someone else to earn that honor this year. Messi is out of this world or he'd be in the running for Bd'O, IMO. Have been pretty tame about him in general this year because he's been getting so much acclaim from everywhere but man what a player he is.
 

S E P H

Cloud IX
Mar 5, 2010
30,725
16,244
Toruń, PL
manchester united look so much better in attack under solskjaer
Which is like the furthest surprising thing ever. Man United were always a good offencive club made to sit back and fight trench warfare under Mourinho. It sucks that United paid him such a terrible contract that he got 15 million on compensation.
 
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Burner Account

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Feb 14, 2008
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Was that very different than Kompany's two-footed challenge on Salah - except for Salah jumping out of the way and Bernardo not?
 

East Coast Bias

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Feb 28, 2014
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Was that very different than Kompany's two-footed challenge on Salah - except for Salah jumping out of the way and Bernardo not?

Kompany's prob should have been a red, and I think most agreed in the thread watching it live.

So should VVD's on Mertens in the CL match as well.
 

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