Are we as deluded as the red ****e?

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Sweats

Sweats

Sure
Forum Moderator
May 20, 2011
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Somewhere Sweaty
Well..

Are we??

Are we delusional about the alleged talents of our team or is it as simple as bad management and tactics?

Is our squad as strong as some of us think it is?

I personally don't think our squad as some do. Our defence when fit isn't anywhere near as good as it used to be. We have no clear leader. Smelling and Jones if they stayed fit could turn into something half decent but no Rio an vidic. Our full backs are hit and miss. Though with shaw fit he has potential. Our midfield is a crock of has beens with the exception of Herrera who again could be good. We have no decent wide players. Depay has potential. Up front we have Rooney who I don't believe is past it but suffers from the **** football. Then martial who is a prospect and not the finished article. Then Mata who was a panic buy and played out of position.

So in summary I don't think our squad is that good. It has potential and that's about it. So therefore I think we all must come across as deluded as the red ****e.
 
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There are very few players in our squad who would keep their place if we had the pick of the available talent in Europe - and I don't mean Neymar, Messi etc - just the best of the bunch such as Lewandowski, Muller, Pogba and the like. With three or four exceptions - DdG, Smalling, Shaw and (as a prospect) Martial - our squad is average at best. I thought that the arrival of Di Maria was going to be the catalyst for a clear-out of the dross and the start of some big-name signings, but either through incompetent transfer dealings (Woodward) or crap decisions from the manager as to who he wanted in the squad - we ended up buying some donkeys.

Despite our massive spending we still need 5 or 6 quality signings to give us performances on the pitch and strength in depth for the bench and cup competitions. Our present squad is an average second string at best.
 
Been saying the players have to shoulder some of the blame for a while. Some actually think van Gaal is the reason they are not up to scratch and that any other manager would improve them.

And then there's some players that if you criticise, results in a hoard of abuse being thrown. Despite said players sometimes being dreadful and effectively costing us big moments.
 
Our squad is not the best we've had or could have but not as poor as our position and slide down the table suggest. If LVG is not the ideal manager naking full use of the squad at his disposal, and yet we are only a few points from top 4 then clearly the players are not that bad. I think the position in the table doesn't lie.

Just like the RS being solidly midtable shows how crap they are. Suddenly after a lucky penalty shoot out, everything is rosy in their world. That GK was a **** bag before the match but now he is world class. All their **** players who had been struggling beat Norwich by a lucky goal and lost to Stoke at home and their sky is now blue. That is the definition of delusion. They are now challenging for the top 4 , FA Cup and according to some already won the (mickey mouse) league cup.

You could argue that LVG has been very unlucky. Many of his key players have been injured at the same time but then you could say that of many teams.

Our GK is at the very top.

With Shaw and other established defenders he had a solid looking defence.

In defensive midfield carrick, Bastian and Morgan are as good as any.

The attacking midfield and strikeforce are where we could reinforce. I must say I am rather disappointed with Mata and Herrera. Fellaini has been under par in most games.

Strikers: Martial is clearly a top striker. Rooney although no longer at his peak can still contribute. We need more players like RVP to put the ball into the net.

Sure we could have better players but like many have said here, those we have are not playing to their potential. Currently 4th or 5th is about right.
 
We lack a gritty leader though. That's the issue. Its been very evident with Schweinsteiger missing.

The team isn't poor. Its just lacking that strong willed figure to pull them through the ****. Fergies united had half a team of these players. We've got one, at best.
 
Agree mostly, yes.

Schneiderlin isn't a has been so partnered with Herrera that's a decent CM.

Shaw will be very good if he recovers, Darmian I'm not sure about and he's the only right back we have. Blind is good left back cover for Shaw and that's about it really, bar also being DCM cover. He's not a centre half. I don't know what Rojo is meant to be if I'm honest.
So, at centre half we really only have Jeff (Smelling) and Jones and neither of those is really out of the top drawer. We need an experienced leader to play alongside whichever one is in the team.
(without labouring the point, we'd get Ashley Williams for less than £10mill and he'd be good for the next four years. Not foreign or expensive enough for Ed though)

I've mentioned CM but agree that neither Schweinsteiger or Carrick can be considered anything other than short term so we need one more to come in.

Up front it's desperate, Two strikers for **** sake. Both are decent but it's not enough.

We've got no one at all of the required quality out wide. The best of the bunch is Ashley Young which tells its own story, none of the rest are anywhere near good enough. Lingard has the potential to get there though, just.

Mata, cracking player at No.10. What more do you need there?

I wouldn't say it's deluded to say that squad should comfortably compete for the top three or four but it won't win the league and it very definitely won't compete at the top in Europe.

For that we need one right back, one centre half, one striker, one centre mid and one right winger and they all need to be of the highest quality.
 
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It's difficult to tell as most of them are constantly played out of position.
 
Stan said:
It's difficult to tell as most of them are constantly played out of position.
Click to expand...
Basically you are saying they are a good squad and better players than the team system or tactics suggest.

For me the biggest loss has been Shaw. After he got injured everything went down hill. With more and more injuries LVG tried to play players in different positions. Whereas fergie would get the team performing, LVG went into reverse. Nothing has worked. And as more players got injured, the slower the team played.
 
If we played this team when fully fit as a 4 2 3 1 it really should be in a way better position than it is;

de Gea
Darmian
Smalling
Jones
Shaw
Schneiderlin
Herrera
Martial
Mata
Young
Rooney.


Rooney is the centre forward, Martial comes in off the wing. For now, got to be done. Depay could be considered instead of Young if he ever finds a semblance of form.

Add to this what we already have as back up plus the five required players and it's not too bad.

It's those five though, without them it's a distinctly average squad, even though a fully fit first team is decent.
 
Christiansmith said:
Basically you are saying they are a good squad and better players than the team system or tactics suggest.

For me the biggest loss has been Shaw. After he got injured everything went down hill. With more and more injuries LVG tried to play players in different positions. Whereas fergie would get the team performing, LVG went into reverse. Nothing has worked. And as more players got injured, the slower the team played.
Click to expand...
I think it's a decent squad that has been managed horrendously.
 
I just look at our team and think each evolution of fergies teams would wipe the floor with them.

Every position on the pitch other than the gk is no where near as good as we've had in the past.

Bastian in his pomp yes. Mata perhaps but none of the others would get into any of our first teams of the recent past.
 
Chief said:
Until such time as we starting saying next year is ours that title remains very definitely yours.
Click to expand...

Would be if we ever said it. But you do have the title of saying that we say next year is our year.
 
UIR talking sh1te again. How the fck is saying "the squad isnt good enough" the same as saying "the players arent pulling their weight" <doh> If anything they mean the complete opposite. Idiot as always with the braincell of a dustmite.

On topic...

At this stage we don't need to be as good as any side Fergie had. Look at the state of our competition. Is this United side capable of achieving an average 2 points per game to be top of the table? That is a considerably low average btw. Is it good enough to get past league 1 and championship opposition in cup competitions? Is it capable of playing a forward pass? I see no reason to suggest the players cant. It's also unfair to judge them without a decent manager at the helm.
 
There's a thread on the Liverpool board talking about a title challenge after they beat City. But I guess they never said it... must have been the football fairies <whistle>
 
Treble said:
There's a thread on the Liverpool board talking about a title challenge after they beat City. But I guess they never said it... must have been the football fairies <whistle>
Click to expand...


As is generally the case when it comes to denial of anything, those weren't actual Liverpool fans.

Probably Chelsea fans who'd infiltrated them on the day.
 
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