And before you come back with the Glazers have spent loads of money on players etc. etc., I'll just point out that the Galzers have over spent on those players. Their own fault. Everything they do is reactive and panic. We over paid for Mount, Antony, Casemiro, the lot. And the reason was they didn't want to buy those players, so waited until the very last minute before realising that they had no choice, by which time the fee had gone through the roof. All three of those players are now tarred with being too expensive. It wasn't neccessary, they are clueless. Same now with Hojlund. That side isn't ten Hag's fault either, and it definitely does not help. What he does now need to do though is stand by those signings and play them. Not play the likes of McTominay ahead of Mount, or Lindelof ahead of Reguillon, show people why you wanted them in the first place. These are my players, this is my team, get the **** on with the job.
Since Gill left the club, nobody above the manager has had a football brain. Woodward, and those in position now, are all financial bods, appointed to do one job and one job only - make money for the club. None of them know the value of a good player to the club, that is why we didn't go for Haaland, why we didn't go for Bellingham and more recently, why we didn't go for Kane. The only thing these bods think of is price, rather than value. Had we bought any one of those three players our fortunes would have been transformed, instead we plug holes and make do with panic buys - there is no long terms strategy, and why, because we don't have a director of football, and the reason we don't is that would cost the club money , a DoF wouldn't sign contracts with Chinese airlines for zillions in sponsorship and that is all that matters to the hierarchy and the Glazers. Until they go, and the commercial; structure is replaced, nothing will change. We could buy the whole Real Madrid side, put them in United shirts and they would struggle against Fulham in a few months, its as if the footballing side is an unfortunate distraction to the overall goal (forgive the pun) of making money for Manchester United. Until that changes, until the very being of the club is focussed back on the playing side and the football we play, it won't matter who we sign and what manager we have.
Sacking the manager is not the objective. Getting the team to play to the best of their ability IS the objective. If every time we fk up, we quickly revert the criticism to the fkin owners, on what basis do we have to even critique the performances? We might as well all just go home until the Glazers leave given nothing can be fixed until then.
The Glazers have always put money up front for managers, some who have failed badly and some who did Okish. Last season ETH seemed to have us going the right way but for some reason it's like there is a dressing room problem. My mind keeps slipping to Sancho and wondering if he or his situation is causing some unrest. That said, we have been very unlucky with injuries so far this season and i have hopes that once we have Shaw, Bisakka and Martinez back we will have a good base to give the midfield license to work and in turn get the forwards working as we need. Bit garbled but i am trying to make sence of the drop from last season instead of an improvement.
I’m confused about Sancho situation. If he is the problem that everyone claims that he is, why didn’t we get rid of him in the summer? Why delay it? On the other hand, maybe ETH is incapable of managing difficult personalities. Either way, I think the manager has a hand in what the situation has become and could have been averted. I don’t believe we have ever had a player of that calibre just completely frozen out while the team itself suffers. He gets paid fully and the next team will be happy to have him. So who does this really benefit? It’s been very badly managed in my opinion.
I think ETH doesn't quite carry the authority he thought he had established having come out on top regarding CR. That was ETH's first year and the signs were encouraging and, for the most part, I suspect the players were keen to enjoy the success that he seemed to be building. BUT CR was a completely different situation to Sancho, by all accounts CR was proving unpopular in several quarters of the dressing room and many were happy to see the back of him, particularly Rashford who enjoyed a spectacular resurgence once CR had gone. In Sancho's case I believe ETH has miscalculated the mood. Sancho seems to be popular in the dressing room, he is of the same age group as most of them, they socialise together, he shared England squad duties with many of them and I believe that many of them are siding with Sancho. It is no coincidence that the downturn in our form coincides with when this all kicked off. This will be a much harder situation for ETH to solve and, whatever the outcome, I think he will be weakened in the dressing room because of it..
I've read as much as I can. My opinion is a very simple one. The football we've been playing ALL season has been absolute dogshit. The lack of any tactics, the non-existent patterns of play, the fact players can't string two passes together. It's on the manager.
I am going to say something i have been saying to family and friends for a long time (forget the owners.manager,tactics and ****). I can't believe that we don't seem to have one player (with the exception of Martinez) with any sence of personal/professional pride, when the opposition are passing the ball around you and simply by-passingng you at will with their crowd giving the "Oles" and your own crowd booing you then surely you should want to get into them, force them to pass the ball in your time not theirs, kick **** out of them and rush them into mistakes or at least force them back. FFS show some fight and pride in yourself, the club, the shirt, Don't just jog around shaking your head or backing off. Make them work and if you lose at least you can look in the mirror that night and think "i/we did my/our best but it wasn't quite good enough".
Unless they either don't understand or believe in what they're being asked to do. Running around at 100mph, throwing your body in the way only goes so far before you lose the will to live when what you're being asked to do isn't working and you either don't believe or understand it.
Every ****ing player in the squad knows what the **** is required - take hold of the ****ing ball and ram it in the net at the other end, how hard can it be, especially when you are already getting the **** kicked out of you. These aren't eight year olds, they don't need the basics shouted out from the sidelines, these are supposedly professional players who have been coached and drilled as to what the manager expects of them - the fact that they can't string two decent passes together is more a testament to the fact that they can't be arsed, as opposed to a lack of instructions and preparation from the manager. I fear we have passed the tipping point and ETH has lost authority, this is a re-run of Jose M and Ole..
They seemed to understand and believe in it last season and at that point most of us (including you if memory serves me well) thought the introduction of a natural striker would make a big improvement for this season. I am still thinking/hoping at the moment that the return of Martinez, Shaw and Bisakka Coupled with the introduction of Amrabat will give a defensive stability that will free the likes of Casimero/Eriksen/Mount/Bruno to feed the attack and hopefully bring Rasmus into the game more.
It's not as easy as that though is it. Otherwise why have a manager at all. And how do you know they've been coached and drilled? Do you see it on the pitch because I don't. Or like I've said, what they've been coached or drilled is ineffective and doesn't work.
It's simple - what he was doing last year was working. What he's been doing this year isn't. This isn't about sacking the manager. I can criticise him and call him out for the ****e on display, whilst still acknowledging he is capable of doing better.
How is it that ETH is untouchable whereas with Ole, if it started raining it was his fault - he set the team up, his tactics - his fault, yet ETH is somehow absolved of blame for the very same failings. Come on people - ETH was a random punt, nothing more, he has no PL experience, his coaching methods/staff seem to leave a lot to be desired and his language skills leave a lot to be desired too, the nuances of his message to the team seem to be getting lost in translation - just listen to his post-match interviews. Looking at the breadth of talent in our squad, can anyone say that the problem isn't the team selection or the tactics - and whose job is that....it ain't the ****ing tea lady.
The only major losses are Shaw and Martinez - AWB and Dalot were being interchanged by ETH, so while they are big losses, the alternative selection and implementation of tactics are probably down to the chief steward or the tea lady, possibly the ****ing manager.
