Transfer Rumours Let's ignore the big ****ing elephant and blame the latest manager, again. Are we nearly there yet?

Winning hides many sins. Dropping points brings some uncomfortable truths to the surface.

what does it say when senior players like CR7 and Fernandes show their exasperation so clearly and publicly after a poor pass? The irony is that they’ve been piss poor themselves. What sort of encouragement is that when the world best football is annoyed with you about a bad pass?

Burnley at home should not even be a question mark but if Burnley pull out a season performance tonight then there should be no doubt that the problems we have go deeper than previous manager and coaches.

Back to tonight. A clear dominating performance is needed as well as a good result.

 

Right you miserable lot of ****ers, last season we finished 2nd with Ole at the wheel. Now we have a manger who seems to know what he's doing and talks a good game so let's hope the players listen and we improve.

Happy New Year people

 

January Transfer Window now open.

So who thinks we're going to buy anyone decent?

Declan Rice is clickbait at the moment. Can't see it in January.

 

I will be surprised if we buy any "big" name but a couple of potential players may come in.
Ralf strikes me as the type of manager who will want a closer look at some of the younger players in the squad under real game pressure before buying big.

 

Or someone who'll bring in a younger unknown who he believes he can mould effectively to his style.

I'd love us to do that more.

 

Never mind Rice, we should go after Bissouma from Brighton.

Can't see there being any opposition to that transfer, way less cost and hassle to trying to get Rice and an equal player. Is he going ACOP though? Not that that goes on forever.

We also need to bin Martial and Pogba forever.

 

Was thinking this regards Tunazebe, but he's gone to Napoli instead.

Ethan Laird being recalled from Swanse I believe though?

 

Yep, and Ralf mentioned Hannibal on the MUFC site saying how impressed he was with him with his international team.
Said he is looking forward to working with him and getting the best out of him.

 

I wasn't expecting a complete transformation but when you're given 6 months, you have to make some immediate impression on the way you set up the team, the way they play, the performances and the results.

I don't know much about the bloke, but from what I've seen so far I have to say, wrong appointment imo.

This season is now officially a write off.

Roll on the summer. Hopefully Poch will come even without the CL football.

 

The man is trying to play 4 4 2 but has decided it's best to play Beckham on the left, Giggs on the right and leave Scholes on the bench.

Some pretty weird **** from Rangnick to be honest.

Either play 4 4 2 with actual width or go to 4 3 3 and bin one of the dreadful dcm's. (Please !!!!!) They're ****e anyway.

 

The manager is a ****ing fraud.

 

The 4-2-2-2 needs to be binned. Did anybody hear the Wolves manager in the post match interview? He spoke about how we had set up and how he exploited that through his full-backs to dominate the game. I couldnt help but rate the bloke for his honesty if nothing else.

It is ridiculously funny that no manager wants to play 4-3-3 when our squad and its depth is literally set up perfectly for it.

 

It's like 2 different managers playing the same players out of position again and again.
Are they seeing something we don't?

 

I'm honestly at a loss. Same set up with two defensive midfielders, DVB also not getting any game time? Sancho on the left, Rashford on the right? And Fred who had improved massively not playing.

He's literally given every squad player a game, but sidelined so many after one appearance.

It's a good question though, what is it that's making them choose the same personnel and/or setup?

 

Was at his firts game, Palace at home, and it seemed genuinely promising.

Was a one nil win but, a great performance.

Since then, he's messed about too much. It's as if he's trying all the players out (bar Lingard) and has tied himself in knots in the process.

This 4 2 2 2 is bollocks, he needs to bin it sharpish. By all means try a genuine 4 4 2 but not with two defensive minded CM's.

I personally think our two best options are 5 3 2 or 4 3 3 . It means some players don't play but that's the point of a squad, right? Not ****ing rocket science is it?

My own personal prefered formation would be this 4 3 3;


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------de Gea

AWB---------------------------------------------Maguire-------------------------------------------------Varane-----------------------------------------Telles


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Fred

----------------------------Fernandes-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------DVDB



Sancho---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ronaldo


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cavani


He's not even ever come close to having those players on the pitch in those positions though.




I could pick another full team (and subs) in the same formation with players playing in their prefered roles;


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Henderson


Laird/Dalot-----------------------------------------Lindelof/Jones-------------------------------------------------------Bailly/Tunazebe----------------------------------Shaw


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Matic

---------------------------------------McTominay----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pogba


---Lingard/Elanga-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rashford/Elanga

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Greenwood



I think both those teams are decent teams.


Those players don't work in 4 2 2 2 or whatver bollocks you want to call it.

 

Rangnick said: “We didn’t play well at all individually or collectively. Today we showed similar problems the team had three or four weeks ago before I arrived. It is not an easy job to develop a DNA with and without the ball.”

“I knew it would be difficult – that’s the reason why they brought me. I knew it wouldn’t be easy to find a balance between offensively and defensively. We didn’t press at all. We tried but we were not able to get into those pressing situations.”

Shaw said: “Us players [who] we have been here a long time, maybe tonight we struggled,”

“I didn’t think we were all there together. You look at the players we have, we have unbelievable quality but sometimes quality is not enough.

“They were miles better in the first half. We let them take control of the game, we weren’t aggressive, we needed to bring more intensity. Maybe we lacked that today. We need to bring the intensity and more motivation.

“Inside the dressing room we know what we want but out on the pitch we need to give 100%. To win these types of games we all need to be 100% committed. It is tough and disappointing.”

I think both are off the mark tbh.

You're not just going to win games just because you press more.

And you're not going to win games by being more aggressive and bringing more motivation and giving 100%.

That ^^^^ is all part of it, but what's more important is what you do with the ball when you have it. Our football is so predictable. We have no identity still in our style of play.

Yes we're marginally better at getting the ball forward than we were under Ole, but once we get to the final third, it all slows down, we have zero game plan beyond that. It's all still passing sideways around the opposition box, making it up as you go along, and hoping something will open up. This last part is our biggest problem attack-wise

Rangnick needs to address this first, then the pressing and giving 100% and passion and all that ****e gets added on and it all works.

 

433 is the formation to play with Ronaldo, Greenwood and Sancho the front 3

 

Who plays LHS, Greenwood or Ronaldo?

 

Personally, if I played that front three, Ronaldo would have to be left, Greenwood central.

 

Fascinating that it has took you only a handful of games to come to this conclusion when you defended the last one that wasn’t even qualified for the job with tooth and nail for three fkin years. Pathetic!

Let me digress…

The biggest problem that I see right now is the size of this squad. We have bought way too many players over the last few years without ever having clear idea of how we would use them which means they have all declined in value. This is why I’m flat out against Rangnick’s going out there again hunting for players to solve “the problem”. It would be far more productive to first focus on shedding the fat of this squad.

Another problem as a result of the size of squad is that too many average players are commanding high wages. And because we can’t play them all, there is deep resentment in the squad. Further, it is now impossible to get rid of them because no one wants to pick up their wages. Even loan deals are near impossible.

What these issues demonstrate is that the club has been egregiously poorly managed for far too long under the leadership of Woodward. Contracts were given out at the sight of a pen, with Ole also benefiting with unwarranted new deals even when it was already clear he wasn’t the man for the job. Woodward is fundamentally the man to blame for this debacle and I fear that it will take good number of years to solve even long after his exit with the squad systematically broken at this point.