Match Day Thread Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur

I made this assertion a couple years back, but Stan wouldnt hear of it.
It was the case under Van Gaal too.
You had attacking talent like Di Maria, Falcao, Mata, Rashford, Rooney etc, but weren't scoring any goals. Because the whole team was compensating for the fact that you had players like Smalling, Jones et all in defence.

Why on Earth Woodward never tabled a bid for Alderweireld or Maguire is beyond me!

 

Yeah, been obvious for a good few seasons. Even Fergie knew it and changed his approach once the best he was allowed to afford were Smalling and Jones.

As for the latter, it's clear it's now at dick measuring stage. Mourinho wanted a centre half, Woodward refused.

We'll see who wins but Woodward needs to know that no United fan buys his approach one bit and would side on Mourinho's half every day of the week.

Bar the few who have been brainwashed into believing the Glazers are anything but a cancer.

 

Don't normally quote stats as they can be twisted to suit agenda's but there are some quite interesting ones in this article

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...ight-to-defend-manchester-united8217s-display

 

Really?

 

What seems strange to me is that if the likes of lindelof ate struggling so much and we haven't signed a Toby etc why not utilise some youngsters?

This is one of my biggest issue with where we are today with Mourinho.

Now I appreciate not all youngsters will be brilliant but in the past we have had some who did a job. Ffs even macheda did well in a game or two and he is in serie c or something now

We had 15 youngsters make debuts with lvg. Not many have gone on to big things but pretty much all did a job. Borthwick Jackson tfm tuanzebe etc etc

Jose needs to start being a proper manager and start looking at these youngsters

 

Mourinho doesn't do youngsters I am afraid.
Never has, never will.
One of the many frustrations we had with him at Chelsea, in both of his stints with us.

 

This is starting to become apparent and I thought it was a bit of a cliche to be honest.

That and the three year meltdown, which is also becoming apparent!

But Fan is correct, I've already stated a couple of times somewhere on this and the prem forum, that we should have kept TFM and Tuanzebe at the club, bought Alderweireld or Maguire, and then got rid of Rojo, Jones and Smalling.

Our centre of defence has been bang average for far too long.

 

I would say that we need go get over labeling the Glazers the devils. It's been over 13 years and by any measure, United has been very successful in that era.

As for Woodward and Mourinho over a defender; I am siding with Woodward here. In my opinion, Mourinho has already spent far too much in his first two seasons that we should not be this desperate. It shows the glaring cracks in his style of talent acquisition. Further, we keep shipping promising players out on loan. Fosu is the one that I can't seem to understand. He looked so good under van Gaal, but has now been reduced to a shadow of himself. Why is the solution to problems on the field always about spending and more spending with a first team already full of World Cup stars?

Mourinho's number one problem is his inability to be resourceful. When he doesn't get what he wants, he turns into pouty petulant man. If I may borrow your word, Mourinho is the cancer right now. We are now seeing the impact of his unwarranted negativity from preseason.

I am certain that this squad is good enough to challenge. But with a leader in sour Mourinho, the players are psychologically fkd.

Perhaps if Mourinho is somehow able to take a hard look in the mirror and confront his own demons that are tearing this team apart, then maybe, just maybe, there is a chance he can inspire, rebuild confidence of the team and start turning it around. I am hopeful!

 

They're leeching ****s pal.

You can get over it by all means but that fact will remain with me, thanks.

 

I used to disagree with this stance when I saw the money being thrown at players

I have changed my stance though and wonder if we have become what I used to say about arsenal. Which was basically coming 4th, some progress in CL etc ensuring a decent amount of money coming in and Wenger happy to buy cheap and make a profit. Only one losing out was the fans

At UTD now we are seriously pulling in the wonga from all sorts of places from noodles to trucks in China.

Money on pogba etc is about maximising profits (I am sure shares go up etc too when we buy big) . It was explained to me but I am not a finance kind of person

We as fans see a struggling team but financially we been doing good and so I agree with chief

 

For me, and I don't disagree with you, there was always the issue about the teams themselves. So at Chelsea I could see method in the madness of buying older established players because the club needed to rise and rise quickly and money was there.

I also believed we needed this at utd because Imho SAF left a PL winning team but it was weak and shouldn't have won really. It needed a lot if work and likes of cleverly were not going to be the next level. Genius of saf really

I think Moyes messed up big time but lvg had not a lit to work with imo and did ok and for one liked his philosophy of players changing it in the pitch. Something saf did

With Mourinho an dhiw we are as a club I was hoping he would get a chance to be a coach and manager and thought that was the attraction for him too. But no and I don't believe he does his meltdowns to protect the team or the players (as was always peddled by media when he was at Chelsea). I genuinely believe he is all about the me and would sell anyone to get blame off himself

 

That point is on tha money! If LvG had the same pocket to spend as Mourinho has in the past two years, I really do believe something great would have come out of it. He gave quite a lot of our young players confidence to get out there and perform. But fans always disrespected him. Even on this board we gave him names such as coward. In a way, we got what we deserve in Mourinho but fans have not been brave enough to apply the same treatment of contempt. Perhaps we've learned our lesson.

 

Yeah I agree. Lvg was hard done by. But iirc even Moyes wasn't really trusted with money and players he wanted

Imho I think after saf (and Moyes which I do believe was a mistake) an LVG was perfect to keep us ticking until the next long term replacement. Which wasn't Jose.

For me a couple of years in mid table was more acceptable than what I see now and if we keep swapping and changing and making these on the whim purchases we will do a Liverpool despite having money

 

RESPECT.