Match Day Thread Men v Boys

I wouldn't keep Maguire Not a chance.

Like I said earlier, there's rot set in. Some are tainted somewhat by it but have the attitude and ability to still overcome it imo (e.g. Sancho, Rashford, Bruno, Fred)

Others are so infected they'll never recover (e.g. Maguire, Lingard, Pogba, Lindelof) Fck 'em get them out.

Are we honestly suggesting losing Maguire is a bigger loss than losing Jaap Stam? Fck that

As for AWB, I don't doubt his ability, just his general demeanour. His season isn't over. He should be busting a gut on the pitch to show he wants to be playing at United. If not, he can fck off n'all.

In fact ALL of them have the next 2 months to show, regardless of what anyone else is doing on the pitch, they are giving 100% and want to be at the club.

 

The team needs to be torn apart completely! It’s no use trying to make this broken team work. For far too long we had allowed egos to creep into the dressing room and formed a negative culture of underachievers with big salaries who still somehow think so much of themselves.

We have had the highest wage bill in the league for years. But when you look at the spirit, pride and work ethic, it just doesn’t match.

I am completely for using U23 players than spending another £1.1bn on oversized egos who do more damage to the club than produce the goods.

Oh yeah, keep Mr Maguire! lol

 

I've said keep Maguire because, as long as he has an actual footballer alongside him, he's useful as an uncultured big thick defender. Steve Bruce to Varane's Pallister if you like.

He needs Varane alongside him though, not a complete and utter pathetic wimp of a man like Lindelof. There was one point during the match yesterday that Lindelof was actually begging de Gea to pass to someone else and not him. Lindelof is not, never has been, and never, ever will be a player of the required ability and bottle to play for United.

He's not alone in that of course.

I didn't mention van De Beek in my post earlier. Forgot about him tbh. Not even sure what's the best approach? Depends who the new manager is I suppose.

He can't be worse than McTominay though. He just can't be, McTominay has pulled the wool over our eyes for too long. Fred might be a headless chicken at times, but at least he puts in effort and doesn't just jog about hiding. McTominay is also never in a million years of the required ability to play in that position for United. Never.

He might make a centre half? Someone needs to put some consideration into that, try him there instead of Lindelof when Varane is injured.

AWB might do well on the right of a back three, and we play wing backs. I've said this loads, it's never been properly tried. Well, Solskjaer actually did a couple of times tbf, and it always worked and he never went back to it.

Three centre halves - AWB, Varane, Maguire
Wing backs in Laird (would have to be Dalot at the moment) and Telles
A midfield three of Fernandes, Fred and (until he ****s off) Pogba (buy someone else next season)
a front two of Elanga (or Ronaldo) and Sancho (or Rashford)

Just try something different for **** sake. Have a ****ing go.

 

I have to agree that the team is now rotten to the core. The stench is overwhelming. It reminds me of the team that was floundering before relegation in 1974. It needed to reach rock bottom before it could rise up again. For far too long the club focused on staying at the top of the financial tree, leaving the footballing side to look after itself.

Get rid of the prima Donnas who are not giving 100% whoever they are. This will mean that the team stays in mid table or even flirt with relegation but if it means a new beginning then would be worth it. The whole culture needs changing and it needed that since Fergie left.

 

Maguire hasn't been the same since his arrest on holiday a while back - his head always seems to be somewhere else.
Fred is our new model Ji Sun Park - energy but little to show for it
Mc Tominay - didn't he start as a defender? Best he reverts there again.
AWB - fine tackler but no product on the wing - as Chief says he would be well suited to a back three
Telles - the jury is still out for me and Shaw is too much of an enigma so bring Williams back, he always put in a good shift
Bruno - he's not been the same since CR arrived, can't put my finger on it.
Rashford - hopefully just a blip and a few goals will get him back on track
Sancho - improving
CR - said it before, I just think he was foisted on Ole, he definitely wasn't part of the plan and certainly isn't banging them in for fun anymore
Taxi for Pogba, Cavani, Matic, Mata (genuinely sorry to see you go) and as for Rangnick - I think Scholes got it back on.

 

This feels very much like when Ferguson came on board when Atkinson left.

Atkinson's team were under achievers, and a bunch of piss heads to be honest.

Ferguson ripped the squad apart, employed some hardworking journeymen, kept some important senior players, and used the 'academy'; Fergies fledglings in the first instance.

He then rebuilt.

We just need to employ the next Alex Ferguson and do it again!

Use the home grown players and bin the prima donnas. Start again.

 

Bruno had been pants long before CR arrived. I would keep him, for sure! He has a fight in him and I’d take that.

Sancho, for sure!

Fred, I’d keep, especially as a squad player.

Elanga, still developing, but a keep.

De Gea…

That’s about it! I’d say goodbye to everyone else. If CR wants to stay and help the new generation, I’d keep him too. Then reboot the culture.

 

I hate to keep saying it but Bruno has been poor for a year, well before Ronaldo arrived...



Look at the difference after the end of last Feb, around the time Pogba got injured.

I remember distinctly he had a poor second half of the season and he's continued the same way this season.

 

That midfield of ours is the biggest area of challenge. It’s never been balanced. Consequently, every good player eventually gets bugged down trying to make it work.

When Pogba leaves in the summer, I’d like to see I’d dig us into the U23 to fill the gap. Look no further than Mejbri. He has progressed well in the last three years and I’d like to see him given the role of Pogba on a more permanent basis. Give the younger talented players a chance to fill those roles. And for the roles that we don’t have the talent for, smartly buy quality players without getting dragged into protracted price war which again brings distraction to the setup.

I would be far more impressed if the next manager takes a good look at what is already at the club in the youth setup to build a new culture from there. Sure, we wouldn’t challenge for the title next season with that approach or even the one after, but it will go a long way toward creating better culture by injecting new hungry players that have shown that they want to rise to the challenge.

 

We won't be anyway.

I'm starting to think it might be a better bet to not get top four, as the level of expectation on these younger players is then lower.

Say, conceptually, we bring back James Garner, Tedgen Menghi, Axel Tuanzebe and Ethan Laird into the first team squad, and get rid of some of the dreadful more senior players now cluttering up the squad.

The europa league is a competition far more suitable for bringing these players through.

If we do somehow qualify for the champions league, we'll be hectically throwing money at big name players with silly wages to try to compte in that comp.

We're better of setting our sights lower for at least next season, and develop players in the less pressurised and lower quality environment.

I know it could well be pie in the sky what we're all wanting the club to do, but if we're set and do this, then I actually think that we can target just three key (finished article) players in the summer window.

Those would be; striker, centre midfield, and centre half (or another centre mid).

All three would need to be 80-100 million bracket buys mind you. That good.

 

I share that sentiment, Chief, that Champions League itself will be a distraction. It has been a distraction for several years now with nothing to show for it. The whole top four qualification is also a false representation of progress. Even if we are to somehow qualify this year which I don’t see, would anyone then honestly say that the team had come of age? We can’t keep peppering the cracks. We absolutely need to go back to 1986.

 

There is no doubt about it, money has ruined the modern game IMO. There is no hunger from the younger players where even a 20yr old can be on £2m a year. After five seasons - still in their mid 20's some of these players can retire, set for life. With everything else set up for him I believe Rashford let himself get distracted too much by his charity work - don't get me wrong I think it is a most worthy cause, but he has been distracted from his football which is what pays the wages -0 the same with Lingard and his fashion nonsense. You can see it wherever you look - Greenwood is another example - no living in digs under Sir Matt or SAF's watchful eye - ne, he's living in a £13k per week rented mansion and, with little or no supervision, found himself deeply in the ****. I know it is impossible to go back to the old ways, the landlady keeping tabs and phoning the gaffer - but it is so hard to keep these youngsters motivated to play when they have so much, so soon in their careers.

 

Dont think Greenwood being a ****ing wrongun is on ronnys head tbh.

The rest is spot on though.

Weird signing anyway, was pure "cant let him go to city" with no thought as to how hed fit in.

 

There’s definitely do not doubt that money has destroyed the game. You see it all over the place in the league with players playing amazing brilliant football one week and the next they bring in Sunday league mentality. It killed consistency.

This is why an absolute strong personality is needed in management position to truly hold players accountable and reinforce that mantra that no player is greater than the club. That is what you have at City, as an example. Pogba should have never been allowed to play for this club for six years. It is a crime that has given his history of constantly undermining the club. Poor Mourinho saw that but ultimately the player won because of Woodward.

We must turn a new page of “club first” before any of these egomaniacs.

 

City under Pep are pretty much going through the same development phase as we did under SAF, the manager has an excellent relationship with the owner and the culture has been moulded, with the owners full backing, in his image, the same can be said to a lesser degree with Klopp. I think the most important step in our development programme has been taken by simply getting rid of Woodward, now we have to find the right manager who can take the whole structure of the club by the neck and sort it out. Get that right and we can be back challenging in a season or three, get it wrong and we could easily find ourselves fighting for 5th or 6th each season like Spurs.

 

I don't buy the millions being paid to youngsters being the problem. It's the wider culture within the club which sets no boundaries, low standards and expectations, and dare I say poor coaching and development.

Look at Foden at City. Trent at Livpl. Even Ben White at Arsenal. They're all young and earning millions, but completely different mentality. It's how they're managed which matters.

I watch a lot of stuff about the club. All old skool podcasts from the likes of Rooney, Scholes, Irwin, Cantona. There's no reference to the club now, they're just talking about their time, lots of stories. One common theme from all of them is that in their day, there was a torch being passed everytime a new player arrived. An expectation, the standards set, the workrate, routines. There was always players there who were passing that on to the next players coming through. There's literally no one at the club now to do that, or that's been there for the past 5 years who can do that. That's the bigger problem.

And by the way, all that came from having a strong manager... and we've been missing one of them too for 9 years.

 

I'd have Iqbal as much if not more, than Hannabal. I've only seen a couple of matches in which they've played recently, but I like both. Also I like that lad on the left - Garnacho, he looks class.

 

Money has a lot to do with our bunch. They all get great contracts without performance to justify it. Then the senior players that are overpaid as well walk around like kings. No discipline! You mix it all up, money is central to our problems. It was way too easy to come by at United.

 

Famous quote from Busby to best after Best told him he had been offered more money elsewhere.

George you are at United you don't have to go looking for money, if you are good enough it will find you here.