Can't play false nine nonsense as Mount is injured, so hopefully he gives Zirkzee a start. Reckon he'll play safe with his usual formation of 4 2 3 1, although I would personally like a 3 at the back with wing backs, I just think it would add solidity. My own team would be; Onana Martinez, Maguire, de Ligt as back three. Dalot and Mazaroui and wing backs. Casemiro, Fernandes and Mainoo midfield three. Garnacho (or Amad) and Zirkzee front two. We'll see. Will be watching from behind the sofa.
What a fkin joke!!! I’ve always said that the way he prepares and sets up the team is flat out flawed! The midfield is nonexistent and the excuses are idiotic too. And he keeps playing players that are now error prone. No one can even say confidently we would score a goal. All that money just wasted! What a fkin joke!
Rashford! Gets the ball and goes backwards with it. What a moron! Now that “McSHYT” is gone, the midfield looks devoid of a soul.
The sooner the manager is gone, the better it will be for this team that is flushed with so much resources than it knows what to do with.
The actual evidence of watching that game has provided your answer. Talk about an elephant in the room, how does that spoofer get into the team ffs?!?
3 games in, give it a few weeks to settle. Ugarte in, Casemiro on the bench. Rashford out (forever hopefully) Amad in. Or even Antony! Hojlund in ahead of Zirkzee. We won't play Liverpool every week.
Taking Garnacho off and leaving Rashford on the pitch is a sacking offence - what planet is ETH on. We have a potentially dynamic trio up front in Garnacho, Amad and Zirksee, yet he persists with plodder Rashford who did nothing, nothing positive today.
And don't get me started on casimero - what a **** show that was, any goodwill he had in the tank has evaporated and the sooner he goes the better.
The honest truth is that we were second best on the day. Take Casimero's two howlers out of the equation and the result could well have been completely different, we were playing well, Liverpool upped the tempo but we were coping well and looked good on the counter, but those two goals changed the game completely, so much so that I don't think it is a true reflection of where we are as a side at this moment in time. There were a lot of positives, our defence looked solid and Zirksee covers a lot of ground and is a genuine goal threat, once Hojlund is back, should we go for two up front we should increase our goal tally. Nobody wants to lose to the dippers so early in the season, especially at home, but take Casimero and Rashford out of the side and we can hold our own I reckon.
Chief, we’ve lost 2 out of 3. We were playing Liverpool at home and we couldn’t even get a consolation goal. We barely won against Fulham at home. We can’t keep moving the goal posts with excuses. It’s appalling! I admire your positive outlook. But the writing had been on the wall since preseason (if we want to discount last season). The players regardless of who they are can’t simply play themselves into displaying world class qualities in this current system. This is why all our players look below average. As I’ve maintained, giving ETH more money to spend is turning into a cardinal sin. Every player that we have brought in gradually turns out to be average because the system makes it so. Ineos need to be brave and make the right call before the season gets away from us.
Having watched the game again, with the benefit of hindsight it is easy to see that casimero was off his game from the outset, he gave the ball away cheaply twice in the first ten minutes and also missed a few critical tackles in midfield. Nev had already picked up on him in commentary so clearly an off day all round rather than a few brain farts at key moments in the game. At least we now have Ugarte, so hopefully Casimero can sort himself out or court some arab money and leave before their window shuts. .
I'm not moving the goal posts, I stated a fact that this is the 3rd game of a long season and to be already calling for Ten Hag's head is borderline ludicrous. The thing is this, they looked for a replacement in summer and couldn't find anyone suitable. Who is now available since that search? Southgate! Is this what we want? No, course we don't. Ten Hag has to be given this season, or to at least Christmas, and if things don't improve then they give him the boot, absolutely no doubt. Yesterday, a player having a very bad day cost us the game, the first two goals. We'd had a couple of decent chances prior to that and were in the game, creating opportunities that a decent final ball could have led to a goal. Some further training together and these passes will start to find the right person, and goals should come. Once those goals went in our heads dropped, which is the biggest issue for me in all this, the fact they fold so easily. This needs to be worked on hugely, but the reality is, at that point we had Mainoo and Collyer at the centre of midfield, and they were over ran. Hopefully Ugarte can help out there, Mount when fit, and Casemiro occasionally from the bench. Mainoo is too young to be the midfield focal point every game. I'd have said, with hindsight, Eriksen could have replaced Casemiro for his experience, but then he is also shot so maybe not! (I do wonder whey we had to sell McTominay to fund Ugarte when Chelsea can seemingly spend whatever the **** they want, but that's another story) Next game is Southampton, so a nice chance to get some form going., If we're **** in that game against palpably the worst team in the league then yes, he'd need to go. I dread the thought of Southgate stepping in though, I think it would finish me off.
It’s not 3 games in though. We are in the 3rd year of the so-called project. But can anyone sincerely say that we are any better off now than ETH’s first three games in charge? Obviously nothing will support such position. Also, the notion that more time is needed is quite absurd. In modern football, ETH has had it extremely good. To make matters worse, during his time at United, many teams have got better and replaced us in the top four/five. His interviews have alluded to the fact that he agrees with Rangnick that the team needed a surgery. Comments like that are hallmark of a man who isn’t taking full accountability for what the team is.. in his image! The approach of micro analyzing each game and stating reasons for losing that one game has already started again. We are now claiming it is because one player had a bad day. Or because another player is injured. This has been the case for us for a very long time. Again, we have become a team of excuses. It is always one thing or another. To suggest ETH needs another season is simply not acceptable for the kind of investment he’s had in the last few years. We are again the one team that finds it so hard to replace a manager because we like to tell ourselves that no one is available. This again is another example of how we have become a team of excuses. I suspect ETH will get no more than ten games this time around. There will be no Christmas stay if we don’t go on a convincing run improved performances.
"Speaking to reporters before the Liverpool game, both chief executive Omar Berrada and sporting director Dan Ashworth confirmed that even in the event of a heavy defeat to Liverpool, the Dutchman still had their backing" Like myself before that match, I was dreading the match as it was clear we had very little chance of winning it before the ball was kicked. No hindsight needed. I very much doubt that Berrara and Ashworth will be sitting idle and confident during the international break.
It's three games into this season. The Ineos lot won't be concerning themselves with anything but that at the minute, **** the media they can drone on as much as they want. I don't believe they will be looking to sack him so soon into a season when they really could have changed him in the summer. They chose not to. The only (massively worrying) difference is that Southgate is now available. That bloke is no more than a proven failure though. As said before, if we stink the place out against Southampton then it's a different story, but the aim is never to win the league this season, that's completely unrealistic, it's to take the next step. We aren't even currently signing league title winning players, we're building a squad. I genuinely think we're only in the running for top four and another trophy, be that domestic and/or the EL. On current evidence, it's fourth at best, along with the like of Newcastle and Villa etc., so still a battle. Ineos are rebuilding top to bottom, I don't think ten Hag is being held culpable for everything right now, as the media would try to pound us into believing he is.
I don’t think this is a media induced sense of discontentment. We are fooling ourselves if we think this is just all about the media. We are effectively a laughing stock. The media can do whatever they hell they want, we don’t control that. But the very thing that we can control through our performances, we have shown no signs we are capable of controlling it. And there is no doubt that Ten Haag is flat out culpable. Come to think of it, I wish Ole had this much support in investments and in overall vote of confidence. He never did! We all wanted him gone so badly! If we take it another step back, do you think Mourinho would put out a team out from what I believe is abundance of players available and not win 25 out of 38 games? I am certain he would absolutely nail the top two finish consistently. The two worrying trends right now under ETH 1. The squad is mentally weak. They have no fight in them. 2. Even the talented players more often than not start to look very average. Those two are reflection of the manager. I’d go as far as to suggest I doubt the players have any faith in him as their leader given how they perform for him.
It's just three games in, the points total that matters is at the end of the season. We've had many a crappy start to a season down the years, none of which really impact on our final place in the table. Casimero had a bad day, that caused us to lose shape and confidence on the ball - **** happens, it doesn't set the pattern for the next game or the rest of the season, if it did we might as well give City the trophy now and cancel the rest of the season. It will come good, we have a varied but not too taxing list of upcoming fixtures to remedy the situation.
How can we blame it all on Casemiro? We didn’t even look like scoring a goal. Liverpool had more shots than us ffs! It wasn’t a day off either. It’s a pattern that has been there for there for under 14 months. I really don’t think we are being honest if we are sitting here saying it’s only three games. The optics aren’t looking good.
Yes, three more shots. We had the same as Liverpool on target. If you wants to use a stats, at least use one that actually backs up your argument. If we base this on stats, then it was an equal game, bar goals actually scored.
