Raja Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 Seeing Saka school Ashley Young was my only solace in that match. How's this kid 18? He's so good at holding off players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 I think Arsenal has decent players, just not sure the tactical system (whatever that may be) suits them. Having Lucas Torreira playing AM is a bit of a joke. All in all, Arsenal is just far too negative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raja Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 Our midfield is such a problem, and that's why we've struggled all season. Till emery sorts it out, and I have little hope he will, we're going to continue to be less than the sum of our parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 11 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said: James has made a very good start at United, especially for the cheapest and least known of three signings in a relatively big transfer window. If James was a youth player coming through while things are going well I'd be delighted with how he's playing, but he's one of the key players in our attack. In that context he's fine, he's doing good, but we're sorely lacking creative imagination and he doesn't improve that. That isn't his fault. We knew, or we should've, what his style is, and we also knew what we were missing. And thing is, it's not totally devoid of positives. McTominay is playing great, and generally we have slowly begun to adapt to trying to control games more rather than just countering, and Solskjaer is working to mitigate the fitness issues rather than bull through them, and it is a very young squad as you say. But he's just slow to make changes both in the game and overall tactically (still persisting with Pogba deep which was a worthwhile experiment for a brief try that just isn't working with the attack as is) which is costing us and the squad, despite the signings we did make being good, is dreadful for depth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 4 minutes ago, polishgenius said: the squad, despite the signings we did make being good, is dreadful for depth. There's a fairly shocking lack of talent in the United squad considering the amount of money they've spent since Ferguson left. Ok they've chopped and changed style of manager so I could understand them having a poorly constructed squad but even with just wildly throwing money at the problem there really should be more quality there for the best part of a billion pounds worth of spending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey Crows Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 3 hours ago, Raja said: Seeing Saka school Ashley Young was my only solace in that match. How's this kid 18? He's so good at holding off players. Right? Such good holdup play. Wait till he has Tierny overlapping with him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 13 hours ago, ljkeane said: There's a fairly shocking lack of talent in the United squad considering the amount of money they've spent since Ferguson left. Ok they've chopped and changed style of manager so I could understand them having a poorly constructed squad but even with just wildly throwing money at the problem there really should be more quality there for the best part of a billion pounds worth of spending. That's simply further evidence of how poorly the football side of things is being run. You don't even need to go back as far as Ferguson's last season. Just compare the United squad now vs the squad going into the 2016/2017 season - in the interim, the club has spent around €400m on transfers. Even a moderately well run club could not spend that much money yet end up with a worse squad than they had 3 seasons ago. 13 hours ago, polishgenius said: But he's just slow to make changes both in the game and overall tactically (still persisting with Pogba deep which was a worthwhile experiment for a brief try that just isn't working with the attack as is) which is costing us and the squad, despite the signings we did make being good, is dreadful for depth. Solskjaer needs to switch back to a 4-3-3 or move Pogba into the #10 position - it's not ideal but you cannot use a 4-2-3-1 with useless #10s. Lingard and Mata contribute practically nothing in terms of goals, assists and chance creation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 42 minutes ago, Consigliere said: Even a moderately well run club could not spend that much money yet end up with a worse squad than they had 3 seasons ago. To be fair, not all of that is down to bad purchases of players. A lot of players have come in with reasonably good reputations but have simply just gotten a lot worse when playing for United. So it's both the transfer policy and the coaching that aren't really working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 1 hour ago, Jeor said: To be fair, not all of that is down to bad purchases of players. A lot of players have come in with reasonably good reputations but have simply just gotten a lot worse when playing for United. So it's both the transfer policy and the coaching that aren't really working. It's the difference between buying players to fit a defined system and buying players because they are good players. It seems to me that there is some sort of belief that at if they can just buy generally talented individuals, the right coach should be able to mould a team around them. Very different to a model where you define a style of play and find players who might fit that style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 1 hour ago, Jeor said: To be fair, not all of that is down to bad purchases of players. A lot of players have come in with reasonably good reputations but have simply just gotten a lot worse when playing for United. So it's both the transfer policy and the coaching that aren't really working. Actually the current squad depth in the midfield and forward line is pretty pathetic when compared to the squad from 3 seasons ago. All of that with €400m invested as well as not having sold any player the club wasn't happy to sell is a scathing indictment on those running the club. When the likes of West Ham, Wolves, Everton and Leicester can all boast better depth in midfield and up front than United can then it's primarily a failure of recruitment. Usually I don't pay attention to anything Graeme Souness has to say but he did make a good point recently saying that the investment in Maguire and Wan Bissaka is money down the drain for this season because United have left the midfield and attack in such a sorry state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse Named Stranger Posted October 1, 2019 Author Share Posted October 1, 2019 The counter argument would be, United needed to buy those players anyway, either this year or next. However he is also right, and that game yesterday was just mediocrity from both United and Arsenal. In a just world they would be finishing the league around 10th position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 I think United will endure our worst season since Moyes (so 7th place or lower). Arsenal have some promising players - they didn't sort out their defence but they have better options in midfield than United and their forward line is orders of magnitude better. Their biggest problem appears to be Emery who so far has failed to implement a system to get the best out of the players at his disposal. All in all, United easily have the worst squad among the top 6. I said it before the season started, a 6th place finish would be the best case scenario. We are more likely to be overtaken by one or more sides that finished below us last season than we are of finishing 6th. This is due to a combination of poor recruitment (especially not replacing outgoing players which has left us lacking in midfield and up front) as well as Solskjaer not being a good enough manager - a more tactically astute manager may have been able to squeeze out more points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 1 hour ago, Consigliere said: their forward line is orders of magnitude better. I'm not sure that's actually true. They are better but when everyone's fit I don't think their attack is better by more over our attack than our defense is over their defense. And their depth in the forward line isn't an awful lot better than ours. I mean, all of us, Arsenal and Chelsea have got problems and I wouldn't be shocked by Leicester in particular and perhaps West Ham finishing above all three, it ain't great, but I don't think there's a massive difference in our squad and the other two. The problem is in large part that they seem to know what they need to be improving and we seem helpless to figure out the extremely obvious problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 45 minutes ago, polishgenius said: I'm not sure that's actually true. They are better but when everyone's fit I don't think their attack is better by more over our attack than our defense is over their defense. And their depth in the forward line isn't an awful lot better than ours. I think it’s pretty fair to say that Auba and Laca are far ahead of Martial and Rashford. I could imagine the Arsenal pair scoring twice as many goals this season from open play as their United counterparts. You’re right that United has a better defense, but the original point was just that the Arsenal forwards are much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 Bayern have properly embarrassed Spurs. eta. number 7 now. Spurs have totally crumbled in the 2nd half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 Seven goals conceded at home. That probably could have gone better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raja Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 Nah, it went exactly how it should have gone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 30 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said: You’re right that United has a better defense, but the original point was just that the Arsenal forwards are much better. Well no, I picked out that line to directly respond to (and yeah it's fair to say that those two are way ahead at the moment but I do think Martial in particular is going to get a few, as much as I have misgivings about him- get him in the box and he can finish for sure) but the rest of it was a response to the whole conversation. Anyway, that was a pitiful collapse from Spurs. Pocchetino must be close to the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philokles Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 Spurs well on top for the first half an hour as well. Thiago coming on changed the game - giving them the control of the midfield after Spurs’ press was wreaking havoc, and providing the perfect assist for Gnabry’s hattrick goal as the cherry on top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 Spurs’ result is a disaster but Real Madrid drawing at home to Brugge is almost as bad. There are some big clubs is disarray at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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