The Man Utd thread

[Alright_Now_Legend]

Are you feeling well enough to post your Arsenal prediction?

[SBYM]

Am definitely better than last night.

I had the game on in bed…fell asleep before kick-off.

Woke up…0-1

Woke up at HT 1-1

Woke up…2-1

Didn’t know we’d won 3-1 until this morning…haha

Right…Arsenal…meh, who gives a shit, they ain’t catching us.

[PeachesEnRegalia]

@SBYM

Am definitely better than last night

[Alright_Now_Legend]

[WeeJoe]

@KY_TNRed

Also hate this whole “rashford has to fight for his spot” shit from Amorium. Rashford is one of the highest paid earners in the premier league. If he’s not training like a professional on his wages should be, then just pull a Maresca with sterling and say you’re not welcome here. Find a new club. Going back and forth in the media like rashford can find a way back just makes him look weak. He’s picked his scapegoat, he needs to have some ruthlessness and burying him at this point

It’s so fucking stupid and counterproductive. It’s not Rashford’s fault that he earns so much. That’s on the dickheads that gave him the contract that put him in the bracket of the world’s best players. The reality is that he’s a decent PL forward that got carried along in the systemic shitshow

[The_Phenom]

@cynicaloldgit

No. The Premier League needs a strong midtable Manchester United.

Fixed.

[RedOverTheWater]

I think Amorim is virtually untouchable this season. They were crap when he came in. The culture was bad when he came in. And he hasn’t had a chance to shape his team or squad yet.

He has had an opportunity to coach them and try to get a tune out of them, and hopefully even get some sort of new manager bounce. But we haven’t seen that, and his record is poor so far.

Still, I do think he is virtually untouchable this season (relegation notwithstanding) because he is the Ineos man. They brought a group of minds together to overhaul the footballing operation, and he was their considered choice. Therefore I think he will receive a lot of patience.

Mind you, I honestly thought he would do much better than this, and might have even had them hoping for that fourth CL spot in a season where Man City are falling apart.

Maybe he isn’t all that after all, but I think they will stick with him for a while.

[Arminius]

That is where the bizarre persistence of ManU fan hubris comes into play. The pressure is going to build very quickly to make some kind of move, and there aren’t many options. Fire one of the guys that decided to get rid of Ashworth? Sign an aging big name to a big contract? At some point, managers get fired because they are the easiest way to hit a Reset button, even if that doesn’t actually get a club any closer to a solution.

Guys like Amorim and Ten Hag really have to have some perspective (and maybe they do - financially neither will likely ever need to work again) - managers at that ‘about to break through’ stage can lose that status amazingly quickly. Remember when Alex Neil was the Next Big Thing? Got Norwich promoted, relegated, fired the next season. He went from being mentioned in connection with big jobs to Preston North End, Sunderland, and Stoke - and I don’t think he is working now.

[The_Phenom]

The first United boss to lose five or more of his first ten matches since Walter Crickmer in 1932 - that’s Amorim!
He had “no idea” how long it would take to revive the team - that’s also Amorim!!

[RER]

The one good think for him is this year looks like its going to be the lowest points total to stop up the 40 point mark is more like 33 for me.

[JU97ICE]

So, is it down to Amorim’s tactics and setup that they are in this position? Or are the players not being responsive to the new manager’s hard line? Or a bit of both?

It seems to me that Amorim’s approach is what is needed at a club in their state. The manager needs to either stimulate the “agitators” to have some fight - and boy do they have some agitators - or he needs to move them on… The latter an impossible task based on United wages. There is no new-manager-bounce precisely because he isn’t mollycoddling the players like every previous manager has done, or allowing them to think they are ‘just off the pace’.

IMO this should be the start of the (loooong) recovery if the entire hierarchy was singing from the same hymn sheet as Amorim. Sadly (happily) that is not this United hierarchy. They will change direction the second the fans get offside with the coaching methods.

I don’t necessarily agree either that United must follow the same approach that we started putting in place under Kenny and Bodgers. Yes they absolutely need to have a grown-ups wage structure instead of the absolute randomness they currently dish up with new signings, yes they need to lower their sights on signings and find mid to upper-mid level players that will come to earn their position instead of targeting high end players who, with their agents, see United as a Whale they can exploit for a long contract and a coasting career. It’s no surprise that their list is chockers with toxic personalities that refuse to do the hard graft.

But I also don’t think they need to start at the bottom with kids. We were in that position because of our financial issues. Sure, United have financial issues but nothing like we saw ourselves in. They can throw money at the situation., provided they do it in the right way and don’t announce to the world that their money is there for the taking like they’ve previously done.

[redalways]

@Arminius

Remember when Alex Neil was the Next Big Thing?

No, and that proves your point exactly.

The one I will never forget though is Villas-Boas.

[Sweeting]

I’d love to know what attitude Rashford is showing in training that is so bad that a rapist can get in the squad ahead of him.

[koptician]

@redalways

The one I will never forget though is Villas-Boas.

Yeah I’m getting a whiff of AVB from him.

[redalways]

@Sweeting

a rapist can get in the squad ahead of him

It’s United. That’s part of the criteria to be in the squad it seems.

If we ever had someone who was a rapist I would hope the club get rid of them right away.

[redalways]

I don’t know much about either of them, all I remember is that Villas-Boas was a fan of ridiculously high defensive lines, and he went to China not long after he turned 40, which is not usually a great sign for a promising manager…

I don’t know if Amorim has it in him to be a good/great manager, but it seems as though it’s something that wouldn’t really show at United anyway. Joke of a club.

[koptician]

It’s that same trait, used players in a system unsuited to them (substitute that high defensive line for 3 at the back).

Can’t get around the fact that they have bought shockingly badly over an extended period of time. But no attempt to at least tread water until the postseason. He probably shouldn’t have come until the end of the season.

[Sithbare]

@koptician

Can’t get around the fact that they have bought shockingly badly over an extended period of time. But no attempt to at least tread water until the postseason. He probably shouldn’t have come until the end of the season.

It’s Disneyland.

No matter how much they suck , they are going to get the commercial revenue (for the foreseeable future).

Everything they do is geared towards them maximising that.

[koptician]

@Sithbare

Everything they do is geared towards them maximising that.

Rather ironic isn’t it. This is what I remember we used to moan about the Mancs having an undeniable advantage over us in the transfer market. We got left behind at the advent of the PL by their commercial dealings (and our decline on the pitch).
But that frankly monstrous commercial success attracted the likes of the Glazers who started that rot

[toro]

Goldbridge having a serious conversation about the chances of ManU getting relegated is peak Glazers.

At least thus far.