Bruno 10
Maguire 8
AWB 8
Cavani 8
Sancho 7 (too early to really judge, though)
Van de Beek 6 (not a mistake to buy him, but a mistake to not play him more often)
James 7 (he worked hard and for a moment he scored good goals, but we were right to sell him, too)
Telles 7 (only rated well because of his impact on Shaw)
Ronaldo 7-8 (too early to really judge, though)
Varane 9 (too early to really judge, though)
Generally his recruitment has been excellent, especially compared with the past decade.
Don’t disagree with your ratings — as you noted, in a number of cases it’s too early to tell. That said, I have started to sense United fans getting frustrated with Bruno this season; they’ve even remarked things like “he just waves his arms around and gets petulant” (no shit) and seem to think he plays as an individual rather than for the team (again, no shit). Between his penalty technique and the fact that he was an unknown commodity, he was able to be pretty productive in his first ~16 months or so, but (even considering his opening-day hat-trick) he’s been pretty much missing this year. I think he’s got some ability, but I think he was slightly overhyped because of his stat-padding, and perhaps this is the regression to the mean.
Fun fact: This season, Salah has more hat-tricks at Old Trafford than Ronaldo (0) and the same as Bruno (1).
I saw that stat and it got me thinking how “greatest manager in the world” can lose that much to an inferior side while Klopp’s record against Ole is comparatively much better (3W, 1L, 3D). I think it’s down to Klopp being willing to tailor his gameplan to beat the opponent (as I believe one should) versus Pep’s MO that “don’t give a shit what they’ll do, we’ll just overwhelm them with our talent.” Thank fuck for that!
I didn’t really refer to the eagle, but the bundle of sticks and axe that the eagle is holding in it’s feet. Bad use of example picture from me probably since it is not super obvious. But just to clarify misunderstanding; i refer to this (not that this is important):
I think Clyne was better both defensively and offensively. Although , I haven’t watched a great deal of him. I guess another person who should be embarrassed by Sunday’s game is Southgate - all that nonsense at the end of the season about which RB to take to the Euro’s.
I think this is the sort of role where way too much of it happens in the background for us as outsiders to have any real sense of the quality of the appointment, or even the sense in the rationale for it. When you look at how they are describing the role, it’s not a great stretch to think he might have the ability to do it well.
They appointed a Football Director who has overall control, and Fletcher reports to him, along with a separate guy responsible for negotiating the contracts of existing players and prospective new signings. The way they describe it is…He will focus on a co-ordinated and long-term approach to player and squad development, helping maintain the integral link between the Academy and the first team, aligned with Manchester United’s values and culture. As a not-particularly talented player who carved out an exceptional top level career for himself, I think he is exactly the sort of profile of ex player who might have good insight in this role, and something that will have been bolstered for this specific role with his last couple of years coaching in their academy. Will he be any good? No idea, but I know we as outsiders cannot really judge it.
The concern Id have as a Utd fan is not about this appointment, or even Murtough’s appointment (the Football director), but why Woodward keeps extending his fucking off date. What is happening with their transition for him to find he’s unable to step away?
My posts got mixed up. As stated before, I was willing to bend on the ratings a bit but they’ve definitely gone down over the weekend. I’d have given Bruno a 10 for his initial impact but his penalty is still in orbit. AWB is not terrible but not world class, though 8 is a bit generous, would take Clyney over him at present. Maguire was OK last year but has been horrendous this year. Varane is an upgrade but ain’t nowhere near Virgil, and the fact they think he is is amazing levels of delusion.
Ego. He has been said to love “doing deals” even though he’s not great at them. Keep him in a job as long as he wants.
Their fans are deluded. If the players rate so highly, how come they are miles off the pace in the league? And how come we battered them 5-0 while also managing to rest for over half an hour?
If Ole’s recruitment is excellent (it isn’t) what are they trying to say? The players have no character or fight? The coaching is awful?
