I’d actually give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. I could be wrong but I doubt he had any real say in it.
What a mess they’ve made over the years. Long may it continue… 
6 Likes
I watch a decent amount of Serie A, and I was honestly baffled at Onana’s transfer. His distribution with Inter was sound, but that was every bit as much a function of a well-drilled defensive unit as his solid goalkeeping statistics. I have not seen a graph of it, but I am quite sure that he faced a lot of low quality shots (high angle and/or at distance). He definitely had some highlight reel saves, but he also had loads of the kind where the keeper just stands there looking at the ball in the corner.
The only one living in reality there is Rangnick the others are just playing FIFA.
Fixed for accuracy
1 Like
Ole’s are actually quite interesting because other than Kane they were all at much less developed points in their career than it reads now (Halaand and Jude both before they went to Dortmund) where the main limitations would have been a 1) a young player not thinking Utd was the right place for their development and 2) the club not wanting to prioritize projects who were not ready for the size of the job of playing for Utd
Ten Hag really can go fuck himself though. Any complaints about players he didn’t get are immediately invalidated by the fact they did go and get him Anthony. I know people who are wealthy and always complain about how expensive things are and how they don’t have money to do x y and z, without considering all the frivolous shit they do spend their money on. They just cannot grasp that even when having a lot of money you can spend it in a way that exhausts your budget if you dont prioritize and prioritize well.
2 Likes
Fair point
Called it early. 30th of June, to be exact. Fuck knows what United were thinking.
1 Like
Fuckin’ Scouserdamus over here…
Anyway, so happy to be wrong on this. I figured Onana might open things up for them by coming off his line and being a bit more commanding in his box, but it appears he’s just shite.
2 Likes
Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean. Even if he gave his explanation for why he thought it was a good idea it would give us insight into what he thinks went wrong. However, as lacking in detail as those comments are I do think he actually gave us his answer - “he scores goals”.
I’m inclined to believe that was the extent of Ole’s thinking, which then in turn explains the lack of insight into what went wrong. You cannot have any meaningful insight into that if your entire thought process about what it means for things to go right are so one dimensional.
1 Like
He’s not terrible (i.e. Pickford), but he is flawed, and arguably his flaws are more problematic than De Gea’s for the current ManU side. It is also telling that Ajax was resigned to letting him leave on a free in 2022, there was clearly a disconnect between what he thought he would be worth on the open market and what Ajax believed. Granted, Ajax have to be kicking themselves that a year later ManU came in at 40M+, but it doesn’t sound like Ajax believed there was much scope for him improving.
It just seemed an odd move to spend that much for what amounts to a lateral move. Younger keeper, but I would have thought a one year for De Gea and money spent elsewhere would have made more sense for that squad.
2 Likes
You should be getting better keepers from the youth academy than spending so much for Onana
Yeah that’s another oddity here. De Gea had negotiated a new contract with United, and had signed it, before a couple of bad performances caused united to rescind their contract offer and table a MUCH lower offer to him (De Gea).
De Gea was naturally offended at this and decided to just leave - and I can’t say as I blame him. In several of those post-Fergie years, he was far and away their best player, and the only thing keeping them from being a lower-mid-table pile of shite.
They’d have literally been better playing Henderson in goal and spending the money on an older forward to rotate with and help develop Hojlund.
As it is, they’ll probably ruin the kid as well, relying on him to be playing every week because they’ve got no-one else up front.
For a club that have spent such obscene amounts over such a long period, their squad-building is epically shite.
2 Likes
And long may it continue. 
4 Likes
His positioning seems completely off.
To compensate for that he needs a good defence and he hasn’t got that. If you strike it left or right to him you’ll score.
I recognise it as it was one of my lesser qualities, I was told he saved worldies at Inter so maybe it’s a current mindset.
Problem is even when he has time he seems to keep making fuck ups like that first goal.
I don’t think Pickford is as bad as people think he just has T rex arms so his positioning looks far poorer. Saying that he has no other attributes so he is about at his level.
As I’ve said Alisson may have the odd mistake but he is just simply at it 99% of the time in everything he does. He’s complete in that.
2 Likes
