I’m not sure I’d agree with that. We had weaker and stronger sides, underperformed and flattered but failed to deliver but it is really only that side under Hodgson that really was lower mid table bad with a sense of impending Everton syndrome. Nothing in the decline since 1990 before or since has had that level of despair.
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It’s in response to that statement yours. So bad that for many years half our team was non PL level. Some bright spots though as we won some major cups and the O’ Big Ears in that relatively gloomy period.
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Yeah, it’s fucking awful. Rangnick tried to tell United this and they wouldn’t have it.
Amorim is probably smart enough to realise that the only ones with any future are the young academy lads, and it’s going to need close enough to a total rebuild.
The difficulty for him is that there is quite a bit of delusion about the quality of these player amongst the fans and the owners.
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Sorry to keep on this but it wasn’t so many years it was just the Hodgson months (perhaps felt like years). Prior to and since we’ve at least had periods of hope, encouragement and excitement albeit without the consistency for the league title until 2020 and we never plumbed the lows of Woy, which coinciding with the Hicks and Gillette Cowboys, looked like it could send us down a very dark path.
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Might suit Amorim not to change the footballing personnel too quickly, because it could work to his advantage to hold back a few sacrificial lambs, while he adjusts to the demands of his surroundings.
IMO, he needs to get through 2-3 full seasons without getting sacked himself, to have a real chance of creating a successful side… be good (for him) if he still had some excuse to use along the way
Nah, it’s fucking beautiful
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He needs to get his contract extended.
That is usually when shit does hit the fire and managers end up getting sacked for United. After blowing 700m on a “rebuild”
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Not really. Konchesky was crap, but he had a long-ish career in the PL. Poulsen was crap, but he was at the tail of a decent first tier career. Most of the players in the side were PL-grade, just not particularly good. Spearing was a particular sign of the desperation of the times, because he never got another sniff of the PL once he left LFC. The rest of his career was spent at about his level, hence my comment fortunately or unfortunately. It must have been incredibly tough on him.
But that sort of points to what Amorim doesn’t appear to have much of on hand. I think the flawed squad that Klopp had to work with initially had much more to offer that what Amorim has. While I think the ManU side today has far more talent than that sorry 2010/11 LFC side, mentally it is nowhere close. That 10/11 side had players who still remembered how close Rafa had come, and who still worked hard (Kuyt was in that side). By the time Rodgers takes over, it isn’t great, but it still has leadership and it has added Suarez. Still probably not overall the same talent level as ManU has now, but much better positioned to produce improvement.
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Thing is, Amorim is infinitely better as a manager than Hodgson and Man United have incomparably more money and a better academy than that iterration of Liverpool. I think that Amorim doesn’t have a solid basis of the team at the moment but he has a lot of useful parts that he needs to connect - he needs to find out how, though I hope he doesn’t.
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I’d agree with that. The conversation was focused on what Klopp dealt with when he started, but I think Rodgers is probably the more relevant comparison. Amorim has far more to work with than Hodgson if he can get the players to buy in. I just think that is going to be extraordinarily difficult there with that particular mix, it is essentially the Rangnick problem.
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Probably doesn’t help that they’ve just had to pay off Ten Haag, and Sporting for their manager changes.
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Honestly, a period of normal financial constraints wouldn’t be a terrible thing for them. It could be exactly the thing they need to break the habit of thinking their solutions could be found with one more expensive player (with questionable motivation and no consideration for fit)
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When Amorim discusses his Man United career in ten years, sitting down with their in-house Sky Sports TV station, surrounded by PL and CL trophies he’d won with them, they’ll ask him what was the turning point for his club and he’ll say: “So, one day I read a forum post from this guy, Limousine Scouse, and I showed it to club’s directors…”
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If Amorim took my advice or listened to me in any way it would be the first time anyone did.
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“…and ten years later, we still can’t believe that no one was listening to this guy ever…”
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I will start to worry the moment he punts Rashford and Ratface.
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For many of their players, ability or ‘quality’ (not sure how to define that term) isn’t the issue at United. You can see that when they get on one of those winning runs- let’s not forget they’ve been runners up a couple of times in the last decade and that doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s whether the quality they being in is the right fit, but more importantly whether those players have the right attitude. United seem to attract bellends and their mask slips when things aren’t going their way in terms of results. Then the cancer takes hold until the manager is given the boot.
They need to ship on plenty of dick heads and unfortunately for them, most clubs are smarter than United and will steer clear of dick heads; especially dick heads on extraordinary wages.
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The irony of United fans turning on Rangnick when he was only an interim option who was allowed none of his staff.
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