EPL 2022/23

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

5 minutes ago, pozbaird said:

The Sky commentary duo have pretty much dispensed with commentating on what they’re watching, and have gone full-pelt ‘Manchesssterunited in crisis’ mode.

Game was over after half an hour. Might as well begin the post mortem.

[pozbaird]

Just now, Jim McLean's Ghost said:

Game was over after half an hour. Might as well begin the post mortem.

Good point, well made.

[Jambomo]

Well that was superb. De Gea MOTM for me.

[Distant Doonhamer]

38 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

The commentators have turned on Rashford

He's been stealing a wage for months now.

He's not alone in that of course.

[Deanburn Dave]

Manchester United are in a shambles.  As Gary Neville said every player they are wanting just had an extra "0" added to their transfer fee.  

 

[Aufc]

Eriksen died for a number of minutes a few years ago and I reckon he would still say signing for Man Utd Is the worst thing to happen to him in this time

[senorsoupe]

Man United getting embarrassed will never not be funny.  2 games in and the Ten Haag revolution is already in shambles

[pub car king]

That club must be a fucking mess overpriced shite players on big contracts that they'll never shift and all the time their stock is drastically tumbling getting turned down by more and more players. 

Ten Haag is in a world of shite there but I don't ma y who do better in fairness. 

He won't last til halloween at this rate and it'll all begin again. 

[GNU_Linux]

Wankchester Ushited

[TheScarf]

Penchester Pooshited.

[senorsoupe]

1 hour ago, pub car king said:

That club must be a fucking mess overpriced shite players on big contracts that they'll never shift and all the time their stock is drastically tumbling getting turned down by more and more players. 

Ten Haag is in a world of shite there but I don't ma y who do better in fairness. 

He won't last til halloween at this rate and it'll all begin again. 

Man United have been an overhyped mess for the best part of a decade.  Even in Ferguson's last couple of seasons the squad wasn't that amazing but Fergie's managerial skill and overall presence dragged them to the title.

[Diamonds are Forever]

2 hours ago, Michael W said:

A bang average player that escaped a lot of criticism last season on account of his off-field activities.

The same problem continues to apply despite another change of manager: a lot of average/middling players on massive wages that they struggle to offload and terrible signing strategies meaning they paid a lot money for many of those average/middling players. 

There seems to be an ongoing delusion from Man Utd fans that the players will improve under a new manager, and they keep believing it despite it continually not happening. 

 

This is spot on and is what I find bizarre about it all. I hadn't really paid much attention to their transfer dealings over the summer but sat down to watch their match with Brighton last week, looked at their starting line-up and immediately knew that it would be another season like the previous ones because their squad is still dreadful. Success in football always has and always will be largely down to recruitment. Klopp had to bring in his own players at Liverpool, same with Guardiola at City, same with Ferguson at Utd and every other successful manager I can think of. Coaching and tactics will provide the edge needed to a group of capable players. But the idea that anyone could take this group of Man Utd players, add a couple of average players and expect them to suddenly improve is ridiculous. They literally don't have a single player in their first 11 who would get in City and Liverpool's. Perhaps more concerning, they have many players who wouldn't get a game for Arsenal or Spurs type teams, and a few who are even worse than that. As they seem to be finding now the worse you get the harder it is to attract players so you get stuck in a vicious cycle of overpaying for inferior players because the best players have no interest. It really is great to watch.

[vikingTON]

3 hours ago, The Master said:

A big part of the problem is that he’s been left with the same core group of players who have been utterly shite for the past few seasons. 

If Man Utd have any hopes of competing they need a complete clear out and a manager with a blank cheque. 

This literally never happens at any genuinely professional level of the game though. You can't just miraculously clear the decks in June like playing an LMA Manager game with a cheat code. You have to make progress with the leftovers you're given. 

I think ten Haag is a decent manager but whether he is the right choice for this type of job is highly questionable. He's looking every inch a baldy fraud right now. 

[Diamonds are Forever]

9 minutes ago, virginton said:

This literally never happens at any genuinely professional level of the game though. You can't just miraculously clear the decks in June like playing an LMA Manager game with a cheat code. You have to make progress with the leftovers you're given. 

I think ten Haag is a decent manager but whether he is the right choice for this type of job is highly questionable. He's looking every inch a baldy fraud right now. 

 

And what makes this even worse for Utd is that almost all their players are playing at the biggest club they will ever play at and are on the biggest contracts they will ever get, so they wont be moving on anywhere.

You need clubs with more money than sense like PSG with their rumoured interest in Rashford. But most clubs that would be interested in Maguire, Fred, McTominay, Shaw, AWB etc aren't going to pay them what they are getting now and probably aren't going to be of interest to the players, particularly when they are playing most weeks, so why would they leave? They have rubbish players who don't want to leave and good players don't want to join them. It's a huge problem for them and I don't really see a solution.

[AMMjag]

The best thing they can do is cut their budget and appoint some mug for 1-2 years to take the flak while they attempt to clear out the dross - when this process is complete, go all Galactico on the coaching and playing staff. This should have been what the Solksjaer appointment was about, but they seemed caught on the pretense that he was some great saviour and ambassador of their 'traditions' and 'history'. 

If they're intent on trying to sign their way out of trouble and forcing this bald football philosophy on the squad, then priority 1A has to be a new goalkeeper who can pass a ball - De Gea is not the sole cause, but seems to be the root cause of the terror that Man Utd always play with. It's amazing to think that they could once have had £80-90m + Keylor Navas for him and actually said no to this. 

It's all downright tremendous entertainment though and I'll be on the phone to Sky on Monday to voluntarily double my monthly subscription fee.

 

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

Once you pay £80m for Harry Maguire everyone knows you are there to be ripped off.

[Scotty Tunbridge]

Give it to Big Sam till end of season.

[Theroadlesstravelled]

That first and second goal. 

“Whit’s the goalie daeing?”

[eez-eh]

Just clocked it on MOTD - looks like The Premier League were handing out “30 years” badges to all the managers to wear on the touch line.

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

This is spot on and is what I find bizarre about it all. I hadn't really paid much attention to their transfer dealings over the summer but sat down to watch their match with Brighton last week, looked at their starting line-up and immediately knew that it would be another season like the previous ones because their squad is still dreadful. Success in football always has and always will be largely down to recruitment. Klopp had to bring in his own players at Liverpool, same with Guardiola at City, same with Ferguson at Utd and every other successful manager I can think of. Coaching and tactics will provide the edge needed to a group of capable players. But the idea that anyone could take this group of Man Utd players, add a couple of average players and expect them to suddenly improve is ridiculous. They literally don't have a single player in their first 11 who would get in City and Liverpool's. 

While I agree with the gist of your post, I'd push back on this. Jordan Henderson was every inch a Harry Maguire level butt of jokes when Klopp took charge at Liverpool. Rodgers had just poisoned the well by blaming "the transfer committee" for sabotaging his side - the same recruitment system that has got far more right than wrong since. 

Failing to compete head to head against Man City, Liverpool, or Tottenham now is not under the current manager's control. Getting demolished by Brighton and Brentford in successive games is though. They could have improved on last year by simply flat-track bullying exactly that tier of clubs - they haven't done that since Mourinho left and are clearly going backwards fast. 

53 minutes ago, AMMjag said:

The best thing they can do is cut their budget and appoint some mug for 1-2 years to take the flak while they attempt to clear out the dross - when this process is complete, go all Galactico on the coaching and playing staff. This should have been what the Solksjaer appointment was about, but they seemed caught on the pretense that he was some great saviour and ambassador of their 'traditions' and 'history'. 

This is probably the most logical solution but it would never happen of course. I think they're back to being the rolling circus that they were before Ferguson.

While they're not the most reprehensible club in England, growing up in an era of football where Man United were totally dominant and arrogance personified means that their current plight will never not be funny to me. Same goes for Arsenal to a lesser degree of historical success.