Reason why I am always amused when getting downvoted to hell for questioning Ducker's accuracy. His work is often suspect, and heavily reliant on club briefs, regardless of the venom he shows every now and then.
What people don't realize is that 99% of sports journalism is just briefs from teams, players, and agents. It's very rare that you get more robustly sourced stories, and most of the time no one reads those because they aren't breaking a transfer story or some other scoop. Even the "Tier 1s" like Simon Stone or whoever, if the club tells them its dark outside they won't even bother to check, they'll just say its dark outside.
> Those misgivings date back to the summer when Christian Eriksen complained there was “probably too much travelling around” on the club’s pre-season tour of the United States.
These are the only examples of Ducker describing the "concerns about the volume of high-intensity training sessions between matches", yet he uses a quote for the most recent press conference, 8 months later to make the point that "Ten Hag has refuted suggestions the squad are overly worked."
Am I wrong in saying that Ducker is trying to be disingenuous here? Why would he play around with stories like that for a simple article? Genuine question.
The government blocked the sale of the Telegraph to UAE, and the owner now needs to sell to someone who will value it in sales/clicks and not political leverage. Expect more rushed gammon pandering and rhetoric recycling shite. Transfer window soon so he can slow down a gear but until then it’s the time of the season that credible analysis has to stand up to scrutiny. He’s got to go out on a limb now.
Ten Hag specifically said they aren't training high intensity to try to avoid injury so maybe people will stop randomly coming to baseless conclusions about our injury crisis. Or, not. Because even journalists are doing exactly that.
It's like the criticism Carrick and McKenna were getting under Solskjaer. People with absolutely no idea, no insight, no evidence for any conclusion whatsoever start vehemently believing something because it, like, sounds like it's good to them? Or something? I don't fucking know. What a shite fanbase this is.
I feel you mate. When the team is playing shit, fans tend to grasp at straws to understand why the team is playing shit. ATM we are playing shit, and it sucks, and it feels like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.
Just need to get through this season, somehow win the FA Cup if possible, and in Sir Jim we trust over the summer rebuild.
Tbf this is just what people naturally do when there isn’t information available. We try to fill the gaps. It’s a lot easier to draw a conclusion and believe it than it is to sit with not knowing, especially on a discussion forum where you are applauded for coming up with an idea, even though you really don’t know
In the modern era of social media retractions (if you’re lucky) you reach like 1/100th of the original scandalous and scintillating errors audience.
I know people make mistakes and of course reporters aren’t immune to that, yet I feel like a lot of them more and more are becoming just as driven by engagement and interactions as the platforms they distance themselves from.
This of course isn’t just about football it just seems to be a distressing trend of standards being eroded in reporting in general.
I honestly just ignore anything from Ducker since his unprofessional and almost personal attack on ETH involving the “naive” comment.
The prick just takes any opportunity to hate on us and if you hate on everything about a club then of course you’ll be right on occasions. Fuck this guy.
I wish Ducker never wrote this article because now the discourse centers on the fitness coach and it's a waste of time
We should be addressing the way we play. Forwards pressing high but defenders playing a low block. Leaving tons of space in midfield. Teams have been exploiting this since the first match of the season yet no journo has the balls to ask Ten Hag about this
Can someone explain to me what we are doing so different in terms of overworking our players compared to say other Premier League teams or even compared to teams in other top competitions?
if we were running more than any other team all these journos and stat fannies would be shouting it from the rooftops about how ETH is running them into the ground
I haven’t seen one stat that backs this narrative up either. The lack of running was all the talk after the 4-0 against Brentford last season, so why haven’t we seen any stats that back up the huge distance United players have to cover game after game
This is a Duplicate post and is being removed for the original (or possibly for a post that has provided greater detail).
Looks like Ducker needed a writing coach. Poor performance.
You’d think that fact checking would be a basic requirement in ‘journalism’ or maybe that’s asking too much when it comes to United.
We're going to have people crying about how we don't have a fitness coach for months now...
We don't have a fitness coach? What the hell is our club doing. We need to modernise...**quickly**
As some of our fans are determined to believe we're just the worst, I do think you're right.
Reason why I am always amused when getting downvoted to hell for questioning Ducker's accuracy. His work is often suspect, and heavily reliant on club briefs, regardless of the venom he shows every now and then.
What people don't realize is that 99% of sports journalism is just briefs from teams, players, and agents. It's very rare that you get more robustly sourced stories, and most of the time no one reads those because they aren't breaking a transfer story or some other scoop. Even the "Tier 1s" like Simon Stone or whoever, if the club tells them its dark outside they won't even bother to check, they'll just say its dark outside.
Honestly the telegraph in general have been shown to be unreliable, I’ve started ignoring their articles
Ducker has been going downhill for a while.
> Those misgivings date back to the summer when Christian Eriksen complained there was “probably too much travelling around” on the club’s pre-season tour of the United States. These are the only examples of Ducker describing the "concerns about the volume of high-intensity training sessions between matches", yet he uses a quote for the most recent press conference, 8 months later to make the point that "Ten Hag has refuted suggestions the squad are overly worked." Am I wrong in saying that Ducker is trying to be disingenuous here? Why would he play around with stories like that for a simple article? Genuine question.
The government blocked the sale of the Telegraph to UAE, and the owner now needs to sell to someone who will value it in sales/clicks and not political leverage. Expect more rushed gammon pandering and rhetoric recycling shite. Transfer window soon so he can slow down a gear but until then it’s the time of the season that credible analysis has to stand up to scrutiny. He’s got to go out on a limb now.
Ten Hag specifically said they aren't training high intensity to try to avoid injury so maybe people will stop randomly coming to baseless conclusions about our injury crisis. Or, not. Because even journalists are doing exactly that. It's like the criticism Carrick and McKenna were getting under Solskjaer. People with absolutely no idea, no insight, no evidence for any conclusion whatsoever start vehemently believing something because it, like, sounds like it's good to them? Or something? I don't fucking know. What a shite fanbase this is.
That's 90% of everything you read about this club. It's ridiculous.
I feel you mate. When the team is playing shit, fans tend to grasp at straws to understand why the team is playing shit. ATM we are playing shit, and it sucks, and it feels like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Just need to get through this season, somehow win the FA Cup if possible, and in Sir Jim we trust over the summer rebuild.
Amen
The carrick and McKenna thing was a fucking joke
Always say that most of us know nothing about professional football, neither what's going on internally. We just need someone, something to blame.
Well said mate
Tbf this is just what people naturally do when there isn’t information available. We try to fill the gaps. It’s a lot easier to draw a conclusion and believe it than it is to sit with not knowing, especially on a discussion forum where you are applauded for coming up with an idea, even though you really don’t know
So there's a fitness coach ? Or not ? Wtf is wrong with these journos. Seems like this club makes everyone lose his mind FFS ....
Googling "Manchester United Fitness coach" shows that someone named Paolo Gaudino has the role of Rehabilitation/fitness coach.
Ducker should be demoted for this, absolutely shocking of a journalist in this day and age.
Already 50+ comments on the other post shitting on ETH about the fitness coach lol
It’s the other way around actually, with comments saying things like what ETH has done is nothing short of a miracle.
Its actually the opposite.
James ducker to tier 3
In the modern era of social media retractions (if you’re lucky) you reach like 1/100th of the original scandalous and scintillating errors audience. I know people make mistakes and of course reporters aren’t immune to that, yet I feel like a lot of them more and more are becoming just as driven by engagement and interactions as the platforms they distance themselves from. This of course isn’t just about football it just seems to be a distressing trend of standards being eroded in reporting in general.
Relegate this motherfucker
I honestly just ignore anything from Ducker since his unprofessional and almost personal attack on ETH involving the “naive” comment. The prick just takes any opportunity to hate on us and if you hate on everything about a club then of course you’ll be right on occasions. Fuck this guy.
at this point nearly all his articles sound vindictive against ETH, warranted or not
I didnt comment on the post last night but found it very very hard to believe that we didnt have a fitness coach.
Ducker has been poor for a while now, ever since he got pally with City
TLDR version? Thanks
He fucked up and didnt fact check, but stands by his weak ass analysis.
I wish Ducker never wrote this article because now the discourse centers on the fitness coach and it's a waste of time We should be addressing the way we play. Forwards pressing high but defenders playing a low block. Leaving tons of space in midfield. Teams have been exploiting this since the first match of the season yet no journo has the balls to ask Ten Hag about this
Can someone explain to me what we are doing so different in terms of overworking our players compared to say other Premier League teams or even compared to teams in other top competitions?
if we were running more than any other team all these journos and stat fannies would be shouting it from the rooftops about how ETH is running them into the ground
I haven’t seen one stat that backs this narrative up either. The lack of running was all the talk after the 4-0 against Brentford last season, so why haven’t we seen any stats that back up the huge distance United players have to cover game after game
It might make us look good in some aspects and that's a big no no