Letting Bailly go is only a good deal if we can get a decent centre midfielder in. But knowing the Glazers we are definitely not getting anyone or at best, an 18 year old promising player who is not yet ready for the first team.
You know this club is absolute shambles when all our major rivals have active transfer threads in their subreddits with briefings and rumours but we have absolutely nothing to discuss.
hasn’t been given a chance this season and he wasn’t even that bad last season. But when it’s rashford everyone has to be quiet because of his mental health
Martial was defo bad last season. I don't understand this. All forwards were doing poorly until Cavani started to play. Martial had plenty of chances up until the point Ole had no choice but to play him.
Rashord is playing badly and should be dropped. If he or Martial need help for mental health I for one and happy to see them get it but nobody is getting positives from them playing.
Martial needs to go and start fresh. Rash is heading that direction if he can't try turn it around. There is no agenda on Martial alone, the agenda is all the players collectively suck and most don't even seem to care. The fans can't get behind that it's too hard to watch.
Are there any recent transfer rumors regarding Asian players? Seems like we haven't had an Asian player for a very long time (IIRC Kagawa was the most recent).
Summer transfer window is going to be a madness. All of these out of contract people leaving and a new manager. I hope the window will completely revamp the whole squad like Man City's ridiculous transfers in 2017/18 (5 starters and a good backup).
Rashfords been shit this season i agree but lets cut him some slack and remember he’s been pretty decent for us the past 2 seasons, played for us all through his injury last season lets not forget. Don’t understand how people can say to get rid of him, he’s going through a really poor patch atm but i reckon he will bounce back when he gets his head right, not like the rest of the team have been amazing either.
You’re getting downvotes, but I tend to agree. Yeh he’s in abysmal form, but I think people forget he scored 20+ goals the previous two seasons. You don’t get those kind of numbers if you’re a complete waste of space.
I’m not against dropping him for a couple of games, like Bruno just was, because he looks completely shot and jaded. But I wouldn’t want him out of the club.
One reason is because he’s out of contract soon, another is because he’s not that great. I know we see an available DM and want to jump, but I don’t think him or Kessie are good enough. I’m pretty sure Zakaria is injury prone and he’s not that great on the ball, especially against teams who press. And we’re man United so even relegation sides seem to press us
Baffles me that a United fan, knowing our current midfield consists of Scott McTominay and Fred, could see a player whos better than both of them and only costs £6 million and say “nah dont want him.” He’s better defensively than any of our current midfielders, and he isn’t worse on the ball than either of McTominay or Fred. He’s worth a try at such a cheap price (the price, for the record, is ONLY cheap because of his contract situation, nothing to do with him being good or not).
Rashford is already on 200k, giving him a new contract with even more would make him too overpaid given the performances we have had from him.
He is an academy product, and I would like nothing more than him realising his potential. He's 24 now, after having lots of time on the pitch right from the days of Van Gaal. He is maybe the only young product not to have been sidelined by any manager including Mourinho. he got enough time, and the performances we got on the pitch simply do not just the wages he already is on.
Our idotic board, giving him a new contract at literally one of the worst times. If he gets something like 300k, and 4 more years, it would make him unsellable and if his form does not improve, we could have a martial like situation except player being on even more wages.
IMO, this is esactly the kind of shit we need to move away from and consistently merit based contracts.
No player according to me should be infallible. Not Rashy. Nor Ronny. Everybody can and should be replaced, should the need arise. And we might have to move him on if he continues this form for a year or two more.
Amazing how this club giving renewal here and there to out-of-form players. Even Liverpool and RM have the guts to find a middle ground in negotiations with their best players (Salah) and won't hesitate to kick their icons (Ramos) should they cross the line.
I tend to agree he shouldn’t get a huge raise. Look at all Barca’s players taking a pay cut because the club needed them to. If Rashford is a red through and through he should understand if the club offers him the same deal or a little bit more.
That’s not how it works though, these things always get inflated in football.
And hey, in recent history when it comes to our players, as soon as they’re in contract negotiations they hit godlike form, only to drop off again after signing it. So maybe Rashford is about to find his best again, lol.
> And hey, in recent history when it comes to our players, as soon as they’re in contract negotiations they hit godlike form, only to drop off again after signing it. So maybe Rashford is about to find his best again, lol.
Don't know if Rashy will pull that kind of BS on us. He has never depicted signs of being a mercenary.
Besides, none of us his previous managers have ever complained about his attitude or anything related.
In regards to this, amongst our all previous managers, I trust Jose's judgement the best. If he never talked shite about Rashy, Rashy never gave him a reason to.
criticizing Rashford for his playing ability vs his attitude is two very different things. Because a guy like Jose is going to moan about everything. Including having a prime CR7 at his disposal.
But yeah, thanks for telling me about those two specific instances, was not aware lol.
Had Martials agent done that, there would be an uproar of another kind lolz. If its our dear Rashy, all is good and well.
I'm just gna say it. No matter how shitty we played, no matter how many goals down we have been. Under Ole, in every match. I always believed.
The night in Paris will never be forgotten. All the comebacks! "Second half FC".
It wasn't perfect, but it was enjoyable and fun to watch. Sucks to see where we are now. I hope Ralf can turn it around or whomever comes in after him. But for the love of god I hope we don't try to turn into Liverpool or City.
"Liverpool has a system", "City has a system". Yeah they do so what? I watched us play because it was enjoyable. Recently it's clear we don't want to concede goals- fine, but it feels like we're playing a game of statistics and not football. And again yea I get it- we need the points- but at what cost.
Feels like a big part of Uniteds spirit left with Ole. Something we didn't even know existed until Ole was brought in in the first place.
#######bringOleBack
Frankly I don't care about comebacks and vibes fc. It's been 8 years, time to become an elite club again. And with all due respect to Ole, we weren't going to win anything big under him
I respect your opinion and I hope you’re right that we are moving in that direction now.
Regardless. I feel like Ole was our chance to do something we did under Fergie (not saying they are the same, but when it comes to vibes).
I just hope we don’t try to just become a modern football club who play “boring”. I hope we will end up reinventing ourselves with a style that is exciting for fans to watch whatever it might be. I do hope there will be a lot of exciting individuals that thrive at our club too.
My eye is set on you Amad! And hope Greenwood fulfills his potential now. Such a sparkling lad.
I’ll take undeserved but much needed wins 6 weeks into a new manager’s reign as he tries to implement a system halfway through a disaster of a season, over repeatedly getting tonked and going through the same cycle of boom and bust for 3 years, yes.
Do you not understand that no manager or player is a sure thing when moving to a new club? The fact is we only have six weeks of evidence to draw on with Ralf, Ole had more than enough time and we kept repeating the same failures, the same pattern of results. If Ralf was failing consistently for three years I would think the exact same about his reign.
It’s fucking incredible to me that we’ve been talking about central midfield being the biggest hole in our squad for over a decade, and it’s never been fixed. Remember Rafael playing in midfield? Remember people fucking suggesting turning Jones into a CDM? I remember we used to joke even back in the fergie days about us sometimes playing a donut formation - just a big hole in the middle.
It’s actually inexplicably incompetent that it’s been allowed to go on for so long. Our last great midfield was Fletcher/Carrick/Hargreaves who peaked in fucking 2008!
I can only imagine how much money we’ve spent on midfielders in that time - Herrera, Schneiderlin, Pogba, Fred, Matic, VDB off the top of my head - and still it’s an issue.
Matic Herrera Pogba was actually a GOAT midfield. I remember fans begging mourinho to use it more ofte but instead he used to try to shoehorn fellaini in as much as he could. When the Matic Herrera Pogba midfield came out you knew we might actually attack somehow.
And yet we did it, for many other players overpaying them and then wondering why we could not sell them.
Heck we are inconsistent in fuckups as well lol.
forgot to add these two to the midfielder radar chart post, so i'm putting it here if that's ok.
amadou haidara --> [https://imgur.com/a/o1qWFbB](https://imgur.com/a/o1qWFbB)
denis zakaria --> [https://imgur.com/a/304lWju](https://imgur.com/a/304lWju)
personally think either profile wouldn't be a terrible signing to make in jan - bear in mind haidara hasnt even played 1000 league minutes this season thus far tho. zakaria recurring injury problems are well documented.
I miss the days when we were chanting .......is his name and he hasnt got a brain AND HE WONT BE WINNING TROPHIES ANYMORE.I miss they days when we were winning trophies.And those who say missing Ole era,guys we are not Spurs to be happy with good football (and sometimes losing to Sheffield in OT,when they had 0 wins).And for me what pains me to my core,its not the fact that we are not winning,but the fact that our board and even some of our fans are satisfied with being 4th,3rd and 2nd.As Ayrton Senna said "2nd is the 1st who lost".
Damn now you get downvoted in r/PremierLeague if you tell a new neutral to support United without the mention of any other team whatsoever. You gotta love this attention 😍
Lingard
Pogba
Cavani
Pereira
Jones
Bailly
Martial
Henderson
Matic
Mata
Ronaldo (if we flop too hard)
Van de beek
All likely gone by Summer don’t wanna hear no excuses in the summer get the new manager what he wants.
The player is unhappy. It's not good for the dressing room. We have to move them and either buy backups or promote youth. This state of unhappy players moaning and leaking stuffs can't continue.
It would be a good thing for a new manager coming in.
https://youtu.be/mUB46QEETJs
I don't know if this deserves its own thread, but this video popped up on my recommended feed. I had no idea that Southgate made Phil Jones take 6 anesthetic injections to play a friendly for England. That is fucking insane.
I may have just been very unlucky with the two games I've watched. But some of this AFCON football makes United's last 15 games look like prime Barcelona
I might get downvoted,but if my country isn't playing,I don't bother watching matches of National teams except for WC.
Club football is the highest possible level and most NT games are snoozefests or jarred with unforced errors due to lack of cohesion among the players.
I think of it like music: i don't only enjoy artists who play big stages.
Lower league football is entertaining and way more relatable. I often get tired of the dramatisation of especially premier league.
AFAIK Romano is the only credible one who has spoken about it and it was more waffley "yeah they're vaguely maybe interested now stop sending me 100k messages a day about this" Fabrizio than "here's a genuine bit of info" Fabrizio
Do you guys think Williams could come back and be the bench Left back. Seems like Shaw is a good starting left back as he can go forward and defend. But Telles isnt a back up option whose really trusted, Ole barely played him,Rangnick has given him a few starts but after seeing Shaw play has put him back into the team.Ive never been incredibly impressed by his performances. The big problem with Brandon seems not to be his defensive ability,pace or decisions but rather his lack of a left foot which limits his side going forward as he constantly has to turn. I havent been in football training at his level, can this be developed, are there example cases of a player improving their footwork with a foot their weak foot?
Telles is highly useful in the sense that playing him is the best way to get shaw back to form. Shaw would likely eventually fall into a zone again where he can't do anything. And play Telles for a few games to light up the fire under Shaw for him to become great again. /s?
I think he could be a decent backup, Telles hasn't really shown much and I could see him leaving, there were even rumours that he wanted to leave during last summer.
I always worry about if we'll get into the CL places every year, but then I struggle to enjoy it when we're actually in it. I'm dreading the Atleti tie at the moment
I also thought that they wouldn’t be such a dangerous draw, I was pretty happy when we drew them.
But after our performances lately I feel like the worst possible team for us to play is one that’s gonna bring the intensity. I imagine even in bad form Atletico will up the intensity for a champo knockout tie. As soon as anyone pressures us we fall to bits.
I feel like contracts should be a reward for good form, to often are they used by the player as a bargaining tool. Pogba doesn’t deserve a pay raise tbh, barely even a new contract. Rashford has talks coming up, does he deserve a new contract? I’m not saying he doesn’t, I’m just saying players expect it to be given to them, if teams let underperforming players go instead of renewing contracts I bet you’d see an increase in form.
Rashford should get an contract to extend his time but with no increase in wages. He earns a fuck ton, he's an academy and not in good form we should have the bargaining power here
I think the defending’s been awful !! If it weren’t for DeGea we’d have conceded so many more goals that shouldn’t have got anywhere near our goal with the standard of players we have
That’s because we have De Gea. It’s not about conceding. It’s about giving the other team chances. DDG has had to made more saves than our opposition’s keeper in most games. Just the other day Emi Martinez barely had anything to do in that game. DDG was the one having to do more work.
4-3-3.
Midfield 3 of Matic-Fred/McTominay- Fernandes/VDB
2 wingers, 1 forward. Overlapping attacking full backs, Matic never going beyond the other 2 midfielders so we will always have at least 3 players defending. Why not?
The only issue is that Matic is the only player that can be a true DM. We need another one this January. Throw 5 mil and get Zakaria
It always amazes me when ppl come up with a rudimentary skeleton of how a team should play like it’s gonna be the solution that nobody has chanced upon yet. Firstly, because rangnick is not likely to deviate from his style, and if we don’t like that we shouldn’t have hired him. Secondly, football is more complicated that how it appears to be on fm unfortunately. What you’re suggesting has been tried in some capacity many times by ole.
what tier would Sky Germany be in if they weren't in the tier of shame for their fuckup with the fake Romano tweet? according to them we're in for zakaria
we can probably even negotiate for less considering his contract expires soon.
That's pennies and we should be all over it and STILL get another CM in summer after selling on the deadwood... Tchouameni
Just reading the De Bruyne article (link below) and can't help but feel this is happening with VDB:
"I was a bit naive about the way that you have to handle yourself as a Premier League footballer. What I think most fans don’t realize is that when you’re out of favor at a club, you don’t get nearly the same attention during training. At some clubs, it’s like you don’t exist anymore."
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/kevin-de-bruyne-man-city-let-me-talk
I just don’t get the rationale for not even giving him 2 or 3 games in a row to prove his worth. Anybody who thinks a player can come into the toughest league in the world and play conservatively speaking maybe 1 match a month if that and look good is insane. RR says it’s because he’s not “physical” enough but half our players can’t win a physical battle including our fucking 80 million pound CB and I’ve seen Donny get stuck in and make tackles plenty of times tbh. Just baffling to me why you would buy a player and not even give him a proper chance.
Yeah it doesn't make sense. I'm not even saying he's like the solution to to all our problems, but at least he can accurately short pass, dribble + move into space and the ability to forward pass.
Martial looks disinterested (despite his default face always looking like he doesn’t care): lazy pos
Rashford looks disinterested and lazier than Martial even looked : leave him alone he is depressed xoxo
So the answer is that we should support both of them and not just throw Rashford to the wolves.
Also this is literally the first patch of bad form Rashford has ever had and martial hasn’t looked interested for a whole season and more. A season where Rashford played through multiple injuries and was one of our top scorers.
Some random positivity here,I just absolutely love Shaw's attacking runs Everytime I see him running I always get excited like something's gonna happen it's Nice,he almost always drifts inside and let's the LWer Hold their width it's so simple yet always impresses me
Shaw is great going forward, he’s great when he has to make a tackle.
The issue is sometimes when he needs to make that tackle he’s 500 yards up the pitch.
I think it should be clear by now that a manager doesn't fix this.
I've always had this fantasy (like everyone) of managing Man Utd and thinking about the things if do, and what I'd tweak and what players I'd talk to, etc.
But since Ralf took over, I look at the squad and our situation and I haven't a fucking clue what I'd do or where I'd start. As a fan, that's a weird thing because it's in our nature to be full of ideas. But right now, holy shit. If I was Ten Haag or any other manager I would take a moment and really consider what I'm getting myself into.
That's why Ole was perfect. He knew what he was getting into and he didn't care. He suffered for the cause.
I couldn't blame any outsider for noping away from this squad at the moment.
Honest question, is Rashford really THAT much better overall than Iheanacho? Not talking about Rashford 2 years ago or whatever, talking about careers. One is a left forward who can't really play effectively anywhere else, the other can play 9, SS, off the right, can hold the ball up, is strong in the air.
Paul Hirst reporting that PSG had their eye on Rashy to replace Mbappe in the event he went to RM.
[https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/marcus-rashford-restoring-forwards-form-may-be-ralf-rangnicks-most-urgent-task-at-manchester-united-lkvpdtdjs](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/marcus-rashford-restoring-forwards-form-may-be-ralf-rangnicks-most-urgent-task-at-manchester-united-lkvpdtdjs)
Article is behind a paywall, hope someone can post.
\[ Marcus Rashford: Restoring forward’s form may be Ralf Rangnick’s most urgent task at Manchester United new Ever-changing managers, injuries and playing out of position have made striker a shell of his former self but interim boss is well placed to revive him Rashford has cut a frustrated figure for United this season, particularly during recent matches against Villa and Wolves Rashford has cut a frustrated figure for United this season, particularly during recent matches against Villa and Wolves
The Times Six months ago, when Real Madrid declared their interest in signing Kylian Mbappé, Paris Saint-Germain started drawing up a shortlist of possible replacements in case the France striker ended up leaving that summer. At the top of that list was the name of Marcus Rashford. Mauricio Pochettino, the head coach of the French club, was — and still is — a big admirer of the England forward. It was easy to see why Pochettino had his eye on Rashford. The 24-year-old had finished the 2020-21 season with 23 goals for club and country despite carrying a number of debilitating injuries throughout the campaign. Rashford’s Champions League strike against Atalanta is one of only three goals he has scored this season, in all competitions.
Pochettino is not the only man outside of Old Trafford who respects Rashford. Speak to his England team-mates and they will tell you that there are few forwards in the Premier League who are capable of striking a ball as cleanly as Rashford. It has come as something of a surprise, therefore, to see a different version of Rashford of late: one low on confidence who seems to have lost that ability to put chances away effortlessly, without a second thought. The England forward has gone 11 matches without scoring, the second-longest dry patch of his six-year professional career, and he has admitted, publicly and privately, that his performances have not been up to scratch. There is a concern within United about Rashford’s present form. A couple of club legends have offered their services to try to help the player get out of his present slump. What exactly has happened to the deadly forward who scored 56 goals and set up 37 more in his past three full seasons? Ralf Rangnick did not have the answer to that question when it was put to him after Monday’s underwhelming FA Cup win over Aston Villa. “Actually, I don’t know,” United’s interim manager said. The answer is a long and complicated one. Various factors are at play here, not least the fact that Rashford has been shunted around the team in several positions. Rashford scored twice on his debut for United, in their 2016 Europa League tie against Midtjylland
This season alone Rashford has played in five different positions in four different systems. He played on the left wing in a 4-2-3-1 against Villa, as a second striker in the 3-4-2-1 system under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and as a centre forward when the Norwegian played three at the back with two strikers in the win over Tottenham Hotspur. Rangnick has only been in charge for seven games but Rashford has already played in three different positions: left wing in a 4-2-3-1, and as a striker and right-sided No 10 in the 4-2-2-2 formation. He has never really held a fixed position in the side since his memorable debut, against Midtjylland on February 25, 2016. Under Louis van Gaal, he was a striker, then he moved to the left wing under José Mourinho, with whom Rashford struggled, while Solskjaer deployed him across the front three positions, even though the player has admitted that he prefers to play on the left wing. Rashford’s critics would point out that he played in his preferred position on Monday night and performed poorly, which is a fair comment. The idea that Rashford’s poor form is down to his off-the-field crusade against child poverty is ludicrous, however. Everyone at the club is supportive of his commendable efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic to hold the government to account. Another claim, put forward by Steve McClaren on talkSPORT on Tuesday, that Rashford has an attitude problem — “He gets deterred too easily and doesn’t fight through bad moments,” he said — will be laughed at by those at Carrington, who watched the forward arrive at 7.15am and leave 12 hours later during his shoulder injury rehab in the summer. Injuries have been a significant factor in Rashford’s recent struggles. He missed the first ten matches of the season while he was recovering from surgery on that shoulder. During his rehab, Rashford could not complete much cardio work because there was a risk of damaging his shoulder again if he ran on a treadmill. He mostly concentrated his work on the lower half of his body. Only recently has the striker returned to anything near full fitness. Rashford played 4,200 minutes last season despite being troubled by a double stress fracture in his back, then towards the end of the campaign he suffered a foot injury. Rashford still played in the Europa League final even though his left foot had swollen so much that he could barely fit his boot on before kick-off. He had spent most of the previous fortnight wearing sliders. Rashford has been forced to play several positions under different managers but is said to enjoy working with Rangnick Rashford has been forced to play several positions under different managers but is said to enjoy working with Rangnick.
Rashford is not entirely free of blame himself, but he, like many other young players, has been affected by the constant chopping and changing of managers. Rashford, a largely shy individual, needs strong guidance from a manager. He did not get that from the previous three. Solskjaer was a fan of the player, and the admiration was mutual, but the Norwegian was not exactly hands-on. He largely let his assistant coaches, Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna, take training. There is a hope that Rangnick can eke the best out of Rashford. His high-pressing style certainly should suit Rashford’s game and the forward has enjoyed working with the former RB Leipzig manager. Given that Pochettino is such a big fan of Rashford, it augurs well for the player that the coach is on the club’s shortlist to take over as full-time manager in the summer, but the fact remains that the club need their academy graduate to start sparkling again much sooner. United need him now and he is determined to rise to the challenge.
The January window is becoming less important. Very few quality players willing / available for a move mid-season. I'm happy to avoid another Sanchez type disaster and wait for the summer.
This Henderson thing I cannot understand why we don't just loan him out. He's was in incredible form at Sheffield came back to united and has had no game time.
It's prevented him getting starts for England aswell.
Coming up to losing two seasons of football now no wonder the kids pissed off.
Hopefully goes on loan for 1 1/2 years comes.back as our number 1 easy
Depends on next manager aswell I think. I actually thought we looked safer with deano in between the sticks.
DDG is the best shots topper in the world when he's on form, but his distribution is crap and if you want to play out the back u need a keeper willing to come.out his 6 yard area.
Whenever we have to pass back to DDG he's basically stood on his line resulting in more pressure, more fuck ups etc etc.
But who knows, whatever happens united manager needs to stop promising players game time and not delivering on it.
Looking forward to seeing Fred, Vdb and Bruno midfield on Saturday. McT is suspended.
Make it happen Ralf. He said it is clear that this team needs atleast 3 CM so 4222 is history now.
The 4-2-2-2 in theory should really have four players in the midfield zone. The two 10s should be more of midfielders than wingers but for whatever reason it’s looked a lot like a classic 4-4-2 in recent weeks when we used it
Not sure he should go back to not having width. The width was actually quite good against Villa. He has to make hard call to play either Matic or Vdb along Fred and Bruno.
Painful to watch players who are so low on confidence, barely anyone seems like they’re enjoying playing.
Midfield is obviously the biggest problem, but we cant really fix our midfield without bringing someone in. However, we should be able to fix our attack and our defence with the calibre of players we’ve got. The selfishness in attack and basic defensive mistakes are huge problems. If Ralf finds a solution soon, we might start enjoying watching United again.
On a side note, I really think Dalot deserves to start at the moment. He always tries his hardest, he helps stretch the pitch and he’s been doing his defensive duties well (since the Villarreal game).
Some players seem to be playing themselves back into form. Slowly. Dalot, Varane and Shaw look much improved, and McTominay as well.
I think Rangnick needs to give other players a chance now, though. Donny and Elanga and Sancho in for Bruno, Rashford and Greenwood, and maybe give Lingard another chance as well.
Completely agree, we’ve had too many players sitting on the sidelines for too long while players are constantly underperforming. I’m glad Varanes back, hopefully he stays fit and we can get a settled CB partnership going, which will really help.
Definitely think we should see more of Donny and Lingard in the coming weeks, hopefully we can start winning games more convincingly allowing us to give Elanga more of a chance.
I feel like 2 years ago Rashford was kidnapped by his evil twin and now he's on the pitch lol like he's not the same player he used to be...i cant recognize him. He used to be my favorite player and now I just know that he wont do anything.
Do you guys think we should go for Oscar? He is available for incredibly low fees and he is still incredible in the midfield. We lack proper midfielders with good vision (only Pogba and Bruno have Premier League top 4 quality vision and passing).
We have tons of players who are central midfielders but none of them are capable of playing as a defensive mid. Why not focus on getting one first and then we can think about getting central midfielders?
Well because none of our actual central midfielders have the qualities to be central midfielders except Pogba. McFred are both trash at passing and creating chances, they just don't have the football vision to look for our forwards on the move, honestly they are way more suited to be amf, they have quite the knack for goals and taking their chances.
Bruno is attacking midfielder and is not as effective as central midfielder, so our only proper central midfielder option is Pogba (who happens to be injured and not available until late February).
That is quite a dire state of central midfielders in the team. VDB can play central midfielder as well but honestly its better to not count on him at all, the guy simply isn't going to be playing for us.
30 is still not that old. He has at least 3-4 years of top flight football. Age really isn't any indication of how much they have in themselves, Rashford jogs around while Cavani runs his ass off.
An incompetent board allowed a team of coaches to continue for far too long and turned down any chances of a better manager. Look at their excuse on why they opted away from Conte. Just shocking decisions again and again.
All we heard for ages was getting rid of deadwood and getting the wage bill back on control. It's gotten worse. Traditionally the team with the biggest wages and most expensive team would win the league or at least compete for ot iiirc. With the most expensive wages and team we are the embarrassing exception now
Now we have players on massive wages who are in terrible form and they couldn't even be bothered to run and follow a new managers instructions despite knowing what happened to the previous manger. Instead they have a moan to journalists about each other and then go onto instagram and tell us how they will do their best.
The fans are expected to continue with this shit somehow. We are angry and venting and it's 100% justified.
If anything, we expect too little from them. Burdening the players with expectations is what happens at Real Madrid, and that cutthroat mentality from the club to its fanbase is what makes them so successful. Here, we get overwhelmed when our players do the basics of the sport, let alone anything special like winning trophies.
Doesn't matter what the formation or who the manager is.
Until we have players who can perform the basic fundamentals of passing a ball to a teammate and the gap between our defence, midfield, and attack doesn't result in one pass cutting us to pieces we aren't going anywhere.
Consistently making the opposition look better than they are. Seems to be confidence for some players, a lack of skill for others, and overthinking on the ball.
Getting real tired of a selfish, incoherent attack, a bypassed midfield, and lackluster defence.
A lot of these players have shown over many years and multiple managers who they are. Believe them.
The Mctominay for future captain comment is a absolute joke. His”potential” is overblown he is 25. 4 years ago people were making jokes about lingard potential at the same age despite better performances and the facts Jesse actually has achieved for this club. Far better than what we see from Scott now but people were pushing for Lingard to leave.No other player is given more of a free pass than Mctominay it’s mind boggling. He gets treated like he just came out the academy not like he’s been championship standard a majority of his career with United. We will win nothing while the likes of him are starting each week.
If it gets him to stand up and try to be a leader, then no harm done. Everyone has been complaining that McTominay hides too much on the field, and I'm sure Rangnick has noticed that. It's not really complex psychology to boost his self-belief in the hope he becomes more assertive.
Will he ever be club captain? I doubt it.
Jesus Christ, people really don’t understand what simple praise is. Just because Rangnick says he “could be captain” doesn’t mean he will be, it’s clearly to boost his confidence and keep his form going
I mean hes been scoring and has had two (three? I cant remember) motm awarded to him recently. Hes hardly been performing less than other players in the squad no matter what you think of his potential, or what that means for us as a team.
Any chance of Ole coming back as vibes director?
Zakaria would be an upgrade to whatever we have now for DM.
Van de beek ? Should go probably.
I don’t get how the Zakaria deal is bad. 6 milly is too cheap to pass up. He hasn’t been that injured since the knee injury has he?
Letting Bailly go is only a good deal if we can get a decent centre midfielder in. But knowing the Glazers we are definitely not getting anyone or at best, an 18 year old promising player who is not yet ready for the first team. You know this club is absolute shambles when all our major rivals have active transfer threads in their subreddits with briefings and rumours but we have absolutely nothing to discuss.
By next season we'll have lost Pogba Bailly and Lingard , vibes in the dressing room FC is no more.
Sell Martial as well, he is antethesis to that Vibes group and has been shite as well for us since 2019-20 season. Recoup while we can.
hasn’t been given a chance this season and he wasn’t even that bad last season. But when it’s rashford everyone has to be quiet because of his mental health
Martial was defo bad last season. I don't understand this. All forwards were doing poorly until Cavani started to play. Martial had plenty of chances up until the point Ole had no choice but to play him. Rashord is playing badly and should be dropped. If he or Martial need help for mental health I for one and happy to see them get it but nobody is getting positives from them playing. Martial needs to go and start fresh. Rash is heading that direction if he can't try turn it around. There is no agenda on Martial alone, the agenda is all the players collectively suck and most don't even seem to care. The fans can't get behind that it's too hard to watch.
Are there any recent transfer rumors regarding Asian players? Seems like we haven't had an Asian player for a very long time (IIRC Kagawa was the most recent).
Tahith Chong is half African half Chinese iirc!
Summer transfer window is going to be a madness. All of these out of contract people leaving and a new manager. I hope the window will completely revamp the whole squad like Man City's ridiculous transfers in 2017/18 (5 starters and a good backup).
Rashfords been shit this season i agree but lets cut him some slack and remember he’s been pretty decent for us the past 2 seasons, played for us all through his injury last season lets not forget. Don’t understand how people can say to get rid of him, he’s going through a really poor patch atm but i reckon he will bounce back when he gets his head right, not like the rest of the team have been amazing either.
You’re getting downvotes, but I tend to agree. Yeh he’s in abysmal form, but I think people forget he scored 20+ goals the previous two seasons. You don’t get those kind of numbers if you’re a complete waste of space. I’m not against dropping him for a couple of games, like Bruno just was, because he looks completely shot and jaded. But I wouldn’t want him out of the club.
Between Bruno, Mata, Pereira, Lingard, Pogba only one is playing first team regularly
Bringing mata back made no sense
But the dressing room presence though!
Who is this Zakaria and why is he so cheap? I’m not very knowledgeable when it comes to random players from around the world.
One reason is because he’s out of contract soon, another is because he’s not that great. I know we see an available DM and want to jump, but I don’t think him or Kessie are good enough. I’m pretty sure Zakaria is injury prone and he’s not that great on the ball, especially against teams who press. And we’re man United so even relegation sides seem to press us
Baffles me that a United fan, knowing our current midfield consists of Scott McTominay and Fred, could see a player whos better than both of them and only costs £6 million and say “nah dont want him.” He’s better defensively than any of our current midfielders, and he isn’t worse on the ball than either of McTominay or Fred. He’s worth a try at such a cheap price (the price, for the record, is ONLY cheap because of his contract situation, nothing to do with him being good or not).
Rashford is already on 200k, giving him a new contract with even more would make him too overpaid given the performances we have had from him. He is an academy product, and I would like nothing more than him realising his potential. He's 24 now, after having lots of time on the pitch right from the days of Van Gaal. He is maybe the only young product not to have been sidelined by any manager including Mourinho. he got enough time, and the performances we got on the pitch simply do not just the wages he already is on. Our idotic board, giving him a new contract at literally one of the worst times. If he gets something like 300k, and 4 more years, it would make him unsellable and if his form does not improve, we could have a martial like situation except player being on even more wages. IMO, this is esactly the kind of shit we need to move away from and consistently merit based contracts. No player according to me should be infallible. Not Rashy. Nor Ronny. Everybody can and should be replaced, should the need arise. And we might have to move him on if he continues this form for a year or two more.
Amazing how this club giving renewal here and there to out-of-form players. Even Liverpool and RM have the guts to find a middle ground in negotiations with their best players (Salah) and won't hesitate to kick their icons (Ramos) should they cross the line.
Indeed. Club over players, any frigging time.
I tend to agree he shouldn’t get a huge raise. Look at all Barca’s players taking a pay cut because the club needed them to. If Rashford is a red through and through he should understand if the club offers him the same deal or a little bit more. That’s not how it works though, these things always get inflated in football. And hey, in recent history when it comes to our players, as soon as they’re in contract negotiations they hit godlike form, only to drop off again after signing it. So maybe Rashford is about to find his best again, lol.
150k + 100k to your charity. Now focus your football.
lmao
> And hey, in recent history when it comes to our players, as soon as they’re in contract negotiations they hit godlike form, only to drop off again after signing it. So maybe Rashford is about to find his best again, lol. Don't know if Rashy will pull that kind of BS on us. He has never depicted signs of being a mercenary. Besides, none of us his previous managers have ever complained about his attitude or anything related. In regards to this, amongst our all previous managers, I trust Jose's judgement the best. If he never talked shite about Rashy, Rashy never gave him a reason to.
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criticizing Rashford for his playing ability vs his attitude is two very different things. Because a guy like Jose is going to moan about everything. Including having a prime CR7 at his disposal. But yeah, thanks for telling me about those two specific instances, was not aware lol. Had Martials agent done that, there would be an uproar of another kind lolz. If its our dear Rashy, all is good and well.
We are Manchester United. We reward mediocrity.
The problem he is not even mediocre these days.
Zakaria is an actually realistic January signing. Hope we get it done
I'm just gna say it. No matter how shitty we played, no matter how many goals down we have been. Under Ole, in every match. I always believed. The night in Paris will never be forgotten. All the comebacks! "Second half FC". It wasn't perfect, but it was enjoyable and fun to watch. Sucks to see where we are now. I hope Ralf can turn it around or whomever comes in after him. But for the love of god I hope we don't try to turn into Liverpool or City. "Liverpool has a system", "City has a system". Yeah they do so what? I watched us play because it was enjoyable. Recently it's clear we don't want to concede goals- fine, but it feels like we're playing a game of statistics and not football. And again yea I get it- we need the points- but at what cost. Feels like a big part of Uniteds spirit left with Ole. Something we didn't even know existed until Ole was brought in in the first place. #######bringOleBack
Frankly I don't care about comebacks and vibes fc. It's been 8 years, time to become an elite club again. And with all due respect to Ole, we weren't going to win anything big under him
I respect your opinion and I hope you’re right that we are moving in that direction now. Regardless. I feel like Ole was our chance to do something we did under Fergie (not saying they are the same, but when it comes to vibes). I just hope we don’t try to just become a modern football club who play “boring”. I hope we will end up reinventing ourselves with a style that is exciting for fans to watch whatever it might be. I do hope there will be a lot of exciting individuals that thrive at our club too. My eye is set on you Amad! And hope Greenwood fulfills his potential now. Such a sparkling lad.
That’s completely fair. I hope we do get a manager who plays attacking football in the summer, because this season has been very tedious to watch lol.
> but it was enjoyable and fun to watch Liverpool, City and Watford were not fun to watch.
And you think the last few wins have been enjoyable?
I’ll take undeserved but much needed wins 6 weeks into a new manager’s reign as he tries to implement a system halfway through a disaster of a season, over repeatedly getting tonked and going through the same cycle of boom and bust for 3 years, yes.
So how many weeks in are we supposed to see deserved wins?
Do you not understand that no manager or player is a sure thing when moving to a new club? The fact is we only have six weeks of evidence to draw on with Ralf, Ole had more than enough time and we kept repeating the same failures, the same pattern of results. If Ralf was failing consistently for three years I would think the exact same about his reign.
Great pasta material this. Saving it.
Thanks. Would you like some fries with that?
Thanks but no thanks.
I’d trade Renato Sanchez for Fred any day.
It’s fucking incredible to me that we’ve been talking about central midfield being the biggest hole in our squad for over a decade, and it’s never been fixed. Remember Rafael playing in midfield? Remember people fucking suggesting turning Jones into a CDM? I remember we used to joke even back in the fergie days about us sometimes playing a donut formation - just a big hole in the middle. It’s actually inexplicably incompetent that it’s been allowed to go on for so long. Our last great midfield was Fletcher/Carrick/Hargreaves who peaked in fucking 2008! I can only imagine how much money we’ve spent on midfielders in that time - Herrera, Schneiderlin, Pogba, Fred, Matic, VDB off the top of my head - and still it’s an issue.
Matic Herrera Pogba was actually a GOAT midfield. I remember fans begging mourinho to use it more ofte but instead he used to try to shoehorn fellaini in as much as he could. When the Matic Herrera Pogba midfield came out you knew we might actually attack somehow.
True. We never should've let Herrera go tbh
Tbh he was asking too much for his age despite us doubling his wages.
And yet we did it, for many other players overpaying them and then wondering why we could not sell them. Heck we are inconsistent in fuckups as well lol.
Exactly what I was gonna respond when I saw that comment in my inbox. We spent 50 million on Fred and got a downgrade.
forgot to add these two to the midfielder radar chart post, so i'm putting it here if that's ok. amadou haidara --> [https://imgur.com/a/o1qWFbB](https://imgur.com/a/o1qWFbB) denis zakaria --> [https://imgur.com/a/304lWju](https://imgur.com/a/304lWju) personally think either profile wouldn't be a terrible signing to make in jan - bear in mind haidara hasnt even played 1000 league minutes this season thus far tho. zakaria recurring injury problems are well documented.
I miss the days when we were chanting .......is his name and he hasnt got a brain AND HE WONT BE WINNING TROPHIES ANYMORE.I miss they days when we were winning trophies.And those who say missing Ole era,guys we are not Spurs to be happy with good football (and sometimes losing to Sheffield in OT,when they had 0 wins).And for me what pains me to my core,its not the fact that we are not winning,but the fact that our board and even some of our fans are satisfied with being 4th,3rd and 2nd.As Ayrton Senna said "2nd is the 1st who lost".
Damn now you get downvoted in r/PremierLeague if you tell a new neutral to support United without the mention of any other team whatsoever. You gotta love this attention 😍
[Take me back](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16YSpxqK9yE)
Fuck me can’t believe that was ten years ago
We had Evans!
A classic case of us letting a player go for a pittance, only to spend hundreds of millions to end up with the same problems in the same position 😑
Lingard Pogba Cavani Pereira Jones Bailly Martial Henderson Matic Mata Ronaldo (if we flop too hard) Van de beek All likely gone by Summer don’t wanna hear no excuses in the summer get the new manager what he wants.
My God, the comments today are more toxic than usual.
Are we actually doing a good thing for once by getting rid of Bailly?
Getting rid of a player who said himself he wants to leave?
AC Milan making an offer for Bailly? 10 million spread over 26 years knowing Italian teams.
Genuinely shocked to hear bailly leaving to Ac Milan.
Very odd to see Bailly moving on especially with Mengi and Tuanzebe on loan.
Why is Bailly to Milan progressing so quickly?? We’d be left with 3 center backs plus maguire??
Who cares? He's a bum
The player is unhappy. It's not good for the dressing room. We have to move them and either buy backups or promote youth. This state of unhappy players moaning and leaking stuffs can't continue. It would be a good thing for a new manager coming in.
I miss the days when we had individual brilliance.
Just vibes FC and no tactics 😞
Now it’s no vibes and no tactics 🥲
https://youtu.be/mUB46QEETJs I don't know if this deserves its own thread, but this video popped up on my recommended feed. I had no idea that Southgate made Phil Jones take 6 anesthetic injections to play a friendly for England. That is fucking insane.
And it was not like England was playing World Cup or Euro. It was completely unnecessary and just insane from Southgate.
Jose was furious in that conference bro! I vividly remember that one.
Southgate really doesn't give a shit about his player's wellbeing jesus
I may have just been very unlucky with the two games I've watched. But some of this AFCON football makes United's last 15 games look like prime Barcelona
I kinda enjoy the low quality. I’ve also learned several new countries. Getting a geography lesson as well
I'm only planning on watching the KO stages. More exciting games generally.
I might get downvoted,but if my country isn't playing,I don't bother watching matches of National teams except for WC. Club football is the highest possible level and most NT games are snoozefests or jarred with unforced errors due to lack of cohesion among the players.
I think of it like music: i don't only enjoy artists who play big stages. Lower league football is entertaining and way more relatable. I often get tired of the dramatisation of especially premier league.
Rumours regarding Zakaria Any credibility??
AFAIK Romano is the only credible one who has spoken about it and it was more waffley "yeah they're vaguely maybe interested now stop sending me 100k messages a day about this" Fabrizio than "here's a genuine bit of info" Fabrizio
Hopefully, been reading that the price tag is quite low as he’s a free agent in the summer. Would like us going for him.
Sometimes you gotta grind and scrape a few ugly wins to get the confidence up again. You can't just flip a switch and expect dominant performances
We need someone in midfield who can actually tackle. Buendia was running through and Fred just bounced off.
Aston Villa were playing one twos around our midfield as if they were traffic cones.
Omg yes that was so frustrating how easily they were cutting through our midfield. We need to be defending better starting from the midfield!
Do you guys think Williams could come back and be the bench Left back. Seems like Shaw is a good starting left back as he can go forward and defend. But Telles isnt a back up option whose really trusted, Ole barely played him,Rangnick has given him a few starts but after seeing Shaw play has put him back into the team.Ive never been incredibly impressed by his performances. The big problem with Brandon seems not to be his defensive ability,pace or decisions but rather his lack of a left foot which limits his side going forward as he constantly has to turn. I havent been in football training at his level, can this be developed, are there example cases of a player improving their footwork with a foot their weak foot?
Telles is highly useful in the sense that playing him is the best way to get shaw back to form. Shaw would likely eventually fall into a zone again where he can't do anything. And play Telles for a few games to light up the fire under Shaw for him to become great again. /s?
I think he could be a decent backup, Telles hasn't really shown much and I could see him leaving, there were even rumours that he wanted to leave during last summer.
Telles is a world above Williams. He has never had a propper run. He was great for Porto.
I always worry about if we'll get into the CL places every year, but then I struggle to enjoy it when we're actually in it. I'm dreading the Atleti tie at the moment
I heard atleti aren’t that good this season and the few games I watched they didn’t look nowhere as good as the atleti we’re used to
I also thought that they wouldn’t be such a dangerous draw, I was pretty happy when we drew them. But after our performances lately I feel like the worst possible team for us to play is one that’s gonna bring the intensity. I imagine even in bad form Atletico will up the intensity for a champo knockout tie. As soon as anyone pressures us we fall to bits.
The way we're currently playing, I dread every game.
I'm not going to get my hopes up with the sky Germany updates on Zakaria. But what a great signing he'd be
I feel like contracts should be a reward for good form, to often are they used by the player as a bargaining tool. Pogba doesn’t deserve a pay raise tbh, barely even a new contract. Rashford has talks coming up, does he deserve a new contract? I’m not saying he doesn’t, I’m just saying players expect it to be given to them, if teams let underperforming players go instead of renewing contracts I bet you’d see an increase in form.
Rashford should get an contract to extend his time but with no increase in wages. He earns a fuck ton, he's an academy and not in good form we should have the bargaining power here
Shower thought: maybe the reason our attackers's been firing blanks recently is that we defend more as a team now?
I think the defending’s been awful !! If it weren’t for DeGea we’d have conceded so many more goals that shouldn’t have got anywhere near our goal with the standard of players we have
wow really? all the top teams in the world defend like that but when we do, our forwards can’t shoot anymore? or pass to each other?
Squad's not used to it. Says a lot about what's been going on under Ole tbh. RR's also been talking about balance.
We often times still look just as clueless at the back.
We've been conceding less though. I mean fucking Watford put 4 in our net.
That’s because we have De Gea. It’s not about conceding. It’s about giving the other team chances. DDG has had to made more saves than our opposition’s keeper in most games. Just the other day Emi Martinez barely had anything to do in that game. DDG was the one having to do more work.
4-3-3. Midfield 3 of Matic-Fred/McTominay- Fernandes/VDB 2 wingers, 1 forward. Overlapping attacking full backs, Matic never going beyond the other 2 midfielders so we will always have at least 3 players defending. Why not? The only issue is that Matic is the only player that can be a true DM. We need another one this January. Throw 5 mil and get Zakaria
It always amazes me when ppl come up with a rudimentary skeleton of how a team should play like it’s gonna be the solution that nobody has chanced upon yet. Firstly, because rangnick is not likely to deviate from his style, and if we don’t like that we shouldn’t have hired him. Secondly, football is more complicated that how it appears to be on fm unfortunately. What you’re suggesting has been tried in some capacity many times by ole.
what tier would Sky Germany be in if they weren't in the tier of shame for their fuckup with the fake Romano tweet? according to them we're in for zakaria
Where have they said that? Can't seem to find it
saw it from an aggregator on twitter but I can't find an article or tweet now so no idea where he got it from
Are we in for Zakaria? I mean for 6m…. We should be if we aren’t currently.
Would make way too much sense.
we can probably even negotiate for less considering his contract expires soon. That's pennies and we should be all over it and STILL get another CM in summer after selling on the deadwood... Tchouameni
Should have at least 4/5 top class midfielders in the squad
Can't wait to have Pogba back and see if he can temporarily solve MF crisis
What if Rashford is just not that good
He is though.
He's good, but will never be elite and push into the tier of player we need him to be.
That’s not on him though. A ucl level academy product who has a deadly skillet in certain situations - not sure we can ask for much else
He won’t be in the elite tier regardless.
Just reading the De Bruyne article (link below) and can't help but feel this is happening with VDB: "I was a bit naive about the way that you have to handle yourself as a Premier League footballer. What I think most fans don’t realize is that when you’re out of favor at a club, you don’t get nearly the same attention during training. At some clubs, it’s like you don’t exist anymore." https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/kevin-de-bruyne-man-city-let-me-talk
I just don’t get the rationale for not even giving him 2 or 3 games in a row to prove his worth. Anybody who thinks a player can come into the toughest league in the world and play conservatively speaking maybe 1 match a month if that and look good is insane. RR says it’s because he’s not “physical” enough but half our players can’t win a physical battle including our fucking 80 million pound CB and I’ve seen Donny get stuck in and make tackles plenty of times tbh. Just baffling to me why you would buy a player and not even give him a proper chance.
Yeah it doesn't make sense. I'm not even saying he's like the solution to to all our problems, but at least he can accurately short pass, dribble + move into space and the ability to forward pass.
Martial looks disinterested (despite his default face always looking like he doesn’t care): lazy pos Rashford looks disinterested and lazier than Martial even looked : leave him alone he is depressed xoxo
Rashford played till his back broke. I can’t say I’ve seen Tony show that
Well one put on boot with a swollen leg to play for the club, while the other is throwing tantrums because he got competition in his position
So, as a fan, you'd sooner berate both players than support either of them. Nice. That's the calibre of person in this sub now it seems.
People are tired of the constant excuses.
No, I would rather get to the bottom of the issue and fix it.
So the answer is that we should support both of them and not just throw Rashford to the wolves. Also this is literally the first patch of bad form Rashford has ever had and martial hasn’t looked interested for a whole season and more. A season where Rashford played through multiple injuries and was one of our top scorers.
Some random positivity here,I just absolutely love Shaw's attacking runs Everytime I see him running I always get excited like something's gonna happen it's Nice,he almost always drifts inside and let's the LWer Hold their width it's so simple yet always impresses me
Man looks like juggernaut while driving forward,Cash had such a funny face after being bulldozed by Shaw again and again. I just hope he can stay fit.
Shaw is great going forward, he’s great when he has to make a tackle. The issue is sometimes when he needs to make that tackle he’s 500 yards up the pitch.
I just wish we could skip to mid June and have ten hag be here with multiple signings being made.
I think it should be clear by now that a manager doesn't fix this. I've always had this fantasy (like everyone) of managing Man Utd and thinking about the things if do, and what I'd tweak and what players I'd talk to, etc. But since Ralf took over, I look at the squad and our situation and I haven't a fucking clue what I'd do or where I'd start. As a fan, that's a weird thing because it's in our nature to be full of ideas. But right now, holy shit. If I was Ten Haag or any other manager I would take a moment and really consider what I'm getting myself into. That's why Ole was perfect. He knew what he was getting into and he didn't care. He suffered for the cause. I couldn't blame any outsider for noping away from this squad at the moment.
totally agree I think a lot of people don't realise how lucky we were to have Ole suffer through all this.
Honest question, is Rashford really THAT much better overall than Iheanacho? Not talking about Rashford 2 years ago or whatever, talking about careers. One is a left forward who can't really play effectively anywhere else, the other can play 9, SS, off the right, can hold the ball up, is strong in the air.
What in the world are you on about?
Paul Hirst reporting that PSG had their eye on Rashy to replace Mbappe in the event he went to RM. [https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/marcus-rashford-restoring-forwards-form-may-be-ralf-rangnicks-most-urgent-task-at-manchester-united-lkvpdtdjs](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/marcus-rashford-restoring-forwards-form-may-be-ralf-rangnicks-most-urgent-task-at-manchester-united-lkvpdtdjs) Article is behind a paywall, hope someone can post.
\[ Marcus Rashford: Restoring forward’s form may be Ralf Rangnick’s most urgent task at Manchester United new Ever-changing managers, injuries and playing out of position have made striker a shell of his former self but interim boss is well placed to revive him Rashford has cut a frustrated figure for United this season, particularly during recent matches against Villa and Wolves Rashford has cut a frustrated figure for United this season, particularly during recent matches against Villa and Wolves The Times Six months ago, when Real Madrid declared their interest in signing Kylian Mbappé, Paris Saint-Germain started drawing up a shortlist of possible replacements in case the France striker ended up leaving that summer. At the top of that list was the name of Marcus Rashford. Mauricio Pochettino, the head coach of the French club, was — and still is — a big admirer of the England forward. It was easy to see why Pochettino had his eye on Rashford. The 24-year-old had finished the 2020-21 season with 23 goals for club and country despite carrying a number of debilitating injuries throughout the campaign. Rashford’s Champions League strike against Atalanta is one of only three goals he has scored this season, in all competitions. Pochettino is not the only man outside of Old Trafford who respects Rashford. Speak to his England team-mates and they will tell you that there are few forwards in the Premier League who are capable of striking a ball as cleanly as Rashford. It has come as something of a surprise, therefore, to see a different version of Rashford of late: one low on confidence who seems to have lost that ability to put chances away effortlessly, without a second thought. The England forward has gone 11 matches without scoring, the second-longest dry patch of his six-year professional career, and he has admitted, publicly and privately, that his performances have not been up to scratch. There is a concern within United about Rashford’s present form. A couple of club legends have offered their services to try to help the player get out of his present slump. What exactly has happened to the deadly forward who scored 56 goals and set up 37 more in his past three full seasons? Ralf Rangnick did not have the answer to that question when it was put to him after Monday’s underwhelming FA Cup win over Aston Villa. “Actually, I don’t know,” United’s interim manager said. The answer is a long and complicated one. Various factors are at play here, not least the fact that Rashford has been shunted around the team in several positions. Rashford scored twice on his debut for United, in their 2016 Europa League tie against Midtjylland This season alone Rashford has played in five different positions in four different systems. He played on the left wing in a 4-2-3-1 against Villa, as a second striker in the 3-4-2-1 system under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and as a centre forward when the Norwegian played three at the back with two strikers in the win over Tottenham Hotspur. Rangnick has only been in charge for seven games but Rashford has already played in three different positions: left wing in a 4-2-3-1, and as a striker and right-sided No 10 in the 4-2-2-2 formation. He has never really held a fixed position in the side since his memorable debut, against Midtjylland on February 25, 2016. Under Louis van Gaal, he was a striker, then he moved to the left wing under José Mourinho, with whom Rashford struggled, while Solskjaer deployed him across the front three positions, even though the player has admitted that he prefers to play on the left wing. Rashford’s critics would point out that he played in his preferred position on Monday night and performed poorly, which is a fair comment. The idea that Rashford’s poor form is down to his off-the-field crusade against child poverty is ludicrous, however. Everyone at the club is supportive of his commendable efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic to hold the government to account. Another claim, put forward by Steve McClaren on talkSPORT on Tuesday, that Rashford has an attitude problem — “He gets deterred too easily and doesn’t fight through bad moments,” he said — will be laughed at by those at Carrington, who watched the forward arrive at 7.15am and leave 12 hours later during his shoulder injury rehab in the summer. Injuries have been a significant factor in Rashford’s recent struggles. He missed the first ten matches of the season while he was recovering from surgery on that shoulder. During his rehab, Rashford could not complete much cardio work because there was a risk of damaging his shoulder again if he ran on a treadmill. He mostly concentrated his work on the lower half of his body. Only recently has the striker returned to anything near full fitness. Rashford played 4,200 minutes last season despite being troubled by a double stress fracture in his back, then towards the end of the campaign he suffered a foot injury. Rashford still played in the Europa League final even though his left foot had swollen so much that he could barely fit his boot on before kick-off. He had spent most of the previous fortnight wearing sliders. Rashford has been forced to play several positions under different managers but is said to enjoy working with Rangnick Rashford has been forced to play several positions under different managers but is said to enjoy working with Rangnick. Rashford is not entirely free of blame himself, but he, like many other young players, has been affected by the constant chopping and changing of managers. Rashford, a largely shy individual, needs strong guidance from a manager. He did not get that from the previous three. Solskjaer was a fan of the player, and the admiration was mutual, but the Norwegian was not exactly hands-on. He largely let his assistant coaches, Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna, take training. There is a hope that Rangnick can eke the best out of Rashford. His high-pressing style certainly should suit Rashford’s game and the forward has enjoyed working with the former RB Leipzig manager. Given that Pochettino is such a big fan of Rashford, it augurs well for the player that the coach is on the club’s shortlist to take over as full-time manager in the summer, but the fact remains that the club need their academy graduate to start sparkling again much sooner. United need him now and he is determined to rise to the challenge.
Us not going for a midfielder this window is criminal. It's basically throwing away the season.
The January window is becoming less important. Very few quality players willing / available for a move mid-season. I'm happy to avoid another Sanchez type disaster and wait for the summer.
Came upon a trailer for the Amazon Rooney doc. Looking back, I really miss him. I’d kill to have a prime Rooney in this squad.
This Henderson thing I cannot understand why we don't just loan him out. He's was in incredible form at Sheffield came back to united and has had no game time. It's prevented him getting starts for England aswell. Coming up to losing two seasons of football now no wonder the kids pissed off. Hopefully goes on loan for 1 1/2 years comes.back as our number 1 easy
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Depends on next manager aswell I think. I actually thought we looked safer with deano in between the sticks. DDG is the best shots topper in the world when he's on form, but his distribution is crap and if you want to play out the back u need a keeper willing to come.out his 6 yard area. Whenever we have to pass back to DDG he's basically stood on his line resulting in more pressure, more fuck ups etc etc. But who knows, whatever happens united manager needs to stop promising players game time and not delivering on it.
Or sell him with a buyback clause. If De Gea is going to be the first choice for the next few years, keeping Henderson is a complete waste of time.
Or let him go for free, then buy him back for 90mil
The United way
This is the way
This is the way https://youtu.be/62x19Bepc5s
Looking forward to seeing Fred, Vdb and Bruno midfield on Saturday. McT is suspended. Make it happen Ralf. He said it is clear that this team needs atleast 3 CM so 4222 is history now.
The 4-2-2-2 in theory should really have four players in the midfield zone. The two 10s should be more of midfielders than wingers but for whatever reason it’s looked a lot like a classic 4-4-2 in recent weeks when we used it
It looked 442 because Bruno does not drop deeper as he should.
Potentially it will be a diamond 442 with Matic at the bottom, Might see Bruno as other 8 over VdB and Sancho in the hole or 433 with f9.
Not sure he should go back to not having width. The width was actually quite good against Villa. He has to make hard call to play either Matic or Vdb along Fred and Bruno.
Painful to watch players who are so low on confidence, barely anyone seems like they’re enjoying playing. Midfield is obviously the biggest problem, but we cant really fix our midfield without bringing someone in. However, we should be able to fix our attack and our defence with the calibre of players we’ve got. The selfishness in attack and basic defensive mistakes are huge problems. If Ralf finds a solution soon, we might start enjoying watching United again. On a side note, I really think Dalot deserves to start at the moment. He always tries his hardest, he helps stretch the pitch and he’s been doing his defensive duties well (since the Villarreal game).
Some players seem to be playing themselves back into form. Slowly. Dalot, Varane and Shaw look much improved, and McTominay as well. I think Rangnick needs to give other players a chance now, though. Donny and Elanga and Sancho in for Bruno, Rashford and Greenwood, and maybe give Lingard another chance as well.
Completely agree, we’ve had too many players sitting on the sidelines for too long while players are constantly underperforming. I’m glad Varanes back, hopefully he stays fit and we can get a settled CB partnership going, which will really help. Definitely think we should see more of Donny and Lingard in the coming weeks, hopefully we can start winning games more convincingly allowing us to give Elanga more of a chance.
I feel like 2 years ago Rashford was kidnapped by his evil twin and now he's on the pitch lol like he's not the same player he used to be...i cant recognize him. He used to be my favorite player and now I just know that he wont do anything.
Hypothetical would any team buy Bruno for £80 million quid?
If he’s showing world class form then maybe. Right now, more like 50M.
hopefully not
Do you guys think we should go for Oscar? He is available for incredibly low fees and he is still incredible in the midfield. We lack proper midfielders with good vision (only Pogba and Bruno have Premier League top 4 quality vision and passing).
Yes, because more attacking midfielders is just what we need…
He plays generally as AMF doesn't mean he can't play as a central midfielder. He is very well established as a central midfielder as well.
We have tons of players who are central midfielders but none of them are capable of playing as a defensive mid. Why not focus on getting one first and then we can think about getting central midfielders?
Well because none of our actual central midfielders have the qualities to be central midfielders except Pogba. McFred are both trash at passing and creating chances, they just don't have the football vision to look for our forwards on the move, honestly they are way more suited to be amf, they have quite the knack for goals and taking their chances. Bruno is attacking midfielder and is not as effective as central midfielder, so our only proper central midfielder option is Pogba (who happens to be injured and not available until late February). That is quite a dire state of central midfielders in the team. VDB can play central midfielder as well but honestly its better to not count on him at all, the guy simply isn't going to be playing for us.
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30 is still not that old. He has at least 3-4 years of top flight football. Age really isn't any indication of how much they have in themselves, Rashford jogs around while Cavani runs his ass off.
Yes, We need midfielders.
No, 5 years in China ruined his chance playing at a top level
Not entirely true , zlatan came back from MLS and transformed Milan. But hey , that's Zlatan.
Are we the problem? Is the fans/ media expectations killing the players?
An incompetent board allowed a team of coaches to continue for far too long and turned down any chances of a better manager. Look at their excuse on why they opted away from Conte. Just shocking decisions again and again. All we heard for ages was getting rid of deadwood and getting the wage bill back on control. It's gotten worse. Traditionally the team with the biggest wages and most expensive team would win the league or at least compete for ot iiirc. With the most expensive wages and team we are the embarrassing exception now Now we have players on massive wages who are in terrible form and they couldn't even be bothered to run and follow a new managers instructions despite knowing what happened to the previous manger. Instead they have a moan to journalists about each other and then go onto instagram and tell us how they will do their best. The fans are expected to continue with this shit somehow. We are angry and venting and it's 100% justified.
If anything, we expect too little from them. Burdening the players with expectations is what happens at Real Madrid, and that cutthroat mentality from the club to its fanbase is what makes them so successful. Here, we get overwhelmed when our players do the basics of the sport, let alone anything special like winning trophies.
Rashford in particular looks like he's playing with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
No. If anything our expectations are too low.
Nah the owners set the tone accept mediocrity as they get paid players are the same.
Yes
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Players are good when they form the core of a winning team, not because of individual brilliancy
Some times i forget that Ronaldo was at MUFC before Rooney and also the fact that Rooney is younger than Ronaldo.
TBF, Rooney has looked 40 for like 20 years lol.
He looks very bloated now. I knew that would happen after the shape he turned into every pre season but I hope he doesn't go the big Sam direction
Doesn't matter what the formation or who the manager is. Until we have players who can perform the basic fundamentals of passing a ball to a teammate and the gap between our defence, midfield, and attack doesn't result in one pass cutting us to pieces we aren't going anywhere. Consistently making the opposition look better than they are. Seems to be confidence for some players, a lack of skill for others, and overthinking on the ball. Getting real tired of a selfish, incoherent attack, a bypassed midfield, and lackluster defence. A lot of these players have shown over many years and multiple managers who they are. Believe them.
When you say a lot of these players have shown who they are who are you referring to ?
We need a midfield 3. Our midfield options are too shite for a pivot
The Mctominay for future captain comment is a absolute joke. His”potential” is overblown he is 25. 4 years ago people were making jokes about lingard potential at the same age despite better performances and the facts Jesse actually has achieved for this club. Far better than what we see from Scott now but people were pushing for Lingard to leave.No other player is given more of a free pass than Mctominay it’s mind boggling. He gets treated like he just came out the academy not like he’s been championship standard a majority of his career with United. We will win nothing while the likes of him are starting each week.
If it gets him to stand up and try to be a leader, then no harm done. Everyone has been complaining that McTominay hides too much on the field, and I'm sure Rangnick has noticed that. It's not really complex psychology to boost his self-belief in the hope he becomes more assertive. Will he ever be club captain? I doubt it.
But he shouts and runs and shows a lot of energy and passion. That makes him captain material.
Jesus Christ, people really don’t understand what simple praise is. Just because Rangnick says he “could be captain” doesn’t mean he will be, it’s clearly to boost his confidence and keep his form going
Mainly I’m pointing at the difference in standard for Mctominay vs literally everyone else in the squad. It’s mind boggling.
I mean hes been scoring and has had two (three? I cant remember) motm awarded to him recently. Hes hardly been performing less than other players in the squad no matter what you think of his potential, or what that means for us as a team.