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Manchester United Thread

Wonderful long term strategy coming out from United lately:

- Loan Janujaz to major European team. Recall him when he barely plays
- Play Nick Powell in most important fixture of season, indicating some faith. Then, a month later, ship him off to a championship club on loan.
- Don't sign a striker, let Hernandez go stating there wouldn't be game time because Wilson was next in line. Let Wilson go on loan to a Championship team after never playing him.
- Contact Ancelotti in November about taking over.

Woodward should go back to signing noodle deals.
 
Over 3 months ago, Juan Mata scored a penalty. Since then, Manchester United have not scored in the first half of a match.

LVG in.
 
Who says we re not entertaining - leaving it to the dying moments to get a penalty like that against the almighty Sheffield Fucking United?? :BLEH:

So yeah.. That sucked again. I literally feel like I'm wasting previous moments of my life watching this shit week after week.
 
Something has to give soon. Even deaf and dumb Ed Woodward had to notice the tone in OT last night, regardless of how many dollars he's managed to throw the Glazer's way this week.

I've barely seen our last 5 matches. And I know loads of folks like me who aren't bothering to tune in anymore. Eventually it'll show in terms of media buys and 'brand'.

All the murmurings I've heard is that LVG has tried to leave, but the board can't decide who they want, so are sticking with him. Pathetic.

We're Liverpooling it up.
 
May have only drawn but that was more like the united i want to see. Notice it brings the best out of the like likes of rooney and herrera when we look to play it more attacking
 
Great to see Jones, Carrick and Rojo rocking the away end with the fans. Love that.

Smash and grab. 1 shot on target, again. Kind of disappointed the big man helped, presumably that's him picked for the next 5 matches, regardless of how crap he was the rest of the time.
 
You can say that he's there for that one moment....but yeah, he does more damage than helping for the remaining 89 minutes of the match.

De Gea saved us many times as our passing and play were really poor. But always good to win against Liverpool at Anfield.
 
If Roy Keane were still at the club, hell if SAF was, Fellaini would have had to shave his head and act like a pro. You can't tell me that giant hair doesn't interfere with peripheral vision, not to mention makes him more visible when he fouls people every 30 seconds.

He's a symbolic albatross of Moyesy.

If we're stuck with him, use him as he should be used - 15 minutes left he's a battering ram if we're losing. That is it.

I'd much rather see Ben Pearson in CM...oh wait we sold our most promising youth CM...for 100k. Glazernomics.

Don't read up on our youth team. It's falling apart. Ed Woodward has no idea what he's doing, and the board (who not a single one now is a football related person) don't care. We'll be mid-table for the next decade unless something changes soon.
 
Beach, i've been meaning to react for weeks now, but i haven't because people will tell that of course i'm defending every single Belgian player. This isn't true. There are Belgian players that i don't like (Witsel, Kompany for instance), there are Belgian players that i like but i know damn well that they aren't playing well (Hazard, Benteke). I'm even very critical for my favourite Belgian player (IMO De Bruyne is absent in big matches since he's playing for City).

I am not a particular fan of the football player Marouane Fellaini. I prefer our national team without him (they play "better" football without him) but at times he is so important. Every time our national team has a bad match, they win because of him (the example you might have seen is the first match at the World Cup, against Algeria, but since then there are at least four other (qualifiacation) matches where he saved us).

Is Fellaini a player that suits United? To be completely fair: i don't think so. He should go to another club and then this uneasy alliance is over and both player and club are "free" (can't find a more suitable word).

I think i have tried to be farly reasonable and objective until now.

And now my point.

Your last post is absolutely ridiculous. Although i have to give it to you that among the major bullshit that you write, there is also one big truth: unfortunately for Fellaini he has become the symbol of the Moyes era...and everything Moyes is very bad for the average Man Utd fan.

But is Van Gaal doing much better?

At the moment i don't have the impression he is, you just have to read some pieces written by a certain Paul Scholes to realise that i'm not alone.

Wait a minute? Didn't LVG reached a CL place with United? Damn, that's right...

But am i that biased when i say that Fellaini (together with Young and even more De Gea) is perhaps the player who contributed most to that CL place. When it mattered most Fellaini scored goals, just like he does with our national team.

An example that i remember well unfortunately...United destroyed Spurs and who scored and played a very good match? Fellaini. In the last quarter of last season, he did it regularly for United.

Yes at times he seems clumsy and is even clumsy, but he clearly delivered...

I've seen your post that United haven't won a single match with Fellaini. Since last weekend that is over. United won (highly undeserved according to most of the reports i've heard or read) and Fellaini was essential in the 'build-up' (i know) to the winning goal.

About that post and stats like that. Did you know that last season Manchester City got fewer goals with De Michelis in the team than with Kompany. We all know that De Michelis is a much better defender than Kompany (i'm lying here, up to a certain point City got fewer goals against with De Michelis, i'm not certain it was like that at the end of the season, but that certain point was well after New Year).

It's not that important, but you haven't exactly done yourself a service with that last post...imo it's a rather stupid one. Your much more intelligent than this...

And finally. Like i said, let's hope for both United and Fellaini that Marouane finds another good club.

But do you think this will solve United problems? Will they start to play fantastic attacking football without Fellaini? Unfortunately, i don't think that will be the solution...

Oh and for what's it worth. I still think United can win the league this year...Arsenal certainly will have a bad period, City is weak in away matches, Leicester will sooner or later stumble and Spurs...well they are Spurs, even now.

PS: and Fellaini fouls players every thirty seconds? Well if that's true, Keane did it every 5 seconds...you never minded that.

Don't take it personal, but in the end, i had to react...it's predictably, i know.
 
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C'mon sonoman, you don't react to a sensible post with that.

Beach's post about Fellaini's hair was funny. Reminded me of Pasarella's issue with Batistuta. It's very silly.

The more I see of Fellaini playing in the middle the more I'm convinced he's not a midfield player. I remember gerd saying this a year or more ago and Scholes confirmed that days ago. If we play him we should put him in the box or behind the striker. He's more a threat in the box. I've seen a lot of that proof at Everton.
 
Yea, Fellaini is garbage. Even the passes he completes are bobbly pieces of crap most of the time.
You can point to times when his place in the team has led to a goal but overall I think it's pretty obvious that his inclusion does more harm than good.

I had a similar issue with Dzeko. Whilst a better player than Fellaini, his general play was a detriment, even if people can point to quite a few goals - important ones at that. I always say we probably wouldn't have even needed The Aguero Goal if we had had someone more suited to the team. And the case against Fellaini is much easier to make than it is against Dzeko.

If you're going to have Fellaini at your club or in your national setup he should be an impact sub. Utd and Belgium would both be better off without him stinking up their football.

Honestly tho, I wouldn't even want him as a super sub. If it works you just end up being lazy and soon enough he's in the first XI. If it doesn't then it's a waste of time. I'd rather my team do better at passing and moving rather than going route one.
 
@ Gerd: I think you may be missing the tongue in cheek versus actual sentiment. The hair comment is tongue in cheek - though I do believe a better professional would, well look more professional.

I've watched United for many, many years and even through the absolute nadir of our midfield woes, we've never had a player in the engine room who appears to put in so little effort as Fellaini. I've no issue with a lack of talent - we had almost a full season with John O'Shea as a CM. Not to mention Liam Miller, young Fletcher and of course the double Djemba (who wasn't as bad as people remember).

What I've never seen is so many opportunities created by the opposition mid just jogging past Fellaini into our box. When Fellaini misses a tackle, that's it - he can't get back into play. Hell, he only averages ATTEMPTING less than a tackle match - because he's unable to close enough to the ball to do so. And he jogs bloody everywhere! Barely ever sprints. He loses the ball in midfield and waves his arms, and slowly trudges back towards defence.

I know it's LVG's fault for picking him there, but keep in mind this is a player who on record has said his best position is defensive midfield.

I'm sure he's a lovely fella, gives to children and so forth and I wish him a lovely life, but I'd very much like if that life didn't include playing central midfield for the football team I support.

Does he score the odd goal? Last season yes, over his United career per minute? No, absolutely not. He has 1 assist this season, and even that technically isn't an assist (off the bar at LFC). He is not only offering us nothing in terms of productivity, he hinders us visibly, and measurably.

As a fan, if I'm not allowed to moan about that, then what am I allowed to bitch about?
 
Of course you are entitled to moan. I can even see where you're coming from and getting to. I just don't agree with everything.
He is becoming the symbol of everything that is wrong post SAF and he doesn't deserve that.
 
I have to be honest. I'm not a fan of Fellaini either. More so because his style of play isn't what I like. And not what LvG and Moyes want in their team. They like possession football where the ball is played from the back to the midfield and then if possible to the forwards. However, with Fellaini's touch, he mis passes the ball or will lose possession more often than not.

I do agree that he is best used as a target man in the box in the dying moments when you go hail mary at the opponent's goal as more often than not, he will be able to head the ball goal-wards or nod it to a striking partner for a shot at goal. That's why he contributes to "important" goals for Belgium and Man Utd.

But apart from those times, defensively and in build-up play, he is a liability. In a different system, he'd be very effective if used correctly. Sadly, it is just not with us here and now.
 
But do you think United's problem would be solved if he left the club? I don't think so. The symbol of the problems would be gone, but nothing more...

And to be honest, i don't like his playing style either, it's just that i think he is treated unfairly by the fans...fans have every right to do that, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are right.
 
United has huge, systematic problems which will prevent us ever being a truly top club again unless something dramatic changes in our ownership. Obviously nothing whatsoever to do with Fellaini or even LVG.

But in terms of what the fans get to watch each week, if we sold Fellaini today I think the quality of football would instantly improve, regardless of who you stuck in there. It's not his fault, but we play differently with him in the team, whether that's coached or subconscious. I can only speak to 2 years of watching him in our team, but he really is a major problem when put in midfield.

Injuries to Carrick and Schweinsteiger are partly to blame, but we have Perreira who is quickly becoming Pogba mach 2 for us, sitting around twiddling his thumbs. He is already a better a midfielder than Fellaini, featured heavily in preseason, rules our U21 team and yet can't get a sniff.

The only logical explanation I can think of is that we're playing Fellaini exclusively to defend corners and set pieces - which he is good at. But how sad would that be?
 
I wonder if Man Utd fans have ever thought about the fact that it is very well possible that United may never be as good as under Ferguson.

That was so exceptionally good, that statistically the odds are those results may never be repeted (look at Liverpool for another example of what i mean).
 
gerd said:
I wonder if Man Utd fans have ever thought about the fact that it is very well possible that United may never be as good as under Ferguson.

That was so exceptionally good, that statistically the odds are those results may never be repeted (look at Liverpool for another example of what i mean).
Click to expand...

Of course, SAF oversaw the most prolonged period of dominance by one team in a major league that football is ever likely to see in this 'modern era'.

But, we're still one of the richest clubs in the world, with one of the highest attendances, fan bases and so forth. Just looking at the numbers, we SHOULD always be in the top 10 clubs in Europe in terms of performance, just based on our ability to buy players, pay wages and develop facilities etc. But at present we're terrible.

You'd expect that we'd oscillate back in the right direction soonish.
 
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