Manchester United Thread

Thing with Adnan is that he's clearly not doing enough to impressive the BVB coach either. He's barely playing for the first team.

BVB are in great shape, don't get me wrong, but if he can't get into their first XI, are we that shocked he wasn't doing it for us?

I hope he proves me wrong because I loved watching him in the U21s - where he was the best talent since Pogba, or maybe even Rossi - but he hasn't turned it on at full pro level yet.

As a quick edit, I don't mean to say I liked seeing Nick Powell come on instead of Adnan. Obviously.
 
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It seems he has an attitude problem.
At the WC in Brasil, something happened with him.
The Red Devils and the staff are closing ranks and nothing has come out in the press, but there was definitely something wrong with or around him.

On top of that he wasn't slected for the last friendlies, but instead got selected for the -21's and he refused that selection. On top of that his manager announced that Adnan himself wanted to play for the -21's bit that it was his (the manager) decision to refuse that selection. He might have blown his chance to play for the national team for years now, unless he becomes really good. On top of that places in the team aren't very cheap with Ferreira Carrasco and Batschuayi performing outstanding against Italy...
 
Sad to see great talent wasted because of poor mindset. Be it his, or his parents or his advisors. I guess the early spot light got to him and ruined the kid...

Do hope it is all wrong and he will be able to make it back to the top...
 
Somewhat timely, he played all 90 for BVB yesterday and was awful. Terrible crosses, bad decision making and at one point the ball fell to him good space right around the penalty area and he just got the ball stuck under him and lost it.

Really sad. So much talent, but clearly needs a break or something.
 
IMO United should go for Bielsa.

What has the man won? Much less than LVG (3 Argentinian titles and one Olympic gold medal with Argentina, if i'm not mistaken).

But United fans want to see exciting football and that is guaranteed with this manager. I guess there are enough United fans who remember the match against Athletic de Bilbao in the Euro League a couple of season ago...that was great football...

And it might help Bielsa to win silverware.

But despite the lack of silverware, Bielsa is extremely influential. Guardiola is influenced by him and perhaps his best pupil is Pocchetino.

Michaêl Carrick would be ideal to play the role Dier has at Spurs.
Basically what happens is that both Rose and Walker (good but not exceptional players) push forward wide. Both Eriksen and Lamela/Song act as inside forwards and take the side backs of the opposition with them to creat space for Walker and Rose.

Meanwhile Vertonghen and Alderweireld act as SB's and Dier is their substitute CB when Spurs are in possesion.

This playing style would suit United (as a club) enormously as long as they have players willing to outrun their opponents (ditch Rooney and Schweinsteiger). With both Schneiderlin and Herrera United already have players who were very important for both Pocchetino (Saints) and Bielsa (Athletic de Bilbao).

Of course United could also go for Pocchetino, but i would not like that...
 
beachryan said:
Somewhat timely, he played all 90 for BVB yesterday and was awful. Terrible crosses, bad decision making and at one point the ball fell to him good space right around the penalty area and he just got the ball stuck under him and lost it.

Really sad. So much talent, but clearly needs a break or something.
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Maybe he is already mentally tired.
The new generation of Belgian talents (third in the -17 WC) have learned from the mistakes of Januzaj, Perreira and Musonda (our biggest talent ever, much better than Hazard and KDB). They stay in Belgium and will play in the first team of their Belgian club. Then they will go to foreign clubs. From the 22 (or 23) selected players, only two played abroad (Holland and Germany, not far from from Belgium). Six of the selection are Genk youth products (just like Courtois, De Bruyne, Benteke, Origin Defour and Ferreira Carrasco).

Januzaj made a mistake by joining United when he was 16 years old (Musonda made an even bigger mistake by joining Chelsea). He should have gone to United when 18-19-20 years old.

I hope in the end he'll succeed, because he is one hell of a talent, but i fear for him.
 
Mata seems like a nice fellow, but this is kind of pathetic. United have been forced to basically play their reserve team (our 6th youngest team in history, btw) and Mata is essentially THE senior attacking player.

He's hiding out there. Barely involved.
 
I would personally like to see depay and martial swap positions. Clearly depay should have a better eye for goal considering he top scored last season and martial is clearly a better dribbler of the ball.
 
We've reached that awful stage where I kind of hope United lose these types of matches, just for the chance it'll mean proper change. Happened at the very end of Moyes' reign as well.

I think Woody would stick with LVG if we're doing 'okay', but losses to teams like Bournemouth are the only way he'll get the sack he deserves.

I feel bad for LVG. I think the game has passed him by. One more job than he needed to do, might have slightly tarnished his reputation.

One thing I don't understand, the commentator on my stream mentioned the cost of United's squad approximately 500x, even twice mentioning the Di Maria fee (which is rather irrelevant now, no?). How much did Powell, Varela, Borthwick-Jackson, McNair and Lingard cost again? Because those are the players actually out there playing football. Somewhat relevant surely?
 
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beachryan said:
Mata seems like a nice fellow, but this is kind of pathetic. United have been forced to basically play their reserve team (our 6th youngest team in history, btw) and Mata is essentially THE senior attacking player.

He's hiding out there. Barely involved.
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He doesn't have the 'La Pelopina' of Xavi, Silva, Iniesta and, of course, Messi in his game so his predictability makes him easy to keep quiet. I think he's better suited to wide right with an attacking fullback to feed/create space.

I think a triangle of Herrera, Mata and an attacking RB could be Utd's best weapon, bit like we had with Nasri, Silva and Zabaleta
 
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GT1OKPo.jpg
 
Yes, I agree ! I just think they have a chance to win Europa. You already said Mutd would win the league. I feel ,at this point no one is running away w/ it. That said I hope Leicester battered Chelsea tonight!!
 
I kind of want this leicester magic to keep on going for the rest of the season. What a wonderful turn of events that would be.

I do agree that Managers should be given time, but with LvG's stature, wasn't he supposed to be a quick fix for instant success? If we wanted this rebuild, then why didn't we just go with Giggs and give him time instead? I still doubt Woodward will have the guts to sack LvG....and then we'd have him for another season, watch Guardiola go to Man City and they run away with titles for a few years, then we start our "rebuild" with Giggs....
 
Your way of there Goku, LVG and instant success?!

He's built a foundation which is very good IMO but his method of building a team is super rigid, he doesn't think about short term fixes otherwise we would still probably have players like Van Persie here.

He'd rather have a squad short of players than players who could be useful short term, his philisophy is kind of flawed though IMO in tha now we 'need' a super striker or a world beater to take us to the next level in his idea.

Surely that player would help any 'philosophy' though.
 
His ego and our money has done us well over his tenure. In so far as players were willing to join us (some very good ones) and he shipped out players that needed going. Excellent on that front. Our squad is two more windows away from being ready to compete on all fronts, imo.

But his actual philosophy on the pitch is a myth imo. The Dutch national team were pragmatic and lucky. Winning the league with Bayern hardly requires tactical genius. He won 1 title in Holland. So his accomplishments are primarily in the mid 90's, leveraging two incredible youth academies that he didn't set up (Cryuff).

Last year his philosophy was a revolutionary 5-3-2. Gone. In the one moment of form, his philosophy was a high-press counter-attack style. Gone. This year his philosophy is to bore the opposition into submission. Not only is it horrible, it patently isn't working - he only has 3 more points than the Moyesiah at this stage of the campaign.

He is a past-it egomaniac, who should have retired instead of tarnishing his reputation with his performance here. Sad but true.
 
Ranieri old school 4-4-2 system seems to work. I guess he saw what he had to work with and went for direct footy action. LVG is not looking what he has , but how he can transform . I think Wenger suffers that w/ players and the evolution of playing in different out of position.

Mutd fans are at it again lol

https://twitter.com/br_uk/status/676859680937877505
 
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haha, its a fake.

Well, I do agree that off the pitch, he has done stuff needed post Moyes, just on the pitch...it's just sad.

I also don't see who would come in, player-wise, that can change this...
 
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Wow there's a blast from the past; Karel Poborsky. What a European Championship he and that Czech team had! He was phenomenal and he wasn't alone. There was also Pavel Nedved, Patrick Berger, Thomas Repka and I think Vladimir Smicer among others!

Unfortunately those few matches were some of the best he ever played! Never replicated it consistently at club level.
 
PLF said:
Wow there's a blast from the past; Karel Poborsky. What a European Championship he and that Czech team had! He was phenomenal and he wasn't alone. There was also Pavel Nedved, Patrick Berger, Thomas Repka and I think Vladimir Smicer among others!

Unfortunately those few matches were some of the best he ever played! Never replicated it consistently at club level.
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Yea. I don't recall seeing much of that Euro magic at United. I was so frustrated when they lost to Germany in the final from a crappy deflected goal. Was a fantastic team.
 
Yeah I was rooting for the Czechs too as a kid! That was the Euro's that Oliver Bierhoff became the super sub for the Germans right? Man I can't believe I remember some of this stuff so vividly! I used to live and breathe the game. Long gone are those days...
 
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