Manchester Utd Thread

As a Spurs fan, I thought I was getting depressed, but I realise I'm merely "Clinically Fed-Up" (to quote Partridge).

It's MU fans who are/should be depressed!

There! I almost feel better now, at least until about six o'clock tomorrow evening.

If we can hold out that long...

Grade A BS, isn’t it? It’s like when managers of teams who have been beaten heavily by a top team offer a pass after the game saying that it was to be expected. First, it was an inaccurate statement and second it’s almost sycophantic and in awe of City.

And OGS should know. He played for over a decade under the best manager, and was used to winning things in a hyper competitive squad environment. Promoting the idea that City “respected” them as a positive or as a metric of development is embarrassing.

The attack has promise - Rashford has been one of the best in the league this season so far, Martial is coming into his own, Greenwood has hit 9 goals, Dan James has been a very astute signing. Another forward player to complement that quartet would be welcome - Tahith Chong has a lot of promise, or could sign one. 

The defence is relatively ok, though will never win a Premier League. Wan Bissaka will have the right back spot for a very long time. Same with Maguire in the middle. Lindelof can be bullied by premier league strikers and that's not something he can really address, he cant become taller. Brandon Williams has been very impressive in his appearances, but then again, so was Cameron Borthwick-Jackson a few years ago. Has a way to go to establish himself fully. Beyond those four, the landscape at the back is bleak. Tuanzebe has promise, so does Dalot, but Shaw, Jones, Young, Bailly, Rojo won't cut it. Apparently Smalling has excelled in Rome, will believe it when i see it for United.

Midfield is a disaster zone. McTominay has been very good. Fred is slowly coming into his own. And that's about it. Andreas Pereira is one of the worst players i've ever seen at United. Pogba - no need to delve into that one further, he's on his way out. Mata is finished. Lingard is useless three-quarters of the time. Gomes isn't getting games. 

I'm not sure if it's by accident or by design that united play the football that they do, on the counter. Perhaps Ole only knows how to play small team football, but the United midfield gets bullied by virtually any team in the top half. I'd take Ndidi-Tielemans-Maddison or Neves-Moutinho-Dendoncker over United's midfield in a second. United do not have the quality to impose themselves on a midfield of that level, and they don't have the imagination to unlock defences below that level. Bruno Fernandes would be a step towards addressing the latter problem. Still, the midfield is hopelessly below the standard required, and is a big reason as to why United have been awful in so many games this year

Man City and liverpool have players that are much further along in their development as players than those 4, most of their players are in their prime. Martial is the oldest player at 24, which would make him younger than the vast majority of first-team attackers at both other clubs. They may not currently be at that level but they have time on their side.

The investment has been poor, not an insufficient amount of money but poor. Paying too much money for average 'names', turning down players for stupid reasons (who was the player whos head was too large? I think Joao Felix was turned down as a potential signing because his father was overweight etc) Considering that share sales, interest paid, director's fees and dividends to the Glazers comes in at 1.4 billion since their time at United, it is also clear to see that the primary aim is not improving on the pitch.

The investment has been insufficient for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Lukaku, Fellaini, Sanchez, Smalling, Herrera, Valencia and Darmian have all been shown the door either permanently or temporarily, with a Championship attacker and two defenders coming in, who were desperately needed anyway. It's not OGS's team. People always talk about how much deadwood there is in the squad and how many players won't cut it at United, but then also point to the money used to assemble the squad (that wasn't spent by him) as proof that they should be challenging - can't have it both ways. 

An investment banker with zero knowledge of football was put in charge of transfers and brought in Di Maria, Falcao, Sanchez and so on in order to boost shirt sales. This did not work. In the past few windows, United have had a net spend lower than most Premier League clubs despite generating by far the most revenue. In the last four windows, United have a lower net spend than newly promoted Aston Villa did in summer. 

"What we do on the commercial side of things isn't really affected by on-pitch performance" as Woodward famously put it.

Brandon Williams looks a great prospect I would have him ahead of Shaw already, and can play in both full back positions.

Borthwick-Jackson is back at the club RB, recalled from his loan spell at Tranmere, he’s on £12k a week apparently and his contract runs out in the summer, don’t imagine he will get offered anywhere close to that amount from his next club.

I can't say i get the last point - what do you mean? The squad is overachieving?

The net spend doesn't tell the full story of what you mentioned, but it is indicative of a pattern of rolling back percentages of revenue spent on footballing matters. It also isn't Ole's fault, or his problem. He lost an important midfielder in Herrera, in what was already a weak and unconvincing midfield, and has had no money spent there. The United midfield is so far off most other top half midfields at the minute in terms of quality, that it's difficult to gauge what the rest of the team is actually capable of doing. They are dominated by superior midfields in, at least, close to half of the games they play.