Manchester United Thread 25/26 - Teamtalk/Transfers/Gossip Mod Note in OP 12.02.26

Im hoping Zirkzee behind Hojlund for once but I've a feeling it will be Mount.

I do think Dalot switches off too often but I think it's harsh enough to criticise him too much for the goal.

It looked like he was caught napping again but in fact I think it was an excellent set piece from Brentford. That, or they get very lucky in the way that it all happened.

Collins made a decoy run and forced Hojlund the other side, Hojlund ended up blocking Dalot ever so slightly, enough for Pinnock to get that yard or two on Dalot.

It's clear enough from this still I think. If they meant it, it was an excellent set piece from Burnley and my question would be why we can't do that rather than questioning Dalot.

I don’t see him going on loan. Only noise about that was Di Canio throwing it out there last week but it seems like nonsense from him.

He doesn’t look great but only having one full 90 completed and playing up front in a team that for the most part has been pretty poor, would be some mitigating factors. It’s not been all bad but he has frustrated me most of the time he’s been anywhere near the ball. The same could be said for a few others.

You can’t rely solely on Højlund up front for the season with his injury/form history so there’s no chance he leaves on loan unless someone comes in.

He told us himself during the summer that he wasn't a striker. There was never any doubt that he wasn't imo. The goal against Fulham may have got the vibes rolling but if he got 11 in Serie A last year, I think double figures in the PL for his first year would be an achievement.

That sais, I would give it some time to see what is the plan for him now that Hojlund and himself seem to be fit... it may be the case that he will start wide with Hojlund central in some games. I wouldn't mind seeing that in games that we can control possession. I can't see him being used behind Hojlund too often, unless Bruno is suspended.

Comms...

I think you could easily make an aguement to have signed either alongside Zirkzee. I like the… concept (?) of Zirkzee but I don't know if he is a guy you throw on with 20minutes to go if pushing for a goal - not without other tactical changes. He's not a McTominay emergency replacement to go long to.

IMO Zirkzee's use can only really come from providing chances and spaces for the wingers and the deeper runners. I see his hopeful impact being more like Firminho. He should still be doing better chance wise, but the reality (IMO) is that his impact should be measured in the performances of the players around him (which imo we have not yet seen him have a significant impact on).

So, saying all that, I think a 'cheap' number 9 that would be the 'in case of emergency' throw them on and try cause some havoc player, the player McTominay basically was, is a missing component of the squad.

there aren't many teams in the league with back up strikers near the quality of the starters, as they wouldn't get much playing time and these players cost the most money in transfer fees and wages.

City have no one, pool have nunez (who did cost a lot but certainly is not a good striker) arsenal have Jesus (again not a great striker) spurs Richardson, villa have that young lad (who is doing great tbf) only Chelsea really have but they have 2 or 3 players in every position.

Hopefully Hojunds is the man we need and then we have a few options depending on how a game is going, rashford can be used like in his first season under ten hagg as a counter attacking option when we go ahead in games when teams push up (scored a lot of his goals that season like this) Zirkzee once he hopefully gets up to pace can be a creative player for others, and if people need a box crasher we have casmaerio who is absolutely fantastic at getting on the end of crosses but I doubt ten hagg will want to see that much unless in real emergency situations, mct did great last year but its not sustainable football to just have a box crasher on the pitch offering little else.

I wouldn't be concerned about ETH not wanting to play two no.9s at once... not many managers do. The really concerning thing is that he doesn't seem to want two no.9s in the squad.

Any good manager, football or not, should be ensuring they have adequate resources. Maybe I should bring the Ineos guys in on some of the blame as well. Surely with all their footballing brains, they could have looked at the previous 2 seasons under ETH and see that we are miles away from the top 4 in terms of goals scored, embarrassingly far away, and the lack of goals directly translates into points on the board.

It's early days for Zirkzee yet and he deserves more time but I can't see him adding a lot more goals than what we lost from McTominay.

I get what you're saying about the quality but I would absolutely bite someone's hand off to have Welbeck in the squad. That's a sign of how little options we have (and the fact that Welbeck seems a model pro who is still scoring in the PL).

I just don't think putting Haaland, for example, in our teams actually solves the scoring issue. It would help, but i think our lack of goals is down to an inability to create a volume of chances regularly.

And I would reckon INEOS thought/hoped that changes could be made that would bring out more goals in Rashford, Hojlund, Zirkzee, Garnacho, Bruno and also Amad and Mount. I think they should be good for goal retrns of 15,15, 10, 10, 10, 5 and 5 in the PL given their quality - thats 70 goals, before you add in an additional few from the likes of Dalot, Eriksen, Mainoo, De Ligt. I would accept that people will think those goal returns are wildly ambitious based on recent evidence, but surely the club have to be thinking about what players could do, when playing to their potential. If we accept they are not playing to their potential, then surely that is the element you need to fix first? Or the replacements will suffer the same fate.

I'm not saying we should be looking at 442 but more so with regards to when chasing a game ETH never looks at throwing on a second striker...he's more interested in putting an extra Midfielder on instead, perhaps in time when Zirkzee is hopefully acclimatised we may see him come in at times to play off/behind Rasmus.

Rashford as a ST hasn't worked...there's nothing in the youth team for now that can supplement either. Perhaps Johnathan David is something we should be looking at in January along with Angle Gomes on free transfers to aid our attacking options to allow us spend money elsewhere on an LB and a CM

Bit of a change of scenery for Diego...

Those figures shouldn't look wildly ambitious at all, but past form would suggest they are ambitious.

I do agree that no one player is going to make a huge difference if the team just isn't performing/scoring but I'm kind of stuck on the fact that if Hojlund gets injured, we have no one player who can naturally play CF.

My logic would be that you need to get sufficient resources (an additional player who can play CF as back-up) in place and then once you have those resources, you tackle the problem of style of play / getting them to gel etc.

We started the season without a CF, it's hard to create fluidity within attacking play when you are plugging holes by playing players out of position. Or when very different players in one position. The LB situation is more or less the same deal for me.

Maybe we have a manager who constantly wants to change things. If we do, I would expect the Ineos guys to be telling him he needs some sort of basic system / foundation.

Without Bruno we probably have 4 options, Zirkzee, Mount, Erikson, Amad.

For me personally just to see it, I'd like amad to play there just to see what we look like we a creative ball carrier as a 10, who has the ability to dribble in tight spaces. But given Garnacho is probably due a rest that'd mean starting anothy in a game we need to win.

Zirkzee might be likely although with Hojund only back from injury it's possible we see him rested and having his minutes managed and Z up top.

Mount who knows if he will be fit enough but against a Jose side who will sit back maybe we need more creativity.

Erikson is probably still needed in midfield with Mainoo out unless we go ugarte Casmaerio. But even he could do with a rest after all his games for us and on international duty.