Manchester United Thread 25/26 - Teamtalk/Transfers/Gossip Mod Note in OP 26.09.24

0 points from the next 3?

One of those games is Southampton at home, let's not go overboard with the doom and gloom that's a game to get 3pts from

And if they don't win it? It's entirely possible.

Lose to Arsenal, and we're out of the cup. League cup, gone. League, never had a chance. Fourth place, almost certainly gone. The Europa League is our best bet for anything this season, and even at that I'd be sceptical.

If the rest of the season panned out in such a way that we get knocked out of the cup and used the free weeks to heal injured players, we avoid relegation in the league, put our focus on and somehow manage to win the Europa League giving us Champions League football next year, and Amorim culls the dead wood and replaces 10/11 players with lads capable of doing a serious shift, and it leaves us in a position where at the very least coming into next year we're a difficult to beat if not spectacular ourselves going forward that will be playing champions league football, I'd take it in a heartbeat. Outside of an unbeaten run until the end of the season, that's the best case scenario for me.

But I have no faith left in the players bar the likes of Amad or Mazraoui who have been performing well as well as working their socks off. Amorim could release/sell 15 players, get 15 lads in on loan from around the Premier League and he couldn't possibly do worse or have as unprofessional an attitude as there currently is now.

So yeah, Southampton at home, looks like 3 point on the board, but honestly, on the form of the last 18 months, I wouldn't be expecting a win.

LWB is a definite. Alvaro be most convenient as I believe he'd class as homegrown + was always a wing back anyway and shouldn't have any issues settling in.

After that whatever is left from the Rashford sale might go toward a new ACTUAL striker to offer an alternate to Rasmus we still don't have.

Antony's agent is claiming January interest so if he we shift him that'd be handy bonus funds but not much.

The season is a write off. An absolute write off. The best case scenario is we win the Europa League and get Champions league football, or win the cup again and have some form of European football next year, and end the year with a trophy.

Either way, the season is a complete write off.

Ideally, in pure fantasy terms, to help Amorim….

Sell Rashford, Garnacho, Casemiro, Martinez, Dalot, Antony, and if a decent offer comes in, Bruno and see what we can get for them. And if you can, offload Mount, Shaw and Onana too. All of them are either a problem for the mentality, injury, or quality (or all three) of the team, and as the bigger players in the squad, we can do without all of them given they're all so badly inconsistent or mentally poor, the type of leadership in the dressing room we absolutely don't need and need to kill.

Do deals for loan players until the end of the season. Whatever, whoever, just to get through this half season. As bad as that sounds.

From January until the end of the season, target 15 players Amorim wants to suit his style of play/attitude within the squad. and have those deals finalised by the end of the season. And while they're going after these players, don't say your interested and drive up the price, do it as quickly and efficiently as possible, and as cheap as possible. That way Amorim will have a squad from the start of the summer that will be his and will be geared towards his attitude and not the repeated players power failures of the past 10 years.

It wouldn't do any harm either if INEOS started making waves in the club instead of making headlines. There's barely a week that goes by with some mention of INEOS putting the club in a bad light.

As I said, that's a pure fantasy version.

The reality is, there's probably not much we can do. Between the financial situation and the personnel situation of a €600m ETH 5hit-show, it looks like unless there's a serious offloading of players, Amorim is tied to this group, and he has to get a tune out of them somehow. This is where he'll really earn his money or become another manager the club has broken.

Yep that’s what happened. Forgot about the cup draw.

Cunha is one I'd love. Would fill the spot I thought Rashford would be in but I think he could also play up top.

Osimhen I threw out there cause he is clearly available.

Vlahović is the guy I'd go all out for tbh but can't imagine juve wanting to sell even if they have an interest in zirkzee.

For cm, I've no real idea tbh. I think we need someone who can both replace and play with Ugarte. A midfielder with defensive chops as well as an ability to play good ball forward, hard to find.

Same as lwb. Davies us the guy I want but talk he's not on our list so I'd guess he's already told us no. I worry about buying fullbacks for that position tbh, when we play fullbacks both sides we end up with only really 3 attacking players, which is a problem imo.

Dibling (rwb)

Ait nouri (lwb)

Fernandez (lwb)

Gomes (cm)

Laimer (cm)

Sane (am)

Rigg (am)

nypan (am)

Cunha (am / St)

Ramos (St - loan only, could be a disaster but possibly worth the gamble to see)

I think they'd all be interesting players in January and possibly gettable (not all, obviously).

Have been impressed with Baleba at Brighton and Wharton at Palace any time I've seen them play...just not sure would they be experienced enough to be thrown in at the deep end

Worst part is that Wolves, Spurs and Bournemouth didn't even play that well to win and score nine goals between them against United.

Wolves yesterday in the 2nd half when they had the man advantage for 52 minutes only had two shots in total and both ended up in the net. First goal came directly from a corner so probably can't count it as a shot?

Approaching the 2nd half of the season now and while I welcome the rotation it's now time to settle on the spine of the team especially defensively and make United harder to score against and beat.

I think its evidence that the joined up thinking INEOS promised isn't in place. Going from ETH to Amorim is much the same as the Moyes to LVG to Mourinho. All good managers in their own right, but chaos from a squad recruitment perspective. The club spent 215 million Euro last summer on players and not a wingback amongst them. Then goes and hires a coach whose system relies on wingbacks. Setting him - and the club - up to fail. The idea of "best in class" appointments was they would provide the long term planning that would align the player recruitment and the hiring of coaches to each other. Not seeing it in practise so far.

The whole Ashworth sacking was odd. Went from hero to zero in a few weeks - apparently just on the strength of some lukewarm suggestions for manager which is hard to believe after being central to what was a good transfer window: Yoro, Ugarte, MDL and Mazraoui all good signings. Zirkzee can still turn it around. 80% success rate on signings would be amazing either way.

I would guess that Ashworth threw his hands up when the whole long term plan everyone agreed in the summer was thrown out after a few weeks and the relationship brokedown.

As much as INEOS haven't covered themselves in glory with the Ashworth saga, we can't quite say yet that they're bumbling along in the same manner as the Glazers did.

They've hired a manager in the full knowledge that he wants to change the system. Knowing that he doesn't currently have the players for it. Willing to endure the pain during the rebuild and knowing that they'll have to fork out some cash in the process.

Now if they spend money on some wingbacks over the next window or 2, then sack Amorim and replace him with someone who exclusively uses a 4 man back line, THEN they're no better that before.

"Now if they spend money on some wingbacks over the next window or 2, then sack Amorim and replace him with someone who exclusively uses a 4 man back line, THEN they're no better that before."

The point I'd make is that they've already done that. Backed a manager who uses 4 at the back (having planned to sack him a few weeks prior), signed 215m in players with that approach in mind, then sacked that manager 3 months later and replaced him with someone who uses 3 at the back. There is every chance they do the same again. That's assuming they even back Amorim in January.

Amorim needs to be in survival mode if he isn't already. Whatever he was told by INEOS about patience, long term plan, etc I wouldn't believe any of it. He'll have some protection as he is a 100% INEOS pick, but the club must be appalled by 7 points from 7 games. Next two games are both difficult. He has to find some way, some how to get some points on the board very quickly.