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

Things are pretty bad and unfortunately Amorim is personally under significant pressure already but imagine the mood if we had not won the recent games v Leicester, Fulham and Southampton. It's not an implausible thought given that all three of those performances were dire.

It's hard to see light at the end of this tunnel until we can get to the Summer window and make some changes. But Amorim's authority is going to be torn to shreds if he doesn't start getting more out of these players. I think it's getting close to the stage where he's going to have to bite the bullet and drop the wingbacks in his system and revert to a more conventional system.

Please be true...

Better than a poke in the eye.

The only “fact” that we have this season is that we are 15th so despite your opinion that this is an 8th or higher squad is irrelevant.

I never said it's a bad thing.

Couldn't find any credible sources for the news when it seemed to break last night. Goal.com seem to have went with it, and I'm not sure how reliable they are? It's a bit odd that PSG would be putting in a bid now, so far in advance of the summer window. Marseille are their closest challengers for Ligue 1, maybe the bid is real but there could be an angle of trying to unsettle a rival's key player as well.

I was more annoyed with the display against Leicester than I was with the one against Spurs. We looked like we didn't know how to play football in the first half against Leicester but there were signs of them doing what Amorim wants / what he did at Sporting, at the weekend.

Dalot got a lot of stick, and defensively I don't rate him, but himself and Dorgu were creating width high up the pitch. Chances were being created by decent interplay... at times. We just haven't got the players to convert them.

The front 5 is what I believe he is trying to achieve when attacking/in possession, and the (average position) map below points to that.

The league finishing positions are all a matter of fact. Like it or not.

But I guess the new tact is that last seasons squad was so much better than this seasons, despite the gaping holes in that theory. I can see how this goes though, by the time it plays out Rashford and Sancho will have been pivotal players last season while Amrabat was the one making it all tick. Or maybe it is Martials one PL goal that we are missing this season.

The usual response would be that it'll take time to build up an understanding between Dorgu and Garnacho... But it's Garnacho, understanding when to pass might be the biggest issue there.

My overall point is that despite the result, Sunday at least gave me some hope that we are on the way to playing Amorim's style. A style that should see plenty of overloads. Plenty of issues with it still, as you point out, but given that it was Dorgu's first game at LWB... there was some glimmers of hope.

EtH had given up, too much of a circus.

I actually think we would have been better off if in theory if we had weathered out the season with Ten Hag and got rid of the same players we are now trying to shift, Ten Hag is a top coach and had alot of what we should be looking for. But Erik himself essentially jacked it in.

Same goes for Amorim now, weather it out and start afresh, we can't just keep sacking coaches, once the Internet and Red top frenzy kicks in.

Actually follow through on something.

On the play the kids thing….it's not like they are 14 or 15….'kids' nowadays on the bench are 18 and 19, they should be able to play senior at this point, there is no tackling any more, what exactly are we protecting them from until they are 21 or 22? It's farcical. Ryan Giggs got kicked around the Premier league at 17 years of age and played til he was 40.

We were 14th in the table when ETH left. That downward trend has to be factored in. I'm disappointed with the lack of progress under Amorim so far, but I would like to think that I can be disappointed in that, yet also consider some other big factors as well.

I do think this year's squad is slightly stronger, despite all the problems, but I'm glad Amorim seems to have started a reset by getting players that he doesn't want out on loan, with a view to sell.

ETH had several windows and a huge amount of cash to sort out some glaring weaknesses in the squad, he failed spectacularly to address a left sided full back and the lack of goals in attack. Amorim has had one window with sfa money. I wouldn't be releasing the hounds until he has at least a summer window and some backing.

I do worry about what we are doing on the pitch.

The WBs (Dalot and Mazroui more so) failt o push up and press, and get pushed back into a 5.
Is that cause they are rubbish, dumb, or is Amorim not asking them to push.

Against Spurs it looked like Mazraoui should be pushing up to help midfield. Is that not what he wanted? Or Mazraoui just not do it?

We end up playing direct to the 10s and struggle to build anything - is that a player failure in build up? Is that Amorim asking for that cause he does trust the players to build out?

If we are going to play poorly and lose, i'd prefer to see us actually push the style Sporting had - which I don't feel we are doing. And I don't know if that is a player failure at execution or Amorim failing to coach it, or Amorim not pushing it yet.

Re bypassing the two in midfield, I think it has gone on for too many games now that it has to be Amorim's instructions. His favoured duo are Ugarte and Bruno, it's hard to see that he doesn't have confidence in those two players to receive the ball in midfield, it would lead me to believe that the lack of confidence is in the back 3… or a lack of pace in the back three. IF the ball is lost in midfield then the back 3 can be exposed and I think he's trying to avoid that.

I don't think it's the right thing to do, but that is the most logical reason behind it for me. It has left us extremely predictable in our build up play.

But I think the goal would be for the balll to go to the WB and then into the midfield, and then the 10s, then the WBs. Or from WB to CM, switch to other WB. IIRC the CMs should be recieving from the WBs and carrying or progressing rather than taking the ball under pressure and turning centrally. Though depending on the angle a bounce pass from CB to CM to WB is a sensible out.

I don't think progression direct through the middle is the goal, but our the side CBs and WBs not executing the plan correctly or are they not being asked to do that?

Zirkzee does help in that regard, but if Garncho is going to shoot and miss every time he hits the final third, ignoring the WB, or the RWB is Dalot (rather than a goal threat like Amad) then we don't have enough goal threat comiing from elsewhere to accomodate a striker that doesn't crash the box.

But then Hojlund isn't offering an offensive upside so we may as well use Zirkzee to give us better presence in the attacking midfield zone.