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

Amorim likes Bayindir IMO. I don't think he rates him as a top GK obviously but he thinks he's worth defending and praising in press conferences. He won't drop him unless he's forced into it in. And tbh I think that's the right decision. Imagine if he was to drop Bayindir now, after two solid games without any major errors and then Lammens doesn't hit the ground running and you have to go back to Bayindir. What a sh*t show that'd be. Bayindir knows that Lammens is waiting in the wings so it might improve his game and he might turn out to be a decent GK.

Wages was a big reason.
They are cutting their wages costs massively and he was on a big contract, wouldn't agree to their more incentive based structure.
City happy to pay him though, and he's looked good so far (2 matches tbf)

Eh Wha?? Donnaruma would have been an unbelievable signing! Guaranteed to save City many points this year.

He was reportedly on 500k a week at PSG, 250-270k "reportedly" at City... So quite likely he's still getting about 500k a week in some shape or form.

It's a shame that Casemiro went off at the weekend and it went from very comfortable to very tight.

If we got a 3rd goal or were down to half an hour left if have given Lammens an appearance.

It'll be interesting to see where/when he gets his opportunity now with the League Cup avenue gone.

Beat those 2 then don't see why we couldn't out some past pool, they've looked leaky in defence. 3 weeks away though so let's see how we do.

We haven't had a good away performance. All 3 have been dreadful. So I wouldn't be making any presumptions about beating Brentford.

Amorim hasn't won two games on the bounce yet so it does seem to be a bit optimistic to be saying we'll beat Brentford and Sunderland for the elusive treble!

On paper, they're both winnable. It would create some much needed momentum as well and more than likely have us up to about 5th/6th in the table.

They shouldn't be massive games, but two wins would be absolutely massive. Amorim needs to get some momentum going.

Not often I’d say this, but Sunderland look really good this season. Full of energy. they’re definitely not a side to underestimate.

We definitely didn't scrap past Burnley, we should have won that 4.0.

The big worry for me is the near complete inability to create clear cut scoring chances.

You have to find some way of getting your front men in the game, and the Amorim system doesn't seem to be doing that. Sesko has basically been a passenger in his appearances to date, much in the same way Hojlund and Zirkzee were last year in the same system.

So far this season, our goals are;

• Arsenal - No goal scored
• Fulham - 1) Own goal, cross from a corner.
• Grimsby - 1) Quality finish from Mbuemo. 2) Maguire, header from corner.
• Burnley - 1) Own goal, cross from free kick. 2) Mbuemo, good move and finish. 3) Penalty.
• City - No goal scored.
• Chelsea - 1) Bruno, good move, header won and finish. 2) Casemiro, high ball and header.

Bar Mbuemo's two goals, our goals this season have been penalties, own goals or from headers won from balls lumped into the box (not a bad thing though to be be able to make use of that).

It's pretty much the same as last season. It's not particularly creative, and rarely makes use of the front man, making him a passenger. And apart from the chaos of whipping a ball into the box, pretty ineffective overall.

If we're going to see an upturn in results, we're going to have to start seeing a bit more creativity and a bit more of an ability to create chances for the front man and get him involved from open play.

XG and shots on goal are lovely stats to say we're going forward, but when they amount to the same thing for the guts of a year, they show either poor shot choices, too many half chances and no real clear cut ones or poor strikers of the ball. Which we can all say we've have seen far too much of.

We create very little for the front players, and apart from Mbuemo's two, none of our front 3 have scored in the six 6 games this season. It's pretty much the same form as last season.

High XG and shots on goal stats aren't much use if you're relying on own goals, penalties and balls lumped into the box (75% of our goals this season so far) to get get goals while creating very little for the front three.

Of course the problem is compounded by the fact despite all that, we're -2 for the season in goals scored after only 6 games in, due to our midfield and defensive set up being more porous than a tea bag.

Simply put, going forward and going backwards, we're a very poorly coached team, and thus not getting the best out of ourselves going either direction.

And don't give me this crap about the culture of the players. We've got rid of a lot of problem players, and we've basically had a whole new squad in the past two seasons (Mazraoui, De Ligt, Cunha, Mbuemo, Sesko, Dorgu, Ugarte, Yoro, Zirkzee), and for the most part these are very good players and have been for their previous clubs (or in the case of Yoro, very promising). They absolutely should not be in the position they are, we have a better starting team and better panel than all bar 5/6 of the PL teams. But we're getting very little out of them.

And it's hard not to see the same thing happening over and over again unless the coaching drastically improves, the tactics change or the man in charge gets the boot.