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

At least keep it realistic. To end it by saying we have a keeper that just can't save a ball for love of money is wrong.

Bayindir had some great saves at the weekend. He was one of the few players that could hold his head up after the game. He has never had a run of games with us before to show what he has to offer.

Its this this type of comment that makes people dismiss all of your post in my opinion.

If we do get Glasner it will be a disaster and we'll be calling for him to be sacked after a few months.

Lisandro Martinez for me, didn't play or train so gets it by default

Yep. Bayindir has been generally fine. Lammens was just settling in and waiting for a Bayindir mistake/injury. Practically identical to the DDG/Lindegaard situation. Lammens should now get his debut against Sunderland and hopefully never look back and make the jersey indesputably his.

If Bayindir is still picked it would be somewhat of an oddity.

United store doing 25% off latest kits already - must be feeling the hit to shirt sales with the team performance

How much of it is down to the formation, and how much of it is down to the coaching? If the coaching is right, the formation shouldn't matter that much.

Most managers can switch it up and change formations/plans depending on opposition/in-game situations, because they've done the actual coaching in the basics of the game to cover the changes when they make them. Glasner, for example, plays the same formation, but there's plenty of times Palace switch it up as well.

That's where Amorim has to go for me.

Apart from rigidly sticking to a failing formation and advertising it for all the world to see, the actual coaching of the players and team has been simply brutal. No player has improved under Amorim and many look to have got worse, the team looks haphazard and all over the place, and the basics of how we play, our general interplay/movement are horrendous.

The players look confused and poorly coached, and certainly poorly instructed. I don't doubt either that it's seeped massively into the teams confidence, they simply don't believe, and it shows in the way they play, and certainly in the mistakes we're making, they lack confidence in their approach and get caught out far too often making errors due to being in bad situations repeatedly.

It's easy to put this on the players, and while they have to take some serious heat for their performances (and they do), at the end of the day most of these players are there less than 15 months. In the last two summers, we've brought in Mazroui, De Ligt, Yoro, Cunha, Mbuemo, Sesko, Dorgu, Zirkzee, Ugarte, Lammens, that's basically a new team. And hardly the same group of the "got a few managers sacked" narrative that does the rounds.

And as much as new players need time to bed, more than that they also need proper coaching to be able to do that.

And Amorim has provided nothing like that to the squad. It's not like United under Amorim started like a runaway freight train that went off the tracks. It was very much a case of this has been the way of things since minute 1. Playing 20 yards further up the field than under Ten Hag has seen more goals and shots so it looks better, but it's all over the place, relying on individuals to try pull something out of the hat rather than anything coached, and at the back worse than ever.

Simply put, we're a horrendously coached team, individually and collectively.

So maybe Glasner's formation might not suit the players, or maybe another manager might not suit either, but his actual coaching of things might improve things. He's definitely after improving Palace, after a dodgy enough start. They're focused, coached, know their roles, confident in their approach, their football is generally good, but all still flexible enough to make changes if needed. Other managers similarly. And I'd seriously doubt there would be anyone as absolutely pig-headed enough to rigidly stick to a failed formation for a year without at least trying something different.

That's what a good coach can do, get the players and the team to master the basics of the game and the more difficult thing become possible. And if not, switch it up and see if it works. Get the basics down, make the team solid, have them know what they're doing and the confidence in their own ability to do it, start with playing them to their strengths, and then adjust to how you want to play over time. Coaching 101.

What we need is not so much what formation is played, but someone that can coach and direct a team in the basics, and be prepared to switch it up a bit when needed.

And we have had none of that under Amorim. That's why anyone at this stage would be better.

100%.

If you can't get the basics right, it'll never work.

Don't see how anyone thinks Luis Enrique could even be a little bit gettable. The lads managing a club dripping with talent that not one United player would get into and just won the CL. Still only 55 so plenty of time for him to manage in England if the opportunity arises for City, Liverpool, or Arsenal.

I've been hearing this for a decade yet Utd always attract talent that is considered best in class at the time. Di Maria, Mourinho, Pogba, Sanchez, Varane, Sancho, Ten Hag, Casemiro and even Mbeumo + Cunha from the Summer just gone.

I also remember when Solskjaer got sacked and the club was in a mess, Pochettino was managing Messi, Neymar and Mbappe and PSG but was briefing that he'd leave mid season for the Utd job.

Yet it's supposedly delusional to think that a manager who has won it all at PSG and has previously expressed an interest in managing in the PL, wouldn't consider joining the biggest club in England that still gets massive revenues despite a lack of success 🤣

Many top managers would consider the job. It's easy to see if you can manage to get past your negativity bias. When assessing offers, top managers mainly look at resources available because that determines your potential. As long as Utd have a lot of resources, they'll always attract top managers. Unfortunately some fans might lack the knowledge and/or critical thinking to understand that, but it's a reality.

I don't think he was on the verge of getting sacked at the time - he left in June 2022, 7 months after Solskjaer was sacked. I think it's true to say that PSG weren't fully sold on him but I don't think there was a sense his job was under threat at the time at all. I remember people being surprised that he was making the pro Utd briefings.

Where did you hear that about Tuchel btw? It's definitely not in any mainstream media reports. All I know is they met and the content of the discussions were very secretive.

Regardless, obviously it's not impossible to get turned down by a top manager for a variety of reasons. But we are in agreement that generally speaking, pretty much any top manager will be interested in the job if they like the squad and/or are happy with the resources going forward. Fwiw I think lots of top managers would fancy themselves to get a tune out of Cunha, Mbeumo, Sesko, Bruno, Mainoo etc.

So Enrique is going to get the Madrid (he probably wouldn't go there anyway!), Barca, Bayern, City jobs if he wants? Those clubs are just gonna sack Alonso, Flick, Kompany and Pep to roll out the red carpet for him?

Enrique is managing in a poor league and has achieved it all at PSG. If he wants to challenge himself further, he'd be interested in taking a big job in the PL in the Summer. The PL is seen as another CL these days, distinct from all other leagues. It's a bit ridiculous to label him coming to Utd in the Summer an outlandish prospect tbh.

You can think it's a long shot or unlikely, fine. But delusional or far fetched? Nah, I'm not having that.

You seemingly missed the part where I said available and Decided to throw in some straw man about managers being sacked.

There is lots he can do as manager to get one of the top jobs, he can make an agreement with someone like pep did or Alonso which was more behind the scenes.

He can just wait it out when he leaves to see which job becomes available or he can just stay on at psg and keep winning leagues.

You brought up poch as an example but it was a bad one as the two manages circumstances are wildly different as has been pointed out. As is what is going on at united.

So ya at this moment in time it would seem extremely far fetched to thing Enrique would come join us when his stock is so high

I brought up Potch as an example because he was someone who was managing one of the CL favorites at the time (first season of Mbappe, Neymar and Messi together) and yet he was willing to join because he saw the package of Utd being a bigger club and the PL being a better league, both of which are still true today (and more so in the case of the PL, it's attractiveness has grown substantially).

Also, there has been many examples in the past of top managers taking jobs that casual fan opinion said was beneath them. But yeah, far fetched. Or something.