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

Spurs are showing some inconsistency, but are certainly not a shite team.

Defensively they are pretty solid. And in case anyone needs reminding, our record against them is terrible. No wins in our last seven vs Spurs, which includes five defeats.

I wouldn't bet much on United winning that one. I can see their midfield really dominating us.

Anderson looked like a proper player yesterday. Haven't seen much of him and he could have upped his game against "United" but if that's his level every week, we should also be looking to get him in Jan or next summer.

If Spurs play like they did yesterday. UTD could win by 2 or 3. But surly, they can't be that bad again.

And he let him leave at a time before Dorgu joined, Shaw was long-term injured and Malacia also out on loan.

That was a weird quirk of ten Hag that he prefers to have no left backs in the whole squad.

I remember him playing the likes of Amrabat or Jonny Evans at left back. Good times !

What's the realistic expectations for the next 5 games? 11-12 points? If we get that can we safely say that we have indeed turned a corner?

Leon probably not great yet either. I’d like to believe that Amorim can judge that. Pissing away the Carabao cup early doors has killed off his chances of a few minutes.

9 points from those 5 is good. Anything more a bonus.

Anything from spurs away or palace away would be a excellent result imo. Not many teams will win at palace this year imo

I agree but I also thought Amorim completely underestimated it. People can point to the gulf in league positions and value of squad but at the end of the day it was 11 men v 11 men in a tiny league 2 ground in the middle of a thunderstorm. A lot of that went out the window and we weren’t one bit ready for it. We didn’t need to save lads for Europe or anything, the line up should have been stronger and they should have been told to focus from the beginning and be prepared for lads to play out of their skins. Sorry, bit of a rant unrelated to what you were getting at but that game still irks me.

Na thats fair enough he probably did go a bit too far with heaven and fredicrson in defense, we got an onana special also which didn't help. Maybe in retrospect he plays another senior defender but by in large that team should have been good enough to win.

The worrying thing since that game and now is none of the players on the edges are stepping up at all to claim a place in the team, except Mount really, extra game time would have been ideal for them but when they can't even beat grimbsy you have to wonder if there much point, even the last day against forest he only made two subs when we were crying out for more.

If the game still works you though you can remember it as the game that got us rid of onana and made us go from lamens :)

Yeah and look maybe the best thing to come out of that was their decision to finally ship Onana off. Some of the clips of him in Turkey, he’s still up to his old tricks. But for that man to come back in pre-season and look for a pay rise or new contract or whatever it was… disgraceful. He’s as unserious as you get. He’s a joker. He won’t ever play for Man United again, and we can all be grateful for that.

A lot of us are time-served United fans. We’ve been privileged enough to see us win it all. I’m happy enough to see us plough along fighting for trophies but I’m not desperate for them. But my one gripe is with people like Onana who are not fit to wear the shirt. If we’re sh1t but everyone’s trying fair enough but I cannot stand for lads who are happy about to pick up a wage and contribute nothing.

We clearly have money, cause we were willing to spend a chunk on Baleba. Now, I think that money was being brought forward and might have put us under pressure for a sale before June 30th, but that is a chance we were apparently willing to make.

If we can convince Forest to sell Anderson, and Anderson to come, I think we should look to do it in january on the same lines we were in for Baleba.

In the summer we apparently had agreed a move with Semenyo but not a fee with bournemouth - even after we signed Mbeumo and Cunha… so I wonder is the the wing back we want - and could we move for him if Anderson (or Baleba or Wharton) are not available.

I think we will look at doing something big in January, but it might go nowhere even in the initial talks with rival clubs so it may seem like we are doing nothing. I don't think we will sign a second or third choice player in January if we think the first choice would be possible in the summer.

We need a LWB for this system. And two CM's that can last 90 minutes. But if we were playing 4-3-3, we'd have plenty of options and plenty of cover too;

GK - Lammens

RB - Dalot, Dorgu, Mazraoui

CB's - Maguire, De Ligt, Yoro, Martinez, Heaven

LB - Dalot, Shaw, Dorgu

CM's - Bruno, Casemiro, Mainoo, Ugarte

AM - Bruno, Cunha, Mount

RW - Amad, Cunha, Mount, Mbuemo

CF - Sesko, Mbuemo, Zirkzee

LW - Cunha, Mount, Amad

It's the system. It doesn't suit the players we have. It's why Amorim should have bit the bullet early on, played the system that suited the players best, worked on the basics like work-rate, fitness, ball retention, attitude, aggression and covering the space, and then adjusted over time to the formation how he wanted them to play once he got the signings. Sort out the basics and then work form there.

Despite recent results being positive, and deserved results it has to be said, at the same time an in-form Liverpool would have beaten us given what they created, we nearly tossed it away against Brighton at home where they utterly dominated us in the second half, and were lucky to get a draw at Forest (they were the better team). Great that we got the results that we would have lost last season, but they weren't convincing by any stretch of the imagination and could have gone against us.

Liverpool, Brighton, Forest, there were times in those games where it looked like they were going to score with every attack, they really opened us up at times. Thankfully this year we have in Mbuemo, Cunha and Sesko (albeit peripherally) some quality up front that work hard and can keep the ball (and keep the opposition defence on their toes so they can't commit bodies forward against us like they did last season), so it's making us more potent up front that we've got this run we're on.

But I still think this system won't get the best out of those players, and leaves us far too open, and doesn't have the players in their best positions (bar Case, Sesko and the CB's). And despite some good touches and hold up play, Sesko has been a passenger in most games, any formation that leaves you open at the back and has you starting with 10 players due to the CF being out of the games for most of it will only get so many results.

We need signings yes, but we do have quality and cover in positions already for a 4-3-3. At the very least I could see us doing better with a 3 man midfield than the open road we seem to have there now.

Amorim only plays one way though, and he's gotten away with it in the last few weeks, deserved results all the same but still glaring problems. Thrilled with the results, but the ease at which the opposition attack and open us up, that hasn't changed one bit, and will come back to haunt us.

But for now we'll just enjoy the results and the goals, we've waited long enough for them so we'll bask in their glow right now, I have no faith in Amorim at all but hopefully he can turn it around and we see much more of the last 4 games than the previous 30+.

There will be other suitors for Anderson but if we can get him in January rather then waiting for the Summer and a bidding war it would be ideal.