ETH surveillance 22/23

He's getting a lit of stick for picking Martial over Hojlund and not using Mainoo and its surprising not to give Mainoo minutes especially against Bournemouth.

Maybe he's trying to protect and nurture them especially given Hojlund's work rate. I'd trust that he has a good reason.

We've lost Casemiro and Erikkson out of centre midfield which has left us terribly short. We have gaping holes all over and playing Martial and Dalot shows how desperate we are.

Originally Posted by redhegemony

He's getting a lit of stick for picking Martial over Hojlund and not using Mainoo and its surprising not to give Mainoo minutes especially against Bournemouth.

Maybe he's trying to protect and nurture them especially given Hojlund's work rate. I'd trust that he has a good reason.

We've lost Casemiro and Erikkson out of centre midfield which has left us terribly short. We have gaping holes all over and playing Martial and Dalot shows how desperate we are.

Agree, but he's created a rod for his own back. Buying an injured kid to lead the line for the entire season may in hindsight not be the smartest move. Especially when you throw away the rest of your budget on Mount and Onana.

Mainoo should have played at some point yesterday. Preferably from the start. Same with AWB. That starting line up was a big mistake.

Originally Posted by shenwen

Agree, but he's created a rod for his own back. Buying an injured kid to lead the line for the entire season may in hindsight not be the smartest move. Especially when you throw away the rest of your budget on Mount and Onana.

Mainoo should have played at some point yesterday. Preferably from the start. Same with AWB. That starting line up was a big mistake.

Maybe he trusted it was still good enough to beat Bournemouth at home.....

Originally Posted by shenwen

Agree, but he's created a rod for his own back. Buying an injured kid to lead the line for the entire season may in hindsight not be the smartest move. Especially when you throw away the rest of your budget on Mount and Onana.

Mainoo should have played at some point yesterday. Preferably from the start. Same with AWB. That starting line up was a big mistake.

Trusting Martial to step up is is biggest mistake.

Originally Posted by shenwen

Agree, but he's created a rod for his own back. Buying an injured kid to lead the line for the entire season may in hindsight not be the smartest move. Especially when you throw away the rest of your budget on Mount and Onana.

Mainoo should have played at some point yesterday. Preferably from the start. Same with AWB. That starting line up was a big mistake.

Højland might be managing his fitness but he’s 20 and you have to balance now & tomorrow. He’s a quality player and I have no issues.

If we had Martinez & a fit and supported Casemiro in the side playing this erratically I’d have some concerns but we just seem incapable of getting the right XI out there to find balance.

Why is Rashford such a slapped arse? He at least showed bite when he came on yesterday, I hope the mentality is changing to work and play.

Quite why Mainoo isn’t trusted / is managed but Amrabat is without support is a baffling decision. You can always take the lad off to save him, bringing them on to chase loses / must win games isn’t great management.

The second half of the season & the advent of the SJR input is surely going to yield a bit more luck with available personnel & possibly at least one good recruit.

Football can change quickly, I almost hope that Bruno being out next week somehow necessitates a formation tweak to go 4-3-3 and we do not, under any circumstances, start Martial to get right into them.

I don't blame him for giving martial a chance. martial has talent. I do blame him for accepting the half-hearted effort and giving him another chance.

Originally Posted by jem

I don't blame him for giving martial a chance. martial has talent. I do blame him for accepting the half-hearted effort and giving him another chance.

Not the only manager to do it.

If you play Martial and expect him to press / run channels or even do anything other than be slipped through to finish you’re demented.

Originally Posted by Baron

If you play Martial and expect him to press / run channels or even do anything other than be slipped through to finish you’re demented.

This. Playing a high line pressing game with martial as the front part of that press is certifiable.

Martial is the least rounded striker there is. He can do only one thing and he can only do that occasionally. He isn’t talented in any meaningful sense in any other respect.

Originally Posted by Hyman_Roth

This. Playing a high line pressing game with martial as the front part of that press is certifiable.

Martial is the least rounded striker there is. He can do only one thing and he can only do that occasionally. He isn’t talented in any meaningful sense in any other respect.

He's really shit.....

Like really shit apart from ICE IN THE VIENS flicks...

Originally Posted by armchair

Yesterday was 100% on him. I thought we were lucky against Chelsea. They had chances and all it takes is a team to string a couple of passes together to beat our high press and they are in on goal.

Even in the games we've won this season, it's only because the opposition didn't convert their chances.

I could take a high, energetic press if we had fast players behind the press to mop up but we don't. We rush forward like children and leave the midfield (1) and defence completely exposed.

You are bang on about only winning games because teams failed to take chances. Wolves,Forest,Brentford and Fulham immediately come to mind

Originally Posted by jem

I don't blame him for giving martial a chance. martial has talent. I do blame him for accepting the half-hearted effort and giving him another chance.

Problem here is the only other option would be rashford. He’s clearly monitoring hojlunds return to fitness otherwise Hojlund would be starting every game .

Upfront of Hojlund doesn’t play we are £#%&!ed.

Comes back to that dalot shot when he should have made an easy pass for hojlund to finish . We have stupid players who aren’t good enough and make even stupider decisions on the pitch.

Before ETH arrived most agreed that we need to start from the bottom up . If the likes of Dalot, Shaw, maguire , Martial are still having to be played we have problems.

It takes several windows to get rid of rubbish . We need a proper recruitment team too, address the spine of the team first (mainly CB and CM) and remove the rubbish.

We will only see any real change till we get new owners. Otherwise we are stumbling every 2 years in this never ending cycle

Originally Posted by croady26

You are bang on about only winning games because teams failed to take chances. Wolves,Forest,Brentford and Fulham immediately come to mind

Do you even watch United? We have had many games this season where we haven’t taken our chances either.

It’s not something to champion them about. But ifs and buts are meaningless. The same argument could be used for us.

If we had just taken our chances in we would have won many more games

My reading of our situation:

1) horrific luck with injuries
2) horrific luck with rapey players and disciplinary issues
3) ongoing disruption from ownership/ceo changes etc
4) poor/diabolical signings and failure to address the weakest squad areas
5) lack of buy in to the tactics/training from senior players like Bruno and Rashford
6) disillusionment from the same players with the quality of player coming in
7) poor tactical set up and often poor in game management.
8) bad luck with var decisions.

Some issues are no one’s fault, some are the owners, some are the players and some are his.

Sacking him would be totally wrong at this stage. But he needs to deal with the issues he has control over pdq.

For eg, There’s probably justification for martial starting over Hoijlund on Saturday. But a few of those kind of decisions have to work out rather than totally £#%&!ing back fire.

A mauling at Liverpool and we could end up spiralling the wrong way…

Originally Posted by Hyman_Roth

My reading of our situation:

1) horrific luck with injuries
2) horrific luck with rapey players and disciplinary issues
3) ongoing disruption from ownership/ceo changes etc
4) poor/diabolical signings and failure to address the weakest squad areas
5) lack of buy in to the tactics/training from senior players like Bruno and Rashford
6) disillusionment from the same players with the quality of player coming in
7) poor tactical set up and often poor in game management.
8) bad luck with var decisions.

Some issues are no one’s fault, some are the owners, some are the players and some are his.

Sacking him would be totally wrong at this stage. But he needs to deal with the issues he has control over pdq.

For eg, There’s probably justification for martial starting over Hoijlund on Saturday. But a few of those kind of decisions have to work out rather than totally £#%&!ing back fire.

A mauling at Liverpool and we could end up spiralling the wrong way…

Yep. He's trying to be a "Fergie" when it's an impossible tasks with both hands tied behind his back. No one is saying his signings have all been stellar but he's been lumbered with doing everything at the club.

Originally Posted by Dasilvatwins

Problem here is the only other option would be rashford.

well, there is always the option to set up differently. drop martial for mainoo and let The Scottish Player and bruno do the pressing.

Originally Posted by Jethro

Yep. He's trying to be a "Fergie" when it's an impossible tasks with both hands tied behind his back. No one is saying his signings have all been stellar but he's been lumbered with doing everything at the club.

For 9 million a year I’d even wash the kits.

I'm currently flip flopping with him and I don't like it.

Wanted him gone yesterday but today I want him to stay. Simply because there's no one out there that can sort this mess out. We're broken, we're skint and we're light years behind the top teams

Originally Posted by believe

For 9 million a year I’d even wash the kits.

up the pinks!

Originally Posted by wiganste

I'm currently flip flopping with him and I don't like it.

Wanted him gone yesterday but today I want him to stay. Simply because there's no one out there that can sort this mess out. We're broken, we're skint and we're light years behind the top teams

I'm exactly like this.

If he's sacked, who comes in and what will be different?

If he's not sacked, will he stop picking shit players and get his act together tactically?

Then you look at injuries, the owners, shit decisions, terrible VAR decisions etc. I'm totally unsure either way. Us getting bumped by Bayern and Liverpool will probably rank up.the "OUT!" shouts but £#%&! all changes with the questions of what next then. £#%&! knows.

Originally Posted by wiganste

I'm currently flip flopping with him and I don't like it.

Wanted him gone yesterday but today I want him to stay. Simply because there's no one out there that can sort this mess out. We're broken, we're skint and we're light years behind the top teams

He really hasn’t helped himself or the club with his signings.

No wonder we’re skint.