Manchester United v Manchester City - 3:30pm 29/10/23 - Official Match Thread

I think how we’ve played this season makes me look back differently on last season

ETH decided to go pragmatic last season and play short term winning football to try to win a trophy, get top 4 and establish a winning culture at the club again
He achieved his aim but the cost was he never established his footballing philosophy on the side
There’s no structure or foundation to how we play that’s why when it goes wrong there’s nothing to fall back on and it goes badly wrong

The players now look like they have no idea how they are meant to play and ETH looks lost on the sidelines

With the benefit of hindsight ETH should have gone full ETH last season and stuck to his footballing principles even if it potentially could have cost him his job
He’s decided to go with the pragmatic approach and we now look like a team without an identity

Originally Posted by marlo

And it’s been like this all season.

Half the team is his now as well so can’t use that excuse.
His players are usually the biggest underpeformers.

How can we be worse that the ragnick team and he has spent 400m including buying 3 of his players from his previous club.

You still haven’t said who should replace him.

Originally Posted by Zorg

You still haven’t said who should replace him.

It was Ancelotti a few weeks ago.

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

I think how we’ve played this season makes me look back differently on last season

ETH decided to go pragmatic last season and play short term winning football to try to win a trophy, get top 4 and establish a winning culture at the club again
He achieved his aim but the cost was he never established his footballing philosophy on the side
There’s no structure or foundation to how we play that’s why when it goes wrong there’s nothing to fall back on and it goes badly wrong

The players now look like they have no idea how they are meant to play and ETH looks lost on the sidelines

With the benefit of hindsight ETH should have gone full ETH last season and stuck to his footballing principles even if it potentially could have cost him his job
He’s decided to go with the pragmatic approach and we now look like a team without an identity

really good post. I don't get those saying we need to give him 5 years minimum to rebuild the club.

he's done absolutely nothing to suggest he's interested in building something long term, implementing a defined structure and style of play, prioritising youth etc

he's displaying the exact same short termism/pragmatism that mourinho was derided for, with even worse results and football

Originally Posted by Zorg

You still haven’t said who should replace him.

At the moment i think we explore the market and make a decision on the successor in about feb.

He should be sacked but let him see out the season as we are finishing maybe 10th with about 45 goals scored.

Imagine after signing mount and Hojlund letting him sign more players

Holjund the only shining light yet again. The entire leading line resting on the shoulders of a 20 year old.

Fernandes and Rashford should be nowhere near the team on Wednesday.

This Mainoo kid best be the %@#$&!s.

Originally Posted by marlo

At the moment i think we explore the market and make a decision on the successor in about feb.

He should be sacked but let him see out the season as we are finishing maybe 10th with about 45 goals scored.

Imagine after signing mount and Hojlund letting him sign more players

So you’ve no idea either then, basically.

Originally Posted by Jethro

Holjund the only shining light yet again. The entire leading line resting on the shoulders of a 20 year old.

Fernandes and Rashford should be nowhere near the team on Wednesday.

This Mainoo kid best be the %@#$&!s.

We all said it would happen didn’t we.

Ridiculous we’ve gone into the season with that kid expected to be the main striker every week. At this rate he’ll be burnt out by January.

Board have yet again £#%&!ed it.

Originally Posted by VanHaaksbergen

What was Ole’s record v Guardiola?

Really good I think?

Wasn’t really the point though, but you knew that.

Originally Posted by Zorg

So you’ve no idea either then, basically.

This just in…

Originally Posted by marlo

At the moment i think we explore the market and make a decision on the successor in about feb.

He should be sacked but let him see out the season as we are finishing maybe 10th with about 45 goals scored.

Imagine after signing mount and Hojlund letting him sign more players

Hojlund is superb. You'd be a better wum if you put a bit more thought into it

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

I think how we’ve played this season makes me look back differently on last season

ETH decided to go pragmatic last season and play short term winning football to try to win a trophy, get top 4 and establish a winning culture at the club again
He achieved his aim but the cost was he never established his footballing philosophy on the side
There’s no structure or foundation to how we play that’s why when it goes wrong there’s nothing to fall back on and it goes badly wrong

The players now look like they have no idea how they are meant to play and ETH looks lost on the sidelines

With the benefit of hindsight ETH should have gone full ETH last season and stuck to his footballing principles even if it potentially could have cost him his job
He’s decided to go with the pragmatic approach and we now look like a team without an identity

This is a good take on it - needs to install his principles because at the moment he has a foot in both camps and it is a bit of a mess.

Really want him to succeed even if it means we have to endure more days like today to get there.

Originally Posted by Gypsum Fantastic

Just read that Erik said we were very good first half. If that’s his level of very good we really are in the shit.

Obviously recognise that everything is relative and probably only could expect to stay with them given back four etc but still. We definitely weren’t very good.

Tbf the last time a manager called it as it was and spoke the truth in post match interviews, the players completely downed tools. So it’s probably for best he keeps that for behind closed doors.

Originally Posted by NedKelly

It was Ancelotti a few weeks ago.

Kane a few days ago.

He’ll be calling for Mike Bassett* before long.












*couldn’t do any worse etc.

Originally Posted by 92ToBury

Absolutely. The fish rots from the head down.

No significant infrastructure investment since the takeover, just a revenue vehicle for the Glazers. Turkeys will keep voting for Christmas rather than sacrifice their precious seats in Old Trafford though.

This is the crux of it. I've reached the point where the club deserves its fate. The Glazers acquired United because of the brand and the loyalty of its support - run it into the ground and the turnstiles will still keep spinning.

Why anyone would go into business with these people is beyond me. They are enemies of MUFC.

Originally Posted by Jethro

This Mainoo kid best be the %@#$&!s.

Like Amrabat

I particularly enjoyed this elite-level defending here.

Originally Posted by Whip Hubley

Hojlund is superb. You'd be a better wum if you put a bit more thought into it

He is superb but not for us.

where we are right now we should be taking a punt on a 20 year old raw striker.
We need guaranteed goals and experience upfront and if we have 70m to spend on a striker it shouldn’t have been him.

rashford, Hojlund and Antony as our starting front three.
and you’ll be blaming the glazers for us not scoring goals.

Originally Posted by NedKelly

Genuinely think bringing Evans back into the fold is up there with Moyes playing videos of Jagielka to Rio and Vidic for them to study.

How much on this is on he manager of “we will give you evans or nobody because he is on a Free” ? Or “we sell maguire and with his funds buy his replacement “

He made mistakes today, and will do in the future. Nobody comes in perfect. But you need the correct structure around yourself to properly implement . It’s easy to say he’s signed players XYZ. Some players work in the prem others don’t.

The bigger issue is having half his incoming transfers on loan signings. Spending large amounts of money on transfers and wages on aging players post 30. Casemiro and varane two examples. They are good players but you can’t build something around them. Casemiro was third choice? They were after de jong first then Rabiot . Then Casemiro deadline day. It reeks of poor planning. Look at how the board handled the greenwood situation. Having one 20 year striker coming into the season.

Even when we desperately need a CM , Eriksen who is a good player of course but not one to build a team within where he plays 50 games was signed late in the window on a free transfer.

This season , they didn’t want to sign the CM , looked at the first few games and went shit we need a second competent CM and went after Amrabat quickly

We knew ETH was coming towards the end of the ralfseason. The smart thing would have been to have 1-2 players wrapped up in his mould . Even Antony came late in the window and cost more because of recruitment . Reports of him wanting timber before Martinez.

Of course ETH knows some of these players and with an objective view will have to take some of the blame . But it’s the exact same scenario with the last 4 managers .

Look at how they chased Sancho , gave him 300k a week , then realised once he signed that we can’t play him in his best position on the left.

In his press conferences ETH you can see right from the very beginning he is a fighter, he has principles , he wants to implement a winning mentality . Yet some “fans” are backing him over things like the Sancho situation , the Ronaldo situation etc. without a foundation of strong principles it doesn’t matter who is in your team, you won’t be able to implement it because they’ll be @#%&!s in and around the club undermining it .

Best example I could give, city were on for a treble last season (and got it ), they were on top of the world, cancelo was getting rave reviews as one of the top full backs in the wold . He went out of lines and they binned him at the nearest opportunity . No time for players who don’t want to be here or do not fall under the managers principals.

We would have £#%&!ers on Twitter pulling up his stats, and memes and putting quotes like teenagers “when everyone’s finds out the truth then they will know”


Ultimately , the manager has made mistakes but I still think he is the right guy if you really want to gut the club. Give him the tools to operate (which goes beyond money) and see what he can do. Otherwise we are all just moving in a circle every few years with fans polarised in the “sack him he isn’t good enough “ group and the “he needs time” . If you liked the previous manager fans will be on the bandwagon of hating the new manager and vice versa and when he eventually gets the sack.. Rinse and repeat

ETH exceeded expectation last season with a trophy and third place. We had a platform to build upon and had a shit transfer window (surprise the owners #@&%! up a window once we get into champions league where have we seen it before) what needs to happen is he needs to ride this out . Put his stamp on them .

Rather that than what will actually happen is he will get the sack in the next month, the glazers will write off another season and install a two bit interim . The interim will be an excuse to sign no players in Jan”because there will be signings Made for a new manager in the summer”

Eth needs to improve, but the whole damn club needs to get its shit together more .

Nrat

slow start under a new manager, then it looks like the manager is finally starting to crack it, we end up getting top four and/or winning a trophy, optimism rings around the club, then inexplicably it all just falls apart, the players down tools and the manager is inevitably sacked.

rinse and repeat. happened under lvg, jose and ole, and looks like it's happening with erik.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

I particularly enjoyed this elite-level defending here.

The defending is shit but look how many players City have in the box - we would have had one maybe two at a stretch