What can ETH do to get us out of this mess?

Originally Posted by silv

How would you describe his 'entire system'?

Well to put it simply, he aims to play transition football. Someone has just suggested he switch to a possession-based system ffs.

Originally Posted by Ethers

There’s absolutely no chance he’s going to change his entire system and style of play based on a few bad results ffs.

Hopefully he sticks to his principles and rides it out. I do think he’s needs to look at how he’s utilising Bruno, we’re just not getting the best out of him right now.

We’ve got some winnable games coming up, so things could look very different in a few weeks time. I’ve got faith in the big man.

Yea this too, even if he doesn’t change his system, hope he sticks it out. Maybe AWB , diallo coming back might help a bit on the right side . Whatever it is, he just needs to be backed .

Originally Posted by Ethers

Well to put it simply, he aims to play transition football. Someone has just suggested he switch to a possession-based system ffs.

Wtf is transition football when its at home?

Originally Posted by silv

Wtf is transition football when its at home?

No-one knows, that's why we're struggling with it.

Originally Posted by Sandman

It might have helped if he hadn't wasted most of his transfer budget on average players, who don't seem to fit into whatever system he uses.

It might have helped if we had a DoF above him or any semblance of competence at dealing with transfers…

I don’t blame him for any of the transfers particularly . Fair enough Anthony seems to be a bit shit but he could have paid £40m for him initially, then we got desperate.

Mount, looks odd now, but if Eric’s being told when he was signed that we’ll clear out Maguire, The Scottish Player etc later in the window and he can buy another CB/CDM, and that Greenwood’s coming back then why not buy him?

He is having to deal with Weghorsts and Evans’s FFS - he might as well have both hands tied behind his back.

Originally Posted by silv

Wtf is transition football when its at home?

Win the ball closely to the oppositions goal and attack quickly.

It's usually done by having a high press and a solid second wave. We actually do it reasonably well but it all falls apart for 2 reasons:

1: We lack the quality to do anything with the ball once we've won it. We usually slow things down and the whole point of the system is to strike quickly (score within 10 seconds of winning the ball)

2: If the press is beaten, we're woefully exposed because our midfield don't support the defence enough.

It's pretty similar to what Rangnick wanted to do. It was working at times last season when Rashford was in form. But now it's pretty difficult as he just tends to run into dead ends. Bruno is also key to it working but he's rarely in a position to hurt teams.

I think a possession based approach would suit the team better but we'd need higher numbers in midfield to make it work. We could still have the high press but there's more of a plan B when it goes wrong.

Originally Posted by silv

Wtf is transition football when its at home?

If we talk just in terms of attacking, the idea is for quick, direct attacks, moving up the pitch with as few touches as possible. Ideally it starts off by pressing or forcing the opposition into a mistake, winning the ball back, and getting at them before they have time to reset in their defensive shape.

It’s pretty much the exact opposite of having possession for the sake of it, which is why I find the suggestion of switching to a possession based system particularly bizarre. It’s not something you can just change overnight.

We’re actually quite good in transition, where we fall down a lot is our decision making right at the end, the final pass etc. Even against City for example, we had plenty of good attacks where we had them scrambling, we just £#%&!ed it up time and time again.

We’re quite bad at the defensive side of it, which is why we seem to concede so many goals ourselves after losing the ball. We overload on the attack but then don’t get back into position the way we’re supposed to. That’s why you’ll constantly hear Ten Hag complaining about players not following the rules, and not playing cohesively.

It’s a demanding way of playing, and maybe it is beyond the capability of some of our players. If you’ve got even one member of the side not doing their job properly, it can go to shit very quickly.

Originally Posted by RedNick80

It might have helped if we had a DoF above him or any semblance of competence at dealing with transfers…

I don’t blame him for any of the transfers particularly . Fair enough Anthony seems to be a bit shit but he could have paid £40m for him initially, then we got desperate.

Mount, looks odd now, but if Eric’s being told when he was signed that we’ll clear out Maguire, The Scottish Player etc later in the window and he can buy another CB/CDM, and that Greenwood’s coming back then why not buy him?

He is having to deal with Weghorsts and Evans’s FFS - he might as well have both hands tied behind his back.

There will be a lot happening behind the scenes we don’t see.

Jose publicly criticised the transfer. LVG same after he had left. Ole recently came out and said he was restricted in the numbers to sign.

Jose didn’t play Fred for ages. Ole didn’t play VDB (Tbf nobody did) . There are examples of managers having new players but not playing them.

Rangnick said the club practically needed open heart surgery. He isn’t even playing mount, doubt he even wanted him. He’s been back from injury for a while now and I think he has only started in the cup games

Anyone who thinks the way out of our problems is for us to be on the ball more should be sectioned

Originally Posted by Chris Quayd

Anyone who thinks the way out of our problems is for us to be on the ball more should be sectioned

We don’t have the players do it.

Counter or try and get it to the wings quickly, cross and hope to god hojlund finds form and becomes a beast in the box

He needs to be allowed to gut squad much like Arteta has done at Arsenal with the likes of Aubameyang and co. I fear that our leeching owners won't afford him that sort of power unfortunately

Fans have delusions of us still being at the top table in a footballing sense…in a historical sense we are…as a competitive football club definitely not.

We should stop competing for top players who don’t really want to come to United, which is pretty much all of them unless they’re looking for a last payday.

It’s not going to be a popular view but we need to be modelling ourselves on the well run clubs in mid table and emulating their methods…and building from there.

This whole “we are Manchester United” attitude is not helping us accept what we actually are nowadays.

Originally Posted by Dasilvatwins

. He isn’t even playing mount, doubt he even wanted him. He’s been back from injury for a while now and I think he has only started in the cup games

ETH didn’t want Mount.

the player we signed very early and negotiated for weeks for.
the player he gave the no.7 shirt

If typed this the usuals would be at my throat

Originally Posted by tatty

Fans have delusions of us still being at the top table in a footballing sense…in a historical sense we are…as a competitive football club definitely not.

We should stop competing for top players who don’t really want to come to United, which is pretty much all of them unless they’re looking for a last payday.

It’s not going to be a popular view but we need to be modelling ourselves on the well run clubs in mid table and emulating their methods…and building from there.

This whole “we are Manchester United” attitude is not helping us accept what we actually are nowadays.

Absolutely agree with this, think I posted elsewhere that out of eleven 50m signings we've made not including last summer two of them had been a success. If we can't identify players who are going to eat up a large percentage of our transfer budget then the stratgey has to change.

The model we need to follow is Liverpool, they didn't even try and compete for top level players during the early part of Klopp's reign. They went for the next tier down, players they could coach and players they could shift or at the least bench without making too much noise. It's going to be harder for us to try that approach as everything we do is magnified even compared to Liverpool but our current strategy hasn't worked under multiple managers.

Originally Posted by Chris Quayd

Absolutely agree with this, think I posted elsewhere that out of eleven 50m signings we've made not including last summer two of them had been a success. If we can't identify players who are going to eat up a large percentage of our transfer budget then the stratgey has to change.

The model we need to follow is Liverpool, they didn't even try and compete for top level players during the early part of Klopp's reign. They went for the next tier down, players they could coach and players they could shift or at the least bench without making too much noise. It's going to be harder for us to try that approach as everything we do is magnified even compared to Liverpool but our current strategy hasn't worked under multiple managers.

Also would require some new scouts. These sorts of changes are the board will have to decide upon. No way are the gimps giving up signing big signings to boost club media profile and the fanfare that comes with it.

I'm going to sound like jem but he could start by playing a balanced midfield.

I would also build it around erikson as he seems like the only player that has any kind of composure.

So Mount is a signing by the board even before we’ve all agreed he’s actually shit? That’s a new one.

Originally Posted by woody78

I'm going to sound like jem but he could start by playing a balanced midfield.

I would also build it around erikson as he seems like the only player that has any kind of composure.

When you said sound like Jem, do you mean talk absolute nonsense?

Originally Posted by believe

So Mount is a signing by the board even before we’ve all agreed he’s actually shit? That’s a new one.



When you said sound like Jem, do you mean talk absolute nonsense?

thats casimero and mount that are not ETH signings.

Antony will be next.....

Originally Posted by magic_cantona

Ran the players into the ground? With that fantastic, massive squad he had?

Also, you're talking like it's done that Ratcliffe or ANYONE is coming in. I'd forget about that until its actually announced.

Yes, he ran the players into the ground. He has been absolutely irresponsible in managing the welfare of the players.

Bruno played 5,200 minutes of football last season. Salah, an ever-present at Liverpool, comparatively played 4,300. De Bruyne clocks in at 3,600 despite being in a side that went all the way in all competitions.

Some of the fixtures he played Bruno for 90 minutes in include FC Sheriff (twice) & Omonia Nikoskai. 90 minutes in every round of the League Cup. Every game of the FA Cup, including Reading at home. Add Casemiro there too. Rashford similarly, who was essentially played every game he was not injured. In hindsight its not at all surprising to see these players fade like they have this season.

You can use your "" all you like, but ETH's management of the squad has been wholly negligent. There is almost no precedent for the amount of minutes some of these players were given, despite the level of opposition or scoreline within 90 minutes. That, combined with reported training methods & long runs, probably accounts for some of how shattered these players look this season.

Tbf we only had 35 squad players pretty much like every other team in the league so you can see why he had to do it.