What is our style of play?

or what is our intended style of play?

What I see is we waste time at the back in the hope the opposition overpress so we can do a quick counter.

Originally Posted by armchair

or what is our intended style of play?

Have thought it before but now resigned to it. Emperor’s New Clothes.

I don't know is the honest answer.

The only discernable game plan i can work out is that we give the players who are worst on the ball (the defence) the most time on it, we then just bypass the midfield altogether and play long, diagonal balls out wide to players who inevitably can't win it.

The ball then gets turned over and we rinse and repeat.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

I don't know is the honest answer.

The only discernable game plan i can work out is that we give the players who are worst on the ball (the defence) the most time on it, we then just bypass the midfield altogether and play long, diagonal balls out wide to players who inevitably can't win it.

The ball then gets turned over and we rinse and repeat.

Yep. Today the default was give it to Harry. They’ve only taken 3 games to quell the enthusiasm and originality of Kobie.

Remember NBA Jam?

There were signs of a press last season which we’ve never really had, certainly speed and aggression appeared to be a foundation of any style we were looking to implement. This season if we exclude dogshit I’d say there’s no identifiable pattern

Originally Posted by Chris Quayd

There were signs of a press last season which we’ve never really had, certainly speed and aggression appeared to be a foundation of any style we were looking to implement. This season if we exclude dogshit I’d say there’s no identifiable pattern

I’m sorry, but press is not a style of football. Football is about having the ball and using it well and (in our tradition) using it quickly and with purpose.

Originally Posted by Chris Quayd

There were signs of a press last season which we’ve never really had, certainly speed and aggression appeared to be a foundation of any style we were looking to implement. This season if we exclude dogshit I’d say there’s no identifiable pattern

the press lasted half a match IIRC

Originally Posted by Stickman

Remember NBA Jam?

Originally Posted by avocado

I’m sorry, but press is not a style of football. Football is about having the ball and using it well and (in our tradition) using it quickly and with purpose.

The 'press' only works if everyone in the team participates. No team presses for 90 mins, you just can't do it, so a lot of teams tend to press in phases that are triggered by the front players.

Unfortunately, yet again ours is a half-arsed effort. The front players jog towards the opposition (I won't call it a press because it's pathetic) they get played around easily, naturally the midfield haven't bothered to step up either and we have the usual oceans of space for the opposition to run into.

We see this time and time again, every game, there's something fundamentally wrong with how we're setting up at the moment. It's awful to watch a team with no discernable game plan just drift through games relying on the odd moment here and there to snatch a goal . It doesn't work which is why we're losing so many games and we've scored so few.

The only thing i can see that this team consistently does is

1) short goal kicks which invariably after several (usually slow dithering) passes inevitably get booted long and diagonal.

2) Turn the ball over within about 6 seconds of winning it back. It's like they've been told they have to score within 15 seconds of winning the ball back, it's infuriating watching them play rushed, inaccurate passes like the ball is a £#%&!ing live hand grenade.

3) Use Hojlund to hold the ball up and use him as a platform when playing long balls.

The fact is we are just far, far too easy to play against. Shockingly so. How many teams turn up at old trafford now and just seem to knock the ball about comfortably without us getting near them? It's embarrassing, teams like Fulham and Bournemouth (with all due respect) should not be coming to Old Trafford, having 17 shots on goal and 9 corners as well as 50% of the ball. I watch teams who have players that are nowhere near as good as ours at least look like they know what they're doing and with some semblance of a game plan.

The manager is ultimately going to pay with his job because this sort of inept, chaotic performances won't be allowed to continue forever and let's be honest they've been going on for almost a year now. It'll be interesting to see what the ineos lot do in the summer because there's no £#%&!ing way we're finishing in the top 4. No chance.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

The 'press' only works if everyone in the team participates. No team presses for 90 mins, you just can't do it, so a lot of teams tend to press in phases that are triggered by the front players.

Unfortunately, yet again ours is a half-arsed effort. The front players jog towards the opposition (I won't call it a press because it's pathetic) they get played around easily, naturally the midfield haven't bothered to step up either and we have the usual oceans of space for the opposition to run into.

We see this time and time again, every game, there's something fundamentally wrong with how we're setting up at the moment. It's awful to watch a team with no discernable game plan just drift through games relying on the odd moment here and there to snatch a goal . It doesn't work which is why we're losing so many games and we've scored so few.

The only thing i can see that this team consistently does is

1) short goal kicks which invariably after several (usually slow dithering) passes inevitably get booted long and diagonal.

2) Turn the ball over within about 6 seconds of winning it back. It's like they've been told they have to score within 15 seconds of winning the ball back, it's infuriating watching them play rushed, inaccurate passes like the ball is a £#%&!ing live hand grenade.

3) Use Hojlund to hold the ball up and use him as a platform when playing long balls.

The fact is we are just far, far too easy to play against. Shockingly so. How many teams turn up at old trafford now and just seem to knock the ball about comfortably without us getting near them? It's embarrassing, teams like Fulham and Bournemouth (with all due respect) should not be coming to Old Trafford, having 17 shots on goal and 9 corners as well as 50% of the ball. I watch teams who have players that are nowhere near as good as ours at least look like they know what they're doing and with some semblance of a game plan.

The manager is ultimately going to pay with his job because this sort of inept, chaotic performances won't be allowed to continue forever and let's be honest they've been going on for almost a year now. It'll be interesting to see what the ineos lot do in the summer because there's no £#%&!ing way we're finishing in the top 4. No chance.

I think we see the same things. But I no longer have the patience to dissect it. Which is sad really, after nearly 50 years in the same seat. I said today to the person sat next to me that when we used to get the ball I (and all of us) were filled with anticipation but now it’s more like dread ..

Originally Posted by Sparky***

The 'press' only works if everyone in the team participates. No team presses for 90 mins, you just can't do it, so a lot of teams tend to press in phases that are triggered by the front players.

Unfortunately, yet again ours is a half-arsed effort. The front players jog towards the opposition (I won't call it a press because it's pathetic) they get played around easily, naturally the midfield haven't bothered to step up either and we have the usual oceans of space for the opposition to run into.

We see this time and time again, every game, there's something fundamentally wrong with how we're setting up at the moment. It's awful to watch a team with no discernable game plan just drift through games relying on the odd moment here and there to snatch a goal . It doesn't work which is why we're losing so many games and we've scored so few.

The only thing i can see that this team consistently does is

1) short goal kicks which invariably after several (usually slow dithering) passes inevitably get booted long and diagonal.

2) Turn the ball over within about 6 seconds of winning it back. It's like they've been told they have to score within 15 seconds of winning the ball back, it's infuriating watching them play rushed, inaccurate passes like the ball is a £#%&!ing live hand grenade.

3) Use Hojlund to hold the ball up and use him as a platform when playing long balls.

The fact is we are just far, far too easy to play against. Shockingly so. How many teams turn up at old trafford now and just seem to knock the ball about comfortably without us getting near them? It's embarrassing, teams like Fulham and Bournemouth (with all due respect) should not be coming to Old Trafford, having 17 shots on goal and 9 corners as well as 50% of the ball. I watch teams who have players that are nowhere near as good as ours at least look like they know what they're doing and with some semblance of a game plan.

The manager is ultimately going to pay with his job because this sort of inept, chaotic performances won't be allowed to continue forever and let's be honest they've been going on for almost a year now. It'll be interesting to see what the ineos lot do in the summer because there's no £#%&!ing way we're finishing in the top 4. No chance.

The stats are alarming. We’ve allowed 100 shots on our goal in the last five games - against Luton, Wolves, Aston Villa, Fulham and West Ham. Hardly elite opposition. For context, City have allowed 197 shots at their goal all season

We’ve lost 10 league games and it’s not even March

We have a 0 goal difference

We’ve scored less than Wolves and the same as West Ham. Luton and Brentford have just one goal less than us

We’re fundamentally too easy to play against and poor through the whole team: can’t defend, can’t attack and our midfield gets bypassed

I do believe there are moments when you see it work, but they’re all too fleeting for a team in their second season under a manager, and they just get lost in the chaos

After every game, Ten Hag is coming out and saying we didn’t do such and such a thing in the right moment, but that’s not good enough. It’s his job to get them to do it. Once or twice, ok, but it’s every week. Even if we win, it’s littered with errors. They either can’t do it or they won’t do it.

We’re 18 months in now and, despite the injuries, we shouldn’t look this bad.

This weekend last year, we were winning the Carling Cup. That should have been the start of something. Just over a week later, we lost 7-0 at Anfield and we’ve never looked stable since then.

These chaotic, disjointed runs and performances have been a feature of the last 12 months.

They need to stop now or ETH will not be here next season

Only Bruno is doing the press. Is it an actual tactic? It looks like it. Bruno runs around chasing the ball and everyone else just kind of stands off.

Has Ten Hag told Bruno to do that?

It breaks my heart to see a creator waste his energy do that with no backup.

comes to something when Merson is pointing it out..

https://youtu.be/_kOgEEnqhBg?si=I4Unt4SXGS6CRB9k

This is the fundamental issue with ETH and why I just can’t give him a pass and say let him have a chance under the new football operation

I couldn’t tell you what we’ve been trying to do all season
We signed Onana to play out from the back and he started pre-season like that but then he and the team had a shaky start to the season so he’s mainly resorted to booting it up the pitch since then

Even off the ball we look a mess as there is huge space between our lines because our forwards press while our defence just stays deep leaving an ocean of space in the middle for the opposition to walk through

I had a lot of sympathy for LVG because like all the post Fergie managers he had a horrible amateurish structure backing him up which meant he didn’t have the players to play his style of play (ffs he was trying to play out from the back with Dave, Mike and Jones ) but at least you could see us play with a clear style of play
It didn’t work and at times it was turgid but I could see what we were trying to do and it was clear the coaching that was done during the week as without the ball there was always only 10 yards gap between our lines whether we pressed or dropped off

Either ETH is coaching the team to play this way or the players are ignoring his coaching and tactics and are just doing what the £#%&! they want
I don’t know which is worse but whichever one it is means he’s not the man for the job

Originally Posted by Sparky***

comes to something when Merson is pointing it out..
https://youtu.be/_kOgEEnqhBg?si=I4Unt4SXGS6CRB9k

everyone can see it but these Wierd ten Haag loyalists on here.

Awe are actually get worse. We’d be bottom half if not for mainoo.
It’s not like we are in the super league and being thrased by big teams, distinctly average teams are rocking up to OT and outplaying us.

It’s happen first game this season and the loyalists blamed it on our busy us schedule in the summer as if arsenal didn’t go on the same tour.

We have poor coach. A decent coach would have at least fixed our midfield and make us hard ti play against.

I said it a few weeks ago after the amazing run of wins against shite team in which we never once looked like we had any style of play, it’s a case of throwing enough shit and hoping some sticks. If it comes off great if it doesn’t oh well move on the next game and rinse and repeat and just hope they don’t score more than us.

Now he’s moaning about FFP and not being able to afford another striker when he spent 90 million on two players we didn’t need

He knows he a dead man walking and that’s nothing to with his own managerial nous. From all fhe talk from Radcliffe it’s clear that Ineos want a puppet who will do what he’s told from the higher levels and that relationship with him just won’t work.

Originally Posted by believe

He knows he a dead man walking and that’s nothing to with his own managerial nous. From all fhe talk from Radcliffe it’s clear that Ineos want a puppet who will do what he’s told from the higher levels and that relationship with him just won’t work.

Signing players to win the Eredivisie will go down like a fart in a space soon with Heavy D (Dave B).

Tick as many boxes as possible to be the easiest team to play against in the league.

A roaring success

There's been posters on here for months getting their knickers twisted when Neville or whoever say we have no style of play. Apparently the style is clear, but we don't have the players to implement it (despite the many millions spent). And here we are. Looking clueless and toothless at home against Fulham. The closest we had to a "style" today was Onana's long ball to Bruno. Dutch genius.