Did we believe the hype?

Originally Posted by Sparky***

it was the first trophy Manchester United had won in SIX £#%&!ing years. We were well within our rights to enjoy it for what it was.

The fact is we started the season short of players in certain areas and as the season has progressed the squad has only got weaker.

Ronaldo left and wasn't replaced.
Mason Greenwood will never play again and hasn't been replaced.
Van De beek out of the season.
Eriksen missed two and a half months.
Casemiro missed about 8 games.
Garnacho out for nearly two months.
Martinez out for the season and Varane just missing games all over the place.

The squad that wasn't to quality to begin with has been absolutely rinsed. the owners couldn't be bothered to invest anything in January either. No other club in the top 4 has had to contend with either the fixture pile up or the injuries we have.

The players are exhausted and as a result you're getting about 30 mins or so of decent-ish football followed by an hour of lacklustre crap.

It's nothing to do with hype or belief and everything to do with the realities of top level sport.

Cracking post.

Originally Posted by Stickman

Does every manager need 10 of their own players to set a team up properly?
I’m not anti ETH fwiw - just being critical….

Seems like a daft thing to say, you can’t judge a managers in game management without all of their own players?

No he doesn't but when the other players available are Fred, The Scottish Player, Maguire, Martial (and you can name more depending on how you feel about them) then it sort of negates the 'in game management' stuff.

When we had a fully fit team, playing well - EtH was working wonders with his subs (which some people seem to have forgotten). He was getting plaudits AOTS. I'm just saying, how can you judge his subs with the state of the subs he's got?

Originally Posted by waynes ear's

Well at least all the pants pissers are on one thread.

Originally Posted by Stickman

Does every manager need 10 of their own players to set a team up properly?
I’m not anti ETH fwiw - just being critical….

Seems like a daft thing to say, you can’t judge a managers in game management without all of their own players?

No he's definitely made mistakes but when you're expecting him to compete with the best he's not exactly spoiled for choices to change games.

Lets not forget that until Guardiola was allowed to bring in about 14 players of his own that he finished 3rd with 78 points and he took over an infinitely better squad of players than Ten Hag has.

Having said that...that's no excusing some of the abysmal surrenders we've seen, particularly away at Liverpool and City, I hope Ten Hag is learning because some of the ways we've set up to play particularly away from home is idiotic.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

No he's definitely made mistakes but when you're expecting him to compete with the best he's not exactly spoiled for choices to change games.

Lets not forget that until Guardiola was allowed to bring in about 14 players of his own that he finished 3rd with 78 points and he took over an infinitely better squad of players than Ten Hag has.

Having said that...that's no excusing some of the abysmal surrenders we've seen, particularly away at Liverpool and City, I hope Ten Hag is learning because some of the ways we've set up to play particularly away from home is idiotic.

Guardiola also replaced quite a few of his own players in the first couple of seasons. Where as our managers are stuck with players even if the transfers clearly hasn’t worked out.

We hold on to players far longer than what we should.

That Spanish flake in goals is a good example.

Probably learned a lot about what you can and can’t get away with in the PL.

The extra midfielder thing is something no manager at United seems to be able to fathom though, tbh.

Originally Posted by dunk

The extra midfielder thing is something no manager at United seems to be able to fathom though, tbh.

it is astonishing. still.

the excuses are coming like “ole needs a full pre season to inplement pressing”

our manager just isn’t top tier and it’s blindly obvious.

pep saw that haaland wasn’t working so he tweaked the way city play and found a system that got them back on track.

every game we can see when changes are needed, we can tell a goal is coming but our manager does nothing to change it.
he then goes into the next game the same way or even worse.

blame de gea, blame Fred, blame playing too many games all you want.

our season is crashing but the man making the wrong decisions and poor in game management isn’t responsible.

“he needs more of his own players” what like weghorst, Antony and malacia!
“Cant control a game without a decent midfield” didn’t he sign two top quality experiences midfielders

excuses excuses.

Good job he accidentally got so much right in the first 2/3’s of the season while the players were fit and available.

Originally Posted by marlo

the excuses are coming like “ole needs a full pre season to inplement pressing”

our manager just isn’t top tier and it’s blindly obvious.

pep saw that haaland wasn’t working so he tweaked the way city play and found a system that got them back on track.

every game we can see when changes are needed, we can tell a goal is coming but our manager does nothing to change it.
he then goes into the next game the same way or even worse.

blame de gea, blame Fred, blame playing too many games all you want.

our season is crashing but the man making the wrong decisions and poor in game management isn’t responsible.

“he needs more of his own players” what like weghorst, Antony and malacia!
“Cant control a game without a decent midfield” didn’t he sign two top quality experiences midfielders

excuses excuses.

How did Pep get on in his first season? Finished 4th didn't he? And won £#%&! all. And that was with a squad which had won the league 2 years before.

Pep's probably not the best example for you to use in comparison.

Haaland scored 2 on his debut. Yep, definitely wasnt working

Originally Posted by wiganste

Haaland scored 2 on his debut. Yep, definitely wasnt working

Bagged hat-tricks in 3 consecutive games pre-WC, didn’t he?

Classic Marlo. About as on the ball as a dead seal.

Peps a genius for changing a system for a 100 million pound striker and ETH isn't top-level for not getting a Burnley loan firing

Originally Posted by marlo

the excuses are coming like “ole needs a full pre season to inplement pressing”

our manager just isn’t top tier and it’s blindly obvious.

pep saw that haaland wasn’t working so he tweaked the way city play and found a system that got them back on track.

every game we can see when changes are needed, we can tell a goal is coming but our manager does nothing to change it.
he then goes into the next game the same way or even worse.

blame de gea, blame Fred, blame playing too many games all you want.

our season is crashing but the man making the wrong decisions and poor in game management isn’t responsible.

“he needs more of his own players” what like weghorst, Antony and malacia!
“Cant control a game without a decent midfield” didn’t he sign two top quality experiences midfielders

excuses excuses.

‘Blindingly’, you wittering pillock.

It's Marlo's dream to see United fail this season

Haaland wasn’t working is an absolute cracker tbf.

Yeah I’m sure that 3 game period he went without scoring was a real worry for all concerned tbf.

marlo is talking rubbish again….

why not actually breakdown where we are this season…

we are so so exhausted from our cup runs

fa cup - Everton, reading , westham , Fulham , Brighton (won on penalties)

league cup - Aston Villa , Burnley , Charlton, Nottingham forest , Newcastle

and then let’s look at our away form.
we have one game away in the league in 2023 and that was against Nottingham forest.

We also been beaten heavily away to our two biggest rivals most if not all the clubs in the top half of the league . Losing 7-0 to a team we are meant to be challenging is crazy.

we’ve signed two experienced midfielders yet our midfield can be walk through by most teams in the league.

shall we discuss this group of signings (malacia, Antony, Martinez, sabitzer, casimero and weghorst) ?

but then I’m not on the ball because im not deceiving myself into thinking
Our manager is doing a great job…

A great job in what respect…? We can’t even see out 11 point lead on Liverpool and close out the season with relative ease.

we have no style of play and most would say we play the worst football in the top half of the league.

but yeah that league cup run means we are on the right path.
thrashed or most likely battered away from home against any half decent side.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

No he's definitely made mistakes but when you're expecting him to compete with the best he's not exactly spoiled for choices to change games.

Lets not forget that until Guardiola was allowed to bring in about 14 players of his own that he finished 3rd with 78 points and he took over an infinitely better squad of players than Ten Hag has.

Having said that...that's no excusing some of the abysmal surrenders we've seen, particularly away at Liverpool and City, I hope Ten Hag is learning because some of the ways we've set up to play particularly away from home is idiotic.

I’m not comparing him to Guardiola. His subs and at times lack of, are a bit baffling though.

Weird moves at Anfield and St James’ as well as home to Sevilla.

Bad changes and or changes too late at Spurs and Brighton.

Many on here call it out on the match threads at the time. If the squad is so weak, why set up so attacking?! Surely go with more midfield…

You’ve repeated all the same tired %@#$&!s and you’re still wrong.