Today's Football

[greenmark]

Lol that yellow card for Fernandinho's challenge on Mane was much less severe than the foul on Thiago. Maybe OIlver is sensing a simmering pot about to boil over.

[greenmark]

Looking at the EPL table just now.
Brighton have to be the stars.
Leicester have waned and that assumes they win their games in hand.

And that Ronaldo goal against Tim Krul is comical.

[Euler]

Massive gulf in class: -

xG in brackets

HT: Liverpool (1.54) 2-0 (0.00) Man Utd

[greenmark]

Ruthless expoitation of an abject Man U by LFC. Quite shocking. What is going on at Old Trafford? Maybe dump Mcguire and Pogba. But then where did Phil Jones suddenly come into the equation? Rash looks like his campaigning for good causes is knocking that vital 10% off him. Even Fernandes who impressed so much early on looks downcast and ineffective.
Total mess.
Ten Hag's style doesn't suit this bunch. Fact is they've recruited badly and now United are light years away from success.
The worst thing for any fan is lack of effort and courage. With stuff that's gone on with Ronaldo you'd have thought team spirit would be prominent.
But, so far, nothing. Very sad for my Man U friends.

[Euler]

It's quite curious that Man Utd's season turned when Ronaldo arrived. They did have problems prior to that, but that really sparked a decline in performance.

[greenmark]

Can't remember the last time LFC fans gave United the Ole's.
And then Fernandes has a petulant kick at TAA.
It's not the United that I'm sure Fergie hoped would follow his legacy.
Gary Neville just summed it up. "This is a broken squad".

[Korattt]

gonna go chapter & verse now & probably spout the obvious but it’s never gonna happen at OT until they install some continuity into the squad, someone needs to come in & seriously stamp some sort of authority about the place, feel for Rangnick as it seems he has the nous but hasn’t the resources or time, like the majority of players I don’t even think he wants to be there to be honest,

Moyes was never gonna be the answer, was like a fish up a tree, rabbit in headlights, appointing Mourinho was at the wrong time, should have nabbed him way before, as for LvG, for me that was a strange one, don’t really understand how the club can oust someone of that quality within 24 hours of winning a trophy, that could’ve been the start of something special, even Rooney said LvG’s tactical ability was superior to SAF’s, OGS was on a hiding to nothing although having said that nothing has really changed since he’s left, don’t think Rashford wants to be a footballer anymore, I’ve never rated Luke Shaw, AWB isn’t consistent, never has been, haven’t a clue about Maguire, his positioning is all over the place, I’ve seen elephants jump higher than him, what the bobbins Phil Jones, Nemanja Matic & Juan Mata are still doing being on the payroll I don’t know, Pogba needs to f%*¥ off back to France or Italy or wherever, the squad as whole is a complete mess, mishmash leftovers of the last four or five gaffers in charge, the way United went about things after Ferguson left was so disappointing,

if Ten Haag is the next one in the hot seat & if he has agreed to take the position he’s gonna need a serious amount of cash & time for it to work.. but the media won’t forgive him the time what’s needed to pull things around, what’s the answer?, there really isn’t one until something “falls into place”, United got lucky with SAF, Chelsea got lucky with Mourinho, also Klopp at Anfield, shame Mike Phelan wasn’t ever considered or maybe he was clever enough to see the Woodward from the trees,

the sad thing is that it’s all about sloshing the cash about to obtain the best players, I don’t really think any player is that bothered about playing for the shirt anymore & for the amount of money players are going for is ridiculous, £100m for Grealish?, do me a favour,

I really thought Chelsea were gonna be the ones to beat this season, City have been poor & if Liverpool actually do go on & do the impossible I think I’ll find a desert island somewhere & hibernate forever

[greenmark]

gonna go chapter & verse now & probably spout the obvious but it’s never gonna happen at OT until they install some continuity into the squad, someone needs to come in & seriously stamp some sort of authority about the place, feel for Rangnick as it seems he has the nous but hasn’t the resources or time, like the majority of players I don’t even think he wants to be there to be honest,

Moyes was never gonna be the answer, was like a fish up a tree, rabbit in headlights, appointing Mourinho was at the wrong time, should have nabbed him way before, as for LvG, for me that was a strange one, don’t really understand how the club can oust someone of that quality within 24 hours of winning a trophy, that could’ve been the start of something special, even Rooney said LvG’s tactical ability was superior to SAF’s, OGS was on a hiding to nothing although having said that nothing has really changed since he’s left, don’t think Rashford wants to be a footballer anymore, I’ve never rated Luke Shaw, AWB isn’t consistent, never has been, haven’t a clue about Maguire, his positioning is all over the place, I’ve seen elephants jump higher than him, what the bobbins Phil Jones, Nemanja Matic & Juan Mata are still doing being on the payroll I don’t know, Pogba needs to f%*¥ off back to France or Italy or wherever, the squad as whole is a complete mess, mishmash leftovers of the last four or five gaffers in charge, the way United went about things after Ferguson left was so disappointing,

if Ten Haag is the next one in the hot seat & if he has agreed to take the position he’s gonna need a serious amount of cash & time for it to work.. but the media won’t forgive him the time what’s needed to pull things around, what’s the answer?, there really isn’t one until something “falls into place”, United got lucky with SAF, Chelsea got lucky with Mourinho, also Klopp at Anfield, shame Mike Phelan wasn’t ever considered or maybe he was clever enough to see the Woodward from the trees,

the sad thing is that it’s all about sloshing the cash about to obtain the best players, I don’t really think any player is that bothered about playing for the shirt anymore & for the amount of money players are going for is ridiculous, £100m for Grealish?, do me a favour,

I really thought Chelsea were gonna be the ones to beat this season, City have been poor & if Liverpool actually do go on & do the impossible I think I’ll find a desert island somewhere & hibernate forever

Lol. Your post should really have been on Rant Corner. But can't really disagree with any of that. SAF et al built a huge football edifice. But since SAF left it's been failure after failure at all levels. In a paralell universe what if Brighton, Wolves, Saints had the budget of United?

[weemac]

How do owners who aren't re-paying the debt while taking out £20m+ a year in dividends suddenly conjure up the half a billion pounds required to re-build the squad? And I hear the stadium needs considerable investment too. It's a gigantic mess of a club.

[Korattt]

half a billion not enough weemac, nowhere near

[Kai]

"Manchester United’s two leading scouts have left the club; the club’s chief scout, Jim Lawlor, and Marcel Bout, the head of global scouting, have both departed the Premier League side. Both were big voices in United’s recruitment, which has been widely criticised in recent months."

[wearthefoxhat]

"Manchester United’s two leading scouts have left the club; the club’s chief scout, Jim Lawlor, and Marcel Bout, the head of global scouting, have both departed the Premier League side. Both were big voices in United’s recruitment, which has been widely criticised in recent months."

Peter Brand is ready to go....

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[firlandsfarm]

"Manchester United’s two leading scouts have left the club; the club’s chief scout, Jim Lawlor, and Marcel Bout, the head of global scouting, have both departed the Premier League side. Both were big voices in United’s recruitment, which has been widely criticised in recent months."

Very interesting numbers ... Manure disprove the claims that you can buy success, Arsenal should be ashamed of themselves but the stand out figure for me is Liverpool ... punching well above their budget.

[Kai]

Very interesting numbers ... Manure disprove the claims that you can buy success, Arsenal should be ashamed of themselves but the stand out figure for me is Liverpool ... punching well above their budget.

Say what you will about Glazers but financially there is plenty of room to work with for anyone that is capable enough, as long as they get the final say on recruitment, like Klopp does, which is key IMO. Judging by the numbers alone you can see why the chatter between coaches, managers, agents etc always talks about United as a purely financial club, good club to sell players to. Louis van Gaal has yet again warned Ten Hag to choose a football club instead of a financial club.

Time will tell, you need a strong personality to change the culture of the club like that and to try and harness all this financial might, but don't know much about Ten Hag. Say what you will about Ole but at least he tried to re-create their identity and could compete in big matches, he won the odd match playing on the counter.

[Kai]

Peter Brand is ready to go....

They could really do with a Peter Brand type honestly, the moneyball approach failed spectacularly at first at Liverpool, with the likes of Steward Downing etc, but the tweaks to that philosophy that Michael Edwards has since done have been transformative and remarkable, second to none, it looks set to continue now with his protégé Julian Ward and his Luis Diaz signing.

I just think United need to stop signing players that will sell the most shirts and get some players in that actually fit their style of play, but without massively overpaying for talent and getting fleeced by agents as this invites more pressure to keep playing them even if their transfers don't work out. The numbers speak for themselves, as to what type of players they were going for.

And what City seems to be doing with their last few transfer targets is trying to bring in more fans longer term, overpaying for Grealish when he looked like the next big English player to get more fans into the club, like they tried with the England captain Harry Kane (plus homegrown slots). Good luck with that