Man Utd Thread:

[laoislad]

Let Laoisloser have his fun. He's never seen Loserpool win the league and Klopp's flops won't change that anytime soon.

Oh look another idiot who thinks football only started in 1992.

[J70]

Let Laoisloser have his fun. He's never seen Loserpool win the league and Klopp's flops won't change that anytime soon.

Loserpool?

What are you, 12?

[Solo_run]

Lee O'Connor could be a Celtic player in the next hr

[magpie seanie]

The usual insanity here I see.

United could easily have 12 points. The game they played worst in of the 4 league games ended up a 4-0 win. They've been a little unlucky and have generally played well. No one expected United to challenge for the title this time. This season is about making sure the ship is pointed in the right direction. Personally I feel it is but the decisions taken, while correct, might mean some short term pain for longer term gain. You can't have Sanchez around the place contributing nothing and robbing his wages. Lukkau should have been replaced by a goalscorer (Chicarito, who should never have been let go, would have been ideal) because even though he didn't suit the team he gets goals against the lower 12-14 clubs. United will be short of goals and a bit of creativity around the middle. Back has improved. Lindelof is a good defender in general terms but doesn't have the physical power in the air and will be targetted all season now. Injuries will riddle this team at times.

I'd like to remind our Liverpool supporting friends and others that Klopp guided Liverpool to 8th position in his first season (I accept he started after the season commenced). Even still I was worried about him at the time. He built their team piece by piece.....you can't do it all in one go. I'd argue he was starting from a better place because for all the abuse Rodgers got towards the end he almost won the league with them.

[thewobbler]

Seanie here's the wee problem.

United have a substantially weaker midfield than any of the other "big  6", and a substantially weaker midfield than Wolves and Leicester. Possibly Everton too.

They cannot make the top 4 with that midfield unless they play 8 behind the ball and their front 3 have excellent, injury free seasons. But that style of football was the main reason for moving along Mourninho. Ole surely cannot regress into it.

United will do well to break 62/62 points this season.

[Jeepers Creepers]

Who honestly expected/expects Utd to get top 4 this year? No one I know. If OGS is to be given time the he's still a few transfer windows off assembling a team that could challenge. With Europa games this year it's going to be a long hard slog in the league with no great rewards.

[Joeythelips]

Seanie here's the wee problem.

United have a substantially weaker midfield than any of the other "big  6", and a substantially weaker midfield than Wolves and Leicester. Possibly Everton too.

They cannot make the top 4 with that midfield unless they play 8 behind the ball and their front 3 have excellent, injury free seasons. But that style of football was the main reason for moving along Mourninho. Ole surely cannot regress into it.

United will do well to break 62/62 points this season.

Thats the issue, it is a massive rebuilding job which will take at least 3 transfer windows IMO. I dont think they will finish in the top 6 this season which means there will be enormous pressure on Ole, if the fans turn the Glazers he wont last the season let alone the 3 he needs (and was given).
My whole problem is that he does not have the experience for the job, Pochettino has a proven record of doing just that which would have made him the obvious choice for me. I would also imagine more players would want to sign for him rather than Solskjaer who cannot even sort out who takes the penalties.

Whoever is in charge the next part of the rebuilding job they need a creative midfielder and a centre forward, which are not easy to attract when your not even a top 4 side as we saw this summer. In fairness to united they have done decent work in this transfer window, Wan Bisakka and McGuire have really improved the defence and they are trying to clear out the deadwood. I think they should have sold Pogba and tried to sign someone like Eriksson or his ilk who can get on the ball and control the midfield. Pogba can do it (sporadically) when the game opens up but once teams sit deep he is a bit of a passenger which is a big issue as he is their most important player. I know they should have replaced Lukaku but they were right not just to throw money at players like Dybala wanted.

[magpie seanie]

Seanie here's the wee problem.

United have a substantially weaker midfield than any of the other "big  6", and a substantially weaker midfield than Wolves and Leicester. Possibly Everton too.

They cannot make the top 4 with that midfield unless they play 8 behind the ball and their front 3 have excellent, injury free seasons. But that style of football was the main reason for moving along Mourninho. Ole surely cannot regress into it.

United will do well to break 62/62 points this season.

I agree. I'm typically an optimist and would hope you could get a relatively decent run of lads not getting injured but that's a fairly realistic projection. I'm concerned that Fred seems to have disappeared off the radar after showing some positive signs once he got a run of games under Ole last season. Had hoped he'd kick on and become a consitent performer. If he doesn't you're relying on Matic improving greatly on last season and McTominay continuing to develop. We all know what Pogba brings.....capable of anything but not consistent and reliable and in need of players round him who cover for his errors. Herrera is a huge loss in the contect of where the team is now.

Ole won't resort to that shit Mourinho plays and it goes without saying he won't disgrace the club at every turn with idiotic comments and poor behaviour. You can see the patience won't be there from some quarters but I think any sensible appraisal would be that this is a rebuild job that will take a couple more years after this. In his first transfer window he has added what look like 3 good players and got rid of a lot of dead wood (even if some are still on the payroll). Gaps this season will be filled by young players, not overpaid mercenaries. My guess is the young lads won't do much worse that Mourinho's mercenaries. Lack of goals (Lukaku's) will be the main difference.

[Joeythelips]

Seanie here's the wee problem.

United have a substantially weaker midfield than any of the other "big  6", and a substantially weaker midfield than Wolves and Leicester. Possibly Everton too.

They cannot make the top 4 with that midfield unless they play 8 behind the ball and their front 3 have excellent, injury free seasons. But that style of football was the main reason for moving along Mourninho. Ole surely cannot regress into it.

United will do well to break 62/62 points this season.

I agree. I'm typically an optimist and would hope you could get a relatively decent run of lads not getting injured but that's a fairly realistic projection. I'm concerned that Fred seems to have disappeared off the radar after showing some positive signs once he got a run of games under Ole last season. Had hoped he'd kick on and become a consitent performer. If he doesn't you're relying on Matic improving greatly on last season and McTominay continuing to develop. We all know what Pogba brings.....capable of anything but not consistent and reliable and in need of players round him who cover for his errors. Herrera is a huge loss in the contect of where the team is now.

Ole won't resort to that shit Mourinho plays and it goes without saying he won't disgrace the club at every turn with idiotic comments and poor behaviour. You can see the patience won't be there from some quarters but I think any sensible appraisal would be that this is a rebuild job that will take a couple more years after this. In his first transfer window he has added what look like 3 good players and got rid of a lot of dead wood (even if some are still on the payroll). Gaps this season will be filled by young players, not overpaid mercenaries. My guess is the young lads won't do much worse that Mourinho's mercenaries. Lack of goals (Lukaku's) will be the main difference.

I dont think Herrara is that big a loss to be honest, I was at teh Milan pre season game and thought McTominay is ideal as the holding role, Fred can play that role also (Matic looks finished to me) but for all the ball they had there was no one who could thread a decent pass to link midfield and forwards. Mata is the nearest they have bit his legs are gone. I went to the game hoping to see Greenwood who most people are praising, he came on but it was Gomes another youngster who impressed me, very tricky skilful player and would love to see him get a run.

Up front also to me it seemed like they need a proper striker, most of the time Rashford and Martial picked up the ball they we out wide and ended up crossing the ball into an empty penalty area. Given how much the defence has improved with the summer signings I think those 2 positions would really knit this team together.

[BennyCake]

Given United are light up front with no big signing looking likely, why didn't they buy back Javier Hernandez? West Ham let him go.

[TabClear]

Given United are light up front with no big signing looking likely, why didn't they buy back Javier Hernandez? West Ham let him go.

I like Hernandez as a player but if united fans are worried that Ole did not sign someone West Ham did not want things must be bad.

I actually think the doom and gloom is overstated. As seanie said United have had no luck so far, dominated against CP, should have beat a Southampton side that, bar a shocking miss from Ings could easily have drawn with Liverpool a week earlier and had two missed penalties. Forgetting about all the nonsense about who is the designated penalty taker its unusual for a club to miss two on the bounce and Rashford's in particular was unlucky. If both of those had went in (as you would generally expect) things would look very different.

James and maguire have both settled in well and look like  good signings. I do think they are short of cover in midfield and a couple of key injuries could leave them really exposed but overall I expect them to be comfortably top six and probably top four. A lot will depend on how they handle the Thursday/Sunday fixtures. Given their reasonably kind draw they should get Greenwood/Gomes etc some minutes which they will probably need between now and Christmas in the premier league.

[BennyCake]

One positive recently is Ole has shifted some of that dead wood: Smalling, Darmian, Sanchez, Lukaku. A few more to go though.

[NAG1]

One positive recently is Ole has shifted some of that dead wood: Smalling, Darmian, Sanchez, Lukaku. A few more to go though.

Well you take that into account plus Herrera and a couple in the door, the clear seems to be well and truly under way.

As we all know it was never going to be done in one or even two transfer windows, even in January I wouldnt expect much movement, so it will be into next summer before we see what Ole really has planned for the recruitment side of things.

[Ed Ricketts]

This 'it'll take several transfer windows to sort out the squad at United' line is a bit perplexing. What do those coming out with it actually mean? If they're on about rebuilding the squad to the point that challenging the top two for titles again is a realistic goal, then of course there's a lot of work to be done. But the immediate concern should have been with establishing the club as at least the best of the rest. And some big steps in that direction could have been made with appropriate recruitment over the course of just one transfer window, this summer.

United are short quality in midfield and attack. This was abundantly clear long before the end of last season. At least one more player should have been recruited in each of these areas. Foresight and finance should not have been issues. It has been a failure of management, at some or all levels within the club, to go into this season with such glaring squad deficiencies. Falling short of CL football again next season is now a strong prospect, which would in turn create difficulties recruiting future preferred targets, which in turn slows momentum and sees the club continue to stagnate 'two or three transfer windows' away from challenging again. United fans should be angrier about what went on this summer. The road back to the top is long, but the club could and should be further down that road by now.

[nrico2006]

One positive recently is Ole has shifted some of that dead wood: Smalling, Darmian, Sanchez, Lukaku. A few more to go though.

Well you take that into account plus Herrera and a couple in the door, the clear seems to be well and truly under way.

As we all know it was never going to be done in one or even two transfer windows, even in January I wouldnt expect much movement, so it will be into next summer before we see what Ole really has planned for the recruitment side of things.

How has Jones remained though?  Should have been first out.