30 Apr 2017 14:07:19
Cheers Rooney, just when you don't want a player to commit a stupid foul, he goes and outdoes himself.
Today's game summed up our season, just not there yet. Too many players not creating space and not making enough runs.
Bailly now injured, things have gone from bad to worse.
I think we need to play 352 still and out Rashford and Martial up front with Valencia and Young on the wings. That means Tuanzebe would have to play as Carrick lacks strength to play there.

1.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 14:22:35
Now we have Europe in danger as well.
I hope we can cope. This is going to be a very difficult end of season.

2.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 14:41:25
Personally I just don't think we have enough quality, alls I see is poor touches, poor passes, poor crosses and poor shooting.

3.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 14:49:02
All i see is boring posts about the same thing week in, week out.

We looked like a team without any defenders that has played over 50 games this season.

{Ed001's Note - is that rather than a team that finished in the top four last season and then went out and outspent every other team in Europe? Over 50 games? If that is the pathetic kind of excuse you are going to use, then you are clutching at straws. Not one of those players had any reason to be tired. 50 games is nothing, teams used to manage 60-70 games a season with a lot less access to scientific training methods and no rotation to rest them. Why has 50 games suddenly become an acceptable excuse for Jose's Pulis-like tactics?}

4.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 15:13:32
But we didn't finish in the top 4 last season Ed and we spent less than Manchester City, so no we never outspent every other team in Europe.

{Ed001's Note - my mistake, I did mean to say top 5. You did in the summer, Gabriel Jesus did not arrive until January, so I was not counting him. So you did outspend every team in Europe in the summer. If that is not enough to move a top 5 team up and make them more attacking, then I have no idea what is? £150m is more than Swansea's entire squad, including reserves cost, and that is just what you spent in the summer. There is no excuse apart from your manager being a pragmatist that wants to bore the opposition into the ground.}

5.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 15:16:49
If we humour the 50 games excuse for just a second then consider this:

Jesse, Martial, Rashford, Miki, Rooney, Carrick, Young, Shaw, Blind, Darmian and Baily have all had extended breaks and started no where near 50 games. I'll give you Ander (although he had a 3 game suspension) De Gea (goal keeper) and Valencia. Short of them three I don't see it being down to the amount of games at all, in my eyes many are just not good enough.

{Ed001's Note - that is the point I was trying to make. How can they possibly be worn out??}

6.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 15:17:28
We knew we were short of central defenders going into the winter transfer period and did nothing. That's Jose's failure.
However its the senior players that must be held accountable. It is time for Rooney, Carrick, and Mata to go.
We need a minimum of six players in this summer to even think about competing for a league title.

7.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 15:21:12
Not one utd player has played 50 games this season. 2 have have played over 40 and a couple more if you include sub appearances. Terrible excuse.

8.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 15:36:22
Back in the day players like vidic ferdy neivile becks kean etc seemed to play week in week out .
Jose complained bailly had played 8 in a row?

9.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 15:36:56
Lame excuse moon. These guys are on incredible wages to be able to play well over 50 games a year. Pathetic if you ask me.

10.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 15:49:08
Yet, they were good enough against Chelsea. That was hailed though, as a José tactical masterclass. But when we put in a performance like that, it's the players at fault? Which is it, lads? I'm starting to sound like Ronnie with all my question marks?

11.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 19:00:32
Fine balance noucamp. Jose is a great manager. Sometimes he gets it wrong like many other managers.

I'm still not convinced that Jose is convinced by the players at his disposal, therefore some negative tactics have taken place.

12.) 30 Apr 2017
30 Apr 2017 19:28:29
Behave ed001,

United have played 56 games already this season, with a guarantee of it being 62 (potentially 63) the highest amount of games any team has ever played (tied with United in 99 and Liverpool in 2001) in a single season.

For a fit squad that would be some challenge playing 1.6 games per week, factor in travel to places such as Russia and Ukraine (meaning the team have less time to recover - believe it or not there are recovery procedures in place and sitting on a plane isn't part of it) .

Now let's look at the fact that United have played 56 games, throughout that period we've had 65 injuries where playes have missed games, 46 of those injuries have been for 2 or more games.

The fixture congestion got heavy in early February, since February United have had over 30 injuries where players have missed 2 or more games.

It can be argued that our lack of clinical striking is the reason we've played so many games (anderlecht for example, if we finished the game in the first leg we could rest players for the 2nd, etc. ) .

However, the fact of the matter is an incredibly deep 99 United side and 01 Liverpool side both struggled to accumulate wins as their respective seasons on WITH A FULL SQUAD.

Yet United will have played the 2nd highest amount of games ever (Premier League era) with almost a 3rd of the squad missing since February and 9 of the 25 currently with mid-long term injuries (2+ more games) .

So how can anybody be shocked with the current results?

It's our fault we're in this situation (arguably) but there isn't an awful low we can do about what we're seeing as it's simply out of our hands; we can't afford to rest players if we want to be in the Champions League next season. Yet we may not get there at all unless we rest players.

{Ed001's Note - your usual nonsense. How many players have played 56 matches? Go on list them all. Or how many have played over 50? This is just a pointless discussion as you are deflecting with rubbish, rather than looking at the basic facts. It matter not a jot how many games the squad plays if the players are not playing every game. What matters is how many the individual players play and they are not playing 56 games.}

13.) 01 May 2017
30 Apr 2017 23:41:55
You really are a clown aren't you.

If less than 2 thirds of the squad are fit for almost the entire season at any one time then they will accumulate fatigue. That's a 'basic' fact.

with all due respect you haven't got a clue what you're talking about when it comes to fitness coaching and fatigue accumulation.

You may have noticed I haven't posted on here much over the past few years, well I've been successfully working my way up the coaching ladder having passed my UEFA B License in 2015.

As such, I've attended an incredible amount of seminars regarding player fitness and the dangers of fatigue on the body.

As I mentioned United have played 1.6 games per week. 9 in April alone.

6 games in 4 weeks would have the players well into the red zone, 9 games in 4 weeks puts them in an incredibly dangerous situation especially relating to muscle weakness.

I'm going off the facts provided by UEFA seminars, where are yours coming from?

{Ed001's Note - you are calling me a clown yet you only have a B license? Come back when you have your pro and then you can crow about it. In fact don't, because it would still be irrelevant. We are talking about fitness, not tactics. UEFA's coaching courses are not going to teach you about fitness training, they are not physio or fitness coaching courses. You don't even understand what the courses you are doing are! Go and get some qualifications on the fitness coaching side of things, then come back and tell me you know what you are talking about.

It does not matter how many are fit, in fact, while they are off they are removing most of the causes of fatigue, so coming back fresh and fit. Any player will tell you that they come back raring to go. So your 'basic' fact is a crock of excuses from someone with no experience of the game, talking out of his arse making excuses.

Those facts you are talking about, I have all of them, having attended a number of coaching seminars, spend my days conversing with coaches, having all the scientific papers they are based on and read through them. However, I have read the papers they are based on, rather than taken someone else's reading of them. I also read through a number of them on other sports, to get a broader idea, rather than the narrow minded view football takes. Oh and I take the time to discuss this on a regular basis with fitness coaches and physios from a number of sports, at the top level, not just a narrow focus on football. It is a shame more football coaches don't take the time to look at other sports, they would learn a lot.

One day, when you understand basic science, you will see that the only thing that matters is how many games in a row they play, and the accumulation of games over a season, without a break. None of your players have played an excessive number in either case. It doesn't matter if Jose has 15 or 50 players to choose from as he always favours a smaller, tighter squad of 16 or 17 players anyway. He has been able to rest and rotate throughout the season, even Zlatan had a few games off during the season. Not even De Gea has been playing every game. Not one player has an excuse for being fatigued other than if the training, rest and recuperation is wrong.

The 'fatigue' at Man Utd is all mental, stemming from Jose and his methods. This is exactly what happened at Chelsea, leading to his sacking. The end of the season, when they had streaked away with the title, he was constantly moaning about fatigue, even though they had a big lead and he could have rotated as he saw fit. Instead he continued with the moans, the whining, the excuses, the bickering behind the scenes, all putting pressure on the players.

By the way, if the training was better, the players would be fitter and there would be less injuries. So again, there is a very large likelihood that Jose's methods are not just contributing to the fatigue of the players, but that they are also increasing the injury problems. However a lot of the problems are a football-wide problem, contributed to by these coaching courses, which have little to do with fitness coaching, which is why you need a specialist fitness coach. Footballers are trained to be power athletes, sprinters, short bursts of pace, not enough endurance work, because it is the boring long runs etc without the ball. Understandable that it is not done at a young age, as it is boring, but you don't build up endurance and stamina without long boring exercise. You have to do long runs, you have to be pushed past the red zone, or the moment you hit the red zone your body is running on empty and you pick up injuries and struggle to recover. That is why those players who have been cross country runners etc as kids will carry a higher level of fitness throughout their career. Or players like Kante will play every week, covering far more ground at a much higher intensity, yet very rarely get injured. They are simply fitter than the rest. They are not freaks of nature, they just built up basic fitness and work hard to keep themselves fit.}