06 Oct 2018 11:28:42
Was just thinking of Sanchez and why he is tanking so much at United.
I watched a lot of his highlight reels and noticed that literally everything outstanding he did at Arsenal involved Mesut Ozil in some way. The one thing that was always said about Sanchez is that he worked hard and to be fair I think the same can still be said of him at United but he is not getting into those positions, those little pockets of space where he used to be so lethal at Arsenal.
Now granted we don't have Ozil but we do have Mata, we do have Pereirra, we do have Fred. Instead of giving pogba this free role why not play one of the above 3, my preference would be Fred or Mata.
Drop Pogba as we can't play him and one of the above, or play him in a deeper role but 2 years on and I still have no idea whether he can play that role or play Matic/ Fellaini and Hererra in midfield.
I still can't believe our cm is as limited as it is all we seem to have is big slow defensive midfielders or players who are more attack/ No.10 minded. We don't seem to have any true all round/ box2box midfielder.
Mata seems to have been totally given the cold shoulder this season, I don't really understand why. I don't really understand why if Pogba causes so much trouble for the manager why he isn't just dropped, no way Fergie would be starting the likes of Pogba.
Jose demoted schweinsteiger to the reserves for like 6 mths 2 years ago and there was none of this crap coming out in the media.
Drop Pogba, what have you got to lose Jose, by all accounts he's going to cost you your job in any case, why are you still playing him.


1.) 06 Oct 2018
06 Oct 2018 12:26:57
We have the same problem for any of our attacking players. It's simply that we have a static midfield, poor full backs (until recently with Shaw doing what we need) and absolutely no idea how to break teams down because all we seem to work on is defensive shape.

When you compound this with LVG and Jose both preferring to counter the opposition rather than attack the opposition relentlessly it means we always attack with far too few players. Martial looks bright occassionally but he has to beat 3 men to do anything.

Depay, ADM, Falcao, RVP, Rooney, Mata, Miki, Rash, Lukaku, Sanchez, Martial - all of them and more have suffered because they have so little happening around them that they have no room and because we attack so infrequently evey time they mess up it looks far worse. Everything is so slow and predictable - new attack focused manager and we can get back to bitching about how poor we are defensively and not worry about it because we are scoring 4-5 goals a game.

Matic/ Pogba/ Fellaini in midfield is an absolute joke. Pogba causes more confusion than anything, never releasing the ball at the right time, always looking for the Rooney QB pass. All three job about most of the time. We need some consistency to our team selection so full backs can build relationships with wide attackers as well. Valencia is not good enough, best to blood Dalot now or go back into the market for Sidibe. We need a proper RW as well, Fred and midfield engine (Herrera short term), sack off Matic as we don't need a holder if Pogba is playing as we will dominate the ball and our CB's can double up on 1 attacker.


2.) 06 Oct 2018
06 Oct 2018 13:39:49
Beast i agree that the movement in the final 3rd is awful. But that is not joses form all his teams have always had great movement and players breaking from midfield.
Hazard oscar willian duff robben di maria drogba costa lampard deco ballack the list goes on.
So i'm quite sure he doesn't coach them to be so static. Its not been a trait of any of his previous teams.
I watch players like rash martial and lukaku dropping off laying the ball off it goes wide and those guys are still ambling towards the 18 yard line. Not busting a gut to get on the end of any potential cross. i'm quite sure he doesn't tell them not to get into goal scoring positions through work rate and desire or through football intelligence.
Nobody running on in midfield onto breaking balls like lampard ballack oscar etc i'm sure he doesn't tell them not to make runs.
Im sure he doesn't tell valencia to go backwards every time he gets the ball or whack every cross as hard as he can.
Its very frustrating.


3.) 06 Oct 2018
06 Oct 2018 14:14:10
Ken - whoever he plays in there we look the same to me, but the 3 jogging giants take the Michael. Managers typically get more defensive as they get older (do you think LVG teams of the past played as negatively as we did under him? ) . Even the great SAF started to get a bit negative with their strategy towards the end.

A major problem is the new breed of manager studied Jose, he was the best. They have all learned how to combat how he sets his teams up, couple that with him getting even more defensive, it means our team isn't fluid - we move in blocks. In 10 years time Pep will have to evolve or be found out.

I agree completely that there is so little movement, I watched the other night and without the ball too many of our players were walking. They all try hard when the opposition have it typically, it's when we have it that we are too lazy. Players not trusting one another, not thinking 3-4 passes ahead or running for that pass later in the move because they firstly don't want to risk being out of position (wrath of Jose) and secondly doubt we will retain the ball for 3-4 passes. All our chances seem to come from opponent mistakes or somebody having to beat 2-3 men to free up room.

In terms of players not following his instructions - then he has to go. Why does he keep picking players that willfully ignore him or are incapable of doing simple things? Another sign of a manager leaving their prime is they look for favourites and obfuscate - Valencia should not be playing on form neither should have of them.

The whole thing is so frustrating. Hopefully we get some resolution one way or the other soon. Jose of 10 years ago would have Pogba playing with the reserves imo.


4.) 06 Oct 2018
06 Oct 2018 14:29:51
I agree on pogba.
Imo jose should have resigned when the window closed. He was on a hiding to nothing. He needed certain players out and it didn't happen.


5.) 06 Oct 2018
06 Oct 2018 16:51:31
He wants his payout mate. He doesn't care about turning things around, he can BS his way out of anything as the media will lap up anything he says.


6.) 06 Oct 2018
06 Oct 2018 17:22:25
Midfield 3 of pogba, Matic and mctominay tells me we can expect exactly the same thing we've seeing all season. No vision from midfield, poor service to the front men, boring football and a lack of chances. If this is his final game I feel he's going out with a whimper.