Manchester United Banter Archive January 16 2018

16 Jan 2018 23:04:03
Jose signing a new 3 1/ 2 year deal. I bet the hotel are chuffed to bits.
He has earned this new contract. He is improving some players and if the club back him he will win us trophys and build a team we will all be proud of.

16 Jan 2018 23:39:09
Good to see he's thinking long-term. Can't be good for the club, if everyone's thinking he'll just do his usual 3 years, then leave.

17 Jan 2018 00:49:45
Seems to be a good feeling again around the club after those costly three draws over Xmas. It must have a lot to do with the fact Jose is getting his way (somewhat) with a bid for Sanchez so Jose seems a bit more chirpy. It is clear we are improving as a team, the atmosphere in the squad is fantastic and slowly we are improving the style. I say back the manager as there does not seem to be any outstanding managers available that will come in. I am confident we will more under Jose and I hope he gets us playing more expansively. Things could be worst and we could be in Arsenal’s position.

17 Jan 2018 01:37:11
We look good at the moment, but we did play one of the worst teams in the league in Stoke (without a manager), Everton who have been all over the place recently and a Championship team - prior to that it was God damn awful.

I really enjoyed the Stoke match. I understand the need to lock down a manager to add stability and to entice players to commit long term. However I do question whether Jose has done enough to warrant a new deal at this time, smacks of desperation to me.

4 horse race for the 3 CL spots, we could quite conceivably finish 5th going the way we are. I'd have waited to see how the second half of the season pans out, Jose is erratic, the team is erratic - erratic doesn't suit long term! I hope it works out, but I'd put more money on an early dismissal/ walk out and a massive pay out, than the man seeing out his contract with decorum.

17 Jan 2018 04:48:16
Beast you’re really living out the word Devil 🤣🤣. But hey aren’t we all Red Devil supporters? 🤣🤣
I take it that you’re not really happy with anything, anytime and anyhow 🤣🤣
Chill man. Just enjoy the moment good or bad. Have a great 2018!

16 Jan 2018 17:44:44
Straight player swap between Man utd and Arsenal is ideal. This is the case if miki is moving and starts playing great now and into next season. The current high market rates mean Arsenal can sell for 60/ 80 million or more so they are not loosing on the sanchez of deal.

AFC need to show they are not being robbed or rolling over to AS AS other players could follow suit especially as Ozil is nearing the door too.

Agents have to do the best for their clients as Riaola is doing for miki. The reports stating 35mil + miki for AS would have made him feel worthless and not to mention moving house and the family to London and vice versa for sanchez

Their is an awful lot to consider not just the daft thinking that the agent M. R is "Greedy"

This is my view everyone's opinion differs.

16 Jan 2018 18:44:49
I don't get half of what you said and the other half I disagree with.

Mikh is 28/ 29 he won't ever be worth 7-/ 80m. Riola isn't greedy its business and his client may feel being pushed out.

Regarding contracts, Arsenal should sell as soon as no new contracts are being signed that would show others the way, there in a bit of a mess but maybe they are using it to offload a load of wages and clear out some under performers.

16 Jan 2018 22:10:22
Could be worse. We could be offering 30 million for Andy Carroll.

16 Jan 2018 22:47:28
Arsenal need to revise their strategy for player contracts.

17 Jan 2018 09:55:39
IM7 - AND WE SHOULDNT?
pogba and the fact we have half a dozen arguably first teamers when fit or at the very least good squad players either coming to a contract end in 6 months or have yearly extensions. Forget which manager, but high profile who stated that a club should stagger contracts to avoid a load of discussions/ renewals at the same time. It is difficult however if players/ agents decide to manipulate the system .

16 Jan 2018 15:32:37
ED002, is there any chance that United may be attempting to get Ozil in this window as well?

{Ed002's Note - Not that I am aware.}

16 Jan 2018 15:40:36
Thank you for the quick reply.

{Ed002's Note - You are welcome.}

16 Jan 2018 15:51:12
If, miki goes to Arsenal and sanchez utd, does it suggest that they are resigned to losing ozil Ed 002 as miki and Ozil do play similar roles?

{Ed002's Note - I expect Ozil will be going regardless.}

16 Jan 2018 16:53:52
Cheers ed002 -anything as to where he may end up at the moment?

{Ed002's Note - Try the Arsenal page.}

16 Jan 2018 13:17:59
Player swaps are very rare in football these days, who's to say Miki has any interest at all in Arsenal, a side struggling and who won't make CL football, who probs won't pay the silly wages we do and a managerial change fairly imminent imo.

I see I very unlikely he will want to go and can see the whole deal collapsing tbh. I'd love to be proven wrong but the longer it goes on the less likely it comes off I think.

16 Jan 2018 13:25:39
I agree stand the longer it goes on the less optimistic I am about this deal. Very frustrating but you cannot force miki to move somewhere he does not want to go. I hope it can be resolved as losing Sanchez to one of our rivals will have huge repercussions I feel. If he didn’t want to join he would have said no so I do believe he wants to play for us. We just need to get this tied up and come to some arrangement which benefits all parties.

16 Jan 2018 14:03:45
If he doesn't move then we will offload him elsewhere, he now knows the club don't want him and then we will up the offer to Arsenal who need to sell and will therefore accept. Only us and City interested, City have pulled out, let's not worry just yet.

16 Jan 2018 10:58:56
Hope we don't sign that Moura fella. That nutmeg on him was well embarrassing.

16 Jan 2018 11:08:11
Done like a kipper.

16 Jan 2018 11:50:12
He's another Theo Walcott. Stay well clear.

16 Jan 2018 08:19:23
Good performance last night .
Confidence is the key word for me, not sure if the team had a lift with city and Chelsea dropping points but we looked confidante last night.
Our back 4 looks solid with Tony playing again did little wrong, and Shaw with no injuries and a run of games is showing what a good player he is .
Pogba continues to improve and ran the game last night, something he is capable of and should be doing more often . What a difference it makes, just like KDB has done all season .
Also done it in a cm2 in the middle of the park .
Lingard continues to give an example of a player playing to his potential.
Martial in a way was quiet at times but showed his class .
And lukaku gave a great example of what United where missing last season .
Mata was busy through out and linked a lot of the football up .

Hopefully we kick on now at what is the business end of the season and the lads show everyone what a good squad this is .

16 Jan 2018 09:10:07
Hmm, I wouldn't say defence looked solid at all. Shaky at times and Ireland missed two sitters because the defence was all over the place. I do agree that confidence is key though.

16 Jan 2018 09:11:55
Lukaku looked much more confident which is great to see. We need a nice run now and who knows, maybe we can stop City winning league so easily.

16 Jan 2018 09:15:13
It's definitely a good squad Jred. Just need to strengthen our first XI. Sanchez would do that if we can sign him.

16 Jan 2018 09:16:50
Ireland ran off his cm marker twice.

16 Jan 2018 09:46:52
We weren't man marking the mighty Ireland Jred. The defence was all over the place at times. Luckily for us it was Ireland on the end of those sitters. It goes 1.1 and then it's a different game. We got a squeeze, twice, so we cannot complain. But I don't think we were solid at all. Shaky at times, lucky too. But doesn't matter, we just need to tighten up a little more.

16 Jan 2018 10:00:43
Got to admit that even the mighty Citeh have had to rely on luck in arts.

16 Jan 2018 10:08:00
Who said we where man marking Ireland?
Our cms didn't track his run twice.
But after that stoke barely had a sniff
Totally controlled the second half good team performance.
Some won't be happy until Tony v is replaced tho?

16 Jan 2018 10:08:03
The squad is 4/ 5 players short of bwing a really good sqiad imo. Jose is getting them playing well. Confidence is the key.

16 Jan 2018 10:10:26
I thought we played well and got a great result, especially when you consider that Chelsea and City dropped points over the weekend.


I thought defensively we were poor and against a better side or a more in form side we could have been punished for a sloppy defensive performance.


Having both full backs move forward at the same time when we play with a midfield duo where one of which also likes to move forward and can be lax in his defensive duties it is a risk. Mourinho generally prefers only one of his full backs to get forward at any one time.


Having both move forward and one of our two midfielders also leaves only three players covering our defence and makes us susceptible to being hit on the break.


You say both of Ireland’s chances came as he ran off a midfield marker but with them playing three in midfield and us playing two which of our midfielders did you expect to be able to mark two players at once? That is where a full back is supposed to cover.


If you are going to have BOTH full backs move forward at the same time then you need to either have two midfielders sit back to cover them or play a back three with one midfielder sitting. Or just accept that you will be prone to the counter and hope your team can keep the ball so well that the opposition doesn’t have many chances to counter (ala City), or hope your team can outscore your opponents (ala Liverpool) .


A shout out to Pogba, who in my opinion the most important player to his side in the league. Everyone is raving about how De Bruyne is the best player in the league and how he makes City tick, yet Pogba has just as many assists in the league as he does (9), and has managed that in 13 games as opposed to KDB managing 9 assists in 23 league games. Imagine how many more goals and assists Pogba would have at this point if he had been available for those extra 10 games.

16 Jan 2018 10:48:17
Shappy
In simple terms stoke have conceded 56 goals so far this season .
Which at this stage of the season is up there with the most ever in a EPL season .
So we had a go at them .
Assist are a by product of playing well . A miss hit shot or 5 yard yard pass can be an assist.
Kdb has been outstanding for city and is a major reason why they are setting records .

Take him out that team and people may appriciate just how good he has been and how important he has been to the players around him .

Would that amazing miraculous city squad with 22 world class players look quite as good with out KDB pulling the strings?

Would our average squad that needs millions spent on it look a little bit better if pogba controlled the game like he did yesterday week in week out?

16 Jan 2018 10:58:49
Shaps
Have a look a Ireland second chance I think .
He is stood with both pogba and matic about 25 yards out in the middle of the pitch . Just them 3 he makes a run neither player tracks him, he runs into the box on his own .

Nothing to do with full backs just a lapse.
But it happens, we had a go at them grew into the game and in the second half had a swagger about us the first time in a while .

16 Jan 2018 11:03:43
Also shout out to lukaku . When he has played well United have .
When he hasn't United haven't.
But that's football
United had a dip, drew 3 games in a row and lost to Bristol.
6 points dropped in them 3 games and out a cup .
That's looking the big difference at the moment.

16 Jan 2018 12:45:13
Tony is a good player but we need to be planning his replacement.

16 Jan 2018 13:11:02
Pogba, Lukaku and Tony V were excellent yesterday.

Our service into Lukaku is terrible, he keeps showing his wide men the crosses he is looking for whenever he crosses. If we could start to give him better service he could score a bucket load. Even his goal he had to perform a magic trick to control the pass.

In terms of setup, we are almost playing 4-1-4-1 when Pogba pushes high. It works well when we apply a high press and have so much energy on the pitch, but we could never play that open against better teams.

16 Jan 2018 15:42:31
I think City have been missing that wee magician, Silva, as well lately. I don't think they ever look as good without him.

16 Jan 2018 16:59:58
99
He is a class act.

16 Jan 2018 05:52:04
{Ed's Note - we have posted a new article entitled, The Week In Football

16 Jan 2018 06:41:03
Great read Ed. Very interesting and more importantly brought a smile to my face. 👍👏👏.

{Ed001's Note - glad you enjoyed mate. This is what I used to do all the time when the site first started, before there was any editing to do. Just fancied getting back to basics, so to speak.}

16 Jan 2018 07:43:45
Did Giggs really miss a huge number of international friendlies, a friend of mine made the exact same joke when we heard Giggs was getting the Wales job.

{Ed001's Note - yes mate he missed loads, or it felt like he did anyway.}

16 Jan 2018 08:12:32
A talking head on the t. v. said he missed almost 9 years of friedlies!

{Ed001's Note - that is a lot.}

16 Jan 2018 09:31:47
Ed I do not really search a lot to read but always read whatever such you’ve posted because I know it always good and somehow feels unbiased and objective. I know you are no ManUtd supporter but you’re absolutely commendable in your works. Kudos 👏🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️.

{Ed001's Note - thank you very much. I do try and leave out the bias when I write articles, unless I deliberately include it for match reviews of the Liverpool games, in which case I do mention that it is from that perspective. I just think when I read something or listen to a commentator etc I want them to be objective as I, as a reader, provide my own subjectivity so I want to read an objective view to see another side to it. So I try to write that way.}

16 Jan 2018 09:38:07
Oops meant to be 👍👏👏.

16 Jan 2018 10:07:21
He pulled out of 18 consecutive friendlies in his mid twenties. Clayton Blackmore says 'blame Fergie'.

16 Jan 2018 10:17:18
9 years goodness me. I really hope Wales have someone on standby.

16 Jan 2018 02:47:32
Pogba is beginning to exhibit leadership qualities both onfield and offfield. His relationships with Lukaku, Lingard, Martial and the younger lads is gelling and hope this will be better than the '92 kids. Time will tell. I see a potential captain in Pogba and a strong team challenging all fronts in time to come. I believe Jose sees something there and is building towards that.

16 Jan 2018 06:31:05
I agree. I thought he was sloppy for the first 20 minutes but it could have been he was rusty after a break. He picked it up and dominated the game, I hope he continues to grow and dominate games.

16 Jan 2018 07:34:34
He offers something that very few others do. His level of physicality coupled with his technical ability means he could go on to be one of the modern greats. We need to provide a team that releases him further forward and harnesses his unique talent.