17 Jul 2022 13:28:52
Is it just me or are you guys worried about the GK situation?

DDG is 31 and all his life he's never done the sweeper role. In general he's been a very fit guy who barely misses games.

And now suddenly he's been asked to do more than what he's used to, which to me makes him much more prone to injuries than before. Preseason he did get a knock. It's crucial for us to have a keeper capable of playing high and DDG did show good glimpses but I predict him to get more niggles than usual.

Second GK is Heaton, who for a backup I feel is pretty good. But I don't think he's the sweeper keeper material and age is not on his side. Just checked he's had 2 big year ending injuries before too, so not the fittest around.

I have no idea about our U23 keepers but a step up to PL will be hard for any of those guys if they have to play and none of them have even got a single min on the tour.

Yes we need reinforcements everywhere but we should look to get 1 experienced GK in before the window ends.

I see 3 decent GKs available on a free Ben Foster, Romero and Joel Robles. Googling a bit and Robles had a salary of 12k/ week while the other 2 were around 30k/ week. Robles was a regular for Everton and Wigan too.

{Ed014's Note - from what I’ve been reading you guys are worried about every position.

1.) 17 Jul 2022
17 Jul 2022 14:13:51
You more so no.14 ?.

{Ed014's Note - I am worried about you boys mate, I’m not looking forward to the moaning if you don’t replace every player and end up 8th.

You’ve got some much crap to get rid of still.

2.) 17 Jul 2022
17 Jul 2022 15:03:45
Not particularly, EtH seems to have chosen DDG as his first choice.

We'll find out over the course of the season whether he can match the demands the manager will put on him.

The main demands the manager will place on him that he hasn't had previously are to sweep up and to play out from the back. With good coaching and a committed attitude there is no reason why DDG can't improve these areas of his game. If he doesn't then maybe EtH will look for a new keeper next summer. For this reason it's interesting that Henderson has only left on loan again and not permanently. Maybe the manager will keep an eye on how he does at Forest.

As for back up, we have Heaton, Bishop and Kovar all of whom are on the preseason tour.

Maybe it'd be more comfortable to have a higher class back up option. Yet how often over the past 10 years have we NEEDED our back up keeper?

Maybe a few games a season at most on average. Do we need a better keeper than Heaton for that? Probably not.

3.) 17 Jul 2022
17 Jul 2022 16:25:50
Ed014, we surely do. Another striker is badly needed, I think this is about the 5th time I'm hearing about another chance for Martial lol.

However, we do have a good coach, and it's looking positive.

{Ed014's Note - that’s the big plus mate, if he can pull them all together it’ll be a great start.

4.) 17 Jul 2022
17 Jul 2022 16:14:54
Failure to prepare then prepare to fail.

The OP makes a fair point. We are light in the goalkeeping department. We do have more pressing priorities though. I’d like to think they are working on a free option. It’s not just for playing purposes, it’s for training as well as you need a decent bunch of keepers for drills etc.

5.) 17 Jul 2022
17 Jul 2022 18:55:32
The reality is that we will go into this season without a top class first 11 and adequate cover in all areas of the pitch.

We can't sign players for every position.

Will we get a RB? A winger? A GK? A ST?

Probably not, so we will need to prioritise.

6.) 17 Jul 2022
17 Jul 2022 19:36:10
You don’t say…….

7.) 18 Jul 2022
17 Jul 2022 23:10:02
014 has made no secret of how little he thinks of our squad. And to a big extent I'd happily eat humble pie and agree. But there's remnants and promising youth that ten hag can begin to work with for sure. What I would like to ask 014 is, do you think given time and backing ten hag can turn us round like I do?

{Ed014's Note - if you watched Ajax play then it’s obvious he knows how to play the game.

Albeit the Dutch league is ranked 7th they still played some quality stuff in the Champions League. Hasenhuttl came with a similar rep from the German league, obviously to a much smaller club.

The quality of squad he’s inherited is obviously a snag and it’s not been difficult to get in better quality.

The Premier league is a big step and he’ll need to make some big changes in mindset and work ethic right off the bat.

I’d be amazed if you made top four this season but it would be a great achievement if he did as you’re in four comps too.

On your last point though, yes I think he can. He’s the best you’ve had since Fergie left.

8.) 18 Jul 2022
18 Jul 2022 09:27:59
Come on Ed014, he has potential but is unproven in any decent league.
To say he is better than JM, LVG and maybe even DM is optimistic. I will agree he is better than OGS however.

{Ed014's Note - which one of those had United playing the kind of football Ajax did in the Champions League.

He knows how to play the game, yes it’s a step up and no it’s not going to be easy but I’ll say again, where United want to go, he’s the best they’ve had since Fergie left.

Don’t kid yourself that JM wasn’t a busted flush albeit he was honest about the players, DM utter shite and LVG another past his sell by date.

My dog would have been better than OGS and I don’t even have a dog!