12 Sep 2023 22:22:48
Lots of doom and gloom around the club, everything from the sale of the club, to the off field antics of players down to the supposed falling outs within the first team.

It's also easy to forget that we have a lot of injuries which is disrupting the side both in terms of consistency of the line up and because it is effecting players fitness and sharpness.

However, greatness often comes out of adversity. So rather than focus on the negatives I prefer to wonder who will step up and prove themselves this season.

With reduced options on the RW will Pellistri be a player who gets more chances and maybe even steps up and proves himself. There is a chance, while he has been bright in his cameos. Could he offer the team a solution?

Kobbie Mainoo looked very bright during pre-season, with him soon to return to the fold could he have a Garnacho-esque season this year?

Can AWB continue his rapid improvement that we have seen over the past 6 months or so. Since the WC when he went away with the club and worked intensely with the manager and the coaching staff he has gone from strength to strength. Can he improve further?

Can Garnacho continue to grow and develop into the player we all know he could be?

Will new signings like Onana, Amrabat, Mount and Hojlund settle and improve the side?

At some point things will start to turn around, and there will be chances for players to prove their worth and step up. Rather than dwell on the negatives, maybe we should hope for the positives and who will be the players to step up for us.

1.) 12 Sep 2023
12 Sep 2023 23:17:01
Eventually we will need to stick by a manager, last year ETH did remarkable.
I always thought it might be more difficult this season, but we have green shoots of optimism.
The question shouldn’t really be is ETH good enough for united, it should be are we good enough to wait for him to be good.

2.) 13 Sep 2023
12 Sep 2023 23:54:08
Shappy, you forgot to add "find out in the next episode" ?.

3.) 13 Sep 2023
13 Sep 2023 01:31:54
I wonder if Mount might find a great slot on the right wing and we may see the best if him. In midfield we are all terrified of our midfield being wide open, but if he can be a roaming creator from the right, switching with bruno, we may suddenly find a place he belongs.

I hope amrabat is the unicorn we need, someone who can make connective line breaking passes like eriksen can. But also has the engine and tenacity to keep our midfield rock solid alongside Cas.

Biggest positive for me is Hoylund, live his little cameo. can't wait for him to burst into the scene and turn us into a more front foot team.

Optimism restored! Sancho has even taken his posts down, come on!

4.) 13 Sep 2023
13 Sep 2023 08:05:35
C’mon indeed! I have travelled 12,000 miles and will be at OT on Saturday. Let it start NOW!

5.) 13 Sep 2023
13 Sep 2023 08:49:37
Shappy

I am very optimistic on our season subject to injuries. All this drama after 4 games is a bit overblown. Ambarbat will pull out trees to make his loan an permanent move.

I will take eth preferred starting 11 and we can play against anyone.

I think Hoiland will need time to settle and not expecting tons of goals bit will create goals for others in the team and change the dynamics of our attacking play.

I ma not sure anyone remembers but we lost 5 or 6 in row against Liverpool from 2000 to 2002 even when we had great teams. The loss to arsenal way overblown and overreaction. the of field stuff, cb shortage is more of a concern to me than jelling upfront and scoring goals.

6.) 13 Sep 2023
13 Sep 2023 10:49:49
I think we'll get there in the end, but the end won't be this season. I'm not a pessimist or eternal optimist, just a realist :) On current form/ mood and how a few others are players I'd be surprised if we won anything other than the Carabao Cup and attained a league position higher than 5-6th.

7.) 13 Sep 2023
13 Sep 2023 10:50:05
Ahmad, I think the attack will come. I'm not sure we have had the right balance, Antony offered a lot off the ball in terms of work rate and effort, but was often let down by his decision making on the ball. He plays with his head down too often.

Personally I think teams work better when they have one wide player who looks to score and another who looks to create. With the odd exception such as Liverpool when they had Salah and Mane wide. Yet that worked because they had Firmino playing between them and he was the creative player who worked off the ball to create space for the wider players.

Ultimately you always need at least one creator in your forward line. Teams need more creators and less people solely focused on scoring.

For that reason maybe having Antony out for a while leaving Sancho, Mount and Pellistri as the options for the RW spot might actually give the attack more balance.

While Højlund will do the off the ball work and running that creates more space for others to play in. He doesn't have to score 20+ goals to massively improve our attack. 15 goals in all competitions along with 5 or so direct assists would be a great return in his first season, anything more than that and he's had an exceptional season. The real benefit of him is his off the ball work that could add another 20-30 goals for other players across all competitions.

The attack I think will be fine.

Defence I think will be fine once the injuries clear up and the players can gain some consistency. We have a new keeper who I think will prove to be big upgrade on the DDG we have had over the past few years. He will allow us to play a different more modern way. But he needs to build those relationships with his defence, he is louder and communicates more with his defence, that is something they will need to work on and build that trust. While his comfort at receiving the ball under pressure is something that the defence needs to learn to use. Along with how and where to move to so as to create better passing options out from the back. Rather than staying in a defensive shape expecting the keeper to hoof it forward.

Those things take time, but I'm sure once the injuries clear up and the players can train and play together more that it will improve.

For me the biggest concern is actually getting the right balance in midfield. The three of Casemiro, Mount and Bruno can work, but has been suspect at times so far. They need to get a better understanding together, I don't think that has been helped by the injuries and the seeming lack of fitness/ sharpeness at the start of the season.

But we do need to find a better balance, Amrabat might offer that, as might Mainoo when he's back. Maybe pushing Mount wide right could be the solution we need to find that better balance.

It's the midfield that has been the biggest issue this season, unable to control games for more than 20-30 minutes per game. Too open defensively, leaving a injury ravaged defence too exposed. While the lack of control had made chance creation for out forwards often limited in both number of chances and variation of chances. Far too one dimensional looking for that space in behind and a quick break for Rashford, Garnacho or Antony to run on to. All out goals this season fall into one of two categories, either a counter attack goal or the opposition have made an individual error to present us with a chance. We need to learn to be able to manipulate the opposition to carve out chances from sustained possession and pressure.

For me the defence and the attack will improve, but only after we get the midfield balance right to shield the defence and create for the attack.

8.) 13 Sep 2023
13 Sep 2023 12:23:57
We really are pinning a lot of our hopes for the early signs of a new style of play to emerge on Ambrabat, a player let's be honest many of us know very little about other than some admittedly colossal World Cup displays. How he'll transfer that form to the Prem is anyone's guess, but he seemed willing and able to bust a gut to snuff out some great players - he was up against Mbappe on more than occasion in the semi-final and did really well despite the eventual outcome. I think ten Hag saw de Jong as this player, crucial to how he wanted the side to play. Hope this guy can have a really positive effect on our style of play and hopefully be a player we sign for a bargain price at the end of the season rather than a thanks but no thanks ala Sabitzer.

9.) 13 Sep 2023
13 Sep 2023 15:57:50
Spenno, not at all. We have Onana in goal who should enable the team to play a higher defensive line and build out of the back better.

We have Hojlund who should hopefully help with off the ball movement and offering a multifaceted threat from CF.

We have Ambrbat and Mount in midfield who offer us better technical ability, reading of the game and tactical flexibility than McFred offered last season.

While hopefully the likes of Garnacho, Mainoo, Pellistri etc can step up and offer the team something more than we had last season.

We have a player in all of the defensive third, middle third and final third who if they can stay fit and find top form will help the team evolve from what we were last season into something closer to EtH's ideal vision.

10.) 13 Sep 2023
13 Sep 2023 20:26:07
Shappy of course those three signings should help our play (or at least bring it up to speed with everyone else) if those players perform but I see that midfield role as being the most important in terms of how I grew up watching United. Call them lots of things but we've never lacked for goals, creative players and inspiring midfielders.

Yet the truth is we haven't had one outstanding midfielder since Paul Scholes. They even bought him out of retirement I assumed as a stop-gap until they found someone the next season. Didn't expect to still be waiting 10 years later lol.
Hence, hopefully Amrabat goes some way to filling a void that's been there for too long.