Manchester United Banter Archive December 22 2019

22 Dec 2019 23:27:40
Lots of talk about whether it's the players or whether it's the manager to blame for displays like today. If we take a long cold look and honestly appraise our current squad compared to the current title challenging teams you can see quality wise we are quite a way behind. Hardly any of any of our players would get into the Liverpool or City teams. That in itself suggests that the fault does not totally lie with Ole. He can only pick from who he has available. Like many I want to see the youngsters like Gomez and Garner get into our first team but is it really fair to expect them to be able to change our fortunes. I don't think so. In fact I think it could be counter productive and the pressure could be too great and destroy their confidence. The other thing is thst Ole was in a team of strong characters and a very strong manager. Ole was always said to be like a sponge absorbing what he could even whilst on the bench. I therefore find it impossible to believe that he does not know the importance of having strong characters in the team. It is not his fault thst he was bequeathed a squad without real leaders. Last point is this: it is obvious from his after match comments that he is unhappy with how the players have performed on several occasions like today and tells the squad so. Do you really think another manager can motivate them anymore than he can? I am not sure it's possible. Van Gaal, Jose and Ole have all to a large extent failed. I think the answer is quite simple in concept but hard to do. Just get rid of Shaw Jones Rojo Young Fred Lingard and with much regret Mata. Bring in top top players who have the desire and skill to win at all costs. Only then can we compete.

23 Dec 2019 03:23:21
But just last week Salford we were told that Ole was a genius because he got this squad to beat City and Spurs. So which is it? Can he motivate or not? Did the same set of players beat City on their own turf? Did the same team beat Spurs who were on a bounce? The simple answer is that these players play for themselves and in more than a year Ole hasn't been able to get them on his side and has failed to motivate them or get to play consistently. I sm betting good money that Ole has this Liverpool team languishing in and around 6th to 8th and Klopp has this United squad sitting in the top 4 easily if managers are swapped.

23 Dec 2019 07:56:25
The same bad players are letting us down year on year. The De Gea situation is ridiculous, what does he need to do to be dropped? Our youth keeper is higher up in the league than us at Sheffield United. Ole needs to make the big decisions on our senior players.

How bad is Gomez? If he can’t replace a number 10 who’s not contributed with a goal or an assist in a year?

Ole keeps banging on about trusting youth, but I don’t see enough of it. I’d rather lose each week with Gomez, Henderson and Williams in the team, giving them a proper run, than watching a bunch of senior players that let us down consistently.

23 Dec 2019 09:20:56
Arfonsal.
I could not agree more.
The league this season is a complete write off.
Go all in with the kids.
Fred worse than average
Lindelof worse than average
Shaw worse than average
Martial is a passenger
Ddg needs to be dropped.
Mctom average
James doing no more than ok
6 points from the bottom 7 teams all season tells it own story.
Ole is not a good football coach or manager.
No player playing better under ole than they were a year ago.
Results are worse
Performances are worse
Points tally is worse.
We have heads on hete delighted with ole, breath of fresh air.
He is garbage, he should be fired. He is destroying the team and seeing this club back 30 years.
I supported jose until it came to a point of no return and it was obvious he was taking the club backwards. That is now how i feel About ole.
He is an absolute disgrace of a football manager and not fit for the job. He never was.

23 Dec 2019 10:12:39
Well said ken.

23 Dec 2019 10:42:01
Are you sure we are allowed to say that out loud, Ken? I mean without being hounded by the merry men. You know we saying this could be ruining their Christmas. They have a life size Ole doll dressed as Santa in their bed rooms. Some even talk to them before sleeping every night demanding gifts that they be proven right someday. The Ole doll gives them a smile and a nice interview (says all the right things) and every thing is hunky dory again.

Just something to think about-

Many fans/ posters here were born in the late 90s or later (millennial) and wouldn't have really seen what Ole did that night in Barcelona. For them they would have only heard about the baby faced assassin but never seen him play or seldom seen him play. A decade from now when they discuss Manchester United, they would be discussing OGS as a failed manager who took our club backwards and not the super sub striker that played for us. What i am really trying to say is that OGS is now damaging his own image at Manchester United. I have started to lose respect for the guy. As has been told to us that he loves Manchester United then why hasn't he stepped away knowing that he simply isn't good enough and is damaging the club? Is he in for the money and waiting for the sack and fat pay check? If he truly loved Man Utd, its time he let go.

23 Dec 2019 13:09:23
I expect a couple of them to take another 'break' from the site until our next fluke result. You know the ones shan. the i told you so merchants that olny post when its going their way.

22 Dec 2019 20:12:45
Apparently de Gea has made more errors leading to goals than any other goalie since the beginning of last season. Is he out Alexi Sanchezing Alexi Sanchez?

22 Dec 2019 21:57:34
Like I said earlier mate he's been shocking for a year and half. What I'd give for Schmeichel at the same as De gea is now. Best keeper ever for me.

22 Dec 2019 22:57:21
Turning on De Gea this week are we?

23 Dec 2019 00:05:58
He's been poor for 18 months Eric and is clearly declining. His mistakes are costly ones.

23 Dec 2019 08:40:52
Mort you’d be a nervous wreck too if you’d played behind Shaw, Darmian, Valencia, Young, Rojo, Jones, Smalling, Lindelof, Bailly and evening Maguire this season for the last few years. A list of mediocrity and headless chickens.

Keeper is the least of our worries.

23 Dec 2019 09:22:51
Footballers are only as good as their form. Ddg has been out of form. what he did 3 or 4 years ago bares no relevance.

23 Dec 2019 11:11:21
Think we have more problems than just the gk at the minute. like the midfield.

23 Dec 2019 11:13:08
O and the manager and coaching staff. sort them out and we will see improvement but it does go higher aswell.

22 Dec 2019 17:37:00
Is it time for Romero?

22 Dec 2019 18:30:57
Definitely! A season and half of poor form now from him.

22 Dec 2019 18:51:51
Give it Romero till the end of the season then next year have him and Henderson fight it out.

22 Dec 2019 20:57:48
Jesus, I've been saying for three years that ddg is not a complete gk. Good at shot stopping, not today, but rubbish at communication, distribution, and commanding the area. He is a liability. Now then, which manager is going to have the balls to drop him? Solskjaer is like a mouse, so that won't happen.

22 Dec 2019 17:03:18
No arguments. That was shockingly poor. If Lingard scores, which he should have done, it would have been a different game. Watford would have been forced to attack, leaving more space for our forwards. Shocking error by de Gea, who, for the second week in a run, has not shown the type of performance needed. Against Everton it was weakness in the air. Maybe it's time for Ole to give Sergio a run in the team. De Gea is a great shot stopper but he has allowed the flaws that were apparent when he was first signed to reemerge.

The only bright spot was that Pogba looked sharp during his cameo return and was successful in unlocking the defense, creating some decent chances to come back. If he's up for it he could provide the missing link playing in an advanced midfield role.

No doubt the knives will be out again for Ole but, frankly, I just don't see how we can blame him for the ineptitude of the players. We were not good but Lingard and de Gea cost us the game.

22 Dec 2019 17:23:47
Who chose to start Lingard? Is something happening above Ole's head that I'm not aware of?

22 Dec 2019 18:02:33
Who picks the team, and who chooses the tactics?

Times like this I miss fellaini. He was a plan b, c and d, in his own right.

22 Dec 2019 18:38:45
What's tactics got to do with the keeper cocking up two weeks in a row and players missing 1 on 1 chances. Greenwood missed 1 over the bar late on aswell? Definitely Ole's fault aswell.

22 Dec 2019 21:08:35
Shawthing, I'm flabbergasted. Solskjaer selects the team and tactics but you're saying we can't blame him? Ddg has been shocking for two years ( he had a nightmare with Spain in the last World Cup, then a shocking season last year. And continued to be total rubbish this year. And yet people are asking "is it time to drop him? ". Jesus, it was time to drop him a year ago.
Where is the management strength, solskjaer hasn't got the balls to do it. Clueless.

22 Dec 2019 21:14:59
Minus God dam 21,that's Watford's gd, its not the odd missed chance or gk error that cost us the game. We are quite simply much, much better than them, and we should be spanking them. This isn't a squad issue, it's a tactics and management issue.

22 Dec 2019 21:47:35
I believe it's a personnel issue more than the tactics if I'm being perfectly honest. Do we have the players to play someone else as no10 for example? Mata? he's past it. Lingard? Not good enough. Maybe now Pogba is fit again he will play in that role but I don't see him being here long term. So we obviously need players. People calling for the manager to be sacked again and that would be our 5th manager in 6 and half years so doesn't that surely tell everyone the problems are a lot deeper than the manager.

22 Dec 2019 22:15:15
I'm replying to the same person twice with the same response ut I'm away for xmas in Brugge, the kids are asleep and I've had a bottle of wine.

But to repeat myself, yes we don't have the required no 10 to unlock defences, so the solution is to stop doing the same thing each game that requires this no 10 that doesn't exist, and find another strategy that doesn't rely on it.

22 Dec 2019 16:46:31
Most of us think ole is out of his depth. He would have made a good no 2 IMO. Phelan escapes critics every week why? Failed twice as manager. Director of football at Sydney FC says it all. Between ole and and phelan we have a succession of failures. No 2 don't often make good no 1. Brian kids a prime example.
Question is would potch bring succees? United need a no 8 a 10 and a st and a rw for me.

22 Dec 2019 16:54:42
Poch can't improve players that can't improve.


You can't take bang average players and turn them into world class players.


Most of them players are at their maxium level.

22 Dec 2019 17:32:25
Poch brought nothing to Spurs other than competitiveness at the top level. No trophies, not even a League Cup. Even if he were interested in the job, which I doubt, why would you think he's capable of producing the goods at United?

United have little choice but to stick with Ole who is not responsible for the squad or the ineptitude of the players he inherited.

Today's loss was not down to him. We had the better of very few chances, including to go ahead. Lingard's miss and de Gea's blunder cost us the game, not Ole or his tactics.

22 Dec 2019 18:39:40
It's not just this one loss today though is it, we struggle against teams that sit and defend.
The same problems that we encountered against Palace back in August have not been solved, can Ole figure out how to break down defensive teams before the summer or will he inevitably go the same way as Moyes, LVG and Mourinho.

22 Dec 2019 18:43:12
Talking sense there shawthing. Spot on! We are too inconsistent to finish in the top four in my opinion it's just not happening.

22 Dec 2019 21:11:37
Total rubbish Bolger, the same players who lost against Watford, beat Spurs and City quite convincingly. So that old saying we're not good enough, doesn't wash. It's just a big fat rubbish excuse, do wake up and smell the roses.

22 Dec 2019 14:57:41
Can someone tell me how Lingard gets so much game time 3 goals in all compz and 1 assist for a no 10 2428 minutes shocking. Never ever good enough for United nither is Pereira.

22 Dec 2019 15:51:04
Think there’s your answer, that’s the 2 options.

22 Dec 2019 15:54:37
We are crying out for a no.10 lingard wouldn't get on for Watford.

22 Dec 2019 15:57:28
Or Mata, who is slow until 50 minutes when he runs out of battery.

22 Dec 2019 16:02:05
Good point gds.
So why try to play a system when you don't have players to execute the system.
Use a different system that's what good coaches do.
They don't just do the same thing expecting different answers.

22 Dec 2019 17:13:11
Ken, it's what good coaches do. that's the key line there.

23 Dec 2019 12:48:39
It's not as if we have a young talented player (who "apparently" has a bad attitude) that plays in that position is it?

22 Dec 2019 07:39:01
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 22nd December 2019