Manchester United Banter Archive December 27 2017

27 Dec 2017 21:56:55
It seems some are up in arms at Mourinho saying he needs to spend more, the ABU's, the media who don't like him, some Utd fans and some with an agenda.

However, one angle people have missed is to compare the approach to this from SAF and Jose. For years we expressed utter frustration when SAF said there was no value in the market, whilst allowing top players to be bought by others. Ronaldo was sold and the money received meant we didn't make a financial loss, we accepted replacing him with what is now a decent full back who isn't a great crosser of a ball.

For years I and a few others have flagged what has been happening with the owners and it hasn't hit home hard enough to people, the previous managers did not rock the boat.

However, yesterday, it changed. Yesterday Mourinho effectively took the stand that I believe SAF should have done years ago, he put himself out on a limb and challenged the owners to put the real money needed on the line to make a difference, to show ambition to be No1, SAF dodged doing that, Mourinho has put himself on the line to bring that out, the owners have hidden behind spending limits for years and now they either have to back Mourinho to the hilt or I think he goes. They could sack him for lining them up like this and get a Wenger type Manager in, achieving top 4 and the money pot but not being top dogs. Yet now the cat is out of the bag and I hope it again flags the owners situation forcing them to finally go for it, really take the next step and show true ambition.

We should be thanking Jose for this and wearing green and gold if the Glazers fail him. I actually applaud Mourinho for this because it should have been brought to a head years ago.

27 Dec 2017 22:09:33
We’ve spent millions. We’ve just bought crap rather than quality over the years. Ps you can’t replace Ronaldo. He’s irreplaceable but wanted to leave.

27 Dec 2017 22:20:36
Well said Red Man!

Having said that they have spent heavily to get us back into the top 4 caused by their own incompetence in not appointing the right man to succeed Fergi and then not backing him in the transfer market!

Have we all forgotten the Fellaini deadline day debacle or Woodward rushing back from the Far East on urgent transfer busness not to mention the Spanish imposters in Bilbao cause I haven't!

The question like you've quite rightly asked is do we want to be No 1. Jose won't settle for anything less!

City have raised the bar, L'pool have just spent a kings ransom on a very good CB, we might have to spend again just to stay in the top 4 never mind topple City.

27 Dec 2017 22:28:30
Jose can maybe raise his head up above the parapet, because unlike Fergie, he doesn't plan on being here long enough to build anything of note. Looks to me like he's doing his usual of getting in his excuses first, and laying the groundwork for his departure to more favourable climes.

27 Dec 2017 22:46:01
I said it earlier but if you’ve spent £648 million since Fergie left and City have spent £637 million how have they not come up with the money. UFB!

27 Dec 2017 22:56:17
Jose appears to me to be trying to break the shackles imposed on the football club.

A few weeks ago the word was that the club would not make any additions in January, then that Jose may have to sell before he could buy. The Glazers strategy is now out there for all who are willing to see it. It is watershed time, a moment building for years that may just be coming to a head. I read that the club may fancy Ozil, a lovely free transfer well liked on social media so may be commercially attractive, yet is it really who Jose wants?

Right now Jose is the best chance United fans have of breaking the Glazer shackles on spending. All the Green and Gold would be wasted if we allow the Glazers to move Jose on for having the temerity to put them under pressure to deliver. The focus has now gone onto them rather than the managers. Moyes and LvG would not challenge them but now Jose has. I supported Jose before because he deserves time but in this he has my total support and if you want a club that will challenge, Jose must get our support for this.

27 Dec 2017 22:57:30
I don't think we will see a statue of jose outside old Trafford or a stand named after him, a stopgap manager to plug a hole is what we have here, his ways are out of date,
I thought Jose should have been bought in when fergie retired.
Let's call a spade a spade.90% of the time he looks defeated.

27 Dec 2017 22:58:06
Stoner

Because the lack of spending goes back further back in tome than when SAF retired.

27 Dec 2017 23:07:07
Absolute crap redman. Jose is underperforming. He doesn't give a toss about man utd and is failing to deliver as a manager. Sean Dyche has Burnley in 7th position in the Premier league. Now that's what's called management.

27 Dec 2017 23:11:32
The reality is though Red Man shouldn’t that figure on its own in that time span have been enough to have built a far more impressive team than you have now. It surely says more against Mourinho than it does the Glazers.

Whether they didn’t put up the cash pre Fergie’s retirement that figure is a massive amount of cash to have spent since.

The likes of us Liverpool and Spurs can only dream of spending that much, hell even Wenger may have won something worthwhile with that cash.

27 Dec 2017 23:19:08
But mancman

Ranieri won yhe league and was then sacked the following season. One season doesn't make a good manager.

27 Dec 2017 23:26:02
I totally agree Red Man the lack of investment dates back years! They didn't have to invest much back then because they had Fergi pulling rabbits out of hats! I remember he had to fight for RVP because he was the wrong side of 25!

They've had to invest heavily as the Club is not financially attractive unless we're eating from the top table in the Champs League. The money they invest is money generated by the Club anyway none of it has come from their own pockets!

I'm totally with you on this Red Man.

I fear that if Jose can't sort us out then who can?

Give him what he wants and let him do his job. He's not even asking for an Mbappe or Neymar I think he's been relatively realistic with his targets! The way things have gone £50m for Perisic looks reasonable now!

27 Dec 2017 23:50:37
Do we want to be Champions again or not?!

27 Dec 2017 23:51:20
This is also a wider issue. Jose has been with us less than 2 years. It’s the majority of the fans who are complaining about him and his short term tenures more than him. He is annoyed but we have no idea what’s happening behind the scenes. He inherited a team that has been on the decline for many years and is slowly turning round the ship. We can’t keep sacking managers! I get canning Moyes and LVG but Mourinho? One of the most socceasful modern day managers. It’s crazy. He needs time, and investment. Jose had always been a chequebook manager. To appoint him and then not back him would quite ridiculous. He also can’t be blamed for not playing youngsters he has inherited who are simply not good enough!

28 Dec 2017 00:01:30
I'm in agreement with you Redman. I had a green and yellow scarf. I'll wear it again. Stoner made a point about spending. But what he didn't say is United sold £350m in talent in that time. So the net spend is more like £350m. So it's not great in comparison to others.
This is a business. You buy and you sell. And net spend of £70m a yrear since Fergie left doesn't sound like much.
We either want to be the best or not. Liverpool have just spent £60m on Keita and £75m on van dijk. While we argue the toss over perisic! That sums up our ambition.

28 Dec 2017 07:22:04
Its an eyewatering amount to be reduced to starting a PL game with journeymen such as Blind, Rojo 2 converted wingers as full backs, Fellani, and leaving us . Manchester United of all teams without any wingers - a shed load of money has been wasted to leave us no more than a top 6 team playing dull, slow, football whichever way you look at it. I would love to see TFM and Tuanzebee and perriera get games for us but then we are still 1 top centre half, 1 full back, I winger, and 1 top creative midfielder short . and some would say that's being conservative . so 4 top players . what's that 250 -300 mill, should JM get that in the next 2 windows? I don't know.

28 Dec 2017 07:32:32
Jose may need time but he’s never been one for sticking around has he? We have spent a lot of money in recent years, it’s just a lot of it hasn’t been spent well.

I want us to compete for the best and we are rich enough to do so but I don’t want it to just be about buying the biggest names, that has never been our way.

Yes there was a lack of investment, and yes it is not an overnight fix, and yes it seems SAF was toeing the corporate line, but I expected Jose to get more out of this team.

28 Dec 2017 07:59:47
Red Man - so how much money do you think José should be allowed to spend, does another £300m or £600m become acceptable and at what point do we judge the manager?
I can't recall José making these comments before we hit a sticky patch where people have questioned the job he is doing with the current squad.
Maybe that's a coincidence or is it José doing his normal and getting his excuses in first before he leaves us.
I don't disagree with the under investment but do we spend another £600m and then want £900m, if that doesn't work do we spend £1.2bn.
The manager has to be judged at some point.

{Ed025's Note - i agree keanooh..

28 Dec 2017 08:05:06
You can't be serious. United have been spending top dollar for YEARS. You're just falling for Jose's antics. Instead of blaming him, you are blaming Alex Ferguson and the Board.

28 Dec 2017 09:19:42
Attack attack attack,

I can’t imagine there will be a huge difference in net spend, the figure since Fergie left is more than he ever spent in his whole time at United.

You have purchased 22 players with that money since he left to finish no better than 15 points behind the winners, last season being 24 points behind.

That is an Arsenal level of under performing but having spent god knows how much more money.

28 Dec 2017 10:14:34
And I know you're part of the José spin machine, but seeking to bring down the fall of the Glazer empire is a bold claim, even for José. I know you think he shoots fireballs out his ar$e, but I really don't think that his motives are what you hope they are.

28 Dec 2017 10:35:26
Red Man has a point. Yes Jose may be getting his excuses in early before he jumps ship. But would anyone blame him. The ambitions of the owners have to be questioned. Are they content to become the new Arsenal or do they genuinely want to challenge.

Is it Joses fault his predecessors wasted so much money?

Moyes blew 70 million on two players who never suited the team. Fellaini has a good attitude but should never have been signed. And Mata is a lovely bloke but Moyes bought him with no idea what to do with him an everyone else since has to try an crowbar him in somewhere.

LvG where to begin. Di Maria is arguably the biggest flop in English football. Schweinsteiger was past his best. Schneiderlin and Depay flopped as well. Blind is just cover. Rojo is an injury prone liability. The only one who has had any measure of success is Herrera. The juries still out on Shaw. And I just remembered Darmian which shows his contribution.

Now whether or not you thought back in the summer that Perisic was the right signing and plenty of you didn't the face we spent weeks haggling over 5 million before pulling out shows the point.

28 Dec 2017 11:09:02
3rd highest spend in the world over the last 4 year . But we don't spend money?
Highest wage bill in the epl, but we don't have money?

Poor United.

28 Dec 2017 11:11:01
Stoner,
The point I'm making is for a club like United to have an annual net spend of £70m on players is pathetic in comparison to the income we generate. It simply is not good enough proclaiming themselves to be one of the top three in the world. That's utter rubbish.

Most has spelled it out quite succinctly.
And Eric also has a point that we've spent most of it on average players.
So where do we go from here? To this day, I'm not sure why we haven't employed a director of football. Also, our scouting network in the past 10 years has not been up to scratch. No easy or quick fix but employing a director of football and a good scouting manager (Monaco seem to unearth good players all the time) won't go amiss.

I will also consider to bring in some Barcelona connections into the club. Pep and his successors have all shown that their system works and is long lasting.

27 Dec 2017 18:54:13
So Van dikj to pool for £75 mil what do we think good value for money?

Does worry me bit theve bought a decent defender.

27 Dec 2017 19:12:38
The great klopp on utd signing pogba "If you bring one player in for £100m and he gets injured, then it all goes through the chimney.

The day that this is football, I'm not in a job anymore, because the game is about playing together. "

Wonder when he is leaving his job?

27 Dec 2017 19:43:31
Sooner the better I hope common .
Vvd is decent but £75mi wowsers!

27 Dec 2017 19:52:14
Completely ridiculous. I’ve never seen what others see in hi, and if he is worth as much as Lukaku then I’m a banana. I’m delighted Liverpool are spending so much on a CB who I think will be found wanting, the world has gone mad.

27 Dec 2017 20:06:34
hmm, not sure Lukaku is the comparison to use here Banana Man. Give me a choice out of the two of them signing for us and I would pick VVD, and I don't even rate him that highly.

Silly money, but he will definitely strengthen them more than Lukaku 'strengthened' us. We'd have been better sticking Rashford or Martial upfront all season and letting the £75m+ gather 0.025 interest in the bank.

27 Dec 2017 20:16:44
Reasonable point Beastie Boy as I am also not convinced by Lukaku. However his goals scored record is excellent which justifies his fee whereas that sort of money for an, at best CB is ludicrous. I rthink City now they paid a premium due to the tapping up allegation.

27 Dec 2017 20:51:22
Liverpool fan in peace her chaps. The questions really should be is VVD an upgrade on what we have? clearly yes. Is he over priced, yes in the same way that Lukaku is never an £80m pound player but that is the market in the PL away. I am not overjoyed with the price but he has all the attributes to be a great defender (pace, power, height, good two feet etc) and its up to him now and Klopp to help him achieve his potential. Have a great new year all :)

27 Dec 2017 21:12:37
Toe knee you are right. VVD is definitely an upgrade and I think in a better team with better players around him will improve and shine. Yes it's silly money but frankly every season we say the same thing and the financial lunatics still are in charge of the asylum. VVD is a huge signing for you so long as you don't lose Coutinho it will give your team huge confidence.

27 Dec 2017 21:17:34
VVD has been awful this season so far. Any pro who let's his head go like that is not worth it. What happens when Barcelona or whoever come calling.

Clearly better than what they have and yes an upgrade, but he’s not amongst the world’s best. Mind you, neither is Rojo or Smalling.

27 Dec 2017 21:27:05
clearly a very good defender but I think this will have a chain reaction seeing Cortinho go Barcelona which ultimately will weaken pool.

27 Dec 2017 21:46:05
Most overrated defender around VvD, positionally poor, lack of discipline, don’t get the hype and don’t see how he improves Liverpool when they will play all out attack and have him as exposed as the others there at the moment, looked ok in defensive minded Saints teams but culpable for many of their goals conceded.

27 Dec 2017 22:02:26
I’ll agree to disagree WRD. Positionally poor are you talking about Rojo? All jokes aside if you had said lazy I’d ageee. Clearly he’s a good player as Liverpool Chelsea and city wouldn’t have been interested. I think you’ll find we have toned down the all out attack hence our recent improvement defensively. but yes we are still prone to meltdowns a la Arsenal.

27 Dec 2017 22:08:57
Ah well Welsh.

At least you have half the player that is Lindelof, for a fee of €38m plus a further €10 Euro in add ons, and a salary only united could pay.

Don’t worry, I won’t mention Lukaku. It’s Christmas 😂😂.

27 Dec 2017 22:31:45
Is he going to end up a Lovren, or a Lallana, tho? Southampton always seem to me to be one of those sides, where the team is greater than the sum of its parts.

27 Dec 2017 23:53:36
It’s quite clear Liverpool could save themselves millions if they just hired all of Southampton’s scouting department.

28 Dec 2017 02:46:38
It's funny isn't it drogie how every player utd buy must be quoted in Euros while Liverpool players get quoted in pounds.

28 Dec 2017 09:44:45
Csm,

Nail and head Spring to mind, spot on.

28 Dec 2017 10:41:34
Just a Dutch Gary Cahill.

28 Dec 2017 11:36:38
What about our Southampton players, I wouldn't mind mane, vvd, lalana in our squad. Even Clyne is a better full back than Darmian.

27 Dec 2017 13:37:16
Considering Burnley have rarely conceded more than 1 goal in a game this season, and at most 3, which has happened twice, we should not dismiss lightly the fact that we came back from a deep hole and created enough chances to have won. At the heart of the come back was Pogba, who I thought had a very good game. His passing was excellent, as was his control: he generally looked like class. Without him I doubt very much we would have got a point and, if he'd buried that shot in the first half, and we'd ended up winning 3-2 everyone would be singing his praises.

The main problem with the team right now is in defense where Lukaku is a liability. The first goal came down to him yet again: he was completely out-muscled, and then headed the ball downwards, a fundamental error. That's not Pga's fault, and nor was the weak tackling that led to Burnley's excellently taken free kick.

So, I for one, think the criticisms of Pogba are completely misplaced. To me he looks every inch the player we paid so much money for. Given today's market I firmly believe we would get more for him than we paid. The team is way better with him than without him. The fact that we've created enough chances to have won the last 2 league games handily is entirely down to his influence while the poor results are down to others.

27 Dec 2017 13:43:15
I agree Shawthing.

27 Dec 2017 14:56:41
Thing is we didn’t sign lukaku for his ability to defend on corners. However, he is being given a job and should do better. There is enough height in the team to leave him up front for a counter however.

27 Dec 2017 17:01:41
Pogba is playing no where near his best he is a far better player than what he has shown at the moment .

27 Dec 2017 17:16:46
Pogba is totally under performing. For the money paid I expect a yaya Toure type performance from 2/ 3 years ago, I. e. driving from midfield and scoring vital goals. Bossing games and not just occasionally showing a burst of pace, a cross field pass or a misplaced free kick.

As far as Lukaku goes, I think he is doing ok with the terrible service he is receiving. I would rather have signed moratta as he has better technique and better movement. But I think Lukaku would be doing better if he had some service, if we could put in a cross or had a decent play maker who could put in a decent through ball.
At least local lad Lingard is performing. Always happy to see a youth team player doing well.

27 Dec 2017 18:54:16
The only part of Pogba's game that's missing is scoring the goals, otherwise he's doing just what he was purchased to do. Look at that ball to Rashford in the first half which ended up being cleared off the line. He completely bossed the game.

As for Lukaku I'm afraid he's just off the pace. There was a great cross in the first half which he failed to get to, and one in the second were he fluffed his header. Playing against a team like Burnley you're not going to get much, so you have to take advantage of the scraps you're given.

27 Dec 2017 11:48:44
Well, Pogba's back, and we haven't won a game. The, ' we would have beat City with him in the team'" argument, seems pretty specious, now. People were clutching at his return, as the answer to all our ills. I still have high hopes for him, but I said at the time, it's pretty depressing when a club the size of Utd, has to rely on a kid with a han.

27 Dec 2017 11:59:59
To be fair he was employed extremely deep in the 2nd half yesterday to accommodate all the other attacking players we had on the pitch so he couldn’t do as much as I would have liked him to do. He is certainly a class above the rest of our midfield (except Matic though different players) .

The performances against Leicester (all game) and Burnley (2nd half) have been promising but extremely frustrating as we could / should have won both convincingly. Someone is going to get one hell of a beating soon, I’m predicting 5-0 against Southampton on Saturday.

27 Dec 2017 12:29:15
Forget city, we should be beating Burnley and Bristol and co .
Clever bloke Jose putting the spot light on city the only team in the league who spent more than us while we struggle against teams that we have spent 20 times more than .

Let's stop with the excuses, we have had a ruff patch time to roll the sleeves up and put it right.

27 Dec 2017 12:43:40
Jred - If we could win every game when on paper we have the strongest team then we'd win well over 30 league games every season, football just doesn't work like that. We have some good players but most of them are inconsistent. If we want to win the league then we need better players. To get better players we need to spend money Jose is absolutely spot on. I don't understand the debate we're actually doing well this season. He's still building and he wants the money to continue the build. How can you compete when City spend over £80m and PSG have just spent over £350m on two players. I think we all need a reality check.

27 Dec 2017 12:48:32
Jred,

Agreed, rough patch, most teams have them, we always had them under Fergie, often around this time, I remember getting battered by Middlesbrough one Christmas. We used to react well to the bad patches so hopefully we will again.

27 Dec 2017 13:05:30
Danny
It's just excuses pal smoke and mirrors and deflects away from the fact we are currently going through a ruff patch.

West Brom, Bournemouth, Bristol Leicester, Burnley has been a pretty poor run and the whole we haven't spent enough is B. S.

Our players are not consistent enough? Major part of a managers job is to get his players to play consistently well .

1 . We drew with Leicester and Burnley and it's because we haven't spent enough? Maybe we just didn't play well .
Maybe the decision to play and start with ibra was a really bad one considering his form in the last game .
Lingard been playing very well of late got to wonder what he done to end up on the bench .

Teams have ups and down the answer isn't always to spend spend spend .

Yes city spent a lot in the summer but so did we, but really only walker and ederson have had an impact.

If only we could get martial and co playing consistently well like sterling and co .

Or pogba to the level of kdb who is a REAL game changer .
I keep reading the squad isn't good enough but that's the same squad that is second and not really playing great at the moment .
Imagine if we where?

27 Dec 2017 13:42:01
Jred - your posts are always fairly positive mate but I'm not sure if you side with the players, manger or both or you just think we need to be patient?

Do you think if we kept everything the same and Jose swapped sides with Pep that he'd win us the league with our squad?

I agree maybe Jose could get more out of certain players but the way he wants to set up doesn't suit their strengths! He prefers a 4-2-3-1 formation which I personally don't feel gets the most from our best players including Pogba who I believe we should build our team around. Having said that I like him as a manger and just feel he needs time to get in the players he wants. If we want success quickly then he needs the money to do this and there is no doubt City have backed Pep and got him everything he asked for.

27 Dec 2017 13:44:19
Pogba played well yesterday, what do we want him to do? Shoot lasers out of his eyes while he scores goals from the halfway line? We had the chances to win in all these games and did not execute up front.

Our young players in attack are inconsistent (Rashford, Martial, lingard, Lukaku) but when they have a good patch we score boat loads and if they all misfire we drop points.

Our back line has been incredibly inconsistent due to injury, and we have conceded some very poor goals.

We often see a debate on here where everyone says they want to youth given a chance, attacking formations and drop a few points rather than grind out boring games of turgid anti football. Well this is what that looks like! Inconsistent young forwards who blow hot and cold and you concede a few goals because you aren't playing all out defense.

I actually enjoyed the game yesterday. Maybe I'm a sadist, but I enjoyed seeing the attacking substitutions, the spirit of the team in fighting back. Every throw, every kick, every corner was taken with a sense of action and the pressure on Burnley was immense. It was like a proper utd team response.

The improvement is coming, we have a few missing pieces but the Fergy hangover has gone.

27 Dec 2017 13:58:34
Great post Dodgy.

27 Dec 2017 14:28:56
Good post DB. Soot on.

27 Dec 2017 14:47:26
This wasn't a dig at Pogba, fellas. It was a dig at the fact a lot of our fans were pinning their hopes on the return of one player, which at a club with the stature of Utd, is quite a sad state of affairs.

27 Dec 2017 16:07:28
Dodgy,

I enjoyed it too mate, attacking substitutions and going for it is what a lot have been asking for.

27 Dec 2017 17:13:21
You guys talk like it’s City v United, Jose v Pep. A certain manager called Conte is out there as well, who won the league in his first season and also has a bottomless pit of money at his disposal. There’s more than City to worry about.

27 Dec 2017 17:22:12
Danny
Yes I think if pep was our manager and Jose at city we would be doing better .
But that's just an opinion .
The facts are Jose has never managed a team that has started a season as good as city .

I'm not taking any thing away from Jose he is a good manager but I think pep is better and I think the facts back it up .
During the summer I was shot down about pep but look at his barce team his Munich team and now his city team and tell me who is better?

As for our squad the excuses we need to buy x y and z are excuses .
Everyone has given dogs abuse to otamendi stones delph sterling .
Sane was inconsistent last season, but is playing out his skin now .

Is pogba a great player? Because our best player can't lace the boots of kdb or Silva at the moment. To be honest I think he is as good as them just not playing well .

We need a cb? We bought lindelof it hasn't worked out .
We need a cm? We broke the world transfer record for pogba paired him with matic .
Is Herrera a bad player? Because every told me he was a good player only a few month ago .
We spent the best part of a 100 mil on the striker Jose wanted .
We need creativity we bought Miki, everyone told me what a great player he was the same people are now saying we have to buy perisic .
No doubt if we buy perisic he will be amazing . For the record Miki is top class just not playing well .

Really good squad this that good that we are second in the league with out hitting top gear yet .
If it's as poor as people make out how are we second .
Do we need to buy? Yes every time does and will .

Do we need to buy to play better than we are now? Defiantly not.

27 Dec 2017 18:21:35
And whilst your all concerned about City, have you seen how much the scouser have just paid for Van Dijk.

27 Dec 2017 03:37:36
Does anybody else think Lukaku's touch is not to dissimilar to when you bounce a rugby ball? On occasion it goes where you (he) intended, but more often than not it pings off in a random direction!

27 Dec 2017 04:35:59
He has a head like a 50p piece and feet made of 20p pieces!

27 Dec 2017 08:58:13
It should like trying to watch an Octopus control a ball.

27 Dec 2017 09:46:40
"He's not a player that participates a lot in the build-up, "

Mourinhos comments on lukaku when we signed him, he wanted a killer in front of goal and that's what lukaku has been, can't remember too many times he's missed an abvious goal scoring oppurtunity a la martial, lingard and rashford against leicester.

Hes averaging a goal every two games in the league which although not on the same level as kane is still very much acceptable.

Lukaku is one of the few player where everyone always points out his weaknesses before acknowledging his strengths and he's been treated awfully by our fanbase from songs about how big his package is and booing him at old trafford. Fans should probably reign it in a bit and actually start supporting him.

27 Dec 2017 10:09:44
The problem with Lukaku is that all this build up play etc isn’t his game, he’s clinical in the box, he does his damage there. He will score plenty of goals if he stays in the box. But the way we play it doesn’t suit him, I think if we had better delivery then lukaku would be brilliant. We have far too many individuals in this team who want to do everything themselves i.e Rashford, martial, Pogba etc.

27 Dec 2017 10:52:36
Rich man's Emile Heskey.

27 Dec 2017 12:14:24
Dsg.
Good post that pal.

27 Dec 2017 12:55:29
Lukaku has been very good in the build up play.

He has laid on some great passes and cross.

Lots of players take a bad first touch, Rashford does it a fair few times (a lot of fast players do) .

Lukaku is in his first season and is doing fine. The last few games have been down to defence conceding stupid goals from City to Burnley.

But let’s all jump on Lukaku - getting like the Liverpool page here.

27 Dec 2017 13:42:53
Utd Road totally agree with you. There has been a huge improvement in his link up play. It's not his fault that for example against Burnley he didn't get a pass when in great positions to score. He is not the reason we are going through a bad patch. At the start of the season he was scoring almost every game because he got the right service. Lads be fair.

27 Dec 2017 16:20:35
Good post DSG.
I think of the summer signings matic and lukaku have both done well. Lindelof has shown good character and looks like he can recover in time from a desperste start to his united career.
Sure lukaku needs to get even better especially against the big teams. But in those games he has lived of very meagre scraps.
I'm not one that thinks he should be beating 3 men on his own and scoring you can't critisise him for not doing that as it's not his game. When he gets the service that play to his strengths he scores goals.

I admire the fact he is obviously working on the weaker parts of his game and I think lately he has created well for others.

27 Dec 2017 18:12:43
Great post DSG. Lukaku is a killer in front of goal but we are seeing too much of him dropping outside of the box at the minute, probably down to frustration at not getting enough service.

But hat's off, he works incredibly hard.