Manchester United banter 2

25 Nov 2025 17:22:53
Even though I've been critical of the initial team selection with Amad and Dorgu both playing on the left, and Zirkzee starting, last night's loss had little to do with formation. The fact is we created plenty chances to win. We had 24 shots. Two or three excellent saves by Pickford. De Ligt scuffed a golden opportunity. Zirkzee missed 3 headers, 2 of which were very good chances.

The reason we ended up losing was poor execution. Lammens had one shot to save. Yes, there was a deflection which wrong footed him, but that was still a shot that might have been saved. We lost because no one, including the manager, reached the required standard to win an EPL game against a modest 10 man team.

25 Nov 2025 20:13:01
When we come up against well drilled sides like Everton we never have the quality or composure to break them down. Been like this for a long time.

And last night was truly grim watching we could have played for a week and not scored. Who knows we’d miss Sesko and Cunha so much….

{Ed025's Note - you are bound to miss players of that quality Eric, but thats when other players have to step up to the plate and prove that they are good enough to warrant a shirt, that never happened last night mate..

26 Nov 2025 09:10:09
Exactly Ed.

26 Nov 2025 09:29:06
Totally agree Ed. The drop off in quality was stark.

26 Nov 2025 16:26:51
It rarely happens though look at City with 3 times our squad, Rodri out and they were dire. It’s hard to know how he can motive them when half the team (leaders) are in their last year due to age and ability. There is no penalty for failure as we’ve no one to replace them with. It’s literally one of the best paid custiest jobs in football and likely to continue if they can just move Amorim on.

So frustrating seeing all the fans asking for a new manager but with the proviso that we must give the new manager 3 or 4 players including a midfield. Exactly what the current manager needs. Very reluctant to back the leadership team over yet another manager despite Mondays result. It’s still 1 loss in 6 at a stretch.

25 Nov 2025 16:12:52
Damn, sent to early.

As I was saying, unbelievably, 20 years have passed since Georgie left us. How we could of done with him last night! He would of been ghosting past player's as if they weren't there.

Have mentioned before that I met him in the mid eighties and got quite friendly for a while. One thing I remember him saying on more than one occasion was that he wanted to see entertainment and skilled individuality. Sadly he would not of enjoyed last night very much.

Anyway, hope you are having some good kickarounds wherever you are! Quite a few opponents of your time are now with you.

R. I. P. Georgie, they certainly broke the mould after you.

25 Nov 2025 21:28:19
My wee country’s greatest export and a true giant of the game. Doesn’t get as much recognition as pele, Maradona etc maybe because playing for Northern Ireland didn’t get him the international accolades. Those that know football though, they know Georgie was a great…and for northern Irish folk like me he was ‘simply the best’.

25 Nov 2025 23:39:55
He was better than Pele and Maradona. Pele played predominantly in and around the box. George played all over midfield and attack and the Northern Ireland teams he played with were poor as often were the pitches he played on.

25 Nov 2025 23:50:47
He was a genius, end of.

Think he never had the recognition, as you mention Tim, because of the lack of International exposure, also the fact he finished at the age of 27, although he made comebacks he was never the same again.

Must not forget his lifestyle choices as well, he was pretty much on the front pages of the newspapers constantly, the press made his life very difficult, but he did not help himself with his ''fondness'' for women and booze. Mind you he made it clear to me more than once that he did not regret the choices he made. Back then players did not have the teams of advisors and protectors taking care of them and sheltering them from themselves so it was pretty much negativity towards him most of the time.

All of that being said, watching him play, when he was on his game, was a pure joy.

25 Nov 2025 15:44:45
To somewhat change the conversation of the day.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the passing of the truly great and legend that was George Best, can't believe.

25 Nov 2025 13:20:24
Last night is exactly why I wasn’t gloating over Liverpool’s decline. They’re struggling, but we are not on an upwards trajectory.

The system seems to be entirely focused on exploiting a high press. If teams push up and attack, we can score on the break. However, against a deep sitting team, we have nothing.

Last night was the familiar pattern of shifting the ball from side to side, and looking to cross into the box. The problem is that there are never enough players looking to get on the end of crosses. It’s rinse and repeat with no other ideas.

Let’s be honest, the ref gave us a huge advantage, and we still didn’t even cause Everton problems. All they had to do was stay compact. No great strategy or plan to stifle us because we’re just that easy to play against.

As for Amorim, last night showed all the, “the system is adaptable, ” arguments for the nonsense it is. Despite having an extra man and needing to score, he refused to try anything different. Not an extra body in midfield. Not bringing on the young lad to play as an actual striker. Nothing. Just tottering up the pitch to play the ball slowly around their box.

All the same issues remain. Every team should know how to win against us, and I still don’t see anyway that this rigid system gets us close to competing,

25 Nov 2025 15:13:28
I think the ball coming in from the wingbacks on either side was appalling. against teams that sit in you need a lot more quality of final ball and passing.

25 Nov 2025 15:51:18
I don’t get all these system comments we changed just about everything we could in the 2nd half (have you seen our bench) unless you believe Lacy was the saviour we needed. If anything we’d too many players upfront for the last 25 mins. Just zero quality. We needed 9 players end of last season we got 3 and 2 are injured. Dereliction of duty from Ineos.

We are a very poor side any manager/formation. The big problem is where is the money coming from cause with the bench we have and not every signing always working out we still need 9 players and more. The entire senior leadership team (Bruno etc) need to be gone in the summer. Not one of them has anything of value for the future of the club.

25 Nov 2025 16:39:48
Such a typical performance for this squad. You think they've turned a corner and then fall straight back into old habits. I thought Shaw and Dalot were very poor. The midfield was terrible, it lacks legs, it lacks bite in the tackle and we just can't break teams down when they play that low block so got pushed to the wide channels. Bruno was to blame for the goal, the most half arsed attempt to tackle and just let him run and shoot. Yet again stupid longshots from outside the box rather than looking for the pass. 25 shots on goal, only 6 shots on target.

The fact there wasn't a striker on the bench is concerning, we were always a Sesko injury away from having a problem.

25 Nov 2025 16:54:24
The manager had the opportunity to play with a back 4, add an extra body in midfield, play Bruno higher, or even bring on a striker. He did none of this, and stuck with a back 3 because it’s the system. Bringing on Dalot in a like for like change illustrated this.

We needed something different, that either gave more scoring threat in the box or more penetration through the middle. Amorim simply won’t change the overarching system, even when it clearly isn’t working.

25 Nov 2025 17:34:06
There wasn’t just a lack of creativity, whenever the ball was out wide with Amad or Mbuemo, all the attacking players were stood stock still in the box just waiting for some magic. No runs, no offers for 1-2 basically just mannequins occupying space to perhaps get on the end of a cross or loose ball from a shot.

{Ed025's Note - i agree Fuser..

25 Nov 2025 18:18:59
I can be honest I dislike 5 at the back. It’s a waste of players and skews defensive.

I will be forever Amorim out as consequence. So I’m fairly biased.

5 at the back at home against 10 man Everton? Well dressed, nice hair, self critical charm and a bit of charisma goes a long way apparently.

41% win rate, is pathetic. It needs saying. Amorim has opportunities to try different formations and chooses not to. He rejects youth and reduces Bruno’s impact, (play your best player close to goal further away from the goal 👍), all to accommodate his system, that is clearly not working.

At some point people will realise the club have compromised values and identity while backing a manager with money and selling academy graduates. All for a “system”.

This is Ragnick levels of dross - another canny chatter.

Emperors new clothes. We beat a poor Liverpool, followed by a good performance against Brighton but then a slow tail off to here with spots of positivity or resilience.

He’s a nice fella but it’s not good enough and he should go. Liverpool are ready to sack an EPL winning manager, we’re persisting with this.

I’d genuinely say a caretaker manager would achieve a higher win rate.

25 Nov 2025 10:17:10
Few points on last night:

1.) I don't think I have ever seen a manager wedded to a specific formation but the style of play is flexible. Credit to Amorim we have changed this year and are playing the ball long more, playing to Lammens and Seskos strengths. But the lack of willingness to change the formation last night just screamed of irrational stubbornness. People say the formation is just a way to line the players up at kick off and then everyone moves about but i didn't see too much movement or changing positions last night, it felt like Shaw/Dalot and Yoro/De Ligt were both playing the same positons last night lol.

2.) I think people were conned a bit with this "1 game a week" logic. The majority of teams in the league play 1 game a week because they are not very good. there's only been a couple of teams who have 1 game a week counts as any advantage (Contes chelsea title winning team and Rodgers Liverpool title challenging team) . I think we fall into the former camp where any additional time on the training ground is not making any difference.

3.) I am not his biggest fan and think he is over rated but Bruno F is magic in and around the box and last night i hardly saw him there and he was playing way too deep. With both sekso and cunha out, surely the logical move is to play Bruno F higher up and stick Mainoo next to Casemiro.

25 Nov 2025 13:08:59
We are just a team in waiting until bruno, casemiro, shaw, dalot, mcguire are all gone. Madness how married to these players amorim is. But he will learn like many before him. Maybe it was just too much for one manager to do all at once? Maybe we need to next guy to rip the remaining bandaid off.

He did a lot to push us forward, by removing the first half of a broken squad. But he still has these players as his leadership team and he still has bruno as captain in midfield. The result is games like last night.

25 Nov 2025 13:24:48
Bruno shouldn't be playing in a two man midfield.
We all kow that he's a much better player when he is played further forward. It's like fitting round pegs in square holes. If you're going to play Bruno then play him in his corrrect position.


We are absolutely desperate for two proper central midfielders, even when Everton were down to 10 men they were still exposing the central midfield areas.

25 Nov 2025 09:49:04
For the first time I'm going to criticise Amorim.

His subs and tactics when they went down to 10 men, baffled me. We didn't need an extra defender when they were playing with one up top. Move Shaw to LB instead of bringing on Dalot who offers nothing, and get an extra body in higher up the pitch.

Plus, playing two defenders as attacking wing backs cost us when they got into attacking positions. They just didn't have the skill or nous to capitalise when we got anywhere near the 18 yard box.

I'd also question starting a guy up top who's not played all season, instead of going with Mbuemo up front. Anyone who's ever played Football Manager knows you never start a player who's not match fit. It never works! 😁

Easy with hindsight, I know, and the players lack of intensity was also a big factor, but I think this was a game and a situation where the manager's refusal to stray from his beloved system, has cost us.

25 Nov 2025 13:17:35
I agree Stevie. Playing at home, against 10 men should have been a slam dunk, but instead we were passive, the Manager did not take the bull by the horns. If ever there was a game to change formation, this was it, but no.

3 good wins, followed by 2 dodgy draws, and then last night, very very disappointing.

25 Nov 2025 14:08:37
I think he was a little hamstrung by the players available, the bench didn’t look great from the start with only really Mount who could change anything in an attacking sense as he’s too scared to put Lacey on. He should have had Obi on the bench or at least another forward player. We needed a left sided player to come on as Dorgu was terrible, he had Malacia on the bench but chose to bring on Dalot, who weirdly did exactly the same as he always does, absolutely nothing. So why have Malacia and Lacey on the bench if he’s not willing to bring them on? Pointless.

His decisions and the results will be the reason why he fails, his subs are pathetic, I understand his system against 11 men, get the players all learning it, bring in better wing backs and a midfield and we will improve, but against 10 men with Everton playing a striker without a premier league goal to have 3 at the back was pathetic and a sackable offence for me.

Not that it would have made a difference as we could have played all night but Everton spent the whole 2nd half time wasting and the ref totally ignored it. If 14 minutes had been added on I don’t think anyone could have been annoyed or surprised, yet he added on 4. Their subs took that alone, so that's to suggest that Everton didn’t time waste at all in the 2nd half? Absolutely pathetic refereeing as always.

25 Nov 2025 07:39:04
{Ed's Note - SamiKewell has posted a new article entitled, Liverpool FC Team Issues and Misjudged Expectations

25 Nov 2025 05:59:54
Another one of those false dawns. Just when we had an opportunity to go into 5h place and to stake a claim on a European place, we lose at home to a mediocre 10 man team. A weak tackle by Yoro followed by a weak attempt to stop a shot that might have been saved - the only one on target - followed by a complete failure in front of goal. It's not like we didn't create opportunities. Zirkzee had 3 excellent header chances. 23 (6) shots v 2 (1). At least we dominated. Excellent game by Pickford combined with terrible marksmanship. Zirkzee, showed why he is too slow and lacks the first touch necessary to succeed in the EPL. Bruno was particularly uninspiring. Nor for the first time, when he's needed the most, when he has an opportunity to lead by example, he comes up short. Yesterday reminded me of the Europa cup final when he also simply failed to inspire.

Without Cunha, Amorim got it completely wrong initially axing the partnership between Amad and Mbuemo and bringing in Zirkzee who frankly has never been good enough even when he was not hampered by lack of first team appearances due to injury. What was he thinking? Was he trying to outwit David Moyes? In the end though the statistics tell the story. This was a repeat of last years' lows. Total lack of conviction undid the domination. A pretty pusillanimous performance by every member of the team. Just as we were reveling in the schadenfreude of City and Liverpool's weekend losses.

25 Nov 2025 07:44:15
Maze, I don't disagree with your player assessment.
I'm not sure placing blame on Amorim is justified, such was the abysmal showing, even from the subs.
From my side, not throwing an unknown like Lacey into the equation was his biggest fault.
We are too predictable. We desperately need fresh faces to accelerate the exit of a few.

25 Nov 2025 07:58:34
It was an utter $h1t show. Appalling complacency. Walkball at its most pathetic level. False dawn? Lamentable.

25 Nov 2025 09:40:58
Even if we had won the game tonight, I don't enjoy watching this team. I am watching Utd since '85 and I always love watching attacking wingers and we have always had that in our team. I know football evolves but this is not for me.

25 Nov 2025 10:20:08
Fizz 100 percent right mate, I was worried before the match, given our inability to beat a very poor Spurs team.

I'm feeling this morning very disappointed but certainly not surprised.

Everton knew how we would setup, how we would stick to plan A and how and where to target us. 5 at the back against 10 men, Dorgu off for another defender, absolutely no fluidity, no change of system no nothing.

Rant over and on to Palace, let's hope for a good reaction to last night abysmal performance.

25 Nov 2025 01:58:19
Oh how we missed Cunha last night.
Certain players lack desire, hunger and the mental strength to churn out results.
We had the opportunity to get top 4/5 after others faltered.
Rather than take that opportunity, we laboured through the motions, even against 10men.

For me, after that abject performance, the following players hammered the final nail in their coffin.
Dorgu, Mazraoui, Amad, Zirkzee, Bruno, Shaw, Mount, Dalot.

Mainoo came on and at least had the desire to try and change the game, the others kept going backwards, throwing arms in the air, not tracking back etc etc.

If nothing else, this performance proved that we are still 6 (at least) players away from competing week in, week out.

I hope it was a blip, I hope Cunha comes back and the intensity is there again, but it should be running through the entire team, and after that it is evident it isn't.

Cut our losses, move forward.

25 Nov 2025 08:28:37
Surely you can't think that Amad and Mount - who have been two of our best players this season have put the nail in their coffin? Incidentally they are two of the players who actually run and work for the team.

Zirkzee, Dorgu and Dalot I completely agree with.

25 Nov 2025 18:25:05
I get you on Dalot but why bring him on at LwB against 10? It’s not even fair on him.

Same with a few really they just not good at what they’re being asked to do.

Mount is supposedly a coach’s dream and intelligent but he looks lost. It says a lot.

26 Nov 2025 09:14:08
JD, mount has not been available for most of his time, he was a bad purchase and we should cut him loose.

Amad is not a WB and is too lightweight. He throws his arms up more than Bruno, doesn't pass when he should, tries to walk the ball through a low block etc etc etc. he annoys me more than any other player in our squad, and that's saying something.

24 Nov 2025 18:30:42
Win, Lose or Draw tonight. I just hope we continue to see the things that we have been able to get behind over the last few games.

If we do lose, at least we see Everton go above Liverpool. As I have said before, I live behind enemy lines and it'd be great for the city 😅.

24 Nov 2025 21:59:20
U got your wish…. the second part I mean lol.

24 Nov 2025 22:01:26
Well ot was plain. awful. can't beat 10 men in 80 minutes is embarrassing. Will not change, 3 at back to the end is absolutely unbelievable. and palace next. Another battle towards bottom incoming. at least try and play a midfielder.

24 Nov 2025 22:06:38
That was about as spineless as it gets tonight.

24 Nov 2025 22:49:25
Seems crazy but that could be the beginning of the end for RA. His first half was pitiful.
Palace could very easily see us 2 points from 12 which is around last season form.
Swiftly followed by afcon. Does highlight though how poor our squad is.

Sir Jim is a fool if he thinks he can challenge for Europe without reinforcements but apparently we’ve no money.
The sheer lack of effort or pride or anything from the captain down is the most gutting.

24 Nov 2025 23:05:59
Our issue is that the whole left side is a waste of time. Licha back in. Play Shaw at LWB because Dalot and Dorgu are dreadful there. Cunha was badly missed tonight.

24 Nov 2025 23:40:45
Dalot is dreadful anywhere with dorgu not far behind. We play a system predicated on wing backs providing for our forwards and amad aside all our options are total crap.

24 Nov 2025 23:45:10
Shaw doesn't have the legs and is injury prone. More importantlt we still need two top midfielders. One defensive and one attacking. The latter to take the weight of being creative off Bruno who can't always provide the i.

24 Nov 2025 23:59:07
Pathetic. Hopefully Gana went into our changing room and slapped every one of them.

25 Nov 2025 11:07:46
Salford7 I get that Shaw is injury prone but he's played a good few games now. He isn't really going to play at LCB with Licha back. And we're basically playing with 10 with Dorgu and Dalot out left.

He is our only option there. And if he can't play there then a LWB is our highest priority above the midfielders. We can only attack down one side of the pitch. It's insane.