Manchester United Banter 3

16 Sep 2026 22:11:26
United need to recruit Brighton's recruiting team.

16 Sep 2026 22:15:02
We should and then Wilcox can overrule them on everything.

16 Sep 2026 22:01:19
I've been accused of being too negative so let's focus on the positives.

Pressing as a unit, desire, passion, intensity, continuing to attack and pressure for more goals after taking the lead. So that's Brighton

Positives for utd. Lacey looks good.

16 Sep 2026 22:11:42
That was absolutely pathetic. they look so unfit. Teilmans has been a disaster, never seen a team give it away so much and the tackling. well its comical. Lost count how many nutmegs United players had against them. a 35 year old just ran United ragged.


Lose sunday, carrick will be gone. im lost for words on how unfit this team is. Pathetic shameful embarrassing. in fact there's not a word created yet to say how disgusted I am with this team now. And don't get me started on dalot 😡😡.

16 Sep 2026 22:16:18
😂 😂 😂.

16 Sep 2026 22:18:49
We look so poor so unfit. Sideways backwards lose possession sideways backwards lose possession. The player have no fight, they hide from the ball, they don't want any responsibility.
How dalot can play like that against city and get a game today?

16 Sep 2026 22:28:34
Thing is that he won't be gone they will waste the 3 week break and keep him only to sack him when we are near the relegation zone in January. This board don't have a clue and they also don't want to be proved wrong again so they will hold out till the bitter end. Just warning u.

16 Sep 2026 22:36:35
Sickening loss. I preached patience but I've reflected on it and every trend line including last year as time went on said the same thing - we are getting results that don't match our underlying performance. I supported Amorim because the trends were the opposite. I understand why others were frustrated by some of his game decisions that needed to improve but I could see improvement. And more importantly the culture improved.

Now I see a complete regression. I do believe the players are there to have a decent season but I think the club needs to act decisively and put a proper coach in. Wilcox I believe has made too many errors now and should follow Carrick out the door. I believe in showing patience but not if there is overwhelming evidence to take action and unfortunately I think that's where we are.

17 Sep 2026 00:17:58
Pointless talking about amorim, but honestly, if he just played bruno as one of the 10s and mainoo in midfield he would probably still be here.

17 Sep 2026 00:49:00
Tielemans was one of the better United players last night.

Frankly until we get better defenders United will ship goals no matter who is the manager.

Pre season was not great in terms of general play and transfers and confidence is low.

It's going to be a long hard season but we should not blame all the players. That's not fair to the ones who do try.

17 Sep 2026 00:49:23
He'd still be there if he didn't have an emotional outburst. It was nothing to do with Bruno and Mainoo.

17 Sep 2026 08:59:06
Tielemens seems to run around that's it. Players ghost past him like he does not exist.
Him and Mainoo should not play together.

17 Sep 2026 13:09:11
Tielemans is a properly good player. Our structural issue is that instead of the fluid formation with our wide players coming into midfield, Carrick has Rashford and Mbeumo sticking wide at all times and not really needing to come back. Cunha on the left came in to create an overload in the middle and we are way stronger for it. Carrick has sacrificed team cohesion for one player. Maybe when Baleba is back we'll have the athleticism needed for the midfielders to cover the ground to allow whatever Carrick is trying.

But the gaps in our structure are painfully large. Under RA we transitioned from 3-4-3 to 3-2-5 in attack and 5-4-1 in defence but now our structure looks like 4-2-3-1 in all phases. When Carrick came in first some of the transitions still happened but now we're extremely static. We look uncoached.

16 Sep 2026 21:55:56
Carrick at the wheel!! 🤯.

16 Sep 2026 22:16:46
The dark clouds are gathering quickly this year getting booed off at OT in September is not a good look for anyone at the club. Carrick already on borrowed time it seems because Wilcox and those above will want to apportion blame elsewhere and give us Angry fans a patsie.

16 Sep 2026 21:55:10
Shocking.
Abysmal.
Pathetic.

Another early exit from a cup competition. Seems to be the norm for United now.

Every single Brighton player looked sharper, fitter and quicker.

Sesko is a truly awful player. To have him as the only proper striker at a club like United is criminal. Love to know what united scouts watch when they are looking for a player as it's clearly not football.

This lot will likely lose at Fulham at the weekend based on the way they've played so far this season.

If Fulham do win, it has to be the end of Carrick. He should never have been given the job in the first place, but they have to admit their mistake and try to fix it before it's too late. This is worse than Amorim. Carrick just looks confused all the time, almost as confused as most of the players.

The team seems to get a 10 game or so bounce when a new manager comes in, so maybe they should just change the manager every 10 games.

In summary, players are awful, manager is awful. Can't sack the players so the manager has to go.

16 Sep 2026 22:13:47
Sesko has barely played this year yet you want him to start and pull a rabbit out a hat, he's a young striker. With wide players who don't play particularly wide who don't or can't cross a ball and players behind sesko who would rather punt a ball at 40 yards out than pass the ball to him.
At least with Amorim we had a plan even a style of play. I would argue that the players had better energy/work rate.

The players played a lot better in that system. Has carrick improved anyone? Cunha, mbeumo look nothing like they did under Amorim. I can only name mainoo as a player I've seen play well this season from the entire squad. I will agree This manager has to go and sooner that later l, let's not waste another half season til Christmas before we pull the trigger.

16 Sep 2026 22:15:40
Probably the most annoying thing about Carrick is how he always looks deep in thought - like the ultimate tactician - yet he hasn't been able to fathom up a half decent decision yet.

16 Sep 2026 22:14:30
Couldn't agree more, i'd sack him tonight see if it kicks the players ready for sunday. as we've no chance with carrick in charge. That was a bad as I've ever seen, staggered how unfit they are.5 games and fat. Shameful.

16 Sep 2026 18:47:07
No Luke Shaw in the squad again, honestly never despised a utd player so much in my life! Should have got rid of the waster in 2017! Genuinely staggering he's been here for 13 years, slow, crap at just about everything and a poor mentality too.

16 Sep 2026 19:30:52
He was one of our best players last year.

Blame the club for not getting a replacement /alternative. I don't for one moment think he wants to be injured.

16 Sep 2026 19:45:03
Best players last year? Can count on one hand how many times he crossed the half way line, he was bang average.

Should have looked after himself in his younger days and maybe he wouldn't have had as many injuries now. Pochettino, Van Gaal, Hodgson, Jose, Ragnick all question his fitness, work rate and work ethic, remember pochettino said his physical condition and work ethic needed major improvement when he was a teenager, that was around 14 years ago.

Not a tournament to play for at the end of this season so not surprised he's injured again, absolute mess of a player.

16 Sep 2026 22:02:51
I wonder what the odds are on Shaw being our interim manager within the next 10 years.

16 Sep 2026 22:20:51
It's true that Shaw was criticized for his work rate as a teenager by Pocchetino and then by Van Gaal when he took over saying that he wasn't fit enough to play his system. (even though it seemed to consist of passing the ball around the back).

But Shaw worked hard and did become fitter. Hodgson may have criticized him but continued to pick him. Both Ragnick and Mourinho managed hm after his the double fracture he suffered which nearly resulted in him losing his leg and left permanent damage to his leg muscles. Frankly it's amazing that he came back to became a regular for his country. His injuries are neither his fault nor anything he wants. Last year he proved himself by starting every game. I don't believe for a moment that he's not trying. The criticism he gets from people on this site is disgraceful.

The facts about his injuries are well known to the club. If we have a problem at left back then they are the ones to blame for not providing cover.

16 Sep 2026 18:00:19
I'd laugh my backside off, if Carrick stuck another 15/16 year old in the team, tonight. 😁.

16 Sep 2026 19:56:18
Noucamp99,

That would have been brilliant.

16 Sep 2026 21:56:57
I'd laugh my backside off if Carrick somehow found himself 2-0 up after 10mins and then found a way to throw the game away.

17 Sep 2026 09:45:09
Did Carrick throw the game away, or the players? It astounds me that people still think the problem is the manager.

17 Sep 2026 13:02:33
GDS, do you seriously think Carrick is not to blame for the way we are setup?

16 Sep 2026 14:15:22
Okay. So, you're the father of a young top prospect at a club which is the only one of the top six yet to break the £100k transfer barrier, is reducing its payroll, and is in general in penny pinching mode with the result that there is little real belief it will become a title contender in the foreseeable future.

Wouldn't you rather have your kid move to a winner, with money?

I't don't think this is only about game time. As many have indicated, the club has a clear plan to give him opportunities.

16 Sep 2026 14:47:09
This is not about United. It's about the advice he is getting, and, more than likely, his Dad. Trying to use this as a stick to beat United is plain silly.

16 Sep 2026 14:53:13
He's been to a good few academies in a short period of time. Lots of red flags with him.

16 Sep 2026 16:24:53
Says a lot about utd. They have taken a look under the hood and don't like what they see. If they believed this was a good place to launch his career they would stay. United would easily serve the monetary side of being a global star in the future, so they are not seeing the progress of vision.

City just lost a generational manager, similar to our loss if SAF. Who is better placed to compete going forward?

16 Sep 2026 16:49:49
Why would a player his age actually want to stay at United? He was only two or three years old the last time we won the Premier League. He grew up watching clubs like Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal dominate domestic football while United became a shadow of its former self.

It is easy for those of us who are older posters to think he should stay because we are emotionally attached to the club's history. But kids these days simply aren't drawn to United the way we were from the 1990s to the early 2000s. Unfortunately, there are now much more successful, bigger, and better run teams out there to strive for.

We are probably only just starting to see the effects of this filter down to the academy level. It will likely get worse as our glory years are lost to the archives and better-run clubs continue to write new history. It is the unfortunate, long term consequence of years of terrible ownership.

16 Sep 2026 17:36:50
What club should he go to then and why?

16 Sep 2026 18:14:06
Crewe 😎.

16 Sep 2026 18:46:44
Arsenal, they play 15yo 😁.

17 Sep 2026 09:48:10
Oh god I've never read as much nonsense in my life. A 15 year old choosing his club based on how many trophies they might win, it's just not the case. His dad is a nut case and has had his head turned by another club, there's plenty of stories out there about him and about how this was always going to happen.

He will ruin young Joseph's career, he pretty much already has with the marketing nonsense. I'm sure his dad will make plenty of money though. This one isn't on the club at all, we can't afford to be held to ransom by a 15 year old who's proved nothing.

16 Sep 2026 09:52:24
There seems to be a strange narrative from posters on here around JJ Gabriel that Manchester United somehow weren't providing him with a route towards the first team.

Gabriel joined United at 11. He progressed through the academy, became one of the standout players in his age group, moved into the U21 environment and was training around the first team at just 15. He scored 26 goals in 29 youth appearances last season, won the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award and then started the current campaign with goals and assists for the U21s before scoring a hat-trick last week in the Youth European Cup.

That isn't a club hiding a player away in the academy. That's a club accelerating a player.

Another important point is that it was highly reported that Gabriel was expected to be involved in the first-team squad against Brighton tonight before his request to leave became public. United had therefore apparently reached the point where a genuine senior opportunity was potentially on the table.

A pathway has clearly been created for the lad.

United's approach appears to have been fairly logical IMO, Academy - U18 football - U21 football - first-team training - pre-season involvement - potential competitive senior squad involvement.

That's exactly how you would expect an elite club to develop a 15 year old.

You don't need to throw a teenager into 30 Premier League games overnight to demonstrate that he has a pathway.

The pathway is about continually increasing the level of exposure and responsibility.

Gabriel had already been training with senior players and had been involved around the first team. Ryan Giggs even publicly argued that he should continue developing around the senior squad rather than simply being sent away on loan.

So the idea that United were blocking his progression simply doesn't appear consistent with what has actually happened with his development.

And in terms of Academy players progressing into the senior team, no other club has given more debuts to academy players than Manchester United in the last 10 years, 46.

So for everything that is wrong with the club at the moment, this, IMO is not a stick that should be used to beat the club with.

16 Sep 2026 13:21:54
Good post, Ports.

16 Sep 2026 13:14:31
I'm sure it's Carricks fault. Sack him immediately!

16 Sep 2026 14:22:32
Nothing to do with 30 EPL games. If they had any sense, he would have been on the bench against such a poor team as Saba and given 10 mins at the end. It would have elated the kid, stepping on the pitch with 75k fans cheering him.

It would have also made him realise what he still needs to learn and do to get into Men's football.
It was a win win situation, but the club knows best!

16 Sep 2026 14:30:41
Eddy Howe is waiting, and it appears Conte is favourite... if Carrick continues like this, it won't be long.

16 Sep 2026 15:16:40
Nice1 Ports.

16 Sep 2026 16:16:22
Ah yes, because obviously the best way to develop a young player is to chuck him on for 10 minutes because there are 75,000 people in the stadium. Brilliant insight.

I'm sure the coaching staff, who see him train every day and have a much better idea of where he is physically, tactically and developmentally, simply hadn't considered the revolutionary concept of giving him a cameo.

There's a difference between wanting to see a talented kid get minutes and actually understanding what his development requires. "It would have made him realise what he needs to learn" is particularly good.

I'm sure the 10-minute appearance you've prescribed was the missing piece of the professional development plan. Much better than him playing 90 mins in the U19's competition and scoring a hat-trick!

16 Sep 2026 17:18:49
All great posts Ports. I think the other piece here is simply the question of whether the family feel the club is the right launch pad for him. When they sign the Pro contract they are giving their full backing to the club. Maybe they are looking at the full picture at the club and decided now that they should find a different place to develop.

This night not only be about the money, the first team minutes, the development plan right now.

Is the club headed in the right direction? Are they sure? First Pro contract is a big step, especially when every top club in Europe is courting you.

16 Sep 2026 18:18:03
Ports well word is he was going to be in squad and get mins tonight and this is a much harder game then Saba ever was so yes sticking on in a champs league game when we was coasting would have been far better and against very inferior players.

16 Sep 2026 18:50:57
From my side, this was an opportunity to lift the mood around the place and across the fanbase.
Would the club be using JJ a bit to get some positive news out, sure. But would JJ and any other player use United to get a better deal, absolutely. It is a two way street.

I just feel it is another episode of the club getting the decision so badly wrong, and there are the usual posters on here saying he we are better off without him etc.

17 Sep 2026 09:50:02
He literally couldn't play against Sabah so probably for the best we didn't break the rules to bring him on.

15 Sep 2026 23:59:41
With Max Dowman getting a run and the spotlight at 15, I'm sure JJ thinks the same... But Max has a bigger frame and can hold himself. JJ, for all his skills, is very thin. I hope the club can find a solution.

16 Sep 2026 08:42:42
Sky Sports: JJ Gabriel has requested the cancellation of his registration; Man Utd are understood to be shocked by the request but believe the situation can be resolved.

16 Sep 2026 10:24:44
It feels like this may have been ongoing since last season, when they talked about leaving but stayed for the season. Also, I read that he is able to negotiate/move abroad once he turns 16, and that is at the start of October, so I would expect that will be his next move.



Absolutely a talent; whether he is quite ready for the physicality of the Premier League, I am not sure... Unfortunately, we may never know.

16 Sep 2026 10:31:47
I was at George Best's debut back in 63. He looked way thin. Was wafer-thin. Busby used brutal training sessions, and Best survived. As JJ will!
The full story will come out, but I suspect talks have been going on behind the scenes for some time with other clubs and his father.


If he is so good, and I suspect he is, United need to pull their finger out and sort it.

16 Sep 2026 10:49:12
My young lad played for our local Irish League team's academy from under 10s to under 16s. He won a few leagues and an All-Ireland trophy.

Trai Hume and a few others currently at English and Scottish clubs were in the team.

In the U16s, they played a pre-season friendly against one of the local men's teams. Obviously, the men had been told to go easy, but you could see the worry and nervousness among a usually confident group of lads as they walked on to the pitch. The men did hold back a bit, but even something like a shoulder charge would have one of our lads on their backsides.

My boy was 6ft 3 then and fairly solidly built. Much more adult looking than Gabriel. But he still looked exactly what he was standing beside the opposition players. A boy. The only game where he admitted that he hoped he'd be on the bench. 😁

Maybe JJ is a generational talent, but look at him.

All the trickery and skill in the world won't save you from a clattering tackle. Look what Ronaldo had to face, and he was much more robust than JJ.

And that's just the physical aspect. Mentally, a 15 year old boy is still, generally, quite immature. Who knows how he'd react to a couple of choice tackles, or a bit of booing for the first time in his gilded life?

Most importantly though, for the club, no 15 year old should be making unrealistic demands, trying to pressurise the club into playing him. If that's how he behaves at 15, then there's likely to be a lot more problems down the road, especially, going by the rumours, with his dad in charge.

I thought Greenwood was going to be the best thing out of our academy in years. He's gone and life moves on. It'll be the same with JJ. Keep investing in the academy and another one will come along.

16 Sep 2026 12:27:50
The thought that this 15 year old is ready to take on the Prem is ridiculous. I assume promises have been broken behind the scenes, where he may have been offered game time, but even so, to give up after 4 games is ridiculous.

I'm sure he'd have got plenty of minutes this season, supposedly tonite, but even then, it's a tough fixture. Carrick will want to win, so I'm not sure we'd have got to see him.

15 Sep 2026 20:56:58
There are a lot of whiny doommongers at the moment so here's a few hypotheticals:

1. Which available manager would you prefer to get in tomorrow to replace Carrick? Why? What makes you think they will be a guaranteed success?

2. What formation and style of play do you think we should be moving towards to establish a league-winning approach? How is this different from the style of play that you've seen under Carrick and is it significantly different from anything that any other Premier League team is doing?

3. Name two players that you think would transform our team into consistent serial winners? Beyond improving the player that they are replacing in the first-team squad, what makes you think they will change the overall dynamic so that the team has the right mental attitude to be winners?

15 Sep 2026 21:33:39.
Amorim.
343.
Truffert and Munoz.

16 Sep 2026 08:16:10
🤣
If only Amorim hadn't got himself sacked on purpose, eh!

16 Sep 2026 12:25:35
Let's turn those questions around, to illustrate how loaded they are.

1. Why do you think Carrick was the best choice of available managers at the end of last season? What makes you think sticking with him guarantees success?

2. What is Carrick's style of play? What specific improvements in how the team is set up in attack and defence are demonstrable over Carrick's tenure?

3.

Do you think that we would have started the season with a squad containing 1 outright striker and 1 outright left back if a more established manager was in charge?

16 Sep 2026 18:22:22
Pep.
433
Needs more than two.
Hakimi and Mendes.

—

I'm not sure he is/was. Sticking for a reset and to handover a better squad to an elite manager ie Enrique.

4231 quick passing, rotations, overloads on the wing, 1 dimensional no plan b. Slow to react/trusting in players.

No - the club fails any manager of any standing.

16 Sep 2026 20:21:41
Nice try DP but trying to flip the questions around doesn't make them less loaded.

1. He managed to do something Amorim didn't, which was win games with the players he had. I don't think there are any managers who can guarantee short term success. Even Enrique or Pep would need some time. Neither of them will never come to United so if Carrick can't get things moving then I'd go for Conte and buy whatever players he wants in summer 27.

2. I think the way the team are playing in attack, with some quick, fluid passing is promising. That said the defending needs to improve a lot. The thing that is missing is intensity. It's not really any different from most of the prem to be honest. It's the same way City, Arsenal and Liverpool play.

3. I don't think managers are in charge of recruitment anymore. I'm not unhappy with the players they did bring in. We've no idea what went on behind the scenes with potential targets, so who knows who they were trying to get.
For what I it's worth, I think Baleba and Sesko will become world class players.