18 Dec 2017 15:58:01
This is getting tiresome. we are second to a record breaking side at the moment. We are not dreadful. We are actually very very good. we have the second most goals in the league and the best defense in the league. We are on track to finish 4 places higher up the league than we did last year with a much better GD. We are also in a superior European competition and progressing well.
There are so many people on here that sound bitter. We as United fans are spoiled rotten and it shows. Yes it hurts that it's City of all people that are dominating at the moment but quit comparing us to them and look at what we have achieved since LVG was pushed.
The improvement is there for people to see, they are just choosing not to.
18 Dec 2017 18:46:05
12 days I agree with u 12 times over.
18 Dec 2017 19:39:00
I think you are comparing the wrong things and using the wrong benchmarks.
What you are saying in a nutshell is because a guy beat up 10 people last weekend, and this weekend he only beat up 5 people he is becoming a better citizen, so quit complaining. There is no denying he is behaving better of course, but is it good enough compared to the guy that beats nobody up (City)?
We need to compare ourselves against City at the minute, both in terms of points on the board and the manner of obtaining those points. We are a hard watch, grinding out wins, shutting up shop against any half decent side we play against and I can't see how much more improvement is available if we continue to go down this path - it's the same performance virtually every single week (horrible to watch) . Yes we will pick up the occasional fortunate win against decent opposition (Arsenal, to a lesser extent Spurs), but on the whole our focus is on not getting beat, our focus prior to the LVG/ Moyes debacle was "go and beat" whoever we play for the most part.
So yes we are doing better on paper, but I think we are using clever accounting techniques and we are the footballing equivalent of Enron at the minute. The manager doesn't seem committed, players don't seem on-board, hard to deny we are playing long ball more than we should, slow football when we don't resort to hoofing it, it's a slippery slope that requires £150m+ every summer just to keep it going it seems. Most of us would agree we need 4-5 world class signings to compete with City still, how much will that cost and would they want to play for a team that plays our way? Then can Jose's negative tactics compete with Pep's tactics if we do get his ideal players, (not to mention our European rivals)? If Pep was managing us and Jose was managing City, I genuinely think the Utd would be top of the league, it is a massive factor unfortunately and I think it's too easily overlooked - not sure what the answer is but Jose is not going to overturn City going down the path he is taking in my opinion.
Our main rival has improved more than we have, that is a massive problem for me, because they already has a big head-start.
18 Dec 2017 19:57:14
I agree with you Beast although I’m probably a bit more optimistic:-) I’m never sure which United is going to turn up these days. The entertaining free flowing fast passing team I love watching or the scared park the bus and hit it long United which is becoming more frequent. I get that there can be off days but since when do united hold on by their finger nails for 3 points against WBA. We should be smashing these teams out of sight, beating them before they’ve even stepped onto the pitch.
Forget this defend in numbers. Leave the top 3 up front and get a playmaker in who can get the ball to them quickly.
{Ed025's Note - im with you mate..
19 Dec 2017 02:59:31
I think it would be fair to compare us vs city if you extrapolated our matches with pogba to a full healthy/ non suspended season. He’s shown how much our team is centered on his unique skill set with how much more we win and how many more goals a game we score when he’s playing. Feel free to do the math but I’m pretty sure we’d be right behind city, and definitely would have had a better chance in the derby. What gives me hope despite frustrations is that if we can keep pogba on the field we are much closer to city if not equal in terms of quality and results. It’s been during pogba-less stretches that we’ve fallen behind.
19 Dec 2017 09:00:42
I think (hope) unitedred, that that is exactly what we are building towards. (We hung on for our lives in more than a few Fergie era games though against 'small' teams. )
19 Dec 2017 12:06:00
beast will have u believe that during SAF days, teams would poop themselves before playing us, but nostalgia can be tricky coz from a realistic vantage point it was nothing like that.
Also, I'm not sure if pep would've beaten Jose had the roles been reversed.
If u haven't seen improvement in the team in the past two odd years then we'll always be at loggerheads.
19 Dec 2017 15:03:30
I agree KG. Pogba has only played in 8 PL games. 7 wins and a draw. 24 goals for and 6 goals against and we have scored 4 goals in 4 off those games.
19 Dec 2017 16:04:32
I think KG hit the nail on the head there, 100% agree with that.
{Ed001's Note - have you not seen Malcolm play? He would be a great addition.}