How good is our squad, really?
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Chelsea only finished 4 points behind City and were and were in the title race for most of the season we aren’t in as strong a position as they were last summer and they still needed a pretty big transfer window to improve. There is no doubt about it we are a long way off and whether we are sticking with 3-5-2 long term or using a different formation next season there will have to be a lot of changes at the club and when that much change occurs it is very difficult to predict how successful it will be.
Most attempted long balls across Europe's top 5 leagues this term:
Man Utd (1460)
Burnley (1437)
Southampton (1317)
QPR (1309)
Metz (1294)
Man Utd (1460)
Burnley (1437)
Southampton (1317)
QPR (1309)
Metz (1294)
Can't you keep your trolling to a more relevant thread?
In my opinion Pep hasn't proved himself by taking control of a team and making the correct purchases to keep that team competitive. He's been handed two of the best squads in the last 3 decades and in the case of Barcelona stepped them up a gear and in the case of Bayern just about kept them going (taking over a treble winning team).
Plus his record in the transfer market is mediocre at best, which is a cornerstone of keeping a team successful. Maybe we'll see what he's made of over the next decade at Bayern, however I think there's a good chance he'll leave before their team needs to be rebuilt.
Mourinho has also proven to be the best manager in the world (or at least in the top 2) and was already experienced in the Premier League. Squad wise I think the weaknesses are very similar (albeit in different areas). Also bear in mind that the majority of our signings have been injured this season; I'm sure Chelsea would have been 7-8 points down if Hazard, Cahill, Azpilicueta & Terry were injured half of last season.
You wonder how much power Pep has at Bayern, there are a lot of ex players involved there. Who exactly decides who to buy?
Whether we have players injured or not the performances and results haven’t really varied much, Chelsea were better last season and needed less work to be competitive and they also had the added bonus of a manager who knows and has won the Premier League. I don’t agree the weaknesses were similar, they had a settled side, a good spine, not many injury prone players and they sorted it out by buying really well in the summer which is something we are struggling to do. They were lacking a little bit of quality and creativity in the final third and a bit more squad depth and that was about it, the difference between that and trying to sort this Utd team out is night and day, potentially LVG can do it but I don’t think there are any guarantees he will or how long he will take.
If we are to be competitive next year then we need to start seeing improvement between now and the end of the season but so far there is little indication of that happening based on recent performances.
Gotta assume he was involved in Bernat and Alonso coming, especially the latter, right? Maybe Reina too. Lewandowski was long in the works and Benatia I have no idea. Same for Rode.
This horrifying statistic belongs in one of the threads on Van Gaal or 3 at the back.
Chelsea's squad is so strong it's depressing. If they sign Cuadrado, all they have to do this summer is upgrade Mikel's spot and their squad is complete as feck.
I'd say the main problem with discussing the strength of our squad (same problem last season, which is perhaps telling in itself) is that our defenders in particular are in the "undecided" bracket to a large extent. I have no idea whether Smalling and Jones will ever emerge as top class players (and I assume we all agree that the latter is what we aim for). They haven't ever demonstrated beyond doubt that they are. The same goes for Evans and Rafael (to a lesser extent - I'd say he has shown more than the others, but still not quite enough).
Rojo hasn't done enough (obviously) to prove himself either. This means we haven't got a single central defender we can be confident about. We may have all we need - we may be far too light. Rafael is what he is - a player who has shown a fair bit but not enough (and who is injury prone in the extreme). Shaw is a great talent but simply too raw for anyone to say with absolute doubt that he is all we'll ever need at LB for the next decade.
Seems to me that you can't be confident in the quality of the present squad without making several assumptions, some of which are more likely than others.
Lastly, part of the above goes for our attackers too: If you assume that RVP will regain something like his best form - and assume the same for Falcao - we have immense quality up front. If those assumptions are false, however, we're not looking very impressive at all. We have a still-going-strong Rooney and a promising kid, the former being mainly used as a midfielder these days.
Rojo hasn't done enough (obviously) to prove himself either. This means we haven't got a single central defender we can be confident about. We may have all we need - we may be far too light. Rafael is what he is - a player who has shown a fair bit but not enough (and who is injury prone in the extreme). Shaw is a great talent but simply too raw for anyone to say with absolute doubt that he is all we'll ever need at LB for the next decade.
Seems to me that you can't be confident in the quality of the present squad without making several assumptions, some of which are more likely than others.
Lastly, part of the above goes for our attackers too: If you assume that RVP will regain something like his best form - and assume the same for Falcao - we have immense quality up front. If those assumptions are false, however, we're not looking very impressive at all. We have a still-going-strong Rooney and a promising kid, the former being mainly used as a midfielder these days.
Exactly.
We're not without uncertainty in midfield either. Carrick turns 34 in the summer. Nobody is entirely convinced by Fellaini or Mata (as CMs, anyway) and our manager clearly doesn't fancy either Herrera or Di Maria in that role. Hence he's playing a striker out of position ahead of both of him, someone who isn't playing particularly well either.
Which leaves only Daley Blind as an undisputed mainstay of central midfield for the next few years. And he's barely played a handful of games for us in that position!
As I said in the OP, there's massive doubts hanging over every element of our squad. I really don't get the widespread confidence that we're two or three signings away from dominating again.
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Daley Blind is not that talented either.I don't believe he should be first choice.
I think he's great. A really intelligent footballer. Needs the right people around him, though. The one man central midfield role he was asked to play with Di Maria and Hererra really didn't work.
The only players I would describe as valuable to us are:
DDG
Rooney
Di Maria
Will be in the long run:
Shaw
Blind
The rest are either average to poor, injury prone or seemingly past it.
That is not a good squad position.
DDG
Rooney
Di Maria
Will be in the long run:
Shaw
Blind
The rest are either average to poor, injury prone or seemingly past it.
That is not a good squad position.
3 CL titles with 3 different teams in 3 different leagues. won the league everywhere he went.
It's a bit depressing when you take a long hard look at our squad, the test being that you argue which of our players would get into Bayern, Madrid, Barca, Chelsea or dare I say a City first team. DDG would get into Real & Barca, maybe Rooney would have a chance (as a forward)? ADM should interest all of them I imagine (as a wideman/winger/AM), but then after that its open to speculation, I honestly can't imagine a current United player, (based on current form) playing for any of those teams mentioned.
We need more strengthening, no doubt. I think this season has opened our eyes to how limited our defence is. The fact we have had to change formation to protect them says everything.
Over how many years, though?
Pep is a baby compared to LvG so it's not really fair to use their achievements thus far as a basis for who is better.
I thought he was talking about Jose?
One thing LvG and Jose have in common is that they both manage to piss off their employers eventually.
I think the main issues with our defenders are: injuries; confidence and being really awful on the ball in a system which relies on them being comfortable with it. Agreed Evans has been very poor, this should have been his coming of age.
I think injuries have forced LVG's hand. At times we have had to play 5 at the back due to no fullbacks, but that's a mistake dating back to the transfer window. We all know Rafael is injury prone and letting Evra go was a mistake.
Disagree with that, I think he has a lot to offer. Once we create more chances he will be banging the goals in.
But why should that be a criticism of our attacking midfielder? That's the point im getting at. He shouldn't be judged on his defence contributions, his primary role is to attack.
It would be interesting to see what Di Maria would be like in a number 10 role, personally I think he would do well.
I think Mata unbalances the team when played at number 10. If Di Maria is played at LCM in a diamond then our inside left channel is extremely feeble. A player carrying the ball from their penalty box to ours would be going through Mata->Di Maria->Carrick. That's flimsy indeed.
I dont blame Mata as such because he is who he is, but I dont think you can play him in midfield/no. 10 alongside Di Maria.
Going back to your previous post:
Well if he’s played as a number 10 in typical 4-2-3-1, then I would say his lack of defensive contribution is fine. But you’re talking about Diamod with Di Maria in midfield, Mata at the tip AND 2 more strikers. This midfield is too weak if you ask me, would rather play Rooney/Herrera at the tip. Most goals he’s scoring are not exacty from midfield IMO, he has typical striker movement/positioning.
Disagree about the Di Maria in number 10 role, for me he doesn’t suit that playmaker role, he’s too direct-minded.
What about our static, snail slow attack and dire lack of creativity?
Look at our shots on target stats for matches this season. We didn't even have 1 against Southampton!
We need a clear out and spree at least equal to that of last summer this summer.
Sir Alex was a good 75% of this team. Seriously.
Easy answer...our squad is not really that good at all.
DeGea, Rojo, Blind, Herrera and Rooney only ones I rate.
I honestly believe if SAF had our current squad, he`d be toe to toe with Chelsea now and would get to final stages of CL too(if we were in the CL of course)
Shame Herrera doesn't play.
For me:
De Gea, Smalling, Rojo, Blind, Carrick, Shaw, Di Maria, Herrera, Januzaj, Mata, Van Persie, Rooney and Wilson are all either Top 3 or have potential to be Top 3 quality.
Extremely talented individuals, who don't suit playing with each other. Very poorly assembled squad.
One month on and squad looking as poor as ever. Jones is still an injury prone liability, Smalling an accident waiting to happen, Evans is... well, enough said, Shaw is a solid defender with a really average final ball, Di Maria is occasionally brilliant but persistently wasteful, Hererra class in patches but blatantly a work in progress, ditto Rojo, Falcao is finished, RvP not much better, Carrick's at an age where he's finding it really hard to stay fit, even Daley fecking Blind is fallible! etc. etc. etc.
Van Gaal deserves stick for not solving all these problems in two transfer windows (although it was a big ask, even with all that money) but IMO deserves a lot of credit for getting this shower to their current position in the league.
Van Gaal deserves stick for not solving all these problems in two transfer windows (although it was a big ask, even with all that money) but IMO deserves a lot of credit for getting this shower to their current position in the league.
Very good and better than most. Still a work in progress though
I'm surprised we're not in the bottom 3