Do we have any idea how to attack?

Steven7290

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Watching the last couple of games without Pogba has given me the feeling of either Mourinho didn't hire an attacking coach or if he did, the guy needs to be replaced immediately.

Every time the ball makes it to the final third, the player on the ball is always expected to pull something out of his arse while three or four other stand still 2 miles away showing no support, runs or even intent to help out a little bit? And don't get me started on players' runs towards the goal. Numerous occasions someone put a nice pass across the goal with players from afar just watch it go slowly like a rare species of bird.

It can't be tactics can it?
 
Please refer to my do we need an attacking coach thread :)
 
Is quite obvious, we work on the defensive shape but the attacking players are given free license to do whatever they want in the final third. Too bad the players are spineless and choose to pass the responsibility or take the easy way out.
 
Isn't there a story the Real players were shocked there wasn't really an attacking plan with Jose? He just let them get on with it?

There's some that say if your attackers are good enough, then they should just be left to wreak havoc :lol:

I don't know where I stand.
 
Not really. Been this way for the vast majority of the calendar year.

Of course, do expect somebody to argue with you that the likes of Martial, Mkhitaryan, Mata, Pogba and Rashford just aren't good enough to score more than one goal per game. Buy more!
 
People have been just banging on the poor finishing this season. Our attacking movement has been mediocre all season. Absolutely non existent today.
 
There are no tactics for attacking from what I can observe. Jose has given full freedom to our attacking unit to do things on their own.

Strange.. our attacking players couldn't do it under lvg, so strict with setup. Couldn't do it with mou, who appears to put no such restrictions.
 
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Not bad for a manager that just leaves his attackers to do as they please.
 
Bubz27 said:
Isn't there a story the Real players were shocked there wasn't really an attacking plan with Jose? He just let them get on with it?

There's some that say if your attackers are good enough, then they should just be left to wreak havoc :lol:

I don't know where I stand.
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I think when you have an attack as good as Madrid's that is probably true. But our players are a million miles away from them and it shows.
 
No we don't. Jose needs some pressure from somewhere and be forced to address it. Some of us keep saying, add some coaches to work with the attackers as that's not Jose's strength. No one expects a manager to do everything, it's normal to add resources where you need them. It's also to help Jose as well.
 
Martial, Lingard, and Rooney are just completely useless atm. Fellaini offers more in attacking than these three currently. Ever since Martial and his wife/gf had their whole split/drama he's been awful. Rooney has lost everything. I mean he can't even make a simple pass anymore. Lingard has always been mediocre but he seems more interested in drawing a foul than actually playing.
 
Our transitional play from defence to attack is non existent most of the time so I'm not surprised
 
Kag said:
Not really. Been this way for the vast majority of the calendar year.

Of course, do expect somebody to argue with you that the likes of Martial, Mkhitaryan, Mata, Pogba and Rashford just aren't good enough to score more than one goal per game. Buy more!
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But these players showed they can score, look at Martial last season in LVG's so called restrictive set up. There's no way they're being coached properly in this respect. I fear for us against Ajax. We'll need a massive amount of luck to win that.
 
Crashoutcassius said:
Surprise surprise, a mourinho team that can defend but not attack.

I swear nobody ever watched mourinho teams before this year
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If your idea of defending is having 5 defenders and two holding mids then yeah... when it actually comes to defending however..
 
Skills said:
Do we have any ambition to attack?
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Of course not. If we attack think about how badly we will lose. It's much better to try and defend, but not really know how to.
 
Jazz said:
But these players showed they can score, look at Martial last season in LVG's so called restrictive set up. There's no way they're being coached properly in this respect. I fear for us against Ajax. We'll need a massive amount of luck to win that.
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I wouldn't be at all surprised if we didn't score more than three goals in our next three games. We're fecking gutless going forward.
 
I think should hold off with the moans today.
Today was only ever going to be about merely getting through a fixture stuck in the way of the real game of our season.

Hopefully not a real thrashing
 
Bubz27 said:
Isn't there a story the Real players were shocked there wasn't really an attacking plan with Jose? He just let them get on with it?

There's some that say if your attackers are good enough, then they should just be left to wreak havoc :lol:

I don't know where I stand.
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Yeah. Surprisingly enough he allows his attacking players more freedom than Guardiola, for example - trusting that if you create the openings for them, they'll deliver. It usually works, but not so much with us this season - especially without Ibra.

Ibrahimovic, Eto'O both said that they felt much more comfortable with Mourinho (despite him shoehorning Eto'O on the right wing)
 
Bailly is probably our best attacker which says it all
 
AXVnee7 said:
I refer you to post #9.
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Yes I too watched gary neville on tv. I've also been watching mourinho teams for 15 years. They aren't slick attackers. They unquestionably have put lots of goals past weak teams in the past though, especially when it is ronaldo vs getafe or similar.

Don't get me wrong either, he is the best manager of all time. His teams have just never been about playing good football. They have been about winning, getting goals from set plays and nullifying the other team. I am just shocked that people believed the nonsense in the summer about how ronaldo scored 89 goals vs getafe one season and mourinho is a legendary attacking coach
 
Most of the time they all just pass to someone who is easiest to pass to because none of them want to take responsibility. Last year it worked because Martial was great. This year Ibrahimovic is out and Rashford is far too tired to do that, Mkhi is in poor form as well as Martial so they give it to Pogba who can't carry the ball up the pitch and score a goal for the team every game because that's not his game. It's either that or pump to Valencia who can't do anything with it because whoever just passed the ball doesn't want to run into box.
 
Crashoutcassius said:
Yes I too watched gary neville on tv. I've also been watching mourinho teams for 15 years. They aren't slick attackers. They unquestionably have put lots of goals past weak teams in the past though, especially when it is ronaldo vs getafe or similar.

Don't get me wrong either, he is the best manager of all time. His teams have just never been about playing good football. They have been about winning, getting goals from set plays and nullifying the other team. I am just shocked that people believed the nonsense in the summer about how ronaldo scored 89 goals vs getafe one season and mourinho is a legendary attacking coach
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But now there's two separate arguments. One is over attacking, and the other how pretty the football is. The objective of attacking is ultimately to score no? So the notion that Mourinho teams do not attack is nonsense.

But for what it's worth, Mourinho teams have at times played some dazzling football. It's only the bus parking that gets remembered though. Take his last PL win with Chelsea, the first half of the season they played some stellar football, but people only reference the second half where they grinded out the victories. In fact, we have played good football at times this season in small patches. The two usually go hand in hand, but not always.
 
Sandikan said:
I think should hold off with the moans today.
Today was only ever going to be about merely getting through a fixture stuck in the way of the real game of our season.

Hopefully not a real thrashing
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While I agree to a certain extent, even if it was a nothing game I don't think it's too much to ask for even an intent in attack. We have zero.
Mourinho's team may not be pretty in attack at times but they never lacked steel, fire, passion like we see with this squad.
 
Yup, I suspect he have zero attacking coach. Nadda. Still a speculation mind.

But like the other posters 've mentioned, he coach the team and work on the defensive aspects fully, which is why our defence is good this season, having that unbeaten record and all, and leave all the attacking aspects totally on the players. Big reason why he brought on three quality creative attackers ~ Zlatan, Mkhitaryan and Pogba. Well, even Bailly love to make attacking moves with his pass and movements.

Mourinho trust and rely on our creative players to do the thinking on how to attacks, creating attacking patterns, etc. In theory, this total freedom would free a lot of the creative players, too much restrictions are hindering like Herrera struggle under LVG. It's actually proven too though, many of Jose's past teams produced awesome attacks in the past, even us during the mid season, starting around September was it. Our attacks are creative enough, we have abundance enough players who are creative enough in making chances. It's just that this end of season, we're overall bad attackingly. Fatigue and no Zlatan are two huge factors, plus many of the creative players are off form.
 
Pogba is essentially our only genuine link from defense to attack, without his presence in the team our build-up play suffers as a consequence.

Jose needs to add another creative link in the middle of the park this summer, along with some added firepower up front in the form of a Greizeman, Belloti etc

I honestly don't think we are that far away from a title challenge, if Jose can identify and purchase the right targets I believe we will surprise people.
 
We just have no synergy in attack. No cohesion. Often looks like you just stuck 11 players on the field for the first time.

When you watch other teams, they attack with a clear plan and structure.

Like Tottenham for example. They don't have world beaters(they've got good players of course) and they look MILES better than us in attack.

Really hope we improve nexton seas . Our attack since Fergie retired has been awful. Not scored over 70 goals in the league not even once since the great man left.
 
Also, attacks started often pretty much from the back.

We have two good keepers already who is a good passer and can start attacks well ~ De Gea and Romero, the latter seems better at doing this. So, no problem here.

It's the defence, particularly the CBs that we have a big problem, Except Rojo, Blind and Bailly who are that good in passing and knows when and how to release the balls efficiently, Jones and Smalling are often clueless when they have the balls ~ their limitations. Part of why often opponents let the two of them have the balls all day long, and focus on marking the others who are good like Carrick, thus why Carrick often struggle playing with them two in keeping possession. It's bad when often than not they just pass to keeper, killing momentum of attacks. The fullbacks are okay.

In the midfield, generally good enough, but admittedly Herrera and Mata love too much passing backwards to the defence and keeper. Fellaini and Lingard too. I understand it is to not lose possession and attract more opponents upwards to make more space, or starting long ball attacks, it's just that they do it too much to my liking in our half, and unnecessarily killing momentum sometimes, I often see Pogba gets irritated with this. Carrick do that more appropriately, often his decision making in when to make forward or backward passess is spot on. Pogba often always looking for the forward passes creatively. Rooney is not that creative in terms of movements and patterns, but can deliver good passes forward or cross field tbf.

:cool:Just my opinion~
 
The days of people wanting Zlatan dropped and calling Pogba shit seem a million years ago. Our best players by far.
 
Sally no. Under José it seems to be a tremendous focus on defending and not conceding and little on attack. It feels like the plan is to defend and hope for a chance that offers the option to attack.

It may have worked for José in the past but the best teams now force the issue and play in creative patterns.

As per @Raees thread, we definitely need an attacking coach regardless of what we sign or so we buy.
 
Bubz27 said:
Isn't there a story the Real players were shocked there wasn't really an attacking plan with Jose? He just let them get on with it?
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...and did Real Madrid post some form of record for most goals scored ... or similar?
The simple truth is that bar Ibra, the rest of our attackers just don't have the balls to attack the goal.
Martial will do some nice dribbles.
Miki will run from our own half, towards the goal, then get tripped up and fall on his face.
Rashford is still a teenager.
Lingard tries so desperately hard, but doesn't have the ability of our other attackers.
Mata, is a player in his prime, but isn't prolific.
Ibra is our best attacker, but is injured.
And finally...we have our record breaker, Wayne Rooney.

Given that Ibra may come back in the new year and Rashford is definitely our future, I'd have serious talks over the Summer with the remaining attackers to find out what they want to do. Depending on this, we need to buy attackers who want to score goals.
 
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