If this is the case he may as well say we are fighting to get to the last 16 then we've achieved our goal. Fecking hate this.
Mourinho just said we were always fighting for second place in this group
- Thread starter padzilla
- Start date
-
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.
Yes which means hea completely oblivious to players transfers fees and values then right. Do you really think Ed doesnt report back with respect to the budget and other targets?
If Mourinho came out and said I have coached this team to the very best of my ability and this is what this lot can achieve, then i'd be inclined to offer more support, but him wanting the likes of Willian/Perisic, how is that going to improve anything? They'd be lined up as auxiliary WBs and he'd moan about the sun not rising from the north.
Forget all this club over haul talk, when Wenger was leaving the whole world was certain Arsenal would need a few years to recover and that Emery would need to change everyone. Look at them now
Its still the same old setup. Do you really believe SAF wasn't overridden too? Take Batistuta and Salas deal as an example or the time he was forced to sell Stam. I doubt he was too eager seeing his stars being systematically replaced by Young, Smalling, Jones, Valencia and Cleverley either
He just went on with his job and encouraged players instead of throwing them under the bus. In exchange they sweat blood for him.
Even an idiot knows Pogba and Lukaku would have costed us big especially with chelsea and real sniffing around them
If he has said that we were already bound to finish second (which he has) then this is absolutely a concession.
You are wasting your time with that guy
Partly? I'd say totally. He forked 50 m on a mid like fred and is still wanting to use fella into change the game. Refused to get any playmaker in the middle as well or a right winger like Mahrez, while we play so damn poor that we can't hold the ball for more than 10 seconds if we attack and not silly rally with the ball.
They just came at old Trafford, our home ground, played in second gear and easily kept us quiet, as we dint even wanted to attack for 60 mins and then you come out and say they are better on home turf by spending 400 m,while missing on Fellani to change the game? Ridiculous.
Arsenal haven't played well. They have been extremely lucky, and are highly suspect at the back. They should have lost to Everton, Watford and Leicester. It is almost a travesty that they collected nine points from those games.
feck him.
And to make sure my post is not canned - what does it take for some on here to assign fault to his tenure instead of making empty excuses?
This team has got great players and where we're weak it's his fault (playing Young, Matic, Fellaini) or his buys that are failing us.
It doesn't matter how good your team is in all walks of life if the atmosphere driven from the top downright stinks. Once people see their boss is a dick, they lose motivation and all semblance of a coherent team goes out the window. This is doubly more obvious in a team sport where you need to be a well-oiled machine in front of millions each time you step on that pitch.
And to make sure my post is not canned - what does it take for some on here to assign fault to his tenure instead of making empty excuses?
This team has got great players and where we're weak it's his fault (playing Young, Matic, Fellaini) or his buys that are failing us.
It doesn't matter how good your team is in all walks of life if the atmosphere driven from the top downright stinks. Once people see their boss is a dick, they lose motivation and all semblance of a coherent team goes out the window. This is doubly more obvious in a team sport where you need to be a well-oiled machine in front of millions each time you step on that pitch.
Last edited:
You don't get what I'm saying.
I agree, but they got the points because they attacked. To quote the great south London philosopher, Sir Derek of Trotter, ‘he who dares, wins, innit?!’.
I thought he was a winner
You guys think this team is better than Juves
In recent years we have seen the likes of Dortmund and Spurs top Real Madrid's group.
It would have been acceptable only if he added "And I'm part of the problem, I know I fecked up the budget for two years", he might even get a bit of cash.
Well they've won a good number of games, but I think they'll end up fighting it out with Spurs for 4th... we'll see. In fairness to them, they put in place plans for Wenger's succession with additions like Mislintat and Sanllehi, people with proven track records working in football in senior levels of the club. We just have Ed Woodward.
But there's improvements and you can see Emery's attacking stamp already asserting itself. No one would have faulted Emery if he finished 5th or 6th this season, expectations were rock bottom, Arse fans were not expecting a title challenge but here they are two points off the top with almost the same players playing fantastic football while we're still talking about an overhaul after 2 seasons and 400m
He shouldn't be saying it but realistically we were. Just look at the starting line up tonight, probably what most here would have picked but it's no where near CL challenging standard. You can carry one or two weaker quality starters (like maybe Cuadrado for Juve) but not 7 or 8 like us.
Yes only partially. While I have no doubt he'll have least ok'd these players, they will have been ultimately recommended by scouts, won't all have been his first choices (some of which appear to have been vetoed by Woodward) and Mourinho will have had nothing at all to do with negotiating fees or contracts.
So in short, while Mourinho is to blame for our over-priced and under-performing squad, he is far from the only one. More than enough blame to go around here, unfortunately.
I don't think those two other people you mentioned have anything to do with their on pitch performances over the last 6 months unless they are coaching the players too. I don't get all the sudden talk about the board or Woody being responsible for our woeful performances, he has his failings but what the feck is he going to do when he hired who he felt was one of the worlds best coaches, gives him 2 years and 400m yet the guy still has us needing Fellaini to win have any chance of winning games? Arsenal fans were protesting their board on the streets a year ago but they now have a better board than us because they hired 2 guys with the coach? This is the reason they are playing good football?
It's one thing to expect to finish 2nd, it's another to say you were always fighting for 2nd. For example, Lyon probably expected/hoped for 2nd place at the start of group, but they were always going to fight for 1st as long as it's possible.
You'd expect more ambition from the manager of one of the biggest football clubs in the world.
You'd expect more ambition from the manager of one of the biggest football clubs in the world.
Mourinho really have y'all believing we are some scrappy underdogs. The likes of Bayern and Juve did not even bother going after Sanchez once they saw his wage demands. Yet we have him.
I agree with your criticism of United. It's just that supporters are, understandably, won over by results. I don't think Arsenal have actually improved from last season, or very little. They've just had some massive slabs of luck. Also, if Wenger had presided over these precise performances, they'd all be saying "yeah, but the defence is sh*t, and what happens when we play the big teams?". But because Emery is managing the team, the perception is that something new and exciting is happening.
What’s actually laughable is people thinking we are anywhere near champion levels with this squad. Reading the match day thread shows that there’s far more going on than just Jose. It’s lukaku, it’s pogba, it’s mata, it’s rashford, it’s matic, it’s martial, it’s young, bitch, bitch, bitch. There no consensus at all.
Sacking the manager didn’t work the first two times we did it, and it’s not gonna fix us now. There’s no one available that’s better than Jose. There’s no one that can turn water into wine. These players are sucking at doing the basics, the shit you shouldn’t need to be trained to do.
Is Jose blameless? Of course not. Is he alone and sacking him solve the problem? There’s nothing to suggest that will happen. We might get the typical bump in performance that those relegation teams are always trying to get, but actual change? Nope. It will paper over the other cracks and we’ll be right back here again having the same arguments. If there some guaranteed winner that available waiting to come in and take us forward, cool. Let’s do it. But there isn’t. And getting yet another guy in without doing due diligence is fecking stupid.
Sacking the manager didn’t work the first two times we did it, and it’s not gonna fix us now. There’s no one available that’s better than Jose. There’s no one that can turn water into wine. These players are sucking at doing the basics, the shit you shouldn’t need to be trained to do.
Is Jose blameless? Of course not. Is he alone and sacking him solve the problem? There’s nothing to suggest that will happen. We might get the typical bump in performance that those relegation teams are always trying to get, but actual change? Nope. It will paper over the other cracks and we’ll be right back here again having the same arguments. If there some guaranteed winner that available waiting to come in and take us forward, cool. Let’s do it. But there isn’t. And getting yet another guy in without doing due diligence is fecking stupid.
This is the biggest issue I have at the moment. Jose is being honest in his assessment of the ambition of the club, his disappointment with the scouting network (something being picked up again) and he's being honest about the quality of some of these players. But the thing that he's not acknowledging is that a lot of these signings have been made under HIS time as United manager. Matic and Lukaku were two of the worst players tonight. Are these guys going to bridge the gap between us and the top clubs at the moment? I don't think so.
Moyes, LVG, and Jose have all expressed disappointment with their backing from the board but a lot of money has been spent here. I do feel Jose is right in a lot of what he's said but looking at his signings you can't say he's not without blame.
My point is we don't need this big overhaul everyone is talking about after 2 seasons of spending. Arsenal didn't need an overhaul to play good football despite the manager just being there 6 months and neither do we, we just need a manager who knows what the feck he's doing
They were brought in prior to Wenger's departure (Mislintat has now been there a year). They were instrumental in formulating Arsenal's transfer plans and appointing Wenger's successor, so I'd say they can share some credit for any success the club might have in the next couple of years.
Woodward has, since 2013, has been the person ultimately responsible for the football side of United's business - from the scouting set up, to the buying and selling of players, to contract renewals, to the appointment (and sacking) of managers. Five years of almost total disaster.
People on here saying the subs would not have done much are deluding themselves.
You think if this was the CL semi-final and we absolutely needed a goal with 15 mins to go, Mourinho would've made no changes?
The reason he made no changes is a simple cost-benefit, and probability, exercise. In his mind, there is a high risk that disrupting the team would mean the game ends 0-2, and the slim chance that the changes bring it to 1-1 is not worth that risk. It says a lot about how much he believes in the subs.
It became clear in his post match interview. We are putting our eggs in the Valencia and Young Boys games which should be enough to see us finish second.
You think if this was the CL semi-final and we absolutely needed a goal with 15 mins to go, Mourinho would've made no changes?
The reason he made no changes is a simple cost-benefit, and probability, exercise. In his mind, there is a high risk that disrupting the team would mean the game ends 0-2, and the slim chance that the changes bring it to 1-1 is not worth that risk. It says a lot about how much he believes in the subs.
It became clear in his post match interview. We are putting our eggs in the Valencia and Young Boys games which should be enough to see us finish second.
That man bought like 15 players who were all shite bar one or two, he's the most backed manager we've had so far, even than Jose, please his excuses should not even be taken into account
He wasn't responsible for Moyes, thats all on Fergie. Whatever you think Arsenal did concerning Wengers successor had as much chance of failure, same as us with our managers. We could have easily have hired some other manager and be enjoying huge success right now with this same Woodward. But at the end of the day, the football we and Arse are playing right now, is down to the manager, do you feel Arsenal would be playing crap right now under Emery if they didn't hire those two guys you mention? I'd love it if we could get someone else instead of Woody to handle the running of the club, but all in all I think he's trying his best, the managers he keeps hiring are letting him down
Without Faria he is lost.
Nearly the same can be said of Jose-is it 8 or 9 players signed now and are we any closer to bridging the gap? We got 2nd last season which Jose said was one of his best career achievements with the quality of this squad and now look where we are. We obviously don't know all that happens behind the scenes but there is something wrong with our recruitment. Money has been spent, our wage bill is ridiculously high and yet this is the end result.
We are paying Sanchez half a million A WEEK in wages, and what has he done for that. Nothing. Except laugh all the way to the bank. There are too many players in that team who don't give two hoots about United.
Is that your idea of not backing a manager? They have all been backed, pity they're all shite.
Yes.
With him as the manager.
It's something we as fans were probably thinking, but it shows a poor mentality for our manager to come out and say that to the media.
Louis van Gaal at least would've tried to win ball possession and brag about it.
I don't know what do I expect from this team any more. Pointless football, would only make sense if we had result but Jesus, we're happy to lose 0-1 at home.
I don't know what do I expect from this team any more. Pointless football, would only make sense if we had result but Jesus, we're happy to lose 0-1 at home.
This is one of those "yeah we know, just don't say it" type of things.
That's a fair point Vishnu, but some of our players not being good isn't an excuse for everything.