[Crimson King]

That was said about the squad with all of the previous managers.
You can not expect to keep changing all of the players. They have to be improved by the coaches as well of course signing the right players.

We're still having to rely on most of those players, especially when there's an injury or two.

Then there's just the fact that a lot of those big signings (Pogba, Maguire, AWB, Ronaldo, Fred, possibly Sancho...) have failed or were signed for the wrong reasons/without a long term strategy. It feels like the club has started to turn a corner here, but a lot of will depend on what happens in the summer.

I actually think AWB and Fred have improved under EtH, or at least he's managed to adapt the team to better draw out their strengths and hide their flaws. Rashford has also refound his form, along with Shaw. Dalot...still so-so, but doesn't seem as hopeless a prospect as before this season started. Garnacho has been introduced to the team well, and I imagine we'll see more and more of Mainoo next season.

There's only so much you can coach into a player if the basic ingredients are limited. Pep has managed to eek out what he can from players, but he's often had elite players in every position to deal with. Players that just aren't up to it were moved in quickly, and sometimes brutally e.g. Joe Hart.

 

[Houdini]

DDG is out of contract in the summer and we should not be renewing. I hope ETH realises this and puts his foot down.

I agree but only if we have a proper replacement. Despite his brain farts and shite passing, he is still a WC shot-stopper. We need a WC keeper to raplace him.

 

[DSG]

Couple of things here.

‘First off, there really wasn’t much of a tactical change by Sevilla between the first leg and second leg. ETH knew they were going to press high very aggressively from goal kicks. He also knew they were going to be quite conservative by committing 5 players I. The high press, but really dropping the back 4 + one midfielder back, leaving acres of space in the middle of the pitch. Bruno wasn’t playing, so even when we played out of the back and broke the press to the middle of the pitch. The through balls to the wings were lacking the inventiveness/ precision.

Secondly, their out balls to their wings were followed by an overload. We failed to take advantage of that on the turnover because all progression was too slow. Not enough precise switches of play. Again, we missed Bruno.

In retrospect, he should have benched Sabitzer and pushed Eriksen into the Bruno role. I know Feed is in the doghouse right now, but he should have started him alongside Casemiro. He’s better in defending the overloads because he’s a pesky attack dog defensively.

‘Finally, why constantly try to play through the press when we’ve seen Maguire consistently give away balls when playing out of the back. The combination of DeGea, Maguire and Lindelof trying to play out of the back is just way too dangerous. DDG didn’t exactly help Maguire with that pass… Maguire muffed it and it’s suddenly 1-0…

In terms of blame for the loss, it has to go DDG, Maguire and ETH, in that order. Erik has to be responsible for the loss, and frankly, while his tactics worked really well in the first 70 minutes of the first leg, he failed to recognize that it would be difficult to play that way without Bruno, Martinez and Varane.

So, I would say while the players absolutely deserve blame, is it really their fault when ETH asks them to do things that they have shown time and again unable to do with this starting 11?

 

[Buster15]

There is a reason we keep saying it. We see the same failures from the same players.

We recruited poorly - we are suffering the consequences.

I will second that. In general recruitment has been very poor at best.

 

[Buster15]

Before ETH it was universally agreed that we had about three players that were up to the standard required.

ETH has improved most of the players, some still aren’t up to it.

This emerging narrative that ETH is the same as our previous managers is one of the dumbest things I’ve seen on this forum in about 10 years and that’s saying something.

No. It was certainly not my intention to criticise EtH in any way. I am on record as saying how well he has been doing.
I was simply saying that we can not keep saying that we need to bin the squad and sign another. That is not sensible or achievable.

 

[croadyman]

same old same old from a core of players that continually let us down in the big games. Yet another slow start away in Europe by a team that made me think i had travelled back in time 1 or even 2 years. The exasperation of ETH was palpable, i'm sure he cant wait until the summer to show the door to a lot of these chancers.

Trouble is unless we get new owners he won't be able to show the door to enough players

 

[croadyman]

It all comes down to the first leg for me. We had them by the bollocks and we allowed the game to drift and become open. We surrendered all control. The nature of their goals may have been lucky, but they should have never been in that position in the first place.

Not only were they an average team, but they were also a rotated average team.

Yeah City just don't let that happen at all

 

[GueRed]

The pressure was on and IMO quite a few players hid.

Disappointing.

Away results and performances have to improve next season.

0-4 Brentford, 3-6 Man City, 0-7 Liverpool, 0-2 Newcastle and Seville the other night, just unacceptable.

 

[Fitchett]

It just goes to show how much the match going fans at Old Trafford drive the team on. Last home defeat was against Real Sociedad in September. And that was only because of a ridiculous handball decision against Martinez.

 

[gerdm07]

Brighton will batter us. In the FA Cup and the league.

To be honest, I think Brighton have the better chance of beating this city side in the final. Maybe we should all be supporting Brighton on Sunday

If we play at least to our 90% best we can beat Brighton. We still have some very good play in us. The second goal vs NF is proof. The 8 or so passes before the goal was top drawer.

 

[tango28]

Match showed Maguire + De Gea + Martial simply don't have the resilliance to be manchester united players anymore

 

[McTerminator]

No. It was certainly not my intention to criticise EtH in any way. I am on record as saying how well he has been doing.
I was simply saying that we can not keep saying that we need to bin the squad and sign another. That is not sensible or achievable.

In that case I agree with you.

My criticism is directed at the posters who really do not believe ETH has improved us.

on a similar note If City win the treble I’m avoiding this place for a few weeks. The meltdown from those same posters will be nuclear.