We actually have a very good squad

Amar__

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http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-F...rnational-caps-games-appearances-in-2015.aspx

UNITED TOP 2015 INTERNATIONAL CAPS CHART
Manchester United’s players made a combined 120 senior international appearances in 2015, a record in Europe’s top five leagues.

Only Manchester City can match that figure, according to statistics compiled by the CIES Football Observatory, in a study of 98 clubs in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Chelsea (111) are third, followed by Paris Saint-Germain (106) and Barcelona (99). Other clubs on the list include Tottenham Hotspur (sixth, 98 caps), Arsenal (ninth, 89 caps), Real Madrid (10th, 86 caps) and Liverpool (15th, 75 caps).

United’s tally of appearances were made by 18 players for 10 different nations – only Real (19) have more footballers who played at senior level for their countries this year.

United's 2015 internationals:

- Sergio Romero, 13 matches for Argentina
- Marcos Rojo, 11 matches for Argentina
- Matteo Darmian, 10 matches for Italy
- Daley Blind, 9 matches for the Netherlands
- Wayne Rooney, 8 matches for England
- Morgan Schneiderlin, 8 matches for France
- Memphis Depay, 8 matches for the Netherlands
- Phil Jones, 7 matches for England
- Bastian Schweinsteiger, 6 matches for Germany
- Chris Smalling, 6 matches for England
- Anthony Martial, 6 matches for France
- Marouane Fellaini, 6 matches for Belgium
- Paddy McNair, 5 matches for Northern Ireland
- Antonio Valencia, 4 matches for Ecuador
- Juan Mata, 4 matches for Spain
- David De Gea, 4 matches for Spain
- Michael Carrick, 3 matches for England
- Luke Shaw, 2 matches for England
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Some positive news, at least. Or not, if you stand by van Gaal and still argue that our squad is shit even though everything points otherwise.

This is actually more than decent argument that our squad is quite good, even if you take away Romero(but why should you, when we all know that de Gea deserves more caps, so it kind of evens out), plus our squad is relatively small this year. And looking by names, majority of mentioned players play for big football countries.

Top ten clubs is included in the article.


Still shit? ;)
 
I don't think the actual squad is the problem. We're playing them incorrectly, and getting them to play in a a very constrictive style. LVG is out of ideas.
 
Agree ith the OP, said from day one our squad is fine and lacking a few final additions, an injury crisis is making it seem worse than it is.

There's an argument to be made for the way it has been managed for sure.
 
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dwd said:
Top of the league :drool:

Seriously though, it's pretty sad this is being highlighted.
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The social media team must be genuinely worried so. We could start a hashtag #LVGOut if we're really that desperate.
 
Question234 said:
Agree ith the OP, said from day one our squad is fine and lacking a few final, an injury crisis is making it seem worse than it is.

There's an argument to be made for the way it has ben managed for sure.
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Needed a striker, needed a proper CB. They were key. Injury crisis or not.
 
londonredmaniac said:
:lol: I saw this on manutd.com

Getting desperate!
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What/who exactly is desperate?

Everyone would actually be proud with their squad if they topped this list, only some people here can call it desperate for no reason.
 
londonredmaniac said:
Needed a striker, needed a proper CB. They were key. Injury crisis or not.
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That's the managers fault too, considering he got rid of 3 strikers last summer, and only bought a risky youth buy. God it's infuriating how arrogant he is, thinking his squad size is fine.
 
It's fine squad, really. Just badly managed.

GK: Best in the world
Defense: When fully fit it's probably the best in the league as it's proved
Midfield: Quality players but used wrongly, for example playing two CDMs from players who work better in a midfield 3. Plus restricting them from going forward.
Wingers: We could improve, is it negative tactics that has them playing poorly? I'm not sure.
Strikers: I think Martial and Rooney are fine strikers when on form but the whole ''philosophy'' shit doesn't suit their type of striking ability.
 
Amar__ said:
What/who exactly is desperate?

Everyone would actually be proud with their squad if they topped this list, only some people here can call it desperate for no reason.
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Really? Read what you're writing!

Comical.

Nobody would actually care...there is no context or importance to it. Whatsoever. It might be a cute little soundbite if anything...it's a non story. Not one MUFC I know, attend games with or drink with, nor I have worked with...or work with now would be 'proud' of it.

It means feck all...
 
dwd said:
Top of the league :drool:

Seriously though, it's pretty sad this is being highlighted.
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Hardly, why wouldn't a club promote this, regardless of how they are currently fairing.
 
I agree, there is no massive problem with quality in our squad. We need to plug a few gaps but we dont need to ship a load of players out, we just need to have a bit of patience while some of them, like Martial and Memphis, improve, which I am confident they will.
 
londonredmaniac said:
Really? Read what you're writing!

Comical.

Nobody would actually care...there is no context or importance to it. Whatsoever. It might be a cute little soundbite if anything...it's a non story. Not one MUFC I know, attend games with or drink with, nor I have worked with...or work with now would be 'proud' of it.

It means feck all...
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:lol:

You are the one who seems desperate to prove how unimportant this is. Which is quite sad actually.
 
Amar__ said:
:lol:

You are the one who seems desperate to prove how unimportant this is. Which is quite sad actually.
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Not at all. I think it's a complete non story, I suspect the thread is of course tongue in cheek but your reaction to a throw away post is a little pathetic to be quite honest :lol:

Who actually cares how many international appearances we collectively have? All that matters is are they doing it on the pitch, for us, under our management.

It's a desperate good news story when there is no real story at all.

What it has provoked is a question on whether our squad is good enough/deep enough which is far more interesting.

But carry on.
 
dwd said:
Why would they promote it?
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Why wouldn't they?

You think it's not important to highlight that most featured players during international football are actually Manchester United players, who btw play for quite good sides?

Yeah, that's not important at all, it would be best if they are all shit and not recognised anywhere else in the world in which Manchester United doesn't play.
 
londonredmaniac said:
Not at all. I think it's a complete non story, I suspect the thread is of course tongue in cheek but your reaction to a throw away post is a little pathetic to be quite honest :lol:

Who actually cares how many international appearances we collectively have? All that matters is are they doing it on the pitch, for us, under our management.

It's a desperate good news story when there is no real story at all.

What it has provoked is a question on whether our squad is good enough/deep enough which is far more interesting.

But carry on.
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Well of course that's what's most important, but if they are doing it for top sides like Germany, France, Argentina, etc. and did it before for their former clubs, but they aren't performing well for us then maybe, just maybe we could suspect that there is something wrong with our management of those players, not the players themselves.
 
The fact that Romero and Rojo are the two with the highest caps there says it all about how it relates to the quality of our squad really.
 
But desperate of Man.ud.com to be posting stuff like that.

I think people have gathered we have a decent team but it's being managed completely wrong that's why when Lvg leaves and we get someone in that has a clue then we start putting in better perfromances on a weekly basis.

Still need to shift a few of the deadwood though and in need of 3 or 4 world class or very good players.
 
If Lvg works better with small squads/groups, he should sell a few more, because he still have not proven that "statement" yet!
 
Trizy said:
It's fine squad, really. Just badly managed.

GK: Best in the world
Defense: When fully fit it's probably the best in the league as it's proved
Midfield: Quality players but used wrongly, for example playing two CDMs from players who work better in a midfield 3. Plus restricting them from going forward.
Wingers: We could improve, is it negative tactics that has them playing poorly? I'm not sure.
Strikers: I think Martial and Rooney are fine strikers when on form but the whole ''philosophy'' shit doesn't suit their type of striking ability.
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In truth we're pretty weak up front.

Rooney. He's done physically and he's just not up for it mentally except to break records.
Martial. Young, bags of potential, but far from the polished gem.
Memphis. Overrated IMHO, but still young and there is potential.
Lingard. Young, future solid squad man at best.
Young. Old, solid squad man.
Mata. Skillful, but with limited impact due to a lack of power and pace.

Our overriding problem is the lack of finishing quality. Lingard was presented with a sitter against PSV to send us clean through to the knockout round, but he squandered it. We don't create as many chance as we'd like to, but we've botched too many.

Otherwise, the squad is solid enough for now but our weakness up front is our major worry and must be remedied.
 
Squad could have been even better if LvG did not strip the squad to the bare bones without replacing the players he let go.
 
quackattack said:
If Lvg works better with small squads/groups, he should sell a few more, because he still have not proven that "statement" yet!
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'Selling a few more' and then failing to adequately replace them is the reason why we're playing youth players who've barely even seen the bench in a crucial away game in Wolfsburg. The squad is already small enough as it is.
 
Spock said:
In truth we're pretty weak up front.

Rooney. He's done physically and he's just not up for it mentally except to break records.
Martial. Young, bags of potential, but far from the polished gem.
Memphis. Overrated IMHO, but still young and there is potential.
Lingard. Young, future solid squad man at best.
Young. Old, solid squad man.
Mata. Skillful, but with limited impact due to a lack of power and pace.

Our overriding problem is the lack of finishing quality. Lingard was presented with a sitter against PSV to send us clean through to the knockout round, but he squandered it. We don't create as many chance as we'd like to, but we've botched too many.

Otherwise, the squad is solid enough for now but our weakness up front is our major worry and must be remedied.
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But still compared to the European giants our midfield is average, attack is poor and our RB/2nd CB are decent at best. DDG, Shaw, Smalling, Schneiderlin are the stars but apart from them it's not bad, but not too special imo.
 
Sammyjunn said:
But still compared to the European giants our midfield is average, attack is poor and our RB/2nd CB are decent at best. DDG, Shaw, Smalling, Schneiderlin are the stars but apart from them it's not bad, but not too special imo.
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I'd say you can add Rojo, Herrera and Darmian to that list too. I feel those are players that could shine again under a new manager.
 
We have a core of excellent players with an abundance of room to grow under a new manager.

De Gea, Smalling, Shaw, Schneiderlin, Hererra and martial are going to be the spine of this side for the future, then you have the likes of Darmian, mata, rojo and memphis who under a new manager and some more confidence could make up the foundation of a great side.

Problem is twofold, Firstly our ability to link our financial firepower to our attractiveness to the worlds top players isn't there.

we have the money to go out in january and buy Bale, neymar and muller for the banter, but the problem is until we become a more stable club in europe again, ie regular quarter finalists, and another league title, the very best players dont want to play for us unless they have to. They would rather stay at the comfort zone that is Bayern, barca and madrid, and who can really blame them.

Secondly, Our current coaching setup is failing to utilise the current squads potential. until thats sorted, whats the point of spending 200m on rebuilding our attack if we wont get 200m of play from it.
 
Of course the players are good. Only an idiot would deny that. Our defence is starting to ship goals now but it basically took us losing every single senior defender bar Blind to injury for that to happen, which is mental. Even with multiple key players out we had the best defence in the league. The only actual hole in the squad is the lack of a top senior striker now that Rooney's gone over the cliff, and that's something that can be solved with just one big transfer, which we are perfectly capable of pulling off.

The problem at the moment is not the players, it's the system. It's LVG. I'm not saying 'Louis out' or anything like that but player acquisitions won't turn this situation around, a change in playing style (and, admittedly, a recovery from what is now a brutal injury crisis) will.
 
The squad is fine for the most part, but we're seriously lacking in attack. Rooney is finished, Mata isn't good enough, Memphis has struggled to adapt and Lingard is only good enough to be a squad player. This makes it very easy for teams to double-up on the only capable attacker we have in Martial.
 
So if Robbie Keane signed for Norwich, they would be top of this league. Ok not exactly but what a meaningless piece of analysis.
 
Most people are missing the point about van Gaal and what he is trying to do with the squad.

What he inherited was a shambles, a combination of players who were at the end of their careers on huge wages, younger players who should have been cut loose, players who were never going to be good enough for Utd and about 6 number 10's!

Van Gaal was right to get rid of every single one of the players he has released. It's ok looking at some of them now and wondering what could have been but they all got their chance under SAF, Moyes or Van Gaal and they never convinced. I think at the start of the season most on here agreed with that.

He has also bought good players in. I can't honestly think of one player he has signed that hasn't improved our squad. Ok Di Maria and Falcao were flops, but the two combined only cost us about £16m in the end and they both contributed to winning us enough points to argue even if they didn't work out they were not a total write off. Also, at the time, any manager in the world would have signed them. Again, at the start of the season most on here said van Gaal had done good business again

Now obviously we appear to be short of real quality at CB and at ST, but I think the key words there are "real quality". Van Gaal isn't an idiot, he would have known we needed players in these positions but it's not like we had nobody, we have 4 senior CB's and 2 senior strikers. I think the point is van Gaal only wants to bring in players who are significantly better than what we have. Now the squad is looking much better (when fit!!), we need to add quality, not just flesh the side out with Kagawa's, Zaha's and Hernandez's

The reason I think van Gaal is doing a fantastic job (and I bet Ed Woodward and the Blazers agree) is because he is doing what is best for the long term future of Manchester United. Most managers think only of the now. Even the man widely recognized as the best in the business (Mourinho) has completely failed to ever bring through young players. That is because he has had the luxury of signing pre prepared superstars every year for daft money. Van Gaal is arrogant and stubborn, and he doesn't care if loaning out Wilson and Janujaz gets him stick from the fans, they will both benefit long term from playing football regularly.

So in summary, squad has improved, van Gaal needs to add quality but he knows that and will. We have a young side that will only get better. Give me Lingard's, Depay's and Martials any day over Di Maria's, Costa's and Toure's because the only way to get long term success without the need for constant investment is too trust in young players. If any club should knows that it should be us
 
Sammyjunn said:
But still compared to the European giants our midfield is average, attack is poor and our RB/2nd CB are decent at best. DDG, Shaw, Smalling, Schneiderlin are the stars but apart from them it's not bad, but not too special imo.
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Not too special, but in truth there's no easy route to reaching the same level as clubs led by Messi, Ronaldo and Muller.

Surely no one had any expectation of us reaching the level of Barcelona, Real or Bayern this season. At least I hope no one suffered from such a delusion.

Those three clubs can buy the best players on the planet, but we can't. We might have the cash to actually buy all world XI but when we went in for players like Bale, Neymar, Muller, Ramos and Muller they all said no and stayed where they were, despite our likely ability to beat their current club on wages.

We have to hit it big with young players as we did with Ronaldo and Rooney. That means taking a risk on young players like Martial and Memphis. Martial has been a hit so for far, but Memphis a miss...at least so far.

It's become something a dirty word, but it really is a "process" to go from the Moyes debacle United to Barcelona. We have a core of fantastic young players and you mentioned them (I would add Martial), but we're still short of what's required and we need a few young players to grow up quickly and we have to buy a few more to round out a proper squad.
 
We lack players in their peaks, and attackers in general compared to the real top sides. With a completely healthy squad, we could just about get away with it and win the title, but as soon as we pick up injuries our lack of depth up front shows.
 
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