...::[The Footy Desk]::... (Part 2)

[Laker23]

Another great performance and enjoyable game to watch. I wish we could keep a clean for Dave, but all in all I'm thoroughly pleased with the early stages of Ole's reign. Pogba has been absolutely excellent in those two games, I really hope he can keep pushing on now.

 

As much as I always enjoy to see City lose, if they could just sort it out and keep pace with Liverpool, that'd be great. David Silva and Fernandinho are incredibly instrumental to that team. No idea how far away Fer is from being back in contention.

[Jason]

Not that I'd celebrate it but I'd much rather City win the league than Liverpool, as would most fans in England too I suspect. A full season of scouser smugness that's been building for decades would be unbearable.

[Dave]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Not that I'd celebrate it but I'd much rather City win the league than Liverpool, as would most fans in England too I suspect. A full season of scouser smugness that's been building for decades would be unbearable.

After putting up with 25 years of Manc smugness, I think we'd probably be justified.

[Jason]

First post in two years to justify the potential smugness, see what I mean? 

 

But yea, I can see it from Liverpool's PoV lol. I do think Liverpool will finish champions as well, not because of the points advantage at the moment but because of their defence, VVD and Robertson in particular. City still look a shambles in that area when their "best defence is a good offence" style of play falls apart where as Liverpool have been grinding out results when they're having a bad day.

[Dave]

7 hours ago, Jason said:

First post in two years to justify the potential smugness, see what I mean? 

 

But yea, I can see it from Liverpool's PoV lol. I do think Liverpool will finish champions as well, not because of the points advantage at the moment but because of their defence, VVD and Robertson in particular. City still look a shambles in that area when their "best defence is a good offence" style of play falls apart where as Liverpool have been grinding out results when they're having a bad day.

sh*t, it's been 2 years? Used to be a regular on this thread about 12 years ago. 

 

Liverpool are definitely the best I've ever seen them in my lifetime, but they always find a way to choke. If they lose to City it will add pressure and they will probably crack. 

[Tchuck]

I'd prefer Liverpool over Manc because I've begun to really dislike Pep's brand of football for a couple of years now. Liverpool plays in a much more flamboyant, direct, offensive way, much more interesting to watch than Pep's new iteration of tiki-taka. Would be a win for attacking football in general.

[Eutyphro]

I think Pep's football is beautiful, but there is still a significant amount of tactical naivety left in the Premier League version of tiki-taka he plays. I expect them to lose in the Champions League against a well organized team that is dangerous on the counter. City remains vulnerable on the counter. If Fernandinho is fit they are amazing at destroying small teams, but would be interesting to see them face Juventus or Atlético.

[Guest]

Well, we've already done a decent comeback in Manchester some years ago in the group stage, City 1-2 Juve 

I don't like at all the "tiki-taka" style, for me Klopp's football is more entertaining to watch. But not always the team that plays the best football wins the title, last year under Sarri Napoli played a fantastic football for example but, in the end, Juve won. IMO City are still the favourite for the title, but Liverpool are a serious contender. Thursday we'll have a more clear situacion, if Liverpool wins Man City will surely be out in the title race, leaving Liverpool alone in 1st place... And yes, Tottenham for me aren't a serious contender.

The UCL and UEL races are also very open! In 4th place at the moment there's Chelsea, but Arsenal and Man United could recover the gap. Regarding the 7th place race, at the moment there are 7 teams in just 4 points: Wolves, Leicester, Watford, Everton, West Ham, Bournemouth and Brighton. Huddersfield, for me, are very near the Championship, but we all know that miracles in PL are possible.

 

Off Topic: Ehi @Dave, did you really have to put in your signature your connection speed? It hurts me to see that you have 313,163x times my download speed and just 1362x times my upload speed 

[Laker23]

City against Liverpool is going to be a great watch on Thursday, really looking forward to it. If Pool win I just can't see them giving it away at that point, as much as I'd love them to.

 

Top 4 for us still seems far away, and if I'm being honest I can't see either Chelsea or Spurs bottling it to such an extent to let us in, and that's not even factoring in Arsenal, though their defence seems to be sabotaging them enough right now.

[Crokey]

Got a stinking fever right now, but it was good for City to be on the winning side of what has been billed by pundits to be a classic.  Usually City are on the receiving end.

[Laker23]

Good game and a fair result in the end, should make for an interesting next few months in the league.

 

Kompany was a very lucky boy not to see red, he makes any kind of significant contact on Salah and he probably breaks his leg. Ref's will forever be inconsistent when it comes to this.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Laker23

[SeanAlgerian]

I see that the ref didn't give a penalty for City(because the VAR in England gonna be next year) and Sergio Aguero revenge and did a goal lol.

 

Also, I still don't knew why Mahrez won't play in big game like that, or are they remembering what the missed in the last penalty? Nobody knews!

[Jason]

Up the City! The Bald Fraud is our only hope for a peaceful summer.

 

Just glad to have a title race though, hopefully whatever happens it goes down to the wire. Don't think Spurs will have the legs for it but I wouldn't rule them out just yet. The rest of the top 6 are gonna have their part to play in who wins too. I can see United getting something from our game with Liverpool, especially seeing as it's at home.

[Guest]

Yees! Liverpool are out, Wolves go through! Yes, we've played badly against the B Liverpool basically but I'm more than happy with a 2-1. I don't know if Klopp didn't care about the FA Cup, but against any of the Premier League teams you can't put a team like that on the pitch... Unless you want to go out from the competition for concentrating the energy just on the Premier League and the UCL.

Now I'm waiting the rematch of Stoke - Shrewsbury hoping in a second miracle from Shrewsbury 

Regarding the other draws I've only spotted Arsenal - Man United as an interesting match, the other ones have IMO already a clear winner... But in the FA Cup miracles are possible, seeing teams like Newport County going through is just amazing, these beautiful stories can only happen in England.

[Jason]

Klopp throwing a chance at a major trophy away. I understand the desire to push for the league but if they don't win it then that FA cup loss is going to look veeeeeeeeery bad for him. Or rather, it should, but the English press don't really like to criticise Liverpool and Klopp. 

 

Of course we had to get the toughest fixture of the draw, Arsenal away. Don't even know what to expect from that as no one is quite sure where United are at just right now. Was really hoping for Barnet away or something, not due to it being an "easy" draw but I always love the giants going to some real minnows, makes for a great occasion.

[Eutyphro]

If this isn't proof that Solskjaer should be appointed permanently, then I don't know what is. Great game.

[Tchuck]

Now, were the players trying to get rid of Mourinho, or was Mourinho's tactics just utter garbage, or a combination of both?

 

United under Solskjaer has been a lot more offensive, and Pogba has been absolutely immense.

[Eutyphro]

5 minutes ago, Tchuck said:

Now, were the players trying to get rid of Mourinho, or was Mourinho's tactics just utter garbage, or a combination of both?

A combination of both..

Mourinho's tactics are potentially good, for a team like Atletico or Inter, but he should probably never manage a Premier League team again. Football has changed and parking the bus doesn't work anymore in English football.
 

4 minutes ago, Tchuck said:

United under Solskjaer has been a lot more offensive, and Pogba has been absolutely immense.

And they have also been defending well. The pairing of Jones and Lindelöf was great yesterday. And Lindelöf generally has been playing great under Solskjaer. Now that the team is free to attack, I've seen him command space very well and even seen him successfully charge into midfield on some occasions. And what de Gea did yesterday is one of the best goalkeeper match performances I have ever seen.

Pogba played an amazing match and that assist was incredible, but near the end he got a bit arrogant and lazy, which brought United in trouble.

[Jason]

Ole's had a great start but my hope is that the board don't rush into a decision. There's absolutely no reason to make our minds up yet, we could go lose our next 10 games for all we know. We still need a CB too, Lindelof's turn of form has been immense but Jones has a howler in him every game and Bailly's a lunatic. A top CB signing, someone dominant, would be a great signing. Koulibaly fits that mould but he's gonna be very expensive if he even wants to come. Our top priority should be getting De Gea to sign a new deal though, that right now is more important than anything.

 

As for Mourinho we finished second and got to a final last season with a team that's lacking in quality in many areas, his tactical style isn't past it but his style of man management is. He's now lost the dressing room at his last three clubs and that's not a coincidence.

[Eutyphro]

9 minutes ago, Jason said:

we could go lose our next 10 games for all we know.

I don't think so man. Even Poch admitted Tottenham yesterday was the best they had ever played under his management, and still United pulled out a win somehow. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/46858504

 

Solskjaer seems to be getting everything absolutely spot on, and the maximum from his squad. Zidane had little experience as a top coach before dominating for years at Real, but sometimes when it clicks it just clicks. If anything Solskjaer should start getting some real trust put in him after this match.

[Jason]

What Poch said yesterday post-game is a nothing statement really. Pep makes similar statements where he'll say X player is the best he's ever seen or something, it's just keeping morale up.

 

Regarding Ole though, like I said there's no reason to rush, there's still a long way to go and Ole could still be found out and the last thing we want to be doing is creating a situation where we have to not only pay off a manager we've had for not even half a season but also sack a club legend.

 

The Spurs game was definitely a huge result though, it showed that Ole has some tactical nous and it isn't all him just getting players on board, we matched up formations and identified and exploited Spurs weak points, while still playing to win. The second half though still shows that we have a lot we can improve on because if it wasn't for De Gea or some better finishing from Spurs players we'd have got battered by 3 or 4 goals and this conversation would be very different.

[Eutyphro]

The level by Spurs second half was incredible though, and I think even the likes of City or any other top team would've struggled against them. Genuinely some of the best football I've seen this season. Indeed a miracle they didn't score.

With Kane possibly inured, Son gone for several weeks, and even further behind, Spurs really seem out of title contention though. But IMO even if they lost they showed title winning quality..

[Bare]

 

by far the best managerial performance of 2019. levels. possibly even better than the press conference after his players let him down against sevilla. truly the greatest of all time.

[Eutyphro]

It's kind of like you're suffering from a type of Stockholm Syndrome, having fallen in love with an abusive figure that ended up being objectively incompetent. Do you love Mourinho more than United is what I'm wondering. Because if so, you maybe should start supporting another team, wherever Mourinho will move next to get sacked after 2/3 years after his ego collides with something new.

[Bare]

well seeing as im from manchester i cant support another team as i think people who “choose” teams are the scum of the football world. but jose has been my favorite manager for the past 15 years, even when sir alex was still around. hes so cool and wise i cant comprehend how someone can dislike him. by far the best character we’ve ever seen in football. its just a shame united treated him the way they did i hope to see him back in management soon. 

[Tchuck]

9 hours ago, Bare said:

hes so cool and wise i cant comprehend how someone can dislike him.

Really? I mean. I get that he was cool, and he was a footie encyclopedia in his prime.

 

But he's given a massive number of reasons for people to dislike him. Biggest of all being his utter arrogance and failure to acknowledge when he f*cks up. There's a reason he's always leaving clubs "by mutual consent"; he loses the dressing room environment due to being pretty crap at man management, which causes his players to lose their confidence in him and therefore underperform. Then to save face, the board decides by "mutual consent" to fire him.

 

I mean, come on. How can you not comprehend how people can dislike him?

[Bare]

the only true f*ck up of his i can recall was when he got the chelsea doctor fired and that’s only because she was hot. 

 

other than that im not gonna judge him because he wont praise a bunch of weak spoiled crybaby millionaires who dont feel like doing their job properly. imagine talking about “man management” as if a player shouldnt be expected to be professional and perform at his best without his manager praising him undeservedly. 

[Laker23]

With all due respect you have to be completely blinkered to believe he's had good man management in recent times. You don't practically get fired from your last 3 jobs with good man management, spoilt millionaires or not. He has a strange and awful habit of usually falling out with the most popular player of the club, the amount of times I saw him throw undeserving players under the bus during his time here was horrendous. With that being said I appreciate some of the work he did at the club, most notable getting us back into the CL where we belong, regardless of his toxic attitude. That's enough about him from me, onto the legend that is Ole.

 

On to today, gritty win in the end but 3 points is all that matters. We usually look shattered after the 60 minute mark, hopefully we can work on that. Hard to believe we're now just 3 points off the top four since Ole took charge, it's shaping up to be a huge old battle for 3rd and 4th. Curious to see how Spurs will perform with Kane out till March, they usually don't do too badly without him but they also have Son missing for at least a few more weeks.

 

 

[Jason]

I've been very skeptical about Rashford in the past, I think I might have mentioned it in this thread a while back that his finishing was awful and his ability to beat defenders wasn't good enough, relying on his pace too much. But under Ole he's been a revelation and his ability in front of goal has seen noticeable improvements already, he's still got a long way to go but you can definitely tell that Ole's having an influence on how our forwards play.

 

Also our lack of midfield depth when we start all of Matic, Herrera and Pogba is being exposed right now, we were gassed after about 60-70 mins in yesterdays game vs Brighton but we had no options to freshen up the midfield. McTominay's not good enough, Fellaini's useful but injured, Pereira can't play CM in the Premier League and Fred's gotta improve A LOT if he's gonna be a decent player for us. Sounds unlikely we'll get anyone in Jan so it's yet another huge summer window for us.

[Eutyphro]

McTominay is not a technically skilled player, but I do think he could be useful as a destroyer, especially now Matic is in decline. As for great DM prospects, I've been watching this Rodri guy from Atletico, who I think is incredible, but maybe not a United type player. Another talent I've been finding out about is a guy from Villareal named Pablo Fornals who is good, and who I think could succeed in the Premier League. He's been linked with Arsenal a lot. I don't believe Pereira or Fred are ever going to make the desired impact at United.