Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2016 - Mod Warning Post #6863

Headshot

Never realised Matuidi was 29. Im shocked. I thought he was in his mid twenties

DM_7

I want to see a player with power, pace and energy in midfield brought in.

The key recruitment this season should be around what is needed for the league.

I like players like Kroos and Veratti but for a premier league campaign I would prefer a player like Matuidi. The technical skill needed for the Champions League can be bought when the club are back there.

United already have a technically gifted midfield player in Herrera, gifted but restrained in Bastian, all rounder in Schneiderlin, precision with Carrick. Need a player with real drive to add a new skill set and its an important one for domestic competition.

Bradz213

Surely if the Pogba rumours are true it is the end for Rooney. Pogba good in a 4-2-3-1 but much more effective in a 4-3-3. Matuidi better sited to 4-2-3-1

mewe

Bradz213 wrote:

Surely if the Pogba rumours are true it is the end for Rooney. Pogba good in a 4-2-3-1 but much more effective in a 4-3-3. Matuidi better sited to 4-2-3-1

But sure Mourinho said Rooney will be a forward under him. Very impressed with his presser.

jayo26

Games are not won in a press conference but it's so good to see a manager that knows his own mind and won't take bul**** is a great start.

d22ontour

xtal191 wrote: »

Surprised so many wouldn't want Matuidi, always thought he looked good whenever I've seen PSG. And for €25m too, seems like a good deal to me.

Our style of play has been abysmal for a few years now, we have the makings of a decent squad if used correctly, he possibly isn't required considering our options.

Jose wrote:

Yes, we want to play differently than last season. Mr van Gaal is an absolute top manager and his philosophy is very clear. My philosophy is different. It's not better, it's different. My football is different. I am more vertical, I am more intense and I like the ball possession as a way to create a chance to be vertical. I don’t like ball possession as a way to just keep statistically possession of the ball and be afraid to play a game with transitions. Transitions always come during a game. I’m not afraid to lose the ball, I’m not afraid of risk.

astradave wrote: »

The last line is the main thing for me..

Indeed it is, the future looks bright.

mewe

jayo26 wrote:

Games are not won in a press conference but it's so good to see a manager that knows his own mind and won't take bul**** is a great start.

Yeah I thought he was great today. Spoke honestly and confidently and made a lot of sense.

hufpc8w3adnk65

Nice to hear Sir Alex speaking so highly of him

Strumms

jayo26 wrote: »

Games are not won in a press conference but it's so good to see a manager that knows his own mind and won't take bul**** is a great start.

Not bull****ing the fans too unlike LVG... also like the quote and just paraphrasing here but it was along the lines of him working with players he has and tactics and approach depend on that rather then a philosophy that everyone has to follow...

glued

In fairness most of us were creaming ourselves after LVG's first press conference too. I do think Mourinho will have a much better impact on the players than LVG.

RobertKK

https://twitter.com/Sport_Witness/status/750448859424428036

Maybe worth a read from a couple of weeks ago: Raiola wrestling Mendes crown away at Man United, Ed in the middle.


Proving highly accurate.

jayo26

RobertKK wrote: »

https://twitter.com/Sport_Witness/status/750448859424428036

Maybe worth a read from a couple of weeks ago: Raiola wrestling Mendes crown away at Man United, Ed in the middle.


Proving highly accurate.

Could be a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. Raiola seems to be more prone to tantrums and fits.

Manutd_4life

glued wrote: »

In fairness most of us were creaming ourselves after LVG's first press conference too. I do think Mourinho will have a much better impact on the players than LVG.

Yeah if I've learnt anything from the last couple of seasons, it is to not get my hopes up despite whatever manager we bring in or the players we bring in.

Jose has a great record but anything can happen in this football world, especially in the premier league. Look what happened with him last season with Chelsea, with the team looking lost, the Carneiro dispute and the ridiculous outbursts on live post match interviews. The season before, they were flying and looked to be one of the best teams in Europe.

Granted for now it is good that we are all positive and that's how it should be. But I have a bad feeling that this journey isn't gonna be all that smooth sailing.

bucketybuck

glued wrote: »

In fairness most of us were creaming ourselves after LVG's first press conference too.

Many were, but more than a few raised concerns about his spoofing pretty early on. I don't think you can dismiss Jose saying exactly the right things by stating that LVG did the same, because there are marked differences between the two.

As the biggest example just look at the number of definite statements by Jose, this number of targets, this player playing there, when signings are done this will be happening, this is what we want to achieve. Contrast that with Van Gaals vague philosophy handwaving and I get a definite sense that Jose is far more in control and sure of his goals than Van Gaal ever was.

loudnoises89

Voting is open for the new Fifa 17 cover and our boy Tony Martial is in the running for it. Head over to https://www.easports.com/fifa/cover-vote#martial to vote for him.

Its between him, Hazard, James and Reus so they seem to be going for a single player on this years one. Be nice to see Martial get it.

Manutd_4life

loudnoises89 wrote: »

Voting is open for the new Fifa 17 cover and our boy Tony Martial is in the running for it. Head over to https://www.easports.com/fifa/cover-vote#martial to vote for him.

Its between him, Hazard, James and Reus so they seem to be going for a single player on this years one. Be nice to see Martial get it.

Crazy what one season can do to a player. Last season was Martial and Rashfords breakthrough season. Cant wait to see who surprises us next season. I really hope it is Shaw and Depay!!!

bmcc10

loudnoises89 wrote: »

Voting is open for the new Fifa 17 cover and our boy Tony Martial is in the running for it. Head over to https://www.easports.com/fifa/cover-vote#martial to vote for him.

Its between him, Hazard, James and Reus so they seem to be going for a single player on this years one. Be nice to see Martial get it.

Poor Reus probaly injured himself doing the photoshoot

Manutd_4life

Poor Rashford

https://www.facebook.com/SPORTbible/videos/2001163590029163/

We all know what Martial's facial expression would be like

DrPhilG

Manutd_4life wrote: »

Poor Rashford

https://www.facebook.com/SPORTbible/videos/2001163590029163/

We all know what Martial's facial expression would be like

"when Zlatan rides a roller coaster, the roller coaster screams"

Lol

Giggsy11

astradave wrote: »

Yes, we want to play differently than last season. Mr van Gaal is an absolute top manager and his philosophy is very clear. My philosophy is different. It's not better, it's different. My football is different. I am more vertical, I am more intense and I like the ball possession as a way to create a chance to be vertical. I don’t like ball possession as a way to just keep statistically possession of the ball and be afraid to play a game with transitions. Transitions always come during a game. I’m not afraid to lose the ball, I’m not afraid of risk.

The last line is the main thing for me..

Yes, Last line is very important. Possession is not important and not afraid to take risks. This is exactly how it should be. Now our players can play with freedom without worrying about losing possession.

IMO previously our players played to score but without losing possession, they were scared to take risks as Van Gaal is completely against it. Not at least we should see some free flowing football.

Trigger

Should be announced soon enough so. Dunno if the will announce it tonight with the Wales match on. Might wait till the morning to benefit from more coverage.

https://twitter.com/CraigNorwood/status/750585726148960256

irishfeen

So when Mkhitaryan joins that makes 3/4 complete - who's next I wonder?

dave_o_brien

Adamocovic wrote: »

I haven't been Mourinho's biggest fan to take over myself and I know everyones entitled to their opinion and all that, but seriously that sort of mentality is just downright wrong. 1

Yes, Mourinho and LVG both show arrogance in interviews and have impressive CVs but to use LVGs reign as some sort of warning to people due to this fact is just ridiculous. 2 By that logic let's hire some guy with a losing record and crippling self doubt problems and win the league.

Also the preseason hasn't even started and you're predicting his failure? Sounds like you're not going into this season with an open mind about him at all. 3

1. Claiming someone's mentality is "wrong" is an extraordinarily difficult thing to do without it being focused on some particular purpose or task. What is my mentality wrong for?

2. I didn't say that. What I said was that the hyperbole from many Utd fans, and statements such as "I haven't been this excited since Fergie" is nonsense. Almost 100% of fans were unbelievably excited by LVG's arrival. He proved to be a flop, unfortunately. To overlook the excitement and confidence brought to the club by his arrival, however, is selectively editing history. I don't like that. What I said about Jose's failure was that I do believe he will win, but I also believe the psychological manipulation he utilises will see a revolt from within. Again. (You're free to disagree with me, by the way. These are just, y'know, my opinions.)

3. Jose has been an extraordinarily divisive figure everywhere he has gone, with a long list of players who turn from his henchmen to his assassin. Perhaps I am guilty of judging him based on his track record, or "not having an open mind", as you say, but all I have is his history, and I really dislike it. I'll be delighted to see him prove me wrong, and stay at the club for 8 years and doing it proud, but I just cannot see that happening based on what we know about the man. So yes, I am predicting his failure, just not in terms of silverware in the short term.

gosplan

At this point you would be a fool to bet against any of the following three.

1: Jose will win a title with Utd.(prob year 2)

2: Jose will be gone at some point in year 3.

3: He'll make a lot of new enemies along the way.

A lot of the pro-Utd camp is assuming the league victories but giving him the benefit if the doubt as regards leaving as behaviour etc.

The anti-Utd camp is saying the argumentative side is guaranteed but he might not win anything(sure look at last season).

The fleas comes with the dog. A leopard can't change his spots. Pick your cliche.

bucketybuck

dave_o_brien wrote: »

Perhaps I am guilty of judging him based on his track record, or "not having an open mind", as you say, but all I have is his history, and I really dislike it.

The problem is that you aren't judging him on his actual track record, you are judging him on a preconceived haters version of it. There are a ton of myths about Jose, about his use of youth, his club hopping, his relationships with players, and in almost every case an objective look at what actually happened shows those myths to be either vastly exaggerated or just plain untrue.

All we have is his history, indeed. If only people would actually look at the history, not some "Jose is bad" narrative loosely based on it.

dave_o_brien

bucketybuck wrote: »

The problem is that you aren't judging him on his actual track record, you are judging him on a preconceived haters version of it. There are a ton of myths about Jose, about his use of youth, his club hopping, his relationships with players, and in almost every case an objective look at what actually happened shows those myths to be either vastly exaggerated or just plain untrue.

All we have is his history, indeed. If only people would actually look at the history, not some "Jose is bad" narrative loosely based on it.

Fair enough, you could well be right. But what I do know of him, mainly based on his interviews, I dislike. I'm more than ready to change my opinion of him, but unlike many on here, I'm not optimistic.

For the record, I was optimistic about LVG and was wrong. I'm pessimistic about Jose, and will be happy to be wrong if that turns out to be the case.

paulbok

gosplan wrote: »

At this point you would be a fool to bet against any of the following three.

1: Jose will win a title with Utd.(prob year 2)

2: Jose will be gone at some point in year 3.

3: He'll make a lot of new enemies along the way.

A lot of the pro-Utd camp is assuming the league victories but giving him the benefit if the doubt as regards leaving as behaviour etc.

The anti-Utd camp is saying the argumentative side is guaranteed but he might not win anything(sure look at last season).

The fleas comes with the dog. A leopard can't change his spots. Pick your cliche.

I'd agree with 1 and 3, both go hand in hand with a successful United team.
However I believe Jose is here for the long term, he wants to leave a legacy like Fergie, he refers to his (SAF) achievements regularly and is finally at a club where he will have the control to do this, that he didn't have elsewhere.
No guarantees any will happen (except 3 ;-)) but if he has some success he will stay longer than three years.
He'll not get near Fergie's league record, the league is now too strong for United to win it 3 out of 4 years like the 90's and 00's, but Jose will have an eye on Fergie's 2 EC titles.
If he wins it three times at United, he may well quit then.

adox

Its amazing how peoples personal dislike of Mourhino is clouding their opinion on whether he will be a success or not at Utd.

Looking at it ibjectively based on his track record at every club he has ever managed it is more likely than not he will win the title at Utd.

That alone has me happy as a cat who got the milk.

TheDoc

Craig Norwood is basically Tier S at this stage. I think I'm going to change my thing this summer of waiting to see it on the BBC, to see Craig Norwood say a medical is happening.

The beautiful bastard

markcahill1985

PSG interested in Schweinsteiger according to Bild, wouldnt mind Matuidi in and Schweinsteger out (love the man but cant be relied upon to stay fit).

Midfield of Matuidi and Pogba **drool**

RobertKK

https://twitter.com/samuelluckhurst/status/750598051811749888

#mufc confident of Pogba deal, with Raiola due to have more talks over the next week

Pogba ready to return to United if Juventus accept offer from United is the word today.

Mitch Connor

Nothing will happen on Pogba til after the Euro's, Riola can't get near him.

bucketybuck

dave_o_brien wrote: »

Fair enough, you could well be right. But what I do know of him, mainly based on his interviews, I dislike. I'm more than ready to change my opinion of him, but unlike many on here, I'm not optimistic.

For the record, I was optimistic about LVG and was wrong. I'm pessimistic about Jose, and will be happy to be wrong if that turns out to be the case.

Its like the people slating Nani while ignoring all of the context and all of the stats. I don't care if people dislike Nani, but if you want to dislike him at least be honest and say its because you don't like the shape of his head or something, don't pretend its anything rational or because he wasn't a good footballer who helped us win titles.

Same with Jose. Don't like him? Fine, who gives a ****. But don't try to tell me the dislike is based on him not playing youths, or that he falls out with players, or that he leaves some trail of destruction wherever he goes because thats a load of crap not supported by the actual history.

RobertKK

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Nothing will happen on Pogba til after the Euro's, Riola can't get near him.

Yeah.
But he will know what the player wants, his father said playing in a better league is one of them.

gosplan

adox wrote: »

Its amazing how peoples personal dislike of Mourhino is clouding their opinion on whether he will be a success or not at Utd.

Looking at it ibjectively based on his track record at every club he has ever managed it is more likely than not he will win the title at Utd.

That alone has me happy as a cat who got the milk.

This.

I mean it's as guaranteed as anything can be in football that you'll be practically impossible to beat at OT and you'll be challenging all the way for titles.

What people aren't taking into account either is that he's being given whatever transfers he wants and will have free reign over the team - something I don't think really happened at RM or Chelsea.

Leroy42

I do think a note of caution needs to be put in. Of course the press conference was good, he had weeks to get ready for it, he led it.

He did however get into the whole 49 youth players thing, with a list and everything. That looks a lot like LVG and his long ball retorts and Rafa and his facts!

He said all the right things, I would have expected nothing else, it was the grand unveiling afterwall, the PR guys would have worked on it.

A worrying thing is his need to take a dig at Wenger (not that it isn't true or even called for) but this is supposed to be a new Jose, having learned from the disaster at Chelsea and yet within 10 minutes he is back picking at the auld scab! Doesn't bode well for when the actual pressure comes on. There was no need for it, it added nothing.

DrPhilG

Free the Mourinho 49!!!

Did anybody get the list from him?

Mitch Connor

DrPhilG wrote: »

Free the Mourinho 49!!!

Did anybody get the list from him?

Was published in one of the papers this morning (or maybe a version they researched). Full of players who played only a handful of games or a few minutes as a sub. Some played a number of games elsewhere (or at that club) before Mourinho arrived. It looks to be a very flimsy argument, and one I wish he hadn't bothered to get it in to.

bangkok

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Nothing will happen on Pogba til after the Euro's, Riola can't get near him.

telephone?

bangkok

Juventus reject 38m bid from City for Bonucci

TheTownie

DrPhilG wrote: »

Free the Mourinho 49!!!

Did anybody get the list from him?

Jose tried to show them the list after the press conference but a BBC reporter spilt a glass of water on it. He later email the list to them, by which stage it had grown to 55. :pac:

As Mitch described, not really a list worth looking at. Basically if you were a player under 21 who had played at least a few minutes under Mourinho, you were on the list. Of course everyone was expecting a list of academy players but Jose decided to set a different criteria!

Mitch Connor

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Was published in one of the papers this morning (or maybe a version they researched). Full of players who played only a handful of games or a few minutes as a sub. Some played a number of games elsewhere (or at that club) before Mourinho arrived. It looks to be a very flimsy argument, and one I wish he hadn't bothered to get it in to.

This is the one I'm still skeptical on. The fact that you are stating these players listed only had a handful of games is still a concern. It was a pre-prepared response but if they had given more time he could have been challenged on how many games he actually gave the youth players that he had in the list.
People can rave on about "Myths" all they want but unless Jose can back up his statements with stone cold facts where multiple players have progressed through the ranks and made it permanently into the first team squad then "Chat **** Get Banged" IMO

Still think he's going to be an success for the club but it will be his usual methods that will get us there I think.
I'm willing to give him a chance and hopefully he utilizes the likes of Maritial / Rashford / Fosu Mensah effectively in the coming season.

adox

I honestly think the "Wenger dig" angle is being hugely overplayed.
Jose was asked did he feel like he had something to prove to everybody after it went so bad for him last season.
His response was along the lines of "some managers havent won the league in 10 years, some have never won it at all. Do they all have something to prove? I won the league 1 year ago..."

Now of course I`m paraphrasing but thats the gist of it. i think the whole Wenger angle is being hugely overplayed.

adox

adox wrote: »

I honestly think the "Wenger dig" angle is being hugely overplayed.
Jose was asked did he feel like he had something to prove to everybody after it went so bad for him last season.
His response was along the lines of "some managers havent won the league in 10 years, some have never won it at all. Do they all have something to prove? I won the league 1 year ago..."

Now of course I`m paraphrasing but thats the gist of it. i think the whole Wenger angle is being hugely overplayed.

I agree, but the media are hounds and they were always going to jump on it.
It's practically on the back page of every rag this morning.

Pickpocket

The Guardian have said that the 49 includes players that did not make their debut under Mourinho and one player who never played for him at all.

I'm gonna be optimistic and assume someone else compiled, and messed up, the list, otherwise it's a baffling way for Jose to go on the offensive.

0gac3yjefb5sv7

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Nothing will happen on Pogba til after the Euro's, Riola can't get near him.

Few snapchats & whatsapps should sort the deal.

jayo26

M!Ck^ wrote: »

This is the one I'm still skeptical on. The fact that you are stating these players listed only had a handful of games is still a concern. It was a pre-prepared response but if they had given more time he could have been challenged on how many games he actually gave the youth players that he had in the list.
People can rave on about "Myths" all they want but unless Jose can back up his statements with stone cold facts where multiple players have progressed through the ranks and made it permanently into the first team squad then "Chat **** Get Banged" IMO

Still think he's going to be an success for the club but it will be his usual methods that will get us there I think.
I'm willing to give him a chance and hopefully he utilizes the likes of Maritial / Rashford / Fosu Mensah effectively in the coming season.

The only way he needs to back up anything is with trophies.

He made an excellent point yesterday in the reasons people give youth a chance and the difference in him always been under pressure to win and less Injuries means he Hasn't needed to go to youths as much.

We seen that with lvg last season Rashford would never of got a chance only that keane and martial got inured before him and rooney was out too.

The fact that jose is talking about Rashford as his second striker I'm happy with it he will get plenty of game time and the attention will all be on zlatan it's perfect as long as he doesn't play rooney there when zlatan isn't playing.

jayo26

Pickpocket wrote: »

The Guardian have said that the 49 includes players that did not make their debut under Mourinho and one player who never played for him at all.

I'm gonna be optimistic and assume someone else compiled, and messed up, the list, otherwise it's a baffling way for Jose to go on the offensive.

The daily male had 55 players from the list and they all played under mourinho so obviously the press can't even count right along with jose ha.

Trigger

But why do the players need to have to have made their debut under hI'm, the arguement is that he doesn't trust youth players..

Trigger

M!Ck^ wrote: »

I agree, but the media are hounds and they were always going to jump on it.
It's practically on the back page of every rag this morning.

In fairness Wenger hasn't one the league in 12 years :pac: