Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2016 - Mod Note in OP, 13/9

IamtheWalrus

One final transfer Jose please, I need a boost.

dubmick

Won't be Fonte anyway. Southampton have double his wages.

Mitch Connor

dubmick wrote: »

Won't be Fonte anyway. Southampton have double his wages.

He'd do the same at United. As far as I am aware it hasn't been announced he has signed a new contract with Southampton.

TheDoc

I wouldn't mind the Europa League been taken seriously this year. Club should really target anything feasible to win to get that mentality and confidence back.

I don' think there is a conceivable group from that pot that we shouldn't be topping easily, without incident.

duffman13

TheDoctor wrote: »

Saint-Etienne
Gent
Dundalk


Three nice short trips

Was literally about to post the same. Ideal, all an hour or twos travel and nothing to stress about. Be fantastic for Dundalk too, hope they get a big draw!

jayo26

IamtheWalrus wrote: »

One final transfer Jose please, I need a boost.

Just think of Pogba and zlatan in a united jersey I don't know what could be more of a boost.

Bradz213

TheDoc wrote: »

I wouldn't mind the Europa League been taken seriously this year. Club should really target anything feasible to win to get that mentality and confidence back.

I don' think there is a conceivable group from that pot that we shouldn't be topping easily, without incident.

When was it not taken seriously?

MagicIRL

Would love to win the EL. Would love Dundalk here in the Aviva, too.

TheDoc

Bradz213 wrote: »

When was it not taken seriously?

There is a attitude in England that the Europa League is a bit mickey mousey. Plenty of clubs would prioritise other things.

Just saying I wouldn't mind if Jose made it a priority for us in his first year.

Mitch Connor

TheDoc wrote: »

There is a attitude in England that the Europa League is a bit mickey mousey. Plenty of clubs would prioritise other things.

Just saying I wouldn't mind if Jose made it a priority for us in his first year.

what do you mean by 'a priority'?

It surely is behind the league in priority terms. Where are you ranking it against the League Cup and FA Cup?

We should be able to walk most groups with our B team now except for injuries so take it seriously if we get to a 1/4 final but dont be playing full strenght teams every thursday against minnows

Bradz213

I think we have always tried to win it though. I don't remember us resting any key players for EL games due to PL games in between or after.

Pro. F

TheDoc wrote: »

Is there a numeric/integer recording of how many aerial attempts he made, along with the rest of the CB's in the league?

Other wise percentages being presented like this are pointless.

...
I would be surprised if we saw the numerical value of aerial duels attempted, if Blind was anywhere near as high as the rest. And obviously that is going to skew a percentage. I'd imagine Chris Smalling for example, has a very large numerical aerial battles contested.

Blind is small(ish) and doesn't have a great leap, sure, really no debate or issue there. But he makes up for that in various other ways. His reading of the game and interceptions are top notch.

I'd be surprised if his interceptions and clearances don't reflect favourably on him comparative to others, based on his positional play.

Out of the 38 CBs who played 20+ games last season, Blind was last in clearances per 90 minutes.

He was 21st out of the 38 for interceptions.

For total attempted aerial duels he was joint last. Smalling had 5.5 per 90, Blind 2.6.

All of the above from whoscored.

The fact that Blind contested so few balls in the air compared to the rest does not skew the percentage won rate. That is not the way proportions work. Blind contested fewer aerial duels, of the ones he contested he won an extremely small proportion compared to the rest of the league. This low return of wins to contests shows that he was weak at winning the contests he attempted

TheDoc wrote: »

Watching Blind he is a clearly intelligent player. There is frequent and common situations where he stands off, or lets a striker take the first ball and then he knicks the second one.

That idea works well in certain situations, like when a striker is isolated, or is going to be moving away from goal, etc. Blind is good in those situations. But when there's a ball crossed into the six yard box and two opposition forwards moving to head it, then standing off and not trying to win the header is a very bad idea. Or when there's a vertical, long ball played into his channel with two or three opposition forwards working close together to receive it - standing off and letting one of them have an uncontested header will cause problems a lot of the time.

TheDoc wrote: »

But in just general, viewing of our team, I'm not sure why anyone would want rid of Blind. He was a really good partnership with Smalling last season, and already we are seeing a partnership with Bailly. Mourinho has praised Blind publicly a few times now. It might well be transpiring Blind is becoming the linchpin of our defence. And as long as he has some height and pace around him (which he does) I'm not overly concerned with him in our team at all.

Because, from general viewing, he did not make a really good partnership with Smalling last season. There were clear weaknesses caused by having a CB who was such a non-entity in the air. A lot of that was covered up by LVG's tactics (basically keeping the ball up the other end of the pitch an unusually large proportion of the time), Smalling and DDG, but those tactics will be gone this season (I hope) and so that flaw is likely to become more important.

The_Kew_Tour

The EL should be the 2nd Priority this season.

Be very disappointed to not least get to 1/4 final stage.

Its will be least 9 years since we won European Competition, if we like to go with the "Biggest club in world" then this should be a one to win.

Adamocovic

Anyone wanting to keep up with the draw. It's starting now. Live stream from site too.

http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2017/draws/round=2000792/drawcentre/index.html

RobertKK

Pogba said he wants to win everything this year including the Europa League.
He doesn't like losing.

RobertKK

Europa final is in Sweden, Zlatan will want to be there.

jaykay74

RobertKK wrote: »

Europa final is in Sweden, Zlatan will want to be there.

Oh, didn't know that! I'II be going then anyway either way.

RobertKK

United first out and in Group A.

Adamocovic

first never follows

Cypher_sounds

Pretty much the rest of these teams would be 3rd or 4th seed if they were in the CL.

RobertKK

Group A:

Manchester United
Fenerbahce

jayo26

Hardest team we could get

dubmick

Fenerbache. Return of RVP.

MagicIRL

Great, into a warzone. Wonderful.

TheDoc

Mitch Connor wrote: »

what do you mean by 'a priority'?

It surely is behind the league in priority terms. Where are you ranking it against the League Cup and FA Cup?

Yeah obviously behind league.

For this season I'd put it in ahead of FA Cup and League cup personally. Think it would be sweet to have a good European campaign with Jose and co in their first season, little warmup ahead of hopefully CL football next season and I assume a proper assault into the later stages.

And I don't think it's a trophy to be sniffed at, as it seems to be in England. There is good teams in the later rounds and its a tough one to win.

jayo26

Gent aswell another decent side.

Edit: nothing to see here ha stupid draw ha.

Fuk feynoord

RobertKK

Group A:

Manchester United
Fenerbahce
Feyenoord

dubmick

This is a brutal draw

jayo26

jayo26 wrote: »

Hardest team we could get

Meh

Play the best teams
Beat the best teams

Adamocovic

Christ, I was actually saying to someone today I didn't want us to get Fenerbahce or Feyenoord...

Debil

The lads from Gent were sick that they didn't get the united draw. Why did they go to group H?

Cypher_sounds

Ah we should be able to handle Dirk Kuyt.

Cookie_Dough

We'll get Astana aswell just for good measure...

RobertKK

Southampton got a tougher draw with Sparta Prague and Inter Milan.

KombuchaMshroom

Delighted it's tougher matches to be honest (but not about travelling to Istanbul).

Will be a better experience for the younger lads to be playing tougher teams.

Saying that, please let Dundalk be our last team!!!

jayo26

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Meh

Play the best teams
Beat the best teams

I'm not complaining I'm delighted make it more interestingames if nothing else. Better then going to some little sh1tty Azerbaijan side any day of week.

Vic Vinegar

Great interview with Luke Shaw here...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/26/luke-shaw-manchester-united-fit-happy

RobertKK

Group A:

Manchester United
Fenerbahce
Feyenoord
Luhansk (Ukraine)

KombuchaMshroom

Debil wrote: »

The lads from Gent were sick that they didn't get the united draw. Why did they go to group H?

4 Belgian teams in the competition, so 2 have to go into each half of the draw.
Anderlecht and Genk were already in first half, so Gent got moved to H (couldn't go to G because of Standard Liege).

ElChe32

2 warzones and Dirk Kuyt. Lovely.

dubmick

A trip to Turkey and Ukraine. Ffs

Lord TSC

RobertKK wrote: »

Group A:

Manchester United
Fenerbahce
Feyenoord
Luhansk (Ukraine)

Jaysus, Turkey and Ukraine. Awesome :rolleyes:

Still, should be beating Feyenoord and Luhansk with no hassle and should be able to beat Fenerbahce without too much hassle too, even fielding a second string.

Adamocovic

Ukraine and Turkey.....so much for a short flight :P

Cookie_Dough

I've never heard of that Ukrainian team. We certainly got beaten with the sh!t stick regarding travel distance!

Edit: Poor Dundalk have it as bad!

RobertKK

Zenit
AZ Alkmaar
Maccabi Tel-Aviv
Dundalk

Dundalk will be clocking up the air miles too.

Polo_Mint

Delighted with a strong group.

RobertKK

A computer will jumble up the teams in each group and decide when each team plays each other.

United are way ahead of the next biggest team, they will have to do their best to win it.

The priorities in my opinion:

Premier League
Europa League
FA Cup
League Cup.

Chris_Bradley

Tough group all the same.

TheDoctor

Stadium in Ukraine looks to have a cracking atmosphere

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OxP1oozgIvA/maxresdefault.jpg