Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2019/2020

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J. Marston wrote: »

Beat Chelsea and it's all to play for. Can't believe I'm one of the positive ones.

It's a must win game, if we lose that's CL gone, this is our biggest game of the season.

bangkok

Quandary wrote: »

6th is where well finish. We are no threat in the race for top 4.

Well we may get top 4, but we wont catch spurs

Quandary

bangkok wrote: »

Well we may get top 4, but we wont catch spurs

Bookies have us at 11/2 to finish in the top 4. We have been toothless for a good while now, and I've seen nothing to think we can turn it on for a strong finish.

S.M.B.

Quandary wrote: »

Bookies have us at 11/2 to finish in the top 4. We have been toothless for a good while now, and I've seen nothing to think we can turn it on for a strong finish.

I'd expect a toothless United to beat Huddersfield and Cardiff so then it comes down to can we beat Chelsea tomorrow which I think is very achievable.

I think we'll need Arsenal to drop points earlier in the day to be in with a chance of CL though.

beno619

J. Marston wrote: »

Beat Chelsea and it's all to play for. Can't believe I'm one of the positive ones.

Yeah we are ****e but beating Chelsea and having two potentially relegated sides coming up gives us a good chance, we might even be able to get away with a point tomorrow and still qualify.

Nalz

Wins for Leicester and Fulham this weekend would be nice.

Oh and a United win too!

DM_7

bangkok wrote: »

Well we may get top 4, but we wont catch spurs

Spurs have only lost 12 games with an away game v Bournemouth in between the Ajax games.

It is still possible it could be on come the last day of the season.


IF United beat Chelsea.

GSPfan

I’m not even bothering to try to work out the points totals and assess other team fixtures because we need to beat Chelsea first before any of it matters. I believe if we win 3 games we finish top 4 but winning those 4 games will be extremely hard for a team of players who are already on holiday.

Mr.Nice Guy

Shane Long has now managed more goals this month than United have.

0gac3yjefb5sv7

Surely we are due a win tomorrow, even by the law of averages......

Mitch Connor

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Surely we are due a win tomorrow, even by the law of averages......

I'm gonna start with hoping for a goal, and then see how we go from there.

DM_7

Sancho

https://twitter.com/Yaspar_/status/1122135341799022593?s=19

****ing hell!

.............


Also I know Rice is offering great protection to defence for West Ham, they also have two really good performing CBs in Diop and Balbuena. Diop is going to be a superstar at this rate. Balbuena is a good example of scouting and recruiting to suit your team and for modest expense.

s8n

That pass is very Scholes like

GSPfan

The Pogba to Real Madrid rumours are around again today and honestly I’d be happy to sell him on at this stage just to be done with it. I’d want us to absolutely rinse Madrid for a transfer fee though. Anything north of €100 million would be good. Throw in some decent players and it might be even better.

xtal191

https://twitter.com/FabioProd/status/1122074087268995072

xtal191

No chance we'll catch Spurs, their goal difference is far superior. Hopefully Chelsea And Arsenal lose their semi final first legs or at least the results are very close going into the second legs.

0gac3yjefb5sv7

DM_7 wrote: »

Sancho

https://twitter.com/Yaspar_/status/1122135341799022593?s=19

****ing hell!

.............


Also I know Rice is offering great protection to defence for West Ham, they also have two really good performing CBs in Diop and Balbuena. Diop is going to be a superstar at this rate. Balbuena is a good example of scouting and recruiting to suit your team and for modest expense.

Any better clips of it? Can hardly see him ha

fatherted1969

I've seen nothing in the last 6 weeks to suggest that we can win our last 3 games

Trigger

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Any better clips of it? Can hardly see him ha

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x76ro8c

RasTa

Sancho is not worth 100m yet and I'd be seriously pissed if we spent it on another Dortmund player. More Walcott than Sterling atm

J. Marston

xtal191 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/FabioProd/status/1122074087268995072

Finishing with that kind of composure on either foot is such a rare skill. Doesn't matter which side a defender shows him on to.

Scoring free-kicks with left and right is just showing off too.

Quandary

Quandary wrote: »

Bookies have us at 11/2 to finish in the top 4. We have been toothless for a good while now, and I've seen nothing to think we can turn it on for a strong finish.

Huddersfield are awful and if Cardiff are relegated then wont give a fiddlers on the last day after a long hard season

Father Hernandez

IF Arsenal were to drop points tomorrow, it might spur these lads on to beat a Chelsea side who are in mixed form.

If we were to beat Chelsea, we're right in the thick of it for 4th place, Spurs have 3rd wrapped up. We'll be relying on Leicester again to do us a favour v Chelsea on last day of season. Lots of diff permutations but hopefully the distraction of Europa League may mess up Chelsea & Arsenal.

Need a massive performance tomorrow, not overly confident given recent results but here we are.

Going to the game tomorrow and never been at a United game where we've lost so that's something, fingers crossed

S.M.B.

If we hadn't shipped 4 goals against Everton and lost by 1 instead I'd be confident of us overtaking Chelsea's goal difference given the fixtures.

Weepsie

If spurs drop to 5th and win CL, Utd Finish 4th somehow, and arsenal or Chelsea win the EL United will be back in the EL.

Unlikely as that all may be

paulbok

Weepsie wrote: »

If spurs drop to 5th and win CL, Utd Finish 4th somehow, and arsenal or Chelsea win the EL United will be back in the EL.

Unlikely as that all may be

Couple of variations of that possible.
In your scenario Arsenal/ Chelsea would have to finish 6th and win the EL with the other making 3rd for that to happen.
Unlikely Spurs will fall that far out of the top 4, but then again, it's Spurs.

https://twitter.com/utdxtra/status/1122254050765017090?s=19

https://twitter.com/utdxtra/status/1122254240506896384?s=19

how.gareth

Lads how where these bunch of players good enough to go on that great run at the start of oles reign but now utter scutter? Is it down to a crappy attitude or just a handy run of games, we were lashing heaps of goals in and now can’t score at all

rekluse

Abolsutely massive game tomrrow - if we win we are right back in the mix for 4th. Cant believe it after the absolute dross we’ve been serving up for the last 2 months. If the players aren’t up for this tomrrow I ****ing give up. No Kante potentially and Herrera possibly back would be a massive boost. Win this tomrrow and we might actually make top 4. Will impact hugely on transfer targets for next year.

0gac3yjefb5sv7

We are badly missing herrera

Nunu

The way this seasons been I expect Utd to batter Chelsea 4-0 wiping out the GD then drop points at Huddersfield.

bangkok

how.gareth wrote: »

Lads how where these bunch of players good enough to go on that great run at the start of oles reign but now utter scutter? Is it down to a crappy attitude or just a handy run of games, we were lashing heaps of goals in and now can’t score at all

Handy run of games. A lot of them are not good enough. Simple as

Talisman

tinpib wrote: »

Yes, I was just comparing the Spice Boys in white suits to United myself the other day. And the parallels are scary for United fans.


My jaw nearly hit the floor when Johnny Evans was sold, it reminded me of when Souness sold Houghton and others. Completely needless, a player that still had a lot to contribute especially with Evra, Vidic and Rio all leaving round the same time. And not just Evans, that last winning squad was gutted a lot quicker than needed IMO, just like the Liverpool 1990 team.



I know that Houghton being a senior player was a threat to Souness in the dressing room so the situation isn't exactly the same but it is very similar.


Then you have the huge transfer fees that haven't worked out. Dean Saunders was a disaster, Collymore was meant to be the final piece, perhaps similar to Pogba or Sanchez and it didn't work. Although poor recruitment can happen at any club and is very difficult to get right.


I also think the appointment of Ole is similar to Roy Evans. There is at least some thinking of "let's go back to what we were doing when we were successful", even though perhaps there were better candidates out there. Roy was appointed 3.5 years after last league success, Ole as caretaker after 5.5.

The reason Liverpool went off a cliff in the 1990s was primarily because of changes behind the scenes at the club. Before he was appointed manager Peter Robinson told Graeme Souness that he would need to cull the first team squad and the only senior player worth keeping was John Barnes.

John Smith stepped down as chairman of the club in 1990 and was temporarily replaced by Noel White. The Moores family owned the controlling share of the club and in 1991 the playboy of the family was appointed chairman. David Moores was a walking disaster for Liverpool FC - The club stagnated under him because he had no business sense. He couldn't make a decision if his life depended upon it and was quite happy for the club to magically run itself without any decisions being made so long as he was guaranteed an allocation of match tickets.

Peter Robinson had been at the club since 1965 and by the time Souness was appointed manager he was looking to wind down his role so he handed over responsibility for contract negotiations to the new manager. This proved to be a major cause of friction between Souness and senior members of the squad. They were looking for bumper pay deals before retirement and he was only willing for the club to pay what he thought their contribution to the continued success of the club on the pitch was worth. Needless to say the senior players were not keen on the incentivised contracts he offered.

On the football side, Souness tried to change too much too quickly - he got rid of players that were more interested in their pay cheque than their performance levels without acquiring replacements and bedding them into the side. There is a lesson to be learned there for Man Utd - it's all well and good offloading the players that aren't pulling their weight but you need to have players bedded in that can replace them.

Ray Houghton wanted to leave Liverpool because his wife was homesick and wanted them to move closer to her family in London. Souness only wanted players that were committed to the cause so Liverpool accepted an offer from Chelsea and Houghton was on his way there when his agent was contacted by Ron Atkinson. Villa made a better offer to the player so that's where he ended up.

The "three foreigners" limit also proved to be a massive problem for the Liverpool squad Souness had inherited and led to the likes of Steve Staunton being sold.

Evans replaced Souness as manager because Moores wanted a safe pair of hands that would keep the fans off his back and also not upset the players. An easy life for himself was his priority - the result was the "Spice Boys". Evans was the manager but senior players, namely John Barnes was choosing the team - the club had truly lost its way at that stage. It's possible that the Man Utd board envisaged something similar to Moores with the permanent appointment of Solskjaer as manager.

One of Peter Robinson's final acts before handing the CEO reigns over to Rick Parry was to bring Gerard Houllier to the club. Moores was opposed to the idea and it was Roy Evans who convinced him that it was best for the club. Houllier was like Souness and implemented many of the same changes to make the approach of the players more professional. At that stage the club was more receptive to the changes because of the dominance of Man Utd. Houllier laid the foundations that Benitez built upon before Moores's decision to sell his share of the club to Hicks and Gillett without any due diligence almost razed it all to the ground.

Man Utd is a commercial juggernaut and its owners recognise it as such - what they want and what the football side of the club needs / the fans expect are two very different things. If the club is to challenge for trophies or league titles then there needs to be a change to the structure of the club behind the scenes. The question is how long will it take for the powers that be to acknowledge this and act accordingly.

The lesson to be learned from Liverpool is that the longer the club waits to deal with the issue, the more ground they will have to make up on their rivals. And there is also the possibility that even more rivals will emerge which will increase the difficulty of the challenge.

Liverpool only started to get the harmony within the club right in the last few years and it is invaluable when facing the challenge posed by the resources of Man City.

As supporters you need to be prepared to endure the journey ahead because it is beyond your control and it's unlikely that it will all click together overnight during the summer break If you believe that you are on a journey parallel to that of Liverpool then you are waiting for the club to hire the equivalent of Gerard Houllier/Rafa Benitez to align the football structure of the club and Michael Edwards to deliver the platform to streamline the acquisition of players.

Marcus Rashford

Spurs 70 pts + 29 goals: Home & Dry

Chelsea 67 pts + 21 goals; United away (Today), Eintracht away (Thursday), Watford home (Sunday), Eintracht home (Thursday week), Leicester away (Sunday week)

Arsenal 66 pts + 23 goals; Leicester away (Today), Valencia home (Thursday), Brighton home (Sunday), Valencia away (Thursday week), Burnley away (Sunday week)

United 64 pts +13 goals; Chelsea home (Today), Huddersfield away (Sunday), Cardiff (Sunday week)

If United can win all three games, I think we’ll do it. Leicester and our old mate Brendan Rodgers have a huge part to play. With the Thursday night Europa stuff, I can’t see Chelsea taking 6 points from Watford at home and Leicester away. And similarly, with the Europa League stuff and their dreadful away form, I can’t see Arsenal taking anymore than 3 points from the two away games to Leicester and Burnley.

paulbok

paulbok wrote: »

I see Neymar got a 3 match Euro ban after his outburst at the officials following the United defeat.

He's had an altercation with a fan after losing the French cup final yesterday. Appears to punch a fan walking up for his runners up medal.

Bit of a sore loser, to put it mildly.

DM_7

Lessons to be learned from Liverpool are less than many posters who are giving advice seem to think .

Liverpool fans may feel a need to dwell on the failures, problems, the ups and the many downs and treat it all ad some epic saga that the others can learn from (now they have had a competitive and maybe winning season), but they should keep looking and learning themselves as they have to sustain it. What happened from about 1991 to about 2012 is completely unimportant so maybe ye could move on?

Man Utd had many years without any sustained success when Matt Busby left anyway, it had no major influence or importance on modern day decisions though. Utd don't need to look at Liverpool in the 90s as it is as relevant as what happened to United in the 70s.

United should look at a number of clubs over the past 10 years (including Liverpool) like Barca, Bayern, Ajax and most relevant City for clubs who have reorganised. Hell they could even look at the England national team before the likes of Robbie Fowler and his mates.

Marcus Rashford

DM_7 wrote: »

Lessons to be learned from Liverpool are less than many posters who are giving advice seem to think .

Liverpool fans may feel a need to dwell on the failures, problems, the ups and the many downs and treat it all ad some epic saga that the others can learn from (now they have had a competitive and maybe winning season), but they should keep looking and learning themselves as they have to sustain it. What happened from about 1991 to about 2012 is completely unimportant so maybe ye could move on?

Man Utd had many years without any sustained success when Matt Busby left anyway, it had no major influence or importance on modern day decisions though. Utd don't need to look at Liverpool in the 90s as it is as relevant as what happened to United in the 70s.

United should look at a number of clubs over the past 10 years (including Liverpool) like Barca, Bayern, Ajax and most relevant City for clubs who have reorganised. Hell they could even look at the England national team before the likes of Robbie Fowler and his mates.

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

The parallels with United post-Busby and Liverpool post-1990 are obvious.

DM_7

Marcus Rashford wrote: »

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

The parallels with United post-Busby and Liverpool post-1990 are obvious.

Obvious but not relevant.

Mitch Connor

Marcus Rashford wrote: »

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

The parallels with United post-Busby and Liverpool post-1990 are obvious.

Yeah...but they are meaningless.

United aren't making decisions to be like Liverpool so the mistakes they make are all their own.

They will get out of this mess by looking at what has happened in the last 10 years and understanding how each choice has contributed to where we are. And then acting accordingly.

Pain in my fooking hoop hearing about 30 or 20 years ago and other teams. It's meaningless, pretentious, patronising rubbish.

Same with that rubbish cliche off football going in cycles. Utter rubbish. United are rubbish because of bad decisions, not cause its Uniteds 'turn'

how.gareth

We could go out this summer and pick up a top class striker/right winger and centre half and could easily be challenging for the title, there are plenty of decent players in the squad, we just need them performing (easier said than done)

secman

To hear Ashley Young ssy the dressing room is full of leaders was quite depressing, says it all if thats the general feeling in the dressing room:(

Marcus Rashford

secman wrote: »

To hear Ashley Young ssy the dressing room is full of leaders was quite depressing, says it all if thats the general feeling in the dressing room:(

David Brent or Comical Ali-esque

IamtheWalrus

paulbok wrote: »

He's had an altercation with a fan after losing the French cup final yesterday. Appears to punch a fan walking up for his runners up medal.

Bit of a sore loser, to put it mildly.

She our lot weren't a bit more like this.

Harry Palmr

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Same with that rubbish cliche off football going in cycles. Utter rubbish. United are rubbish because of bad decisions, not cause its Uniteds 'turn'

Clubs making bad decisions while others make good ones (Liverpool appoint Souness/Man Utd persist with Ferguson) is how cycles occur. Right now a cycle is United bought by Glazers/City get bought by Petrodollar state. One set of owners prove rather better than the other.

Mitch Connor

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Clubs making bad decisions while others make good ones (Liverpool appoint Souness/Man Utd persist with Ferguson) is how cycles occur. Right now a cycle is United bought by Glazers/City get bought by Petrodollar state. One set of owners prove rather better than the other.

We have completely different opinions on what a cycle would be.

I feel you are talking simply about a state, not a cycle. For it to be a cycle United would need to be poor simply because its their turn, and nothing could have changed that.

The reason for United being poor is simply not cyclical.

Strumms

secman wrote: »

To hear Ashley Young ssy the dressing room is full of leaders was quite depressing, says it all if thats the general feeling in the dressing room:(

The fûck would Young know about leadership ? It’s all very well having supposed leaders in the dressing room, but people want to see results on the pitch. If his idea of leadership is what we see on the pitch from him ie. Zilch ! ! ! than what is happening in the dressing room would worry you. Leaders lead by example, not by talking, not by giving a bollocking or being critical. As a leader example is everything. If you want people to follow your example you BETTER be doing it yourself.

Young, isn’t a leader, he is a bang average footballer, a squad player who slightly punches above his weight, an athlete who has been on the decline and who next season, should be and hopefully will be playing in the Championship.

Strumms

Mitch Connor wrote: »

We have completely different opinions on what a cycle would be.

I feel you are talking simply about a state, not a cycle. For it to be a cycle United would need to be poor simply because its their turn, and nothing could have changed that.

The reason for United being poor is simply not cyclical.

Agreed, been simply bad decision making, one after another. A serious lack of competence at boardroom level that has filtered down through the spine of the club.

S.M.B.

It's cyclical to a certain extent as it can be very difficult to transition from a sustained period of success emanating from one or two key individuals when they part company with the club. More effort could have been put into ensuring that processes and people could have been put in place to help with the transition but that's not the easiest of tasks.

ozzy jr

United will never prosper again until the glazers are gone.