Man Utd just ‘a bunch of pretty boys’ and Ruben Amorim is ‘f***ed’
Man Utd are still the biggest story in the Premier League despite Man Cityâs woes, and Ruben Amorim cannot solve this problem.
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Damned United
Well, where do I begin? How any so-called footballer on Unitedâs squad over the last 10 years has been allowed to get away with earning ridiculously high wages for not performing is beyond me. There again, United are now fast being seen a match-fixing cash cow team, full of mercenaries.
Unitedâs entire identity is demolished, and youâd think it couldnât get any worse. Well, think again. If they cannot beat Ipswich Town, then honestly ask yourself, why bother if you donât want to compete? The club is lost. Too much money involved in this once amazing game. It now is full of cheats and gamblers. No pride, no tenacity, only greed and green-eyed monsters.
Iâd be embarrassed to show my career at United to my children and grand children post Sir Ferguson. Thereâs no excuse for not making runs, for the entire match. For not pressing, not passing convincingly. No excuse for not thinking ahead and anticipating. Thereâs no vision, and senior players are too inconsistent, what kind of example are they setting?
Onana saved them again from another embarrassment. Where does this cash cow stop? When will they be allowed to play football again? But we keep buying the merch, and following the club, and making them rich, so why bother? Just turn up, dress up in the kit, do your hair and go earn a fat wage for doing very little for 90 miuntres or so.
FA Cup final is one example of how they can actually be professional contenders. A team to fear and respect. Ipswich actually lost any respect they may have gone into the match with, and why not. United do not deserve to be in the Premier League, and I hope they finish way at the bottom and into relegation. Theyâd be pathetic in League One then, and then what.
What a joke. A bunch of pretty boys. Nothing more.
Joe
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Hated, adored etc
Is Manchester United Football Club is an impossible club to run? Granted, its owners have been trying to prove that point for nigh on 20 years so it may just be that but I get the feeling that even perfection wouldnât have been good enough.
Expectations are insane. To the point where people are blind to the evidence before them. Erik Ten Hag lost his first two United games, 2-1 at home to Brighton and 4-0 away to Brentford. Because he was a shiny new manager we kidded ourselves and said that with a brand new squad weâd be fine, forgetting that a) a brand new squad is expensive and b) the extant squad was created at great expense and no one wanted to buy them. We all forgot that the job of a football coach is to make footballers better individually and as a team.
Simultaneously we forgot that this takes time (although Erik had all bloody Summer in hindsight) and pundits were saying he was a dud manager after two defeats, a position that many of them stuck to despite a pot, a final and a pretty decent third placed finish in his first season. I maintain that this was largely due to his demeanour in press conferences and a perceived lack of grasp of the English language. He also binned off Piers Morganâs mate which didnât help either. That United were increasingly shit under his reign may have had something to do with it too thoughâŠ.
But letâs, for the sake of argument, agree that ETH was the big problem at Old Trafford and that he caused shit recruitment (weâve already established that was already a problem), poor coaching (but the players are rubbish anyway?) and a poor culture at the club (didnât Ronaldo say this was obviously an issue when he returned to the club one year before Ten Hag?). Are we expecting Ruben Amorim to fix all this in two training sessions?
The answer it seems is clearly fecking yes, judging by media and fan reaction to a draw away at Ipswich. Weâve blamed a lack of mobility in the middle under Eriksen and Casemiro for poor performances, countless times in the past. Weâve lamented that we have to play Jonny Evans and full backs in central defensive positions for the past 12 months. Weâre rubbish going forward, Garnacho is inconsistent, Bruno is wasteful, Luke Shaw is always injured, all these things that have been gone over time and again for years and we expected Amorim to wave a magic wand and fix it overnight?
Likewise the Glazers. 20 years of neglect and everyone expected INEOS to turn things round overnight with a 27% stake in the club. Nicholson thought now was a good time to stick the boot into United calling us âfat, lazy*, bloated corpse of a clubâ. Now Johnny does some good stuff and Iâm pretty sure he will have called INEOS out for all their penny pinching in this first year of their ownership. Heâll have been complaining about them cutting costs by reducing the workforce and skimping on expenses for Cup final travel. I agree. That does seem to me though to be INEOS realising that United are, to use Nicholsonâs own words âfatâ and âbloatedâ and taking some action to address it.
I think the instruments that JN uses to beat United over the head are old hat. Just a money making machine (SJR claims to be putting football first). Rotting stadium (famously figuring that one out as we speak). Ill considered transfer strategy (now have brand new football structure in place). Shit football (literally just sacked the manager for Peteâs sake, which JN also seems not to like). They are also all long term fixes which will take time to judge, except changing the manager, though I think we can all agree that it will take more than two training sessions.
All this really to say that we all know (or think we do) the problems at United. We are doomed to read, write, listen and talk about them every time United lose or draw and quite often even when we win. I know it was a long International break (San Marino eh?) but really all that needed writing was âUnited drew and didnât play particularly well demonstrating what we already knew â Amorim has some coaching to doâ. Which incidentally is what heâs paid for.
Did we need opinion pieces and bile from Messrs Keane and Neville? Can we just take a minute to appreciate that 115 have lost FIVE in a row? Less column inches will be written about their expulsion for the Premier League (or ÂŁ10M fine) than about Unitedâs flawed yet comfortable 2-0 victory over BodĂž/Glimt on Thursday.
I also do not need Amanâs emails about how x player(s) need to leave. Firstly, they donât need to leave, theyâve all got contracts. What they need to do is play football to the requisite standard. What United need to do is approach recruitment in a measured and strategic way that improves the squad over time. Iâm happy if this involves smarter recruitment like replacing Wan Bissaka with Mazraoui. Making loads of players leave without any idea who youâre replacing them with is nonsense. Ideally the coach will actually do some coaching and improve players before we dip into our non-existent funds again.
Anyway, good luck Ruben. Youâre f*cked, but only really because thatâs the narrative that has been created since 2013.
*can a corpse really be lazy? I think this inadvertently hits the nail on the head â we are all expecting United to be something they are currently not and have not been for at least 11 years â a well run football club with a well coached team.
What is dead may never die.
Ashmundo
Success over size please
I donât have a hat in this particular ring, but Iâm going to bite because itâs a Liverpool fan.
Iâd rather be successful than âbigâ because ultimately, what does âbigâ even mean?
Is âbigâ one league title in 36 (THIRTY-SIX) years? Because if Bayern, Barcelona or Real Madrid had that sort of record, theyâd be shame faced, hiding from all forms of social media out of sheer embarrassment.
I like Liverpool â the football club â but my god their insufferable, full kit w*nker fans constantly ruin their reputation. This is why we tolerated Man City because the alternative would have been THEM.
Willy (.)
Perspective on Man City
Possession 58/42
Shots 23/9
Touches in opposition box 43/17
Corners 9/3
Score 0-4
Whilst the last one is the most important, itâs hard not to imagine Haaland banging at least 2 of his chances on any other day and City being out of sight by half time.
It wouldnât be unusual for them not to turn that around next week and a game against Feyenoord should end this run.
Well done Tottenham but it was far from a âperfect away performanceâ judging by the chances given up, letâs not give City the last rites just yet.
Howard (but if LFC do winâŠâŠ) Jones
Guardiola a fraud? Really?
It amazes me how often people want to feed into their own narrative and totally lose rational thought. The phrase âPep is a fraudâ accompanying by the usual narrative drivel of âhe only does it with expensive world class talent bought at high pricesâ.
People are so narrow minded in this view that it often disguises their jealousy of his accomplishments at the expense of their team. I support Arsenal and would love to see them beat City to the title. However I do not let my wish get in the way of recognising genius.
First tell me which top class manager has not had great players to help them win. Ferguson? Really? Cantona, Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Roy Keane, Van Nistlelroy? These were the best talent of their day. How much do you think they would be worth in todayâs prices? Latterly Van Persie taken off a rival and used to win his last Prem. Ferguson is a great manager but he worked with great players to achieve his status and also enjoyed a level of financial backing his rivals did not until the appearance of Chelsea and Mourinho.
Now the saying is Pep is a fraud as he depends so much on Rodri. Well yes he does. Why? He created Rodri. Do people have short memories of when Rodri was bought? There was a little fella called Fernandinho who was the Rodri before Rodri. In fact the consensus at the time was that this new Rodri recruit is not good enough to fill his shoes. Well, Pep turned him into a Ballon Dâor winner.
This brings me to my next point. Pep develops world class talent into world class players. The two points are not the same. So many world class talents fall by the wayside. Just look at Man U players.
I am convinced if Pep had managed Man United with all the money they have spent he would have turned them into serial winners. Money alone does not win you titles.
Finally the problems he is facing now is one of personnel in midfield. The Rodri position is such a specialist one under Pep that it glues the whole team together. It and other midfielders allow the front players to press and protects the defence with the high line and risk the team takes. When people talk about his great Barcelona team they mention Messi, Iniesta, and Xavi. They rarely mention Busquet who was the glue to that side. I watched Barcelona live once when Busquet was injured and they struggled that day.
The issue at the moment is that the people who can normally fill the position for Man City are showings signs of decline i.e. Gundogan or too light weight ie Lewis. Pep is currently juggling his resources to see what works. He will soon know what does and what does not but that does not make him a bad manager overnight.
Also City have been starting games well but the big Norwegian has been having a mare in front of goal. No one talks about expensive strikers when they are not scoring now do they. Or are you only a fraud when he scores loads?
Last season he was without his best creative player for most of the season and look what happened in the end.
Letâs stop the nonsense on Pep and acknowledge him rightly as one of the best of all time. Where you want to place him on the hierarchy of greatness is up to you.
Michael O, Chingford
(Weâll put him second â Ed)
âŠHow has no one replied to the utter tosh Lee wrote in the other day about Guardiola; the epitome of the modern day football fan. Overreaction, hyperbole, and just general nonsense spouted as some form of opinion.
Heâs lost five games in a row, for the first time in his managerial career. Sure, at the moment it seems like a lot, but itâs the first time it has ever happened to him, so naturally, he must be a fraud because he canât win, and he can only do it with the best players in the world, who became the best players in spite of his coaching.
Messi aside â because surely he was always going to be special but I do think the impact a coach can have on a playerâs career, both good and bad is often overlooked on these pages â Rodri is the player he is today because of Pep. He wasnât earmarked to become the best player in the world when he moved to City, and struggled in his first season.
He brought Barcelona back to the pinnacle of football, arguably the best team ever, and certainly the best Barca team, with youth team products he coached at youth level a core make up of the squad. He is one of the most important figures â if not the most important â in modern football, and along with Cruyff & Sacchi, is instrumental in the evolution of football to where it is today â love it or hate it.
He has changed the way the game is played, the way people think, talk and watch football has changed, and he as been fundamental in that. He has shown at City is consistent ability to tinker and fix and mould a team throughout a season, and now, in what I believe is around the 17th season of his coaching career, is suffering a blip most coaches have been through long before now.
Yeah, City might not win anything this season, and sure, his Bayern spell was unsuccessful by his own lofty standards, and modern day football is narrative drive entertainment where most fans/media fight to shout the loudest; but the man is a god in football managerial terms, and like in all walks of life, itâll only be when he is gone that he will be truly appreciated by the masses.
Neill, Ireland
Is Gundogan return an issue?
Just a small point about Cityâs recent collapse and the return of Gundogan. On paper, it looked like it made sense â return of an experienced pro who can mentor the younger players and play his own part when City need to rely on him.
I do wonder though what impact it has had on the squad atmosphere, an area Pep probably didnât consider too deeply. Dynamics change in teams when older members move on, and no doubt it did for them last season. So to have Gundogan come back, how does that alter the pecking order that has been built, the new camaraderie, especially at the late stage he did (end of August). And how does it feel â if you play in the middle â to have him now start ahead of you most of the games?
Iâm not putting their defeats down to Gundoganâs return, but their continued malaise and the nature of some of the defeats maybe points at the mentality of the squad having changed.
Nelson, Glasgow
Ps, is that really Peter G again, he who once wrote an (excellent) article for F365?
(It is; we love Peter G â Ed)
Drury makes my ears bleed
So relieved to read the mail from âDC in Leedsâ in yesterday afternoonâs mailbox about Peter s*dding Drury. I thought it was just me! Also grateful to âFreddybobsâ in the comments section for the link he posted for F365âs âMaelstrom of awfulnessâ article on the idiot last February. (I hadnât read it).
But my pet peeve is this thing, that only he does, where he simply strings together the names of players in possession, for endless minutes of time, until somebody takes a shot, or tries to, whereupon he goes full banshee. I donât know how many times he did it on Sunday, especially in the second half of Ipswich v United. It goes like this:
â Evans. Erikson. Casemiro. Evans. Bruno. Casemiro. Shaw. GARNACHO!!!!!!!â
You could be watching Leicester or Liverpool. Doesnât matter. He does it in every single game heâs in the chair for. Thatâs it. Not âBrunoâs off down the wing, Oh great pass and Garnacho could be in hereâŠ..â or anything of that sort. Oh no. Just endlessly repeat the name of the player who passes a ball then the name of the player who receives it. To an audience that is watching the same f*cking game he is! Repeat ad nauseam. I thought pros called that âdead airâ? Still, good work if you can get it.
Mark (Mail to follow about all things City on Wednesday morning). MCFC
