Yeah , I see Chelsea as taking more than one season to be serious title contenders . They seem to be focusing on building from the front . That def / keeper issue is unlikely to be sorted this summer . I'm not concerned about them this season but if they continue to target really good quality like Pusilic , Zyiech , Werner , Havertz (? ) etc then they will pose a real threat in the near future.
Right - so, other teams are getting stronger, have rumors of signing new players and there was a pretty good crop of youngsters throughout the league, who will (should) only get better with a year under their belts... But LFC has Klopp - don't forget his affect on the squad, and my guess is he has confidence in his squad and we will do just fine...I don't think LFC will win the league running away like we did this past season, but we will compete...and that is all we can ask for in this money heavy Premier League...Compete in both the PL and Champion's League...and we go again!
I think Klopp puts a lot of value in continuity. Having players that understand the system and each other is important to success. One of the things he did when he got to LFC is he made sure the U 23 etc play a similar system to make it easier to transition. I don't worry too much about the Summer season, if Klopp sees someone he thinks will help he has shown a willingness to go after that player. I think he wanted Pulisic but Pulisic wanted Chelsea and Klopp thought the price tag was a little high. I don't know about Warner. Seemed like a done deal. Only reason I can think of is he has other ideas where to spend the money. We do need to up grade with players able to compete with our current starters and give them rest without much of a drop off. I think we get a left back to give Andy a break if we want to compete on a number of fronts and don't want Andy to break.
LFC have the best first 11 in the league I think, so if they don't compete for the league that's a pretty significant failure IMO. My issue is, and has always been since the last time they really bought in the market, will their inability/unwillingness to bring in top quality depth bite them in the ass? No one is questioning Klopp, but almost everything has gone Klopp/LFC's way in the league, for the most part, for 2 straight seasons. In terms of injuries, in terms of fortunate bounces of the ball here or there, and yes also most obviously in terms of great consistent performances. But ask City what it feels like when the other shoe drops and some injuries start to pile up to key personnel... Which is not to say that HAS to happen. My position last year was the same as now, IF it does happens they are ill-prepared for it, and this great success -- both in terms of performance and finances -- seemed to afford them the unique opportunity to do that kind of planning and bring in at least one or two really quality young talents. But it's an opportunity, thanks in part to the pandemic but also because of their own hesitation, that has been squandered. That said, and this was true last summer too, they're good enough to win the prem and compete in the CL... soooooo hopefully they stay healthy. Again.
Lol. Chelsea will comfortably finish 3rd next year with that Ludicrous attack they're building(if not challenge for top 2). You love bigging up United don't you?..They will be fighting for 4th again unless they Sign Koulibaly & Sancho which isn't definitely happening.For all your fawning over their attack,I'm still not convinced over Martial,Greenwood will be marked next Season a lot more & Rashford doesn't yet have the Elite consistency our boys(Front 3) show week in week out.So I'm not sipping that cool aid just yet.
A lot of conclusions about Manure are being drawn from their ability to get into the CL, OK "the table doesn't lie" but after the Restart the fixture list was hugely gentle on them, and they did crap against good opposition (I'm excluding LC, but they were missing best players and had a man sent off)... Wins Norwich - relegated Brighton - 15th Sheffield LC Palace - 14th Villa - missed relegation by 1 point Bournemouth - relegated Ties Spurs WH Soton Loss Chelsea Sure they have strengths to build on, but their defense is a disaster waiting to happen most games. Fenandez looks v good but let's see how he does vs top teams regularly, and over the course of a season. Let's see who they do actually sign, and what Ole (one of the least impressive managers in the Prem imo) does with them.
@Hobo - and to compare our team under Brendan to Manure saying similar attacks is so wrong in every way. Our Team under Brendan had a Generational great Striker/Talisman like Luis Suarez..We rode that entire Season off the brilliance of that One Man.There's no one in United's Attack now who can even be mentioned in the same sentence as him.Not even Sancho if they sign him.That Season we annihilated teams by 4's and 5's regularly.I think United scored 5 Once all Season and the first time in the League since Red Nose left.Most games after lock down after the initial bounce they were outplayed for large stretches even by the Southampton's and Crystal Palace's of this World.They are Bang Average when things are not going for them and Chelsea with Werner,Ziyech & Pulisic will give me the Shivers any day over the United Trio.
Lose Allison for an extended spell early in the first match, lose Matip who was playing out of his mind, lose Fabinho for an extended spell. Sure we could have had more players injured, Hendo could have been injured earlier, and Shaquiri could have been needed more when he was out forever (same with Llanna), but I think it's a stretch to say everything has gone Klopp's way in that regard.
Alisson is a good point, that was inconvenient and required some surprise performances from Adrian. But that's really the 1 area... Alisson early in the season impacted the league, the one time in 2 years (or more?) that a big injury to a key contributor threatened to impact league play. In defense it's mostly been the backups, or rotational players I should say, getting injured; yes, Matip was in great form but wasn't Gomez right there to take over? On top of that it's arguably the least important position in that back 5 -- the CB that is not VVD -- so it's not really on my mind when listing key contributors. Arguably the strength of CM is the depth, so injuries to CM also aren't quite in the same category unless they really pile up... you could put together a good CM out of a number of their midfielders, missing Fabinho or Naby for a spell is too bad but the squad is built to cover for this. But to be clear, I wasn't trying to suggest they had a perfect injury history over 2 years... Again, this doesn't mean it has to happen, but what if 2 of the front 3 are out for a long time at the same time? They aren't exactly spring chickens and play a very demanding style. Is this likely to happen, maybe not... but it could. And they had a chance to guard against it, but didn't. That's what I'm talking about, that's the kind of problem City have had to deal with and LFC haven't -- missing multiple key contributors at the same time. Maybe they just have more injury prone players, I don't know, but us missing Matip and Fabinho isn't the same as them missing Kun, KDB, & Laporte. The whole point of this was assuming the Sancho transfer happens... Rashford doesn't need to be Salah or Mane, he had 20 goals + assists, which is a goal contribution every 136 mins as a 22 year old, often from wide positions and not including pens. Add Sancho into the attack, and where can that go? Probably up. Their defense just let in 36 goals this season, 3rd best in the league, they do not need Koulibaly. They do need to be concerned about an injury, though, which is why I said if they get a big injury to a key area, like central defense, they should be concerned. But overall they are fine defensively, and if they need to worry about central defensive depth so do Liverpool and City and... basically everyone! Chelsea are a mess at the back, sure the attack will be good, maybe great, but just like Arsenal they are not solid all the way through in the same way in terms of talent, which is why United finished 3rd despite a very rocky start since Chelsea's defense couldn't keep the goals out and their best CM, who is one of the only really talented defensive players in the entire squad, can't stay healthy. So maybe I'm not just bigging up United... maybe you're just not appraising them correctly? Especially post-Bruno and assuming Sancho incoming, which was the context for my comments. TLDR; nanny nanny goo goo.
Central Defense is a huge Problem for United and united fans will agree themselves. Maguire is no leader like VVD and is an accident waiting to happen like Lovren for Us.Lindelof is again meh and time & again they've got found out with that suspect back line.Even the most die hard of United Fans would agree they need an upgrade in CB injury or otherwise.They've got Maguire,Lindelof & Bailey..now how are they comfortably better than Rudiger,Christensen & Zouma...They're stacked up evenly for me..Lampard prefers to play a more expansive style while Ole was pretty much only setting up his teams to counter attack..The Chelsea back line was under more pressure and with the Hoopla around Kepa..Defense can be coached and I expect Chelsea to be better Defensively next Season..Anyways like you said we will know in June next year
36 goals against this season... 3 more than LFC. Hardly some shaky defense. Chelsea the expansive attacking side had 69 goals on 60% possession, and United the countering team had 66 goals on 56% possession. Prem officially has Chelsea at 8 goals from counters, United at 6. Chelsea have 300 more attempted pressures and 2% higher pressure success rate... over 200 of these pressures occur in the middle 3rd, which speaks not to quality but the differences between these two midfields -- if you have Mount and Kovacic, you'd better use that energy and disruption to your benefit. Maguire & Lindelof would both start for this Chelsea side, and AWB would be Chelsea's best defender. An admittedly declining/unconfident DDG would waltz into that squad and be considered their savior compared to their current options. So yes, agree to disagree. See you next June.
the Guardian agrees with us (i.e. not Hobo). exerpts .... https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-united-jadon-sancho-challenge-for-big-prizes Jadon Sancho has 11 England caps. He was in the Bundesliga team of the season at 19. He makes in-game decisions as prescient as a teenage Wayne Rooney. He is a two-footed, goalscoring assist maker with a Harry Houdini array of tricks. Yet if Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s pursuit of the Borussia Dortmund forward is not backed by further transfers then Manchester United have only a distant hope of being contenders next season. A frontline with the firepower of Sancho, Rashford, Martial and Greenwood will be of scant use if a faultline that began with the ageing Rio Ferdinand, ran through Daley Blind and continues with the vulnerability of Maguire and Victor Lindelöf to speed is not finally ended.
Dude.Statistics are like a Bikini.They show a lot but not Everything I may be more conservative and would rather go with the simple Eye Test.I have seen the United Back line bullied at Corners and by balls in the air/crosses and they're defending has made me Cringe.Just like we did in 15/16 under Klopp.AWB would be Chelsea's best Defender????...Really???..Even over Azpilicueta????...Modern day Full backs are required to get up and down and defending isnt one dimensional anymore.Want to pull out more stats about how Wan Bissaka dribbles straight into the advertising boards without any pressure or how many of his crosses hurtle towards Row Z???? Do you even watch United Games cause if you do you clearly won't be saying the things you are about their Defence
Thank You Sam. Cause I'm actually sitting here thinking I have actually got Maguire & Lindelof wrong cause I'm being forced to believe they're Ferdinand & Vidic in Disguise.
Anybody paying attention to the Brentford-Fulham game for promotion to the EPL? 0-0 into extra time... Whoop - 0-1 to Fulham at HT of ET...Fulham score a "cheeky" free kick (a-la TAA CL) when the ball goes directly into the net rather than across the face of goal - catching the GK cheating off his line... Will we see Fulham back in the EPL - or will Brentford make a come back?
Brentford had a great season but came up short. Fulham were the better team on the night. Some of those Brentford players, especially Benrahma, are going to be targeted by Premier League clubs.
To me this is effectively ceding the argument, which I'm happy for you to do. The United defense isn't judged by your (or anyone's) eye test... they're judged by what they do on the pitch, and what they do is have 3rd fewest goals allowed in the league, and deploy one of the best wide defenders in the league in an era in which a huge amount of goals come from wide-position players. Without considerable injuries to their first choice back 5, get ready for another season of around 1 goal conceded per match IMO. Hell, they just as easily might still buy a more mobile 6 and improve their defending. So yeah, if I'm wrong or wrong but you are not making strong arguments that back up this claim. So we'll just have to see what happens. Feel like I saw a lot of similar arguments last summer. Not just here, either.
Damn... totally forgot this match was today, ********. Really upset I missed that. Glad for Fulham to be back. Fulham and Leeds back in the prem, that's fun. West Brom, not so much... they can go right back down as far as I'm concerned.
... no one is talking about them being contenders. They are being compared to Chelsea, are Chelsea contenders according to the guardian?
I’m OK with Fulham back in, but was ‘kinda’ pulling for the Bees... Glad to see Leeds back in the top division, and, like you, couldn’t really care less about WB... I was really hoping for a Nottingham Forest...but they choked down the stretch.
That too would have been a great story. I have very fond feelings toward Fulham even though Brentford is the better story -- great stadium, great support in my experience, great to Americans. Honestly I should probably have more animosity for them considering Hodgson & Konchesky, but I just can't muster it. Always will wish them well.