So many setbacks, and so many distractions. Constantly distractions. If this team doesn't somehow win the Europa, we're in serious trouble. It's a full on reset to the bottom half of the table with only players no one has heard of being available. The only other way is selling the club. I like Amorim. I think I'm seeing more evolution in these 5 months than I ever saw with ETH. I'm just exhausted by how bad and distracting some of these players are. All of them are for sale.
i want Amorim to win the UEL just to force the pundits opinion of his work to date to change. the guy inherited a team in 13th and the team is still 13th. he's had no opportunity to change ten Hag's squad bar Dorgu and lost others on loan so he's actually net negative on what he inherited. granted i did want to see an upturn in form from some individual players. you could argue Fernandes but he was in such a rut before that really the only way to go was up. so that's one criticism i have for him. my fear is that there are just too many chickens that have come home to roost for Amorim to succeed. the problems have compounded to unseen levels and United has no transfer advantage anymore
I've found the response in the media to this game kinda strange and ott tbh. We could easily have had this result and performance with our first choice eleven. So that we had this result in an injury / rest game situation pre-Europa League with the likes of Lindelof, Eriksen, Bayandir, Amass coming into the team away against a top team was zero surprise to me and surely almost all United fans. The first eleven is bad enough in key areas as we all know, the squad depth being a mix of under investment in depth and lack of quality through poor recruitment is really not a surprise. Agree with Chaz that under current ownership (ie without a sale) we are stuck with these issues for a long while. Given that poor squad depth will be here for a while it means the few signings we will make must be first teamers who are available and don't have injury records as the absolutely key priority. More Mazraoui level availability than Mount.
well at this point not much is likely to change but for player of the season i imagine most would have Diallo as the winner. IMO the only other possible nominees are Ugarte and Mazraoui. i think Ugarte has been quietly brilliant for the most part. possibly Fernandes of late but that's only of late. his first half of the season was not great. it would hinge on winning the UEL i'd think
My daughter's kindergarten graduation is at the same exact time as the EL final. Dumb. They should put the game on a weekend like the CL.
How much of an x-factor can Mount be against Tottenham? Man utd have struggled against them recently, with Maddison out injured for Spurs is that a plus?
Amad returning is more likely to be an x-factor given his form, consistency and our lack of options that side. He has to start the final if we think he is fit enough. Mount has shown next to nothing aside from his last 30 minutes. For sure will be a big help if he can show that form or close with any kind of consistency plus stay fit and be able to play closer to a full game Will also be good if we can get De Ligt back. Just vital to keep players fit next two EPL games so we have some competition for places and a bench that can actually make a difference.
Mount will probably come on regardless of the result because all the attackers are dead tired. I agree, but is there a reason you cant watch on your phone? Or will your partner kill you.
If the Europa is won, that's potentially 100m GBP in United's coffers next season. So suppose the clubs has a true overhaul, replace 8-10 players, what expectations can we set? I can't imagine Amorim staying on otherwise.
I just don't want to be that dad who is watching sports at something "important". Seems cheesy to me, especially growing up latchkey. I'll just be present.
Just go incommunicado for the afternoon to avoid all news of the game. After celebratory times with your family, put the wife and kids to bed. Grab a beer or ten and watch the rerun in peace.
I can't do this either. If it's a good game I can watch it after, but I can never wait to watch without knowing what's happened. I'll just look at the score after the event, and then i'll visit the game thread as soon as I can.
Most games I watch delayed in the evening and am generally good at avoiding all social media etc so that I can watch without knowing details
He is absolutely right about all of this and if the new structured board and Radcliff do not fully support him on the needed changes then we are just bound to keep repeating this. Maybe we get a more pragmatic coach and low block and grind out a few more wins and hover at 7-12th position, but we will never win the league without serious changes. I appreciate FFP hinders us, but I also don't see Amorim needing nor demanding an open wallet to go after only big name players - we just need young and hungrier players. I hope I am not being naive here, but I feel the board will fully back him in this process.
A few seasons back, we could have coasted into UCL places with the players we have. That's not true anymore. The top half of the table is so competitive, it's like the 7 sisters in the 90s Serie A era. If it was shocking Leicester won a league title, mark my words, we'll see a Fulham or Nottingham do it soon enough, probably sooner than us. I think we'll get there again, although maybe under completely new ownership. So many bad contracts, so many players who simply can't fetch the money we need to overhaul the club, which means we need to sell our most prized assets to fund big changes. I wasn't in agreement with Chaz on selling Garnacho and Mainoo, but it's looking more and more like that's what needs to happen even if we win Europa, and that was always a must for me.
agree but also FFP hinders us because we aren't smart. like i said in the West Ham thread, there were THREE good strikers available at €20m and we didn't even sniff a hint of any of them. we don't look at hot spots either. Ecuador, South America as always, Belgian League, Bundesliga has some interesting young talents. Serie A has some too in recent years. France? for whatever reason we are not shrewd or clever in the transfer market anymore. at all
This is why I think this talk of Cunha for 67m is wild. If this is true, then we keep making the same mistakes. I just don't see the value in him.
I would say, since the new setup after Radcliff came in we have started to look better in this department, especially at the youth level - it has been a good sign that things are being changed for the better there
To me he makes sense IF we were pushing for top 6 and making some serious investments elsewhere. However, if we are instead looking to slowly build this team back up then I think he would be a waste at that price point as we wouldn't be pushing for a few years
Listing to the talk of the devils podcast and of course a lot of discussion on these comments and where do we go from here. One thing they pointed out, in the first summer after Amorim took over Sporting the release and/or sold 12 players. The feeling is that he wants to do something similar