Tonight has really opened my eyes to the issues we face.

[JIMINHO]

Let’s face it, we have a rotten squad. There’s a few bad eggs in our team that just aren’t giving it there all and that has permeated to the whole team. Jose’s comments are right, you can’t flick a switch and get them playing intense football when they haven’t played intense football for the better part of a year. Plus intensity or required from the whole team, not just a handful. Aurier is a lazy sod and Moura hasn’t exactly been doing a lot of running either. Winks, Sissoko and Delli are the only three players in that midfield/attack who seem to move off the ball. The rest are just reacting to the ball movement instead of anticipating it and Winks/Sissoko are not world class midfielders although I do personally like both of them.

Our back 4 needs to be reestablished next year and that means two new full backs. In modern football, most of the energy comes from those two positions. We also need a world class DM, Kante-esque. If we can only get three players this summer, it would be those three. Off-load Aurier, Rose, and Wanyama and just swap them out. Maybe get $50m for those three (maaaybe) and spend $150m on those three positions. I have a feeling we will keep Vert and Alderweireld but Eriksen is almost certainly out the door.

Overarching comment is just to get through this year. Just get top 4 so we have a platform for next year.

 

[Tomo]

If not a DM, what is he? Serious question, not trolling.

A number 8 like Sissoko and like Ndombele. We have a clear Gerrard/Lampard situation in the team, players who do a similar role and don’t work. Watch Winks for England in his last game in his proper role.

Dier and Wanyama for whatever reason are broke and thus we have no effective holding player. so we ask Winks and Sissoko or Ndombele to cover the 8 and 6 role between them and it doesn’t work.

If we have a £60m budget and a top DM for £60 comes up we have to spend it on that guy. The team has no balance.

while Winks hasn’t been great as a DM he has still performed better than Dier who seems to be no longer mobile. Only short term solution for me is a Winks as DM till we buy a new one in a midfield 3 of Winks, Ndombele and Lo Celso and drop Lucas as the poorest performing attacking player. Alternative to Winks would be trying Foyth in the DM role, not sure Skipp is physically ready.

sell Dier and Wanyama and buy a good DM who is mobile in January. do that and the defence will be more solid and attacking players will be more confident.

it’s not nice but we can’t carry the likes of Wanyama, Dier, Lamela, Rose etc anymore.

 

[COckneY Spurs]

For months now I have been saying that Pochettino was the reason behind our terrible form, poor tactics, losing the players, training burning them out etc.

Then tonight rolled around...new manager and yet again, we start the game and I am thinking "what the fuck are we doing tactically here? We are all over the place!"

Honestly, you could have told me Poch was still in charge and I would have believed you.

United are utterly diabolical and yet we made them look like City or Liverpool at times, surely two managers in a row can't be making the exact same mistakes can they?

Well the answer is, no, I don't think they are.

I think the players are making the same mistakes and by mistakes I mean, being lazy and not showing the right attitude and some of them in that dressing room need a rocket firing up them quite frankly because it's fucking me off.

I don't know if they have just all lost confidence or if they think they don't need to apply themselves anymore or what, I really don't know what the issue is at this point, are our players just seriously overrated because of what our previous manager achieved with them? Because watching that game tonight has pissed me off like no other before, we fucking stank the place out, other than one piece of utter magic from Dele that was, frankly, rancid.

I think looking at Dele after the final whistle he genuinely looked torn up and I think it's because he feels guilty about what happened to Poch and more importantly he knows the attitude wasn't right from some of our players and maybe that is the crux of the issue here.

Mourinho was honest as well, he gave them clear instructions and they failed to follow them, I don't know what it's going to take for this group of players to understand that you can't just turn up to games and expect to win with a half arsed performance, doesn't matter how shit the other team are on paper, if you're attitude isn't right then you will not win.

I keep hearing "the humble one" thrown around, right now we need the old Jose, we need some fire in that dressing room to seperate the cowards from the ones who really want to stay here and fight to make this club one of the greats in world football.

Otherwise, well, we have a very long road ahead of us and one that maybe even Jose can't fix without spending to remove the ones that lack the spine for the job.

Am I kneejerking here? Genuine question? Or is this deeper than just a manager being the issue?

It’s a horrible mess, created by lots of smaller problems over the last two years all coming together at once wrapped in a nice little bow.

Without opening old wounds the summer of no transfers is where it started, I do however believe there was defiantly restrictions on the amount of money we had and a manager who wanted top players as opposed to a few cheaper average players, Levy and Poch met in the middle somewhere on this, stay calm and I’ll back you next summer, which he did, but too little too late perhaps? Certainly for Poch anyway.
All this of course forced us to keep what we had and as a result players contracts started to run out and average players never stepped up (when you think about it Harry Kane is the last time we produced a quality player from with in our academy, 6 years ago now?)
So all and all, Levy gets a pass over the last few years as off the field Priority's where understandable, but it’s time to redirect that focus back to the team and with Jose at the helm there is really no excuse, the guy has won silverware everywhere he has ever managed, even at a piss poor Man Utd, but to take the next step to the next level Levy must, and I mean must back his manager and trust his manager 100%.....
Jose knows what he’s doing, so it’s time to show us you do too Daniel.

 

[Guido 🇺🇦]

I don’t disagree with that. I was sad when Poch went but we have Mourinho like it or not. Personal view is that this squad is half suited to Mourinho, attacking players are generally fine but it’s clear we need 2-3 players at least and whether Mourinho was being honest I believe we have to sell and buy this jan and the summer quite a bit.

Levy probably took the view it’s cheaper to try Mourinho and the upside could be great but it’s also a big gamble.

Taking sentiment out of the equation altogether and going word for word from the mouths of the Club and the new manager.
1. Poch was sacked for results and the Club felt the squad was "talented" enough but needed to "re-energize"
2. Jose appointed Club make specific in their statement that they belive he can re-energize the squad
3. Jose's first interview he states "The quality in both the squad and the academy excites me. Working with these players is what has attracted me.” Jose is now on record following every interview and pre and post-match conf that he "loves the players" and he "doesn't need to spend".

If anyone is expecting reinforcements in Jan I think they will be totally disappointed, the best buys made in Jan tend to be those that are tee'd up for the following season. There is hardly any activity in the Jan window. For me, a successful Jan is selling the likes of Rose, Wanyama and whoever else is deemed a wantaway.

 

[Bazali]

Hardly banning on Baz, wrote one line made of 3 words. I saw it as a point of correction nothing more.

Ok no problem

 

[bus-conductor]

What we've had for the last five seasons, is a manager and supporting team, who compelled the squad to give about 120% of what they naturally could IMO.

Look at Luke Shaw, now a bit part player at what 23/24?

Look at Rose, Alderweireld, physically undermined by the previous regimes mortgaging tomorrow for a win today.

It happens to all Bielsa's teams, run out of gas Feb-March bus-conductor watches a lot of French footie, he will know this pattern happens with this excessive intensity and elite fitness mantra which Poch formed from his tutelage.

What we need IMO, is the fitness team from Juve (if memory serves or was it AC Milan?), who buy up 30-33 year olds and get another 2-3years out of them. Because they will understand these players in varying forms have Lactic/Uric/Arachidonic Acid excesses at their points of weakness (previous injury sites, sites they compensate for muscular/skeletal weakness etc), as the high intensity creates an excess of Acid waste which only certain phsiologies can cycle at super high levels (which intensity training + games induces).

We need an elite recovery team, to bring the physical age of our players back down as far as is possible IMO.

These backed up metabolic residues will always manifest in this 'lack of intensity' or 'slow' starts, we have seen for over 18months almost consistently, and for 5years on/off (remember the latter season collapses in the first to seasons, just like Bielsa teams always suffer).

People complain about Kane, that proves the point, a club supporter, loves us, is he really choosing to amble around more like a championship player, rather than a Drogba like performance we saw at Spam? Of course not, his body has backed up performance residue, which compels the autonomic nervous system to make him unable to be 'at it'.

I pray that Mourinho does not do the Poch thing, of making them pay by more intensity for poor performances, it's just insanity. I hope he makes them all take rest, rest, rest. Massage the shit out of them, not massacre them.

NOTE : I AM NOT BLAMING POCH, HIS FITNESS EXPERTS SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS DEVELOPING.

I am blaming Poch.

He is well aware his methodology requires young minds and particularly young legs, due to the intensity/recovery/intensity cycle.

It is no coincidence that we were at our best when we were the youngest team in the PL.


Trying to flog one of the oldest teams the same way, after flogging them for3/4 years already, when he had viable young players at his disposal - even if he just used them as more frequent squad rotation to get rest and recovery into senior players - was piss poor management of resources.

 

[bus-conductor]

Maybe they are not so viable as you think. The demands from the fan base and the board have progressively gone up and perhaps we wouldn't have got top 4 or a CL final if he had changed his methods to what you suggest.

You talk like we’ve been watching world class galacticos for the last two years, not the likes of Rose, Davies, Aurier, Sissoko, Dier, Moura etc

We hadn’t won an away game in 11 months.

They were viable in our context, for a team that desperately needed re-energising.

 

[Bakesteve]

I hope they will prove me wrong, but Kane and Son are not that effective under Jose. They are way too responsible for defense now. They are pretty much burned out from running all over the place.

Guessing you loved being proven wrong today!

 

[Incomplete_usernam]

We've picked up bad habits. Have a Kit Kat, me old china.

That's it mate, that's what it feels like doesn't it, can't put my finger on what's wrong.

I do believe Jose will fix the issues though, I have no doubt about that, it's just what will it take to fix them...

 

[NP-Yid]

Think it partly comes down to the fact that there are too many players who are too comfortable and are either playing down their contracts and waiting to get out, or the same players putting in bang average performances every week knowing they won’t be dropped as we simply don’t have quality competition for places.

 

[Knobs22]

As of now I’m writing this off as just a poor performance overall. Maybe the beds at the hotel were too soft and no one slept well? If it continues over a few games I’ll worry.

Bring in a solid DM In January and get Ndombele playing the way we need him to play and I think we will be a much better side. Midfield is our biggest concern by far.

 

[Claud601]

The squad needs revamping badly and another striker

 

[Park Lane Mark Twain]

We've been starting games badly for a long time. I suppose it is not like flicking a switch.

The lads looked low on confidence again tonight. 11 individuals not a collective moving, knowing where to move, how to manipulate space for their teammates etc it was back to ball to feet, back to not wanting to take responsibility.

Old wounds looked reopened because of the early goals both halves of the game. We have to remember that the players are still new to the manager, they are still testing the waters as is he. He'd have seen the flaws in Gazzaniga, Aurier, Sissoko, Winks, Lucas tonight no question. Jose will get it right, we forget that he hasn't got the added advantage of living and breathing this team like we have over the past 15 months, he's playing catch up on the issues we face but if he's worth his salt, he'll see the cracks like we've been seeing during the end of the Poch tenure. It's just a heavy one as that was a shit Man U team and I'm sure he knows it.

 

[ShutUpPatrik]

I’m not worried. Unlike Poch, Mou will simply drop people who don’t do what they are told. He already dropped Rose, one of our worst and most bigheaded players. After today, he will be questioning some others as well. Poch was too soft and too loyal to some of them, to win you need to be ruthless.

In a way, a loss could serve us well in the long run since it does paint a much clearer picture for Mourinho of the overall mentality of the squad and players.

One loss here or there is not a problem, losses are part of football. It is how you handle them and move on that is important so that we don't end up stringing together a series of them.

 

[Cranston]

Also, yes, it is a knee jerk. After a few wins against some of the worst opponents to date (whilst still conceding lots of goals) a few have been acting like it’s problem solved and Top 4 is back on.

We’re nowhere close. We have fundamental problems in our side and players that aren’t good enough. The game has moved on.

Let’s enjoy the cups this season and focus on developing our younger players.

 

[CaptainWow]

Not sure about that.
Rashford just got the ball and ran straight at our defence, causing chaos. Nobody stopped him.
That is not exactly a tactic.

Come on. He also sat on the bench looking like a schoolboy holding in a piss for 90 minutes.

 

[MVP]

I believe that Mourinho can fix things, my question was, what's it going to take to fix it though? And are these players good enough?

My thoughts from last night was that this team isn't as good as I thought it was and we are going to need some signings to fix the issues we have but like Guido 🇺🇦 I have concerns around the sort of transfers we will make.

United are utterly shocking and we made them look like City/Liverpool for most of the game.

I'm not shocked by anything, unlike some people I didn't ONLY blame Poch for the slump and I knew that the real works starts once the honeymoon is over and now it's over.
It will take time to fix things and for Jose to try new things out that might come at a cost of no top 4 and no trophies this season. I think people should just suck it up for now, they demanded a change in manager and they got their wish.

 

[Cranston]

I am not traditionally a fan of Mourinho but I am giving him a chance to show a new side of him, and to give him the time to do what needs to be done to address our issues. He has an outstanding base of players to work with but there are clearly weaknesses in the squad.

Agree with the general sentiment, but I don't actually think he does have an 'outstanding' base of players. He has a formidable attack, most certainly, but the rest is bang average. A lot of our hopes rest on Ndombele and Lo Celso turning out to be fantastic, but I'm not sure any of us know how that will pan out. If they stumble, we have a very poor midfield and an ageing, creaky defence.

 

[williams316]

What u really need in the club now is someone to invest in the club. That being a take over like some very wealthy person from Saudi Arabia or quatar if we ant to be there year in year out and winning things. The stadium is the best around we know that but time will move on and others will get just as good.

 

[Chelmsfordspurs]

Could replace the majority of our squad and I wouldn’t bat an eyelid. Worrying.