08 May 2023 08:11:57
A new owner is sat with a £5Bn cheque and will view what is going on at the club thinking about what is needed. I think after last night there will be seeds of doubt on Manager, coaches and players. Yes ETH has won a cup, may win another yet it is top four that matters as well. There are some very very large questions about his management recently.

If I was paying £5Bn I would want to know I have the best in all positions. ETH needs to up his game or may find he has problems, especially so if we miss top four, which is a real possibility. Last night I watched that dross in utter disbelief. I would excuse a couple Shaw and AWB amongst them, yet others were a rabble.

1) Why play Weg? Not just that he is utterly useless, we know he is utterly useless, yet appears the manager can't see it. The other players must feel beaten before the game because they know they are playing with 10. The players will likely feel the manager doesn't know what he is doing by starting him. Then, If he has been told he won't be retained, why start him? It defies all sense. The leggy useless player offers nothing, if ETH wants just a runner play someone else.

2) DDG How can ETH come out and say or even think about giving him a new contract. That was a Massimo Taibi moment and SAF didn't flinch, yet ETH seems determined to keep him. I would have subbed him at half time for that last night. Giving him a new contract is another Phil Jones shambles. DDG then tried passing out and nearly gave another away, clearly unsuited to this style. His time must be up and if ETH doesn't deal with it, strongly, he weakens his own position.

3) The goal is 8 yards wide, do our players practice hitting it? Or just pass the ball about in training. It also goes back to getting someone ETH knew (Weg) in January instead of a striker. Yet the word zero keeps appearing in our goals scored column. We struggle terribly. £85m for Antony yet he does one thing and does not hit the target. It is embarrassing. I question how he and others are being coached. Rashford is back to his previous self yet none of them hit the 8 yard wide target.

4) In game management. We needed a goal desperately, so he brings on Dalot and Fred. If Garnacho is on the bench or even Pellestri why ignore them? I was baffled. It's not the first time and ETH subs are frankly baffling at times. Who is advising him, McLaren is doing what? It's not good enough, learning curve maybe but Dalot and Fred when chasing a goal?

5) Casemiro, what has happened? Why is there such a huge change in him. I have to ask if he has been coached out of what he is good at in order to fit a pattern.

6) Midfield Eriksen, Bruno and Casemiro doesn't seem to work. Bruno left wing to accommodate Weg was utter madness tactically.

7) Why has ETH not given more time to youth? Ok Garnacho has been injured recently, but Pellestri gave us some energy previously, yet we go with Weg. What happened to Iqbal, also the young Centre midfield player who came on in games earlier in the season. Discarded for Weg.

I found a bar with Bein sports, had to put up with Gray, Keys and some laughing ex scouser, yet sat talking to United fans in the bar they are saying the same about ETH.

This is not an ETH out post, I want to be clear on that, but he looks out of his depth at times and we must see better from him in the coming games or those with £5B will look longingly at other managers.

1.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 08:48:19
Red Man, people here do not want to hear the bitter truths. Everybody was happy when Ole was supposedly saying the "right things" and ridiculed Jose for saying the harsh reality. History repeating itself because EtH says the "right things" and Ronaldo was abused was speaking the truth. EtH hasn't done anything different to what Ole was doing. Sit back defend and counter using Usain Bolt as front men. Hiw many teams have we bashed this season? Where are the goals? Weghorst in for Ronaldo, this simply would be the worst swap in the history of football.

How many more losses before we actually question EtH and his non existent tactics, his in game changes, his substitutions, his team selections etc. We are getting beating left right and centre. We won the Mickey mouse cup because we did not face any proper team. We failed to score against Brighton this season in 3 games as they did a PL double on us, a team whose manager is newer to the league than ours. Yet his team play a better brand of football than our jokers.

People have accepted mediocrity and are happy to throw excuse after excuse. We are not tired as we have not actually played football for the past 5 months, we have just strolled around the park and that doesn't tire one out.

Have the players called out EtH's bluff and now not playing for him as they don't trust him to lead us? Obviously they also see Weghorst getting picked, DDG getting a new contract after such performances.

If we now miss out on top 4, it is a catastrophe and even if we make top 4, are we good enough to get out of the group stage?

2.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 09:43:08
I feel this is all a bit harsh. Look at the mess Ten Hag inherited less than a year ago. Constant talk of losing the changing room (still not entirely sure what this means lol), low morale, leaks, in-fighting, sulking, no effort. I believe he's come in and addressed those things. Maybe it went a little too well by the half-way point and some of us got ahead of ourselves. Yes Mourinho won this or Ole finished there, but I don't think the culture seems toxic anymore. At least to me it doesn't seem that way.
We're stuggling this month as the players have run out of steam and our two first-choice centrebacks are out. Moment of madness in injury time v Brighton and a compless hash by De Gea yesterday and we've failed to pick up a point in two games. Maybe it was a bridge too far this season or maybe we'll pip it. I'm hoping we'll just nick it, maybe in the final game.
I agree to an extent we're not yet a particularly exciting team to watch and the way we play is quite predictable. I feel this will change with each window. I don't think Shappy is going to get the GK he feels will transform our style this summer but with more strength in depth in two or three key positions I think next season we'll almost be a team in ten Hag's vision, at the moment there are still a fair few waifs and strays he's forced to play.

3.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 09:49:50
somen with a cheque for 5Billion is around 30% short of making any kind of significant change at the club.

4.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 09:51:46
Disagree with most of what you say. Firstly ETH has to back DDG in public because we don't have a top quality back up. DDG himself will know what a mistake he made but the worst thing the manager can do now is to diminish the keepers already fragile confidence.

ETH uses Weghorst because he wants someone to be a focal post ntnof attack and hold up the ball to allow others to join in or take the pressure off the defence. Problem is that our midfield play has been so poor that Weghorst is not being given the balls he needs to be effective. Additionally ETH knows that unlike Martial or Sancho Weghorst will put a real shift in and close down the opposition every game.

We are totally reliant on Rashford to score goals and Garnacho has been a big miss. I guess ETH doesn't see enough from Pellestri in training to trust him but I would have given him a chance.

Casemeiro is an interesting problem. Is he just tired and showing his age and the fact that he is unused to playing so many games in one season at such an intensity or is there something else wrong?

In terms of his subs at the start and middle of the season everybody was saying how great ETH was and how his game management was spot on. I don't think he is doing much different now. The only difference is that he is missing his first choice pairing of central defenders who give real stability to the team and the fact that he doesn't have the depth of a quality squad to compete over a long season.

If ETH is backed properly and allowed to do what he feels is necessary then we will be fine next season and kick on again.

5.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 10:04:25
Red Man, I'll try and answer these as best I can.

1. What Weghorst lacks in quality he makes up in energy and work rate. We have a squad of exhausted players. Weghorst offers us energy and is why I feel the manager is playing him. We have seen him play Weghorst at No.10, not because of his creative skills, but to provide energy and movement in the heart of the side.

2. What else is he going to say. He is there to manage the situation. What he says publicly to calm the fans and not give the media bullets to fire at us probably is very different to what he says or thinks behind closed doors. DDG isn't good enough anymore, certainly not to play the way EtH would like us to. But he is our longest serving player, a club legend and to throw him under the bus or just discard him would not be of benefit to the club. He also has to plan for a summer where he might not have the funds available to bring in the players he wants/ needs. So he has to plan for several possible eventualities.

3. Strikers tend to be confidence players, if confidence is low, or doubts are creeping in that tends to reflect in their performances. The players seem very tired both physically and mentally. It is always harder to do your job well under such circumstances. While many would say scoring is the hardest thing to do on the pitch. Antony was massively overpriced, I said before he signed that he was a 40-50m player at most. Yet decisions were made by the club at the time for reasons we can only guess at. If we win a trophy and get top four with Antony being a key player then his signing makes sense, even if his cost does not.

4. We needed a goal but had no consistent goalscorers on the bench, even if we did it probably wouldn't have made much difference as the players we had were feeding off of scraps at the time. AWB had suffered a head injury and was on a yellow, he simply had to be replaced. Fred came on to add energy into midfield and to try and wrestle control back in the middle.

5. Casemiro is the type of player who needs both consistency and movement around him. Him dropping in and out of the team makes it hard for him to keep his match sharpness up. While a drop off in energy levels mean that he doesn't have the same passing options around him as he had earlier in the season.

6. The midfield worked perfectly fine earlier in the season, they are just exhausted now and out of sync.

7. Youngsters are easier to bed into a team playing well. You can't just chuck them into a team that is struggling and expect them to not only play well personally but lift the teams performance as well. As said above Wout playing centrally is about giving energy into the engine room.

Simply put you can see early on in games the patterns of play are working and the team is playing well. Unfortunately due to exhaustion we are missing chances and dropping off in the second half.

Due to losing our first choice CB pairing and a lack of ability to have controlled possession we are having to resort to being a transitional team in the second half due to dwindling energy levels. In the games were we hold a lead at halftime this might work out, in games we need to get back into after falling behind this will be difficult.

6.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 10:05:45
UA, I'm still not sure whether you're a troll or just don't understand football.

You only ever seen to post when the chips are down, but have little to say when we are doing well. I can't actually remember you ever saying anything positive about our club under any manager ever ??‍♂️.

7.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 10:25:26
It's his first season at a mess of a club. There are signs and it's a case of whether he learns from his mistakes and who he brings in to replace the dross we've put up with for years.

It took Klopp a few years to turn it around at Liverpool. Not saying he's on his level, but you have to let a manager have a bit of time.

8.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 10:26:55
Salford spenno

DDG continues to display the same failings, which as he gets older will become more pronounced and he will not pull off the reaction saves he used to. Tough decisions are needed and timing is important but DDG time is up. Publicly defend him but don’t give him a nice new contract and leave us with a Phil Jones situation

We can lose, it happens but the in game management has been poor recently and there is no defence for playing Weg, who can’t hold the ball up, run with it or score. No excuses for selecting him

I suspect the players are not all together on a team with Weg in and are frustrated at DDG now.

9.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 10:28:19
very hard to kick on when you are in the Europa league, that's why top 4 this season is huge. If we don't make it this season then I would say its not hard to see us 5th or 6th again next season and without actually winning the Europa league-a very tough ask- then the cycle continues.

10.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 11:04:15
Just because i don't write limitless trash essays of absolute nonsense, i am a troll. I find it hard to take you seriously at all once you sided with Ole and his management of this once great club.

11.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 11:08:59
One thing I find remarkable is the praise Benni McCarthy got regarding Rashford's upturn in form.
There's a perfectly valid argument to suggest he just gave him the right hug, because nobody else has flourished under his tutelage.
Let's be fair, he was terrible with his left foot as a player but had the ability to compensate for that - exactly what is he doing with Anthony?
That was a ten Hag decision.

People waffle on about the workrate of Weghorst. I say he impedes the midfield, disrupts the phasing of play from back to front, and is generally the enemy of a slick and incisive style.
He can pick the odd pass, but that does not compensate for the problems he creates - he's just getting in the way.
That was a ten Hag decision.

On the flipside, he's brought in some very good players - Martinez, Casemiro and Sabitzer. Malacia is still raw, but looks like he'll become a decent player. Anthony was never worth the fee and we see why every single week.
Shaw in the middle has simply disguised the inherent issues United have had in defence for years. I wouldn't say it's the result of a ten Hag plan, it's more about the alternative (Maguire) being awful on the left side.

So, I'm still unsure that ten Hag's definitely the man.
At times he appears bereft of ideas, no plan c or d.

He has not brought the youngsters in as much as expected.
Is that because he's being leant upon? That would be strange considering how much verbal is given about his stubborn resilience and how he's not a yes man.
Is it because he doesn't actually have the faith in young players who might take longer to adapt to his exacting principles? That would simply suggest that he's rather blinkered and, fundamentally, limited in terms of his coaching aptitude.
Or, is it simply that most of these youngsters are just not good enough and have each seen their respective potential stymied by the sheer ineptitude that's riddled the club's structure for so many years.

2 of those scenarios would beg questions of ten Hag's capacity to orchestrate the return to the top, and 1 would show that the club are far too weak to fully establish the mooted culture change any time soon.

Listen I'm not saying he's doomed to fail, I'm just not yet convinced that he's the messiah.
There have been plenty of games this season where we could have seen more of Mainoo, more of Pellistri, anything at all of Iqbal, Jurado, Williams, Gore or Emeran.
But no, even in cup games we've seen no more than Mainoo and Pellistri - is that really giving youth the chance and who is making the decision to overlook these young players who, if actually good enough, probably deserve better.

Unfortunately, this summer will further skew the impression of what ten Hag can do, this takeover process will takeover everything and be dragged out for as long as the Glazers can in the quest to wring out every dime from the washed-up old rag they've turned this club into.
Irrespective of the intentions of ten Hag, Murtough, Arnold, or anyone else, the Glazers will dominate the narrative again and likely go for SJR's bid, albeit with no agreement on the 3-year full-purchase suggestion - they wouldn't want any of that.

Ultimately, I still see nothing to suggest the right corners are being turned, any old corner that simply disguises the rotten mask of the recent past is not necessarily the answer.

My fingers remain crossed, but I'm still not convinced.

12.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 11:10:45
Being in the Europa league isn't going to stop us kicking on. Poor decision making in the squad buikding is. There isn't only a handful of players that can make United stronger and you need ECL to attract them. Maybe if your targets are only Bellingham and Kane that's the case.

However for some reason United have spent a lot of money and got very little return. Our current DoF, technical management team have no proven track record in this field.

United could buy a lot better and signifiicantly improve without ECL but thus far we haven't proven very good at it. Our incompetance isn't down to ECL but due to incomptance in the people inhabiting these roles.

We can look around the EPL and Europe and see teams doing it right, then we can look at teams spanking 100s of million and doing it wrong.

If after this takeover we end up with a top drawer CEO and DoF then no matter who is in charge and how much they plow in then it will be a success.

13.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 11:10:50
Teams just burnt out simple as that. He’s trying to rotate but there is a major drop off in quality. Should have hauled Weghorst off at half time.

14.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 11:28:24
Whoever commented slating the Casemiro Erickson Bruno trio just a reminder that that’s the first time they’ve lost together!
We’re out of form, look leggy and bereft of confidence! This is exactly the right time to get behind them! Do you think ETH sees a future for some of these, absolutely not but right now he needs them all so backs them to the hilt! I could put a message on here slating quite a few of them but those ones won’t be here much longer it’s as clear as day but we got four league games to go to get the job done, so put your dummies away and get behind them!

15.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 12:41:20
I disagree again re Europa League -it definately does stop you kicking on - and just about every manager realises this. Take the teams the pundits love this year -Arsenal, Newcastle, Brighton, villa, to a lesser extent brentford -no European football, very evident before the world cup Arsenal and Newcastle were resting why we were playing and travelling -their coaching staff had 5-6 days to work with the players ETH got half of that if lucky not to mention less injuries and fatigue. Villa another perfect example got themsleves a training ground coach a fella who want his players well drilled, tatically aware and fit so Emery gets 2 game every 12-13 days and no European travelling compared to us . you can't dismiss that not having an impact - not to mention intergrating youngsters the time isn't there to spend with them compared to what Howe / Arteta / Emery have had.

16.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 13:49:05
Casemiro, Eriksen and Bruno are our best trio by a mile. Like Chris1 mentioned we've only lost once with them starting. Its unfortunately the huge drop of quality and the fact we turn into a completely different side in the second half.

ETH can only work with the tools he has at his disposable and considering the majority of the squad are the crumbs of the OGS era i'd say he's done a pretty good job in setting a standard and a style of play.

Judge him with a couple of windows under him, one trophy, final for another and actually competing for the UCL places is pretty good so far.

Fickle fans attacking him for a bad run, keep the same energy when he continues to keep us on the upwards trajectory he's already doing in his short time here.

17.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 13:58:47
UA,

"Just because i don't write limitless trash essays of absolute nonsense".

Right got it, not a troll, just a very basic and fundamental understanding of football, to the point that you can't follow what I write.

Maybe you need to become a Leeds fan, Sam Allerdyce's brand of simple football will be right up your street ?.

18.) 08 May 2023
08 May 2023 14:50:48
Doubting ten hag. Goodness me.

80% of our squad has survived three/ four managers now. Maybe look there and not at the manager, who at the end f February we were waxing lyrical about. Ten Hag is doing his best, and I’ll be honest before the season started I never thought we’d be in the top 4. Granted with where we were a few weeks back we shouldn’t be under pressure, but the same players who’ve crumbled before under pressure are doing the same again.

The problem is very simple. We don’t have good enough players, we don’t have a structure off the pitch to allow managers the best chance at success and the club is on its knees financially and is desperate for new ownership. We’ve known this for a very long time.